Whatever our negative situation may be, we need to take a long-term view and sustain our hope with an aspiration, which could be a goal that we seek or a way that we want to be. Our aspiration is like a spy keeping an eye out for opportunities. In the olden days, a spy would sit on a high mountain and survey everything that was happening. Looking down the road into the future and maintaining our hope is like that watcher. When an opportunity arises that fits our plan, we can call on our experience to take advantage of it. When experience and hope join together, whatever difficult, negative, or tragic situations occur in our life, we can always pull ourselves together and start anew.

17th Karmapa

from the book Traveling the Path of Compassion: A Commentary on The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva

translated by Ringu Tulku & Michele Martin


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Further quotes from the book Traveling the Path of Compassion:

• Why the Dharma is so important
• Discipline
• The true test of meditation
• Teaching what is really useful
• Seeing what Dharma practice actually is
• Finding real solitude
• Why we need to give up our worldly concerns
• The Greatest Satisfaction
• Giving and Receiving
• Our Actual Enemy
• Joyful discipline
• Taming Our Mind
• Avoiding criticism
• Putting ourselves in someone else’s place
• Seeing clearly what is genuine and what is false
• Remembering the Lama