LongchenpaYou must tame your own shortcomings and cultivate impartial pure perception, for a biased attitude will not let you shoulder the Mahayana teachings. Since all the sentient beings among the six classes in the three realms have without exception been your own parents, unless you make pure aspirations with ceaseless compassion and bodhicitta, you cannot open the jewel mine of altruistic actions. Unless you generate a devotion toward your kind guru exceeding even that of meeting the Buddha in person, you will not feel the warmth of blessings. Unless you genuinely receive the blessings, the seedlings of experience and realization will not sprout. Unless realization dawns from within, dry explanations and theories will not help you achieve the fruit of enlightenment.
The quest for a guru ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheBefore embarking on your search for a guru, your intentions should be clear. As with everything, motivation is of utmost importance. Why would you even want to have a guru?
At the very least, the quest for a guru should be fueled by a revulsion of worldly life. If not revulsion, then at least some understanding that success in worldly endeavors is not the ultimate answer. A step up from that motivation is genuine confidence in and attraction to the spiritual life and a desire to understand the truth. And even better is an attitude of a warrior wishing to understand the truth not only for himself but for the sake of all sentient beings.
For such a grandiose journey, you want to have a guide, a coach, someone who will show you how. Someone who will give you the support, who will correct you, who will pull the rug out from under your feet, and who will not let you go astray. That is the ideal motivation, which will immediately give you a good sense of what type of guru you should be looking for.
Without the steadiness of concentration ~ Joseph Goldstein
Joseph GoldsteinWithout the steadiness of concentration, it is easy to get caught up in the feelings, perceptions, and thoughts as they arise. We take them to be self and get carried away by trains of association and reactivity.
One instant of love ~ Nagarjuna
NagarjunaEven three times a day to offer
Three hundred cooking pots of food
Does not match a portion of the merit
In one instant of love.Though [through love] you are not liberated
You will attain the eight good qualities of love —
Gods and humans will be friendly,
Even [non-humans] will protect you,You will have mental pleasures and many [physical] pleasures,
Poison and weapons will not harm you,
Without striving you will attain your aims,
And be reborn in the world of Brahma.
The mind’s essential peace ~ Sengcan
SengcanWhen the deep meaning of things is not understood
the mind’s essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
Trusting ourselves completely ~ Shunryu Suzuki
Shunryu SuzukiIn short, we can say that we trust ourselves completely, without thinking, without feeling, without discriminating between good and bad, right and wrong. Because we respect ourselves, because we put faith in our life, we sit.
The unity of emptiness ~ Sengcan
SengcanThings are objects because there is a subject or mind;
and the mind is a subject because there are objects.
Understand the relativity of these two
and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness.
In this Emptiness the two are indistinguishable
and each contains in itself the whole world.
If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine
you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion.
Our own wellspring of compassion ~ Joseph Goldstein
Joseph GoldsteinThe tremendous danger is that this belief – that genuine happiness comes only from pleasant feelings – becomes a strong motivation to stay closed to anything unpleasant. But by staying closed to all unpleasantness, we also stay closed to our own wellspring of compassion.
This is an old truth ~ Ryokan
RyokanIf there is beauty, there must be ugliness;
If there is right, there must be wrong.
Wisdom and ignorance are complementary,
And illusion and enlightenment cannot be separated.
This is an old truth, don’t think it was discovered recently.
“I want this, I want that”
Is nothing but foolishness.
I’ll tell you a secret –
All things are impermanent!
Reflected in a single pear ~ Ryokan
RyokanHow could we discuss
This and that
Without knowing
The whole world is
Reflected in a single pearl?
The solution lies in the human heart ~ Jack Kornfield
Jack KornfieldOn the deepest level, problems such as war and starvation are not solved by economics and politics alone. Their source is prejudice and fear in the human heart; and their solution also lies in the human heart.
Purpose of practice ~ Joseph Goldstein
Joseph GoldsteinUnless a practice cools the fires of greed, aversion, and ignorance it is worthless.
Dismantling the puzzle of dualism ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheWhat makes the Buddhist path so special is that it looks dualistic, but it has that ability to liberate you from the bondage of dualism. It is a deliberate and conscious knot that is consciously and deliberately designed to undo itself. All the skillful means and methods of the Buddhadharma are like a thorn that we use to take out another thorn in our hand. The purpose of renunciation mind, compassion, the recitation of mantras, and contemplation on the breath is to dig out dualism. These practices will dismantle the puzzle of dualism. They speak the language of the nondual and have the flavor of the nondual. For example, compassion is definitely dualistic, but with heavy investment, it leads you to nonduality.
