The essence of retreat ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

The essence of retreat is setting up a boundary – and we are not actually talking about a physical boundary, but we are talking about a boundary of time, setting up a boundary between past and future, which ideally means we remain in presentness.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

Humorously going on doing things ~ Dudjom Rinpoche

In a sense everything is dreamlike and illusory, but even so, humorously you go on doing things. For example, if you are walking, without unnecessary solemnity or self-consciousness, lightheartedly walk toward the open space of truth. When you sit, be the stronghold of truth. As you eat, feed your negativities and illusions into the belly of emptiness, dissolving them into all-pervading space. And when you go to the toilet, consider all your obscurations and blockages are being cleansed and washed away.

Dudjom Rinpoche

Meditate with perseverance ~ Milarepa

Realization does not arise out of words.
Understanding does not come from mere suggestions.
I urge all those who work for enlightenment
To meditate with perseverance and effort.
Endurance and effort overcome the greatest of difficulties.
May there be no obstacles for those who seek enlightenment.

Milarepa

Lamp in the darkness ~ 17th Karmapa

However much fighting there is in the world, however much darkness there is, we must be able to serve as small lamps in that darkness.

17th Karmapa

A person free from remorse ~ Buddha Shakyamuni

It is in the nature of things that joy arises in a person free from remorse.

Buddha Shakyamuni

No more questions ~ Naropa

One need ask no more when the true nature is seen.

Naropa

Be free of meditating ~ Tsele Natsok Rangdrol

Focusing with effort just increases further thinking.
A training full of judgements brings no progress.
Keep undistracted and be free of meditating:
This I found to be the greatest key advice.

Tsele Natsok Rangdrol

Restless mind ~ Chögyam Trungpa

This restless mind is buddha nature. Because it is so intelligent, therefore it is restless. It is so transparent that we can’t put any patch on it to mask over the irritation—if we do, the irritation still comes through. We can’t hold the irritation back or maintain ego-style comfort anymore. In tantric literature, buddha mind is referred to as a lamp in a vase. If a vase is cracked, the imperfections of the vase can be seen because of the light shining through from inside. In Mahayana literature, a popular analogy refers to enlightened mind as the sun and ego’s security as the clouds that prevent the sun from shining through.

Chögyam Trungpa

Observance of karma ~ Padmasambhava

My realization is higher than the sky,
But my observance of karma is finer than grains of flour.

Padmasambhava

The real meaning of spiritual ~ Lama Yeshe

I hope that you understand what the word ‘spiritual’ really means. It means to search for – to investigate – the true nature of the mind. There’s nothing spiritual outside. My rosary isn’t spiritual; my robes aren’t spiritual. Spiritual means the mind and spiritual people are those who seek its nature.

Lama Yeshe

Realization ~ Mingyur Rinpoche

Experience is always changing, like the movement of clouds against the sky. Realization – the stable awareness of the true nature of your mind – is like the sky itself, an unchanging background against which shifting experience occur.

Mingyur Rinpoche

True compassion and devotion ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche

In truth, devotion, compassion and intelligence should come about naturally, but their natural arising is a bit difficult at the beginning. The Dzogchen texts mentions that on the ‘exterior,’ we should maintain a training in rigpa that is uncontrived, while on the ‘interior’ we sometimes start a session with a fabricated meditation. Whatever the case may be, you must definitely train in loving-kindness and compassion during the post-meditation. Since they are rooted in intelligence, love and compassion naturally and gradually blossom the more you genuinely train in rigpa.
Please understand that the compassion and devotion that arise from experiencing the awakened state are not what we conventionally know as compassion and devotion. It is together with true intelligence, the real knowledge of how to be free – that is why they can become true compassion and true devotion.

Tsoknyi Rinpoche

Examination of Time ~ Nagarjuna

If the present and the future
Depend on the past,
Then the present and the future
Would have existed in the past.
If the present and future
Did not exist there,
How could the present and the
Future be dependent on it?
Without depending on the past,
Neither of the two could be established.
Therefore neither the present nor
The future could exist.
By this very method, without substitution,
The remaining two; as well as …
Superior, inferior, average, etc.; and
Unity, etc., should be understood.
A nonenduring time is not grasped
Nothing one could grasp as time
Could exist as enduring.
If time is not grasped, how it is known?
If time depends on a entity
Then without an entity how could time exist?
Since there are no entities at all,
How could time exist?

Nagarjuna

No overnight change ~ Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche

Desire and attachment won’t change overnight, but desire becomes less ordinary as we redirect our worldly yearning toward the aspiration to become enlightened for the benefit of others. At the same time, we don’t abandon the ordinary objects of our desires – relationships, wealth, fame – but our attachment to them lessens as we contemplate their impermanence. Not rejecting them, rejoicing in our fortune when they arise, yet recognizing that they won’t last, we begin to build qualities of spiritual maturity. As our attachment slowly decreases, harmful actions that would normally result from attachment are reduced. We create less negative karma, more fortunate karma, and the mind’s positive qualities gradually increase.

Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche

Here, Now, Always ~ Pema Chödron

This is a work in progress, a process of uncovering our natural openness, uncovering our natural intelligence and warmth. I have discovered, just as my teachers always told me, that we already have what we need. The wisdom, the strength, the confidence, the awakened heart and mind are always accessible, here, now, always. We are just uncovering them. We are rediscovering them. We’re not inventing them or importing them from somewhere else. They’re here. That’s why when we feel caught in darkness, suddenly the clouds can part. Out of nowhere we cheer up or relax or experience the vastness of our minds. No one else gives this to you. People will support you and help you with teachings and practices, as they have supported and helped me, but you yourself experience your unlimited potential.

Pema Chödron

Concern for our whole environment ~ 14th Dalai Lama

I feel that we should not only maintain gentle, peaceful relations with our fellow human beings but also that is very important to extend the same kind of attitude toward the natural environment. Morally speaking, we should be concerned for our whole environment.

14th Dalai Lama

The true source of all fear ~ 17th Karmapa

The true source of fear is this: the clinging to self, to identity. Because I see self as something separate, something whole, something that is solid and independent, therefore, I fear losing that independent self; I fear being sick, I fear something bad happening to “me”. This is the true source of all fear.