17th KarmapaWhether or not we believe in reincarnation, we can each live a purposeful life if we spend our time doing something beneficial for ourselves and others. At the very least, we need to find a way to lead our lives joyfully. But if we do the opposite – what a shame! If we only create misery, we have wasted our lives. What’s more, all the trouble that others have gone through to feed and clothe us becomes pointless.
The great work of life and death ~ Seung Sahn
Seung SahnIn the great work of life and death, time will not wait for you.
If you die tomorrow, what kind of body will you get?
Is not all of this of great importance?
Hurry up! Hurry!
Blue sky and green sea
Are the Buddha’s original face.
The sound of the waterfall and the bird’s song
Are the great sutras.
Where are you going?
Watch your step.
Water flows down to the sea.
Clouds float up to the heavens.
Theory has to be applied through practice ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheTheoretical understanding alone is simply not enough to overcome the psychological and biological habits that create so much headache and pain in daily life. For real transformation to occur, theory has to be applied through practice.
Learn to watch ~ Ajahn Chah
Ajahn ChahHow does the Dhamma teach the proper way of life? It shows us how to live. It has many ways of showing it – on rocks or trees or just in front of you. It is a teaching but not in words. So still the mind, the heart, and learn to watch. You’ll find the whole Dhamma revealing itself here and now. At what other time and place are you going to look?
Expressing compassion in simple ways ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaWith regard to compassion, sometimes when compassion is held within and not expressed, not applied in action, it can become a source of suffering. Having compassion and feeling that you cannot do anything to help can be frustrating. Someone once came to me and said that they had seen a dog who had been hit by a car. The dog was wounded and was lying there and was also being fed upon by some insects. There wasn’t much this person could do for the dog. Even if he removed the insects, those insects would starve to death, so he really felt lacking in any way to implement his compassion and he found it rather depressing.
That being the case, we need to remember that situations that we encounter are not always like that and compassion does not always have to be viewed as something where there is nothing we can do because, in fact, there always is something we can do. If we start small, start with the actual implementation or practice of compassion with small things and in very simple ways, we will, in fact, be emulating the example of great masters of the past, who ensured that whatever they did, even neutral actions, were motivated by the altruistic wish to benefit others so that when great masters of the past went into retreat, with every step they took toward the place of retreat, they thought, “May with this step I bring benefit to beings. May this step benefit beings.” Whenever they tied their belt on at the beginning of the day, they would think, “May my tying on this belt be of benefit to beings.” In that way, if we think that everything we are doing, even if it’s a neutral action that is not directly beneficial to other beings, if we think that it is done for the purpose of benefiting others, while it’s not the case that it immediately produces some kind of fantastic benefit for others, it will be the case that your motivation will accrue and will eventually produce action that will be directly beneficial to many. Without such profound methods, starting from very simple actions and so on, we don’t have any way to implement compassion. So please keep this in mind
Three step practice ~ Pema Chödron
Pema ChödronFirst, come into the present. Flash on what’s happening with you right now. Be fully aware of your body, its energetic quality. Be aware of your thoughts and emotions.
Next, feel your heart, literally placing your hand on your chest if you find that helpful. This is a way of accepting yourself just as you are in that moment, a way of saying, “This is my experience right now, and it’s okay.”
Then go into the next moment without any agenda.
Benefit of guru devotion ~ Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa RinpocheProper guru devotion – correct devotion to your virtuous friends – allows you to actualize successfully all the steps of the path to enlightenment, from the perfect human rebirth up to buddhahood itself.
Remembering impermanence ~ Patrul Rinpoche
Patrul RinpocheWhatever is born is impermanent and is bound to die.
Whatever is stored up is impermanent and is bound to run out.
Whatever comes together is impermanent and is bound to come apart.
Whatever is built is impermanent and is bound to collapse.
Whatever rises up is impermanent and is bound to fall down.
So also, friendship and enmity, fortune and sorrow, good and evil, all the thoughts that run through your mind – everything is always changing.
Nonconceptuality ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheNonconceptuality is an experience of the total openness of your mind. Your awareness is direct and unclouded by conceptual distinction such as “I” or “other,” subjects and objects, or any other form of limitation. It’s an experience of pure consciousness as infinite as space, without beginning, middle, or end. It’s like becoming awake within a dream and recognizing that everything experienced in the dream isn’t separate from the mind of the dreamer.
The precious opportunity of a human existence ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheWe need to be born a human being, as this is the only state of existence in which there is enough suffering to give us an acute desire to be free from samsara, yet not so much suffering that we no longer have the opportunity to free ourselves through the practice of Dharma. If we do not make use of the precious opportunity of a human existence, we cannot but go downward, like a stone rolling down a hill.
Beyond birth and death ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat HanhBirth is okay and death is okay, if we know that they are only concepts in our mind. Reality transcends both birth and death.
