The essence of thoughts ~ Yang Gonpa

The essence of thoughts that suddenly arise is without any nature. Do not inhibit their appearance in any way, and without thinking of any essence, let them arise clearly, nakedly, and vividly. Likewise, if one thought arises, observe its nature, and if two arise, observe their nature. Thus, whatever thoughts arise, let them go without holding onto them. Let them remain as fragments. Release them unimpededly. Be naked without an object. Release them without grasping. This is close to becoming a Buddha. This is the self-extinction of samsara, samsara is overwhelmed, samsara is disempowered, and samsara is exhausted. Knowledge of the path of method and wisdom, appearances and emptiness, the gradual stages, the common and special paths, and the 84.000 entrances to the Dharma is made perfectly complete and fulfilled in an instant. This is self-arisen, for it is present like that in the very nature [of awareness]. Natural liberation is the essence of all the stainless paths, and it bears the essence of emptiness and compassion.

Yang Gonpa

Striving with enthusiastic diligence ~ Gyelse Tokme Zangpo

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to strive with enthusiastic diligence —
The source of all good qualities — when working for the sake of all who live;
Seeing that even śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, who labour for themselves alone,
Exert themselves as if urgently trying to extinguish fires upon their heads.

Gyelse Tokme Zangpo

Study, reflection, and practice ~ Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche

If you wish to eradicate your afflictions, you must follow your teacher and study for a long time. Otherwise, studying for only a few days will not have any significant effect … Some people today are not willing to study or reflect on the Dharma, but they are enthusiastic about meditation. They believe meditating all day with their eyes shut is the ultimate practice. I do not think much of this. Although there are people of the highest caliber who attain enlightenment without study or reflection, are you of such caliber? Therefore, you cannot live in a cave or another completely isolated place when you first start to practice. Instead, you should be with a qualified Dharma teacher and earnestly receive the Buddhadharma; it is best if you are always engaged in study, reflection, and practice. Of course, I am not asking you to study and reflect for a lifetime without ever practicing. But to spend an entire life in blind meditation without any study or reflection is also the wrong path!

Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche

The four noble truth ~ Ajahn Chah

When we talk about Dhamma, although we may say a lot, it can usually be brought down to four things. They are simply to know suffering, to know the cause of suffering, to know the end of suffering and to know the path of practice leading to the end of suffering.

This is all there is. All that we have experienced on the path of practice so far comes down to these four things. When we know these things, our problems are over.

Where are these four things born? They are born just within the body and the mind, nowhere else. So why is the teaching of the Buddha so detailed and extensive? This is so in order to explain these things in a more refined way, to help us to see them.

When Siddhattha Gotama was born into the world, before he saw the Dhamma, he was an ordinary person just like us. When he knew what he had to know, that is the truth of suffering, the cause, the end and the way leading to the end of suffering, he realized the Dhamma and became a perfectly Enlightened Buddha.

Ajahn Chah

We have never looked into our mind ~ Thrangu Rinpoche

It is not that the discovery of the nature makes the mind empty, because the mind has always been so. The problem is that we have never looked into our mind. We have always turned and looked outward, or away from it.

Thrangu Rinpoche

Mindful communication ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

When we listen deeply to another person, we not only recognize their wrong perceptions, but we also identify our own wrong perceptions about ourselves and about the other person. That is why mindful dialogue and mindful communication is crucial to removing anger and violence.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Learning how to appreciate oneself ~ Mingyur Rinpoche

The development of loving-kindness and compassion begins with learning how to appreciate oneself.

Mingyur Rinpoche

Learning to live with your sanity ~ Chögyam Trungpa

Familiarization is one of the five strengths that allow us to practice our bodhisattva discipline of helping others throughout our whole life. This process is analogous to falling in love. When somebody mentions your lover’s name, you feel both pain and pleasure. You feel turned on to that person’s name and to anything associated with him or her. In the same way, the natural tendency of mindfulness-awareness, especially when egolessness has already evolved in your mind, is to flash on the dharma. You familiarize yourself with it. In other words, you no longer regard dharma as a foreign entity, but you realize that dharma is a household thought, a household word, and a household activity. Each time you uncork your bottle of wine or unpop your Coca-Cola can or pour yourself a glass of water — whatever you do becomes a reminder of the dharma. You cannot get rid of it; it becomes a natural situation. So you learn to live with your sanity.

Chögyam Trungpa

On mindfulness ~ Khandro Rinpoche

Simply put: by cultivating diligence in building mindfulness, mindfulness will free you from becoming a cause of suffering to others.

Khandro Rinpoche

Beginner’s mind ~ Shunryu Suzuki

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.

Shunryu Suzuki

Understanding what our mind is and how it works ~ Lama Yeshe

Why is it so important to know the nature of our own mind? Since we all want happiness, enjoyment, peace and satisfaction and these things do not come from ice-cream but from wisdom and the mind, we have to understand what our mind is and how it works.

Lama Yeshe

Drop by drop ~ Buddha Shakyamuni

Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good.

Buddha Shakyamuni

The foundation of devotion ~ Tai Situ Rinpoche

The foundation of devotion is confidence in your essence. If you don’t have confidence in your essence, you cannot have true devotion; it becomes more like fear than devotion.

Tai Situ Rinpoche

The idea of birth and death ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Birth and death are only ideas we have in our mind, and these ideas cannot be applied to reality. It is just like the idea of above and below. Heaven is above, and hell is below. But the people who are sitting right now on the other side of the planet must disagree, because the idea of the above and below does not apply to the cosmos, exactly like the idea of birth and death.

Thich Nhat Hanh

There is actually a lot of room ~ Pema Chödron

There’s the space that seems to be out there, like the sky and the ocean and the wind, and there’s the space that seems to be inside. We could let the whole thing mix up. We could let the whole thing just dissolve into each other and into one big space. Practice is about allowing a lot of space. It’s about learning how to connect with that spaciousness that’s inside, and the spaciousness that’s outside. It’s about learning to relax, soften, and open — to connect with the sense that there’s actually a lot of room.

Pema Chödron

A deep feeling of renunciation ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

A prisoner locked in jail thinks all the time about different ways of getting free — how he might climb over the walls, ask powerful people to intervene, or raise money to bribe someone. So, too, seeing the suffering and imperfection of samsara, never stop thinking about how to gain liberation, with a deep feeling of renunciation.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

No hope no fear ~ Tilopa

If you are beyond all grasping at an object and at a subject,
that is the monarch of all views.
If there is no distraction,
it is the monarch of all meditations.
If there is no effort,
it is the monarch among all conducts.
When there is no hope and no fear,
that is the final result,
and the fruition has been attained or revealed.

Tilopa

Interdependence ~ 17th Karmapa

None of us can live our lives independently, without depending on others at all. None of us have complete control over what will happen in our lives because everything is interdependent upon everything else.

17th Karmapa