14th Dalai LamaAt a fundamental level, as human beings, we are all the same; each one of us aspires to happiness and each one of us does not wish to suffer. This is why, whenever I have the opportunity, I try to draw people’s attention to what as members of the human family we have in common and the deeply interconnected nature of our existence and welfare.
All perceptions are similar to a dream ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheAt present we perceive samsara as something we have to reject and nirvana as something we have to attain. Now while this is correct according to relative truth, according to absolute truth the nature of the afflictive emotions and actions that we are supposed to reject is nothing other than emptiness. When we realize the dharmakaya, which is free from true existence, we will know that all perceptions are similar to a dream or an illusion and we will no longer crave these phenomena. As it is said, ‘While there is attachment, there is no view.’ And the absence of attachment is the supreme view.
Pride and pity ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpochePride and pity are closely related. Believing that your life is harder and sadder than everyone else’s is simply a manifestation of clinging to self. When the self develops self-pity, it eliminates any space that others have to feel compassionate.
Just observing ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheA more constructive approach to negative emotions, similar to working with negative thoughts, is simply to rest your attention on the emotion itself rather than on its object. Just look at the emotion without analyzing it intellectually. Don’t try to hold on to it and don’t try to block it. Just observe it. When you do this, the emotion won’t seem as big or powerful as it initially did.
The Insight of Inter-Being ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat HanhThe insight of inter-being will help remove discrimination, fear, and the dualistic way of thinking. We inter-are — even suffering and happiness inter-are — and that is why the insight of inter-being is the foundation of any kind of action that can bring peace and brotherhood, and help remove violence and despair. That insight is present in every great spiritual tradition. We need only to go home to our own tradition, and try to reveal that, to revive that.
The fruit of dharma practice ~ Milarepa
MilarepaMy fear and doubts have vanished like mist
into the distance, never to disturb me again.
I will die content and free from regrets.
This is the fruit of dharma practice.
Indispensable to liberation ~ Tulku Thondup Rinpoche
Tulku Thondup RinpocheBuddhism teaches that in our true nature, we are enlightened—totally open, peaceful, joyful, compassionate, and omniscient. The Buddha proclaimed:
“Profound, peaceful, and free from concepts,
Luminous and uncompounded—
A nectar-like nature—that I have realized!”This aspect of our mind is “the true nature of the mind.” When we become aware of and perfect it, we become blossoming buddhas.
We’re all attracted to these highest views. But some students of Buddhism just want to meditate on the nature of the mind, emptiness-wisdom, free from concepts, without opening their hearts to the merit-making practices that are indispensable to liberation. They regard important practices like praying and generating devotion as “theistic” and “dualistic.”
Relating with people ~ Chögyam Trungpa
Chögyam TrungpaCompassion automatically invites you to relate with people because you no longer regard people as a drain on your energy.
You can be free ~ Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa RinpocheYou have to remember buddha nature. In the emptiness of your heart, remember you have buddha nature. Delusions are not permanent, they are not part of you, they are temporary. You can be free from delusions and negative karma. Like a mirror covered by dust, you can clean it. The more you clean it, the clearer the reflection becomes. Your mind becomes clearer the more the delusions are purified.
Stripped of all mental fiction ~ Vajravarahi
VajravarahiThe innate purity that is the nature of mind
That is the essential Vajravarahi,
She exists within,
So do not look elsewhere.
That is foolish and childish.
The nature of mind, a wish-fulfilling gem,
Stripped of all mental fiction,
That is the most satisfying achievement.
Our own responsibility ~ Lama Yeshe
Lama YesheWe are not compelled to meditate by some outside agent, by other people, or by God. Rather, just as we are responsible for our own suffering, so are we solely responsible for our own cure. We have created the situation in which we find ourselves, and it is up to us to create the circumstances for our release.
Just as we are ~ Pema Chödron
Pema ChödronWhile we are sitting in meditation, we are simply exploring humanity and all of creation in the form of ourselves. We can become the world’s greatest experts on anger, jealousy, and self-deprecation, as well as on joyfulness, clarity, and insight. Everything that human beings feel, we feel. We can become extremely wise and sensitive to all of humanity and the whole universe simply by knowing ourselves, just as we are.
