Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheYour fields need to be worked, or your business needs to be attended to, or your search for a suitable partner may be your main concern — I can only guess at the things you spend your time on. But remember, the more your life is taken up by such concerns, the more you run the risk of death robbing you of what little time you set aside for Dharma practice. Do not allow the weight of ordinary preoccupations to divert you from the pursuit of Dharma. If the thought of practicing occurs to you one day, start that very day. If it comes one night, start that very night. Whatever the place and the time, do it there and then.
The right thing to do ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheLoving-kindness and compassion shine through the shutters in those moments when we spontaneously give aid or comfort to someone, not out of self-interest or thinking we might get something in return, but just because it seems the right thing to do.
Stopping to reify our experiences ~ Pema Chödron
Pema ChödronNone of us wants to be miserable; we all want to be happy. But we can’t achieve this aim if we stay stuck in biased, narrow-minded thinking. No matter how much we long for joy, it will elude us if we continue buying into concepts of right and wrong, good and bad, acceptance and rejection. What ultimately frees us from these constricting patterns is to stop reifying our experience, and to connect with the ineffable, groundless nature of all phenomena.
Teachings don’t just rain down ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheThere is so much benefit in requesting teachings, especially if you supplicate not just for your own benefit. If you request teachings with a motivation triggered by renunciation and compassion (bodhichitta) — if you are requesting the teachings to benefit all beings — this is the supreme way to request.
But if the guru is a proper, brave, qualified master, he might not give the teaching even if he seemingly has all the knowledge, time, and place to give it.
I requested specific tantric teachings from Kyabje Dejung Rinpoche many times over the course of two years. Finally, one day in Nepal, instead of sending me away, he told me to wait. He appeared to go through the hassle of searching his suitcases and summoning his attendants to search for his almanac. I think I had to wait an hour. He didn’t answer my questions—he didn’t even look in my direction as he was reading the almanac and making notes. Finally he said, “Good. This is the seventh time you asked, so I will teach you.”
Attaining freedom of mind ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu RinpocheYou cannot simply remove mental afflictions (kleshas), by saying to yourself, “I will not generate any more mental afflictions,” because you do not have the necessary freedom of mind or control over the kleshas that would allow you to do so. In order to relinquish these, you need to actually attain this freedom of mind, which begins, according to the common path, with the cultivation of tranquility.
Protecting ourselves from future suffering ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheIf we do practice the dharma now, so as to protect ourselves from future suffering, then when we die, although we will still have to face suffering, if we have no regrets, are confident in our practice and in the dharma, and put our trust in the Three Jewels, we can be confident that we will not go to the three lower realms, because we will not be attached to samsara.
The three things that really tire us ~ Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche
Nyoshul Khen RinpocheWe exhaust ourselves in three ways: We create fabrications like mental concepts. We exert a lot of effort. We create many objects or targets in our minds. These are the three things that really tire us. It is like an insect caught in a spider’s web: the more agitated it becomes, the more tangled it gets in the web. This creates real suffering, real torment for the mind.
So amazing ~ Longchenpa
In the experience of yogis who do not perceive things dualistically, the fact that things manifest without truly existing is so amazing that they burst into laughter.Longchenpa
At the time of death ~ Gyaltsab Rinpoche
Gyaltsab RinpocheIf we consider how impermanent things are, then we must face the fact that we can die at any moment. If we were to die right now, what credentials, wealth or friends could we take with us? No matter what our plans for the future might have been, all of them will be meaningless at the time of death. The only thing that will matter is how much we understand ourselves and our own mental attitudes. How much we are able to unravel the bewilderment of our habitual patterns alone will be meaningful.
A fertile ground for training in being open minded ~ Pema Chödron
Pema ChödronWe are at a time when old systems and ideas are being questioned and falling apart, and there is a great opportunity for something fresh to emerge. The time we live in is a fertile ground for training in being open minded and open-hearted.
Only ignorance can sustain it ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu RinpocheAnger’s nature is not rendered empty by looking; it was already empty and always will be. As anger is empty in essence, it cannot be changed or transformed in any way whatsoever. As anger, or any other thought or emotion has no concrete nature, by looking into it and recognizing it, it naturally subsides. Only ignorance, the failure to know this fact, can sustain it.
Two great sources of fear in samsara ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheThere are two great sources of fear in samsara, the moment of birth and the moment of death. The suffering and fear experienced at these two times have to be faced completely alone; there is no one who can really help us. The only thing that can help alleviate those sufferings is the practice of the supreme Dharma. Nothing else can do so.
