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- August 20
"If you fear you are running after the objects of the six senses, hold yourself with the hook:"
'Employ the watchman that is mindfulness.'
Someone who has been captured with a hook has no option but to go wherever he is led. In the same way, if we catch hold of our mind--which risks being distracted by the objects of the six senses--with the hook of mindfulness, and with vigilance and carefulness, this will be of enormous benefit. We should use this watchman to constantly check how many positive or negative thoughts and actions we produce during the day. When we are able to control our minds through mindfulness, everything that appears in samsara and nirvana becomes an aid in our practice and serves to confirm the meaning of the teachings. All appearances are understood as being dharmakaya. We perceive everything in its natural purity, and there is nothing we can call impure.
--from Zurchungpa's Testament: A Commentary on Zurchung Sherab Trakpa's 'Eighty Chapters of Personal Advice' by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, based on Shechen Gyaltsap's Annotated Edition, translated by the Padmakara Translation Group
- August 13
A bodhisattva, having generated a sincere and spontaneous desire to attain full enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, enters the Mahayana path of accumulation. Here the bodhisattva cultivates the four mindfulnesses and develops mental quiescence, then passes on to the path of application, where she or he strives for a conceptual insight into emptiness. When quiescence and insight are combined in examining emptiness, the bodhisattva attains a direct, non-conceptual realization of emptiness, and thus becomes an arya, on the path of seeing.
The path of seeing corresponds to the first of the ten bhumis, i.e. stages, levels, or grounds said to be traversed by a bodhisattva. The other nine bodhisattva stages are coextensive with the path of development, during the course of which the disciple completely eliminates not only the defilements that are obstacles to liberation but even the traces of defilement, which are obstacles to full enlightenment.
When the path of development is completed, the disciple is ready to enter the path of no-more-training; this marks the attainment of full enlightenment, the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya of an omniscient, compassionate, and powerful buddha.
--from The Wheel of Time: The Kalachakra in Context by Geshe Lhundub Sopa, Roger Jackson, John Newman, edited by Beth Simon
- August 6
The Tibetan controversies about instantaneous enlightenment through recognition of the nature of the mind have been studied by David Jackson. As he shows, it is mainly members of the Kagyu traditions in Tibet who have maintained this doctrine, although it is certainly common in Chinese Ch'an Buddhism and in the teachings of the Great Perfection in Tibet. Dolpopa quotes the position that is the object of his refutation: "Recognizing the very essence naturally purifies them, without rejection." This expresses the view that through recognition of the essence of the thoughts as the dharmakaya they are purified or dissolved into the dharmakaya, and also the idea that any affliction that arises is actually a manifestation or self-presencing of primordial awareness itself. Thus there is no need to reject thoughts or afflictions, which are naturally purified by means of the recognition. This type of viewpoint is widespread in Tibetan Buddhism.
In contrast to these views, Dolpopa claims that the definition of an ordinary sentient being or a buddha, and of samsara or nirvana, is determined by the presence or absence of the incidental and temporary obscurations that veil the true nature of reality. It is not determined solely by recognition of the nature of the mind or the thoughts.
...While the ground buddhahood of the dharmakaya and the resultant buddhahood of the dharmakaya have not the slightest difference in essence, they are distinguished as ground and result by means of the presence or absence of incidental stains.
--from The Buddha from Dolpo: A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen by Cyrus Stearns; a Tsadra Foundation Series book
- July 30
If our practice does not diminish self-grasping, or perhaps even enhances it, then no matter how austere and determined we are, no matter how many hours a day we devote to learning, reflection, and meditation, our spiritual practice is in vain.
A close derivative of self-grasping is the feeling of self-importance. Such arrogance or pride is a very dangerous pitfall for people practicing Dharma. Especially in Tibetan Buddhism, with its many levels of practice, the exalted aspirations of the bodhisattva path, and the mystery surrounding initiation into tantra, we may easily feel part of an elite. Moreover, the philosophy of Buddhism is so subtly refined and so penetrating that, as we gain an understanding of it, this also can give rise to intellectual pride.
But if these are the results of the practice, then something has gone awry. Recall the well-known saying among Tibetan Buddhists that a pot with a little water in it makes a loud noise when shaken, but a pot full of water makes no noise at all.
People with very little realization often want to tell everyone about the insights they have experienced, the bliss and subtleties of their meditation, and how it has radically transformed their life. But those who are truly steeped in realization do not feel compelled to advertise it, and instead simply dwell in that realization. They are concerned not to describe their own progress, but to direct the awareness of others to ways in which their own hearts and minds can be awakened.
--from The Seven-Point Mind Training by B. Alan Wallace, edited by Zara Houshmand
- July 23
We have to admit impermanence into our lives. It's important to live with impermanence as a frame of reference so that we can approach each moment or each day with a sense of humility about what we are able to do and what we are not able to do and relinquish control over things we cannot have control over. It is important to live as if things are as permanent as stone.
You have to invest yourself in love and concern for people, accept people's love as if that's the only thing that exists. The commitment to living as if everything is always there forever with the acceptance that nothing is going to survive.
--from Impermanence: Embracing Change by David Hodge and Hi-Jin Kang Hodge, foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
- July 16
6. Meditation on the Buddha
(Click here to listen to the audio version of this meditation.)
Begin by observing your breath for a few minutes to calm the mind.
Think of the qualities of infinite love, compassion, wisdom, skillful means, and other wonderful qualities you aspire to develop. What would it feel like to have those qualities? Get a sense of the expansiveness and peace of having a wise and kind heart that reaches out impartially to work for the benefit of all beings.
Those qualities of love, compassion, wisdom, skillful means, and so on now appear in the physical form of the Buddha, in the space in front of you. He sits on an open lotus flower, and flat sun and moon disks. His body is made of radiant, transparent light, as is the entire visualization. His body is golden and he wears the robes of a monk. His right palm rests on his right knee and his left is in his lap, holding a bowl of nectar, which is medicine to cure our afflictions and other hindrances. The Buddha's face is very beautiful. His smiling, compassionate gaze looks at you with total acceptance and simultaneously encompasses all sentient beings. His eyes are long, narrow, and peaceful. His lips are red and his earlobes long.
Rays of light emanate from each pore of the Buddha's body and reach every part of the universe. These rays carry countless miniature Buddhas, some going out to help beings, others dissolving back into the Buddha after having finished their work.
The Buddha is surrounded by the entire lineage of spiritual teachers, all meditational deities, innumerable other Buddhas, bodhisattvas, arhats, dakas, dakinis, and Dharma protectors. To the side of each spiritual master is an elegant table upon which are arranged volumes of Dharma teachings.
Surrounding you are all sentient beings appearing in human form, with your mother on your left and your father on your right. The people you do not get along with are in front of you. All of you are looking to the Buddha for guidance.
--from Guided Meditations on the Stages of the Path by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
- July 9
Sometimes our life can feel devoid of meaning even though we may try in different ways to put meaning into it.... Meaning comes when we go deeply within, wait, listen, and open. It begins to come when we genuinely open to the suffering of those around us with a compassionate heart. Equally, it comes as we respond to the environment within which we live with care and concern.
The meaning or purpose to be found in bodhichitta is less associated with what we do than with the quality we bring to what we engage in. Small, simple aspects of our life can be profoundly meaningful and have deep impact both for ourselves and others. Meaning lies in the quality of heart that we put into what we do.
It is not, therefore, the outer manifestation of what we can achieve that is the root of meaning. It is the undercurrent of bodhichitta's intention or purpose and meaning that flows within. What bodhichitta implies is that in attuning to our buddha nature or buddha potential, we touch a source of meaning in ourselves that will come through whatever we do.
This root of meaning gives the bodhisattva the capacity to live a relatively ordinary life and transform adverse circumstances into the path. Even small things become meaningful, like the way we respond to someone's distress or a gesture of friendliness that lifts someone's day. This deeper sense of purpose is reflected in the care we give to our relationships and the environment.
Realizations come only if we practice joyfully, with confidence and courage. Realization doesn't grow within a timid or weak state of mind--it blossoms in the mind free of doubt and hesitation. Realization is fearless. When we see the true nature of reality, there's nothing hidden, nothing left to fear. At last we're seeing reality as it is, full of joy and peace.
Being present and responsive to what arises may mean that the eventual goal of our sense of purpose is less crucial. We are seldom, if ever, able to see fully where our path will take us, and once we are open to the meaning present in bodhichitta, the ego must surrender ambitions and allow the journey to unfold.
--from The Courage to Feel: Buddhist Practices for Opening to Others by Rob Preece
- July 2
Realizations come only if we practice joyfully, with confidence and courage. Realization doesn't grow within a timid or weak state of mind--it blossoms in the mind free of doubt and hesitation. Realization is fearless. When we see the true nature of reality, there's nothing hidden, nothing left to fear. At last we're seeing reality as it is, full of joy and peace.
...Thinking of Tara will bring total calm, peace, and protection from all fears and all frightening situations. Tara's practice removes the two obscurations: negative emotions and subtle conceptual thinking. It will increase the two merits: accumulation merit and wisdom merit. From the moment you start praying to and practicing Tara, your life will be always under the protection of the Great Mother. From then on rebirth in the lower realms will be prevented. If you do this prayer for others, it will bring them the same benefits; it will protect them in their lifetimes as well as uproot future births in the lower realms. So there is great benefit.
--from Tara's Enlightened Activity: An Oral Commentary on "The Twenty-one Praises to Tara" by Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal
- June 25
If we can attain nondual, nonconceptual awareness in meditation, we are engaged in profound political activity, even though we may lose this awareness during the times we are not formally meditating (the buddha's awareness in post-meditation is the same as during meditation). Meditating in nondual, nonconceptual awareness, which is meditating on the dharmadhatu, immediately begins systematically to destroy in ourselves the structure of dualistic consciousness with all its attendant cognitive obscurations and emotional affiictions. From the standpoint of duality, since this dualistic consciousness also involves other sentient beings as the other pole of our duality, our activity in dissolving this consciousness has a profound impact on them as well.
While our nondualistic, nonconceptual meditation is purifying our own obscurations and afflictions and thereby transforming our personal experience of others, it is also becoming a spark of buddha activity in those others. As our meditation becomes effective, the attitude of others towards us begins to change, and they themselves begin to turn inward and to search with greater conscientiousness through the stuff of their own minds and lives for spiritual solutions to their own problems. And as the power of our meditation increases, this effect reaches ever-widening concentric circles of sentient beings with whom we have karmic interdependence, which in this day and age includes not only our immediate family and friends, working associates, and local communities, but also everyone with whom we are connected through all the media of our lives.
--from The Ninth Karmapa's Ocean of Definitive Meaning by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, edited, introduced and annotated by Lama Tashi Namgyal
- June 18
[Understanding through the merging of sound and meaning takes place when one immediately understands the meaning of a teaching through hearing the sound of the words.]
One might ask what these words are in the key instructions on the Three Words That Strike the Vital Point. The sound and the word are the same. For example, the word "mother" can be understood as indicating someone who is very kind. If one says "mother," the meaning of what that word expresses is pointed out. What is known as "the three words" is like that.
What are the three words? "View," "meditation," and "action." What does it mean to "strike the vital point" with these three words? If one wants to kill a man and strikes his heart with a weapon, the man will not live another hour. He will die immediately. What vital point do these three words strike? Just as oil is present in a mustard seed, all of us, all sentient beings, have buddha nature. Though it is present, we do not recognize it, because our minds are obscured by delusions. When, as a result of the view, meditation, and action, we come to recognize these delusions, we can get rid of them in a moment. In one day sentient beings can be transformed into buddhas--that is the ultimate view, meditation, and action of dzogchen. Such a power of transformation is called "striking the vital point."
--from The Collected Works of Dilgo Khyentse by Dilgo Khyentse, edited by Matthieu Ricard and Vivian Kurz, excerpt from Volume 3: Primordial Purity
- June 11
A tenth-century Bengali pandita named Palden Atisha reintroduced Buddhism into Tibet. He had a servant who was really awful. He was abusive to Atisha, disobedient, and generally a big problem. The Tibetans asked Atisha what he was doing with such an awful guy who was so completely obnoxious. They said, "Send him back. We'll take care of you." Atisha replied, "What are you talking about? He is my greatest teacher of patience. He is the most precious person around me!"
Patience does not mean suppression, and it doesn't mean bottling up our anger or turning it in on ourselves in the form of self-blame. It means having a mind which sees everything that happens as the result of causes and conditions we have set in motion at some time in this or past lives. Who knows what our relationship has been with someone who is causing us difficulties now? Who knows what we have have done to him in another life! If we respond to such people with retaliation, we are just locking ourselves into that same cycle. We are going to have to keep replaying this part of the movie again and again in this and future lifetimes. The only way to break out of the cycle is by changing our attitude.
--from Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings on Practical Buddhism by Venerable Tenzin Palmo
- June 3
Many spiritual seekers are not yet ready to become the disciples of spiritual mentors. Their present levels of commitment may suit working only with Buddhism professors, Dharma instructors, or meditation or ritual trainers. Even if they are ready to commit themselves to the Buddhist path and to spiritual mentors, they may not yet have found properly qualified mentors. Alternatively, the spiritual teachers available to them may be properly qualified and may even have shown them great kindness. Yet, none seem right to be their mentors. They feel they can relate to them only as their Buddhism professors. Nevertheless, the Kadam style of guru-meditation may still help such seekers to gain inspiration from these teachers at the present stages of their spiritual paths.
Unless our spiritual teachers are total charlatans or complete scoundrels, all of them have at least some good qualities and exhibit at least some level of kindness. Our Buddhism professors, Dharma instructors, or meditation or ritual trainers may lack the qualities of great spiritual mentors. Still, they have some knowledge of the Dharma, some insight from applying the Dharma to life, or some technical expertise in the practice. Our teachers are kind to instruct us, even if their motivations contain the wish to earn a living. If we correctly discern and acknowledge whatever qualities and levels of kindness that our professors, instructors, or trainers in fact possess, we may derive inspiration, through guru-meditation, by focusing on them with conviction and appreciation.
--from Wise Teacher, Wise Student: Tibetan Approaches to a Healthy Relationship by Dr. Alexander Berzin
- May 28
Even in this world, and even now, there are said to be many hidden yogis or discreet yogis, called bepay naljor in Tibetan. It means those realized ones who are not generally recognized as great spiritual sages or saints, but have deeply tasted the fruit of enlightenment, and are living it. Perhaps they are anonymously doing their good works here among us right now!
The infinite vast expanse is one's own inconceivable nature. Who can say who has realized it and who hasn't? When we travel around the world or experience other dimensions, there are so many beings who have tasted it. We can see it in their behavior, in their countenance, and in stories that are told--not just in the Dzogchen tradition or the Buddhist tradition, but in any tradition, and in our Western world too.
This true nature is so vast and inconceivable that even some birds and animals and beings in other unseen dimensions can be said to have realized it, as in some of the ancient Indian Jataka stories and other teaching tales. It is always said that everything is the self-radiant display of the primordial Buddha Samantabhadra. There are infinite numbers of Buddhas and infinite numbers of beings. Who can say who is excluded from it?
--from Natural Great Perfection: Dzogchen Teachings and Vajra Songs by Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche and Lama Surya Das
- May 21
[At the time of Buddha, a farmer asked to be ordained as a monk. Shariputra did not see his merit. But, with a great, compassionate mind, the Buddha took his hand and said, "I will give you ordination. You do have a seed to attain arhatship...."]
The Buddha explained, "Thousands and thousands of kalpas ago, this man was born as a fly. He was sitting on a pile of cow dung when a sudden rush of water caught the cow dung, along with the fly, and sent them into the river. Downstream, someone had placed a prayer wheel in the water, and that cow dung and fly swirled around and around it. Because of that circumambulation, this man now has a seed to attain arhatship in this lifetime."
Cause and result are so subtle that only omniscient wisdom can perceive every detail. That is why we must be very careful that our actions are truly beneficial.
Reciting just one mantra, protecting the life of even one small bug, giving a small thing--we should not ignore such actions by saying, "This is nothing; it makes no difference if I do it or not." Many small actions will gather and swell like the ocean. These are not merely Buddhist beliefs; these are the causes that create our world no matter who we are. Our study and practice give us the opportunity to understand this and to be sincere with ourselves even in small things.
--from A Complete Guide to the Buddhist Path by Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen, edited by Khenmo Trinlay Chodron
- May 14
...in Dzogchen, one applies specific practices in order to create a variety of sensations, so that the practitioner is more clearly enabled to distinguish the state of presence--which always remains the same--from the sensations which change according to the practice being carried out. This obviously enables one to 'no longer remain in doubt' as to what the state of pure presence is. The practices known as the twenty-one Semdzin found in the Dzogchen Mennagde, or Upadesha, series, have this particular function, enabling the practitioner to separate the ordinary, reasoning mind from the nature of the mind.
--from The Crystal and the Way of Light: Sutra, Tantra and Dzogchen by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, compiled and edited by John Shane
- May 7
People often wonder how to reconcile the Buddha's teachings on non-attachment with those on love. How can we love others without being attached to them? Non-attachment is a balanced state of mind in which we cease overestimating others' qualities. By having a more accurate view of others, our unrealistic expectations fall away, as does our clinging. This leaves us open to loving others for who they are, instead of for what they do for us. Our hearts can open to care for everyone impartially, wishing everyone to be happy simply because he or she is a living being. The feeling of warmth that was previously reserved for a select few can now be expanded to a great number of people.
--from Taming the Mind by Ven. Thubten Chodron
- April 30
Sometimes we put our glasses in our pockets or on our heads and later we ask, "Where are my glasses?" This is quite common. We look everywhere else without finding our glasses. That is why we need the guru, who can say to us, "There are your glasses." That is all that the Mahamudra and Dzogchen teachers do: they simply point out. What they are pointing out is something that you already have. It is not something that they give you. They do not give you new glasses. They cannot afford to give you new glasses, but they can afford to point out where you can find your own glasses.
When we receive pointing-out instructions from our root teacher, we are being introduced directly and nakedly to the reality of mind's nature. These instructions become very effective if we have prepared ourselves to receive them.
...Pointing-out is similar to pointing to the sky when it is very cloudy and saying to someone, "There is the blue sky." The person will look up and say, "Where?" You may reply, "It is there--behind the clouds." The person to whom you are pointing out the blue sky will not see it at first. However, if even a patch of blue sky appears, then you can say, "Look--the blue sky is like that." The person then gets a direct experience. He or she knows experientially that there is blue sky, which will be fully visible when the clouds are gone.
--from Mind Beyond Death by the Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
"In general, clear light is of two types--the objective clear light that is the subtle emptiness [of inherent existence], and the subjective clear light that is the wisdom consciousness realizing this emptiness."
--from Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth by Lati Rinbochay and Jeffrey Hopkins, foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (in honor of the passing of Lati Rinpoche)
- April 23
Q: Does every kind of desire lead to pain?
A: Not all desire leads directly to pain. However, the very word expresses the sense of sticking to something. It does not permit freedom. It binds. When attached and fastened to something, we cannot move far away. It is as if the desired object pulls us back, and we cannot free ourselves from it. For this kind of desire we use a term meaning attachment. So long as we are attached, we stick there and cannot achieve liberation. However, this does not necessarily entail chaos and pain.
Q: Does that mean that some desire is actually beneficial?
A: In the Tibetan language, desire names an attachment that harms ourselves and others. The source of benefit for ourselves and others receives a different name; we call that "longing."
--from Essential Practice: Lectures on Kamalashila's Stages of Meditation in the Middle Way School by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, translated and introduced by Jules B. Levinson
- April 16
Every time we begin to practice, it helps not to plunge in right away. Instead, take a few moments to stop your ordinary chain of thoughts. This is especially relevant if you are very busy and have only five minutes for your daily practice, but even ordinarily we have this constant stream of thoughts. Suppose that just before practice you have a fight with your fiancé. This will probably trigger a chain of thoughts about what you want to say to your partner. If you start your practice in the midst of all this, it is not going to go so well. This is why it helps to put a stop to this chain of thoughts for just a few moments.
I have found this to be very, very useful. There are actually countless methods for stopping the chain of thoughts, but for me, before I practice, I just sit for a while. Every time a thought comes along, I try to stop it by cultivating a sense of renunciation, and I do this over and over again. I think about how I am now forty-years-old and, even if I live to be eighty, I only have half of my life left. I think that out of this forty years, I am going to sleep the equivalent of twenty years. So now there are only twelve hours a day that could actually be termed living. If we then factor in watching at least one movie a day, eating, and gossip, we have maybe five hours or so left. Out of forty years that means eight years remain, and most of that will go to indulging our paranoia, anxiety, and all that.... There is actually very little time for practice!
This should give you an idea of how to stop the chain of thoughts. Don't immediately throw yourself into the practice; instead, just watch yourself, watch your life, and watch what you are doing. If you are doing ten minutes of practice every day, you should try to stop the chain of thoughts for at least two to three minutes. We do this to transform the mind by invoking a sense of renunciation. When we think, "I am dying. I am coming closer to death" and other such thoughts, it really helps.
--from the commentary by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche in Entrance to the Great Perfection: A Guide to the Dzogchen Preliminary Practices compiled, translated, and introduced by Cortland Dahl
- April 8
Unbroken practice is like a watchful guard.
It is simply unscattered and is free from acceptance or rejection.
There is no duality of things to be abandoned and their antidotes.
This is my heart's advice.
This verse and the following instructions concern how to continue with Mahamudra practice. Once we have received instructions, we have to accomplish them and perfect the practice. Continuity of practice is essential for the perfection of enlightenment.
Unbroken practice means that one is mindful all the time, like a watchful guard. Thieves and robbers may come at any time, so the guard of a mansion containing great treasure must be alert twenty-four hours a day. In the same way, it is important to watch our mind since the thieves of attachment, desire, anger, and forgetfulness can come at any time and steal the wealth of our compassion and wisdom, along with our realization of Mahamudra.
Once mindfulness is continuously established, an unscattered mind is "just there," on the spot, whether we are walking, eating, driving, or performing other activities. We can watch the mind and see how our mental state shapes our world. But when we watch it, we should just relax. Milarepa advises us in a vajra song:
Rest naturally, like a small child.
Rest like an ocean without waves.
Rest with clarity, like a candle flame.
Rest without self-concern, like a corpse.
Rest unmoving like a mountain.
--from A Complete Guide to the Buddhist Path by Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen, edited by Khenmo Trinlay Chodron
- April 2
We must learn to trust ourselves when we practice the doctrines of the Buddha. In time, we come to trust the infallibility of karmic cause and effect and of the interdependence of all actions. We must come to know and trust the importance of the accumulation of merit and wisdom, in the same way we know and trust that even the smallest drops of water falling into a bucket will eventually fill it.
We must learn to trust that our own dharma practice will remove our entire jungle of kleshas [unwholesome qualities], much like knowing a raging wildfire can clear an entire forest from the earth. All of our negativities can be swept away by the firestorm of our compassionate wisdom. We must trust that all of our happiness and sadness is completely dependent on, and a result of, our previous karma; when we trust this process we can begin the accumulation of virtuous actions immediately.
No one achieves perfection in anything meaningful the very first time they try; however, we've heard the phrase over and over again that "practice makes perfect." It is true that with multiple repetitions and patience everyone can achieve perfection over time. I don't know of anyone who has sat down to meditate for the very first time and immediately attained enlightenment, but just like the drops of water that we trust will eventually fill our bucket, consistent dharma practice will eventually lead us to liberation.
--from Heartfelt Advice by Lama Dudjom Dorjee
- March 25
Lochen Gyurme Dechen, nephew of the great accomplished master Tangtong Gyalpo, sang this song, a prayer of the Six Doctrines, called The Rain of Great Bliss:
Nama Shri Jnana Daki Nigupta-ye!
Lady of the celestial realms, compassionate one,
Chief of wisdom dakinis, Niguma,
When I, your child, pray fervently to you,
In your expanse free from formulations, please think of me.
Lady who reveals the sacred circle of great secrets,
Bestow now the empowerment of the four joys!
Lady who opens the door to the unborn state,
Clear away now my negative acts and obscurations with the purification practice!
Lady who emits fire from the short Ah,
Burn now my soiled aggregates and sense elements!
Lady who draws great bliss from the syllable Ham,
Bestow now coemergent wisdom!
Lady who reveals the natural experience of illusion,
Destroy now my attachment to the reality of anger and desire!
Lady who emanates and transforms during lucid dreams,
Lady who makes spontaneous luminosity arise,
Dispel now the darkness of my stupidity!
Lady who leads above at the time of departure,
Guide me now to the celestial realms!
Lady who overcomes the appearances of delusion in the intermediate state,
Grant me now the invincible body of enlightenment's perfect rapture.
This prayer was sung by the religious teacher Gyurme Dechen.
--from Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse of the Shangpa Masters compiled by Jamgon Kongtrul, trans. & ed. by Ngawang Zangpo, a Tsadra Foundation Series book
- March 18
Yang Gonpa says:
The essence of thoughts that suddenly arise is without any nature. Do not inhibit their appearance in any way, and without thinking of any essence, let them arise clearly, nakedly, and vividly. Likewise, if one thought arises, observe its nature, and if two arise, observe their nature. Thus, whatever thoughts arise, let them go without holding onto them. Let them remain as fragments. Release them unimpededly. Be naked without an object. Release them without grasping. This is close to becoming a Buddha. This is the self-extinction of samsara, samsara is overwhelmed, samsara is disempowered, and samsara is exhausted. Knowledge of the path of method and wisdom, appearances and emptiness, the gradual stages, the common and special paths, and the 84,000 entrances to the Dharma is made perfectly complete and fulfilled in an instant. This is self-arisen, for it is present like that in the very nature [of awareness]. Natural liberation is the essence of all the stainless paths, and it bears the essence of emptiness and compassion.
