Clear Mind ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Our understanding of Buddhism should not be just gathering many pieces of information, seeking to gain knowledge. Instead of gathering knowledge, you should clear your mind. If your mind is clear, true knowledge is already yours. When you listen to our teaching with a pure, clear mind, you accept it as if you were hearing something which you already knew.

Shunryu Suzuki

Not a substitute for practice ~ Mingyur Rinpoche

Many modern students follow teachers around and accumulate empowerments and transmissions and take many teachings. But this is not a substitute for practice. Pure students don’t hang around the teachers that much. They come for instruction, or guidance, or clarification, and then they go off and practice.

Mingyur Rinpoche

Unconditional openness ~ Pema Chödron

The peace that we are looking for is not peace that crumbles as soon as there is difficulty or chaos. Whether we’re seeking inner peace or global peace or a combination of the two, the way to experience it is to build on the foundation of unconditional openness to all that arises. Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened.

Pema Chödron

The moment of awakening ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

The moment of awakening may be marked by an outbursts of laughter, but this is not the laughter of someone who has won the lottery or some kind of victory. It is the laughter of one who, after searching for something for a long time, suddenly finds it in the pocket of his coat.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Ultimate retreat ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

Ideally the ultimate retreat is to retreat from the past and the future, to always remain in the present. However our mind is so empowered and controlled by habit all the time. One characteristic of habit is not being able to sit still, not being able to remain in the present. This is because being in the present is so scary, so boring and unbearable for our deluded and spoiled mind. Little do we know that actually being in the present is so exciting and the most liberating from all kinds of pain, suffering and anxiety.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

Unconditional clarity ~ Chögyam Trungpa

Through meditation practice, we discover a sense of clarity, unconditional clarity. Such clarity is ostentatious and has immense brilliance. It is very joyful, and it has potentialities of everything. It is a real experience. Once we have experienced this brilliance, this far-seeing, ostentatious, colorful, opulent quality of clarity, then there is no problem. It is indestructible. Because of its opulence and its richness, it radiates constantly, and immense unconditional appreciation takes place.

Chögyam Trungpa

Creating a world of neurotic fantasy ~ Lama Yeshe

There is no miserable place waiting for you, no hell realm, sitting and waiting like Alaska – waiting to turn you into ice cream. But whatever you call it – hell or the suffering realms – it is something that you enter by creating a world of neurotic fantasy and believing it to be real. It sounds simple, but that’s exactly what happens.

Lama Yeshe

We are in control ~ Ponlop Rinpoche

It is important to realize that there is nobody else who can wake us up and save us from samsara. There is no such thing in Buddhism. That may be Buddhism’s biggest drawback, and at the same time its greatest advantage. This view shows us that there is nobody else in control of our lives, our experiences, our freedom or our bondage. Who is responsible? Who is in control? It is us. We are in control. We can bind ourselves further in samsara or we can free ourselves from it right now. It is all up to us. We are the ones who have to keep looking at our thoughts, looking for the nature of our mind. There is no guru, deity, buddha or bodhisattva out there to look for it for us. Although they would happily do this, it would not help us; it would only help them. We have to do it for ourselves. That is the key point.

Ponlop Rinpoche

The main obstacle to generate bodhicitta ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

We should remember that the main obstacle which prevented us from generating bodhicitta before was the distinction we made between friends and enemies.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Accomplishing Happiness ~ 17th Karmapa

The way to accomplish happiness in the world is to do meaningful work in one’s own life with a positive motivation that sees all people and all traditions as equal.

17th Karmapa

Beyond good and evil ~ Ajahn Chah

People don’t study that which is beyond good and evil. This is what they should study. “I’m going to be like this; I’m going to be like that,” they say. But they never say, “I’m not going to be anything because there really isn’t any ‘I’.” This they don’t study.

Ajahn Chah

Self-knowing wakefulness ~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Recognize that your mind is the unity of being empty and cognizant, suffused with knowing. When your attention is extroverted, you fall under the sway of thoughts. Let your attention recognize itself. Recognize that it is empty. That which recognizes is the cognizance. You can trust at that moment that these two – emptiness and cognizance – are an original unity. Seeing this is called self-knowing wakefulness.

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Making a genuine exchange ~ Gyelse Tokme Zangpo

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to make a genuine exchange
Of one’s own happiness and wellbeing for all the sufferings of others.
Since all misery comes from seeking happiness for oneself alone,
Whilst perfect buddhahood is born from the wish for others’ good.

Gyelse Tokme Zangpo

Give ~ Buddha Shakyamuni

Give, even if you only have a little.

Buddha Shakyamuni

Although ~ Padmasambhava

Although your realization is equal to that of the buddhas’, make offerings to the Three Jewels. Although you have gained mastery over your mind, direct your innermost aims towards the Dharma. Although the nature of the Great Perfection is supreme, don’t disparage other teachings.

Although you have realized that buddhas and sentient beings are equal, embrace all beings with compassion. Although the paths and bhumis are beyond training and journeying, don’t forsake purifying your obscurations through Dharma activities. Although the accumulations are beyond gathering, don’t sever the roots of conditioned virtue.

Although your mind lies beyond birth and death, this illusory body does die, so practice while remembering death. Although you experience dharmata free from thought, maintain the attitude of bodhichitta. Although you have attained the fruition of dharmakaya, keep company with your yidam deity.

Although dharmakaya is not some other place, seek the true meaning. Although buddhahood is not anywhere else, dedicate any virtue you create towards unexcelled enlightenment. Although everything experienced is original wakefulness, don’t let your mind stray into samsara.

Although your mind essence is the awakened one, always worship the deity and your master. Although you have realized the nature of the Great Perfection, don’t abandon your yidam deity. Those who, instead of doing this, speak foolishly
with boastful words only damage the Three Jewels and will find not even an instant of happiness.

Padmasambhava

Luminosity ~ Thrangu Rinpoche

The word ösalwa, often translated as luminous, is related to the word light in that it expresses some kind of brightness or clarity. However, the real meaning of this is not a light that is visible to the eye. Luminosity refers more to the capacity to know.… Hearing that mind is emptiness may lead us to believe that there is no mind. It sounds like we are a mindless piece of matter, which we are not. We are able to experience. Our natural cognizance is available at any moment. That is luminosity, which is not made out of anything whatsoever.

Thrangu Rinpoche

The source of all our suffering ~ Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche

Our instinctive, emotional attachment or clinging to a vague notion of self is the source of all our suffering. From the idea of ‘self’ comes that of ‘other’. It is from the interaction of ‘self and ‘other’ that desire, hatred and delusion arise. There are many kinds of desire including greed, envy and miserliness. Hatred can take the form of jealousy, anger and resentment. Delusion includes mental dullness, stupidity and confusion. From these unhealthy mental states arise actions motivated by them, and their results. The results take the form of all kinds of sufferings, which one cannot escape as long as one identifies with the ‘self’ who is suffering.

Thus the only way to remove one’s suffering is to realize not-self. The wisdom mind that realizes not-self is like light removing darkness. Just as darkness cannot exist in the light, so suffering cannot exist in the light of the wisdom mind.

Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche

Seen no more ~ Shantideva

All that I possess and use
Is like the fleeting vision of a dream.
It fades into the realms of memory;
And fading, will be seen no more.

Shantideva