Joseph GoldsteinThe great discovery in our practice is that, on one level, birth and death, existence and nonexistence, self and other are the great defining themes of our lives. And on another level, it’s all just a dance of insubstantial appearances, what the Buddha called “the magic show of consciousness.”
Celebrity Gurus ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheSome disciples treat their gurus like movie stars. They go around wearing necklaces with the guru’s photo, or they hang the guru’s picture on their wall. Some kind of fall in love with the guru, but it’s more like an infatuation, the way others fall for their therapists. It becomes very personal and can easily be mishandled.
Many Tibetan lamas — also Thai, Burmese, all kinds of Buddhist teachers — allow a kind of merchandising of their image. It’s very confusing. The extent of promotion often correlates with their level of insecurity. They have a feeling of having to sell themselves. At public events in Taiwan some Mahayana monks emerge from a lotus onstage, and thousands of fans have this kind of ecstatic experience.
It’s as if these spiritual characters are worried they will lose their relevance. Like, “If you don’t do this, someone else will take over” — as if the Dharma is a brand like Apple that needs to keep up with the market, otherwise Samsung will take over.
Printing business cards, bags, announcement banners, fliers, buttons with the lama’s face, billboards proclaiming the greatness of the teacher … aren’t there other ways to reach sentient beings who need the Buddhadharma?
Simply an illusion ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche
Tsoknyi RinpocheIllusion immediately becomes more workable when we acknowledge it as simply an illusion. The Western habit is to work against the grain and to try and organize the illusory into something solid and structured … In the stressful attempt to nail down the illusory nature of things, our chance to be at ease, spacious, awake, and free, which already exists within ourselves, gets lost.
A few dead leaves ~ Ryokan
RyokanTo kindle a fire,
the autumn winds have piled
a few dead leaves.
Awareness of thoughts ~ Joseph Goldstein
Joseph GoldsteinEvery time we become aware of a thought, as opposed to being lost in a thought, we experience that opening of the mind.
At all times and in every situation ~ Longchenpa
LongchenpaIn short, at all times and in every situation, make sure that whatever you do turns into the sacred dharma and dedicate every virtuous action toward enlightenment. By doing so, you will fulfill your guru’s wishes and be of service to the Buddha’s dharma; you will repay your parents’ kindness and spontaneously accomplish the benefit of yourself and others. Please keep this in your heart.
In actuality ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu RinpocheYou must…be very careful not to mistake the idea of emptiness for the actual experience. The idea of emptiness has to do with intellectual understanding, proving assumptions and drawing conclusions, whereas experience is to see it for what it is, within you, not as a theory but in actuality. You should make sure that you do not make the mistake of taking an idea for the actual experience.
Do not search for the truth ~ Sengcan
SengcanTo return to the root is to find the meaning,
but to pursue appearances is to miss the source.
At the moment of inner enlightenment,
there is a going beyond appearance and emptiness.
The changes that appear to occur in the empty world
we call real only because of our ignorance.
Do not search for the truth;
only cease to cherish opinions.
Freedom exists within our very own mind ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheMeditation is a mind-activity. Everywhere the mind goes, the opportunity for meditation exists. The idea that meditation is something that we only do sitting on a cushion in a particular way or at a particular time has created a lot of confusion. Yet if we can recognize awareness anywhere, anytime, we may ask why we make such a big deal out of meditation, with our cushions and mats and seven-point posture. The answer is that we have developed a very strong identification with our monkey-mind. In order to shift our identity to our natural awareness, we need aids, supports, and methods. We all need these strategies, but don’t confuse them with the true meaning of meditation. We are not training in order to to learn about objects. We are training to learn about our mind, because our mind holds the source of all possibilities — good and bad, happy and sad, sane and neurotic. Freedom exists within our very own heart and mind.
Trying to stop activity ~ Sengcan
SengcanWhen you try to stop activity to achieve passivity
your very effort fills you with activity.
As long as you remain in one extreme or the other,
you will never know Oneness.
Real wisdom ~ Ponlop Rinpoche
Ponlop RinpocheThe wisdom we’re looking for is not just an answer we get from a religious person or subject matter expert who tells us what to think. Real wisdom is when you find a true question. When you find it, you should not rush to answer it. Stay with it for a while. Make friends with it. We live in “instant times”—instant messaging, instant pictures, fast food—and our mind is accustomed these days to instant gratification. If we bring this expectation to our spiritual path, however, we’ll be disappointed. Some of our questions can’t be answered right away. We must be as patient as scientists are when they run their experiments and diligently evaluate and verify their findings.
Be without regret ~ Dudjom Rinpoche
Dudjom RinpocheStrive to accomplish the supreme unchanging goal. For life is passing, and there is no certainty about the time of death. Even if you should die tomorrow, you should have confidence and be without regret.
Seeing impermanence deeply ~ Joseph Goldstein
Joseph GoldsteinWisdom is the clear seeing of the impermanent, conditioned nature of all phenomena, knowing that whatever arises has the nature to cease. When we see this impermanence deeply, we no longer cling; and when we no longer cling, we come to the end of suffering.
Trapped in our own webs ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaTo understand how desire works, Buddhism offers the analogy of a silkworm that spins threads of silk to create a cocoon within which the silkworm itself gets trapped. In exactly this way, desire keeps producing more desire. Through our desire, we trap ourselves in our own webs. Desire never brings an end to desire; it only gives rise to more desire.