--from A Spacious Path to Freedom: Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahamudra and Atiyoga by Karma Chagme, commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche, trans. by B. Alan Wallace
- March 12
Under the heading of the great way's [Mahayana's] perspective, we read of how the Buddha merely demonstrates the process of enlightenment in this world, something he has done and will do repeatedly. Kongtrul quotes the Buddha in an important discourse:
"In the past, countless ages ago, in a world-system that united as many realms as there are grains of sand in the Ganges, I attained enlightenment as Transcendent Buddha Crown of the Powerful One, aided beings, and transcended sorrow. Then once again, from that point until the present age, I have repeatedly demonstrated the inconceivable process of enlightenment.
"I will continue, until cyclic existence is empty, to demonstrate [this process of] enlightenment beginning with the initial development of the mind of awakening as an ordinary being."
While such statements do not help us grasp the nature of the Buddha's enlightenment, they do underline the fact that enlightenment is a specific experience, the result of a known and knowable process that the Buddha deliberately demonstrates time and again so that we might follow his example, no guesswork involved.
--from Treasury of Knowledge, Books Two, Three, and Four: Buddhism's Journey to Tibet by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, translated and introduced by Ngawang Zangpo
- March 4
The activities of this degenerate age are like a madman's performance of dance.
No matter what we do, there is no way to please others.
Think about what is essential.
This is my heart's advice.
--Bhande Dharmaradza
In any group of people, there is always some misunderstanding. You cannot satisfy everyone, no matter what you do. The Bodhicaryavatara says that every individual has a different way of thinking. Thus, it is very difficult to please everyone. Even the Buddha could not do it, so how can we? Instead of trying to please others, please yourself by applying yourself fully to bodhicitta.
Investigate your situation carefully, according to the Dharma. For us, it is more important to know what is best than to know how to please everyone. Know what is right, and on the basis of your own wisdom and skill, just do it. Don't expect that other people will be pleased with you or that they will be happy about what you do. Rather, do what's best, what's helpful for yourself and for others. If they are happy about it, that's fine. If they are not happy, what can you do?
--from A Complete Guide to the Buddhist Path by Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen, edited by Khenmo Trinlay Chodron
- February 25
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, addressing those who have or will undertake a retreat, gives this advice:
"You will fall sick, experience pain, and encounter many adverse circumstances. At such times do not think, 'Although I am practicing the Dharma, I have nothing but trouble. The Dharma cannot be so great. I have followed a teacher and done so much practice, and yet hard times still befall me.' Such thoughts are wrong views. You should realize that through the blessing and power of the practice, by experiencing sickness and other difficulties now, you are purifying and ridding yourself of negative actions.... By purifying them while you have the chance, you will later go from bliss to bliss. So do not think, 'I don't deserve this illness, these obstacles, these negative influences.' Experience your difficulties as blessings...when you do experience such difficulties, you should be very happy and avoid having adverse thoughts like, 'Why are such terrible things happening to me.'"
As Rinpoche advises, relating to hardship properly depends on the strength of one's view. In general, having a view is knowing exactly where you want to go and how to get there. It is the vision of knowing what you want. For example, if you have the view to become a doctor, your vision guides you through financial burdens, physical and emotional difficulties, and obstacles that get in your way. You know it will be difficult and involve sacrifice, but with a strong view, you forge to the finish line.
Similarly, if you want to become spiritually awakened, it is the power of your view that gets you there. If you are having a hard time getting to the meditation cushion, or engaging in the necessary study, it is because your view is not strong enough or is incomplete. A partial view, in this case, is one that doesn't include hardship. You can strengthen your view and accelerate progress by understanding how you lose your view in the fog of hardship, and therefore lose sight of your path.
--from The Power and the Pain: Transforming Spiritual Hardship into Joy by Dr. Andrew Holecek
- February 18
1.18 Fruition of the Seed of Enlightenment
When we engage in virtuous actions, we realize they are beneficial not only for others, but also for ourselves. Our good deeds can earn the praise and appreciation of others, and the benefits of our work come back to us through others. When we are involved with virtuous works, people respect us and hold us in high esteem. And we know we must be doing something good, because we experience a wholesome, pleasant feeling about our life's work. We quickly begin to see the short-term benefits of our involvement in virtuous action as our bodies and minds become more peaceful in our daily lives.
This serenity in turn increases our longevity as our body and mind become more harmonized. Even after our death, we will be reincarnated in higher realms of existence as a result of our involvement with virtuous works during this life. Yet a higher rebirth is merely a short-term benefit, a temporary relief from the sufferings of samsara, for until we achieve liberation from samsara we remain trapped in the cycle of suffering, and "whatever goes up, must come down!"
Within the mundane world, when our evil deeds are common knowledge, no one sings their praises. If such deeds are remembered at all, it is in infamy. However, when a being lives with a mind of true bodhichitta and does great works of pure altruism, their deeds are remembered for centuries. Of such cases we have many examples within the Kagyu lineage alone: the historical Buddha, Guru Rinpoche, Milarepa, the Karmapas, and countless others. Yet it is also important to remember that virtuous action eventually leads us to the liberation of buddhahood; this is the ultimate long-term benefit of planting the seed of enlightenment of which we speak. Hence, as we make this journey towards liberation, it is extremely important for us to learn to recognize which of our actions are virtuous and which are not.
--from Heartfelt Advice by Lama Dudjom Dorjee
- February 11
...ngondro, the foundational practices, are ways to bring body, speech, or energy, and all aspects of mind into increasingly effortless harmony with the oceanic expanse central to Dzogchen teachings. This expanse is another name for reality, the heart of our being, and thus for mind-nature. Its vastness challenges the cramped and reified self-images that temporarily obstruct our view of the whole. Finitudes of any kind--the sense of being small and contained, the familiar urgent rush of business, passions, or plans--are simply conceptions. These conceptions are both cause and effect of energetic holdings in the body. The foundational practices illuminate these holdings and, in the end, lead to their dissolution into the expanse. As Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche has said, "Like a fire that burns fuel, the mind consumes thought by working with it."
In the Tibetan traditions, teaching and practice sessions typically open with a reference, brief or extensive, to the foundational practices. Every lineage has its own variations, but the basic structure and principles of these practices are virtually identical. After an acknowledgment of one's guru or lineage and the intention to benefit all beings, the sequence usually begins with the four thoughts. These are reflections on (1) the preciousness of one's own life, (2) the fragility of life and the uncertainty of death's timing, (3) the inexorable nature of karma, and (4) the impossibility of avoiding suffering so long as ignorance holds one in samsara. In addition, there are two other contemplations: (5) the benefits of liberation compared to life in samsara and (6) the importance of a spiritual guide. These six are known as the outer foundational practices.
These six are combined with five inner practices, each of which is repeated one hundred thousand times. The first inner foundational practice is refuge. Refuge, writes Adzom Drukpa, is the cornerstone of all paths. Without it, he adds, quoting Candrakirti, all vows come to nothing. Most succinctly, refuge helps us cultivate a quality vital to the path and to human interaction in general: this is the quality of trust, the ability to fruitfully rely on someone or something other than oneself. Adzom Paylo Rinpoche once said that whereas relying on others in the context of samsara generally leads us astray, relying on the Dharma increases our good qualities.
--from Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse: A Story of Transmission by Anne C. Klein, foreword by Adzom Paylo Rinpoche, preface by Tulku Thondup Rinpoche
- February 5
41. One's own awareness, fresh and uncontrived
One's own awareness, fresh and uncontrived,
Is the primordially present ultimate Lama
From whom you have not been separated for even an instant.
This meeting with the original abiding nature--how amazing!
(I, Jnana, wrote this in response to Changchub Palmo's request.)
--from Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoche's Heart Advice trans. by Ron Garry, a Tsadra Foundation Series book
- January 30
...according to such authors as the second buddha, Rangjung Dorje, and the realized master, Kacho Wongpo...
You should accompany pilgrimage with three qualities of your bearing: physical, verbal, and mental restraint, as instructed in the Buddha's teachings on discipline; the development of the mind of awakening, as instructed in the teachings on the transcendent perfections; and the pure tantric commitments, as instructed in the teachings of Secret Mantra. Purify the obscuring effects of past negative physical acts by giving up such things as riding horses or wearing hats. Purify the obscuring effects of negative verbal acts by reciting prayers and singing praises. Purify the obscuring effects of negative mental acts by maintaining devotion, respect, and pure vision. In summation, while on pilgrimage give up all activity detrimental to spiritual life and be consistently attentive, mindful, and faithful.
On pilgrimage, renounce playful jokes and jests, raucous laughter, and idle conversation. Leave far behind any worldly concern, such as for food, drink, and fashion. In particular, scrupulously avoid such acts as intoxication, arguments, and loud shouting.
...Don't place imaginary limits on the miraculous manifestations of spiritual heroes and dakinis in this place: regard everything you see, good or bad--human beings, animals, birds, mice, deer, or carnivorous animals--with faith and pure vision.
--from Sacred Ground: Jamgon Kongtrul on "Pilgrimage and Sacred Geography" by Ngawang Zangpo, a Tsadra Foundation Series book
- January 22
Ego is the problem. Sometimes ego is very spoiled, like a child who is constantly throwing tantrums. Sometimes ego doesn't accept where we are. Sometimes ego doesn't accept who we are. Sometimes ego doesn't accept the way things are without any real complaint. So what do we do? There is nothing that we can do. Sometimes ego doesn't accept the fact that the sky is blue but there is nothing that we can do. You see. Sometimes ego doesn't accept that we are living on a planet that is permeated with natural disasters, earthquakes, floods, and other catastrophes. All we can do is accept that and learn how to surrender to the flow of all events.
When we accept the way things are we are able to love everything and everybody. When we are not able to accept even one thing in this world right now, then how could we ever develop boundless love? Lack of acceptance is conflict. Conflict is pain. It is psychological pain. It is a spiritual illness. As long as our hearts are tormented by that pain, we do not have the strength to give our heart to anything and because of that it is impossible to bring about inner awakening. Enlightenment, you see, is just another name for boundless love.
It is almost impossible to practice loving-kindness towards all living beings without addressing, in a meaningful way, the innumerable problems arising in our own lives. It is a contradiction, you see. It does not work. If our heart is tormented because we are not able to accept things the way they are, then it is impossible to open our heart. It is impossible to let go of all of our defenses and embrace others. Therefore we have to constantly practice and deepen our awareness. We have to remind ourselves to accept things as they are. This is pretty much what the teachings called Mind Training are all about. Mind Training in Buddhism is about carrying those perspectives and even reciting slogans, phrases like "I shall accept the way things are."
--from No Self, No Problem by Anam Thubten, edited by Sharon Roe
- January 15
The whole point here is to destroy impure perception. So what do we mean by impure perception? Impure perception is basically everything that we see, perceive, and label at the moment. It is not that something is wrong out there and that's why everything is impure. Instead, it is because, at the moment, whenever we perceive something, it is always filtered through our emotions, our desire, jealousy, pride, ignorance, and aggression. When we look at a person, we may see him or her through the filter of our passion, and will therefore see him or her as very desirable. We may look at another person through the lens of aggression, which will cause us to see him or her as very ugly and hideous. When perceiving others through our own insecurity, we make judgements, refer, and compare, and end up trying to defend or boost our pride, which all stems from ignorance. The list goes on and on.
All the different perceptions we have arise from our very own minds and are coming through these emotions. That is why everything we experience ends up being a disappointment. Regardless of whether it is felt in a big or a small way, the point is that there is always a little bit of disappointment. This is what we are trying to purify.
This all comes down to training the mind. In the Shravakayana tradition, one trains the mind through physical and verbal discipline; by shaving the head, begging for alms, wearing saffron robes, and refraining from worldly activities, such as getting married. In the Mahayana, on top of that one trains the mind by meditating on compassion, bodhichitta, and so forth. In the Vajrayana, over and above these two, we try to transform our impure vision into something pure.
We learn to do this by going step-by-step through the ngondro. Our very first step is to stop the chain of thoughts. We then expel the stale breath along with a bit of visualization. Finally, we cultivate the notion that the very place where we are is no longer an ordinary place. With these steps, we have begun to transform this impure vision.
--from Entrance to the Great Perfection: A Guide to the Dzogchen Preliminary Practices compiled, translated, and introduced by Cortland Dahl
- January 3
...there are some sceptical persons who may think that when the mind is not moved by many thoughts, it will be in a stupid state. But stupidity does not arise just because the mind relaxes a little. On the contrary, the mind usually thinks too much. We are used to thinking uninterruptedly and continuously. If we look at these thoughts more closely, however, we discover that we seldom think meaningfully at all, and that most of our thinking is rather senseless. Such senseless thinking happens frequently and repeats itself over and over. In this way our many endlessly occurring thoughts are continuously going around and around in circles. If we are able to decrease this senseless thinking, meaningful thoughts will naturally increase all by themselves. And this is exactly the reason for the meditation on calm abiding: when the mind relaxes, senseless thinking will effortlessly diminish.
The rest of the night passed uneventfully, and when I awoke at dawn, I found that my fists were still tightly clenched one around the other. When I opened my hands, I found that there really was a small scroll in the palm of one hand. I at once went in great excitement to knock on the door of my uncle's cave. It was not normally permitted to disturb him at such an early hour, as he would be engaged in his morning session of practice, but I was too excited to wait. He came to the door, and I explained what had happened and showed him the scroll. He looked at it for a moment, quite calmly, and said, 'Thank you. I was expecting this.' Then he went back to his practice as if nothing extraordinary had happened at all.
--from Everyday Consciousness and Primordial Awareness by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, translated and edited by Susanne Schefczyk
2009
- December 25
Strange things frequently happened around Khyentse Chokyi Wangchug connected with his capacity as a terton. On one occasion, when I was still quite young, I went to stay in a cave close to, but a little below, my uncle's. While there, I had a dream one night, in which a dakini appeared to me and gave me a small scroll of paper on which there was written a sacred text. She explained that the text was very important, and that on waking I should give it to my uncle. By this time my practice had already developed to the extent that I could maintain awareness throughout my sleep and dreams, and in this dream I knew that I was dreaming. I remember closing one of my fists around the scroll, and then closing the other fist tightly around the first.
The rest of the night passed uneventfully, and when I awoke at dawn, I found that my fists were still tightly clenched one around the other. When I opened my hands, I found that there really was a small scroll in the palm of one hand. I at once went in great excitement to knock on the door of my uncle's cave. It was not normally permitted to disturb him at such an early hour, as he would be engaged in his morning session of practice, but I was too excited to wait. He came to the door, and I explained what had happened and showed him the scroll. He looked at it for a moment, quite calmly, and said, 'Thank you. I was expecting this.' Then he went back to his practice as if nothing extraordinary had happened at all.
--from The Crystal and the Way of Light: Sutra, Tantra and Dzogchen by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, compiled and ed. by John Shane
- December 19
The fourth precept is never to give up living beings, not even a single one. If we do so, we at once lose the altruistic intention to attain enlightenment for the sake of all living beings. How can we learn never to abandon them? If we know how to transform all adverse circumstances into conditions which help us towards enlightenment, we will never be tempted to abandon anyone.
...Special care is required in our relationships with those who are close to us, those towards whom we feel an instant dislike and those to whom we have been kind and who respond ungratefully. We honor, respect and make offerings to the enlightened ones but neglect and abandon living beings although our attainment of Buddhahood depends as much on them as it does on Buddhas. In the sixth chapter of "Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds" Shantideva says:
The qualities of Buddhahood are gained
Through living beings and Victorious Ones alike,
Why then do we respect the Victorious Ones
And not living beings in the same way?
--from Atisha's Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment commentary by Geshe Sonam Rinchen, translated and edited by Ruth Sonam
- December 12
In the Uttaratantra by Maitreya, it is said that our recognizing our buddha potential is like a man living in poverty discovering that buried beneath his home is a priceless treasure. It is like discovering a jewel buried in the mud. If our buddha potential is like a golden statue wrapped in filthy rags, the golden image can never be tarnished by the rags--it is merely obscured by them. When I was younger and my understanding of Buddhism was relatively poor, the images that came from this text had a profound effect on me.
They gave me an intuitive sense of my intrinsic value in a way that I had never felt previously. The influence of religion in my early years had left me with the belief that I was essentially a sinner and that at the root of my being was an innate badness that I had to overcome. It left me fundamentally unable to trust myself because to let go would be to open up my innate badness. When I met my Tibetan teachers and they spoke of my buddha nature, I felt a huge sense of relief. Perhaps I was not so bad after all, and perhaps when I allowed myself to relax a little and open up, I would find my true nature as something whole and wonderful rather than something to be feared and suppressed.
--from The Courage to Feel: Buddhist Practices for Opening to Others by Rob Preece
- December 5
If we are still wondering how to awaken, I suggest that we meditate now and then and focus on the following question: "What is holding me back from realizing my true nature, my Buddha Nature?" This is a very powerful inquiry. I am sharing this based on my own meditation practice. This is one of my favorite meditations because it always takes me to the place where I cannot blame anybody or anything for my lack of awakening.
When we open our hearts and let go of all of our theories and speculations, when we are not distracted even by spiritual fantasies, when we simply wholeheartedly and courageously inquire into what is holding us back, that is all that we need to do. Sometimes it is good when we are by ourselves to.. shout loudly to the sky, "Who is holding me back from awakening right now?" Or we can just ask the truth, "What is holding me back from awakening right now?" Either way we can't find any answer because there is nobody there. There is nothing holding us back and that's why we never really find any answers.
If anybody tells us that they have the answer, they are obviously lying because there isn't any answer. Next we might ask, "If there are no obstacles holding me back, then why am I not awakened right now?" And when we look we realize that we are attached to our thoughts. That's all that is happening. Samsara is nothing more than our identification with thoughts. That's all there is. There is nothing there except thoughts.
--from No Self, No Problem by Anam Thubten, edited by Sharon Roe
- November 28
Yang Gonpa says:
The essence of thoughts that suddenly arise is without any nature. Do not inhibit their appearance in any way, and without thinking of any essence, let them arise clearly, nakedly, and vividly. Likewise, if one thought arises, observe its nature, and if two arise, observe their nature. Thus, whatever thoughts arise, let them go without holding onto them. Let them remain as fragments. Release them unimpededly. Be naked without an object. Release them without grasping. This is close to becoming a Buddha. This is the self-extinction of samsara, samsara is overwhelmed, samsara is disempowered, and samsara is exhausted. Knowledge of the path of method and wisdom, appearances and emptiness, the gradual stages, the common and special paths, and the 84,000 entrances to the Dharma is made perfectly complete and fulfilled in an instant. This is self-arisen, for it is present like that in the very nature [of awareness]. Natural liberation is the essence of all the stainless paths, and it bears the essence of emptiness and compassion.
--from A Spacious Path to Freedom: Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahamudra and Atiyoga by Karma Chagme, commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche, trans. by B. Alan Wallace
- November 21
The Doha [contemplative song] of the glorious recluse Saraha states:
Oh, let the mind observe itself without distraction!
If you realize your own thatness,
Even the distracted mind will arise as Mahamudra.
This is the state of great bliss, in which signs are self-releasing.
Do nothing else, attend to nothing external, simply be aware of your own mind. By realizing your own essential nature, even the distracted mind arises as Mahamudra. This state of great bliss is free of all faults, including the fault of ignorance, so it is equivalent to the omniscient state of spiritual awakening. This is closely related to the assertion that by liberating one thought all are liberated; by gaining insight into one thought there is insight into all. Insofar as one dwells in that state of awareness, there are no thoughts, no discrimination. Through realizing the nature of your own mind, you realize the one taste of samsara and nirvana.
--from Naked Awareness: Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen by Karma Chagme, commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche, translated by B. Alan Wallace, edited by Lindy Steele & B. Alan Wallace
- November 15
Most of the time it is suffering that makes us cry; our tears are salty and not very pleasant to taste. If we consider the whole world, the oceans are salty, too, and it is mainly the solid land where people live and work that is most useful and pleasant. It is also true that the salty oceans are bigger than the land-masses, and in the same way, beings know more suffering than happiness. Perhaps this is a child's view, but I think that the four great oceans of our planet are like the four main sufferings of sentient beings: birth, old age, sickness, and death.
Every living being in the world wishes happiness and wants to avoid suffering. How can they attain this happiness? Through the practice of genuine Dharma in all its various forms: meditation on the yidam deities and the nature of mind, the recitation of mantras, and the development of bodhichitta, the awakened mind. Developing faith and devotion is the preliminary for genuine Dharma practice. If these two are strong and uncontrived, we will ultimately attain the level of awakening, or buddhahood. This is my genuine wish for all of you.
--from Music in the Sky: The Life, Art and Teachings of the Seventeenth Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje by Michele Martin
- November 7
Agitation, remorse and regret, lassitude and
sleepiness, longing for the desirable, doubt--
these five are thieves who steal the riches
of virtuous dhyana--so the Muni has said.
The impediments are agitation, regret and remorse, sleepiness and lassitude, longing for the desirable, and doubt--five in all. The agitation caused by thoughts scattering towards various objects and regret for inappropriate actions one has done prevent the mind from abiding serenely. Remorse prevents it from abiding happily. Torpor that occludes the mind, dullness (which is a more overwhelming form of torpor), and compulsion to sleep prevent the mind from resting lucidly. Longing, which is desire for material goods or sentient beings, prevents the mind from resting in an effective way. Doubt about whether or not this is leading to samadhi prevents the mind from resting with sharp focus.
These five can also be condensed into two. Torpor, lassitude and sleep are included in torpor, while the rest are included within agitation, so there are just the two, torpor and agitation. The method for eliminating them is reliance on the individual remedies given in the guidance manuals, or else,
This has nothing whatsoever to be removed;
there isn't the slightest thing to be added on.
Look at perfection perfectly.
When you see the perfect you are totally liberated.
So the main thing is to look at the very essence of torpor and agitation and just rest in that essence without contrivance. That is the most profound [remedy]. This is also absolutely necessary as a basis for higher insight. As Santideva says:
Once you know that serene abiding
with full measure of higher insight
completely destroys afflictive patterns,
then first strive for serene abiding that,
with no attachment to the world,
is accomplished with evident joy.
--from The Eighth Situpa on the Third Karmapa's Mahamudra Prayer translated by Lama Sherab Dorje
- October 31
When we have a poor sense of self we can easily become formless in the sense that we do not express our boundaries or our "shape" and may then be taken advantage of to our detriment. I have known a number of Buddhist friends who had a disposition to be self-effacing and self-negating in a particularly unhealthy and detrimental way. They would often find themselves being taken advantage of and feeling powerless to do anything about it. They would tell themselves that they had to give up "self-cherishing" and so let what was happening continue. I found this very sad and frustrating to watch because it became increasingly clear that they were struggling inside with something they had been told was a taboo--looking after themselves. In the case of these friends, it was clear that their lack of self-assertion was actually a cause of more suffering. In many ways, it was actually reinforcing their wounding. It also meant that those who took advantage were being quite abusive in what they were doing.
We should not confuse a healthy self-regard and self-assertion with [selfish concern, or self-preoccupation, in which the mind becomes disturbed and tight, reacting to conflicting or challenging situations with defensiveness, anger, jealousy, greed, embarrassment, or worry, contracting into oneself.]
...Learning to let go of the disposition to be self-preoccupied is not an easy step to take because it will challenge us where we defensively still hold on. Once we become aware of the disposition, we will see it time and again in relatively insignificant as well as in major ways. I saw this in a small way as I walked to work one morning. I saw a worm struggling to cross the footpath and in danger of drying up and dying. I had a moment of choice in which I could have picked up the worm and placed it in the grass, potentially saving its life. I didn't, I regret to say, because there were some people coming towards me and I suddenly felt embarrassed about what they would think about me.
...Letting go is not the same as doing nothing or letting everyone walk over you. But when we go into the contracted space [of obsessive thinking and self-preoccupation], it hurts. When we let go, there is the possibility of doing something about our situation, but not from the same emotional place.... When we have let go of the contracted self-preoccupation, we begin to have a choice.
...Letting go of self-preoccupation does not imply passivity. It means recognizing that the cause of suffering is the contraction into ourselves in a way that actually increases the pain. When we stay open, we can still assert what is important for us. It requires a certain kind of inner strength to keep our heart open.
--from The Courage to Feel: Buddhist Practices for Opening to Others by Rob Preece
- October 24
Among the highlights of the 2008 Olympics held in Beijing were the remarkable performances of Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt, who respectively dominated the swimming and sprint running events. Each competed with a field of world-class athletes who had the best training facilities, coaching, and support networks, but the two comprehensively bested all rivals in their respective fields. Every athlete in the final heats had trained hard and prepared mentally and physically for the contest, but Phelps and Bolt won over and over, often by significant margins. Anyone watching their performances would have to conclude that they enjoyed physical advantages over their competitors; they also had to train to reach such a high level of performance, but no matter how hard their opponents worked, they could not beat them. Genetic factors that began at birth were ultimately decisive.
A similar notion pervades the stories of the Buddha's past births, in which he is depicted as engaging in extraordinary acts of virtue. These result in pleasant births as a god or in prosperous human families, and even when he is born as an animal because of an anomalous moral transgression, he has a large, beautiful body, which is commonly described as possessing extraordinary strength that inspires others through its physical beauty and bespeaks the inner virtues of the Bodhisattva. [A golden exterior is a pervasive motif in Indian Buddhist literature that indicates moral excellence.]
