When you have truly attained the realization of this emptiness, you will be like the venerable Milarepa or Guru Rinpoche, who were unaffected by the heat of summer or the cold of winter, and who could not be burned by fire or drowned in water. In emptiness there is neither pain nor suffering. We, on the other hand, have not understood the empty nature of the mind and so, when bitten by even a small insect, we think, ‘Ouch! I’ve been bitten. It hurts!’ or, when someone says something unkind, we get angry. That is a sign that we have not realized the mind’s empty nature.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of the Seven-Point Mind Training
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Further quotes from the book Enlightened Courage:
- Delusion
- Forsaking all self-centeredness
- Honest examination
- The degree of self-clinging
- Morning pledge
- The impurity of our perception
- Using illness on the path
- Antidote to our ego-clinging
- Taking advantage of suffering
- All Dharma has a single goal
- Always be sustained by cheerfulness
- Failing to use the instructions as an antidote
- Anger is an illusion
- The three essential factors on which the accomplishment of the Dharma depends
- The vows of the Mind Training
- Well rewarded
- Begin the training sequence with yourself
- Bodhicitta practice
- Give up hoping for results