Dzigar Kongtrul RinpocheSentient beings possess varying degrees of maturity, but we all possess the same potential. From this point of view, everything is workable for all of us. We are not talking here about having great meditation experiences; we are talking about working with everyday experience within relative awareness, using our spiritual traning and meditation practice as a support.
Helping each other to remove wrong perceptions ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat HanhWhen you communicate with compassion, you are using language that does not have the elements of anger and irritation in it. In this way we can help each other remove wrong perceptions. All the energies of anger, hatred, fear and violence come from wrong perceptions. Wrong perceptions result in a lot of anger, mistrust, suspicion, hate and terrorism. You cannot remove wrong perceptions through punishment. You have to do it with the tools of deep and compassionate listening and loving speech. With deep, compassionate listening and loving speech, we can bring harmony to our families, and our communities can become communities of understanding, peace and happiness.
Precious human life ~ Yangthang Rinpoche
Yangthang RinpocheNow that you’ve gained the support of a human life, so hard to find,
Aroused a mind of renunciation, so difficult to develop,
Met an authentic master, so rarely encountered,
And taken up the sacred Dharma, so scarcely discovered,
Reflect, over and again, on the difficulty of finding
Such a physical support providing all the right conditions for practice.
Homage to the Buddha ~ Nagarjuna
NagarjunaYou taught that whatever arises dependently
Is free of ceasing, free of arising;
Free of extinction, free of permanence;
Free of coming, free of going;
Free of being one, free of being many —
You taught perfect peace, the easing of all elaborations.
Perfect Buddha, supreme among speakers,
I pay homage to you.
Look right at your mind ~ Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye
Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro ThayeIf you follow any thought or emotion, major or minor, and let your mind wander outward, your work is in error and you’re no different from an ordinary person. Turn your emotion right in and look right at your mind. When you look at it, nothing is seen. Relax completely, let everything go, and rest in that state of emptiness.
Happiness ~ Pema Chödron
Pema ChödronThe traditional aspiration used is ‘May I and others enjoy happiness and the root of happiness.’ In teaching this I’ve found that people sometimes have trouble with the word happiness. They say things like, ‘Suffering has taught me a lot and happiness gets me in trouble.’ They aren’t sure that happiness is what they wish for themselves or others. This may be because our conventional notion of happiness is far too limited. To get at the heart of the loving-kindness practice we may have to put the aspiration for happiness into our own words. One man told me of his aspiration that he and others realize their fullest potential. The aspiration of a woman I know is that we all learn to speak and think and act in a way that adds up to fundamental well-being. The aspiration of another person is that all beings – including himself – begin to trust in their basic goodness. It is important that each of us make the aspiration as genuine as possible.
A nurturing person ~ Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche
Traleg Kyabgon RinpocheWe feel nurtured when we are nurturing. Only a nurturing person can nurture, and a nurturing person is nurtured by his or her own caring attitudes. If you can develop these qualities, you will no longer have to go around like a sponge, soaking up the drops of love others leave behind.
Projections ~ Chögyam Trungpa
Chögyam TrungpaThings do exist as they are, but we tend to see our version of them as they are, rather than things as they really are. That makes everything that we see projections. But one doesn’t have to make a definite and absolute reassurance of that necessarily at all. You just go along with situations, go along dealing with them. If you are going too far, they’ll shake you. They’ll beat you to death if you’re going too far. If you’re going well, if you are balanced, they will present hospitality and openness luxuriously to you.
The capacity for living now ~ Alan Watts
Alan WattsNo work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.
Acknowledging all your experience as something ordinary ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheWherever you are, whatever you do, it’s essential to acknowledge your experience as something ordinary, the natural expression of your true mind. If you don’t try yo stop whatever is going on in your mind, but merely observe it, eventually you’ll begin to feel a tremendous sense of relaxation, a vast sense of openness within your mind – which is in fact the natural mind, the naturally unperturbed background against which various thoughts come and go.
Slaying afflictions the very moment they arise ~ Gyelse Tokme Zangpo
Gyelse Tokme ZangpoThe practice of all the bodhisattvas is to slay attachment
And the rest — mind’s afflictions — at once, the very moment they arise,
Taking as weapons the remedies held with mindfulness and vigilance.
For once the kleshas have become familiar, they’ll be harder to avert.
What is Dhamma? ~ Ajahn Chah
Ajahn ChahWhat is Dhamma? Nothing isn’t.
Practicing the union of the two truths ~ Longchenpa
LongchenpaSpeaking about blank emptiness and disregarding cause and effect,
Thinking that non-action is the ultimate,
We give up the two kinds of accumulation, leading to the deterioration of our practice.
‘To practice unifying both’ is my heart advice.
Moving away from comfort and security ~ Pema Chödron
Pema ChödronThis moving away from comfort and security, this stepping out into what is unknown, uncharted and shaky – that’s called liberation.
Approaching others with the thought of compassion ~ 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai LamaPeople often expect the other person to respond first in a positive way, instead of taking the initiative to create that possibility. I feel that’s wrong; it can act as a barrier that just promotes a feeling of isolation from others. To overcome feelings of isolation and loneliness, your underlying attitude makes a tremendous difference – approaching others with the thought of compassion in your mind is the best way.
Coping with all possible circumstances ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheA dharma practitioner should be able to cope with all possible circumstances, neither elated by the good nor cast into despair by the bad. In either case, free from expectation and doubt, one should remember the guru. Happiness and sorrow, joy and suffering, though nothing in themselves, can become either a help or a hindrance on the path.
Recognize that which experiences ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche
Tsoknyi RinpocheThere are many ways of grasping at the meditative state. Some of you might be so blissful that you feel, ‘Wow, it is so great to feel this. Even if I were to be pricked with a needle right now, it will probably also be a pleasant sensation. It won’t hurt at all.’ According to Dzogchen, it’s perfectly all right to feel blissful. You don’t have to avoid it, but neither should you hold on to it by clinging to or yearning for the feeling of bliss. Instead, recognize that which experiences, and simply allow the bliss to be a reflection in this mirror. Do not fixate upon it at all.
Primordial awareness ~ Dogen Zenji
Dogen ZenjiPrimordial awareness is in essence perfect and pervades everywhere. How could it be dependent upon what anyone does to practice or realize it? The movement of reality does not need us to give it a push. Do I need to say that it is free from delusion? The vast expanse of reality can never be darkened by the dust of presumptions. Who then could believe that it needs to cleaned of such dust to be what it is? It is never separate from where you are, so why scramble around in search of it?
Your last moment ~ Shunryu Suzuki
Shunryu SuzukiTreat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.
Change is inevitable ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheNothing that passes through your mind, not even your mind itself, will stay as it is forever. Things might last for the duration of your experience of this existence, or even into the next generation; but then again, they may dissolve sooner than you expect. Either way, eventual change is inevitable. There is no degree of probability or chance involved.
If you feel hopeless, remember this and you will no longer have a reason to be hopeless, because whatever is causing you to despair will also change. Everything must change.