...An example of the close association of a golden exterior with spiritual excellence is a story in the Mulasarvastivada Monastic Discipline in which Devadatta importunes king Ajatasattu, who has recently murdered his father Bimbisara, to repay him for his help in seizing the throne. Devadatta asks the king to depose the Buddha as head of the monastic order and declare him a buddha. The king is willing to assist Devadatta in his evil schemes, but declares that he is unable to name him a buddha because he lacks golden skin, which is an essential marker of buddhahood.
Devadatta is depicted as relentless in his efforts to kill or displace the Buddha, and he responds by hiring a goldsmith to gild him. Unfortunately for the would-be buddha, the process is unsuccessful and only results in excruciating pain. The lesson of the story is that the physical signs of moral perfection cannot be faked: one is either born with them or not, and those who lack them can acquire them only through a long process of moral cultivation and meditative practice.
--from Destroying Mara Forever: Buddhist Ethics Essays in Honor of Damien Keown edited by John Powers and Charles S. Prebish
- October 18
[Amy and Gully had observed Prince David in different situations in the past, from his imprisonment to his profound revelations into the nature of life, through a special screen. He is now an old man, and boys are taunting him.]
The dogs snapped at David's legs. The boys, shouting and laughing, threw more stones. David raised his arms to shield his head.
Amy jumped to her feet. She ran right up to the screen. "Stop!" she shouted. "You'll hurt him! Stop!"
Gully blinked in amazement. Amy had gone right into the screen! That couldn't be! But there she was, standing between David and the boys.
"Hey! Wait!" Holding out his arm, Gully rushed to the screen. It wasn't solid at all! It felt like warm, misty air, and it seemed to be sucking him in. "Hey!"
He found himself beside Amy, facing the boys.
Gully turned and saw the dogs, barking and snarling. We're caught in the middle! flashed through his mind. He wondered what to do when the boys started throwing stones again.
But the boys just gaped with open mouths. They seemed frozen with fear. One of them dropped to his knees. So did the others. "We're sorry," said the first boy. "Have you come to punish us?"
Gully took a deep breath. "No," he said.
"Aren't you a young god and goddess?"
"What?" said Amy, laughing.
"Only gods could appear like that. . .out of the air. Have you come from a distant star?"
"No," said Amy. "We were just watching you, and--"
"Oh! You are celestial observers!" A murmur of awe passed through the crowd of boys. "We meant no harm! We promise to be good! Please do not punish us, all-powerful observers!"
Amy giggled. "We were just watching you on a screen."
Gully elbowed her sharply in the ribs. "Yes!" he bellowed in a deep, important voice. "We have been watching you on our observing screen. We do not usually reveal ourselves to. . .ordinary mortals. But you were being very, very bad! Goddess Amy and I were not pleased by what we saw. But we will not punish you. . .if you will never do it again."
"Yes, all-powerful observers! Thank you, all-powerful observer-gods!"
"And take those dogs with you," Gully yelled. "Before we change our all-powerful minds!"
"Yes! Yes, at once!" Calling the dogs after them, the boys ran away as fast as they could.
Gully and Amy stood facing David. The old man was calm and radiant. "Thank you," he said. "The dogs were biting."
"Your legs!" cried Amy. "They're bleeding!"
"The wounds are not deep. You arrived in good time." He made a low bow.
"No, don't!" said Amy. "You're the one who. . ." Her voice faded away. She and Gully stared at the old man in wonder.
His face seemed to radiate a soft, loving warmth. His eyes shone with quiet happiness. Amy and Gully felt a joy they had never known before.
"It's like being in a circle of magic!" Amy thought."I feel so free and happy!"
Gully rubbed his eyes and looked at David. "You found the treasure. . .a way to end suffering, didn't you?"
"Yes!" cried Amy. "You found it!" Her eyes were shining. "Will you tell us?"
"I think you already know," said David. "You are able to travel through space, so you must have learned--"
"Oh, no," Amy interrupted. "We're just kids. . .like the ones we scared away."
"Yeah," said Gully. "So will you please tell us?"
David smiled. "This is what I have learned. The treasure is within us. It is a kind of knowing that cannot be put into words. Think deeply about loving-kindness. You must always wish to help other beings. But you must do so with a pure heart. Never become proud of yourself."
--from Amy and Gully with Aliens by W.W. Rowe
- October 10
The story is told that when Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of compassion, was looking at the lives of human beings upon this planet, he saw how much pain and suffering we inflict upon each other, and for a moment his compassion faltered. He almost abandoned his vow to liberate us from suffering. At that instant, his body exploded into a thousand pieces, represented in the image of the thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara. If this can happen to the figure who, in Buddhism, most exemplifies compassion, then perhaps we can be forgiven for not always finding it easy to sustain a compassionate heart in the face of so much suffering in the world.
We may live in times when material, economic, and scientific progress is moving at a rate never before seen, yet our capacity to live peacefully alongside each other seems to remain elusive. When confronted with the constant evidence of so much brutality and corruption present in the world, whether this is seen on the news or experienced closer to home, it is common to feel a sense of anger and outrage, and to feel powerless to do anything to change the ignorance, greed, and hatred that motivate most of the atrocities our fellow humans inflict upon each other. Are we, individually or collectively, able to go beyond the dominance of our instinctual selfishness that reaps so much harm?
...Whatever spiritual tradition we may be part of, if we wish to live our lives with greater openness to others, and with the courage and heart to cope with adverse conditions, we have much to learn from the path of the bodhisattva. The bodhisattva, sometimes translated as "the awakening warrior," dedicates his or her life to the welfare of others and is willing to face the challenges of life to do so. The bodhisattva's way of life does not lead to a spiritual escape from the reality of the world. Rather, the bodhisattva cultivates the capacity to live within the raw reality of suffering on the ground and transform life's adverse circumstances into a path of awakening. A bodhisattva makes a clear decision to remain embodied and in relationship to life even while reaching states of awareness that go far beyond our normal reality. Such a person is said to renounce the peace of nirvana and overcome the fear of samsara. What gives this attitude to life a particular significance is that it recognizes that only through fully awakening our innate wholeness can we achieve the greatest benefit to others.
Central to this approach to life is a quality of intention called bodhichitta, often translated as "the awakening mind." The awakening mind is most often described as the clear, compassionate intention to attain the state of buddhahood for the welfare of all sentient beings. While "the awakening mind" may seem like a relatively simple phrase, its actual psychological, emotional, and social implications are huge. It is a reorientation of the whole of an individual's direction and meaning in life, rooted in a deep sense of compassion and responsibility towards the welfare of the world.
--from The Courage to Feel: Buddhist Practices for Opening to Others by Rob Preece
- October 3
The Hangover of Dualistic Appearance
Nirvana is the actual antidote or "active ingredient" in the medicine of the Dharma. A single, direct, nondualistic realization of emptiness eradicates permanently some portion of the desire, hatred, and ignorance that have bound one in misery for infinite cycles of time up until that moment. Repeated realizations over many lifetimes are still needed before all of the ancient roots of ignorance can be eradicated. During this training, the bodhisattva alternates between periods of meditation on emptiness and periods of compassionate action in the world. Even after the bodhisattva escapes samsara altogether, she must still practice for a long time to overcome the "hangover" of dualistic appearances, the aftereffects of having been ignorant for so long. Finally, these last limitations are cleared away and the bodhisattva becomes a buddha. A buddha continuously knows emptiness directly while also simultaneously acting compassionately in the world of persons and forms.
--from Introduction to Emptiness: As Taught in Tsong-kha-pa's Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path by Guy Newland
- September 26
As practitioners, we are taught to think about the gift of the precious human body. We have been born in places where the dharma is taught, at a time when teachers are accessible and where transmission is obtainable. We live where there is the political freedom to follow our spiritual paths. Our living conditions are good and we have the leisure to practice.
What we often lack is the recognition of the gifts we have already received. Sometimes we remember how good our lives are when we are brushed by tragedy, but then, caught up again in our normal lives, we forget. We are driven away from gratitude and appreciation by dark and negative forces, by habitual dissatisfaction and constant stimulation. When others have more than us, we feel envy, but in a world where so many people have less than us, we often don't recognize how fortunate we are.
The teachings often focus on view, meditation, and behavior. What this means is that the way we see determines how we feel and think. And how we feel and think determines how we act. When we look from a dualistic viewpoint, we see an imperfect world and we live as troubled, imperfect beings in that imperfect world. When we see the world in its perfection, just as it is, we are buddhas, living in a pure land, surrounded by other buddhas.
Until we have pure vision and realize the perfection of the world and the beings in it, it is helpful if we can accept the imperfections of the world as a natural part of life, as the material with which we can work. When we turn away from any aspect of the world, we turn away from parts of ourselves. By opening to the world and accepting it as it is, we open to deeper dimensions of our own being. Complete acceptance is the end of hope and fear, the end of fantasies of the past and future. It is living entirely in the present, in what actually is.
--from Healing with Form, Energy and Light: The Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra and Dzogchen by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, edited by Mark Dahlby
- September 19
...one should think, "If physical illness or mental suffering did not occur to me, then I would be distracted only by the busy activities of this life. Having become intoxicated with pride and arrogance, I would never produce sadness for this world and would never be mindful of the acceptance and rejection of virtue and nonvirtue. So this disease or suffering has caused me to be mindful of the objects of refuge and the Dharma. It has evoked within me strong renunciation and sadness (for this world), and many deeds (karma) that would have caused me to experience the hells in future lives are being settled through ripening here (in this life)." If one practices in this manner, one's illness and suffering will be transformed into the path of enlightenment. As it was said in the "Bodhicaryavatara," .
Moreover, the good qualities of suffering are
that one dispels pride by sadness, generates
compassion for worldlings, produces an aversion
for nonvirtue, and a fondness for virtue.
--from The Three Visions: Fundamental Teachings of the Sakya Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism by Ngorchen Konchog Lhundrub, fore. by H.H. Sakya Trizin, trans. by Lobsang Dagpa and Jay Goldberg
- September 12
You may feel that it is a waste of time to ask for help in cognizing emptiness rather than just cognizing emptiness. But this is not so. A cognition of emptiness is extremely important, and asking for help in meditating on emptiness establishes predispositions in the mind which, even if they do not ripen into an actual cognition in this lifetime, will do so quickly in a future lifetime. A thousand Buddhas will appear in this eon, and it is definite that at the time of one of those Buddhas you will cognize emptiness directly and attain the state of a Buddha. This is very clear in scripture.
Today you are beginning by establishing predispositions. Then with a subtle portion of mind, watch your own sense of "I" as if from a corner, without overpowering your consciousness through watchfulness such that the "I" does not appear. You may remember an incident in which you were falsely accused and had a clear sense of an "I" who was falsely accused, or you may remember being helped by another person and at that time having a clear sense of the "I" who was helped. Cultivate this sense of "I." Watch it. See what it is like. See if it seems to cover a certain area that is its basis of designation. This is extremely important. Without a clear sense of the inherent existence negated in the view of selflessness, talk about emptiness and meditation on emptiness is like shooting an arrow without knowing where the target is.
Please meditate.
--from Meditations of a Tibetan Tantric Abbot: The Main Practices of the Mahayana Buddhist Path by Kensur Lekden, trans. and ed. by Jeffrey Hopkins
- September 5
I would like to say a few words about rousing the mind of awakening, the mind that is directed toward supreme awakening. This is the Tibetan way of practicing the excellent dharma. What is the reason for this tradition? Generally, in the Buddhist way, if we repair our motivation at the start, our conduct can become pure and correct. If we do not repair our motivation at the start, our conduct cannot become pure and correct. For that reason, we need pure motivation. What pure motivation do we need? Generally, we should undertake activity that benefits ourselves and others rather than activity that harms ourselves and others. If we cherish others more than ourselves, that will serve as a cause of what benefits both others and ourselves. Therefore, let us exert ourselves at activity that benefits others.
--from Essential Practice: Lectures on Kamalashila's Stages of Meditation in the Middle Way School by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, translated and introduced by Jules B. Levinson
- August 29
[Yeshe Tsogyel's] tantric accomplishments have been publicly praised by the Guru [Rinpoche, Padmasambhava] in words like the following:
Wonderful yogini, practitioner of the secret teachings!
The basis for realizing enlightenment is a human body.
Male or female--there is no great difference.
But if she develops the mind bent on enlightenment, the woman's body is better.
From beginningless time,
you have accumulated merit and wisdom,
Now your good qualities are flawless--
what an excellent woman you have become, a true Bodhisattma!
Are you not the embodiment of bliss?
Now that you have achieved what you wanted for yourself,
strive for the benefit of others.
Recently a number of studies have begun to appear which address the issue of women as religious practitioners in both Western and non-Western cultures. Women's place within Buddhism has proven to be a fertile area of investigation and several treatments have appeared which discuss the various portrayals of women in Buddhist literature.
...Though there are fewer sacred biographies of women tantric adepts than of their male counterparts, such biographies do nevertheless exist and they evidence that the Tantras were, and remain, effective for producing enlightened beings regardless of sex. But these women are the rare and fabulous examples. They are all tantric masters, having left society's constraints to follow the treacherous path conducive only for a chosen few. And, all these women are mudra-s, or "consorts." Some are referred to simply as yogini-s; others are called human dakini-s, i.e., incarnations of the feminine principle of insight and wisdom itself. They are not your ordinary everyday Tibetan women practitioners. On the other end of the spectrum there are the Tibetan Buddhist nuns, women who have quietly, and often with great difficulties, continued to practice in accordance with the monastic rules laid down at Buddhism's very inception in India. About this type of enrobed female practitioner the texts do not speak and very little information is presently available.
--from Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet, edited by Janice D. Willis
- August 23
The union of emptiness and interdependence is to be understood as follows. As long as we have not realized the nature of our mind we are subject to the normal course of the twelve links of interdependent origination. Absence of realization is ignorance and from this starting point the subsequent eleven links will form one after the other, each giving rise to the next. Thus everything continues in one way. However, once we realize the nature of our mind, the links of interdependent origination are traced back to their source and in this way dissolved: when there is no ignorance the other links cannot come about. This is emptiness.
Once emptiness is realized, this is enlightenment. Emptiness is limitless and therefore beyond any definition in terms of "It is this," "It is not this," and so forth; it cannot be restricted to such limitations. When the nature of mind is realized, this proves to be the nature of all phenomena, the essence of everything. This is what is meant here by the term "basis-consciousness". The secret of the essence of everything is the fact that everything is buddha and thus beyond any limitation. In my view this is quite easy to understand once the proper connection is made. Without this it could be quite complicated.
--from The Third Karmapa's Mahamudra Prayer, by Tai Situ Rinpoche, trans. and ed. by Rosemarie Fuchs
- August 15
In short, the Madhyamika theory of ultimate truth is not one that completely discards such teachings as the five heaps, the Four Noble Truths, the Three Jewels, or virtuous and nonvirtuous karma and their results; rather, it assigns them the status of relative truth. The task of identifying the precise nature of ultimate truth and of explaining the degree of falsity present in conventional truth lies at the heart of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. Moreover, one cannot rely only on canonical scripture to resolve these issues, as Je Tsongkapa notes in the opening passage from his "Essence of Eloquence":
As a verse from the "Sutra of Questions Posed by Rastrapala" declares:
The world is forced to wander by failing to know
This empty, tranquil, and unoriginated nature.
The Compassionate One enables beings to understand it
Through hundreds of expedient means and reasons.
Seeing that the suchness of entities is extremely difficult to realize and that one cannot become liberated from samsara without realizing it, the Compassionate Master [Buddha Sakyamuni] caused it to be understood using many different forms of reasoning and expedient means. Therefore, those who possess intelligence must apply themselves to the methods by which the nature of that reality can be understood. Moreover, that depends upon being able to distinguish between the Conqueror's scriptures whose meaning requires interpretation and those that are of definitive meaning.
--from The Inner Science of Buddhist Practice: Vasubhandu's Summary of the Five Heaps with Commentary by Sthiramati, intro. and trans. by Artemus B. Engle, a Tsadra Foundation Series book
- August 8
Question: What are some of the positive qualities of a childlike mind?
Tenzin Palmo: An example of a childlike quality is when children are in the midst of intense grief and then someone gives them a lollipop. The tears disappear and they giggle and smile. They have completely forgotten that a few minutes ago they had been grief-stricken. A childlike quality of the mind really means a mind which is fresh, which sees things as if for the first time.
Once someone did a test on meditators'...brainwaves. They tested someone who was doing a formal Hindu style meditation and a Zen master. This was to find out what the difference was, because they both said they were meditating, but each was doing a very different kind of meditation. They also tested a non-meditator. Every three minutes, they made a sudden loud noise. It was regular. The first person they tested was the one who didn't know how to meditate. The first time this person heard the loud noise, he became very agitated. The second time he was less agitated. The third time there was some vague agitation, and then the fourth time he more or less ignored it. The person doing the Hindu meditation didn't react to the noise at all. He didn't hear it. When the person doing the Zen meditation heard the noise, the mind went outwards, noted the noise and then went back in. The next time, the mind noted the noise and went back in. His reaction was unchanged. Each time, the mind noted the noise and went back in.
That tells us a lot about the quality of mind we are talking about. This is a mind which responds to something with attention and then returns to its own natural state. It doesn't elaborate on it, doesn't get caught up in it, doesn't get excited about it. It just notes that this is what is happening. Every time it happens, it notes it. It doesn't get blasé. It doesn't become conditioned. In this way, it is like a child's mind. When something interesting happens, it will note it and then let it go and move onto the next thing. This is what is meant by a childlike mind. It sees everything as if for the first time. It doesn't have this whole backlog of preconditioned ideas about things. You see a glass and you see it as it is, rather than seeing all the other glasses you have seen in your life, together with your ideas and theories about glasses and whether you like glasses in this or that shape, or the kind of glass you drank out of yesterday. We are talking about a mind which sees the thing freshly in the moment. That's the quality we are aiming for. We lose this as we become adults. We are trying to reproduce this fresh mind, which sees things without all this conditioning. But we do not want a mind which is swept away by its emotions.
--from Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings on Practical Buddhism by Venerable Tenzin Palmo
- August 1
It's interesting how we freeze our view of particular people. We exaggerate certain aspects we see in others, thereby freezing them into narrow, unproductive categories of relationships and limiting our ability to feel close and act out of a sense of intimacy. We lock them into certain patterns of behavior, and then, because we see these attitudes as solid, influence others to stay in those patterns: "This person is just..." But when you think and feel, "Two lifetimes ago this person was my best friend," the possibilities with that person now in this life open up. Consider a coworker, a colleague, a fellow student; you don't have to think about her in just the limited way that you have been. "She was a great friend in the past. I doubt she's going to be my best friend in this lifetime, but there's no reason to have frozen her into the particular mind-set I found myself in yesterday." All sorts of possibilities open up.
Here in this meditation of recognizing others as having been our best friend, we are loosening that process by superimposing the "best friend" feeling on lesser ones. We're becoming much more flexible. The practice reveals a plenitude of possibilities with others. What would it be like for these people if we acted this way with them, not externally but internally? If, when we saw them, we had an internal feeling of such strong intimacy--if we had an internal feeling of, "Oh, I'm meeting with my best of friends"--how do you think this would affect others? What would happen if we inwardly treated strangers in stores as best of friends? There would be a greater warmth and a considerable amount of extra, flexible energy available both to us and the world.
--from A Truthful Heart: Buddhist Practices for Connecting with Others by Jeffrey Hopkins, foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
- July 26
...the Mother Tantra chod emphasizes the importance of abiding in the natural state and understanding the illusory nature of things and oneself.
...Chod cuts the root of that illusion by eliminating the fear that attaches one to one's body after mistaking the body for oneself. By focusing on frightening objects, confronting them, cornering them, and being comfortable in or with them, fear leads to liberation from deluded awareness. It also brings, as a secondary benefit, the ability to repel physical and mental illnesses and energetic disturbances by meditating on what and who is being frightened by them. Being able to sustain that comprehension of the illusory nature of phenomena (including oneself) as one's view helps one recognize one's accomplishments in meditation, conduct, and result. This protects one from returning to the usual delusion and establishes instead a clear awareness (rigpa).
--from Chöd Practice in the Bön Tradition by Alejandro Chaoul, forewords by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Yongdzin Lopon Tenzin Namdak
- July 17
Unenlightened beings are unable to experience real, pure body, speech, and mind because of many levels of obscuration, all the way from obstruction to omniscience to latent conditioning, afflictive emotions, and the most gross of all, karmic obscurations. This means that due to these obstacles we, as ordinary beings, cannot experience pure manifestations of the Buddha, either physically or mentally. At this point we are experiencing our form as a human body, but an impure human body. We are stuck with this form body because of the karmic obstacles and so forth. This experience is considered a relatively fortunate one, considering other possible form body experiences such as hell beings, hungry ghost beings, and animal beings. These are all form body experiences as well that are absolutely due to karmic obstacles and defilements. Sometimes the term "veil" is used to describe these obstacles. The understanding here is that the levels of obscurations are like layers, or veils, covering our pure nature of mind, which is buddha nature, with one obscuration after another. When the layers of obscuration are purified, we are able to experience our true nature, which is manifesting our own pure buddha nature completely.
--from Buddhist Fasting Practice: The Nyungne Method of Thousand-Armed Chenrezig by Wangchen Rinpoche
- July 11
Like the illusory face of this appearing world,
The movement of mind is not touched by artifice;
It is not altered by action, freedom, or realization.
To remain in the depths of mind free of reference
Is known as mahamudra.
Notes
The Karmapa gave this verse to Lama Tenam to use in his meditation practice. Within the Kagyu lineage, the practice of mahamudra is the deepest form of meditation. It is deceptively simple to describe and quite difficult to practice. Mahamudra practice could be described as remaining settled into the nature of mind, immersed in its nature that is awareness and emptiness inseparable, not touched by artifice, which means that there is no effort to do anything, and free of reference, which means that the mind is not grasping at anything at all. If you were working with this verse, you would first memorize it and reflect on its meaning until it became very clear. Then resting in meditation, you would float the verse in your mindstream, keeping a gentle focus, much as a koan is held. Then, after a while, you would let it go and rest in the space it has opened out, free of referent or mental activity. When thoughts arose again, you would fold them into the verse, which would become your referent again, and so you would continue, naturally shifting between resting in meditation and reflecting on the verse.
--from Music in the Sky: The Life, Art and Teachings of the Seventeenth Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje by Michele Martin
- July 4
...Tilopa said that Mahamudra is not simple, not something that can be pointed out. It's not this thing or that thing or some other thing. It is reality itself. This is again illustrated with the example of empty space. Empty space is non-composite; it's not made up of anything; it doesn't have parts. And so, when we speak of empty space, we can use various examples but can't really point to something and make someone understand empty space in its entirety. That is not the nature of space. Likewise, the clear light of mind can be compared to the light of the sun, but that also is not an accurate comparison and it is not very enlightening. The clear light of mind or of reality itself--this is what must be experienced directly, not understood through analogies or similes. Ultimately, it cannot be understood through these things, but must be directly perceived. If we think about the nature of empty space and how we might point to it or describe it, we can see how imprecise this method is. We can only describe individual objects. Even then, our descriptions are always going to be mere indicators and not the objects themselves. When we really try to define or point out something as subtle and difficult to grasp as empty space, we can only do it in a rough way. So there has to be a leap of cognition in which we leave the conceptual level to experience the actual thing.
--from The Practice of Mahamudra by Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche, trans. by Robert Clark, ed. by Ani K. Trinlay Chodron
- June 27
The Mind-Training says, "Regard all events as if they were dreams." How do dreams appear? The most productive method to explore dreams is by being aware of dreaming while dreaming. Start by reflecting on how things appear in dreams. Let's take as a working hypothesis, as Buddhists do, that dreams emerge from your unique psyche and past and are not part of a big generic dream that belongs to everybody. In Buddhist theory, dreams are a flowering of mental propensities, or seeds, an idea that corresponds roughly to the Western theory of the contents of the subconscious. Suppose I dream that I am speaking before a group of people. From a waking perspective, I would say that the people in this dream don't exist independently from the dream. Yet when I am dreaming, people appear to be just as objective and separate from me as people seem during the waking state. In a dream, if somebody insults me, I get angry just as though this person exists objectively.
In non-lucid dreams, demarcations between subjects and objects appear very real. When I get happy in a dream, that happiness is not significantly different from the happiness I experience in the waking state. If someone punches me in a dream, it seems very real. While there seems to be an objective environment, in a dream objects and environments actually exist in relationship to me, the dreamer. Dream and dreamer are interdependent.
In the Buddhist analysis, there is an analogy between the non-lucid dream state and our usual waking state. What we assume to be absolutely real in a dream and in the waking state is not as it appears. The Buddhist analysis of our deluded waking state goes deep into the analogy between waking and dreaming. From the perspective of the waking state, it is easy to agree that what appears real and concrete in the dream is illusory, despite the fact that from within the dream it can be proved to be "real." In my dream, I can touch Jack or ask him if he is real and he will say yes. Within the context of a dream, that is good proof. From the perspective of the waking state, I see that objects in the dream have no objective existence, but are dependent on me, the dreamer. Within a dream you can be absolutely positive you are not dreaming. The exception to the delusion of mistaking the dream-state to be real is to be aware, within the dream, that you are dreaming.
