Life is a stream of sensory illusions ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

From a Buddhist point of view, each aspect and moment of our lives is an illusion. According to the Buddha, it’s like seeing a black spot in the sky that you are unable to make sense of, then concentrating on it intensely until finally you are able to make out a flock of birds; or hearing a perfect echo that sounds exactly like a real person shouting back at you.
Life is nothing more than a continuous stream of sensory illusions, from the obvious ones, like fame and power, to those less easy to discern, like death, nosebleeds and headaches. Tragically, though, most human beings believe in what they see, and so the truth Buddha exposed about the illusory nature of life can be a little hard to swallow.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

Right Time ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

There is a right time for everything. Farmers know when the time has come to plow, to sow, or to harvest, and they never fail to do each job when it is necessary. Now that you are in full possession of your faculties, have met a teacher, and have received his instructions, will you let the filed of liberation lie uncultivated?

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

The essence of mind ~ Chetsang Rinpoche

The essence of mind is somewhat difficult to explain, so we look at it from the negative point of view, that is, what mind is not. First of all, we see that it is not something which arises or ceases or abides. It is free of these three things. From beginningless time, there is no arising, no cessation and no abiding in terms of staying in one place, not moving, or not changing. It is completely free of all three of these.
It is also free of being a thing or a substance composed of particles. The essential entity, or substance, of mind is not something that can be defiled or stained by grasping at subject and object. It is completely free of the stains from those activities.
Further, when we look at the essential substance of mind, we find that no matter how much we search for it, no matter how much we analyze it, there is no thing there to be found. There is no entity that we can come up with by searching, evaluating, and analyzing. No matter how much we seek for its essential substance, we cannot find it. The searcher, the one who does the search for essential substance of mind, cannot find it. Therefore it is said that the essential substance of mind itself is emptiness.

Chetsang Rinpoche

Speaking to Those Who Don’t Listen ~ 17th Karmapa

People in the part of Tibet that I come from are called Khampas, and we Khampas have a reputation for being stubborn and unwilling to listen to others’ view. There used to be a saying in Tibetan: “Khampas have their ears on their bottoms”, meaning you get to listen not by speaking to us, but by smacking us. This may be said jokingly, but there is a certain grain of truth in it. Khampa culture often displays a reluctance to open to others’ views, as do other cultures, too, of course. We sometimes meet people who seem so deaf to divergent opinions that we may wonder where their ears are – and not only among us Khampas!.
When we do encounter people we find to be arrogant or hardheaded, there is a tendency to want to break through their resistance by being forceful with them. Similarly, when faced with someone who is angry, we often feel that we should not be soft or gentle, for fear that they will ignore us or even take our gentleness for weakness and attack us. I think we ought to consider carefully whether this is really the right approach. If you add your own anger to another person’s, it just results in more anger – and makes it harder to find a shared way forward another.
As we see, various emotional forces can keep people from listening to views that differ from their own. Stubbornness is one. A temporary upheaval of anger is another. We need to find ways to interact productively with people who are unable or unwilling to broaden their thinking in order to take in others’ perspectives. In such cases, it is up to us to find a healthy way to relate to their vantage point.

17th Karmapa

Peeling of our patches of samsara ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

How much time do we really have left in this lifetime? Twenty years? Thirty, if we’re lucky? Given that everything we have understood so far is nothing more than a patch that’s holding together our version of samsara, are any of us really willing to spend another ten years believing in that reality? We must, therefore, be prepared to peel off those patches.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

A reservoir of courage ~ Pema Chödron

Deep down in the human spirit there is a reservoir of courage. It is always available, always waiting to be discovered.

Pema Chödron

Becoming aware ~ Mingyur Rinpoche

If we were to become aware of our habitual thoughts, perceptions, and sensations, rather than being carried away by them, their power over us would begin to fade.

Mingyur Rinpoche

Rejoicing in the way things are ~ Lao Tzu

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.

Lao Tzu

Enlightened activity only ~ Shunryu Suzuki

There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.

Shunryu Suzuki

A mere indescribable luminosity ~ Maitreya

If what appears to be apprehended does not exist by its very own essence apart from that which apprehends it, then what appears to be the apprehender does not exist either. The reason, here, is that the apprehender exists in relation to the apprehended, not in isolation. Therefore, awareness is devoid of both apprehender and apprehended, in all their various forms. Free from subject and object, by its very own nature awareness is a mere indescribable luminosity.

