A very valid thing to do ~ Chögyam Trungpa

One of the problems meditators experience is that there is a slight, almost subconscious, guilty feeling that they ought to be doing something rather than just experiencing what goes on. When you begin to feel that you ought to be doing something, you automatically present millions of obstacles to yourself. Meditation is not a project; it is a way of being. You could experience that you are what you are. Fundamentally, sitting there and breathing is a very valid thing to do.

Chögyam Trungpa

Sources of our inspiration ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

A willingness to be inspired and a tendency to be turned off are both relative reactions: some people are inspired by the sight of a serene monk with a begging bowl; others by a half-drunk, half-naked yogi. Certain vajrayana students derive far more inspiration from the sight of a bizarrely dressed guru sporting a good deal of gold jewelry and breaking all the rules of social etiquette than a perfect monk, which, again, shows that the sources of our inspiration are both relative and subjective. Not only does each one of us find inspiration in different places, but what inspires a fifteen-year-old will no longer have the same effect once that person hits forty.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

You won’t live forever ~ Padampa Sangye

Your flesh and bones took form together, but in the end are sure to separate;
People of Tingri, do not believe that you will live forever.

Padampa Sangye

Being really there ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Asking yourself, What am I doing? will help you overcome the habit of wanting to complete things quickly. Smile to yourself and say, Washing this dish is the most important job in my life. When you ask, What am I doing?, reflect deeply on the question. If your thoughts are carrying you away, you need mindfulness to intervene. When you are really there, washing the dishes can be a deep and enjoyable experience.

Thich Nhat Hanh

An Aspiration to The Great Perfection ~ Dudjom Rinpoche

May we gain conviction in the view,
wherein samsara and nirvana are the same.
May we have consummate skill in meditation,
a natural flow unaltered, uncontrived.
May we bring our action to perfection,
a natural, unintended, spontaneity.
May we find the dharmakaya,
beyond all gaining and rejection.

Dudjom Rinpoche

What Buddhists mean by happiness ~ Mingyur Rinpoche

Gradually I began to recognize how feeble and transitory the thoughts and emotions that had troubled me for years actually were, and how fixating on small problems had turned them into big ones. Just by sitting quietly and observing how rapidly, and in many ways illogically, my thoughts and emotions came and went, I began to recognize in a direct way that they weren’t nearly as solid or real as they appeared to be. And once I began to let go of my belief in the story they seemed to tell, I began to see the ‘author’ behind them – the infinitely vast, infinitely open awareness that is the nature of mind.
Any attempt to capture the direct experience of the nature of mind in words is impossible. The best that can be said is that the experience is immeasurably peaceful, and, once stabilized through repeated experience, virtually unshakeable. It’s an experience of absolute well-being that radiates through all physical, emotional, and mental states – even those that might be ordinarily labelled as unpleasant. This sense of well-being, regardless of the fluctuation of outer and inner experiences, is one of the clearest ways to understand what Buddhists mean by ‘happiness’.”

Mingyur Rinpoche

Transforming knowledge into spiritual experience ~ Lama Yeshe

There’s a big difference between being able to explain religion intellectually and transforming that knowledge into spiritual experience.

Lama Yeshe

Just sleeping in the mountains ~ Sera Khandro

Hey, hey!
Just sleeping in the mountains is not being in an isolated mountain retreat;
Wild animals all sleep in the mountains.
Although far from butchers who kill,
they lack a single source of protection or hope.
Reflecting on this makes me sad!

Sera Khandro

Nothing to be gained or lost ~ Padampa Sangye

Thoughts come and go like a thief in an empty house –
People of Tangri, in fact there is nothing to be gained or lost.

Padampa Sangye

There remain ~ Yeshe Tsogyal

Meditate upon the teacher as the glow of your awareness,
When you melt and mingle together,
Taste that expanse of nonduality.
There remain.

