Thich Nhat HanhThe moment I die,
I will try to come back to you
as quickly as possible.
I promise it will not take long.
Isn’t it true
I am already with you,
as I die each moment?
I come back to you
in every moment.
Just look,
feel my presence.
If you want to cry,
please cry.
And know
that I will cry with you.
The tears you shed
will heal us both.
Your tears are mine.
The earth I tread this morning
transcends history.
Spring and Winter are both present in the moment.
The young leaf and the dead leaf are really one.
My feet touch deathlessness,
and my feet are yours.
Walk with me now.
Let us enter the dimension of oneness
and see the cherry tree blossom in Winter.
Why should we talk about death?
I don’t need to die
to be back with you.
Our preoccupation with external concerns ~ Gyaltsab Rinpoche
Gyaltsab RinpocheMost of our confusion is caused by our assumption that the causes of liberation must come from somewhere or something outside of ourselves. We assume that only by accumulating this or that, or only through associating with someone or something else, can we gain the cause of happiness. Our preoccupation with external concerns causes a tremendous sense of impoverishment, as though we were devoid of the slightest possibility of enlightened intelligence. Our bewilderment derives from our failure to turn inward and really examine the workings of our own minds. It is only when we begin working with our minds through meditation practice that we become practical as far as the search for enlightenment is concerned.
Awareness without Concept ~ Chögyam Trungpa
Chögyam TrungpaYou have to start with what you are, where you are now. You are aware of the present state. You are now, you are not past, you are not future, but you are now. In that state of awareness, you don’t need to cling to a concept about who you are and what you will be. Concept cannot exist in the present state, but awareness is very much there.
The great seal ~ Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche
Traleg Kyabgon RinpocheThe Mahamudra Tradition encompasses many key Buddhist terms and presents them in a unique light. The Sanskrit word mahamudra literally translates as “great seal,” or “great symbol,” which suggests that all that exists in the conditioned world is stamped with the same seal – the seal of ultimate reality.
Ultimate reality is synonymous with the quintessential Buddhist term emptiness (shunyata), which describes the insubstantiality of all things – the underlying groundlessness, spaciousness, and indeterminacy that imbues all of our experiences of the subjective and objective world.
In the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, the word mahamudra is also used to refer to the nature of the mind. The nature of the mind is a pivotal concept in this tradition. The essential quality of the mind is emptiness, but it is described as a luminous emptiness, for the mind has the inherent capacity to know, or to cognize.
When spiritual fulfillment is attained, this luminous emptiness is experienced as pervasively and profoundly blissful, and enlightenment is characterized as luminous bliss.
Confused appearances ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu RinpocheJust as if we had taken hallucinogens, whatever happy or sad appearances we see are samsaric, confused appearances of the mind. Even when we are not intoxicated, everything we perceive in this life comes out of confusion that arises from the power of karma. Whether we have the perception of being a human or animal, whether we perceive the appearances of earth, water, fire, or air, whatever appearances we see, come out of the power of a mistaken mind. All the external forms we see or sounds we hear are just emptiness. Whatever appears internally within our mind is also emptiness — none of it is actually there. Thus, all of the different experiences of the six classes of beings, whatever they may be, are empty images, nonexistent, yet appearing.
Pure perception ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheThe guru must have pure perception of his own guru and, if possible, of all phenomena. On a more individual level, the guru must have pure perception of his or her students. Pure perception is the foundation of the Vajrayana. Even in the Mahayana, pure perception if the driving force behind working with a disciple. As Lord Maitreya said, a bodhisattva must know that other sentient beings have buddha nature and that they can be enlightened. So a guru must have confidence that the student’s defilements, no matter how hideous, are temporary; they can be purified and removed. No matter how long it takes, no matter how tedious a job, a guru with a strong view of pure perception will not give up on the student.
Arousing Bodhicitta ~ Patrul Rinpoche
Patrul RinpocheI claim to be arousing bodhicitta, but still do not have it.
I have trained in the path of the six perfections, but have remained selfish.
Bless me and small-minded beings like me,
That we may train in the sublime bodhicitta.
Training in guru yoga ~ 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai LamaIt is frequently said that the essence of the training in guru yoga is to cultivate the art of seeing everything the guru does as perfect. Personally I myself do not like this to be taken too far. Often we see written in the scriptures, “Every action seen as perfect.”
However, this phrase must be seen in the light of Buddha Shakyamuni’s own words: “Accept my teachings only after examining them as an analyst buys gold. Accept nothing out of mere faith in me.” The problem with the practice of seeing everything the guru does as perfect is that it very easily turns to poison for both the guru and the disciple.
Therefore, whenever I teach this practice, I always advocate that the tradition of “every action seen as perfect” not be stressed. Should the guru manifest un-Dharmic qualities or give teachings contradicting Dharma, the instruction on seeing the spiritual master as perfect must give way to reason and Dharma wisdom.
Nothing is intrinsically bad ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaNothing is intrinsically or ultimately bad. Any situation that arises is only relatively good or bad based on many factors, including — most significantly — how you perceive the situation and how you respond to it.
The queasy feeling of being in the middle of nowhere ~ Pema Chödron
Pema ChödronAnxiety, heartbreak, and tenderness mark the in-between state. It’s the kind of place we usually want to avoid. The challenge is to stay in the middle rather than buy into struggle and complaint. The challenge is to let it soften us rather than make us more rigid and afraid. Becoming intimate with the queasy feeling of being in the middle of nowhere only makes our hearts more tender. When we are brave enough to stay in the middle, compassion arises spontaneously. By not knowing, not hoping to know, and not acting like we know what’s happening, we begin to access our inner strength.