But in Their Ignorance ~ Shantideva
ShantidevaBeings long to free themselves from misery,
But misery itself they race to catch.
They long for joy, but in their ignorance,
Destroy it, as they would a hated enemy.
Altruism bolsters self-confidence ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheOne of the great blights suffered by modern people is a lack of self-esteem or healthy sense of self. It leads some new students to ask if taking on the suffering of others in tonglen practice might cause them to lose confidence in themselves. Quite the opposite is true. The attitude we cultivate as bodhisattvas — of longing to offer the best of everything to others and willingly accept all loss, unpleasantness or difficulty — actually bolsters our confidence and completely eradicates a lack of self-esteem.
Very clearly not something independent ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaWe all have an innate sense of self or self-grasping – a sense of autonomy or independence from others. We feel that we can do without others, and hold on to a sense of ourselves as separate from them. Yet if we consider carefully the actual reality and ask whether or not there truly exists any such self-sufficient or autonomous self, we see that what we are mainly taking as a basis for this label ‘me’ is our body. This physical form that we can perceive serves as the primary point of reference for our sense of an independent self or ‘me’, yet our body is very clearly not something independent. On the contrary, it depended on our parents to bring it into existence, and, in a more subtle sense, it came from the substances of others. Moreover, just having a body is insufficient.
We also need to sustain that body. If we do not have clothes, food and the many other additional resources we need to stay alive, this body becomes nothing but a corpse. Where do the food and clothing our body depends upon come from? These too come from others. Particularly now in this context of globalisation, much of what we use comes from far away. We eat fruit grown in another country, and wear clothes manufactured in distant parts of the globe. We might live in a developed country, dressed in garments produced by people in an underdeveloped country or impoverished area. We do not see the people who make our clothes, or know them, yet we are wearing clothes that they worked to produce.
Integrating Dharma into Daily Life ~ Jetsün Kushok Chimey Luding
Jetsün Kushok Chimey LudingHow would you suggest integrating Dharma into daily life, based on your own example? Especially, how to overcome the excuse of having no time?
You have to make time. There is enough time. You work eight hours a day. Some people then say: I have no time to practice. But instead they go to a bar, sit front of the television, go to the movies, or do other things. If you really want to practice, then you have to give up those things. It is not necessary to cut yourself off from life completely, but you must slowly eliminate distraction. If you practice all the time, then your mind becomes tired. That is not so good — you lose concentration. Then you can watch a little television, read some books (not Dharma books), you can go for a walk in the forest or on the beach, or work in the garden — you can do those sorts of things. Also, if you work in a job where you do not need to talk, you can recite mantras while you are working. At work, or when I do my house duties, I recite a lot of prayers; sometimes I do mantras, sometimes I sing Tibetan songs.
Awareness of interdependence ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaIn Europe and the West generally, it is considered very important to protect one’s individual rights, personal freedom and interests. These should not become mixed with selfishness, and I believe there is a danger that the two do become mixed. For that reason, we need to ensure that we are able to distinguish correctly between selfishness, on the one hand, and the protection of individual rights, personal freedom and interests, on the other.
To that end, it is very important to understand what is meant by ‘self’. There is a vast difference between actual reality and how the self appears to us. We assume that how things appear to us or how we experience them is how they really are. But, ultimately, there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Many people normally have a feeling that the self – or what we refer to when we say “I” – is something self-sufficient and not dependent on others. However, in reality, if we think about it, our very body, from our head to our toes, arises entirely based on others. Our ability to survive is thoroughly dependent upon others. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, even the air we breathe – this all comes from others. This is perfectly obvious.
There is nothing wrong with feeling that we have a self, but we need to ask what kind of a self exists. What is this ‘I’ that exists? We must question whether it is singular and independent, as we usually assume. That kind of ‘I’ in reality does not exist. But sometimes we can make up reality. It is not reality, but we think that it is. This is why we should have a very clear understanding of how this ‘I’ exists. We need to examine carefully so that we see that in actual fact, our self is utterly interdependent on others, and is in no way independent or unrelated to anything else. It is not that ‘I’ do not exist. We do exist, but we need to understand how we exist. When we see that we exist as an interdependent arising, in mutual dependence on others, then without a doubt we will feel a sense of responsibility for others. This is why I feel that interdependence is not just a philosophical view, but a value or a way of life.
If we have this awareness of our self as arising interdependently, then, when we consider all the resources we enjoy that come from the natural environment, we see how thoroughly we rely on it. From that awareness, a sense of concern and care will definitely arise, naturally. We will naturally think of protecting the environment. This is how a sense of responsibility is supported by an awareness of interdependence and of the preciousness of our human life.
You and only you will decide ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheWe must keep in mind that the goal is not just understanding simplicity. Far from it. A good guru will mock a yogi who displays even the most advanced comprehension. A yogi should not be satisfied with mere understanding; a yogi must aspire to experience the truth. But a brave guru will even disregard the yogi’s prized experience. The most sublime yogi will not settle until he actualizes the truth. How is actualizing different from understanding and experiencing? To know the answer, you need a guide, a guru. At the end of the day, you and only you will decide which particular being can guide you, who can enlighten you, who can tame your emotions, who can lessen your selfishness, who can encourage your enlightened qualities to grow. So your decision-making faculties need to be clear and sharp.