Parents do seek to create a wonderful world for their children, but even more splendid is to give them explanations that increase their intelligence and ability to discriminate right from wrong. In Buddhism, we speak of what is to be given up and what is to be taken up. According to the Dharma, what is most difficult to give up, even if we try very hard, is our ego-fixation, this grasping on to “I”. Therefore, we are guiding our children in the wrong direction if we encourage their self-centeredness. We should teach them what is really useful.
17th Karmapa
from the book
translated by Ringu Tulku & Michele Martin
Read a random quote or see all quotes by the 17th Karmapa.
Further quotes from the book Traveling the Path of Compassion :
- Why the Dharma is so important
- Discipline
- The true test of meditation
- Seeing what Dharma practice actually is
- Finding real solitude
- Why we need to give up our worldly concerns
- The Greatest Satisfaction
- Giving and Receiving
- Taking advantage of opportunities
- Our Actual Enemy
- Joyful discipline
- Taming Our Mind
- Avoiding criticism
- Seeing clearly what is genuine and what is false
- Putting ourselves in someone else’s place
- Remembering the Lama