Chögyam TrungpaDiscovering fearlessness comes from working with the softness of the human heart.
Prime purpose in this life ~ 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai LamaOur prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.
Powerful sources of help ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheIndeed, adversaries and people who try to harm you can be powerful sources of help on the bodhisattva path. By bringing about situations which would normally trigger your anger or hatred, they give you the precious opportunity to train in transforming those negative emotions with patience. On the path, such people will do you far more good than any well-disposed friend.
Never commiting a harmful act ~ Gyelse Tokme Zangpo
Gyelse Tokme ZangpoThe practice of all the bodhisattvas is never to commit a harmful act,
Even though not to do so might put one’s very life at risk,
For the Sage himself has taught how negative actions will ripen
Into the manifold miseries of the lower realms, so difficult to endure.
Lean In ~ Pema Chödron
Pema ChödronThe next time you lose heart and you can’t bear to experience what you’re feeling, you might recall this instruction: change the way you see it and lean in. Instead of blaming our discomfort on outer circumstances or on our own weakness, we can choose to stay present and awake to our experience, not rejecting it, not grasping it, not buying the stories that we relentlessly tell ourselves. This is priceless advice that addresses the true cause of suffering — yours, mine, and that of all living beings.
As the dharma takes over ~ Tenzin Palmo
Tenzin PalmoIf we are serious about becoming the masters of our minds and emotions, instead of the slaves of our minds and emotions, if we are really serious about leading a life which will be of benefit for ourselves and others, we have to become selective. We cannot do everything in this lifetime. We cannot spend our nights in the discos and then get up at 5am to do our practice – well we could but it wouldn’t work very well. We have to decide in our lives what is really of importance to us and what is not. And simplify, that is renunciation…As the dharma takes over, the wonder of the dharma takes over our life more and more, so we lose interest in other things which previously had seemed so important to us. It’s like in the spring and the summer when the trees are in full blossom, if you try to pull the leaves from the tree, there’s a resistence because the leaves dont want to come. But in autumn, they naturally just fall, getting ready for new growth.
Merely discovered ~ Chögyam Trungpa
Chögyam TrungpaAnything that is created must sooner or later die. Enlightenment is permanent because we have not produced it; we have merely discovered it.
You are a participant ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat HanhYou are not an observer, you are a participant.
How things appear and how they actually exist ~ 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai LamaHow things appear and how they actually exist differ greatly. A person engaging in practice of the perfection of wisdom does this kind of analysis and then examines how things appear in ordinary experience, alternating analysis and comparison with the usual mode of appearance in order to notice the discrepancy between the actual mode of subsistence of phenomena and their appearance.
In this way the inherent existence which is the object of negation will become clearer and clearer. As much as the object of negation becomes clearer, so much deeper will your understanding of emptiness become. Finally, you will ascertain a mere vacuity that is a negative of inherent existence.
Life in Balance ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaWhen we bring our concern for ourselves into harmony with our concern for others, our life comes in balance. When our life feels imbalanced and pointless, usually we notice that our relationships have also become unhealthy. By thinking carefully about how we orient ourselves toward others and toward ourselves, we can build and enjoy healthy relationships. We can learn to cultivate relationships that are warm and truly meaningful.
The cup that holds the teachings ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheThe essence of Buddhism is beyond culture, but it is practiced by many different cultures, which use their traditions as the cup that holds the teachings. If the elements of these cultural trappings help other beings without causing harm, and if they don’t contradict the four truths, then Siddhartha would encourage such practices.
Just like dewdrops on blades of grass ~ Gyelse Tokme Zangpo
Gyelse Tokme ZangpoThe practice of all the bodhisattvas is to strive towards the goal,
Which is the supreme state of changeless, everlasting liberation,
Since all the happiness of the three realms lasts but a moment,
And then is quickly gone, just like dewdrops on blades of grass.
Cultivating Compassion ~ Pema Chödron
Pema ChödronCompassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allowing ourselves to move gently toward what scares us. The trick to doing this is to stay with emotional distress without tightening into aversion; to let fear soften us rather than harden into resistance. We cultivate bravery through making aspirations. We make the wish that all beings, including ourselves and those we dislike, be free of suffering and the root of suffering.
The flat truth ~ Chögyam Trungpa
Chögyam TrungpaIf you personally want to understand and realize the teachings, you will have no understanding at all if you don’t sit and practice meditation. That’s the flat truth, the real truth. You should be able to understand what we are doing, particularly in terms of the teachings and the examples of the teachings that are transmitted through generations and generations. People have understood themselves, realized themselves, by the sitting practice of meditation.
The most profound of all practices ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheThe literal meaning of guru yoga is ‘union with the teacher´s nature’. To blend your mind with the teacher’s mind is the most profound of all practices, and the shortest path of realization. It is the life force of the path and the one practice that includes all others. It was through relying on a spiritual teacher that all the bodhisattvas of the past generated the mind of enlightment and reached perfection.
Rebirth ~ Buddha Shakyamuni
Buddha ShakyamuniThere are six realms of transmigration where beings take birth.
They are the realms of gods, demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell.
You take birth in those realms because of superior, middling, and evil karmas.
Unique meditation experiences ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheMeditation is a uniquely personal process, and no two people’s experience is alike.
The challenge of meditation ~ Chögyam Trungpa
Chögyam TrungpaIt is very difficult to make meditation into a habit. Even though you’ve been doing it for twenty years, still there’s constantly a certain sense of struggle involved. This shows that meditation is different from the rest of habitual things. It requires some kind of challenge, constantly.
Becoming noble ~ 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai LamaA learned person will become noble only when he or she has put into practice what has been learned, instead of just mere words.
The Dharma is the best way of using your life ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheEven if your storerooms and wardrobes are full, you can still only eat one meal and wear one garment at a time. In truth, all you need is enough nourishment to keep going and clothing to protect you from the elements. As for these two necessities, do not worry about them: the Buddha promised that no one will ever find the bones of a renunciate who has died of hunger or cold. What is the use of hesitating out of concern that you will not have enough to eat, nothing to put on your back, and nowhere to sleep? The Dharma is the best way of using your life – have no doubt about it.