Yeshe Tsogyal

Enthusiastically benefiting whomever we come in contact with ~ 17th Karmapa

Just as equality must ultimately be applied universally, so must our compassion, love, and sense of responsibility. They must continue to expand until we willingly and enthusiastically embrace the opportunity to benefit any being with whom we come into contact.

17th Karmapa

The gates sparkle ~ Hongzhi Zhengjue

All buddhas and every ancestor without exception testify that they all arrive at this refuge where the three times [past, present, and future] cease and the ten thousand changes are silenced. Straight ahead, unopposed by the smallest atom, the inherently illumined buddha spirit subtly penetrates the original source. When recognized and realized exhaustively, [this spirit] shares itself and responds to situations. The gates sparkle and all beings behold the gleaming. Then they understand that from within this place fulfilled self flows out. The hundreds of grass-tips all around never are imposed as my causes and conditioning. The whole body from head to foot proceeds smoothly.

Hongzhi Zhengjue

What is sitting ~ Dogen Zenji

At the very moment of sitting, what is sitting? Is it an acrobat’s graceful somersault or the rapid darting of a fish? Is it thinking or not thinking? Is it doing or not doing? Is it sitting within sitting? Is it sitting within body-mind? Is it sitting letting go of sitting within sitting, or letting go of sitting within body-mind? Investigate this in every possible way. Sit in the body’s meditation posture. Sit in the mind’s meditation posture. Sit in the meditation posture of letting go of body-mind.

Dogen Zenji

My very own nature ~ Trulshik Rinpoche

The primordial ground, the great, ever-pure primordial emptiness,
Which is free from all elaboration and change,
Is the very nature of uncompounded and self-arising awareness:
Bless me so that I may recognize the view, my very own nature.

Trulshik Rinpoche

Right here and now ~ Tenzin Palmo

What do people think spiritual development is? It’s not lights and trumpets. It’s very simple. It’s right here and now. People have this idea that Enlightenment and realization is something in the distance – a very fantastic and magnificent happening which will transform everything once and for always. But it’s not like that at all. It’s something which is sometimes so simple you hardly see it. It’s right here in front of us, so close we don’t notice it. And it’s something which can happen at any moment. And the moment we see it, there it is. It’s been there all the time, but we’ve had our inner eye closed. When the moments of awareness all link up – then we become a Buddha.

Tenzin Palmo

Enlightenment poem ~ Xiangyan Zhixian

One stroke dissolves knowledge,
Struggle no longer needed.
I will follow the ancient path,
Not lapsing into quietude.
Noble conduct beyond sound and form –
No trace anywhere.
Those who have mastered the way
May call this an unsurpassable activity.

Xiangyan Zhixian

Song of Compassion ~ Shabkar

Avalokiteshvara, mighty Great Treasure of Compassion,
From my heart I invoke your blessing.
By this blessing, may compassion be born in my mind
And the minds of all beings under the sky.
If a man has compassion, he is Buddha;
Without compassion, he is a Lord of Death.
With compassion, the root of Dharma is planted;
Without compassion, the root of Dharma is rotten.
One with compassion is kind even when angry;
One without compassion will kill even as he smiles.
For one with compassion, even enemies will turn into friends;
Without compassion even friends turn into enemies.
With compassion, one has all Dharma;
Without compassion, one has no Dharma at all.
With compassion, one is Buddhist;
Without compassion, one is worse than a heretic.
Even if meditating on voidness, one needs compassion as its essence.
A Dharma practitioner must have a compassionate nature.
Compassion is the distinctive characteristic of Buddhism.
Compassion is the very essence of all Dharma.
Great compassion is like a wish-fulfilling gem.
Great compassion will fulfill the hopes of self and others.
Therefore, all of you, practitioners and lay-people,
Cultivate compassion and you will achieve Buddhahood.
May all men and women who hears this song
With great compassion benefit all beings!

Shabkar

There is no gap ~ Dogen Zenji

All-inclusive study is just single-minded sitting, dropping away body and mind. At the moment of going there, you go there; at the moment of coming here, you come here. There is no gap.