Some people may have the idea that these teachings on compassion and exchanging self and others are part of the ‘gradual path’ teachings of the sutras, and are not nearly as effective as the more advanced ‘direct path’ teachings of the Great Perfection or the Great Seal. That is a complete misunderstanding. Only if you have developed the love and compassion of relative bodhichitta can absolute bodhichitta – the very essence of the Great Perfection and the Great Seal – ever take birth in your being.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

from the book The Heart of Compassion: The Thirty-seven Verses on the Practice of a Bodhisattva

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Further quotes from the book The Heart of Compassion:

• Before it is too late
• Never stop thinking about how to gain liberation
• Sealing your merit with authentic dedication
• No more than an empty echo
• Phenomena adorn emptiness, but never corrupt it
• Giving and taking
• Conduct
• The only thing that is really worth doing
• The reason you are wandering in samsara
• Neither discouragement nor pride
• Powerful sources of help
• Accepting short-term sufferings
• Phenomena adorn emptiness
• Practice day and night
• Two types of friends
• Seeing clearly how deceiving the ways of the world are
• Cutting through subtler misconceptions
• Just projections of the mind
• Protecting ourselves from future suffering