Pines At The Mountain Cottage ~ Tonna

This hut of mine
is so far
from the capital
that no one visits;
yet still
the wind blows
in vain
through the pine trees
at my eaves.

Tonna

We lack nothing ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

We should also avoid thinking of ourselves as worthless persons – we are naturally free and unconditioned. We are intrinsically enlightened and lack nothing. When engaging in meditation practice, we should feel it to be as natural as eating, breathing and defecating. It should not become a specialized or formal event, bloated with seriousness and solemnity.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Manifestations of the body of the Buddha ~ Dogen Zenji

Handle even a single leaf of green in such a way that it manifests the body of the Buddha. This in turn allows the Buddha to manifest through the leaf.

Dogen Zenji

Assessing a religion ~ 17th Karmapa

Assess a religion on the basis of its teachings. The deeds of its followers are a different matter; whether good or bad, they belong to individuals and not to the teachings. Don’t mix up the two.

17th Karmapa

Understanding the process of the self ~ Krishnamurti

Love is a state of being, and in that state, the ‘me’, with its identifications, anxieties, and possessions, is absent. Love cannot be, as long as the activities of the self, of the ‘me’, whether conscious or unconscious, continue to exist. That is why it is important to understand the process of the self, the center of recognition which is the ‘me’.

Krishnamurti

For enlightenment ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

If you’re practising Dharma, you practise it for enlightenment. Not for rights, not for freedom, not for justice, not for healing, not for getting better in a worldly way.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

The practice of Zen ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

The practice of Zen is to eat, breathe, cook, carry water, and scrub the toilet — to infuse every act of body, speech, and mind — with mindfulness, to illuminate every leaf and pebble, every heap of garbage, every path that leads to our mind’s return home.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Simply wasting this human life ~ Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye

You might “kill time” walking, moving, sleeping, or sitting: ineffectual acts which are neither wholesome nor harmful, and which mature into neither good nor bad experiences. But since such actions simply waste this human life, instead of throwing your ability away in idle amusements, make a conscious effort to devote your time exclusively to wholesome action.

Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye

By deed ~ Buddha Shakyamuni

Not by birth is one an outcast; not by birth is one a brahman. By deed one becomes an outcast, by deed one becomes a brahman.

Buddha Shakyamuni

Morality, concentration and wisdom ~ Sayadaw U. Pandita

We do not practice meditation to gain admiration from anyone. Rather, we practice to contribute to peace in the world. We try to follow the teachings of the Buddha, and take the instructions of trustworthy teachers, in hopes that we too can reach the Buddha’s state of purity. Having realized this purity within ourselves, we can inspire others and share this Dhamma, this truth.
The Buddha’s teachings can be summed up in three parts: sila, morality; samadhi, concentration; and panna intuitive wisdom.
Sila is spoken of first because it is the foundation for the other two. Its importance cannot be overstressed. Without sila, no further practices can be undertaken. For lay people the basic level of sila consists of five precepts or training rules: refraining from taking life, refraining from taking what is not given, refraining from sexual misconduct, refraining from lying, and refraining from taking intoxicating substances. These observances foster a basic purity that makes it easy to progress along the path of practice.

Sayadaw U. Pandita

Doing our best every moment ~ Tai Situ Rinpoche

We should never get tired of doing our best. It should be a pleasure and an honour to do our best and every moment is so wonderful and so precious – that is how our attitude should be. Our attitude should not be “not again, I have done that already”.

Tai Situ Rinpoche

Different points of view ~ Mingyur Rinpoche

Samsara and nirvana are simply different points of view based on the choices we make.

Mingyur Rinpoche

Just our personal viewpoint ~ Pema Chödron

All the wars, all the hatred, all the ignorance in the world come out of being so invested in our opinions. And at bottom, those opinions are merely our efforts to escape the underlying uneasiness of being human, the uneasiness of feeling like we can’t get ground under our feet. So we hold on to our fixed ideas of this is how it is and disparage any opposing views. But imagine what the world would be like if we could come to see our likes and dislikes as merely likes and dislikes, and what we take to be intrinsically true as just our personal viewpoint.

Pema Chödron

Vajrayana ~ Chögyam Trungpa

Committing oneself to the vajrayana teaching is like inviting a poisonous snake into bed with you and making love to it. Once you have the possibility of making love to this poisonous snake, it is fantastically pleasurable: you are churning out antideath potion on the spot. The whole snake turns into antideath potion and eternal joy. But if you make the wrong move, that snake will destroy you on the spot.

Chögyam Trungpa

Intense delight in meditation ~ 14th Dalai Lama

If one’s life is simple, contentment has to come. Simplicity is extremely important for happiness. Having few desires, feeling satisfied with what you have, is very vital: satisfaction with just enough food, clothing, and shelter to protect yourself from the elements. And finally, there is an intense delight in abandoning faulty states of mind and in cultivating helpful ones in meditation.

14th Dalai Lama

Being near a spiritual teacher ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

It is always beneficial to be near a spiritual teacher. These masters are like gardens or medicinal plants, sanctuaries of wisdom. In the presence of a realized master, you will rapidly attain enlightenment. In the presence of an erudite scholar, you will acquire great knowledge. In the presence of a great meditator, spiritual experience will dawn in your mind. In the presence of a bodhisattva, your compassion will expand, just as an ordinary log placed next to a log of sandalwood becomes saturated, little by little, with its fragrance.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Engage in the two accumulations indivisibly ~ Longchenpa

Dwelling in the state of emptiness, acting according to (the law of) cause and effect;
Realizing non-action, keeping the three vows;
Without focus, exert yourself in benefitting beings through compassion.
‘To engage in the two accumulations indivisibly’ is my heart advice.

Longchenpa

Disconnected from our own noble heart ~ 17th Karmapa

We seem to have lost the sense that we can freely and happily extend ourselves for others. In modeling our social institutions on business principles, we have become very disconnected from our own noble heart.