From the relative state of being awake, it is possible to reflect upon the dream-state as being a state of delusion. The Buddhists push past the state of relative wakefulness to actual wakefulness. The word "buddha" means "one who is awake." From the perspective of a buddha, the normal "awake" state is a relative dream state and, additionally, the dream is deluded. Those of us who have not yet become buddhas can begin to appreciate the relationship between dream and dreamer by practicing lucid dreaming.
--from Buddhism with an Attitude: The Tibetan Seven-Point Mind Training by B. Alan Wallace
- June 19
So what is meditation all about? Actually meditation begins with a true aspiration to just let go of everything. Remember that the definition of Dharma, the purpose of following the spiritual path, is nonattachment. There is a line in Buddhist literature:
There WAS no attachment.
There IS no attachment.
There WILL BE no attachment.
Seen from this view, meditation is very profound and yet very simple.
Have you ever ridden a bicycle? The bicycle does not run on its own. The bicycle only runs when somebody is pedaling it. The moment we stop pedaling the bicycle, it falls over. Unenlightened consciousness works in the same way. It doesn't perpetuate itself. The moment we stop perpetuating it, it dies. Like everything else, it dies on its own. Meditation is not so much like doing something or going somewhere or acquiring this and that. Meditation is actually a way to stop feeding this unenlightened consciousness.
...When we sit in silence, being in the present moment, what happens? Nothing happens. But sometimes there is a moment so liberating, so illuminating, that everything is gone. The self is gone. All of the story lines are gone and universal oneness is dancing in front of us.
--from No Self, No Problem by Anam Thubten, edited by Sharon Roe
- June 13
My guru used to quote a famous Tibetan saying:
Words do not have sharp points like arrows or spears,
But they shatter the heart into many pieces.
This illustrates that there definitely is a power behind words and the question is, how do we tap into real, spiritually powerful, and beneficial words? That's where the benefits of mantra come in. My precious Lord Guru used to explain it in very simple terms. He said that when we recite the mantra OM MANI PEME HUNG, through Chenrezig we are praying to the body, speech, and mind of all the buddhas and invoking the power of loving-kindness and compassion.
He also spoke about how it is that we human beings are able to utter such words as mantras and all kinds of other sophisticated speech. It mainly has to do with some seventy-two thousand channels that exist in the body, and how they are in the form of letters: the Sanskrit vowels and consonants. Energy flowing through these channels gives us the ability to produce many varied sounds.
...My guru also said no ordinary person can make mantra, nor can they completely comprehend the depth of the meaning of mantra from the point of view of exactly how it works and so on. He said that one has to be at least on the level of an eighth-bhumi bodhisattva or higher to completely comprehend the effects of the mantra and to create a mantra. Although eighth-bhumi bodhisattvas and higher have the ability to create mantras, the mantras are always naturally present, and when and if there is a need, such beings can make them available.
--from Buddhist Fasting Practice: The Nyungne Method of Thousand-Armed Chenrezig by Wangchen Rinpoche
- June 6
Imagine you are in the midst of your emerging problem and thousands of thoughts are racing through your head. You're alarmed, maybe even frightened. Somehow in this infinite universe there is this little you having a meltdown, just like a small insect being swept away on a leaf in the river. This is the situation we find ourselves in all too often. And yet all of this is just taking place in our head. Our thoughts are taking us for a ride without our permission. Basically, we're either seduced or overpowered by them. So, what to do?
Surprisingly, we don't do anything. Just by watching and being in the present moment we find ourselves in a calm and peaceful space where nothing has ever happened. When we end up believing our thoughts and acting on them, then we're creating karma and we will be stuck with it. Usually when we believe our thoughts we tend to act on them. But by maintaining this nondoing awareness, all of our internal issues dating back lifetimes will vanish. How simple it is. It does not require any learning. So this is the secret to a free and joyous life. In the Buddhist tradition, this is the meditation that many monks and nuns practice all of their lives.
--from No Self, No Problem by Anam Thubten, edited by Sharon Roe
- May 30
In brief, the chief benefit of cultivating calm abiding is stability, and the chief benefit of cultivating special insight is wisdom. According to Lati Rinpoche, the stability attained with calm abiding allows the meditator to achieve other good qualities, such as clairvoyance, and ensures that his or her good qualities do not degenerate. Because the mind is set on an internal object of observation and thereby tamed, calm abiding also renders external sources of harm ineffective. The wisdom attained through special insight is the wisdom necessary for uprooting afflictive emotions, the chief of which is ignorance. Gedun Lodro notes, more technically, that
"The first of the actual antidotes of any vehicle is an uninterrupted path (bar chad med lam, anantaryamarga). The uncommon direct cause of an uninterrupted path is a meditative stabilization which is a union of calm abiding and special insight (zhi lhag zung 'brel). Therefore, it is definite that one must cultivate special insight."
He also remarks that the achievement of special insight leads to clear perception not only of the meditator's object of observation but also of any other object to which the meditator's mind may be directed.
--from Study and Practice of Meditation: Tibetan Interpretations of the Concentrations and Formless Absorptions by Leah Zahler
- May 23
There are stories about people who have been struggling with life's problems for a very long time without resolution. Once they sat down in meditation and asked, "Who is struggling?" they realized that from the beginning there was never really any problem. In a true sense this is the only solution that helps us. Everything else is just a band-aid that gives us a false sense of liberation for a short while. How many times have we tried these temporary fixes and solutions? Are we exhausted yet? If everybody on the planet, including the politicians, businessmen, and religious leaders, started working toward this realization, then the world would immediately be a peaceful place. People would be much more generous and kinder toward each other.
When all the layers of false identity have been stripped off, there is no longer any version of that old self. What is left behind is pure consciousness. That is our original being. That is our true identity. Our true nature is indestructible. No matter whether we are sick or healthy, poor or wealthy, it always remains divine and perfect as it is. When we realize our true nature, our life is transformed in a way we could not have imagined before. We realize the very meaning of our life and it puts an end to all searching right there.
--from No Self, No Problem by Anam Thubten, edited by Sharon Roe
- May 16
From the first bhumi to the sixth bhumi (stage on the bodhisattva path), the individual develops what is known as the seven branches of enlightenment. The first branch of enlightenment is a perfect memory, such a strong memory that there is no chance for us to forget anything, even if someone tries to make us forget. We remember not only what is happening now, but what we have to do later and what we did earlier, very clearly and precisely.
The second branch is the wisdom of seeing all phenomena as they are. When we see things as they are instead of the way they appear to be, we have no confusion about whether they are right or wrong. The third branch of enlightenment is diligence, and especially diligence in working ceaselessly to benefit sentient beings. The fourth branch is developing not only diligence, but also perfect joy in working for beings. Laziness never overcomes us; we can work twenty-four hours a day to benefit all sentient beings, because of the strength that comes from joy.
The fifth branch of enlightenment is blissfulness and peacefulness of mind and body, as well as mental clarity. Having developed peacefulness, clarity, and blissfulness, there is nothing that can disturb or agitate our minds, and thus we can work continuously to benefit sentient beings. The sixth branch is samadhi, the profound meditative state, in which nothing can distract our minds. No matter what we are doing--walking, sitting, sleeping, or talking--we are able to maintain the state of samadhi.
The seventh branch of enlightenment is the perfect state of equanimity. We work to benefit all sentient beings equally, without any discrimination.... We do not discriminate between beings who are good to us and those who are trying to harm us. Having developed a perfect state of equanimity, we can always work spontaneously to benefit sentient beings, whether they praise us or blame us. When we have fully developed these seven branches of enlightenment, we have fully developed compassion as well. Since we have profound, sincere compassion, nothing can hinder us in benefiting sentient beings.
--from Dharma Paths by Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, trans. by Ngodup Burkhar and Chojor Radha, ed. by Laura M. Roth
- May 8
Can one be attached to Buddhism? What should we do if someone attacks our beliefs and criticizes the Dharma?
Each situation must be regarded individually. In general, if we feel, "They are criticizing my beliefs. They think I am stupid for believing that," we are clinging to our beliefs because we think, "These beliefs are good because they are mine. If someone criticizes them, they are criticizing me." Such an attitude isn't very productive and we'll be more peaceful if we abandon it. We are not our beliefs. If others disagree with our beliefs, it does not mean we are stupid.
Being open to what others say is useful. Let's not be attached to the name and label of our religion. We are seeking truth and happiness, not promotion of a religion because it happens to be ours. In addition, questioning the teachings is reasonable. The Buddha himself said we should check his teachings and not just believe in them blindly.
On the other hand, we should not automatically agree with everything someone else says. We should not abandon our beliefs and adopt theirs indiscriminately. If someone asks a question we cannot answer, it doesn't mean the Buddha's teachings are wrong. It simply means we don't know the answer and need to learn and contemplate more. We can then take the question to knowledgeable Buddhists and think about their answers. When others question our beliefs, they are actually helping us deepen our understanding of the Buddha's teachings by showing us what we do not yet understand. This inspires us to study the Dharma and reflect on its meaning.
--from Buddhism for Beginners by Thubten Chodron
- May 2
Spiritual practice often brings to the surface aspects of ourselves that are extremely painful. We have a deep reservoir of emotional wounds and patterns that may be hard to accept in ourselves, and which we have consequently often ignored or denied. This forms a powerful "Shadow," to use Jung's term. As we begin to develop some aspects of tantric practice, these repressed emotions will be resurrected from the underworld of our psyche. This enables the energy bound up in them to then be addressed and potentially transformed. This can sometimes be an uncomfortable process, and it is important to accept and value ourselves even though we feel dreadful, or are frightened of or disgusted with what we see. When we practice Tantra, the dark aspects of our Shadow will almost certainly be evoked, and it requires great courage, honesty, and humility to face and transform them.
Definite emergence, therefore, is the willingness to wake up and face ourselves as we embark on the tantric path. In this willingness to face unconscious habits we also need compassion towards ourselves as we pass through periods of struggle and discomfort in our practice. Through a genuine love, self-acceptance, and sense of humor about ourselves we can potentially uncover even the darkest inner monsters. Healthy self-value and self-worth gives us a solid basis from which to explore the tantric path.
While traditional teachings speak of insights and realizations experienced on the spiritual path, it is seldom made clear that these often come through pain and turmoil. Tantra aims at transforming our most basic emotional nature, and to hold this process we must cultivate compassion for ourselves. This compassion is the recognition that we are human, that we have our qualities and failings, and that we need to value ourselves with them. Compassion towards others begins when we are able to love ourselves through our pain, and in doing so empathize with the pain of others.
--from The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra by Rob Preece
- April 25
Power pathology may have some crucial consequences for those involved in Buddhist practice, both personally and collectively. Disciples often have unaddressed power issues in relation to their teachers. When we endow traditions and their spiritual leaders with power and authority, we unwittingly give away a vital aspect of our individual responsibility, at great cost. Organizations often have underlying patterns of power and control that make some disciples remain relatively disempowered and dependent, while others actually become the agents of the teacher's parental authority. Denying and disowning personal responsibility for our power is welcomed in charismatic religions where devotion to the teacher is paramount. The dangers of this process, however, are that we leave ourselves open to abuse, exploitation, and dependency.
Reclaiming responsibility for personal power is vital if we are to grow and individuate, but the path is fraught with confusion. Many of us fear our power because we think it will be destructive and dangerous if released.... When someone asserts her own wishes and needs or firmly stands by her own "truth," this assertiveness can easily be viewed disapprovingly as selfish and ego-centered. This in turn can lead to intolerable feelings of guilt. Those who suffer the sense of disempowerment that results from a failure to express their truth often find that their assertiveness lies buried in anger and resentment...there is also some confusion about how those engaged in spiritual practice should relate to anger.
Some Buddhist teachers accuse the therapy world of promoting and cultivating anger. They will often deny any validity to anger, viewing all anger merely as a cause of suffering to be overcome and controlled.... As long as we live with the view that anger is to be condemned, we can easily fall into the habit of repression. We will also fail to hear what truth lies behind it that is not being voiced. When we ask questions such as, "What do you really want to say?" or "What are you really wanting that is not being heard?" we will begin to hear what is at its root. This becomes a healthier way of living with anger, rather than creating a regime that fears it and tries to disown or suppress it. If our capacity to be assertive or to feel heard has become blocked and distorted, when we listen more deeply to what lies beneath or behind the anger, we will often discover some inner truth that needs to be asserted more clearly and creatively.
--from The Wisdom of Imperfection: The Challenge of Individuation in Buddhist Life by Rob Preece
- April 18
It's very easy to sit back and have compassionate and loving thoughts toward the world, all humans, nature, or something like that. This doesn't really threaten us; in fact, we feel good and a little high from that kind of thinking. But I don't feel that this kind of thinking actually changes anything. You can check for yourself: Do those expansive feelings really change how you relate to others in your everyday life, or do old patterns return? If you're like me, the old thought patterns return.
The reason is, those feelings are not really connected to the structure of the ego, which is about pushing away pain while accumulating happiness. You must be very precise in your observation of that process before it can truly be changed. Because of that, the lo-jong teachings recommend that you begin the exchange with yourself.
Many students who are somewhat familiar with the teachings have ignored this advice, but I feel it is the real key. We must learn to see our strategy of denying pain before we can truly generate the strong wish for beings to be free of it. By pain, I primarily mean mental pain, even the mental pain of having physical discomfort. If you try to do tong-len for others while denying your own pain, your practice becomes a technique for perpetuating avoidance and will never yield any meaningful results. So first, simply be aware of your pain at the moment. Notice your awkwardness, your wish to squirm away from it somehow. Allow yourself merely to feel it.
Now you are ready to begin tong-len. You might want to imagine an unhappy version of yourself standing in front of you; this can make the visualization flow better. Take in your suffering; give yourself healing, white light. It is advised to link these with the breath: Breathe in the suffering as black gunk; breathe out the goodness as healing white light.
Do it until it works! You should "get it," have some definite sense of healing, acceptance, and transformation. You should develop the insight that blocking out or denying pain is actually what keeps you in a place of pain, that it is entirely within your power and ability to do something very simple and effective to change this. Your ego mechanisms developed when you were younger and had no other defenses for dealing with difficulties; now you're older and have had the great good fortune to meet the Dharma. Thus, although it is everyone's habit to push away discomfort, there's no practical or logical reason to continue to do so.
--from A Beginner's Guide to Tibetan Buddhism by Bruce Newman
- April 11
Calm abiding is a powerful tool to be used in the service of enhancing the force of the wisdom realizing the emptiness of inherent existence so that it can overcome intellectually acquired and innate conceptions of inherent existence. The aim is to undo the ideational process behind afflictive emotions and then to remove even the appearance of inherent existence that prevents Buddhahood.
The details of the process of achieving calm abiding yield a picture of how the human condition is viewed in these traditions. Humans are trapped in a situation of repeated suffering not just by false assent to the seeming solidity of objects but also by a mind that is so mired in the extremes of either being too loose or too tight that attempts at correction push the mind between these two extremes. Also, the very structure of the ordinary mind prevents manifestation of certain chronic psychic problems, such that when this structure is disturbed by attempting to focus it and develop powers of concentration, deeply seated problems appear with greater force and others newly manifest.
Also, the mere fact that mindfulness and introspection need to be developed means that even though at present we have small versions of these, we have little idea of their potential--we are in a state of deprivation, sometimes arrogantly convinced of our wholeness and sometimes disparagingly reluctant to take cognizance of our potential. The system points to attainable states of mind that dramatically enhance the quality of life and that, of themselves, eliminate a host of problems, but whose attainment requires exposure to psychological pressures fraught with danger.
In one way, the systematic layout of stages gives the impression that mere application of the prescribed techniques would yield definite incremental results, but, in another way, examination of the complex techniques prescribed in the process of training yields a far different view of a mind that balks at improvement and enhancement, erects barriers, and places pitfalls in one's path. In such a context, we can appreciate the plethora of techniques employed in the tantric systems to attempt to counteract and undermine these forces. Whether they could be successful is no easy matter to determine; a claim that they definitely are would be superficial and do disservice to the complex vision of the human situation that a system such as that found in Action Tantra evinces.
--from Tantric Techniques by Jeffrey Hopkins
- April 4
Not so long ago I asked a medical friend why a mutual acquaintance had been struck with cancer. He immediately launched into a detailed account of cancer cell growth, free radicals, the failure of the immune system, and other such factors. "That's not so much what I was after, Terry," I said, when he paused for breath. "That's more how she got cancer. I was thinking more along the lines of why?" "Why?" He seemed taken aback I should even be asking such a question, as though it was one of life's great imponderables.
Why is it that someone develops cancer at the age of sixty-five--why not three years before, ten years later, or, better still, not at all? Why is it that someone can be exposed to exactly the same virus on several occasions without any ill effect, but another time with deadly consequences?
"Why me?" is a question anyone suffering from a serious illness will naturally ask themselves. Perhaps I shouldn't have taken on so many responsibilities at work. Maybe I'm being punished for something I did in a previous lifetime. Is it because of the electricity pole running down the side of the house?
Some readers may believe, like my medical friend, that the "why?" question is a matter of pure conjecture: fate, karma, God, or plain bad luck--take your pick. Why does anything happen? And anyway, do the whys and wherefores really matter when we're stuck with an illness for which we urgently need help? But the "why" of disease is not a subject we should dismiss so easily. And far from being irrelevant, if we can go some way towards answering why something arose, perhaps that will also provide some useful suggestions on how to stop it getting worse, if not help us make a full recovery.
--from Hurry Up and Meditate: Your Starter Kit for Inner Peace and Better Health by David Michie
- March 28
Just as the perfect Buddhas know
The ill deeds that I have committed,
I make individual disclosure.
Henceforth I will not do such.
The meaning of the last stanza is that, not being omniscient, one does not know all the ill deeds that one has done over the beginningless course of lifetimes, and thus one also makes a general disclosure of all the ill deeds that omniscient beings know one has done. Implicitly, the important message is communicated that it is impossible to hide ill deeds.
Given that one of the most pernicious defenses against inner forces is denial, the general Buddhist notion that over the course of lifetimes we have committed every possible misdeed and have, in our mental continuums, forces predisposed to committing these again provides a healthy perspective, certainly not preventing denial on all levels (since the depths of our own depravity are not easy to recognize) but opening the way to conscious recognition of what lies beneath the surface. To disclose, to confess all of these ill deeds is to affirm their presence, thereby weakening the force of denial and strengthening the ego as the arbiter, rather than the victim, of these forces.
--from Tantric Techniques by Jeffrey Hopkins
- March 21
Knowing Tara's purpose [to help all living beings], we will develop strong feelings of joy, happiness, and closeness at the prospect of connecting to Mother Tara. It is said that Mother Tara's "hook of compassion" is always ready; we must have our mind and heart in the state of readiness, which is the "ring of devotion." We will aspire to follow Tara's example ourselves by working for all living beings with love, compassion, courage, and commitment.
Because Tara abides beyond boundaries and limitations, we cannot exactly say where Tara is and where she is not. Tara is readily available to every living being everywhere. Her sambhogakaya emanations include Vajravarahi, Vajrayogini, the five Mother Dhyani Buddhas, and the five wisdom dakinis. Her nirmanakaya emanations include the Twenty-one Emanations of Tara praised in this homage, plus many more in all the different colors. Red Tara, for example, is special for activating our realization and overpowering our ego-clinging and neurotic states. With her help we are freed from the confinement of our egos so we are able to reach out to all living beings with bodhichitta.
--from Tara's Enlightened Activity: An Oral Commentary on 'The Twenty-one Praises to Tara' by Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal
- March 14
When we practice bodhicitta prayers or meditations, it may look like we are alone, like we are practicing for ourselves, but we are not practicing for ourselves, and we are not alone. All beings are interconnected, and in that sense they are present or affected. Milarepa sang, "When I am alone, meditating in the mountains, all the Buddhas past, present, and future are with me. Guru Marpa is always with me. All beings are here."
We are not practicing for ourselves alone, since everybody is involved and included in the great scope of our prayers and meditations on this perfectly pure motivation. The natural outflow of so-called "solitary meditation or prayer" is spontaneous benefit for others; it's like the rays of the sun, rays which spontaneously reach out. This good heart, pure heart, vast and open mind, is called in Tibetan sem karpo, white mind. It means pure, vast, and open heart. This is innate bodhicitta. It is not something foreign to us, as we well know, yet it is something we could relate to more, cultivate, generate, and embody. We talk about vast and profound teachings of Dharma, such as Dzogchen, but without this goodness of heart, this unselfishness, it is mere chatter, gossip, and rationalization.
--from Natural Great Perfection: Dzogchen Teachings and Vajra Songs by Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche and Lama Surya Das
- March 7
The practice of equanimity is particularly helpful for nightmares. Of all the practices you could apply, it is most helpful and comforting, after you have awakened, to generate a sense of equanimity--the similarity of aim--between yourself and the dream-monster. In meditation, contemplate: "Just as I want happiness and don't want suffering, so that monster wants happiness and doesn't want suffering."
It might seem weird to reify your own dream objects into sentient beings, since they really do not exist except as figments of the imagination, but try to see the being as wanting happiness and not wanting suffering, as having been a friend, and, when a friend, having extended great kindness. Don't turn this into a test of the meditation. Don't think, "It's got to work on this, and if it doesn't, then the system doesn't work." Just try it, play with it a little. Experience is needed before these meditations will work across boundaries of feeling. But when they do work, you will feel the fear dissipate. We are seeking to disempower a complex that appears as a dream-monster, and the power of equanimity dissolves the fear that empowers the monster. Even when you don't believe it, this technique works. In meditation, contemplate: "This nightmare-spider, like me, wants happiness and does not want suffering; so may this nightmare-spider have happiness and be free from suffering."
Let's consider nightmarish figures such as Hitler and Stalin who have appeared in the world.... It helps to think that such powerfully bad persons--or ourselves when we get angry and do nasty things--have fallen out of recognition that other people want happiness and don't want suffering. From this understanding there arises a closeness with those under the influence of strong afflictive emotions.
If you familiarize yourself for a considerable period with these meditations that utilize horrific situations for increasing equanimity, reflecting on many individual people, gradually your sense of equanimity, an even-mindedness, will extend to anyone who appears.
--from A Truthful Heart: Buddhist Practices for Connecting with Others by Jeffrey Hopkins, foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
- February 28
For the meditation on the nature of your own mind it is customary to ask your teacher for pointing-out instructions. Some practitioners are lucky enough to realize their true nature of mind straight away, whereas others merely perceive a sensation of it, a certain experience of the true nature of mind. But if they don't know exactly how mind and the consciousnesses function, their experience will dissolve after a few days. The understanding of mind and the eight kinds of consciousness is obtained through the highest understanding (Skt. "prajna") of listening and reflecting. When we really meditate on this basis and glimpse the true nature of mind, we will be able to steadily increase our experience of it through all subsequent meditation. That's why it is extremely useful to know about the eight kinds of consciousness.
--from Luminous Heart: The Third Karmapa on Consciousness, Wisdom, and Buddha Nature translated and introduced by Karl Brunnhölzl
- February 21
As His Holiness the Dalai Lama teaches, "until you realize that the basic, innate mind of clear light is your true nature, you remain a sentient being; but when you understand your ultimate nature, you become a Buddha." Although clear light tallies with mind's natural state, it does not appear in ordinary states of consciousness because they are darkened by ignorance and obscured by emotions. The Kalacakratantra analyzes the nature of those obscurations at the level of life's source motion, i.e., breathing. Each one of our breaths holds immensity within itself and is related to the universe because the very same energy that makes us breathe also sets celestial bodies into motion. In this context, energy is to be understood as some physical magnitude quantified by the calculation of the revolutions of the planets or the number of breaths. However, this physical energy also has its subtle spiritual dimension which is experienced while meditating.
Such subtle energy (or life-breath) manifests itself in two states; one is called "dual" or "polarized," the other "nondual" or "nonpolarized." Dual or polarized states are borne by life-breath's motion in our subtle side-channels, i.e., the right subtle channel which is solar by nature, and the left subtle channel of lunar nature. Those subtle channels are our inner sun and moon. They are related to the dual states of consciousness of discursive thought, to binary logic, and to the mind that clings to a notion of separate and intrinsic reality of the self and phenomena. In its polarized form, energy bears the karmic imprints of ignorance, emotions, and other mental afflictions.
Still, such breaths or winds (which are depicted as the "mount" for samsaric mind) get depolarized naturally six hundred and seventy-five times a day. Indeed, six hundred seventy-five breaths called "wisdom winds" occur daily when lifebreath transits through the twelve constellation-petals of the navel's lotus. When each of the twelve transits takes place, the side winds enter the central channel for fifty-six and one-fourth breaths. Wisdom winds tally with nondual, nonconceptual, or unobscured states of consciousness; they bear clear light.
Training in the practice of Kalacakra yogas' meditation aims entirely at intentionally directing the side-winds into the central channel.—Sofia Stril-Rever
--from As Long As Space Endures: Essays on the Kalacakra Tantra in Honor of H.H. the Dalai Lama edited by Edward A. Arnold on behalf of Namgyal Monastery Institute of Buddhist Studies, foreword by Robert A. F. Thurman
- February 14
Sometimes it is difficult to find time to meditate each day. But we always have time to watch TV. We always have time to go shopping. We always have time to get a snack from the refrigerator. Why is it that the twenty-four hours run out when it is time to meditate? When we understand the value and effect of spiritual practice, it will become a high priority in our life, and when something is important, we find time for it. It's good to set up a daily meditation practice of fifteen, thirty, or sixty minutes in the morning. To do that, we may have to sacrifice fifteen or thirty minutes of television the previous evening in order to go to bed a little earlier. But compared to the benefit of practicing the Dharma, missing a little TV is not a big thing. In the same way that we always find time to eat because food nourishes our body, we will find time to meditate and recite prayers because they nourish us spiritually. When we respect ourselves spiritually, we respect ourselves as human beings. Nourishing ourselves spiritually then becomes a very important priority, and having time for it is easy.
