Gratitude and appreciation ~ Mingyur Rinpoche

I feel that happiness is really found in appreciation and rejoicing. Everything is a display of clarity, love, and wisdom. This is related to the main view of Vajrayana Buddhism: that we all are buddha. This enlightened nature is not just within you. It’s everywhere. You can see it and appreciate it. That’s the main cause of happiness — gratitude and appreciation.

Mingyur Rinpoche

The need to tame body, speech and mind ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

A good mind is like a rich ground of gleaming gold, lightening up the whole sky with its golden radiance. But if body speech and mind are not tamed, there is very little chance that you will achieve any realization whatsoever. Be aware of your thoughts, words and actions at all times. If they take the wrong direction, your study and practise of the Dharma will be of no use.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Extending our compassion to ourselves ~ Ponlop Rinpoche

Before we can extend our compassion to others, we first have to extend it to ourselves. How do we do this? We have to look at our own mind and appreciate how our own neurotic expressions – our confused thoughts and disturbing emotions – are actually helping us wake up. Our aggression can help us develop clarity and patience. Our passion can help us let go of attachments and be more generous. Basically, once we see that this mind of confusion is also our mind of awakening, we can appreciate it and have confidence in our ability to work with it. It’s a good mind after all, the mind that will carry us to enlightenment. When we understand this, we can begin to let go of our previous attitude of revulsion toward our emotions.

Ponlop Rinpoche

Teachings 24/7 ~ Pema Chödron

The idea of karma is that you continually get the teachings that you need in order to open your heart.

Pema Chödron

Homage to Glorious Samantabhadra, the All-Good ~ Longchenpa

To timeless buddhahood, basic total presence,
To unchanging spontaneity, the spacious vajra-heart,
To the nature of mind – natural perfection,
Constantly, simply being, we bow down.

Longchenpa

Being aware of thoughts as they arise ~ Kalu Rinpoche

When you meditate, do not try to have good thoughts, do not try to keep away bad thoughts, do not try to stop thoughts, and do not try to go after them. Rather, rest in a state of being aware of the thoughts as they arise. This way, when bad thoughts arise, they arise out of the emptiness of mind and fall back into the emptiness of mind. The same is true for good thoughts. This same process of examination can be applied to the many other traps of personality and physiology. For instance, are your emotions of desire and anger coming from the same mind, or from different minds? And, as to the sounds, tastes, sights, smells, and sensory experiences which can be so pleasing or displeasing to you, are these coming from the same mind, or from different minds? When you take the time to thoroughly examine such issues, you will eventually come to conclusions that help formulate later stages of realization. In realizing the inherent emptiness of all reality, you will realize that the essence of the mind (which is also empty) pervades all things; as such, it is the seat of dharmakaya. When you recognize that the clarity of the mind is also its natural state of being, you will realize that clarity as such is the seat of sambhogakaya. For a buddha, who rests in natural liberation in dharmakaya, the clarity of mind, the seat of sambhogakaya, allows knowledge of the three times of past, present, and future. In recognizing that the many thoughts that arise in the mind are essentially unimpeded, you will realize that unimpededness as such is the seat of nirmanakaya. It is wholly because of the unimpededness of pure mind that buddhas manifest in forms of ordinary and supreme incarnations in the nirmanakaya state in order to benefit all sentient beings.

Kalu Rinpoche

Disturbance ~ Ajahn Chah

If my mind doesn’t go out to disturb the noise,
the noise won’t disturb me.

Ajahn Chah

Skillful-means practices ~ Tulku Thondup Rinpoche

There are many ways to make merit, or positive karma. The most comprehensive are the six perfections (paramitas) that Mahayana Buddhism prescribes as the path to enlightenment. They are: giving (generosity), discipline (morality), patience (fearlessness), diligence (eagerness), tranquillity (contemplation), and wisdom.
The first five perfections, collectively referred to as “skillful means,” are especially for accumulating merit. The sixth, wisdom, involves realizing the true nature of mind, which is wisdom-emptiness.
The undervaluation of skillful-means practices to develop merit is unfortunate. Their purpose is to refine and transform our mind. Devotion opens our hearts. Compassion dissolves ego. Prayer unites us with our enlightened qualities. Pure perception transforms our awareness. Serving others, especially those who rely on us, is the purpose of dharma. There is no such thing as a buddha who doesn’t help others. So the more we open our hearts to skillful means, the more quickly and surely we reach buddhahood. We should never abandon these practices, for the path of skillful means is perfected in the goal of enlightenment, just as bricks become the finished house

Tulku Thondup Rinpoche

Don’t Expect Applause ~ Chögyam Trungpa

Don’t expect others to praise you or raise toasts to you. Don’t count on receiving credit for your good deeds or good practice.

Chögyam Trungpa

Compassion in action ~ 14th Dalai Lama

It is not enough to be compassionate, we must act.

14th Dalai Lama

Seeing clearly into the nature of impermanence ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Once we recognize that all things are impermanent, we have no problem enjoying them. In fact, real peace and joy are only possible when we see clearly into the nature of impermanence.

