Shunryu SuzukiWhen we analyze our experience, we have ideas of time or space, big or small, heavy or light. A scale of some kind is necessary, and with various scales in our mind, we experience things. Still the thing itself has no scale. That is something we add to reality. Because we always use a scale and depend on it so much, we think the scale really exists. But it doesn’t exist. If it did, it would exist with things. Using a scale you can analyze one reality into entities, big and small, but as soon as we conceptualize something it is already a dead experience.
We “empty” ideas of big or small, good or bad from our experience, because the measurement that we use is usually based on the self. When we say good or bad, the scale is yourself. That scale is not always the same. Each person has a scale that is different. So I don’t say that the scale is always wrong, but we are liable to use our selfish scale when we analyze, or when we have an idea about something. That selfish part should be empty. How we empty that part is to practice zazen and become more accustomed to accepting things as it is without any idea of big or small, good or bad.
Open your mind ~ Dogen Zenji
Dogen ZenjiLife is short and no one knows what the next moment will bring. Open your mind while you have the opportunity, thereby gaining the treasures of wisdom, which in turn you can share abundantly with others, bringing them happiness.
Guidance of a qualified teacher ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheTo progress, we need the constant guidance of a qualified teacher. As we report to him the progress of our meditation and describe our experiences, he may say, “You should relax more,” or on the contrary, “Be more vigilant.” It is important at this time to rely upon a teacher’s instructions. When the great Gampopa had many spiritual experiences, he explained them to Jetsun Milarepa and was thus able to avoid deviations and continue to progress.
Once you’ve been introduced to this nature of the mind, you should achieve stability and confidence in recognizing it, so that the mind remains in that state of simplicity without wavering.
If we allow water to remain still without agitating it, it becomes limpid and transparent; but if we stir it up with a stick, mud rises and the water becomes turbid. Likewise, leave the mind in a state of natural clarity, without interference, so that awareness remains limpid.
Beneficial action is an act of oneness ~ Dogen Zenji
Dogen ZenjiFoolish people think that if they help others first, their own benefit will be lost, but this is not so. Beneficial action is an act of oneness, benefiting self and others together.
Due to ignorance ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu RinpocheWhen we are under the influence of attachment, we discriminate between good and bad, beautiful and ugly, and then cling to what seems to be attractive and shun those things which seem bad. Attachment and aversion are disturbing emotions that arise from not understanding the nature of things as they are and as they appear. It is due to ignorance that our mind accepts and rejects the objects of attachment and aversion.
Until meditation experiences are destroyed without trace ~ Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche
Nyoshul Khen RinpocheAs Jigme Lingpa says in our text, “Merging your mind with the guru’s mind, let awareness be free and unbound.” Rest in meditative equipoise, completely relaxed and without holding on to anything or modifying anything. From the depth of your heart, it is important to persevere unremittingly in this (snying la rdo rus gtug), until your experience of meditation is utterly free of any fixation or reference point; until meditation experiences are destroyed (nyams bshig) without a trace.
The opportunity to love ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaLiving interdependence is the opportunity you have been waiting for. Perhaps the most valuable opportunity it offers is the opportunity to love. We need to expand our access to the love we have within us. This requires that we put ourselves in situations that ask us and allow us to love.
We are born buddhas ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheWhat makes our birth so precious is our potential for awakening. We are born buddhas, and all dharma practices help us recognize and nurture this truth. Because we do not actually believe in our own capacity for awakening, these teachings work to reverse the tendency to see ourselves as insufficient
Purification of the mind ~ Thinley Norbu Rinpoche
Thinley Norbu RinpocheLeave the mind in the natural condition, just as it is. Then being a monk and wearing monk’s robes is good, being a Buddhist yogi and wearing white robes is also good, and not wearing any robes at all, the mind is still pure in the natural condition. The most important thing in Dharma is to purify one’s mind as much as possible. Purification of the mind is the real meaning of Dharma and the basic importance of practice. It is possible to learn from many people who are involved in Dharma. It is also possible just to get a lot of ideas in one’s head and distort the mind, and finally one will be incapable of leaving the mind in the natural condition. Having approached Dharma and learned many different ways of distorting the mind, not only will one have failed to benefit oneself but one will also have gone farther from Dharma.