--from Taming the Mind by Ven. Thubten Chodron
- February 7
When we do not have a profound understanding of reality, in the ordinary world the five wisdoms appear as the five aggregates, the five elements, the five colors, and the five poisons. Those conceptions arise because they suit our deluded thinking. In reality they are none other than the five wisdoms or the five dhyani buddhas.
Whether they appear as the five wisdoms and the five buddhas, or as the five poisons and the five aggregates, the five wisdoms are based upon the same primordial nature--the great dharmakaya. In whatever form, place, or time they arise, there is not one atom that goes beyond the primordial state. This is the essence of the profound true nature. However, because we are deluded by dualistic perceptions, we make distinctions between subject and object, and when we hold on to those notions, we create many different things around us.
To protect beings from this kind of delusion, the buddhas appear in many different forms. For example, among the various emanations are the buddha families of the five directions. The eastern buddha is Vajrasattva, the southern buddha is Ratnasambhava, the western buddha is Amitabha, the northern buddha is Amoghasiddhi, and the central buddha is Vairochana. On the absolute level, there is just one emanation of primordial wisdom; ultimately, there are no different levels. But in order to help remove our dualistic concepts or to dispel our ignorance, they appear as different buddhas. These buddha families are not separate families who exist in the various directions, such as the vajra family, the rich family who lives in the east, and the padma family, the aristocratic family in the west; that is not the point. They appear this way in order to lead sentient beings to nondual wisdom.
These symbols of wisdom are used to illustrate profound meaning. For example, the buddhas appear as peaceful, wrathful, or semiwrathful, and as male or female. In terms of symbolism, the eight great male bodhisattvas represent the transmutation of the eight consciousnesses. The eight great female bodhisattvas represent the transformation of the objects of the eight consciousnesses. The four gatekeepers are the transmutation of the four extreme views about existence and nonexistence. They all have symbolic meanings.
--from The Dark Red Amulet: Oral Instructions on the Practice of Vajrakilay by Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche
- January 31
"There is often a big disparity between the way we perceive things and the way things really are. For instance, when we see an object we think, 'Oh, this is the very same object which I saw two days ago.' This is a very crude way of talking about reality. What is actually happening here is a kind of a conflation between an image or a concept of an entity and the actual reality of the moment. In reality, the object or entity that we are perceiving has already gone through a lot of stages. It is dynamic, it is transient, it is momentary, so the object that we are perceiving now is not the same as the one we perceived a day ago or two days ago, but we have the impression that we are perceiving the very same thing because what we are doing is conflating our concept of that object and the actual object. By grasping for permanence, we cause things to appear to us differently than how they actually exist.
"It is vital to leave a lot of room for change in one's relations to another person. Change comes about in times of transition, allowing love actually to ripen and expand. Then one is able to really know the other one—to see that person with their faults and weaknesses and going through change, a human being like oneself. Only at this stage can there be true love."—The Dalai Lama
--from Impermanence: Embracing Change by David Hodge and Hi-Jin Kang Hodge
- January 24
Even though supreme awareness is the basic nature of reality, because we do not realize this, as sentient beings we develop dualistic thinking. We start making distinctions between subject and object, near and far, and so forth, and then we cling to those as real. The twelve links of interdependence arise, and, beginning with ignorance, we develop the notions of "me" and "mine," and all sorts of deluded thinking. The great master Chandrakirti taught that you begin by clinging to the ego, then you cling to "what is mine," then to "what is other," such that there is an ongoing state of delusion. Due to clinging, our habitual patterns become stronger and stronger, and all our conceptions become regimented and solid.
In order to dispel ignorance and dualistic thinking, Vajrakilaya arises in a wrathful form. The wrath of Vajrakilaya is not the wrath of anger or jealousy; it is the wrath that destroys anger and jealousy. It is not like being angry with enemies and being attached to friends. This wrath is totally based upon great compassion. Directed toward duality, ego-clinging, grasping, and ignorance, Vajrakilaya's anger demolishes the causes of delusion throughout the six realms. Since it is based on immeasurable loving-kindness and immeasurable compassion, it is known as the phurba of immeasurable compassion.
To apply this phurba in a practical way, rather than becoming angry toward external situations, we begin by feeling great compassion for sentient beings. Then we start working with our own emotions to demolish ignorance, attachment, anger, jealousy, pride, fear, and doubts. We remove these emotions according to the way we interact with the world. At the same time, we expand our compassion for all beings in the six realms.
--from The Dark Red Amulet: Oral Instructions on the Practice of Vajrakilaya by Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche
- January 17
Kisa Gotami has led a sheltered life, according to the Dhammapada. Married to the son of a rich merchant, she feels immune from death. But then her son dies before he can walk. Deep in shock and denial, she refuses to let the body be burnt. Slinging the tiny corpse on her hip, she rages through the neighborhood, asking if anyone knows where she might find medicine to bring him back to life. Most people think she's crazy, but a wise man recognizes a spiritual crisis when he sees it, and sends her to the Buddha.
The Buddha tells her he knows where to find the medicine she needs. To create it, he will require a pinch of white mustard seed from a household where no one has ever died. Kisa Gotami begins knocking on doors. The Dhammapada observes: "At every house she is told, 'The living are few, but the dead are many.'" We can imagine the heads shaking back and forth. Realization slowly penetrates her grief, and light dawns. Without so much as a single mustard seed in hand, she returns to the Buddha and tells him that she now knows that every living thing must die. Although the Dhammapada doesn't say it, we recognize the horizon that she now glimpses--the ring of light circling her suffering. Through the power of this teaching, she becomes a nun. One day she notices that the flickering of a lamp is like the life of all of us. She takes the leap of liberation and becomes an arhat--one who has "laid down the burden."
What did the Buddha offer her? Only awareness. Yet what a tool.
--from Impermanence: Embracing Change by David Hodge and Hi-Jin Kang Hodge
- January 10
Voidness is the unsurpassed protection;
Thereby illusory appearance is seen as the four kayas.
Sufferings related to the universe and its inhabitants are the result of false perceptions, the nature of which it is important to understand. Emotions, such as attachment, anger and ignorance are all creations of the mind. We think, for instance, of our body as a precious possession of which we must take special care, protecting it from illness and every kind of mishap. We get into this habit of thinking and, as a consequence, begin to suffer mentally as well as physically. This is an example of perception which, since it is devoid of any basis in reality, is called deluded; it depends upon the belief in the existence of something which does not exist at all. It is just as when we dream and think that we are being burned or drowned, only to discover, when we wake up, that nothing has happened.
...Although everything is by nature empty, this emptiness is not the mere vacuity of empty space or an empty vessel. Happiness, sufferings, all sorts of feelings and perceptions appear endlessly like reflected images in the mind. This reflection-like appearance of phenomena is called the Nirmanakaya.
--from Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of the Seven-Point Mind Training by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, translated by The Padmakara Translation Group
- January 3
[after hearing of Milarepa, Gampopa set out with a fevered pace to find him, stopping hardly at all. Finally he discovered where Milarepa could be found.]
Now with great confidence, Gampopa set off toward Chuwar in Orin. After walking many miles, he came to the center of a great plain. It was there that his grueling pace finally caught up with him. Exhausted, he sat down to rest on a rock. He was overcome by hunger and fatigue, and his entire energy system had become unbalanced and disordered. He fainted, and fell from the rock to the ground. There he lay unconscious for half a day.
When at last he came to, every inch of his body from head to toe was throbbing with pain. He was parched with thirst, but so great was his pain that he was unable to move. No one passed by to help him as he lay in agonizing pain, without food or water, for two long days and two long nights.
On the third day, feeling as if death might be near, Gampopa spoke these words with utter conviction, through parched cracked lips and with tears streaming down his dusty face:
"If I cannot see the Jetsun in this life, then in the three bardos after my death I will look only to him as my sole refuge. I swear I will be born near him in the next life, and that my mind will then be united with his." Then he lay back and wept, awaiting his fate.
Before long, a Kadampa monk from Cha Yul came walking along the road. Seeing Gampopa lying by the side of the road, the monk approached him and said, "Auspicious blessings. Where are you going?" Gampopa was so weak and his mouth and throat were so dry that he could barely speak. He strained to reply, and said in a rasping whisper, "Nowhere at the moment."
"What is your destination?"
"I am going to Orin, to visit Jetsun Milarepa."
"Ah. I am also going in that direction. Are you sick?"
"Yes, indeed, and I am also very thirsty," said Gampopa. "Could you give me a drink of water?"
"Of course, my brother," the monk replied, and produced a bowl from his purse, which he filled from his water bag and offered to Gampopa.
After drinking it, Gampopa felt much relieved. His pain abated and his strength began to return. The monk offered him some food as well, and soon Gampopa felt completely refreshed and invigorated. Then, in the company of the kind monk, he set off again on his journey.
Meanwhile, Jetsun Milarepa, in a very happy spirit, was teaching the Dharma at Joyful Fortune Peak. In the midst of the discourse, he would sometimes stop and remain silent for a while, and then suddenly laugh heartily.
One of his disciples, a gifted lady patron from Orin, known as Tsese, asked him, "Dear Jetsun, what is it? Why are you suddenly remaining silent and then suddenly bursting into laughter? Are you laughing because you are happy with the progress of some gifted disciple, and silent when you see the confusion and wrong thoughts of one of your slow students?" "Neither," replied Milarepa.
"Then why did you smile and laugh today?" asked Tsese.
"Because now, my son, the monk from Ü, has arrived at Dingri. There he fainted and fell and lay in great pain beside a rock. In his agony he cried out to me for help, in tears and with great faith and sincerity. I felt pity for him, and in my samadhi I sent him blessings, whereupon help quickly came to him. Seeing that, I felt very moved and joyful, and laughed out loud." As he told this story, tears welled up in Milarepa's eyes.
"When will he arrive here?" "Sometime between tomorrow and the day after." "Will we have the good karma of seeing this man?" "Oh, yes! And whoever has the privilege of preparing his seat when he arrives will be nourished by the food of samadhi. Whoever has the blessing of first seeing him will be guided to the blissful pure land of liberation!"
--from The Life of Gampopa by Jampa Mackenzie Stewart, intro. by Lobsang P. Lhalungpa, illust. by Eva van Dam
2008
- December 27
Noble Lady Tara Wangdu Rigje Lhamo
The fifth Tara is known as Wangdu Rigje Lhamo. She is Kurukulle in Sanskrit and Rigjema or Rigje Lhamo in Tibetan. Wangdu means power of "gathering, summoning," or "magnetizing." We can think of it as attracting everything beneficial, to benefit all beings. Rigjema means "she who precisely understands everything" and Lhamo is "divine lady." So she is known as the Tara who precisely understands the power of magnetizing.
Kurukulle's practice is very extensively taught throughout Tibetan Buddhism. She is often named the "Red Tara" because of her color. Her Praise is:
CHAG TSHAL TUT TA RA HUNG YI GE
Homage, Mother, filling all regions, sky, and the realm of desire
DO DANG CHOG DANG NAM KHA GANG MA
With the sounds of TUTTARA and HUNG,
JIG TEN DUN PO ZHAB CHI NEN TE
Trampling the seven worlds with her feet,
LU PA ME PAR GUG PAR NU MA
Able to summon all before her.
--from Tara's Enlightened Activity: An Oral Commentary on 'The Twenty-one Praises to Tara' by Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal
- December 20
A person who is liberated, who has freed his or her mind of all mental afflictions, still experiences physical suffering. The difference between us and an arhat, a person who has freed the mind from mental affliction, is that an arhat doesn't identify with pain. Arhats experience physical pain vividly but don't grasp onto it; they can take action to avoid or alleviate pain, but whether they do so or not, the physical pain doesn't come inside. What an arhat does not experience is mental suffering. A buddha, one who is perfectly spiritually awakened, has gone a further step. A buddha has no mental suffering of his or her own, but is vividly and non-dually aware of the suffering of others.
Superficially, the arhat who is free from mental suffering can seem to us who lack this realization as numb and detached, in a state of existential anesthesia. A buddha, one who is fully awakened, presents the paradox of being free from suffering and also non-dually present with other people's joys and sorrows, hopes and fears. A buddha taps into immutable bliss, the ultimate ground state of awareness beyond the dichotomy of stimulus-driven pain and pleasure. The mind of a buddha has been purified of all obscuration and from its own nature there naturally arises immutable bliss, like a spring welling up from the earth. With the unveiling of the buddha-nature of unconditioned bliss, there is also a complete erosion of an absolute demarcation between self and other. The barrier is gone. This is why buddhas are vividly and non-dually aware of the suffering of others, their hopes and fears, the whole situation, and at the same time are not disengaged from the purity and bliss of their own awareness. The mind of a buddha doesn't block out anything and nothing is inhibited, and this is why the awareness of an awakened being is frequently described as "unimaginable."
--from Buddhism with an Attitude: The Tibetan Seven-Point Mind Training by B. Allan Wallace
- December 10
I take refuge until I am enlightened in the Buddhas, the Dharma, and the Sangha. By the positive potential I create by practicing generosity and the other far-reaching attitudes (ethical discipline, patience, joyous effort, meditative stabilization, and wisdom), may I attain Buddhahood in order to benefit all sentient beings.
It takes only a few moments to think in this way and to recite the prayer, yet doing so has a significant effect on the rest of our day. We'll be more cheerful and will be sure of our direction in life. Especially if we don't do a regular meditation practice, starting the day in this way is extremely beneficial. In the evening, after reviewing the day's activities and freeing our minds from any remaining afflictions that may have arisen during the day, we again take refuge and generate the altruistic intention.
Before going to sleep, we can envision the Buddha, made of light, on our pillow. Placing our head in his lap, we fall asleep amidst the gentle glow of his wisdom and compassion. Instead, we can learn the guidelines and try to implement them as much as we can, reviewing them periodically to refresh our minds. We may choose one guideline to emphasize this week in our daily lives. Next week, we can add another, and so on. In that way, we'll slowly build up the good habits of practicing all of them.
--from Taming the Mind by Ven. Thubten Chodron
- December 6
From "The Prayer Requested by Namke Nyingbo"
by Padmasambhava
All these things of the outer environment and the beings therein
That come into sight as the objects of your eyes like this,
They may appear, but leave them in the sphere free from clinging to a self.
Since they are pure of perceiver and perceived, they are the
luminous-empty body of the deity.
I pray to the guru in whom attachment is self-liberated,
I pray to Padmasambhava from Uddiyana.
All these sounds, taken as pleasant or unpleasant,
That resound as the objects of your ears like this,
Leave them in the sphere of inconceivable, empty resonance.
Empty resonance, unborn and unceasing, is the Victor's speech.
I pray to the words of the Victor that resound and yet are empty,
I pray to Padmasambhava from Uddiyana.
However these thoughts of afflictions' five poisons,
Which stir as objects in your mind like this, may appear,
Do not mess around with them through a mind that rushes ahead into the future or lingers in the past.
Through leaving their movement in its own place, they uncoil as the dharmakaya.
I pray to the guru whose awareness is self-liberated, I pray to Padmasambhava from Uddiyana.
Grant your blessings that the mind stream of someone like me is liberated
Through the compassion of the Tathagatas of the three times,
So that objects, appearing as if perceived outside, become pure,
That my very mind, perceiving as if inside, becomes liberated,
And that, in between, luminosity will recognize its own face.
--from Straight from the Heart: Buddhist Pith Instructions translated and introduced by Karl Brunnhölzl
- November 27
Creation in four vajra steps entails meditation on emptiness; generating a moon, sun, and seed-syllable from which light emanates and then converges; the full manifestation of the deity resulting from the convergence of the light and transformation of the seed-syllable; and visualization of three syllables at the deity's three places [The syllables om, ah, and hum are imagined at the forehead, throat, and heart, respectively.]
...Kongtrul explains that all the varieties of the creation phase incorporate the four key elements of form, imagination, result, and transformative power. "Form" means meditating on forms that represent the aspects of awakening and generating clear images of these forms, thereby stopping impure appearances. "Imagination" means using the force of creative imagination to convert the visualized forms of awakening into reality. "Result" means meditating on the result, that is, the very goal to be attained, and thereby achieving that goal. "Transformative power" means turning the ordinary body and mind into pristine awareness by relying on the transformative powers of awakened beings. Among these, Kongtrul points out, the most important element for realization of the path is the transformative power of the vajra master combined with one's own devotion to that master.
--from The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Eight, Part Three: The Elements of Tantric Practice by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, translated by Ingrid Loken McLeod and Elio Guarisco
- November 22
On the tenth night of the twelfth month, Gyal Dawa, the girl, came again. She said, "Don't neglect my request for a prayer. It is very important." That's the dream she had. I thought, "I'll write it on the full moon day." So on the night of the fourteenth I prayed with single-pointed devotion to Guru Rinpoche to grant blessing that the prayer would be beneficial and then fell asleep. Early in the morning of the fifteenth I dreamed I was sitting in front of the shrine in a very large building that looked like a temple. Suddenly a young white man dressed in white with his hair falling loosely over his shoulder appeared at the entrance. He was playing the cymbals melodiously and dancing the swirling, joyous dance of the Ging. He came closer and closer, singing:
If you want to establish the dharma,
Establish it in your mind.
In the depth of mind, you will find Buddha.
If you wish to visit the buddha fields,
Purify ordinary deluded attachment.
The perfectly comfortable buddha field is close by.
Develop the joyful effort to practice,
That is the essence of the teaching.
Without practice, who can gain the siddhis?
It is hard to see one's faults,
But to see them nakedly is powerful advice.
In the end when faults have been cleared away,
The enlightened qualities increase and shine forth.
At the end of this he rolled his cymbals. Then he crashed them together, and I awoke. After I woke up, I did not forget what he had said. I understood it to have been advice on practicing what to accept and what to reject. I was sad that although I had actually seen the face of my only father, Guru Padmasambhava, I had not recognized him.
--I, Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, old father of the Nyingma, wrote this from my own experience. Sarva Mangalam.[May all be auspicious.]
--from Light of Fearless Indestructible Wisdom: The Life and Legacy of His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche by Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche
- November 14
Channels and cakras represent the inner structure of the human body, referred to in the tantric teachings as the 'vajra body'. 'Vajra' means 'indestructible', and 'vajra body' refers to the dimension of the three fundamental components: the channels and cakras, the prana that flows through them, and the bindu or thigle, the white and red seed-essences of the physical body that form the basis for practices such as the Tummo.
In the tantras of the Upadesa section of Dzogchen, it is explained that after the conception of a human being the first thing to develop is the navel cakra. Then from this, through a channel, the head cakra develops followed by the other main cakras of the throat and the heart. This channel or meridian, known as the life-channel, develops into the spinal cord and spine. At the same time it remains as the fundamental energy of the central channel.
The central channel, known as Uma in Tibetan, is connected with the two lateral channels called Roma and Kyangma. The Roma channel, which is white and corresponds to lunar energy, is on the right side in men and on the left in women. Ro means 'taste', and the main function of this channel is to give the sensation of pleasure. The Kyangma channel, red and corresponding to solar energy, is on the left side in men and on the right in women. Kyang means 'sole', and unlike the Roma, this channel is not connected with many secondary channels. Control of this channel is fundamental in order to cultivate the experience of emptiness. These are the characteristic features of the two channels, which are related to the two principles of upaya or method, and of prajna or energy. Method denotes everything pertaining to the visible or material dimension; while 'prajna', which generally means discriminating wisdom, in this context denotes the energy of emptiness that is the base of any manifestation.
--from Yantra Yoga: The Tibetan Yoga of Movement by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, trans. by Adriano Clemente
- November 8
No quote sent this week.
- November 1
What is wisdom? It is as explained in the perfection of supreme knowledge teachings: all phenomena are free from elaborations, and when the perceiving subject as well becomes equally free from elaborations, that is wisdom. In particular, the wisdom of the buddha consists in the pacification of the elaborations and their habitual tendencies in relation to suchness. It is the inseparability of the expanse and wisdom. It is free from singularity and multiplicity, quality and qualified. It realizes the nonduality of subjects and objects. In it all phenomena--samsara and nirvana, faults and qualities, and so on--are always undifferentiable and equal. Outside of that, there is no way to posit wisdom.
In a nonanalytical context of repeating what others accept, we Followers of the Middle Way describe knowable objects as existing. The wisdom of the buddhas is the same. Since we speak of all phenomena as existing from the perspective of others (even though from our own perspective they are free of the elaborations of existence and nonexistence), it is unreasonable to debate solely about the existence or nonexistence of the wisdom of buddhas.
--from The Karmapa's Middle Way: Feast for the Fortunate by the Ninth Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje, trans. by Tyler Dewar
- October 25
We are aiming to develop a strong feeling of love and compassion with respect to everyone, but this cannot be done without first seeing an equality of all beings throught meditatively cultivating equanimity. Otherwise, you'll easily be able to generate love and compassion for friends and may be able to extend a little of this to neutral people, but even minor enemies will remain a huge problem. Thus at first it is necessary to recognize how friends, neutral persons, and enemies are equal.
This is done in two ways. One way to break down rigid classifications of people is by reflecting first with respect to friends, then neutral persons, and then enemies:
Just as I want happiness and don't want suffering, so this friend wants happiness and doesn't want suffering. And equally, this neutral person wants happiness and doesn't want suffering. And equally, this enemy wants happiness and doesn't want suffering.
Another way is to reflect on what your relationships have been with others over the course of lifetimes, beginning with neutral persons, then friends, and finally enemies. An enemy in this lifetime wants to do you in, but over the course of lifetimes was this person just an enemy? No. If you do not believe in rebirth, utilize the rebirth game, the rebirth perspective, as a technique for making your mind more flexible.
Either of these techniques will work:
- Reflecting on the similarity of yourself and others in the basic aspiration to gain happiness and be rid of suffering.
- Reflecting on the changeability of relationships over the course of lifetimes.
--from A Truthful Heart: Buddhist Practices for Connecting with Others by Jeffrey Hopkins, foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
- October 18
Puba Supoche asked, "Dampa, tell me what it's like when you really practice sincerely! I understand neither heads nor tails of it!"
Dampa said, "View is the destruction of extreme ideas regarding things! Cutting pride of self with confidence is realization! Being without support in luminosity is meditation! In insight, absence of recognition is the innate! Finding nowhere to place the mind among shifting phenomena is subsequent attainment! In their absence, there is no antidote but natural intensity! Naked awareness without grasping is dharmakaya! Disappearance without being anything is experience! Don't you wonder whether all this truly exists?"
--from Lion of Siddhas: The Life and Teachings of Padampa Sangye by Padampa Sangye, translated by David Molk with Lama Tsering Wangdu Rinpoche
- October 12
Western women emerging from crisis situations often choose to live alone, intuitively knowing that the confrontation with oneself that this brings will lead to a deeper understanding. These women in our society (which sees them as pitiable and unfortunate) can take strength from the stories of Tibetan yoginis.
These Western women also seek the support of other women or psychotherapists to help them to emerge from their descents, just as the yoginis sought the guidance of their teachers and spiritual friends, and the Greeks needed the help of the therapeutes [helpers] to make sense of the memories they brought back from the oracle cave.
Speaking of the descent myth in terms of her experiences in controlled therapeutic regressions, Jungian analyst M.L. Von Franz describes the descent process in relation to the story of "The Handless Maiden":
In the Middle Ages there were many hermits, and in Switzerland there were the so-called Wood Brothers and Sisters. People who did not want to live a monastic life but who wanted to live alone in the forest had both a closeness to nature and also a great experience of spiritual inner life. Such Wood Brothers and Sisters could be personalities on a high level who had a spiritual fate and had to renounce active life for a time and isolate themselves to find their own inner relation to God. It is not very different from what the shaman does in the Polar tribes, or what medicine men do all over the world, in order to seek an immediate personal religious experience in isolation.
...If we avoid the descent because of fear of what we will discover about ourselves in the "underworld," we block ourselves off from a powerful transformative process. This process has been recognized by modern psychologists and ancient mystery religions alike.
--from Women of Wisdom by Tsultrim Allione
- October 4
The Prajna Paramita is a very profound philosophical doctrine, and I will just outline the main ideas in it in order to clarify the Chöd. First we start off with the confused egocentric state of mind. This state of mind causes us to suffer, and so, to alleviate the suffering, we start to practice meditation. What happens in meditation is that the speedy mind begins to slow down and things begin to settle, like the mud sinking to the bottom of a puddle of water when it is left undisturbed. When this settling has occurred, a kind of clear understanding of the way things work in the mind takes place. This understanding is prajna, profound cognition.
Then, according to Buddhist doctrine, through the use of this prajna, we begin to see that, in fact, although we think that we have a separate and unique essence, or self, which we call the "ego," when we look closely, we are a composite of form, sense-perceptions, consciousness, etc., and are merely a sum of these parts. This realization is the understanding of sunyata, usually translated as emptiness, or voidness. It means there is no self-essence, that we are "void of a self." If we are void of a self, there is no reason to be egocentric, since the whole notion of a separate ego is false. Therefore we can afford to be compassionate, and need not continually defend ourselves or force our desires onto others.
--from Women of Wisdom by Tsultrim Allione
- September 27
There is a film called Groundhog Day, which is really a Buddhist movie because this is exactly what the plot is about. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's about somebody who had to relive the same day again and again until he got it right. He started out with an extremely negative attitude, and so throughout the first day he created a lot of negative causes.