Thich Nhat Hanh

The Song of the Twelve Deceptions ~ Milarepa

Worldly affairs are all deceptive;
So I seek the truth Divine.
Excitements and distractions are illusions;
So I meditate on the non-dual Truth.
Companions and servants are deceptive;
So I remain in solitude.
Money and possessions are also deceptive;
So if I have them, I give them away.
Things in the outer world are all illusion;
The Inner Mind is that which I observe.
Wandering thoughts are all deceptive;
So I only tread the path of wisdom.
Deceptive are the teachings of expedient truth;
The final truth is that on which I meditate.
Books written in black ink are all misleading;
I only meditate on the pith-instructions of the whispered lineage.
Words and sayings, too, are but illusion;
At ease, I rest my mind in the effortless state.
Birth and death are both illusions;
I observe but the truth of no-arising.
The common mind is in every way misleading;
And so I practice how to animate awareness.
The Mind-holding Practice is misleading and deceptive;
And so I rest in the realm of reality.

Milarepa

Short moments repeated many times ~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

The training in recognizing mind essence is this: short moments repeated many times. There is no other way. A short duration guarantees it is actually the authentic mind essence, by itself. Repeating this recognition many times ensures that we will get used to it.

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Joyful discipline ~ 17th Karmapa

Done right, discipline is taken on joyfully and with a clear understanding of why engaging in it is good. For example, many people nowadays have given up eating meat. Why would we do that? We should not become vegetarian just because someone says we should, or because the Buddha taught that we should not eat meat, or because it is the custom where we live, or because giving up meat would give us a good reputation. If we give up eating meat for these reasons, it might be better not to do it at all, because our decision is not sincerely motivated.
In the beginning, we have a certain feeling about not eating meat. Then we can ask ourselves questions, such as what are the real benefits? After careful consideration, we become certain that this is the right thing to do. Our answer has to come from within, inspired by real conviction, so that when we do give up eating meat, it does not become a hardship or a struggle but something we do with joy and intelligence. It is the same with any discipline in the Vinaya, the Mahayana, or the Vajrayana. Whatever we give up or whatever we do, we should first feel a connection to the practice and then be very clear why we are doing this and not something else. When we act this way, our discipline becomes very inspiring.

17th Karmapa

The importance of a pure motivation ~ Thrangu Rinpoche

When practicing and studying, it’s important to have a motivation that is free from affliction. Among the various pure motivations, the most important is the wish to help ourselves and others, the vast motivation of the Mahayana, which means acting for the sake of all our former mothers, all sentient beings, who are as limitless as space. You may already have faith, respect, and excitement about the Dharma, and the pure motivation of bodhichitta. Still, it is good to recall and reinforce that motivation from time to time. It helps your mind to go toward the Dharma, the Dharma to become the path, and the path to dispel confusion.

Thrangu Rinpoche

Entirely spiritual ~ Thinley Norbu Rinpoche

Some people think that Buddhism is a philosophy and not a religion; but Buddhism is neither a nihilist philosophy nor an eternalist religion. This is a complete deviation whose source is material judgment, made by people who try to find out about Buddhism but merely focus on its objective, material aspects out of their own material habit. Through only paying attention to the outer appearances and activities of Buddhist organizations and scholars, they only see Buddhists studying and debating, without understanding that the purpose of their study is to lead to practice and to open wisdom. Then, deciding that what is studied and debated resembles the refined logic of some subtle, worldly philosophies, they speculate that the ultimate teaching of Buddhism must be philosophy. They do not see meditators who are practicing inconspicuously, and they do not see the development of the inconceivable, naturally secret, spiritual qualities which cannot be observed because they are intangible.
The Buddhist view is to recognize that we must not remain within ordinary phenomena by following a worldly philosophy limited to ordinary, substantial reasoning. We must decide to increase pure phenomena by following a spiritual philosophy which goes beyond ordinary reasoning and leads to enlightenment. Buddhist philosophy is entirely spiritual. Its purpose is to refute the views of the two extremes of nihilism and eternalism by the skillful means of wisdom, to release all beings to enlightenment.

Thinley Norbu Rinpoche

Examining your course of experience ~ Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye

You must find freedom from disturbing emotions and ego-clinging by constantly examining and investigating your course of experience. Therefore, turn your attention to an object that gives rise to disturbing emotions. Examine carefully whether they arise or not. If they do arise, apply remedies vigorously. Again, look at ego-clinging to see what it is like. If it appears that no ego-clinging is present, examine it again in reference to an object of attachment or aversion. If ego-cherishing then arises, immediately stop it with the remedy of exchanging yourself for others.

Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye

The vast expanse of primordial pure nature ~ Padmasambhava

Son, after realizing the things of this world are unreal,
There is little benefit in dwelling in solitude.
When the falsehoods of phenomenal appearances have collapsed into their own nature (emptiness),
And the unaltered nature of phenomena has been recognized –
Do not nit-pick the subtle concepts of grasping and grasped
Or attach to the contaminated virtuous deeds.
Please maintain the stronghold of the vast expanse of primordial pure nature.

Padmasambhava

Entering the buddhist path ~ Mingyur Rinpoche

When you enter the path of Buddhist practice you’re ending an abusive relationship with yourself.