No matter which dharma practice you engage in, from ngöndro to offering a single candle, always do it with the intention that your practice will benefit all sentient beings. In this context, benefit does not only mean giving practical help, such as offering food or medicine, or feeding people’s emotions, egos and delusions. Here, benefit includes aspiring to be instrumental in the enlightenment of all sentient beings; without such an aspiration, it is easy for dharma practice to become self-serving.
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices
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Further quotes from the book Not for Happiness:
- Life is a stream of sensory illusions
- What is merit
- Avoid being distracted
- Absolutely nothing genuinely works
- Self Trapped
- Remain alone and practise the dharma
- Not designed to cheer you up
- Sign of a mature practitioner
- No end to samsara’s sufferings
- Intention to benefit all sentient beings
- Wishing happiness for those who have hurt you
- Filtered perception
- Being able to start practicing right away
- Sources of our inspiration
- Rip that ego apart
- Relative and absolute truth
- It’s all a matter of motivation
- The decision to follow a spiritual path
- Three higher trainings
- Opposite direction to dharma