Just projections of the mind ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheA beautiful object has no intrinsic quality that is good for the mind, nor an ugly object any intrinsic power to harm it. Beautiful and ugly are just projections of the mind. The ability to cause happiness or suffering is not a property of the outer object itself. For example, the sight of a particular individual can cause happiness to one person and suffering to another. It is the mind that attributes such qualities to the perceived object.
The true test of meditation ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaHow many obscurations and how many afflictions have been subdued or cleared away? This is the true test of meditation, not what wonderful or special experiences we might have.
You are guaranteed to be burned ~ Pema Chödron
Pema ChödronWe act out because, ironically, we think it will bring us some relief. We equate it with happiness. Often there is some relief, for the moment. When you have an addiction and you fulfill that addiction, there is a moment in which you feel some relief. Then the nightmare gets worse. So it is with aggression. When you get to tell someone off, you might feel pretty good for a while, but somehow the sense of righteous indignation and hatred grows, and it hurts you. It’s as if you pick up hot coals with your bare hands and throw them at your enemy. If the coals happen to hit him, he will be hurt. But in the meantime, you are guaranteed to be burned.
Concentrating on not wasting our life ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheThe more you are preoccupied by your own physical aging, the more anxious you will become. Do not worry so much about your physical appearance. Concentrate, rather, on not wasting your life. Practice the Dharma. The more you engage in it, the more your satisfaction will grow.
A mind committed to compassion ~ 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai LamaA mind committed to compassion is like an overflowing reservoir – a constant source of energy, determination and kindness.
Completely up to ourselves ~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
Tulku Urgyen RinpocheThere is no other way to reach enlightenment than by recognizing buddha nature and attaining stability in it. Buddhas of the past did that, and the present-day practitioners who will be the buddhas of the future will do so by recognizing their own nature and attaining stability in it. There is no other way. Nobody else can accomplish enlightenment for us or pull us into liberation. It is completely up to ourselves.
Collective mindfulness ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat HanhWe are all connected. When you touch one thing, you are touching everything. Whatever we do has an effect on others. Therefore, we must learn to live mindfully to touch the peace inside each of us. Peace in the world starts with peace in oneself. If everyone lives mindfully, everyone will be more healthy, feel more fulfilled in their daily lives and there will be more peace. This collective mindfulness can bring positive change to our families, organizations, communities, nations and future generations.
A Festival of the Field for Gathering Merit ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaOm tara tuttare ture soha.
Ah ho,
The essential nature of simplicity is the ground’s ever pure expanse.
When set the enchanting music of a clear and radiant knowing, naturally present.
And matured by the jeweled rain of joy descending as the union of the three kayas,
The soveriegn one, the ultimate lama, arises remembered in the center of my heart.The enlightened activity of your three gates illuminates like a garland of the sun’s rays.
The hundred thousand lights of your virtuous actions spontaneously
Create a cooling shade to ease the pain of fortunate disciples;
A lotus of the three joys unfolds in the center of their hearts.The lotus of this life with its leisure and resources holds in its center
A stamen that befriends a mellifluous bee with its honey of renunciation.
Grant your blessing that the true lama’s lotus feet are bathed by the sun
And the abundant petals of benefit for others open forth.Gazing at the very face of primordial wisdom, luminous and self-arisen from the natural state,
And resting at ease on the path, with nothing to add or take away
Grant your blessing that I take the royal seat, present from time without beginning
In the expanse of emptiness – dharmakaya’s true nature, ultimate reality.In the sky, an umbrella of white clouds forms a rainbow canopy above.
Between sky and earth, flowers of virtue and excellence fall in a gentle rain.
On the earth, filled with happiness, people sing in great delight;
May this joy enrapture the whole world.A sincere intention free of fault is a jeweled lamp, a luminous treasury
That liberates every being from a dense darkness where virtue cannot go.
May the dulcet melody of incomparable fame, the celestial music
For the festival of a golden age without end, resound throughout the three realms.This prayer was written by Ogyen Trinley Dorje on September 4, 2001 as the sun came over the dome of the eastern mountain. May it be a cause for virtue.
Beyond our comfort zone ~ Pema Chödron
Pema ChödronCompassion is threatening to the ego. We might think of it as something warm and soothing, but actually it’s very raw. When we set out to support other beings, when we go so far as to stand in their shoes, when we aspire to never close down to anyone, we quickly find ourselves in the uncomfortable territory of “life not on my terms.” The second commitment, traditionally known as the Bodhisattva Vow, or warrior vow, challenges us to dive into these noncozy waters and swim out beyond our comfort zone.
Our willingness to make the first commitment is our initial step toward relaxing completely with uncertainty and change. The commitment is to refrain from speech and action that would be harmful to ourselves and others and then to make friends with the underlying feelings that motivate us to do harm in the first place. The second commitment builds on this foundation: we vow to move consciously into the pain of the world in order to help alleviate it. It is, in essence, a vow to take care of one another, even if it sometimes means not liking how that feels.