People related back to him from his own level of negativity, and so he had a very bad day. Then the next day he had to experience the same day all over again. Then again, and again. He became desperate to find a way out. He attempted suicide many times, but the next morning, there he was again in the same room and the same bed. The date hadn't changed, and the same song was playing on the radio. His attitude underwent many, many changes, until in the end he spent most of his time trying to help people. He forestalled tragedies he knew were going to happen because he had lived the day over so many times, and his whole attitude gradually turned around into working out ways to help others. As his inner attitude transformed, the day gradually got better and better. Finally, he was able to break through to a new day.
The important thing is how we respond to our situation. We can transform anything if we respond in a skillful way. This is precisely what karma is about. If we greet situations with a positive attitude, we will eventually create positive returns.
If we respond with a negative attitude, negative things will eventually come our way. Unlike the scenario in the movie, it doesn't always happen right away. We can be very nice people but still have lots of problems. On the other hand, we can be awful people and have a wonderful time. But from a Buddhist perspective, it's just a matter of time before we receive the results of our conduct. And usually it is true that people with a positive attitude encounter positive circumstances. Even if the circumstances do not appear positive, they be transformed through a positive view. On the other hand people with negative minds complain even when things are going well. They also transform circumstances, but they transform positive ones into negative ones!
Both our present and our future depend on us. From moment to moment, we are creating our future. We are not a ball of dust tossed about by the winds of fate. We have full responsibility for our lives. The more aware we become, the more capable we are of making skillful choices.
--from Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings on Practical Buddhism by Venerable Tenzin Palmo
- September 20
Idle talk is usually considered a destructive action because it wastes our time. But if our friend is depressed and can't listen to wise advice, we can joke, tell silly stories, and use small talk to lighten his mood. Because our motivation is kind, our joking and chatting are positive.
Laughing and having a good time aren't in opposition to Dharma. The more we leave behind attachment, anger, jealousy, and pride, the more we'll enjoy whatever we're doing. Our hearts will open to others and we can laugh and smile with ease. The holy beings I've been fortunate to meet have a wonderful sense of humor and are very friendly.
In Buddhist groups, it's important for people to get to know each other and have a sense of fellowship. We can share experiences with our Dharma friends and encourage each other on the path. Buddhism isn't an isolated path, and it's important for Buddhists to cultivate group unity and companionship.
It's not beneficial to retreat inside ourselves, thinking, "Every time I talk to someone I'm motivated by attachment. Therefore I'll concentrate on meditation and chanting and won't socialize with others." One of the fundamental principles of Buddhism is care and compassion for others. Although at times we may need to distance ourselves from others in order to settle our own minds, whenever possible we should actively develop genuine love for others. To do this, we must be aware of what's happening in others' lives, care about them as we do ourselves, and offer help whenever possible. Our ability to act with love develops with time and practice, and it has to be balanced with our need for private contemplation.
--from Taming the Mind by Thubten Chodron
- September 14
...blissful light, with a Chenrezig on the tip of each ray, streams out of you and touches each and every sentient being--those whom you like, those whom you don't, and those you don't know. When this glowing light touches each sentient being, it performs two functions: it purifies them of their negativities, and it inspires them to realize all the stages of the path to enlightenment. We may start imagining the light touching the beings in the room and gradually spreading out to those in the area, the country, the continent, the world, and the universe. Or we can start with our friends and family, then radiate light to strangers, and finally to those who have harmed us or of whom we're afraid. Or, we can first radiate light to human beings, then animals, hungry ghosts, hell beings, demi-gods, and gods. We can use our creativity and imagination when doing this visualization. Each meditation session can have a different emphasis.
It's very easy to love sentient beings in a general way. But it's more effective to be specific in our visualizations. Send light to the guy who cut you off on the highway. Send light to the IRS employee who questioned your tax return. Send light to the terrorist who thinks that killing others in the name of God will cause him to be reborn in heaven. Send light to government leaders who think that bombing others solves problems. Send light to your teenager who leaves his room a mess and gets mad when you comment on it. Send light to specific people you know and care about, people who are having problems, strangers, and people you don't like. Send it to hospitals, the Middle East, the inner cities, and Beverly Hills. There's suffering everywhere. The light frees sentient beings from their suffering.
--from Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of Chenrezig by Thubten Chodron, foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama
- September 7
In Tibetan drenpa means "mindfulness," and sheshin means "awareness." Drenpa also means "mindfulness and memory." It means that one is mindful of what one is doing and remembers what one has to do whether one is meditating, whether one has lost the power of concentration, and so on. Mindfulness is like a causal condition and awareness is like the result. If one has very concentrated mindfulness, one immediately notices a thought arising and this becomes awareness, which becomes sheshin, and one knows what is occurring. Normally, one does not know what is in one's mind or what one is thinking, so there is no awareness. But if one has mindfulness, then it is said to the extent that mindfulness brings mental stability, one has awareness. So when one has mindfulness, it is through one's awareness of what is happening.
At this level of pacification we become aware of the negative qualities of distraction. Santideva explains this by saying that when the mind is distracted, it is between the fangs of the wild animal of the kleshas [emotional obscurations], and from mental distractions come all the difficulties and mental hardships of this and future lives. Being in a state of distraction will increase the negative qualities of the mind more and more. However, being aware of the negative qualities motivates us to meditate.
--from The Practice of Tranquillity and Insight: A Guide to Tibetan Buddhist Meditation by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, translated by Peter Roberts
- August 30
In Chapter 4 we looked at the when and where of meditation. Whatever works best for you, given your personal circumstances and temperament, the important thing is to do it regularly, preferably every day.
I would also recommend that you keep the session to a length of time that feels comfortable. This is because in the early stages of meditation it's easy to become discouraged and have thoughts along the lines of: "This might work for other people, but I don't have the right personality/mind/lifestyle/ partner for meditation." Or: "I've been doing this for six months and my concentration is no better than when I started." With thoughts like these, you may start to resent the time you spend meditating and consider giving up.
Much better to keep your practice light and easy to begin with; short sessions, and concentrated attention, especially towards the end of your practice so that you "finish like a winner" and feel encouraged for the next day. Better to end a short session thinking you could have gone on longer than keep glancing at your watch with the thought that has passed through the mind of every meditator at some stage--"My watch must have stopped. It's been longer than two minutes--surely?!"
Having reviewed the meditation practices outlined in the previous chapter, you may decide you quite like the sound of several of them. On what basis should they be practiced? My own preference is to have a simple calendar of activity so that, for example, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are breath-counting days; Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays are visualization days; and Sundays are for whatever I'm in the mood to do.
On this point, I once asked a high-ranking Tibetan lama which of a number of meditation practices I should focus on. He gave me an indulgent smile and said simply, "Whichever you enjoy the most." D'oh!
--from Hurry Up and Meditate: Your Starter Kit for Inner Peace and Better Health by David Michie
- August 24
"Always be sustained by cheerfulness."
The effectiveness of our practice can be measured by looking at our mood. If we are in better spirits, the practice is working. We can take heart because we have a purpose, to exchange whatever sadness we meet for joy. The smallest personal damage can be put to use to dissolve great suffering and do away with negativity. If there is a way, we try to stop unfortunate things from happening, but when unhappy events occur we meet them optimistically. We never let negativity discourage us or injure our ability to help.
Setting out on any adventure demands determination. We may have to toil and struggle with setbacks along the way but the trials we face are short-lived. We can endure them because we have a great end in mind: to benefit all sentient beings. Remaining good-natured and enthusiastic shows that our efforts are succeeding. Being cheerful is the sign of a good practitioner.
--from Mind Training by Ringu Tulku
- August 16
The only conclusion that can legitimately be reached is that the self is a fiction, a mere label superimposed onto the aggregates, a concept created and reified by the mind but lacking any substantial reality. This reasoning process alone does not eliminate the idea, however; it merely weakens it. Because it is so deeply ingrained, the idea of self is only eliminated through repeated meditation on the reasonings of no-self, which enable the yogin to become progressively more familiar with the understanding that no self or essence exists. The Dalai Lama concludes that "when such a realization is maintained and reinforced through constant meditation and familiarization, you will be able to develop it into an intuitive or direct experience." (From Path to Bliss.)
Many Westerners reject this notion, contending that it would be a sort of cognitive suicide. The idea that the self (which is assumed even by people who reject religions that propound the idea) does not exist is profoundly disturbing to many non-Buddhists, but in Buddhist thought the denial of self is not seen as constituting a loss, but rather is viewed as a profoundly liberating insight. Since the innate idea of self implies an autonomous, unchanging essence, if such a thing were in fact the core of one's being, it would mean that change would be impossible, and one would be stuck being just what one is right now. Because there is no such self, however, we are open toward the future. One's nature is never fixed and determined, and so through engaging in Buddhist practice one can exert control over the process of change and progress in wisdom, compassion, patience, and other good qualities. One can even become a buddha, a fully awakened being who is completely liberated from all the frailties, sufferings, and limitations of ordinary beings. But this is only possible because there is no permanent and static self, no soul that exists self-sufficiently, separated from the ongoing process of change.
--from A Concise Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism by John Powers
- August 9
I often encounter people in and our of my office who seem to be lost in thought. I sometimes ask them what they are thinking about. They are usually startled by the question. They look at me blankly and are often surprised to hear themselves admit with embarrassment that they don't know or can't say. Or they describe one small, fleeting fragment of disconnected thought. The "normal" human state of mind is constant, incessant thinking--an enigmatically linked stream of consciousness, sensations, memories, feelings, desires, fears, and chatter. And at the center of the narrative, the star of the show is always--ME! This is why the first leg of the journey requires courage. To become familiar with the chaotic, egotistical, and often nonsensical narrative of our own mind stream is disconcerting and painful. To discover directly that we are literally "lost in thought" can be frightening. But this is where we are and where we must begin.
It's consoling to remember that everyone is neurotic, each one of us. The "normal" mind suffers from a complex of conflicting desires and aversions. The best we can do is to become aware of our neuroses, to become wiser in our thinking and our conduct of life. In my experience, meditation is the most direct and efficient method for developing self-awareness. Self-awareness is not a steady state because experience is not a steady state. Through the practice of meditation, we can learn to watch our ever-fluctuating mental processes from a more detached, aerial perspective. Without necessarily understanding ourselves in some intellectual way, we can directly discover how the mind works. The mind has its causes and effects, its motivations and intentions, and its awareness and evaluation of their possible consequences.
--from Vinegar Into Honey: Seven Steps to Understanding and Transforming Anger, Aggression, and Violence by Ron Leifer
- August 2
Whatever appears, nothing has moved from the absolute nature.
Decide that nothing is extraneous to the absolute nature, taking the example of gold jewelry.
Once we know how to remain in the absolute nature, the manifold thoughts that arise in the mind are no different from gold jewelry. One can make all sorts of things out of gold, such as earrings, bracelets, and necklaces, but although they have a variety of different shapes, they are all made of gold. Likewise, if we are able to not move from the absolute nature, however many thoughts we might have, they never depart from the recognition of the absolute nature. A yogi for whom this is the case never departs from that realization, whatever he does with his body, speech, and mind. All his actions arise as the outer display or ornament of wisdom. All the signs one would expect from meditating on a deity come spontaneously without him actually doing any formal practice. The result of mantra recitation is obtained without his having to do a large number of recitations. In this way everything is included in the recognition that nothing is ever extraneous to the absolute nature.
In that state one does not become excited at pleasant events or depressed by unpleasant ones.
--from Zurchungpa's Testament: A Commentary on Zurchung Sherab Trakpa's 'Eighty Chapters of Personal Advice' by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, based on Shechen Gyaltsap's Annotated Edition, translated by the Padmakara Translation Group
- July 27
128.
Desire is painful because of not getting,
Anger is painful through lack of might,
And confusion through not understanding.
Because of this, these are not recognized.
Desire produces suffering when one does not encounter what one badly wants. Anger produces suffering when one lacks might to crush the strong. Confusion* induces suffering when one fails to understand a subtle matter thoroughly. The inability to recognize these forms of suffering when one is overwhelmed by desire and so forth is great suffering indeed. Therefore, persevere in getting rid of the disturbing emotions. It is like a poor man's son who suffered because he wanted a queen.
A certain poor man wanted a queen, but kings keep their queens heavily guarded, and because he could not get her, his desire made him suffer. He felt anger toward the king for guarding his queens well, and since he could not do the slightest harm to the king, he suffered acutely on account of his anger. Blinded by desire and anger his confusion grew, and unable to understand the situation properly, he was tormented by the suffering it caused him.
--from Aryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas on the Middle Way: with Commentary by Gyel-tsap by Aryadeva and Gyeltsap, additional commentary by Geshe Sonam Rinchen, translated by Ruth Sonam
* confusion's function is to feed desire and anger.
- July 19
We usually discriminate strongly between someone who intends to harm us and someone who doesn't. We think, "That's all right; he didn't mean it"; or the person who has harmed us can say, "Why do you blame me so much? I didn't mean to." But we get really angry when we know people mean to harm us. How could we possibly see such people as intimate, close, dear--as dear as our best of friends?
If you can retain a little compassion when people harm you unintentionally, you have made progress. But if you retain it when someone intends to harm you, you are really successful. It's not that you think, "This person is marvelous; she's trying to rob me," but you don't take these facts as reasons for hating the person. You recognize the intention and put your wallet in your front pocket. You take such measures, but the conditions that prompted them no longer serve as reasons for hatred.
Our wish to love everyone and the actual attitudes we have under pressure are in constant conflict. That's just the way we are. We've been wandering in cyclic existence since beginningless time, because of desire and hatred, and it's going to take a lot of familiarization to change this. Be relaxed about it. Don't put pressure on yourself, thinking things like, "Oh, I'm a scumbag because I hate so deeply." Rather, try this attitude: "I have to admit it. As much as my ideals say I should love so-and-so--or at least be neutral--I have to face the fact that I don't." Go easy on yourself.
--from A Truthful Heart: Buddhist Practices for Connecting with Others by Jeffrey Hopkins, foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
- July 12
Because spirits can be positive or negative in relation to humans, it is wise to be careful with practices that connect the practitioner to a spirit. It is currently popular for people to take drum journeys in their imaginations and to look for guardian spirits and power animals and so on. Although usually this is beneficial, or at least harmless, there really are beings with whom the rare individual will connect. Not all of them are beings anyone should want to connect with. There seems to be little regard for who the being is; this can be a dangerous practice. People are much more careful about choosing a business partner or a roommate than they seem to be about choosing a non-physical being for a guide or guardian.
--from Healing with Form, Energy and Light: The Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra and Dzogchen by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
- July 5
According to Tibetan Buddhism, ordinary beings are born into life situations in which they are destined to suffer and die. This is the result of former contaminated actions and afflictions, which have been accumulated since beginningless time. Because of this process, physical and mental afflictions are deeply rooted in sentient beings, and so it is generally considered necessary to prepare oneself for tantric practice by engaging in the "preliminary practices," or ngondro (sngon 'gro, purvagama), in order to begin to reverse one's negative conditioning. These practices combine physical movements with visualization in order to transform the mind from one that is fixated on mundane concerns and desires into one that is primarily oriented toward religious practice for the benefit of others. Some teachers consider these preparatory trainings to be so essential to successful tantric practice that they will not give tantric initiations to those who have not completed them, and even teachers who are willing to waive them generally stress their importance. The preliminary practices are: (1) taking refuge; (2) prostration; (3) Vajrasattva meditation; (4) mandala offering; and (5) guru yoga.
--from A Concise Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism by John Powers
- June 28
...all apparent phenomena are nothing but delusion and there is, moreover, no freedom from delusion to be achieved by dispelling delusion. Delusion is, by its own essence, completely pure and, hence, enlightened. All phenomena are, in this way, primordially, fully, and completely enlightened. Phenomena appearing as various attributes are, therefore, indeed the mandala of vajra body, speech, and mind. They are like the Buddhas of the three times, never transcending the essence of complete purity. Sentient beings and Buddhas are not differentiated in terms of their essence. Just like distinct causes and results appearing in a dream, they are nothing but perceptions of individual minds brought forth by the power of imputation.
Here the issue might be raised, "although the scriptures do teach his, there is no certainty whether it is to be taken at face value or requires interpretation. Therefore the essential purity of phenomena may well be established, but it is unreasonable to say that precisely the nature of that which appears as subjects with attributes is primordially enlightened. For, if it were that way, thorough affliction and samsara would be entirely absent. There can't be a reasoning that establishes such a philosophy." The conceptual mind that takes objects that appear in the experience of sentient beings as valid is, since beginningless time, deluded. It accepts or negates with reference to the way things appear to it. With such dialectics it is, indeed, not possible to establish the vast and profound meaning. Nevertheless, since the nature of phenomena is inconceivable, it is not the case that there is no way to realize it by means of discriminating knowledge. Thus it is not in any way a mistake if one, rather than that, is inclined to approach simply by faith, regarding the scriptures and oral instructions as valid. One will then gain access through trust.
One may object, "Well, if one cannot prove [the primordial mandala] with reasoning, one cannot gain access to it either." We can prove it as follows: That phenomena are fully enlightened as the mandala of vajra body, speech, and mind is proven with the reasoning of the intrinsic nature. Just as it is stated in a sutra, "Form is empty by nature. Why is that? It is so because that is its nature." All phenomena are pure by their intrinsic nature and, therefore, there is not a single phenomenon that is impure. This is the intrinsic nature of phenomena. Complete purity is, therefore, also the intrinsic nature of body, speech, and mind, and their complete purity is enlightenment. Therefore, body, speech, and mind, distinguished by their complete purity, are inseparable, free from mental constructs, and perfectly pervasive. One must in this way understand them to be the mandala of vajra body, speech, and mind.
--from Establishing Appearances as Divine: Rongzom Chözang on Reasoning, Madhyamaka, and Purity by Heidi I. Köppl
- June 22
Why do we want to be wise and compassionate? If it's because we would simply like to be wise and compassionate, we are off course, because the "I" cannot attain wisdom and compassion. Wisdom and compassion can only be revealed once the "I" has disappeared. When we reach this level, we will be able to benefit others. In the meantime, it is the blind leading the blind. All true religions seek to gain access to that level of consciousness which is not ego-bound. In Buddhism, it is called the unconditioned, the unborn, the deathless. You can call it anything you like. You can call it atman. You can call it anatman. You can call it God. The fact is, there is a subtle level of consciousness which is the core of our being, and it is beyond our ordinary conditioned state of mind. We can all experience this. Some people experience it through service, others through devotion. Some even think they can experience it through analysis and intellectual discipline. Buddhists usually try to access it through meditation. That's what we are doing. Breaking through to the unconditioned in order to help others break through to the unconditioned. But we have to start where we are, from right here. We start with these minds, these bodies, these problems, these weaknesses, and these strengths.
--from Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings on Practical Buddhism by Venerable Tenzin Palmo
- June 14
Dampa said, "If these practitioners want buddhahood, they must reverse their present behavior!"
[Kunga] asked, "What is wrong with their present behavior?"
He said:
They practice thinking that what are in actuality obstacles are attainments!
They meet the liberating path, but doubting and striving, they part from it!
Doubting if they should refrain from their ill-omened actions, they suffer!
The speech of those without experience has become Dharma--supposedly the view.
Kunga is never parted from his prayers for the three village girls!
Now, draw your own conclusions!
* * *
Dampa said:
When I see people clinging to illusions as real, compassion arises with a force.
If one considers the sufferings of the six realms in terms of oneself, one has no time to remain ordinary.
When one sees that the characteristic of samsara is suffering, a mind wanting nothing whatsoever is born!
When one sees the various bases as rootless, self-grasping is not born!
When impermanence is born in the mind, faith and perseverance will come together!
Those who grasp at permanence will not destroy persistent grasping at things as real!
Kunga! Internalize truthlessness and throw the kitchen sauce into the water!
--from Lion of Siddhas: The Life and Teachings of Padampa Sangye translated by David Molk, with Lama Tsering Wangdu Rinpoche
- June 7
The term "meditation" carries with it a burden of trendy, pseudo-mystical connotations. The biggest mistake people make is to think that they will "get something" out of meditation. It would be more accurate to think they will be getting rid of something. Awareness practice undermines our unwitting subjugation to hypermentation. It cuts through the cascade of thoughts and feelings that distract us from the present moment where life actually happens. The inner newsreel, with its imagined or distorted dramas, becomes less urgent and seductive. The unexamined hopes and fears that have thrown us into automatic or reflexive behavior lose their power to toss us about. What we get rid of, initially, is a great deal of compelling noise with no point or real substance to it. Even by becoming aware of its nature we de-reify it, render it less solid and intractable.
...How can we sort out our neuroses when the mind is a wild, chaotic mess of fragmented thought? How can we work with our anger when we experience it as a deluge of highly charged, urgent impulses, all mixed in with fleeting bits of narrative, physical sensations, whispers of memory, rushes of fear, and the visceral press to act? We can't. Every beginning meditator discovers very quickly that the mind has a mind of its own. No beginner sits down, says, "Peace! Be still!" and accomplishes enlightenment. It's enough at the start just to see, discover, and acknowledge the chatter. That, in itself, is a great step towards self-awareness. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche taught that the awareness of our confusion is the first step towards clarity.
Over time, we can learn to just take note of whatever arises without being pushed and pulled emotionally. We can sit still and not respond reflexively to our hypermentation. We can allow ourselves to rest, to gently release thoughts, to find a quiet space apart from the discursive jumble. We can choose to be simply and quietly aware. In these quiet moments, experiences arise much more clearly and distinctly. Only then can we discover the source of our suffering and our anger.
I once attended a conference between a highly esteemed Tibetan lama, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, and a group of psychiatrists. Someone asked Rinpoche: "What is meditation?" Rinpoche looked playfully puzzled, pretended not to understand, and after a brief consultation with his translator, answered: "Meditation? Meditation? I don't know what that means. We have another word for it which means 'paying attention to.'" Whatever the style, to meditate is to pay attention.
--from Vinegar into Honey: Seven Steps to Understanding and Transforming Anger, Aggression, and Violence by Ron Leifer, M.D.
- May 31
The recognition that worldly attainments just do not provide enduring happiness, and that we need to work on the internals, rather than the externals, is an important motivation. It is also the basis of achieving nirvana, often represented by the lotus flower. It is no accident that most statues of Buddha have him sitting on cushions resting on a lotus flower--the symbol of renunciation.
But what if we achieve nirvana? What if, through extreme diligence, we attain its supreme peace and happiness? Would that be enough, or is there a more profound level of motivation still?
Some years ago a number of tourists were kidnapped by terrorists in the Philippines, and held hostage in the jungle for many months. Finally they were released in small groups. I will never forget the reaction of one hostage who was interviewed at the airport on his way home to join his wife, who had been freed just days earlier.
You would think that after months of extreme privation and the constant threat of uncertainty and death, returning safely to one's wife, home, and family would be a cause for joyful celebration. But the hostage, while relieved, could only think of the group of hostages he'd left behind. Those who, in the preceding months, had been his fellow prisoners, whom he now knew better than anyone else, and with whom in several cases, he had formed unique and profound bonds of attachment. His overriding concern was to ensure that those still being held captive would be safely released to experience the same freedom he had now. Only then would he really be able to celebrate.
--from Buddhism for Beginners: Finding Happiness in an Uncertain World by David Michie
- May 23
Advanced meditators develop the ability to create environments of their own choosing, and they are able to transcend the sufferings that seem so real to ordinary beings who are bound by mundane conceptions. According to Tsong Khapa, for one who attains advanced levels of meditation painful cognitions no longer occur, no matter what external experiences one encounters. All of one's cognitions are a union of bliss and emptiness. One recognizes that nothing is inherently what it appears to be. Whatever occurs is perceived by one's unshakably blissful consciousness as the sport of luminosity and emptiness, and so
"for a Bodhisattva who has attained the meditative stabilisation of bliss pervading all phenomena, only a feeling of pleasure arises with respect to all objects; pain and neutrality do not occur, even though [pieces from his body] the size of a small coin are cut or even though his body is crushed by elephants, only a discrimination of bliss is maintained."
--Tsong-ka-pa on Ratnarakshita's Commentary
Tantric texts stress that such bodhisattvas are not creating a delusional system in order to hide from the harsher aspects of reality. Rather, they are transforming reality, making it conform to an ideal archetype. Since all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, they have no fixed nature. No one ever apprehends an object as it is in its true nature, because there is no such nature. Even if phenomena had fixed essences, we would still never be able to perceive them, since all we ever experience are our cognitions of objects, which are overlaid with conceptions about them. All our perceptions are ideas about things, and not real things. These ideas are also empty, arising from nothingness and immediately dissolving again into nothingness, leaving nothing behind. Tantric adepts develop the ability to reconstitute "reality," which is completely malleable for those who train in yogas involving blissful consciousnesses realizing emptiness. The sense of bliss pervades all their cognitions, and their understanding of emptiness allows them to generate minds that are manifestations of bliss and emptiness.
--from A Concise Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism by John Powers
- May 19
Why is it that meeting our yidam deity directly and receiving the deity's blessing are so important? If we are studying texts and wish to become great scholars, there are an inconceivable number of the Buddha's teachings along with the treatises that comment on them. All these have to be studied diligently so that we can come to a basic understanding of their meaning; beyond this, it is extremely difficult to enter into the more subtle levels. In all of this practice and study, it is our own mind that is central. Without a great blessing or without awakening the generative power of previous habitual patterns, it will be extremely difficult to realize primordial wisdom.
