Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheWe might still wonder, What is this enlightenment if it is not happiness or unhappiness? How does an enlightened being appear and function? How does it feel to discover our buddhanature? In Buddhist texts, when these questions are posed, the answer is usually that it’s beyond our conception, inexpressible. Many seem to have misunderstood this as a sly way of not answering the question. But actually that is the answer. Our logic, language, and symbols are so limited, we cannot even fully express something so mundane as the sense of relief; words are inadequate to fully transmit the total experience of relief to another person. If even quantum physicists find it difficult to find words to express their theories, then how can we expect to find a vocabulary for enlightenment? While we are caught in our current state, where only a limited amount of logic and language is used and where emotions still grip us, we can only imagine what it is like to be enlightened. But sometimes, with diligence and inferential logic, we can get a good approximation, just as when you see smoke coming from a mountain peak, you can make a calculated guess that there is a fire. Using what we have, we can begin to see and accept that obscurations are due to causes and conditions that can be manipulated and ultimately cleansed. Imagining the absence of our defiled emotions and negativity is the first step to understanding the nature of enlightenment.
Within space ~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
Within space ~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
Tulku Urgyen RinpocheExternal phenomena appear within space, remain within space and disappear within space again. Is there any place where earth, water, fire and wind can go that is outside space? Don’t they always remain within space? When they disintegrate, isn’t it within space that they dissolve? Is there any place at all to go to which is beyond or outside space, which is somewhere other than space? Please understand very well this symbolic resemblance between dharmadhatu and physical space.
Rare as a Buddha ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaWithin our beings, all of us, there are these uncontrived, natural roots of virtue, these instinctive seeds of innate goodness. We still look for something outside ourselves, not knowing how priceless and how important what we already have is. We need to look at these seeds of virtue in our mind as if they were as rare as a Buddha.
Mud and lotus ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat HanhThere is the mud, and there is the lotus that grows out of the mud. We need the mud in order to make the lotus.
Not your business ~ Patrul Rinpoche
Patrul RinpocheTake the example of an old cow,
She’s content to sleep in a barn,
You have to eat, sleep, and shit —
That’s unavoidable —
But beyond that is none of your business.
As an elephant in the battlefield ~ Buddha Shakyamuni
Buddha ShakyamuniAs an elephant in the battlefield withstands arrows shot from bows all around, even so shall I endure abuse.
The power of loving-friendliness ~ Bhante Gunaratana
Bhante GunaratanaThe hardest hearts can be won with loving-friendliness.
Living an Appearance-Emptiness Life ~ Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche
Khenpo Tsultrim RinpocheYou know the supreme path that is free from coming and going,
And you teach the true nature of all phenomena,
While never leaving a single being out of your compassion’s embrace,
Great mother, noble Tara, I bow at your feet.
Since all phenomena, outer and inner, are dependently existent mere appearances,
They have no inherent nature, they are just appearance-emptiness.
If you know how they resemble dreams and illusions,
All comings and goings will be open and relaxed.
Since appearances of friends and enemies are dependently existent,
Both are appearance-emptiness, like rainbows, and if you know this,
That is called, “meditation on illusion.”
Within openness you will achieve inner peace.
A planet and a particle are equal,
An aeon and an instant are equal, the Buddha taught.
If you gain uncontrived certainty in this,
Within spaciousness, any work you do will come out alright.
When you are expert at studying your own mind
All that appears becomes your guru,
And even your enemies become friends of your Dharma practice –
E ma! What a wonderful miracle!
Attentive Mind ~ Krishnamurti
KrishnamurtiIt is only the dull, sleepy mind that creates and clings to habit. A mind that is attentive from moment to moment – attentive to what it is saying, attentive to the movement of its hands, of its thoughts, of its feelings – will discover that the formation of further habits has come to an end.
Start at home ~ Kalu Rinpoche
Kalu RinpocheIf we can practice bodhicitta, develop patience, and pacify all disharmony in our own home, then we have prepared the way leading to the development of limitless bodhicitta. If, on the other hand, we cannot maintain patience and harmony in our own home with our own family, then it is very unlikely that we will be able to do this with respect to all sentient beings, who are infinite in number.
The most important thing ~ Gyaltsab Rinpoche
Gyaltsab RinpocheBeing a Buddhist, the most important thing is to go for refuge. If you have a good understanding about going for refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, your faith in Buddhism will become reasonable, stable and practical. And your practice will become real Dharma practice.
Therefore, whether you are starting your practice, you are at the middle of your practice or you are concluding your practice, in all stages, you should remember to go for refuge. And even in your daily life, you should not forget to go for refuge.
In this way, if you always go for refuge in three jewels, your merits will be limitless, your dharma practice will become very effective and obstacles to your dharma practice will be gradually removed.
