The spontaneous wisdom of the heart ~ Mingyur Rinpoche

Compassion is the spontaneous wisdom of the heart. It’s always with us. It always has been, and always will be. When it arises in us, we’ve simply learned to see how strong and safe we really are.

Mingyur Rinpoche

Empty Essence ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche

Empty essence means very, very open
And very spacious, like a totally open sky.
Space has no center or edge.
Nothing is prevented, it is completely unimpeded.
Empty essence, like space, is not made out of anything whatsoever.
At the same time there is a sense of knowing,
An awake quality, a cognizant nature,
Not separate from the openness of this space.
Like the sun shining in daytime,
The daylight and space are not separate.
It’s all sunlit space.
Nothing is confined, nothing is blocked out.
All the doors and windows are wide open.
Like a total welcome – of all possibilities –
Which doesn’t get caught up in whatever happens.
It is wide open,
The unity of empty essence and cognizant nature.
This is the third quality, that of unconfined capacity.

Tsoknyi Rinpoche

The principle of dependent origination ~ 14th Dalai Lama

We learn from the principle of dependent origination that things and events do not come into being without causes. Suffering and unsatisfactory conditions are caused by our own delusions and the contaminated actions induced by them.

14th Dalai Lama

The wisdom that realizes not-self ~ Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche

Clinging to the idea of self is like clinging to the idea that a piece of rope in the dark is a snake. When the light is turned on and one sees that there is no snake there, one’s fear and suffering that arose from clinging to it as real dissolve. The snake never existed in the first place, so it was simply one’s clinging to that idea that caused the suffering and nothing else. The wisdom that realizes not-self is like the light that revealed the rope was not a snake.

Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche

Just like the wind moving through the empty sky ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

There is no emotion that you cannot be rid of, because emotions are simply thoughts, and thoughts are just like the wind moving through the empty sky. There is nothing to them.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Remembering the guru ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

The great Jigme Lingpa said that when a yogi pursues the path of enlightenment, he could spend years and years accumulating merit through all kinds of methods, but meditation that lasts the duration of a cup of tea is more penetrating to this solid hard wrapping of ours. Spending years and years in meditation is excellent, but it is nothing compared to a single moment of remembering the guru. Even just remembering the guru’s name will dispel confusion and accumulate countless oceans of merit.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

Recognizing Who We Are ~ 17th Karmapa

When it comes to the true nature of mind, this isn’t something that we get from a spiritual tradition or religion. It’s not something that we need to seek from a guru or that we need to find by going to a sacred place, but it’s a matter of recognizing who we are, whatever that it is. When we see this completely clearly, when who we actually are becomes completely evident and obvious to us, and we recognize it and appreciate it in a completely perfect way, then that I think is what is called recognizing the true nature of mind. Then we fully make this a reality for ourselves.

17th Karmapa

The habit of happiness ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Suppose someone says something that angers you. Your old pathway wants to say something to punish him. But that makes us victims of our habit energy. Instead, you can breathe in and say, “Unhappiness is in me, suffering is in me, anger is in me, irritation is in me.” That is already helpful, recognizing your feelings and helping you not to respond right away. So you accept that anger and irritation in you, and smile to it. With mindfulness, you look at the other person and become aware of the suffering in him or in her. He may have spoken like that to try to get relief from his suffering. He may think that speaking out like that will help him suffer less, but in fact he will suffer more.
With just one or two seconds of looking and seeing the suf-fering in him, compassion is born. When compassion is born, you don’t suffer any more, and you may find something to say that will help him. With the practice, we can always open new neural pathways like that. When they become a habit, we call it the habit of happiness.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Doing our little bit of good where we are ~ Desmond Tutu

Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.

Desmond Tutu

Samsara and Nirvana ~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Samsara is mind turned outwardly, lost in its projections.
Nirvana is mind turned inwardly, recognizing its nature.

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

The very foundation of courage ~ Ribur Rinpoche

If you put enough energy into practicing tonglen (taking and giving), that practice will become the very foundation of courage. Courageous compassion will increase so very much on the basis of such practice!

Ribur Rinpoche

Unencumbered by ideas ~ Hui Neng

Confused by thoughts,
we experience duality in life.
Unencumbered by ideas,
the enlightened see the one reality.

Hui Neng

Any Encounter Offers Us a Choice ~ Pema Chödron

This is an idea that seems difficult for Westerners to accept: when someone harms us, they create the cause of their own suffering. They do this by strengthening habits that imprison them in a cycle of pain and confusion. It’s not that we are responsible for what someone else does, and certainly not that we should feel guilty. But when they harm us, we unintentionally become the means of their undoing. Had they looked on us with loving-kindness, however, we’d be the cause of their gathering virtue.
What I find helpful in this teaching is that what’s true for them is also true for me. The way I regard those who hurt me today will affect how I experience the world in the future. In any encounter, we have a choice: we can strengthen our resentment or our understanding and empathy. We can widen the gap between ourselves and others or lessen it.

Pema Chödron

Dedicating all merits ~ Gyelse Tokme Zangpo

Even if others, in the grips of great desire, should steal,
Or encourage others to take away, all the wealth that I possess,
To dedicate to them entirely my body, possessions and all my merits
From the past, present and future — this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas.

Gyelse Tokme Zangpo

Meditation on impermanence and death ~ Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Meditation on the impermanence of this life and the certainty of death is an extremely powerful method to destroy the delusions of anger and pride. If we want to destroy pride, anger, attachment and many other negative minds right away, the most powerful method is this meditation. If we want to relax and be happy, then we should remember the impermanence of life and death. If we are not happy with anger, our meditation on impermanence and death is so powerful, it can destroy the delusions like an atomic bomb.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Solitude ~ Buddha Shakyamuni

Apply yourself to solitude. One who is given to solitude knows things as they really are.

Buddha Shakyamuni

Ever present liberation ~ Ramana Maharshi

There is no greater deception than believing that liberation, which is ever present as one’s own nature, will be attained at some later stage.

Ramana Maharshi

Just don’t serve them tea ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Leave your front door and your back door open.
Allow your thoughts to come and go.
Just don’t serve them tea.

Shunryu Suzuki

Simply resting ~ Mingyur Rinpoche

The only difference between meditation and the ordinary, everyday process of thinking, feeling, and sensation is the application of the simple, bare awareness that occurs when you allow your mind to rest simply as it is-without chasing after thoughts or becoming distracted by feelings or sensations.