Lord Maitreya stated that bodhisattvas abiding on the various levels are not able to attain omniscience immediately, and he also affirmed that we do not need to become expert in all five traditional Buddhist sciences. Among these are all classifications of the inner science that deals with the mind. In the practice of the Secret Mantrayana, it is said that as long as objects continue to arise in our minds, so long will the classifications of the Secret Mantrayana last. As long as we have not realized the simultaneity of concepts and liberation, as long as we have not been blessed with the knowledge that knowing the nature of one phenomenon liberates us into knowing the nature of all, we need to train from lifetime to lifetime in the many aspects of the teachings. If we try to become expert in all five sciences or try to know all the objects of knowledge, our training will be endless. For these reasons, it is extremely important to seek accomplishments and blessings from the yidam deity, for through the blessing of the deity, our positive habitual patterns from the past will be awakened and the doubts that cloud our minds will be cleared away.
--from Music in the Sky: The Life, Art and Teachings of the Seventeenth Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje by Michele Martin
- May 10
Observing the Mind Itself
The primary meditative technique of great perfection is remaining in the state of pure awareness. This is accomplished by calming the mind and then abiding in comprehension of its basic clear light nature. The meditative practice involves being cognizant of the arising and passing away of feelings, emotions, sensations, etc., but understanding them within the context of pure awareness. The more one does this, the more one realizes that all phenomena arise from mind and remerge into it. They are of the nature of pure awareness and are a projection of luminosity and emptiness. Through cultivating this understanding, mental phenomena of their own accord begin to subside, allowing the clear light nature of mind to become manifest. They appear as reflections on the surface of a mirror and are perceived as illusory, ephemeral, and nonsubstantial.
Those who succeed in this practice attain a state of radical freedom: there are no boundaries, no presuppositions, and no habits on which to rely. One perceives things as they are in their naked reality. Ordinary beings view phenomena through a lens clouded by concepts and preconceptions, and most of the world is overlooked or ignored. The mind of the great perfection adept, however, is unbounded, and everything is possible. For many beginners, this prospect is profoundly disquieting, because since beginningless time we have been constricted by rules, laws, assumptions, and previous actions. One who is awakened, however, transcends all such limitations; there is no ground on which to stand, no limits, nothing that must be done, and no prohibitions. This awareness is bottomless, unfathomable, immeasurable, permeated by joy, unboundedness, and exhilaration. One is utterly free, and one's state of mind is as expansive as space. Those who attain this level of awareness also transcend physicality and manifest the "rainbow body" ('ja lus), a form comprising pure light that cannot decay, which has no physical aspects, and which is coterminous with the nature of mind.
--from A Concise Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism by John Powers
- May 3
The practice of Dzogchen may begin with doing fixation on an object, in order to calm one's thoughts. Then one relaxes the fixation, dissolving the dependence on the object, and one fixes one's gaze in open space. Then, when one succeeds in making the calm state stable, it is important to work with the movement of one's thoughts and one's energy, integrating this movement with the presence of contemplation. At this point one is ready to apply contemplation in one's daily life. The system of practice just described is characteristic of the Series of the Nature of the Mind, but that is not to say that in Dzogchen one must necessarily begin with fixation and meditation on a calm state. In the Series of Primordial Space, and the Series of Secret Instructions, for example, one enters directly into the practice of contemplation. Particularly in the former, there are very precise instructions on how to find the pure state of contemplation. In the latter, on the other hand, the explanations are mainly concerned with how one continues in contemplation in all circumstances.
The practice of contemplation is concisely explained in the line that reads, "but vision nevertheless manifests: all is good." Even if the condition of "what is" cannot be grasped with the mind, the whole manifestation of the primordial state, including our karmic vision, does nevertheless exist. All the various aspects of forms, colours, and so on, continue to arise without interruption. When we find ourselves in contemplation, this doesn't mean that our impure vision just disappears and pure vision manifests instead. If we have a physical body, there is a karmic cause for that, so there would be no sense in trying to abandon or deny the situation we find ourselves in. We just need to be aware of it. If we have a vision of the material, physical level of existence, which is the cause of so very many problems, we need to understand that this vision is only the gross aspect of the colours, which are the essence of the elements.
--from Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, edited by Adriano Clemente, translated by John Shane
- April 26
Emphasizing neither renunciation nor transformation, though incorporating both into its preparatory practices, the Great Completeness privileges a method know as "self-liberation" (rang 'grol), sometimes described as "liberation in its own spot" (rang sar 'grol). Liberation takes place in the situation just as it is, because one's mind and all things are, despite powerful appearances to the contrary, primordially pure. If one has not yet made this essential discovery, the Great Bliss Queen ritual can prepare one for it. If one is familiar with the Great Completeness perspective, one performs the visualization and recitation of the Great Bliss Queen ritual entirely within an experience of innate awareness. In either case, the ritual encompasses the three nondualisms already discussed.
One way of accessing the primordial purity so important to the Great Completeness tradition is a practice known as "pure vision." This involves visualizing companions, family, surroundings, and so forth as creations of light, the habitat of an enlightened being. From the viewpoint of the Great Completeness, such pure vision is not an imaginative overlay, but a move toward understanding things as they are. As Khetsun Sangpo taught it, this practice allows you to understand that apparently ordinary things and persons have "been [primordially pure] from the beginning" so that "you are identifying their own proper nature. Your senses normally misrepresent what is there, but through this visualization you can come closer to what actually exists." In short, by identifying one's body, companions, and world with those of the Great Bliss Queen, one develops the ability to discover what has always been there. This being so, there is no need to renounce or change anything, only to see it more completely. This is the Great Completeness tradition's special mix of ontological and cognitive nondualisms. Unlike the tantric traditions, in which it is necessary to cease the coarse sense and mental consciousness in order for the most subtle mind of clear light to appear, the Dalai Lama observes that "in the Old [Nyingma] Translation School of the Great Completeness it is possible to be introduced to the clear light without the cessation of the six operative consciousnesses." Hence the possibility of "discovering" what is already in our midst. Such discovery reveals a spontaneous presence (yon dan hlun gyis grub ba) of collateral qualities such as clarity and spontaneous responsiveness. Thus, comments Longchen Rabjam, "primordially pure primordial wisdom is free in the face of thought and the primordial wisdom, with a nature of spontaneity, abides as primordial radiance, and profound clarity."
--from Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists, and the Art of the Self by Anne Carolyn Klein
- April 19
Who is the supreme friend
always helpful in times of need?
Mindfulness of the spiritual instructions
learned through study and contemplation.
—The Seventh Dalai Lama
Ordinary friends desert us when we fall on hard times or become an inconvenience in their lives. Others simply disappear into their own destinies. Even our spiritual teachers eventually die and leave us behind.
Our practice of the Dharma, however, that has been cultivated by means of study, contemplation and meditation, is the one sure anchor that keeps our ship stable when the seas become choppy. In fact, the more difficult the situation we encounter, the more helpful it is to us.
When the Buddha had become very old and was preparing to pass away, several of his disciples were overcome with grief. They asked him, "What will we do after you are gone?" He replied, "Whenever you rely upon my teachings, at that time I am there with you."
The Second Dalai Lama wrote, "When we know how to rely on the Dharma, we are able to be happy in every situation. Where could one find a more trustworthy and reliable friend?"
--from Gems of Wisdom from the Seventh Dalai Lama by Glenn H. Mullin
- April 12
...while walking in a park the body may be in the park while the mind is off working in the office, or at home, or talking to a distant friend, or making a list of groceries. That means the mind has disconnected from the body. Instead, when looking at a flower, really look at it. Be fully present. With the help of the flower, bring the mind back to the part. Appreciation for sensory experience reconnects mind and body. When the experience of the flower is felt throughout the body, a healing occurs; this can be the same when seeing a tree, smelling smoke, feeling the cloth of your shirt, hearing a bird call, or tasting an apple. Train yourself to vividly experience sensory objects without judgment. Try completely to be the eye with form, the nose with smell, the ear with sound, and so on. Try to be complete in experience while remaining in just the bare awareness of the sensory object.
When this ability is developed, reactions will still occur. Upon seeing the flower, judgements about its beauty will arise, or a smell may be judged to be foul. Even so, with practice the connection the pure sensory experience can be maintained rather than continuing to become lost in the mind's distraction. Being distracted by a cloud of concepts is a habit and it can be replaced with a new habit: using bodily sensual experience to bring us to presence, to connect us to the beauty of the world, to the vivid and nourishing experience of life that lies under our distractions. This is the underpinning of successful dream yoga.
--from The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, edited by Mark Dahlby
- April 5
...when you recognize how kind someone has been to you, you are using an ordinary worldly attitude to help keep you from responses of hatred. For instance, if someone gave me a grant with a blank check to form a team of translators of Tibetan thought, I would be more than extremely pleased. Now if the person who gave me the money came by someday and gave me a hard time, I would feel a measure of restraint due to reflecting on the person's kindness. I would seek other means to work things out with the person. When you reflect how kind every person has been, there is that restraint to the point where, believe it or not, trained Buddhists will look at a fly or an ant walking across the table and think, "This is someone who bore me in her womb in a former lifetime, who took care of me."
If you watch how mothers take precautions for a child in the womb, it is clear that they do a great deal to help it. They eat nourishing foods and avoid harmful substances like coffee, alcohol, nicotine, and drugs. If you reflect on how such a mother takes care of the child in the womb and extend this reflection to all sentient beings, I think that because your field of awareness is no longer just a few sentient beings but is gradually expanding to more and more, you can reflect on the mother's kindness without doing it merely because you were helped. The staggering debt deflates your sense of exaggerated importance. The boil is pricked.
--from A Truthful Heart: Buddhist Practices for Connecting with Others by Jeffrey Hopkins, foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
- March 29
Once we realize emptiness, all phenomena are included within this reality, which is not separate from the cause and effect of karma and which is free of mental constructs. On this ultimate level of realization, it is possible to state that there is no wholesome or unwholesome action. When we have realized the nature of all phenomena, negative actions naturally subside and positive ones are spontaneously accomplished. Until this time, however, we would be slipping into nihilism if we said that the phenomena of relative truth, such as positive and negative actions or karma, do not exist.
Just knowing this authentic view, however, is not enough. For others to be able to experience it, we must also know the scriptures and reasonings so that we can teach. Without the support of this knowledge, it will be difficult for others to trust what we say, and so Milarepa speaks of scripture and reasoning as an adornment to realization.
Dissolving thoughts into the dharmakaya--
Is this not meditation naturally arising?
Join it with experience
To make it beautifully adorned.
One way to understand meditation is to see it as a practice of working with the many thoughts that arise in our mind. With realization they arise as mere appearances of the dharmakaya, the natural arising of mind's essential nature. Being clear about this true nature of thought is called "attaining the level of natural arising." At this point, there is no difference in any thought that may arise, because we see the nature of each thought to be emptiness, arising as the dharmakaya. Meditation could be defined as realizing the dharmakaya of the Buddha.
--from Music in the Sky: The Life, Art & Teachings of the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje by Michele Martin
- March 22
(Each day before breakfast the founder and abbess of Sravasti Abbey, Thubten Chodron, gives a morning motivation for residents and guests. Below is a teaching given during March 2008.)
Quiet Place
Have you ever had this experience? You walk outside, and all of a sudden the silence strikes you--it's in such sharp contrast to the chatter that's going on in the mind.
We live in a very quiet place. We walk outside and it's pretty quiet--a few birds chirping, sun shining. Then suddenly the chatter in the mind stops because we see that it's just chatter. It's in such stark contrast to the silence that's outside.
We want to learn to notice that chatter before we even have to walk outside. And we want to be able to find that quiet place inside ourselves and keep it with us, so that even when we're in a place where there is a lot of noise, the mind can be quiet.
All that mental chatter is basically negative conceptualization. If we were thinking about emptiness or developing compassion with that kind of mental activity, fine! Continue that outside, inside, everywhere. But most of the time what's going on is, "I like this. I don't like this. I want this. I don't want that. Why does this person do this? Why don't they do that?" That kind of mental activity makes the mind quite stressful as well as accumulates negative karma and wastes a great deal of time.
As soon as we can catch it and be aware of what's going on in our mind, and come back to that silent space inside, the more peaceful we'll be. Our lives will be more productive in terms of having the Dharma grow in our hearts, and we’ll be more focused in whatever daily activities we're doing. We won't be quite so distracted.
Thubten Chodron is the author of numerous books, including Buddhism for Beginners;
Taming the Mind;
Open Heart, Clear Mind; and
Working with Anger
- March 15
In ascertaining luminous clarity at the time of the path, the general technique is to rest evenly in the very essence of luminous clarity. Telopa said:
Rest relaxed within the uncontrived native state;
Bonds are released and freedom is sure.
This and other such instructions are expressed unanimously by the mighty adepts. Accordingly, with the body in the seven-point posture of meditative stability, the mind rests without support, relaxed and uncontrived. This will create the unerring yogic direct perception of emptiness. This is the ultimate esoteric instruction of the completion phase found in the profound tantras. The reason is that once the vital points of the vajra body, which is the support, are bound, the mind, eyes, and energy currents remain in a state of nonthought. Because of the special interconnection between body and mind, the movement in the right and left channels is stopped and immobilized within the central channel, causing the direct experience of mahamudra, emptiness with aspects.
Therefore the luminous mind, which is the supported, is realized as empty appearance arising as the mahamudra of forms of emptiness. This, again, depends on the dissolution of the energy currents of the right and left channels in the central channel, the supreme support. There is no more profound method for affecting this dissolution than resting the mind once it is uncontrived and relaxed. Therefore, in all the esoteric instructions of highest tantra, this is called "the esoteric instruction of withdrawal" in the presentations.
--from The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Eight, Part Four: Esoteric Instructions, A Detailed Presentation of the Process of Meditation in Vajrayana by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, trans. and annot. by Sarah Harding, foreword by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche
- March 8
Persons from orally oriented cultures, writes Ong, tend to project their sensibilities, to see them expressed in the world around them. More widely literate cultures create persons who tend to withdraw for insight into their own personal psyches. Orally oriented peoples may thus be more inclined than persons in print-dominated cultures to set their feelings or experiences in the space around them, including the invisible spirits presumed to occupy that space, and less likely to project these feelings and experiences onto individual persons. In Tibet lineages or sects are the most likely targets of negative projections. Western print-oriented persons are more likely to project their feelings onto other individuals, especially people in significant relationships with them. Unlike Tibet, or the premodern West, the contemporary West tends to identify the mind as the exclusive locus of ideas, feelings, and values. With this localization, the mind becomes "psychic" in a new sense, distinct from bodily soma and from the larger world.
This very different configuration of personhood affects the way Westerners are likely to understand the Great Bliss Queen practice. For example, there is a tendency among Westerners for "visualization" to be a more disembodied practice than it is for Tibetans. The point in imagining oneself as the Great Bliss Queen is not just to replace one visual image of oneself with another, as if observing a changing scene in a movie theater, but to experience a physical as well as mental shift from deep inside the body.
--from Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists, and the Art of the Self by Anne Carolyn Klein
- March 1
...Nagarjuna's Fundamental Treatise says, "That which arises dependently we explain as emptiness. This [emptiness] is dependent designation; this is the middle way." His Refutation of Objections says, "I bow down to the Buddha, the unequaled, supreme teacher, who taught that emptiness, dependent arising, and the middle way hold a single meaning."
For Tsong-kha-pa, the compatibility of emptiness and dependent arising is the very heart of the Madhyamaka view and the key to the path. Dependent arising means that things come into being in dependence upon causes and conditions. Understanding dependent arising correctly refutes the idea that things exist in and of themselves--because they must depend on other things. In the same moment, it also refutes the nihilist extreme--because it shows that things do arise, they do come into existence, and they affect one another. Thus, Tsong-kha-pa advises that if you think that you may have found the profound view of emptiness, you should check to see if you have negated too much. Can this "emptiness" you have discovered be reconciled with the mere existence of things that arise interdependently? If not, then you are certainly mistaken.
...The point is that one cannot become a buddha without both compassionate action and nondual wisdom--and one cannot have these two types of path without both of the two truths, conventional and ultimate. If only emptiness existed and there were, in fact, no conventional truths, then there would be no living beings, no suffering to relieve; thus there would be no compassionate action; and thus there would be no buddhahood. Therefore, maintaining the compatibility of the two truths--the compatibility of emptiness and dependent arising--is crucial to the whole of the Dharma.
--from Introduction to Emptiness: As Taught in Tsong-kha-pa's Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path by Guy Newland
- February 22
What do you think would be the chief obstacle in recognizing that each individual person has been kind to you? In my case, I was afraid of having to return the kindness, because then I'd be under the control of these people. I didn't want to do what my parents wanted me to do, although they gave me a lot of slack--I left college after my first year, went to the woods of Vermont, went to Tahiti, all on my own with whatever cash I earned. I didn't fit into the upper-middle-class community where we lived. I didn't want their control; the lifestyle they were pushing on me was completely unappealing. Therefore, I refused to recognize their kindness.
However, assuming a debt with respect to every sentient being differs greatly from having a debt to a few. In this meditation, you start with friends, then neutral persons, and then enemies and contemplate: "I will return the debt of kindness that I have with this person through helping her or him achieve happiness." It is easy to determine that the response to all sentient beings' kindness cannot be to do everything they want, since, with so many people, what they want from you would be at cross-purposes. You cannot even do everything your mother of this lifetime wants you to do, though you know her advice is, for the most part, motivated by kindness....
Those who help us--our parents, for instance--often attain power over us for that very reason: "Do as I say because I have helped you." Thus, for some, it becomes almost a mental habit to refuse to recognize those who have helped us, because they otherwise would attain some power over us. Still, we know we should return their many kindnesses. That is one reason why the practice of reflecting, "This person has helped me in many intimate ways and thus I must do something in return," gets to be uncomfortable, but when it is extended to more and more beings, we have to find a way of intending to return their kindness without coming under their misguided influence.
...one cannot do everything all those sentient beings want. There are so many of them, and they want such contradictory things. Besides, to fulfill what they temporarily want may not be the best way to help them. The greatest of all ways to return their kindness is to help them become free from all suffering and to assist in the process of becoming liberated from cyclic existence and attaining the bliss of Buddhahood. It is important to realize here in the step of developing an intention to return others' kindness that acknowledging a debt does not mean that you must do what they say. Otherwise, you might hold back from the truth of their attentive care.
--from A Truthful Heart: Buddhist Practices for Connecting with Others by Jeffrey Hopkins, foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
- February 16
Praising others should be part of our daily life and a component of our Dharma practice. Imagine what our life would be like if we trained our minds to dwell on others' talents and good attributes. We would feel much happier and so would they! We would get along better with others, and our families, work environments, and living situations would be much more harmonious. We plants the seeds from such positive actions on our mindstream, creating the cause for harmonious relationships and success in our spiritual and temporal aims.
An interesting experiment is to try to say something nice to or about someone every day for a month. Try it. It makes us much more aware of what we say and why. It encourages us to change our perspective so that we notice others' good qualities. Doing so also improves our relationships tremendously.
A few years ago, I gave this as a homework assignment at a Dharma class, encouraging people to try to praise even someone they didn't like very much. The next week I asked the students how they did. One man said that the first day he had to make something up in order to speak positively to a fellow colleague. But after that, the man was so much nicer to him that it was easy to see his good qualities and speak about them!
--from Taming the Mind by Thubten Chodron
- February 2 and 9 (technical difficulties on 2/2 so quote was repeated)
Whenever you consider there is bliss, and the objective conditions for bliss occur, if you fall under the control of that by becoming arrogant or conceited, then that will fester as an obstruction to the spiritual path. Rather than thinking about what has caused this happiness, which most probably is the accumulation of merit or the removal of obscurations, as soon as the bliss occurs, you think, ''That's my nature." Based on that, you become arrogant or lazy, thinking, "Well, I've accomplished it." This is the greatest obstacle to the spiritual path. This is what creates the realms of deva-gods. Oftentimes it is said that people can handle only a little bit of felicity, but they can handle a lot of adversity. This is because happiness on the spiritual path is the most difficult thing to handle. Once it arises, that's where the path stops.
This does not mean that it is necessary to give it all up. Giving up happiness is not the practice. The main point is not to become mesmerized by happiness as the end result. You realize that, "Ah, now, the good quality of this is that I am fortunate, and this is another result of the great fortune of the path and the result of the accumulation of merit and wholesome deeds. Even more than ever, I will carry on with the work at hand to achieve liberation from cyclic existence." So with more diligence and more courage, you continue listening to teachings, contemplating, meditating, and appreciating this precious human rebirth.
--from Meditation, Transformation, and Dream Yoga by Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche, translated by Sangye Khandro and B. Alan Wallace
- January 25
In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the most profound and commonly practiced teachings are those of the Vajrayana. Within this powerful system of skillful means, the supreme view and most potent methods are found in the teachings and practices of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection. These instructions are regarded as the pinnacle of the teachings and as the most direct path to realizing the nature of mind and the reality of the world.
The instructions of the Dzogchen lineage are used to directly point out the nature of mind and bring the experience of enlightenment into our ordinary life. These teachings are known as "pith instructions," the pure, quintessential knowledge that cuts through all confusion and gets straight to the point. There is a saying, "Don't beat around the bush," meaning, "Get to the point." That is Dzogchen.
In many ways, these teachings go beyond scripture and the formality of spiritual techniques. These two do have their place, since it is important to study scripture and meditate in a step-by-step manner. Yet, at some point we also must connect directly with the nature of mind. We have to strike the crucial point, the enlightened state, and leap directly into experiencing and realizing the true nature of our mind.
--from Great Perfection: Outer and Inner Preliminaries by the Third Dzogchen Rinpoche, translated by Cortland Dahl, introduction by Dzogchen Ponlop
- January 19
Two Senses of Self
Psychologists talk about people who are co-dependent because they don't have a sense of self. What psychologists mean when they say a person has no sense of self is very different from what the Buddha meant by no-self or selflessness. People with psychological problems actually have a very strong sense of self in the Buddhist sense, although they may not in the psychological sense of the word. Psychologically, they don't see themselves as efficacious individuals in the world, but they still have a very strong sense of "I": "I am worthless." When somebody criticizes them, they don't like it. They get into co-dependent relationships to protect or to please this "I." When they fall into self-pity, their sense of an inherently existent "I" is very strong. Thus they still have self-grasping even though they lack a psychologically healthy sense of self.
Buddhism recognizes two kinds of sense of self. There's one sense of self that is healthy and necessary to be efficacious on the path. The object of this sense of self is the conventionally existent "I." The other sense of self grasps at an inherently existent self that never has and never will exist. Within Buddhism, when we talk about realizing emptiness, we're negating the false self, this self that appears inherently existent to us.
--from Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of Chenrezig by Thubten Chodron, foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama
- January 12
From "The Prayer Requested by Namke Nyingbo" by Padmasambhava
All these things of the outer environment and the beings therein
That come into sight as the objects of your eyes like this,
They may appear, but leave them in the sphere free from clinging to a self.
Since they are pure of perceiver and perceived, they are the luminous-empty body of the deity.
I pray to the guru in whom attachment is self-liberated,
I pray to Padmasambhava from Uddiyana.
All these sounds, taken as pleasant or unpleasant,
That resound as the objects of your ears like this,
Leave them in the sphere of inconceivable, empty resonance.
Empty resonance, unborn and unceasing, is the Victor's speech.
I pray to the words of the Victor that resound and yet are empty,
I pray to Padmasambhava from Uddiyana.
However these thoughts of afflictions' five poisons,
Which stir as objects in your mind like this, may appear,
Do not mess around with them through a mind that rushes ahead into the future or lingers in the past.
Through leaving their movement in its own place, they uncoil as the dharmakaya.
I pray to the guru whose awareness is self-liberated,
I pray to Padmasambhava from Uddiyana.
Grant your blessings that the mind stream of someone like me is liberated
Through the compassion of the Tathagatas of the three times,
So that objects, appearing as if perceived outside, become pure,
That my very mind, perceiving as if inside, becomes liberated,
And that, in between, luminosity will recognize its own face.
--from Straight from the Heart: Buddhist Pith Instructions translated and introduced by Karl Brunnhölzl
- January 4
Unlike the Lesser Vehicle tenet systems, which teach only a selflessness of persons, the Great Vehicle tenet systems teach that the most profound reality, the most subtle and important type of selflessness, is a selflessness, or emptiness, that is a quality of all phenomena. They hold that the bodhisattva trains in altruistically motivated meditation on the emptiness of all phenomena, thus preparing for the omniscience of buddhahood. Some Great Vehicle systems maintain that Lesser Vehicle practitioners do not realize the profound emptiness of phenomena at all and are therefore unable to overcome the obstructions to omniscience. However, the highest system, the Middle Way Consequence system, holds that persons on Lesser Vehicle paths do realize emptiness, but are unable to achieve omniscience on their paths because their wisdom is not empowered by association with altruism and altruistically motivated actions of giving, ethics, patience, etc.
--from Appearance and Reality: The Two Truths in the Four Buddhist Tenet Systems by Guy Newland
2007
- December 25
In Mahayana Buddhism, when one takes the bodhisattva vow, one pledges to work tirelessly in this life and all future lives to awaken oneself and purify oneself in order to help all other beings attain freedom from suffering through spiritual enlightenment. One vows to help beings whenever possible, and a profound way of doing this is to give a being the gift of life through an act of kindness. This can take the form of helping an animal in danger cross the road to safety before being struck by a vehicle or freeing an animal that is in captivity before it is killed by buying it from the captor and letting it roam free. If one is in a position to help save another's life--whether a human or an animal--one must practice fearless kindness to help the other being in danger.