The mind is the instigator ~ Ajahn Fuang Jotiko
Ajahn Fuang JotikoThe mind is the instigator. The body on its own doesn’t have anything to do. It simply acts under the orders of its boss: the mind. The body doesn’t know a thing. It depends on the boss’ orders. So when the boss says, “Enough! No more!” then that’s the end of the matter. The mind doesn’t struggle or thirst. What struggles and thirsts is the aggregate of fabrication (sankhara). If you latch on to fabrication, that’s the essence of suffering — big-time suffering. If you look at the body, you’ll see that there really are no issues there. The issues all come from fabrication. If the mind can break through and understand this attachment to the body, then where else will desire come from?
Truth is ever present ~ Dogen Zenji
Dogen ZenjiTruth is perfect and complete in itself. It is not something newly discovered; it has always existed. Truth is not far away; it is ever present. It is not something to be attained since not one of your steps leads away from it.
Not paranoid but prepared ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheFearlessness is generated when you can appreciate uncertainty, when you have faith in the impossibility of these interconnected components remaining static and permanent. You will find yourself, in a very true sense, preparing for the worst while allowing for the best. You become dignified and majestic. These qualities enhance your ability to work, wage war, make peace, create a family, and enjoy love and personal relationships. By knowing that something is lying in wait for you just around the bend, by accepting that countless potentialities exist from this moment forward, you acquire the skill of pervasive awareness and foresight like that of a gifted general, not paranoid but prepared.
Giving and taking ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheSometimes, visualize that your heart is a brilliant ball of light. As you breathe out, it radiates rays of white light in all directions, carrying your happiness to all beings. As you breathe in, their suffering, negativity and afflictions come towards you in the form of dense, black light, which is absorbed in your heart and disappears in its brilliant white light without a trace, relieving all beings of their pain and sorrow.
Forgiveness ~ Thubten Chodron
Thubten ChodronAs long as we hold onto our resentment, we can never forgive others, and our lack of forgiveness hurts no one but ourselves. To heal from our pain, there’s no other alternative but to let go of our anger and forgive others. Forgiving simply means that we stop tying up our life’s energy in being angry at a person. It does not mean saying their behavior was acceptable. We can still deem certain behavior to be wrong, injurious, or inappropriate. Forgiving also doesn’t mean being naive, letting others manipulate us, or ignoring problems.
Examining the Guru ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheThere is no contradiction between the need to examine the guru and the understanding that the guru is our own perception. In fact, the two positions complement each other. Basically, we must always examine our owin perception. Other than that, there is nothing to examine.
Setting the tone for your entire day ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheThe best period to begin formal practice is first thing in the morning after a good night’s sleep, at which point the mind is most refreshed and relaxed, before getting involved with all the daily stuff. Taking the time to practice before you leave the house for work or to run whatever errands you have to do sets the tone for your entire day, and also reinforces your own commitment to practice throughout the day.
Diminishing the distance we create between ourselves and others ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaTraining in compassion is about shortening the distance we feel between ourselves as the one in a good situation who has compassion and others in a bad situation who are the objects of our compassion. Fully accepting our involvement with people, we rely on the feeling that the two, subject with compassion and object of it, are not separate or different. In fact, when we engender true compassion, we are able to transfer ourselves into the situation of the one for whom we feel compassion and can fully accept their suffering.
If we do not train in this way, then imprisoned in a self-centered mind, we will find excuses not to relate intimately with these three types of people, thinking ‘They will make me feel uncomfortable. I’ll get upset. I just don’t want to face this.’” However, if we analyze these excuses, we will see that they are not authentic reasons to shy away from the misery others experience. Training in compassion helps to diminish the distance we create between ourselves and others.
Know your own mind just as it is ~ Ryokan
RyokanEven if you’ve read through countless books
You’re better off sticking to a single phrase
If anyone asks which one, tell him:
“Know your own mind just as it is”
The decision to follow a spiritual path ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheThe decision to follow a spiritual path is the central most important undertaking of a person’s life, one that is usually made when trust in more worldly objectives is betrayed, causing you to resolve to switch to a more trustworthy path. If listening to and contemplating the teachings and practising meditation inspires you, the likelihood is that you will choose to rely on the logic of the dharma. And having gradually developed an unshakable trust and belief in Buddha, dharma and sangha, you will start to long to follow what you now believe to be the only truly nondeceptive path in this world. Based on that trust, you take refuge.
View and conduct ~ Padmasambhava
PadmasambhavaIn the direction of the view, if conduct gets lost, the view goes to the tarnished state of Mara. In the direction of conduct, if the view is lost, having become entangled by the hopes and fears of materialism and ideology, real liberation will never come and there is no way you can reach the level of the unified state.