Supplication to the guru ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpochePraying to the guru is not necessarily a matter of chanting mantras or reading a supplication composed by others. The real prayer, on the relative level, is just thinking of the guru — his form, his name, his activities, his color, his shape, even his movement.
If you forget to pray to the guru for a long time, he will not complain that you haven’t been offering enough prayers. But the moment you remember the guru, he is there; his compassion is there, and his blessing is there. The notion of the guru being there comes from remembering the guru. Remembering is the presence of the guru.
We can supplicate to the guru for mundane things like longevity, prosperity, good health, materializing Rwandan hunks. The main aim is to have compassion, bodhichitta, renunciation mind, and to experience the enthusiasm and joy of supplication itself so that we will have devotion. We supplicate to understand the meaning of nonduality, beginning with actualizing the nonduality of guru and student.
It helps to recite supplication prayers in a loud voice with all kinds of tunes, so as to penetrate your stubborn shell of impure perception.
Diligent with our body, speech, and mind ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu RinpocheStriving at the Dharma means being diligent about the Dharma. How do we do that? We need to do it with our body, speech, and mind – all three. Is it enough to be diligent with just our body or just our speech or just our mind? No, it is not enough.
Collective actions and attitudes ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaWe not only share the world; many of us also share similar attitudes and behaviors. When enough people think and act in similar ways, the effect of those actions is amplified. We can refer to this dynamic as cumulative action or collective action. In Buddhist terms we call this collective karma, which in this case simply refers to the fact that many people engaging in the same intentional action has a cumulative effect that impacts us all.
We do not generally spend much time thinking about the wider impact of our collective actions and attitudes. When we can see the immediate results of our personal actions, we take more care. But the connection between collective actions or shared attitudes and their longer-term or indirect impact is more obscure, and for this reason we fail to concern ourselves with these wider consequences.
The world has always been interdependent. But in the twenty-first century, communications technologies help make that fact more readily visible to us. Globalization promotes — and global society seems to embracing wholeheartedly — a consumer culture that is spread instantly through communications technologies. This lends an added force to shared attitudes and actions. Our individual lifestyle choices are greatly amplified as consumer trends and values are expressed online and carried rapidly to all corners of the globe. More and more people seek to embrace the global consumer culture they see articulated online, believing such a lifestyle will bring them personal happiness and social success.
We urgently need to recognize that we are not making choices for ourselves alone. When we choose for ourselves, we are also choosing for many others. Therefore we need to take much greater care what we decide and how we behave. Many individuals acting out of personal wants and desires have far-reaching collective effects on the world as a whole.
Clinging to the body ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheWe cling to the entity of a body that even a tiny prick from a thorn makes us miserable. When there is warm sunshine outside, we feel comfortable and the body is pleased. We are constantly preoccupied with the comfort and attractiveness of our body and treat it like the most precious thing. Clinging to the body is the reason we experience such reactions to the pleasant and the unpleasant.
Beyond meditation ~ 3rd Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche
3rd Jamgon Kongtrul RinpocheWhen one realizes the ultimate nature of mind, there are no longer any moments that fall outside the sphere of meditation. However, the only way to achieve this realization is through meditation. One is free from the struggle to give up afflictive emotions or to “attain” wisdom. At this point, meditation as such no longer exists, because there is no longer any separation between meditator, meditation, and an object of meditation.
See all causative phenomena like this ~ Buddha Shakyamuni
Buddha ShakyamuniA star, a defective view, the butter lamp flame,
an illusion, a dew drop, or a water bubble,
a dream, lightning, a cloud —
see all causative phenomena like this.
Overcoming the inner enemy ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu RinpocheIf we had no negativity in our mind, there would be no opportunity for suffering to arise. The first thing to do is overcome the inner enemy: the real enemy isn’t outside of us, it is the negativity within us that leads us to do negative things that cause suffering. If we can overcome this inner enemy, we will really be heroes who can find happiness and who can go beyond suffering.
Turning Emptiness Into a Belief ~ Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche
Khenpo Tsultrim RinpocheJust thinking, “all is empty,” without a system of proof based on sound reasons arrived at through valid reasoning is not emptiness. That is just belief about emptiness. In this particular context, entertaining a supposition about emptiness and holding a belief about it come down to more or less the same. Just to think, “all phenomena are empty,” is pure supposition; it is turning emptiness into a belief. For emptiness to be more for a given individual than just another system of beliefs, the first two characteristics of complete practice, namely, listening and reflection, are required. In the context of listening and reflecting, the way emptiness is defined necessarily derives from a process of logical thinking built up on valid reasons. Without that, what you think is emptiness is your own supposition.
Discipline ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaThe downside of the perfection of discipline is called “the demon of austerity” — taking on discipline as a hardship and making it into a struggle. Done right, discipline is taken on joyfully and with a clear understanding of why engaging in it is good…
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.
Death ~ 3rd Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche
3rd Jamgon Kongtrul RinpocheThe bardo of death is a successive process. Our physical body is an aggregation of flesh, blood, etc. and deteriorates at death. Mind, on the other hand, does not die since it isn’t composed of particles. The physical components of our body are formed at birth and disintegrate at death. Our physical body only functions as long as it is sustained by our mind. Every physical body is dependent upon many causes and conditions and is only appropriated in dependence upon them. For this reason, our body is subject to decay and collapses in the absence of our mind, our consciousness. Mind, which isn’t an aggregation of particles, doesn’t cease when it leaves the body. Its nature is clarity and awareness.