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.
Get out of the construction business ~ Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche
Nyoshul Khen RinpocheGet out of the construction business! Stop building bridges across the raging waters of samsaric existence, attempting to reach the “far shore,” nirvana. Better to simply relax, at ease and carefree, in total naturalness, and just go with the primordial flow, however it occurs and happens. And remember this: whether or not you go with the flow, it always goes with you.
That is why we practice zazen ~ Shunryu Suzuki
Shunryu SuzukiShikantaza is to practice or actualize emptiness. Although you can have a tentative understanding of it through your thinking, you should understand emptiness through your experience. You have an idea of emptiness and an idea of being, and you think that being and emptiness are opposites. But in Buddhism both of these are ideas of being. The emptiness we mean is not like the idea you may have. You cannot reach a full understanding of emptiness with your thinking mind or with your feeling. That is why we practice zazen.
Look what he did ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaI would like to share something on my own personal experience. I am not sure how this would work in other contexts but it helped me move beyond this sort of conflict. I mentioned that since I left home for the monastery when I was seven years old, I have had different caretakers and guardians. One older monk has a tendency to be quite nit-picky, and to constantly correct me on matters I consider completely trivial. This happens a lot, and we live together in a close quarter, so I had to develop a way to deal with it. What I came up with was this: whenever he would start scolding me, I would imagine that he was talking about another person – not about me, but about someone else. Then I would mentally take my caretaker’s side in the argument against this third person. I would nod in agreement with my caretaker’s criticism and inwardly say to myself, “Oh yes, what an awful guy that Karmapa is. Look what he did. Can you believe it? How could anyone wear such wrinkled clothes!” It became a game that I could play whenever this caretaker started in on me. It was actually fun and I got to the point that I quite enjoyed it. Most importantly, it allowed me to keep my feelings of affection and warmth toward this monk alive and strong, no matter what was going on between us. I could remember that he was doing his best to care for me in his own way.
There is never any time to spare ~ Padampa Sangye
Padampa SangyeThe day you were born, your death began approaching;
People of Tingri, remember: there is never any time to spare.
We already have more than enough ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat HanhThe concentration on ‘impermanence’ helps free us from our tendency to live as though we and our loved ones will be here forever. The concentration on ‘non-craving’ is an opportunity to take time to sit down and figure out what true happiness really is. We discover that we already have more than enough conditions to be happy, right here in the present moment. And the concentration on ‘letting go’ helps us disentangle ourselves from suffering and transform and release painful feelings.
Like an eagle soaring up into the blue sky ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheEven if death were to strike you today like lighting, you must be ready to die without sadness or regret, without any residue of clinging to what is left behind. Remaining in the recognition of the view, you should leave this life like an eagle soaring up into the blue sky. When the eagle takes flight into the vast sky, it never thinks, ‘My wings won’t be able to carry me; I won’t be able to fly that far.’ Likewise, when dying, remember your guru and his instructions, and adhere to them with complete confidence.
Self-discipline ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaSelf-mastery entails self-discipline, but neither self-mastery nor self-discipline is a matter of applying superior force. It is not like a parent pushing a child to do her homework long enough that she finally grudgingly does it to avoid being scolded by her parents. Self-discipline can be developed joyfully rather than as a burden we impose on ourselves. It can become something we willingly embrace. This requires training – mind training. We need to recognize that our minds are big enough and can open wide enough to accept reality. We need to talk to our minds. The aim is for us to choose, wholeheartedly, to do what we know is the best thing to do.
The most essential thing to do to attain buddhahood ~ Sakya Trizin
Sakya TrizinIt is said that Avalokiteshvara was once asked by a disciple, “What practice is the most essential to accomplish buddhahood?” Avalokiteshvara answered that the most important thing, the most essential thing to do to attain buddhahood, is to practice compassion. This is because when you practice compassion, all other qualities, such as loving kindness and the enlightenment mind, are naturally accomplished and naturally gather.
The weeds you have in your mind ~ Shunryu Suzuki
Shunryu SuzukiYou should rather be grateful for the weeds you have in your mind, because eventually they will enrich your practice.
Focusing on our inner interdependence ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaWe have within us already the most important resources we need for living interdependence well. We have tremendous mental flexibility that allows us to adopt new positions in relation to changing circumstances. As I will explore in the following chapters, I believe that we have the basic ability to open our hearts to others, to take their perspectives into consideration, and to share experiences and feelings. Our natural capacity for empathy is a clear sign that we are emotionally connected. If one child cries, another will cry. When people are wholeheartedly laughing, we often cannot help but join in, even if we do not know what is funny. These are all small signs that we are connected inwardly and not just outwardly. Focusing on our inner interdependence allows us see that we are all moved by the same inner drive to seek happiness and avoid suffering. This universal wish motivates life on this planet. The happiness we all seek only comes when we are working not just on external conditions but on inner ones as well.
Undivided activity ~ Dogen Zenji
Dogen ZenjiBirth is just like riding in a boat. You raise the sails and you steer. Although you maneuver the sail and the pole, the boat gives you a ride, and without the boat you couldn’t ride. But you ride in the boat, and your riding makes the boat what it is. Investigate a moment such as this. At just such a moment, there is nothing but the world of the boat. The sky, the water, and the shore are all the boat’s world, which is not the same as a world that is not the boat’s. Thus you make birth what it is; you make birth your birth. When you ride in a boat, your body, mind, and environs together are the undivided activity of the boat. The entire earth and the entire sky are both the undivided activity of the boat. Thus birth is nothing but you; you are nothing but birth.
The mind is free of any true reality ~ Padampa Sangye
Padampa SangyeThe root of both samsara and nirvana is to be found within your mind;
People of Tingri, the mind is free of any true reality.
Cultivating a spirit of generosity ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaGenerosity need not be applied only in the material realm. We can also cultivate a spirit of generosity in whatever problem we are working on. We do this by making an offering of ourselves – offering a hand, offering a word, offering heart and mind – as a positive condition in any situation we find ourselves in. This attitude extends our open heart and mind into action and keeps us ready to act to benefit others.
Do not be bothered by anything ~ Shunryu Suzuki
Shunryu SuzukiWhen you are practicing Zazen, do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long. When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything. It appears as if something comes from outside your mind, but actually it is only the waves of your mind, and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will become calmer and calmer.
Our mind is the basic creator ~ Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa RinpocheAs it is said in the teachings, first think that every happiness — day-to-day happiness; future life happiness (deva and human rebirth); nirvana, the blissful state of peace for oneself which is experienced forever; and even the total cessation of the obscurations and completion of realizations, the peerless happiness — comes from the mind.
All the happiness that we experience came from our mind, and all the suffering — hell, hungry ghost, animal, human being —came from our mind. That’s because in the past we created nonvirtue as well as harming others. All our suffering came from that and all our happiness came from virtue. So our mind is the basic creator, not God, not Buddha, Dharma, Sangha.