Maitreya

Gaining the riches of a Dharma practitioner ~ Chatral Rinpoche

Limit yourself to just a few activities and undertake them all with diligence.
Not allowing your mind to become fidgety and restless,
Make yourself comfortable on the seat in your retreat cabin,
This is the surest way to gain the riches of a Dharma practitioner.
You might remain sealed in strict retreat for months or even years,
But if you fail to make any progress in the state of your mind,
Later, when you tell everyone about all that you did over such a long time,
Aren’t you just bragging about all the hardships and deprivation?
And all their praise and acknowledgements will only make you proud.

Chatral Rinpoche

The lack of comprehension of reality ~ Matthieu Ricard

As the contemporary Tibetan master Chögyam Trungpa explains, ‘When we talk of ignorance, it has nothing to do with stupidity. In a way, ignorance is very intelligent, but it is an intelligence that works exclusively in one direction. That is, we react elusively to our own projections instead of simply seeing what is there.’
This fundamental ignorance is linked to the lack of comprehension of reality, that is, the true nature of things, free from mental fabrications we superimpose upon it. These fabrications hollow out a gap between the way things appear to us and the way they are: we take as permanent what is ephemeral and as happiness what is usually a source of suffering – thirst for wealth, power, fame and fleeting pleasures.
We perceive the external world as totally autonomous entities to which we attribute characteristics that seem to us to belong to them by their nature. Things appear to us as intrinsically ‘pleasant’ or ‘unpleasant’ and we rigidly divide people into ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘friends or ‘enemies’, as if these were characteristics inherent to people. The ‘self’, of the ego that perceives them, seems to us equally real and concrete. This mistake gives rise to powerful reflexes of attachment and aversion, and as long as our mind remains obscured by this lack of discernment, it will fall under the sway of hatred, attachment, greed, jealousy, or pride and suffering will always be ready to appear.

Matthieu Ricard

Joyful path ~ Chögyam Trungpa

The basic idea of the practice is actually very joyful. It is wonderful that human beings can do such a fantastic exchange and that they are willing to invite such undesirable situations into their world. It is wonderful that they are willing to let go of even their smallest corners of secrecy and privacy, so that their holding on to anything is gone completely. That is very brave. We could certainly say that this is the world of the warrior, from the Bodhisattva’s point of view.

Chögyam Trungpa

The language of experience ~ Ajahn Chah

If you look for the Dhamma, you will find that it has nothing to do with the forests, the mountains, or the caves – it exists in the heart. The language of the Dhamma isn’t English or Thai or Sanskrit. It has its own language, which is the same for all people – the language of experience. There is a great difference between concepts and direct experience. Whoever puts a finger into a glass of hot water will have the same experience of hot, but it is called by many words in different languages. Similarly, whoever looks deeply into the heart will have the same experience, no matter what his or her nationality or culture or language.

Ajahn Chah

Transformation into your ultimate self ~ Tai Situ Rinpoche

All Buddhist practices are methods of transformation. When applied correctly, these can transform an ignorant person into a possessor of wisdom. The word transformation, as it is used here, signifies a change within an individual being that is a revolutionary change, but one that does not change that being’s essential nature. It brings out the essential nature. Buddhist practice is a process of transformation through purification that brings out the best of what is already there. It does not make people into what they are not, nor import any new material. It allows your ultimate identity as an enlightened being to emerge as you overcome the relative delusions and defilements that mask your buddha nature. It is transformation into your ultimate self.

Tai Situ Rinpoche

Flowers of peace ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

In the garden of my heart, the flowers of peace bloom beautifully.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Benefiting other sentient beings ~ Sakya Trizin

From beginningless time up until this moment, we have cared solely for ourselves and worked solely for our own benefit. Every exertion we performed was for our own benefit alone. But by acting in this way, all we have actually accomplished is more and more suffering. So this time, instead of caring for ourselves, we must care for others.
As Shantideva said, “All the sufferings that beings experience in this universe arise from caring for oneself, and all the happiness that beings experience in this world arise from caring for others.” If we had already practiced caring for others in our previous lives, we would not still be in samsara — we would have already attained liberation and enlightenment. The cause of our not having cared for others is the natural tendency to care for ourselves. This is a very gross mistake. The way to correct it is to ignore oneself and to totally devote one’s energy and efforts to benefiting other sentient beings.

Sakya Trizin

Living the way you want to live your life ~ 14th Dalai Lama

There is only one important point you must keep in your mind and let it be your guide. No matter what people call you, you are just who you are. Keep to this truth. You must ask yourself how is it you want to live your life. We live and we die, this is the truth that we can only face alone. No one can help us, not even the Buddha. So consider carefully, what prevents you from living the way you want to live your life.

14th Dalai Lama

Loving Responsibility ~ 17th Karmapa

If we connect to others and to the planet with love and affection, our responsibility to bring about change does not have to weigh heavily on us at all. We will carry it gladly.