Nyoshul Khen RinpocheCrush the eggshell of the mind and unfold your wings in the open sky. Destroy the hut of duality and inhabit the expansive mansion of pure awareness. There are no other enemies or obstacles to overcome and vanquish. Ignorance – dualistic thinking – is the great demon obstructing your path. Slay it right now and be free!
Protection ~ Tenzin Palmo
Tenzin PalmoThe Dharma itself cannot fail us, because it is how things really are. It won’t fail us because the protection that the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha give is to the mind. How they protect our mind is what is explained in the verses to follow, which are concerned with how to use the adverse circumstances we are likely to meet in samsara and transform them into our opportunities for practice. That’s where the mind is protected, because it can never be crushed. Because we have the methods by which we can always surmount, transcend, and transform the difficulties we meet. This is one way that the Three Jewels are a protection for our own mind.
Skillful Communication ~ Pema Chödron
Pema ChödronSkillful communication is based on discernment. We need discernment to know when it’s time to speak and when it’s not—when it’s time to say firmly, “Stop it, that’s hurtful” or to speak softly and gently. Most of all, we need discernment about ourselves. What triggers or hooks us? How do we reach the point where our discomfort spills out into actions we regret? What calms our agitated mind, instead of pouring kerosene on the fire?
The nectar-like truth I have realized ~ Buddha Shakyamuni
Buddha ShakyamuniProfound, peaceful, stainless, lucid, and unconditioned —
Such is the nectar-like truth I have realized.
Were I to teach it, no one would understand,
So I will silently remain in the forest.I have discovered the supremely sublime and astonishing absolute,
The ineffable state, untainted by language,
Suchness, the sky-like nature of phenomena,
Completely free of discursive, conceptual movement.This meaning cannot be understood through words;
Rather it is comprehended through reaching their limit.
Yet when sentient beings, whom previous victorious ones took under their care,
Hear about this truth, they develop confidence in it.
Start thinking about impermanence now ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu RinpocheIf we start thinking about impermanence now, while we still have time to find skillful means to deal with it, then later we will not be caught unaware. Even though in the short term, the contemplation of death and impermanence might cause discomfort, in the long term it will actually save us from greater suffering.
Upholding the lineage ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheDuring my first three-year retreat, I had the good fortune to study with a great master, Saljay Rinpoche. In the middle of the third year, I and a few of my fellow retreatants approached RInpoche to ask his advice. We had derived tremendous benefit from the retreat and asked him how we could help uphold this precious lineage. Practice! He told us.
Start observing your mind ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheAlways stay alert, therefore, and watch what your mind is doing. Think about it. Over countless lifetimes, have you not been deluded, fallen under the power of your negative emotions, and as a result had to undergo – time and time again – the sufferings of birth, sickness, old age, and death?
Yet still you cling to samsara as if it were a happy place. You take things that are impermanent to be permanent. You work frantically to amass possessions you will never be able to keep, without ever being satisfied. Surely now it is high time to start observing your mind.
The yogin of true reality ~ Maitripa
MaitripaBuddhists take true reality
To be free from permanence and nihilism;
To engage in affirmation and exclusion,
When it comes to naturally arisen phenomena—this is the talk of fools.To those who claim that there is existence, we say
That, upon analysis, nothing exists.
To those who claim that there is no existence, we say
That, when no analysis is done, everything exists.In whatever manner superimpositions
Present themselves to the yogin of true reality,
In like manner, superimpositions
Are destroyed by the yogin of true reality.
Weed ~ Shunryu Suzuki
Shunryu SuzukiFor Zen students a weed, which for most people is worthless, is a treasure. With this attitude, whatever you do, life becomes an art.
Interdependence at work ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaIt might help to understand the interdependence of our inner emotional or mental conditions through an analogy of how our internal organs work. Here, too, we see interdependence at work. Having two strong lungs is not sufficient. Our lungs must function in close connection with the rest of the respiratory system, our heart, our liver, and all the rest of the interdependent internal organs. Each needs to have a certain level of health, although if one is slightly compromised, others can compensate to a certain degree. But no one organ can keep us alive on its own.
Staying with the one who knows ~ Ajahn Chah
Ajahn ChahNormally the mind isn’t still, it’s moving all the time. We must strengthen the mind. Making the mind strong and making the body strong are not the same. To make the body strong we have to exercise it, to push it, in order to make it strong, but to make the mind strong means to make it peaceful, not to go thinking of this and that. For most of us the mind has never been peaceful, it has never had the energy of samādhi, so we must establish it within a boundary. We sit in meditation, staying with the ‘one who knows’.