Just like salty water ~ Gyelse Tokme Zangpo
Gyelse Tokme ZangpoThe practice of all the bodhisattvas is to turn away immediately
From those things which bring desire and attachment.
For the pleasures of the senses are just like salty water:
The more we taste of them, the more our thirst increases.
Our life can be translated into love ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaWe can color our whole life with kindness, transforming our everyday activities and suffusing our everyday ways of being with human warmth. This can happen. Our life can be translated into love.
Attaching More Importance to the Form of Our Religious Identities than to the Substance of What They Teach Us ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaIn 2001, the huge Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan were intentionally demolished. From a certain perspective within Islam, these statues were offensive instruments of idol worship, while to Buddhists they were reminders of sacred principles and the very best of our innate human potential. Basically, we Buddhists use physical images in our spiritual practice, while Muslims worship without images. Clinging to either position was creating a wall between people. But they are just statues. Allowing ourselves to be pitted against each other over a statue – now that is really clinging to biases.
Personally, I do not see a basis for treating religious differences this way. A while after the Bamiyan Buddhas were destroyed, I had the opportunity to meet with an Afghan youth group working for peace. I suggested to them that we might view the coming down of the Bamiyan Buddhas as bringing down the walls between all peoples. If the presence of those statues was setting us at odds, perhaps we could see it as useful that they were brought down. This is how I felt about it.
Walls come up between people when we attach more importance to the form of our religious identities than to the substance of what they teach us. When spiritual beliefs are used to build up walls between people, this is a total misunderstanding of the purpose of spirituality. Spirituality should mean coming closer to yourself. When this happens, you become closer to others, too. Spirituality and religion should dismantle discrimination and labels, not shore them up. It should break, not create, barriers between people.
The essence of mind ~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
Tulku Urgyen RinpocheThe essence of mind that is primordially empty and rootless is unlike holding the idea of emptiness in mind, and it is not the same as the sustained attempt to feel empty. Neither of these helps very much. By growing used to this natural, original emptiness again and again, we become accustomed to it. Then there will be a stretch throughout the whole day from morning to evening, which is only empty awareness untainted by notions of perceived objects or the perceiving mind. This corresponds to having attained the bodhisattva levels, the bhumis. When there is never a break throughout day and night, that is called buddhahood, true and complete enlightenment.
Over and over again ~ Padmasambhava
PadmasambhavaAll beings have lived and died and been reborn countless times. Over and over again they have experienced the indescribable Clear Light. But because they are obscured by the darkness of ignorance, they wander endlessly in a limitless samsara.
The cause of suffering ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu RinpocheNot recognizing the emptiness of phenomena is the cause of suffering. If we have a strong belief in external phenomena, this leads us to regard external phenomena as either good or bad. If we feel that the external phenomena are good, then we develop strong attachment to these external phenomena. If we regard external phenomena as bad, then we develop a strong aversion to them. This leads to further suffering. However, if we understand that external phenomena are not solid from the very first, then both the cause of suffering and the result of suffering will be naturally pacified.
The need to know suffering ~ Ajahn Chah
Ajahn ChahPeople have suffering in one place, so they go somewhere else. When suffering arises there, they run off again. They think they’re running away from suffering, but they’re not. Suffering goes with them. They carry suffering around without knowing it. If we don’t know suffering, then we can’t know the cause of suffering. If we don’t know the cause of suffering, then we can’t know the cessation of suffering. There’s no way we can escape it.
Beginning to identify with pristine awareness ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheThough we’re conditioned to identify with the thoughts that pass through our awareness rather than with awareness itself, the awareness that is our true nature is infinitely flexible. It is capable of any and every sort of experience – even misconceptions about itself as limited, trapped, ugly, anxious, lonely, or afraid. When we begin to identify with that timeless, pristine awareness rather than with the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that pass through it, we’ve taken the first step toward facing the freedom of our true nature.