But we do not know how to practice it: we have only become clever at doing worldly things. From an early age we have learned how to make things comfortable for ourselves and how to avoid being uncomfortable. This sort of attitude has resulted in a high degree of material achievement. We can fly through the sky in airplanes, and so on, and we have made life very easy from the material point of view. But actually we are just like children running after a rainbow. These things do not really help us.
We need to turn our minds toward the Dharma by reflecting on these sufferings of birth and death. By doing so, we enter the path, going first through the preliminaries, and then proceeding to the main practice. As we practice, we will gradually get a true taste of what it means to become disillusioned with worldly affairs and to progress on the path. This is something that will come with experience.
But we must not postpone it, thinking, “I will do this practice next month or next year …” If we have received a teaching today, it is today that we should start putting it into practice, for it is only from the moment we actually plant a seed that it will start to sprout.
Mind is inconceivable ~ Longchenpa
LongchenpaThe mind does seem to be and yet lacks real existence.
When searched for, it’s not found;
When looked for, it’s not seen.
No color does it have, no shape; it cannot be identified.
Not outside or within; throughout the triple time,
It is not born, it does not cease.
And it is not located anywhere on this side or on that.
Groundless, rootless, it is not a thing.
There is no pointing to it: mind is inconceivable.
Mind’s ability to think and know ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
When we say that mind is empty, we do not mean that it is a void in the way that space is empty. Space is indeed empty but it does not have the ability to know, to see, or to reflect. Space is “dead emptiness.” When we say that the nature of mind is emptiness, we mean that the mind is not a solid or fixed entity. It cannot be found, no matter where we look. Nonetheless it has the ability to understand and reflect. This ability to think and know is what we mean when we speak of the mind’s luminosity.Thrangu Rinpoche
Nothing solid is really happening ~ Pema Chödron
Pema ChödronWhatever you experience in your life – pain, pleasure, heat, cold, or anything else – is like something happening in a dream. Although you might think things are very solid, they are like passing memory. You can experience this open, unfixated quality in sitting meditation: All that arises in your mind – hate, love, and all the rest – is not solid. Although the experience can get extremely vivid, it is just a product of your mind. Nothing solid is really happening.
The real enemy ~ Sakya Trizin
When you have anger, this inner anger is reflected back and the enemy appears outside. If you try to destroy your enemy with anger, the other side will also become angry, and the situation will escalate. Even if you destroy one enemy, there will be another enemy, and more and more enemies will arise. Instead of defeating outside enemies, you should look toward your own anger as the real enemy, the enemy that causes suffering. The real enemy is not outside but within your own mind. Even if you cannot eliminate your anger entirely, trying to see things this way will help you to disrupt it.Sakya Trizin
Openness ~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
Tulku Urgyen RinpocheComplete openness, ‘Zangtal’ in Tibetan, means not attached to anything, not fixating on anything. This is precisely the opposite of an ordinary person’s frame of mind clinging to and fixating on everything. The openness of Rigpa, the openness of a yogi, does not fixate on anything: it does not hold on to anything. We need to grow used to this type of openness. Let your five senses be wide open, wide awake and yet thought-free. Remain in that state, utterly open.
The quality of zazen will express itself ~ Shunryu Suzuki
Shunryu SuzukiIf you think you will get something from practicing zazen, already you are involved in impure practice. It is all right to say there is practice, and there is enlightenment, but we should not be caught by the statement. You should not be tainted by it. When you practice zazen, just practice zazen. If enlightenment comes, it just comes. We should not attach to the attainment. The true quality of zazen is always there, even if you are not aware of it, so forget all about what you think you may have gained from it. Just do it. The quality of zazen will express itself; then you will have it.
Stillness and movement ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheThe mind has, in general, two aspects, stillness and movement. Sometimes, the mind is quiet and free from thoughts, like a calm pool; this is stillness. Eventually, thoughts are bound to arise in it; this is movement. In truth, however, although in a sense there is a movement of thoughts within the stillness, there is actually no difference between these two states — just as the nature of stillness is voidness, the nature of movement is also voidness. Stillness and movement are merely two names for the one mind.
Stay with what is ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheDo not run away from these unpleasant feelings.
Do not manipulate them into pleasant feelings.
Stay with what is, with whatever arises.