Of these skillful methods that appear dualistic but point in the direction of nondualism, guru yoga is supreme. In the Vajrayana, guru devotion is even more practical than practicing compassion. It’s tangible. In the end, there is no such thing as dualistic and nondualistic. Remembering all of this, we develop gratitude to the guru and appreciation of the path of Tantrayana.
What Is Bodhichitta ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
All too often, though, even so-called Buddhists misunderstand bodhichitta and reduce it to little more than compassionate loving-kindness. Love, compassion and wanting to make people happy are very popular ideals these days and are often promoted as bodhichitta’s most important features. We forget that without bodhichitta there would be no mahayana or vajrayana Buddhism, and that the most crucial aspect of both these yanas is the wisdom of understanding shunyata (emptiness). Without wisdom, compassion alone is not “bodhichitta,” and vice versa; both qualities are essential.
Starting Loving-Kindness Practice ~ Jack Kornfield
Jack KornfieldIn our culture, people find it difficult to direct loving-kindness to themselves. We may feel that we are unworthy, or that it’s egotistical, or that we shouldn’t be happy when other people are suffering. So rather than start loving-kindness practice with ourselves, which is traditional, I find it more helpful to start with those we most naturally love and care about. One of the beautiful principles of compassion and loving-kindness practices is that we start where it works, where it’s easiest. We open our heart in the most natural way, then direct our loving-kindness little by little to the areas where it’s more difficult.
Life in true faith ~ Sengcan
SengcanFor the unified mind in accord with the Way
all self-centered striving ceases.
Doubts and irresolutions vanish
and life in true faith is possible.
Not enjoying meat or alcohol ~ Chatral Rinpoche
Chatral RinpocheIt is written in many Theravadayana and Mahayana texts that one should not eat meat. There is also a Vajrayana text that says the same thing, that one should not enjoy meat or alcohol. Because of this I am following the instructions of Shakyamuni Buddha. Being a religious person, I don’t take meat or alcohol and at the same time I try to tell other people not to consume these things.
Three turnings of the wheel of Dharma ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheThe three cycles of Buddha Shakyamuni’s teachings are known as the three turnings of the wheel of Dharma.
In the first turning of the wheel, at Vārāṇasī, he taught the Four Noble Truths common to both Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna.
In the second, at Rājagṛiha, or Vulture Peak, he expounded the Mahāyāna teachings on absolute truth — the truth devoid of characteristics and beyond all conceptual categories. These teachings are contained in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra in One Hundred Thousand Verses.
The third turning of the wheel, at several different times and places, was devoted to the ultimate teachings of the Vajrayāna, or adamantine vehicle.
The Dharma consists of the Dharma of Transmission and the Dharma of Realization.
The Dharma of Transmission is the word of the Buddha as collected in the Tripiṭaka: the Vinaya, the Sūtras, and the Abhidharma.
The Dharma of Realization is the actual realization of the teachings, cultivated through discipline, meditation, and wisdom.
Dependent Origination ~ Mipham Rinpoche
Mipham RinpocheWhat is meant by dependent origination? It means that nothing included within inner or outer phenomena has arisen without a cause. Neither have they originated from what are not their causes; that is, noncauses such as a permanent creator [in the form of] the self, time, or the Almighty. The fact that phenomena arise based on the interdependence of their respective causes and conditions coming together is called dependent origination. To proclaim this is the unique approach of the Buddha’s teaching.
In this way, the arising of all outer and inner phenomena require that their respective causes and conditions come together in the appropriate manner. When these factors are incomplete, phenomena do not arise, while when complete, they will definitely arise. That is the nature of dependent origination.
Thus, dependent origination ranks as an essential and profound teaching among the treasuries of the Buddha’s words. The one who perceives dependent origination with the eyes of discriminating knowledge will come to see the qualities that have the nature of the eightfold noble path, and with the wisdom gaze that comprehends all objects of knowledge will perceive the dharmakaya of buddhahood. Thus it has been taught.
Even a trace of this and that ~ Sengcan
SengcanDo not remain in the dualistic state;
avoid such pursuits carefully.
If there is even a trace
of this and that, of right and wrong,
the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion.
Although all dualities come from the One,
do not be attached even to this One.