Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheA guru should be open to accepting cultural and habitual differences. For example, if the guru is Tibetan, he or she should be able to value a sincere hippie Australian student’s offering of a treasured seashell as wholeheartedly as a Chinese student’s offering of a kilo of pure gold.
An open-minded guru should be able to work with an American whose strong habit is to believe in a soul and who might be confusing that soul with buddha nature. An open-minded guru should be able to recognize that the habit of Dharma bums with their antiestablishment barter society is not necessarily practicing renunciation. An open-minded guru should understand why his lesbian students are having a hard time visualizing a male consort. An open-minded guru should be able to understand why Jewish people might have trouble accepting the concept that everything is a product of past causes and conditions and therefore there is no such thing as good and evil.
An open-minded guru should know that his Chinese students’ habit of saving face is not necessarily a fear of wrongdoing. An open-minded guru should understand why a Swiss student may not appreciate a wish-fulfilling cow.
Undistracted awareness ~ Joseph Goldstein
Joseph GoldsteinThe emphasis in meditation is very much on undistracted awareness: not thinking about things, not analyzing, not getting lost in the story, but just seeing the nature of what is happening in the mind. Careful, accurate observation of the moment’s reality is the key to the whole process.
We Have to Be Honest With Ourselves ~ Chögyam Trungpa
Chögyam TrungpaMany people try to find a spiritual path where they do not have to face themselves but where they can still liberate themselves ~ liberate themselves from themselves, in fact. In truth, this is impossible. We cannot do that. We have to be honest with ourselves. We have to see our gut, our real shit, our most undesirable parts. We have to see that. That is the foundation of warriorship and the basis of conquering fear. We have to face our fear; we have to look at it, study it, work with it, and practice meditation with it.
Using the breath as an object of focus ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaAlthough there are numerous methods for training in shamatha, many masters prefer those that use the breath as an object of focus. This is because breathing is something we are constantly doing anyway. Our breath is not something that is only present when we are meditating and not otherwise. Therefore when we focus on the breath, we do not need to do anything special or create anything new. We simply place the mind on what is naturally already there. Instead of thinking that practice involves doing something out of the ordinary, we just return to or settle into what is already happening. That is why the breath is taken as an object of meditation.
However, sometimes people then think that breathing meditation means inhaling very deeply, holding their breath for a bit and then blowing all the air out of their lungs. I think this happens precisely because they think, “I am meditating. I should be doing something special or unusual.” But they have forgotten that they are already breathing. We have this problem of always wanting to do something intentionally. There is no need to intentionally breathe. Just relax on your breathing. Be aware of the breath. That is all.
A Vast and Complex Web of Causality ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaEverything in life happens due to various causes and conditions coming together. Interdependence reveals the profound implications of this simple fact. It shows us that everything that exists is a condition that affects others, and is affected in turn, in a vast and complex web of causality. As part of that web, we ourselves are a condition that impacts those around us. That means if we change, so do others.
The root of Dharma ~ Dudjom Rinpoche
Dudjom RinpocheMake every effort on the path, uniting absolute and relative bodhichitta. This distils the essence of all the sutras and the tantras. The subduing of one’s own mind is the root of Dharma. When the mind is controlled, defilements naturally subside.
Freedom Lies in the Wisdom to Choose ~ Joseph Goldstein
Joseph GoldsteinWe establish some stability and focus in our mind and see which elements in it lead to greater peace, which to greater suffering. All of it — both the peace and the suffering — happens lawfully. Freedom lies in the wisdom to choose.
The most profound of all Buddha’s teaching ~ Dudjom Rinpoche
Dudjom RinpocheThe altruism of bodhichitta is the path of beings of great potential.
Therefore train yourself in the deeds of bodhisattvas, and do this on a grand scale! Shoulder the responsibility of freeing all beings from samsara. Of all the eighty-four thousand sections of the Buddha’s teachings, none is more profound than bodhichitta.
Your decision is now taking the lead ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheYou have the freedom to analyze, and you are encouraged to do so, but at some point you have to enter into this world of decidedness. This takes bravery. It’s very scary, because analyzing is like a handrail: it’s a support; it creates security. The rational mind justifies things, and it makes you feel comfortable. Everything is checked. But from there, you have to take this leap.
When you finally decide, “OK, this person is going to be my guru,” it will not delete all your doubt overnight. You have made this decision after a lot of analysis; that doesn’t mean you are without doubt. But your decision is now taking the lead.
It may even be good to tell your prospective guru, “Look, I’ve decided I want to be your student, but at times I will doubt you.” The guru has to understand. If there is a guru who expects you to have no doubt from the time you step through the door, this guru is an idiot. Actually, this guru doesn’t have the ingredients to be a guru.
