Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheIf you can remember to say “everything is a dream, everything is an illusion,” even if you are kind of faking it, even if you are not buying it wholeheartedly, it would have so much benefit. You could recite and contemplate, “What I am looking at is just my dream, my illusion, my projection,” every day, maybe once in the morning, once at midday, and once in the night. And if you want to elaborate, you can face toward Bodhgaya and bow down three times while you think this. You could even roll out a small carpet and do all sorts of exotic mudras, if it helps you. As long as you are thinking everything is a dream. Then also immediately ask, who is thinking “everything is an illusion?”
After two or three years, if you do it properly every day, your way of looking at the world will change. The way an adult no longer cries over a wave taking a sandcastle, the normal things that used to make you worked up might not work you up so much. And that’s quite an achievement. That is better than a halo. A halo is useless, what will you do with a halo? Especially if you need to be incognito, carrying a halo around with you doesn’t help. But this attitude is useful. People will notice that you have become quite stable. Then the bonus is that you become a good leader, a good manager, a good spouse. Those are the bonuses, we aren’t aiming for that. Our aim is the big vision: to realize the truth.
Tag Archives: dream
Dedicating illusion like merit ~ Dudjom Rinpoche
Dudjom RinpocheIn absolute truth, all phenomena are devoid of any intrinsic nature, and therefore merit too cannot be objectified, being entirely free of the three concepts.
In relative, conventional truth, every aspect of a positive action – the agent who performs the action, the object of the action, and the action itself – is like a dream or a magical illusion: although it appears, it has no intrinsic nature.
It is with this approach that the dedication should be made, for as we read in the Middle Sutra of Transcendent Wisdom:
“Subhuti, all phenomena are like a dream,
like a magical illusion.”Virtue too should be dedicated in the manner of its being like a dream.
Just like a dream ~ Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche
Shechen Rabjam RinpocheThe phenomenal world is just like dream. Phenomena appear solid, but they do not exist in the same way as they appear. There is no solid reality behind them; from the very beginning, they are empty of intrinsic existence. There is nothing but a dynamic stream of ever-changing, interdependent relationships.
Dreamlike ~ Buddha Shakyamuni
Buddha ShakyamuniMy dreamlike form
Appeared to dreamlike beings
To show them the dreamlike path
That leads to dreamlike enlightenment.
The root of samsara ~ Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa RinpocheNothing exists in reality. Nothing exists the way it appears to exist, as real from there. Everything is totally empty. It’s like a dream, like an illusion.
If we are able to meditate in this way, looking at all this as like a dream, an illusion, a mirage—all the different examples—then it becomes very interesting. There is nothing to become attached to because it is not real.
For example, if we recognize a dream as a dream, there is nothing to be attached to and there is nothing to be angry about. In a dream, somebody abuses us but if we can recognize the dream as a dream, the abuse does not bother us at all. Similarly, some object of desire appears in our dream, but recognizing it as just a dream, we are not agitated. Nothing disturbs us; our mind remains utterly peaceful. Anger and attachment do not arise, so we have a very, very interesting life.
Because things appear to us not as a dream but as real from their own side, which is how it has been since beginningless time, realizing emptiness is vital. It is more important than any job, than all the money in the world, than anything. To cut the root of suffering, ignorance, and be free forever from the oceans of samsaric suffering, there is nothing more important than realizing emptiness.
We need to cut the wrong belief that whatever object that appears to us is real, which is how it appears. As I have said, in the first moment the I appears as merely imputed; in the second it appears as real, as a real I; then, in the third moment, we believe that I to be real. That wrong concept is the root of samsara.
There is always something that makes me sad ~ Gendun Choepel
Gendun ChoepelWhen looked at, the marvels of the world seem pleasing.
When attained, each has its own suffering.
After moments of brief happiness become but a dream,
There is always something that makes me sad.
Like the events in a dream ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheThe various activities of ordinary life follow one after another like the waves of the ocean. The rich never feel they have enough money; the powerful never feel they have enough power. Think about it: the best way to satisfy all your desires and complete all your projects is to abandon them.
A realized being sees the preoccupations of ordinary people as being like the events in a dream, and watches them like an old man watching children play. Last night you dreamed, perhaps, of being a great king, but when you woke up, what was left? What you experience in the waking state has scarcely more reality than that.
Rather than pursuing these elusive dreams, let your mind rest in serene contemplation, free of mental agitation and distraction, until the realization of emptiness becomes an integral part of your experience.
We can look at it like a dream ~ Lama Yeshe
Lama YesheIn a dream, whatever we’re doing — walking, sitting or eating food — is all labeled by our mind. It’s all labeled by our mind, but it’s not there, it doesn’t exist at all. We can dream of winning a billion dollars in a lottery, so we go there, we get a billion dollars, we put it in our bag and the bag becomes very heavy. But when we wake up, it’s not there. It’s like that. All this — the real I, the real action, the real road, the real eating, the real food — everything is false. So, we can look at it like a dream.
Consider all phenomena to be like illusions ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu RinpocheWhat should you do after you get up from your meditation session? Consider all phenomena to be like illusions or dreams. You should do all your activities of walking, sitting, eating, and lying down within that state of mind.
Ultimate bodhicitta ~ Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye
Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro ThayeSelf and other — everything — is as a dream;
There isn’t even the slightest thing which is truly established.When you maintain the natural state as it is
Without spoiling or fabricating your mind,
The emptiness of all inner and outer phenomena
Is realized to be the sky-like union of clarity and emptiness.That is ultimate bodhicitta.
