17th KarmapaOur inner world is the pivotal domain for bringing about real change in the world that we all share. Neither social nor environmental justice is possible without significant changes in our attitudes and the intentional behavior they give rise to. The transformation of our social and material world must begin within us.
Freedom from all systems ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheThe Mahayana path is like peeling layers of skin and finally finding out that there’s no seed inside. We have to obtain liberation from the skins, but this is difficult to do — we love our skins. When we’re children, a sand castle is very important to us. Then when we’re sixteen, a skateboard is very important, and by then the sand castle has become a rotten skin. When we’re in our thirties and forties, money, cars, and relationships replace the skateboard. These are all layers of skin. More important, even the paths that we practice are all layers of skin, which we use to help us peel the other skins. The inner skin helps us think about the outer skin and motivates us to peel it. But ultimately in the Mahayana path, you have to be free from all systems, all skins.
So what happens when all these skins have been peeled off? What’s left? Is enlightenment a total negation, like the exhaustion of a fire or the evaporation of moisture? Is it something like that? No, we’re talking about something that is a result of elimination. For example, if your window is dirty, you clean it, you wash the dirt; then the window, in the absence of dirt, is labeled a “clean” window. There’s nothing else. The phenomenon that we are calling a clean window, the quality that is the absence of dirt, is not something we produced by cleaning the dirt. I don’t think we should even call it a clean window, because the window in its original state has never been stained by the extremes of either dirty or clean. Nevertheless, the process of getting rid of the dirt can be labeled as the emergence of the clean window.
The seven sublime riches ~ Dudjom Rinpoche
Dudjom RinpocheCultivate faith and devotion to the Three Jewels and to your teacher. Strive in the ten virtues and combine clear intelligence with extensive learning. Nurture a sense of personal integrity and propriety regarding others. With these seven sublime riches, you will always be happy!
Avoid being distracted ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheBoredom is bound to creep in, often just as you approach the final stretch, and if you then switch to a different path, although the new practice may be inspiring for a few days or even weeks, in terms of spiritual progress you will have slipped right back to square one. Ironically, before long you will become just as bored with the new practice as you were with the old one.
Meet as many lamas as you can, hear as many dharma teachings as possible, particularly if you are eager to pursue the higher paths, and try to socialise with people from the same lineage you are practising. But try to avoid being distracted by other practices that at first glance appear more attractive than those you are already engaged in.
Mind and the object of meditation ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu RinpocheThe novice meditator feels that there is someone meditating and something that is meditated upon — a mind and an object of meditation. It is by looking again and again into exactly what it is that meditates and what the object of meditation actually consists of that we find — not intellectually, but in actuality — that they are insubstantial, intangible, and altogether devoid of any true existence.
Open-minded guru ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
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.