Just appearances within the mind ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu RinpocheBecoming attached to any type of meditation — experiences, visions, dreams, whatever — will bind you. Do not regard these things as having any particular positive or negative value or judge them as good or bad. They are just appearances within the mind, which do not justify desire or fear.
Like dreams of flowers in air ~ Sengcan
SengcanRest and unrest derive from illusion;
with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking.
All dualities come from ignorant inference.
They are like dreams of flowers in air:
foolish to try to grasp them.
Gain and loss, right and wrong;
such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.
Expressing whatever is pure and spontaneous in our heart ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaSometimes we have a positive thought and are moved by an altruistic motivation to benefit others, but the response is not what we had hoped for. People might not accept our offer of help. We ourselves might feel our capacity was not adequate to the task, or we might be left with the feeling that our virtue lacked strength. However, when it comes to art, there are no such problems: for example, when children make drawings, they are not concerned about the reactions of grown-ups or other people. They simply express on paper whatever arises spontaneously in their heart or mind, without forcing or faking anything and without worrying whether others will like it or not.
Similarly, when it comes to engaging in virtue, it is important that we do not act to please or impress anyone. Rather, we should be expressing whatever is pure and spontaneous in our heart and mind, without pretence, phoniness or hesitation. First, we bring forth whatever we find within ourselves that is beautiful and spontaneous, and only later do we consider whether it will be accepted or not. Otherwise, sometimes others have strong expectations and we might feel we will not be able to show them what we have that is beautiful. This is the feeling that comes.
Not separate from you ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaCompassion is more than sympathy and more than empathy. With sympathy and empathy, most of the time there is a sense of placing the object of your sympathy over there and having some understanding of their situation or where they come from. Compassion is deeper and more strongly felt than that. With compassion you do not experience the person as an object over there, separate from you, but rather you have the wish or the feeling that you have become the other. That is the sort of feeling we are aiming for. Compassion has a sense of coming out from where you are, and going over to the position of the other – even jumping across to their position.
In short, compassion makes us a part of others. It brings us out from our own space and moves us into the place of the other. Compassion is not a matter of staying in our own space, looking down at their suffering and calling ourselves compassionate.
The meditative journey ~ Joseph Goldstein
Joseph GoldsteinThe meditative journey is not about always feeling good. Many times we may feel terrible. That’s fine. What we want is to open to the entire range of what this mind and body are about. Sometimes we feel wonderful and happy and inspired, and at other times we deeply feel different aspects of suffering.
No one can please everyone ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheThe fault doesn’t necessarily always exist externally. If the analyzer is bound by hope and fear, more likely he or she will find endless faults. No one, not even the Buddha himself, can please everyone. His own cousin Devadata was disgusted by the Buddha. He spent all his life basically criticizing the Buddha’s deeds. Even though everyone saw the Buddha as a perfect being, Devadata did not.
Like listening to someone playing a flute ~ Joseph Goldstein
Joseph GoldsteinLet the breath draw the mind down to its own level of subtlety. It is like listening to someone playing a flute as they walk off into the distance.
Deep in the mountain ~ Ryokan
RyokanTime and again
You, too,
Must long for
Your old nest
Deep in the mountain.
Nothing is exempt from change ~ Joseph Goldstein
Joseph GoldsteinWe can also strengthen the quality of ardor by reflecting on the transiency of all phenomena. Look at all the things we become attached to, whether they are people or possessions or feelings or conditions of the body. Nothing we have, no one in our lives, no state of mind is exempt from change. Nothing at all can prevent the universal process of birth, growth, decay, and death.
Bringing out the natural qualities inherent in us ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaThe teaching on precious human life shows us that this human body of ours has the potential to allow us to accomplish significant and vast things, not only for ourselves, but for many others. It points out just what an opportunity this human body represents. All human beings are fundamentally endowed with love, compassion and other positive qualities, not as products of religious practice, but as something present within us all right from birth. The most important thing, and the basis of Dharma practice, is for us to value these innate human qualities, and work to enhance and develop them.
Therefore, to be a Dharma practitioner does not imply becoming someone different. There is no need to become a strange or new person. Nor are we necessarily adopting a whole new lifestyle. Rather, we are bringing out the natural qualities inherent in us, within the life we are already leading. For this reason, Dharma practice is not something we do apart from, or outside of, our ordinary life.
Not Changing in Any Way Whatsoever ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu RinpocheWhen we are deluded about the natural state and roaming about in samsaric existence, is our nature in any way worsened? No, it is not. The basic state of Mahamudra, the natural state itself, is not spoiled by confusion. It does not change in any way whatsoever. Is the natural state of Mahamudra improved through being realized? No, it is not. It is not an entity or identity that can be either worsened by confusion or exalted by realization.