Preventing Too Many Activities ~ Chögyam Trungpa
Chögyam TrungpaOne characteristic of a dharmic person, someone who practices meditation and the teachings of the Buddha, is to prevent too many activities, or you could say, reduce too many activities. According to tradition, that actually boils down to cutting nonfunctional talking, cutting the baby-sitter mentality, the entertainment mentality. You can get yourself into all kinds of projects, all kinds of engagements. You can become chummy with the world so that you don’t have to hold your discipline or your mindfulness properly. ….If you don’t like tea, you can have coffee. If you don’t like coffee, you could switch to Coca-Cola. If you don’t like Coca-Cola, you can drink scotch or vodka. You involve yourself in constant, constant activity. Sometimes you don’t even know what you are doing; you just come up with the idea that you need to be occupied with something, but you can’t put your finger on anything:” Do I need sex or do I need money or do I need clothes? What do I need?”….You could think about anything; the possibilities are infinite. Getting chummy with the situation involves lots of activity. According to the basic principles of Buddhism, you have to cut that down. When you become too chummy with your world, too familiar with your world, it becomes endless.
Understanding how delusion arises ~ Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche
Chagdud Tulku RinpocheTo understand how delusion arises, practice watching your mind. Begin by simply letting it relax. Without thinking of the past or the future, without feeling hope or fear about this thing or that, let it rest comfortably, open and natural. In this space of the mind, there is no problem, no suffering. Then something catches your attention – an image, a sound, a smell. Your mind splits into inner and outer, self and other, subject and object. In simply perceiving the object, there is still no problem. But when you zero in on it, you notice that it’s big or small, white or black, square or circular; and then you make a judgment – for example, whether it’s pretty or ugly. Having made that judgment, you react to it: you decide you like it or don’t like it. That’s when the problem starts, because “I like it” leads to “I want it.” We want to possess what we perceive to be desirable. Similarly, “I don’t like it” leads to “I don’t want it.” If we like something, want it, and can’t have it, we suffer. If we don’t want it, but can’t keep it away, again we suffer. Our suffering seems to occur because of the object of our desire or aversion, but that’s not really so – it happens because the mind splits into object-subject duality and becomes involved in wanting or not wanting something.
Two kinds of suffering ~ Ajahn Chah
Ajahn ChahThere are two kinds of suffering. There is the suffering you run away from, which follows you everywhere. And there is the suffering you face directly, and so become free.
To reject your aggression is a weakness ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheAs a Buddhist, you have been taught that aggression is generally considered to be a negative emotion. Therefore your immediate reaction to any aggressive tendency or thought that arises in your mind will be to reject it. And you reject it because you are in love with your “self,” which makes you an egoist. As an egoist, you do not want aggressive feelings or jealousy or any of the other negative emotions to spoil your chances of becoming renowned as a “good” Buddhist. Yet according to the greater view offered by the bodhisattvayana, to reject your aggression is a weakness. To reject the bad and only accept the good shows that you are still stained by the clinging to self that we call “ego.” Instead, when a bodhisattvayana practitioner notices his/her aggressive emotions, he/she should think, “Aggression is really bad! But I am not the only one who suffers from it — all sentient beings do! So, may I take on the aggression, jealousy and pride of all sentient beings.” From a relative point of view, what happens when you take on the pens when you take on the suffering of others in this way? Fundamentally, you go against the wishes of your ego. So, if your ego wants to be the holiest and most sublime of all beings so it can boast it has no desire or jealousy, this is exactly the practice you need to do to oppose and resist it. By continually applying it, the ego becomes smaller and smaller until finally it has nowhere to live.
Becoming the awareness ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheAwareness itself allows us to stand at the river’s edge without getting sucked into the current. We are liberated from the tyranny of the monkey-mind. Thoughts are still there. They may be quiet or turbulent, focused or wild and scattered. But we have stopped identifying with them. We have become the awareness, not the thoughts.
This wish-granting gem of moderation ~ Milarepa
MilarepaAll the wealth you’ve acquired from beginningless time until now has failed to fulfill all your desires. Cultivate therefore this wish-granting gem of moderation, O fortunate ones.
Generosity ~ Padmasambhava
PadmasambhavaTo be generous doesn’t merely mean to give with bias and partiality; it means to be profoundly free from attachment to anything whatsoever.
Befriending who we are ~ Pema Chödron
Pema ChödronMeditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better, it’s about befriending who we are.
Functionality and emptiness ~ 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai LamaNagarjuna said that for a system where emptiness is possible, it is also possible to have functionality, and since functionality is possible, emptiness is also possible. So when we talk about nature, the ultimate nature is emptiness. What is meant by emptiness, or shunyata? It is not the emptiness of existence but rather the emptiness of true or independent existence, which means that things exist by dependence upon other factors.