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.
Start that very day ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
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.