Migrating beings who do not realize this
Wander in saṃsāra under the influence of dualistic apprehension.
Like Mirages ~ Buddha Shakyamuni
Buddha ShakyamuniLike mirages and cities of gandharvas,
Illusions and dreams,
all characteristics you entertain are empty of any essence.
Know all phenomena are this way.
All perceptions are similar to a dream ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheAt present we perceive samsara as something we have to reject and nirvana as something we have to attain. Now while this is correct according to relative truth, according to absolute truth the nature of the afflictive emotions and actions that we are supposed to reject is nothing other than emptiness. When we realize the dharmakaya, which is free from true existence, we will know that all perceptions are similar to a dream or an illusion and we will no longer crave these phenomena. As it is said, ‘While there is attachment, there is no view.’ And the absence of attachment is the supreme view.
See it as a dream ~ Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche
Chagdud Tulku RinpocheAlways recognize the dreamlike qualities of life and reduce attachment and aversion. Practice good-heartedness toward all beings. Be loving and compassionate, no matter what others do to you. What they will do will not matter so much when you see it as a dream. The trick is to have positive intention during the dream. This is the essential point. This is true spirituality.
Preconceptions ~ Milarepa
MilarepaJust as fog is dispelled by the strength of the sun and is dispelled no other way, preconception is cleared by the strength of realization.
There’s no other way of clearing preconceptions.
Experience them as baseless dreams.
Experience them as ephemeral bubbles.
Experience them as insubstantial rainbows.
Experience them as indivisible space.
Heart of sadness ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheKongtrul Rinpoche suggested we pray to the guru, buddhas, and bodhisattvas and ask them to grant their blessings, “So I may give birth to the heart of sadness.”
But what is a “heart of sadness”? Imagine one night you have a dream. Although it is a good dream, deep down you know that eventually you will have to wake up and it will be over. In life, too, sooner or later, whatever the state of our relationships, or our health, our jobs and every aspect of our lives, everything, absolutely everything, will change.
And the little bell ringing in the back of your head to remind you of this inevitability is what is called the “heart of sadness.” Life, you realise, is a race against time, and you should never put off dharma practice until next year, next month, or tomorrow, because the future may never happen.
Self-deception creates a dream world ~ Chögyam Trungpa
Chögyam TrungpaSelf-deception seems always to depend upon the dream world, because you would like to see what you have not yet seen, rather than what you are now seeing. Self-deception manifests in trying to create or recreate a dream world, the nostalgia of the dream experience. The opposite of self-deception is just working with the facts of life.
In the universal womb ~ Longchenpa
LongchenpaIn the universal womb that is boundless space
All forms of matter and energy occur
As flux of the four elements,
But all are empty forms, absent in reality:
All phenomena, arising in pure mind, are like that.Just as dream is a part of sleep,
Unreal in its arising,
So all and everything is pure mind,
Never separated from it,
And without substance or attribute.Experience is neither mind nor anything but mind;
It is a vivid display of emptiness, like magical illusion,
In the very moment inconceivable and unutterable.
All experience arising in the mind,
At its inception, know it as emptiness!
Awareness of Feelings ~ 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai Lama“That which is seen and that which is touched are of a dream-like and illusion-like nature.
Because feeling arises together with the mind, it is not [ultimately] perceived.”
~ShantidevaThere is nothing whatever that has a true mode of existence. Nevertheless, this does not suggest that a person who experiences feelings and the feelings themselves — pleasant and unpleasant — are utterly non-existent. They do exist, but in an untrue fashion. Thus, the things that we see and touch have a dream-like and illusion-like quality.
In the second line the author refutes the true existence of the mind that experiences feelings. Since feelings arise in conjunction with the mind, feelings are not perceived by the mind that is simultaneous with them. There must be a causal relationship between the experienced object and the experiencing subject. If two entities are substantially distinct and exist simultaneously, there could be neither a causal relationship nor an identity relationship between them.
For this reason the author denies that either [intrinsic] relationship could hold for the feelings and the awareness that is simultaneous with them. Two mental events that arise in conjunction with each other are not able to apprehend one another. This holds true for all states of awareness. Thus, feelings are not observed by the awareness that arises in conjunction with them and that exists simultaneously with them.
Dream like bondage ~ Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche
Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche“Self-liberation” is like being bound in iron chains in a dream. If you do not know you are dreaming, your bondage appears to be real, you think it is real, and your experience seems to confirm that it is real. But if you know you are dreaming, you know that the iron chains do not truly exist, and so you are not really bound by them. The bondage does not truly exist. In the dream, nothing needs to come along and set you free – you are free just as you are. The dream experience, even though it appears to be an experience of bondage, is in fact self-liberated.
Dreamlike obsessions ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheSeeing the world with all the unspoiled simplicity of a young child, you are free from concepts of beauty and ugliness, good and evil, and no longer fall prey to conflicting tendencies driven by desire or repulsion. Why trouble yourself about all the ups and downs of daily life, like a child who delights in building a sand castle but cries when it collapses? To get what they want and be rid of what they dislike, look how people throw themselves into torments, like moths plunging into the flame of a lamp! Would it not be better to put down your heavy burden of dreamlike obsessions once and for all?