If we force our breath to be too long or too short, we’re not balanced, the mind won’t become peaceful. It’s like when we first start to use a pedal sewing machine. At first we just practise pedalling the machine to get our coordination right, before we actually sew anything. Following the breath is similar. We don’t get concerned over how long or short, weak or strong it is, we just note it. We simply let it be, following the natural breathing.
A meaningful life ~ 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai LamaA meaningful life is not about material gain, power or fame; these are only of passing value. True meaning comes from an inner sense of peace and contentment, which in turn must be based on a sense of caring and love for others. So, in order to lead a meaningful life, it is important to cultivate a genuine sense of love and compassion for others, and to develop a concern for their well-being.
Discovering Dharma ~ Longchenpa
LongchenpaAssailed by afflictions, we discover Dharma
And find the way to liberation. Thank you, evil forces!When sorrows invade the mind, we discover Dharma
And find lasting happiness. Thank you, sorrows!Through harm caused by spirits we discover Dharma
And find fearlessness. Thank you, ghosts and demons!Through people’s hate we discover Dharma
And find benefits and happiness. Thank you, those who hate us!Through cruel adversity, we discover Dharma
And find the unchanging way. Thank you, adversity!Through being impelled to by others, we discover Dharma
And find the essential meaning. Thank you, all who drive us on!We dedicate our merit to you all, to repay your kindness.
Critical investigation ~ 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai LamaMy confidence in venturing into science lies in my basic belief that as in science so in Buddhism, understanding the nature of reality is pursued by means of critical investigation: if scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.
The union of emptiness and wisdom within one ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu RinpocheThe process of working with our life situation in the practice of tantric Buddhism consists first of acknowledging that one’s own basic nature is that potential, that Buddha nature, and then of meditating upon its presence within one by regarding oneself as a deity. The form of the deity is the embodiment or expression of that potential, that union of emptiness and wisdom within one. It is through regarding oneself as the deity that defects are gradually eradicated and qualities gradually revealed since the potential to transcend our problems is innate rather than external to us.
The ultimate nature of phenomena ~ Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche
Shechen Rabjam RinpocheBuddha-nature is the luminous, ceaseless, and primordial nature of mind. It has not been fabricated or created by various causes and conditions. It does not dwell as a separate entity that truly exists. It did not begin and therefore it cannot cease. It is simply the ultimate nature of phenomena.
Ultimate Refuge ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheThis experience of luminosity is nothing but the nature of your mind. Remaining in that state of utter simplicity will bring you to the realization that the space-like nature of mind is the Dharmakaya; that is expression, luminosity or wisdom, is the Sambhogakaya; and that it’s manifestation, all–providing compassion, is the Nirmanakaya. You will realize that the object of refuge, the three jewels, is not something outside you, but naturally present within your mind. This is the ultimate refuge.
Since everything comes down to mind ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu RinpocheSince everything comes down to mind, we can attain the ultimate result. We are able to give up all of samsara because samsara is just the mind. We are able to achieve nirvana because nirvana is just the mind. The afflictions of desire and hatred sometimes seem like solid things that we can’t get rid of. But if we look at their ultimate nature, how they actually are, we see that they can disappear. Since we have the instructions, we can have confidence that we can eliminate the afflictions of desire and hatred.
I is just a thought ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheIf you vanquish ego-clinging today, tonight you will be enlightened. If you vanquish it tomorow, you will be enlightened tomorow night. But if you never vanquish it, you will never be enlightened. Yet ” I ” is just a thought. Thoughts and feelings have no intrinsic solidity, form, shape, or color.
Failing to recognize one’s own mind ~ 3rd Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche
3rd Jamgon Kongtrul RinpocheAlthough the nature of mind, the basis, is completely pure, one does not recognize this luminosity. Failing to recognize one’s own mind is what is known as ignorance. Out of ignorance arises the fixation to a self.
The nature of mind, which is cognition, or awareness of the fact that one is aware, is fałsely experienced as a self with which one then identifies; this is grasping.
Simultaneously, mind’s luminosity, its ability to project, is experienced as something separate from this identity, as an externał object; this is fixation.
This dualistic view shapes one’s actions, and thus karma is accumulated in many ways. The accumulated impressions and the accumulated karma ripen; the ongoing process of karma ripening is the wheel of samsara, through which one circles constantly. The image of the waterwheel of samsara turning constantly refers to this process.