Pema ChödronWhatever you are doing, take the attitude of wanting it directly or indirectly to benefit others. Take the attitude of wanting it to increase your experience of kinship with your fellow beings.
Looking for peace ~ Ajahn Chah
Ajahn ChahLooking for peace is like looking for a turtle with a mustache: You won’t be able to find it. But when your heart is ready, peace will come looking for you.
Space yogi ~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
Tulku Urgyen RinpocheWhile resting free of anything to imagine, like space, do not be distracted for even one instant. The one who trains like that can truly be called a ‘space yogi’. A yogi is an individual who connects with that which is naturally so. Space means that which always is. Remain without imagining anything at all, not meditating on anything. Once you start to meditate on space, it becomes an imitation. Simply allow the space to not wander. Remain undistracted. There is no impetus for any thoughts to reoccur. A thought is a mental way of formulating something — in other words, our attention formulates a thought. The thought doesn’t come from anywhere else. If we don’t think, where would a thought come from? In the basic space that is unimaginable, remain undistractedly. Let your indescribable awareness remain undistracted in the naked state of basic space. It doesn’t have to be imagined, because this basic space that is utterly naked is our own nature already. You don’t have to imagine that this is so.
The Best Offering ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheThe best offering one can make to the Buddhas and their teachers is to put the Dharma into practice. So it has been said by previous masters.
Without intrinsic being ~ Nagarjuna
NagarjunaThe nature of the Tathagata
Is the nature of this world of beings.
The Tathagata is without intrinsic being;
This world of beings is without intrinsic being.
Like rainbows in the summer skies ~ Gyelse Tokme Zangpo
Gyelse Tokme ZangpoThe practice of all the bodhisattvas is to let go of grasping
When encountering things one finds pleasant or attractive,
Considering them to be like rainbows in the summer skies —
Beautiful in appearance, yet in truth devoid of any substance.
Real confidence ~ Tai Situ Rinpoche
Tai Situ RinpocheYou are Buddha in your essence. Nothing can corrupt that, nothing can shake that. That is real confidence.
A complete path ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche
Tsoknyi RinpocheIt doesn’t make sense to grab at the highest teachings and reject the rest. It is the kindness of the buddhas to provide us with a complete path, and the preliminary practices are part of that path. All great teachers of the past have taught the identical message: ‘Gather the accumulations, purify the obscurations, and receive the blessings of a qualified master.’ In the tradition I represent, the preliminary practices are very, very important. I don’t think that the buddhas and all the past masters have created them just to lead us astray.
Just as the fragrance of the udumbara flower ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat HanhTo see a fully awakened person, a Buddha, is so rare that it is like seeing an udumbara flower. In the Tu Hieu Monastery in Hue, there is a scroll which says: “The udumbara flower, although fallen from the stem, is still fragrant.” Just as the fragrance of the udumbara flower cannot be destroyed, our capacity for enlightenment is always present. The Buddha taught that everyone is a Buddha, everyone is an udumbara flower.
Death is certain ~ Khunu Rinpoche
Khunu RinpocheDeath is certain, but when it will arrive is not. One thing that’s for sure is that we are not going to live for one hundred years. One hundred years from now, pretty much everybody alive today will be dead. It is very important to remember impermanence. The Kadampa geshes used to remember impermanence all the time in order to avoid seeking the comfort of the temporal life. They felt that if they didn’t bring it to mind in the morning they were in danger of wasting the entire afternoon, and if they didn’t bring it to mind in the afternoon they were in danger of wasting the whole night. By constantly keeping impermanence in mind, they were able to prevent the meaningless thought seeking only the comfort of this life from arising.
Just sit ~ Chögyam Trungpa
Chögyam TrungpaI feel that it is absolutely important to make the practice of meditation your source of strength, your source of basic intelligence. Please think about that. You could sit down and do nothing, just sit and do nothing. Stop acting, stop speeding. Sit and do nothing. You should take pride in the fact that you have learned a very valuable message: you actually can survive beautifully by doing nothing.
Interpretation of the mind ~ Lama Yeshe
Lama YesheBuddhism also explains that the fundamental nature of human consciousness is pure and clear; that the nuclear essence of human beings is their mind, not this body of flesh and blood. Furthermore, we believe that recognizing our lives as pleasurable or miserable depends largely on how our mind interprets them. If you think your life is miserable, it becomes miserable.
Compassion ~ Ringu Tulku
Ringu TulkuAs we wake in the morning and before we go to sleep at night, we remind ourselves that our goal is to develop and realize compassion. This is all we need. Other meditations and mantras are useful but it is only compassion that embodies the very deepest wisdom. To carry out our decision to liberate every sentient being, our day should begin and end with the thought of removing all suffering for everyone, forever.
Living together ~ 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai LamaSome people consider the practice of love and compassion is only related to religious practice and if they are not interested in religion they neglect these inner values. But love and compassion are qualities that human beings require just to live together.
Other beings’ happiness ~ Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche
Khenpo Tsultrim RinpocheThrough all of this auspiciousness
Wherever its light may be seen
With the love and the compassion
That make bodhicitta mind supreme
May this thought arise in everyone
“Other beings’ happiness is as important as my own”
And may excellent virtue and auspiciousness
Always increase, never diminish!
The best offering ~ Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa RinpocheThe most happy thing in my life, the most fulfilling thing is to work for and to benefit sentient beings. Even just the mere thought to cause happiness to sentient beings, to benefit them, to free them from suffering – this is the best offering to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, this is the best offering, the best puja, this is what pleases their holy minds the most.
Educating Children ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaYoung children are inquisitive and curious. They are trying to work things out for themselves, so it can be very effective to explain the reasons for the instructions and guidance we give them. Rather than mandating behavior or imposing a discipline based on external authority, it is better to help them see the results of acting in a certain way. The long-term goal is for them to adopt the values as their own, rather than experience them as externally imposed.
When we talk to children, we can try to put sense into their heads, but just as importantly, we should try to put sense into their hearts. We should have the patience to talk to children, to educate them. Teach children how to value their own principles. Our aim should be to instill in them good ways of thinking and feeling for themselves.
Three types of people ~ Buddha Shakyamuni
Buddha ShakyamuniThere are three types of people in the world. What three?
One who is like carving on a rock, one who is like scratching on the ground, and one who is like writing on the water.
What sort of person is like carving on a rock? Imagine a certain person who is always getting angry and his anger lasts long, just as carving on a rock is not soon worn off by wind, water or lapse of time.
What sort of person is like scratching on the ground? Imagine a certain person who is always getting angry but his anger does not last long, just as scratching on the ground is soon worn off by the wind, water and lapse of time.
And what sort of person is like writing on the water? Imagine a certain person who, even though spoken to harshly, sharply, roughly, is easily reconciled and becomes agreeable and friendly, just as writing on the water soon disappears.
The Source of Violence ~ Krishnamurti
KrishnamurtiThere are so many different kinds of violence. Shall we go into each kind of violence or shall we take the whole structure of violence? Can we look at the whole spectrum of violence, not just at one part of it? … The source of violence is the “me”, the ego, the self, which expresses itself in so many ways—in division, in trying to become or be somebody—which divides itself as the “me” and the “not me”, as the unconscious and the conscious; the “me” that identifies with the family or not with the family, with the community or not with the community and so on. It is like a stone dropped in a lake; the waves spread and spread, at the centre is the “me”. As long as the “me” survives in any form, very subtly or grossly, there must be violence.
A mind clear as still water ~ Dogen Zenji
Dogen ZenjiIn a mind clear as still water,
even the waves, breaking,
are reflecting its light.