Pema ChödronWhen you open yourself to the continually changing, impermanent, dynamic nature of your own being and of reality, you increase your capacity to love and care about other people and your capacity to not be afraid. You’re able to keep your eyes open, your heart open, and your mind open. And you notice when you get caught up in prejudice, bias, and aggression. You develop an enthusiasm for no longer watering those negative seeds, from now until the day you die. And, you begin to think of your life as offering endless opportunities to start to do things differently.
Countering our ego interest ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheTo remain humble while patiently bearing insults is a very effective way of countering your ingrained tendency to be interested only in your own happiness and pleasure.
Watching vs controlling the mind ~ Bhante Gunaratana
Bhante GunaratanaThere is a difference between watching the mind and controlling the mind. Watching the mind with a gentle, open attitude allows the mind to settle down and come to rest. Trying to control the mind, or trying to control the way that one’s spiritual practice will unfold, just stirs up more agitation and suffering.
The beginning of courage ~ Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche
Dzigar Kongtrul RinpocheSomeone asked me recently if I am afraid to die. Truthfully, I am more afraid of not living my life fully — of living a life dedicated to cherishing and protecting myself. This fear-driven approach to life is like covering your couch in plastic so it won’t get worn. It robs you of the ability to enjoy and appreciate your life. It takes courage to accept life fully, to say yes to our life, yes to our karma, yes to our mind, emotions and whatever else unfolds. This is the beginning of courage. Courage is the fundamental openness to face even the hardest truths. It makes room for all the pain, joy, irony, and mystery that life provides.
Checking carefully to find one’s own confusion ~ Gyelse Tokme Zangpo
Gyelse Tokme ZangpoThe practice of all the bodhisattvas is to scrutinize oneself
Continually and to rid oneself of faults whenever they appear.
For unless one checks carefully to find one’s own confusion,
One might appear to be practising Dharma, but act against it.
We must also practice it ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheMaitreya said that to hear the dharma is to open the door to liberation, and many students imagine that study in the form of hearing and contemplating the dharma will suffice as a dharma practice. It’s true that for those on the threshold of spiritual practice, to listen to and to read dharma is extremely rewarding – and an activity that should not be entirely abandoned by more seasoned dharma practitioners – but words are abstractions that rely wholly on centuries-old assumptions, making the language we are forced to use obscure and vague. Ultimately, merely to hear and think about dharma is not enough; we must also practice it. So, hearing, contemplating and meditating on dharma are all vital to our spiritual path, with meditation lying at its very core.
Pretending enlightenment ~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
Tulku Urgyen RinpocheOur basic nature is in no way different from that of a buddha. It’s like pure space, which, whether it is obscured by clouds or is a cloudless and clear sky, remains the same in its basic, essential nature. But if you pretend that your nature is already enlightened and don’t progress along the path of removing the obscurations, then your enlightened nature doesn’t become realized. Therefore, we must truly consider what is actual, what the facts are. Do we have obscurations or not? If you see that there still are obscurations, there is no way to avoid having to remove them by gathering the two accumulations.
Everybody is the guest of everybody ~ Chögyam Trungpa
Chögyam TrungpaIn inviting sentient beings as guests, the bodhisattva, the practitioner in the mahayana, has a constant sense of the impermanence of the relationship — the guest is going to leave. So we view this as an opportune time, and there is constant appreciation. Our guests come. We entertain them and relate with them. Afterward, the guests thank us, we say good-bye, and we go back to running our home. There is a sense of the preciousness and the impermanence of the relationship, a sense of that relationship being extremely special. Our guest may be our husband, our wife, or our child — everybody is the guest of everybody.
The realization of dhamma as a personal experience ~ Ajahn Chah
Ajahn ChahThe value of dhamma isn’t to be found in books. Those are just the external appearances of dhamma, they’re not the realization of dhamma as a personal experience. If you realize the dhamma you realize your own mind, you see the truth there. When the truth becomes apparent it cuts off the stream of delusion.
Turning poison into healing water ~ Saraha
SarahaJust as the ocean’s salty water
taken into the clouds turns sweet,
the stable mind works to benefit others,
the poison of objects turns into healing water.
Better without a typewriter ~ Thinley Norbu Rinpoche
Thinley Norbu RinpocheI would like to be an expert writer with unblocked mind profoundly expressing all the words I want to say clearly and deeply. But I’m afraid that when one has paper, there is no ink, and when there is ink, there is no paper. When one has both paper and ink, there are no words. We are constantly putting books in and taking them out of shelves, endlessly trying to pick up good words as a chicken pecks at live worms. Finally, we find the right words but cannot construct metaphors that flow. After choosing the proper metaphors, we find the syntax is wrong. When the editor, with prideful paranoia, corrects the syntax and completely changes the meaning, we cannot find a publisher. If we find a publisher, the text is open to misunderstanding due to the numerous preconceptions of numerous neurotic minds. Instead of benefit, this creates problems, attachment and rejection, high blood pressure, hysteria, confusion, and suffering. So maybe I’d better try to stay in ordinary mind without a typewriter.
Enjoy your sleep ~ Tai Situ Rinpoche
Tai Situ RinpocheThere is nothing in this world that is worth losing a night’s sleep over, nothing.
The goal of our renunciation ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaThe goal of our renunciation should be to commit to what is beneficial for beings, and to what serves the cause of the dharma.
The mystery of interbeing ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat HanhIf you look at anything carefully, deeply enough, you discover the mystery of interbeing, and once you have seen it you will no longer be subject to fear – fear of birth, or fear of death.
Egolessness isn’t nihilism ~ Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche
Traleg Kyabgon RinpocheEgolessness is not the same as self-extinction. We do not cease to exist, but we come to know more about ourselves. Realizing that there is no unchanging self can in fact be an enriching experience. The path consists of working with ourselves so that gradually, by overcoming the various inhibitions, confusions, and delusions of the mind, we start to develop more insight into our own nature.
When we look at ourselves in the present moment, we see all kinds of confusions and defilements in our mind. Yet the possibility of overcoming all that and becoming enlightened is a reality. Our own lives become enriched from having undertaken this journey. So it’s important not to mistranslate this concept of selflessness or nonexistence of ego. To say that we do not exist at all is the nihilistic view, which the Buddha rejected completely.
The most important sign of realizing mahamudra ~ Garchen Rinpoche
Garchen RinpocheSo there may come a time when you may ask, “What is the sign of accomplishing this mahamudra practice, perhaps clairvoyance, perhaps levitation?” The great Khenpo [Munsel] Rinpoche from whom I received teachings said things like clairvoyance, levitation, and so forth are not the qualities of mahamudra. The most important sign of realizing mahamudra is compassion. The more there is compassion in the mind, the more it enhances itself, and that is the sign of the arising of mahamudra realization.
Being more honest with yourself ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheWhen compassion awakens in your heart, you’re able to be more honest with yourself.
Meditation is drinking it ~ Taisen Deshimaru
Taisen DeshimaruIf you have a glass full of liquid you can discourse forever on its qualities, discuss whether it is cold, warm, whether it is really and truly composed of H-2-O, or even mineral water, or saki. Meditation is Drinking it!
Seeing ~ Shunryu Suzuki
Shunryu SuzukiAs soon as you see something,
you already start to intellectualize it.
As soon as you intellectualize something,
it is no longer what you saw.
Nothing wrong with having pleasures ~ Lama Yeshe
Lama YesheContrary to what some people might believe, there is nothing wrong with having pleasures and enjoyments. What is wrong is the confused way we grasp onto these pleasures, turning them from a source of happiness into a source of pain and dissatisfaction.