In Tibetan Buddhism, it is believed that due to the countless incarnations all beings have undergone throughout time, at one point or another any given living creature has been one's mother in a past life. Therefore, it is viewed as an obligation to repay the kindness of those who are referred to as "mother sentient beings." If your own mother in this life were in danger, you would certainly do whatever you could to save her life. Similarly, dedicated holders of the bodhisattva vow feel this kind of urgency to save the lives of all "mother sentient beings."
--from Compassionate Action by Chatral Rinpoche, edited, introduced and annotated by Zach Larson
- December 21
With the achievement of quiescence, the attention is drawn inwards and is maintained continuously, single-pointedly upon its object. Tsongkhapa emphasizes that genuine quiescence is necessarily preceded by an experience of an extraordinary degree of mental and physical pliancy, which entails an unprecedented sense of mental and physical fitness and buoyancy.
In the state of meditative equipoise, only the aspects of awareness, clarity, and joy of the mind appear, and all one's other sense faculties remain dormant. Thus, while one's consciousness seems as if it has become indivisible with space, one lacks any sensation of having a body; and when rising from that state, it seems as if one's body is suddenly coming into being. When genuine quiescence is achieved, one's attention can effortlessly be maintained for hours, even days, on end, with no interference by either laxity or excitation.
--from Balancing the Mind: A Tibetan Buddhist Approach to Refining Attention by B. Alan Wallace
- December 15
There is another way of speaking about the two types of meditation. In this case, they are differentiated into 1) meditation that perceives the object and 2) meditation in which our mind is transformed into a specific affective state. An example of the former is meditating on impermanence and emptiness. These are subtle objects that we must use analytical meditation to perceive. An example of the latter is meditation on the four immeasurables (brahmaviharas)--love, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Here we are not trying to perceive a subtle object, but are practicing to transform our minds into those mental states. For example, everyone admires the quality of love, but we cannot just say, "I should love everyone," and expect our deepest feelings to change. First, we must free our minds from the gross obstacles of attachment to friends, hostility to people who threaten or harm us, and apathy towards strangers. On this basis, we then train our mind to recognize the kindness of others, which arouses in us a natural wish to reciprocate and share our kindness with them. After this we meditate on love and cultivate a genuine wish for all sentient beings to have happiness and its causes. Initially that feeling will arise in us but will not be stable. Anger may still flash into our mind making our good feelings towards others disappear. We need to cultivate love continuously and do so with a focused mind. The greater our concentration, the more stable and penetrative the experience will be.
--from Guided Meditations on the Stages of the Path by Ven. Thubten Chodron, foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama
- December 8
Mantras are invocations to buddhas...prayers, or a combination of these. Tantric practitioners repeat them in order to forge karmic connections between themselves and meditational deities and to effect cognitive restructuring through internalizing the divine attributes that the mantra represents. A person who wishes to develop greater compassion, for instance, might recite the mantra of Avalokitesvara, who embodies this quality: om mani padme hum...[a] mantra [that] is well known to Tibetans. It represents for them the perfect compassion of Avalokitesvara, who they believe has taken a special interest in the spiritual welfare of the Tibetan people. He epitomizes universal compassion that is unsullied by any trace of negative emotions or mental afflictions.
Among ordinary beings there are, of course, many acts of compassion, but these are generally tinged by self-interest, pride, or desire for recognition. Avalokitesvara's compassion, by contrast, is completely free from all afflictions and is so vast that it encompasses all sentient beings without exception and without distinction. People who wish to develop such a perspective recite Avalokitesvara's mantra over and over, meditating on its significance, and in so doing they try to restructure their minds in accordance with the cultivation of his exalted qualities. According to the Dalai Lama,
mani... symbolizes the factors of method--the altruistic intention to become enlightened, compassion, and love. Just as a jewel is capable of removing poverty, so the altruistic mind of enlightenment is capable of removing the poverty, or difficulties, of cyclic existence and of solitary peace.... The two syllables, padme...symbolize wisdom. Just as a lotus grows forth from mud but is not sullied by the faults of mud, so wisdom is capable of putting you in a situation of non-contradiction whereas there would be contradiction if you did not have wisdom.... Purity must be achieved by an indivisible unity of method and wisdom, symbolized by the final syllable hum, which indicates indivisibility.... Thus the six syllables, om mani padme hum, mean that in dependence on a path which is an indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha.
--from Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism by John Powers
- December 1
Right now many of us wish for liberation, yet sometimes we cannot keep ourselves from creating the causes for cyclic existence. When we understand true suffering well, our wish for liberation will become firm. At present our resolve to reach liberation is not firm because we think of suffering, but not deeply. The deluded attitude believing that the unsatisfactoriness of change is true happiness easily arises in us because we are not yet deeply convinced that all happiness in cyclic existence is contaminated and is in fact only a variety of suffering. To remedy this, we should meditate on true suffering more often and explore its meaning deeply. Then our wish for liberation will become firm.
We consider many things--clothes, food, good health, nice possessions, financial security, the higher rebirths--as true happiness. As a result, we are attached to them and create more causes for suffering in cyclic existence in order to gain them. Thinking that the human birth is something marvelous, we work at creating the causes that propel us toward it. In fact all we are doing is creating the cause for yet another rebirth in cyclic existence, together with all the problems that such a rebirth involves.
If we understand that by its nature, cyclic existence is unsatisfactory, we will have a deep aversion to it. If we do not have a deep aversion to it, we will not be determined to be free, and therefore will not be able to destroy our self-grasping ignorance, which is the root of cyclic existence. In that case, we will not be able to attain liberation. However, when we deeply feel the extent to which we suffer in cyclic existence, we will automatically want to abandon the true origin of suffering, attain the true cessation, and meditate on the true path. Having realized true suffering, we will easily realize the other three of the four noble truths. Thus it is said: suffering is to be known. The origin is to be abandoned. The cessation is to be attained. The path is to be practiced. The determination to be free is the wish for ourselves to be free of cyclic existence. When we wish others to be free, that is compassion.
--from Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage: An Explanation of the Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas by Geshe Jampa Tegchok, edited by Thubten Chodron
- November 24
Mad yogins are known in virtually every tradition in Tibet, but most often in the Nyingma and Kagyu lineages, and also in the Shije (Pacification) and Chod traditions. The Nyingma, Kagyu, and Chod traditions are the three with which Tangtong Gyalpo had the closest ties. One of the texts in Tangtong's Oral Transmission, a collection of teachings originally passed down from Tangtong, quotes the great yogini Machik Labdron's statement concerning proper yogic conduct following realization. In response to a question by one of her sons, Machik recommended that a practitioner act like a child with unfeigned spontaneity, like a lunatic with no regard for what is conventionally acceptable, like a leper with no attachment to his or her own physical health, and like a wild animal wandering in isolated and rough terrain.
...Guru Padmasambhava himself prophesied that Tangtong Gyalpo would care for living beings by means of unpredictable actions. Tangtong's unusual conduct began to manifest at an early age, and resembled traits noted in the lives of other mad yogins. He was first called insane by his father and the members of his village when, as a child, he subdued a malicious spirit responsible for an epidemic. Several other early incidents are mentioned in the biographies. When he went to take scholastic examinations at the renowned monastery of Sakya he earned the nickname Tsondru Nyonpa (Crazy Tsondru) because of his disinterest in explaining the scriptural definitions of the highest states of realization. He preferred to spend his time absorbed in actually experiencing these states. When he was later practicing deliberate behavior secretly in a vast and empty wasteland, the dakinis gave him five names indicating his high realization, one of which was Lungtong Nyonpa (Madman of the Empty Valley).
--from King of the Empty Plain: The Tibetan Iron Bridge Builder Tangtong Gyalpo by Cyrus Stearns, a Tsadra Foundation book
- November 17
The Treasure Discoverers
Most of the influential terma [hidden treasures or teachings] were purportedly secreted by Padmasambhava or his immediate disciples, and specific instructions were also laid down for each terma at the time of its concealment. The theory behind this system is that certain teachings would be especially effective at particular points in the future, and so they were hidden in a "time release" system which assured that at the appropriate time a terton would locate the teaching and disseminate it. When Padmasambhava hid these treasures, he prophesied the circumstances for the discovery of each terma and the terton who would find it. He predicted that there would be three "grand" tertons, eight "great" ones, twenty-one "powerful" ones, one hundred eight "intermediate," and one thousand "subsidiary" tertons. Most of these were to be recognized as emanations of Padmasambhava or his chief disciples.
...Many hidden treasures still remain undiscovered, awaiting the proper time for their dissemination. They continue to reinvigorate the Nyingma tradition, and a number have been incorporated into other lineages. The institution of terma serves as a link with the past of the tradition, a link that periodically revitalizes the present and points the way to the future. The system reflects the Mahayana ideal of skill in means, the ability to adapt teachings to changing circumstances.
--from Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism by John Powers
- November 10
Practicing compassion will bring about the recognition of emptiness as the true nature of the mind. When you practice virtuous actions of love and compassion on the relative level, you spontaneously realize the profound nature of emptiness, which is the absolute level. In turn, if you focus your meditation practice on emptiness, then your loving-kindness and compassion will spontaneously grow.
These two natures, the absolute and the relative, are not opposites; they always arise together. They have the same nature; they are inseparable like a fire and its heat or the sun and its light. Compassion and emptiness are not like two sides of a coin. Emptiness and compassion are not two separate elements joined together; they are always coexistent.
In Buddhism, emptiness does not mean the absence of apparent existence. Emptiness is not like a black hole or darkness, or like an empty house or an empty bottle. Emptiness is fullness and openness and flexibility. Because of emptiness it is possible for phenomena to function, for beings to see and hear, and for things to move and change. It is called emptiness because when we examine things we cannot find anything that substantially and solidly exists. There is nothing that has a truly existent nature. Everything we perceive appears through ever-changing causes and conditions, without an independent, solid basis. Although from a relative perspective things appear, they arise from emptiness and they dissolve into emptiness. All appearances are like water bubbles or the reflection of the moon in water.
--from Opening to our Primordial Nature by Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche
- November 3
Our painful experiences have brought the five poisons* right into our world. Our heavy sense of being a separate person has led to an anxiety about our safety in the world. This leads us to aversion and attachment, as we long to predict and control our relation with the environment. From this all the other fixed and defensive positions arise. And so the world that we encounter is covered over and suffused with many subtle moods of hopes and fears, doubts, jealousies, pride. So even here on a dharma retreat, as we look around the room, we have a complex sense of whose faces we can look at, and who we might have to look away from. This is not at all a neutral place. The force of projections, interpretations and impulsive reactions keeps us busy in trying to stay ahead of the game....
However in dzogchen we are trying to get to the essential point where nirvana and samsara separate. This is like a great weed killer: If you spray it once all the weeds, all the confusion, all the pain and suffering will vanish. You don't need to pluck out each weed by itself. Believing that you are a bad person is very unhelpful for the practice of dzogchen. Also believing that you are a good person is not very helpful in the practice of dzogchen. You are not a person! Resting in the unborn state we are a pure awareness free of the least defilement. When you give up your ego identity, your samsara citizenship, you tear up your identity card and all the problems and sins and police records linked to that identity vanish immediately.
* Five poisons - (dug nga) the five poisonous mental afflictions are desire, aggression, ignorance, pride, and jealousy. (Penetrating Wisdom)
--from Being Right Here: A Dzogchen Treasure Text of Nuden Dorje Entitled 'The Mirror of Clear Meaning' with commentary by James Low
- October 27
There are different levels of faith. First, clear faith refers to the joy and clarity and change in our perceptions that we experience when we hear about the qualities of the Three Jewels and the lives of the Buddha and the great teachers. Longing faith is experienced when we think about the latter and are filled with a great desire to know more about their qualities and to acquire these ourselves. Confident faith comes through practicing the Dharma, when we acquire complete confidence in the truth of the teachings and the enlightenment of the Buddha. Finally, when faith has become so much a part of ourselves that even if our lives were at risk we could never give it up, it has become irreversible faith.
--from The Excellent Path to Enlightenment by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, translated by The Padmakara Translation Group
- October 13
Realizations come only if we practice joyfully, with confidence and courage. Realization doesn't grow within a timid or weak state of mind--it blossoms in the mind free of doubt and hesitation. Realization is fearless. When we see the true nature of reality, there's nothing hidden, nothing left to fear. At last we're seeing reality as it is, full of joy and peace.
Our habitual patterns can only be removed by understanding the great emptiness aspect of true nature, that which is named the Mother of all the buddhas. Emptiness is freedom; emptiness is great opportunity. It is pervasive and all phenomena arise from it. As the great master Jigme Lingpa said, "The entire universe is the mandala of the dakini." The Mother's mandala is all phenomena, the display of the wisdom dakini.
Without this ultimate great emptiness, the Mother of the buddhas, the universe would be without movement, development, or change. Because of this great emptiness state of the Mother, we see phenomena continually arising. Each display arises, transforms, and radiates, fulfilling its purpose and then dissolving back into its original state. This dramatic dance of energy is the activity, ability, or mandala of the wisdom dakini. Thus, the combination of the great emptiness or openness state, together with the activities of love and compassion, is both the ultimate Mother and the ultimate wisdom dakini.
--from Tara's Enlightened Activity: An Oral Commentary on "The Twenty-one Praises to Tara" by Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche
- October 6
(Each day before breakfast the founder and abbess of Sravasti Abbey, Thubten Chodron, gives a morning motivation for residents and guests. We were moved by these inspiring words, and hope you will be, too.)
Morning Motivation
Let's recall our motivation in the morning and think that today, the most important thing I have to do is to guard my body, speech and mind so that I don't harm anybody through what I do with my body, through what I say, or even through what I think. That's the most important thing, more important than anything else today.
The second most important thing is, as much as possible, to be of benefit to others. Thoroughly cultivate that as your motivation simply for being alive today. Our purpose for being alive isn't just to keep this body alive, to eat and sleep, and have pleasure. We have a higher purpose, a higher meaning: to really work for the benefit of living beings. If the purpose of our life is simply to keep the body alive and have pleasure, then at the end of life, we have nothing to show for it. The body dies and all the pleasures, like last night's dream, have gone. But if we work for a higher motivation, a higher purpose, to really do what's beneficial for all living beings, then there's happiness and benefit now.
At the end of the life, the benefit that we've given to others continues, as do all the imprints of the attitude of kindness, the attitude of care towards others. All the imprints of having generated that positive mind go on with us into the next life. So even at the time of death, that kind heart brings incredible benefit and carries through into the next life.
And then let's also generate a third motivation--a really long-term motivation--to become fully enlightened. In other words, to have the wisdom, compassion, and skill so that in the long term, we'll be able to be of the greatest benefit to all living beings, even being able to lead them on the path to enlightenment. That's our really long-term purpose.
As we change and develop a kind heart, that influences every single living being we encounter in a positive way. Then, through the influence on them, it spreads out to all the people they know. So, just spending one day with a positive, long-term motivation may seem like a small thing, but when we think of the ripple effect it has now, and the benefit it has in future lives and for progressing along the path to liberation and enlightenment, we see that even one day spent with this motivation of kindness, directly and indirectly benefiting sentient beings, has tremendous outcomes--many, many good results.
Thubten Chodron is the author of many books, including her latest work, Guided Meditations on the Stages of the Path
- September 29
Object of Negation
When a subject is analyzed, the object to be negated is determined to be either an appearance or something imagined. It is not logical, [however,] to negate momentary appearances, because reasonings cannot negate them. To take an example: for people with eye diseases, the appearances of floaters [bits of optical debris], double moons, and the like do not stop as long as their eyesight is impaired. Similarly, as long as beings are not free from unafflicted ignorance, illusionlike appearances [manifesting] to the six modes of consciousness do not stop.
It is not necessary to negate [appearances], because our mistakes do not come from appearances: they arise from fixating on those [appearances]. This is the case because if we do not fixate on appearances, we are not bound--we are like a magician who, having conjured up a young woman, has no attachment towards her. [On the other hand, if,] like naive beings attached to an illusory young woman, we fixate intensely [on appearances], our karma and mental afflictions will increase.
To intentionally negate appearances would be wrong because, if they were negated, emptiness would come to mean the [absolute] nonexistence of things. Another reason this would be a mistake is that yogins and yoginis meditating on emptiness would fall into the extreme of nihilism since they would be applying their minds to a negation that [equals] the [absolute] nonexistence of everything.
Thus, [Madhyamikas] set out to negate only what is imagined, because that is what can be negated. Like a rope [mistaken] for a snake, what is imagined does not conform to facts: it is simply the mind's fixations.
--from The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Six, Part Three: Frameworks of Buddhist Philosophy by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, translated by Elizabeth M. Callahan
- September 22
Having committed yourself to certain practices, be steadfast and never transgress the promises you have made. Let go of everything that could tempt you to do so and devote yourself entirely and single-mindedly to the accomplishment of your aims. For six years the Buddha did not waver from his practice of the meditative stabilization known as "Pervading Space." This meditation focuses on the fundamental nature of phenomena, which is present wherever there is space. Everywhere throughout space there are suffering living beings on whom this meditation also focuses with the compassionate wish to relieve their suffering and the loving wish to give them happiness. Thus it combines essential wisdom and skillful means.
--from The Three Principal Aspects of the Path: An Oral Teaching by Geshe Sonam Rinchen translated and edited by Ruth Sonam
- September 15
...an inherently existent "I" appears to us, but instead of assenting to that appearance and holding it to be true, we analyze how the "I" actually exists.
At those times in our life when there's a very solid feeling of "I," it's helpful to examine how that "I" appears. I remember the first time I stayed out all night in college and my mother didn't know. I came home the next day with this feeling that "I" really existed: "I did this and my mother doesn't know!" The feeling of "I" was just enormous, incredibly solid, because I did something I wasn't supposed to do.
Examine how that "I" appears, that big "I," especially when you have a strong emotion. Get familiar with that sense of "I." When somebody criticizes us or accuses us of doing something that we didn't do, this feeling comes up very quickly. Usually, we're focused not on the feeling of "I," but on attacking the other person or escaping from him. But if we can step back, it's an incredible opportunity to study the feeling of "I." The person who irritates us the most can be our best Dharma asset, because he gives us an opportunity to look at this sense of "I."
--from Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of Chenrezig by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama
- September 8
A practitioner needs faith, or trust.... Guru Rinpoche said that we should meditate in the same way that a sparrow enters a nest. A sparrow spends some time investigating whether or not it is safe to enter. Once his examination is over, he then enters unhesitatingly. That's a wonderful metaphor for practice. First clear up all your doubts about your technique, then throw yourself into the technique with no separation or self-consciousness. Of course, it's easy to say, but that is the direction toward which we should be moving.
Another necessary quality is determination. It's easy to gear oneself up for counting mantras or prostrations. For some, physical discipline is also easy. But the determination of the meditator is different. We must be determined to strive to purify our obscurations until they're completely gone--in other words, until our buddha-nature unobstructedly shines through. When we sit, we decide to do our best not to be swayed by our negativity. We should cultivate this attitude at the beginning of our session. Otherwise, no matter how much we practice, we will daydream a lot and our meditation will always be wishy-washy. I know this from experience--I may do my session of meditation, but it is tepid. Why? I don't have that inner strength to remain unmoved by the arising of the various mental contents.
--from A Beginner's Guide to Tibetan Buddhism by Bruce Newman
- August 31
Some people find it helpful to set a determination of a reasonable period of time during which they will sit in meditation without moving. If you do this, do not make it into a contest in which you grit your teeth in pain just to say that you sat without moving for a certain length of time. That isn't conducive for focusing with wisdom on the object of meditation. On the other hand, avoid moving whenever you feel the slightest bit of restlessness or discomfort. Doing that isn't conducive for developing concentration either. Rather, note when there is the urge to move but don't move. Observe the sensation: Is it really pain or is it simply restless energy in the body? Learn to differentiate between these two. Learn, also, to differentiate between pain and discomfort. Watch and study both of those when they arise in your field of experience.
In general, when attachment, anger, jealousy, or other distracting emotions arise, observe them without getting involved in their stories. Experience the feeling, rather than repeat the story to yourself again and again. Be aware of what it feels like in your body when you are angry, jealous, arrogant, or clingy. Be aware of the feeling tone in your mind when one of these emotions is present. Observe how the feeling changes, never remaining the same.
...It is important to avoid criticizing yourself when your mind is distracted or dull. Do not fall into discouraging thoughts or self-hatred because these are unproductive and are to be abandoned on the path. Remember that internal transformation takes time and rejoice in your opportunity to learn and practice the Dharma. "Slowly, slowly," as Lama Thubten Yeshe used to say. Learn to be satisfied with what you are able to do now while you aspire to improve in the future.
--from Guided Meditations on the Stages of the Path by Ven. Thubten Chodron, foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama
- August 25
There is considerable ongoing debate regarding the traditional view of the guru-disciple relationship, which asserts that seeing the guru as Buddha, impeccable and without failings, is vital to ripen the disciple's potential to attain the fruits of the path. This is reinforced by the admonition that to see faults in one's own guru will result in karmic downfalls and future suffering for the disciple. Any faults in the teacher should be seen as the disciple's aberrations projected outside. The tantric teachings insist this pure view should be held at all times to protect the disciple from accruing negative karma.
However, underlying this is also the need to preserve the integrity, authority, and status of the teacher. This leads to a great deal of confusion when students begin to see evident flaws in teachers, and it would be folly to explain them away as the students' impure perception. Consequently it has become necessary to cultivate a less dogmatic, more pragmatic view. A teacher may not be a perfect carrier of the projection, but this does not contradict the tantric view that essentially the guru, an inner phenomenon projected outside, is Buddha.
If we literalize this principle of the teacher as the embodiment of perfection, we are in danger of blinding ourselves to the reality that most teachers are human, and therefore not perfect. An individual can have deep insights into the nature of reality and still have human failings, a shadow that has not been fully eradicated. According to the teachings on the Ten Grounds or Stages of the Bodhisattva, until the final ground is reached, there are still subtle obscurations to full enlightenment that can manifest in flawed behavior. Believing without question that the outer guru is Buddha also traps the teacher in an unrealistic, unconscious position. The Dalai Lama has commented that too much deference harms the teacher, because we never challenge him or her.
When disciples become devoted to teachers, considerable power and authority is entrusted to them. While a teacher's role is to support and empower disciples to discover their own potential, sometimes this does not happen. Some teachers become caught in the powerful position they have been endowed with and are unaware of their own desire for power and authority. They may begin to enjoy their power too much and take advantage of it for their own needs. This keeps their disciples disempowered, and ultimately does not allow growth and individual responsibility to emerge. Teachers may be unconsciously afraid to empower their disciples and allow them to gain a sense of their own authority and autonomy. They may try to hold on to their disciples, when to genuinely empower them could lead to their leaving to engage in their own journey.
--from The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra by Rob Preece, foreword by Stephen Batchelor
- August 18
It is important to realize that there is nobody else who can wake us up and save us from samsara. There is no such thing in Buddhism. That may be Buddhism's biggest drawback, and at the same time its greatest advantage. This view shows us that there is nobody else in control of our lives, our experiences, our freedom or our bondage. Who is responsible? Who is in control? It is us. We are in control. We can bind ourselves further in samsara or we can free ourselves from it right now. It is all up to us. We are the ones who have to keep looking at our thoughts, looking for the nature of our mind. There is no guru, deity, buddha or bodhisattva out there to look for it for us. Although they would happily do this, it would not help us; it would only help them. We have to do it for ourselves. That is the key point.
--from Mind Beyond Death by Dzogchen Ponlop
- August 11
Benefiting living beings is my main practice, and I would like to give a brief introduction to the three qualities that are its basis: pure love, compassion, and bodhichitta, the awakened mind. Pure love is the desire that all living beings have happiness and its causes. Compassion is the desire that living beings be free of suffering and its causes, such as unwholesome actions. Bodhichitta is the desire that all living beings be free of suffering and that we will be able to place them on the unsurpassed level of awakening, or buddhahood.
--from Music in the Sky: The Life, Art, and Teachings of the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje by Michele Martin
- August 4
...when you explain or hear the teachings, if your mind and the teachings remain separate, then whatever is explained will be inconsequential. Hence, listen in such a way that you determine how these teachings apply to your mind. For example, when you want to find out whether or not there is some smudge, dirt, or whatever, on your face, you look in a mirror and then remove whatever is there. Similarly, when you listen to the teachings, your faults such as misconduct and attachment appear in the mirror of the teachings. At that time, you regret that your mind has become like this, and you then work to clear away those faults and establish good qualities. Hence, you must train in the teachings.
--from The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment: The Lamrim Chenmo by Tsong-kha-pa, translated by the Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee, Joshua Cutler, Editor in Chief
- July 28
Usually when we breathe, we breathe in and, as soon as we have finished breathing in, we immediately start breathing out. And as soon as we have finished breathing out, we start breathing in again. There is never any space or gap in between the in-breath and the out-breath. Now, many different ways of focusing the mind on the breathing have been taught.... There are basically six methods taught in the abhidharma. But here we have something different from any of those. This is called gentle threefold breathing. It is called gentle because there is no particular attempt to manipulate the breathing, except that instead of breathing in and then immediately breathing out, after breathing in, you wait before you breathe out...here the duration of the inhalation, of the retention, and of the exhalation should all be equal, three equal periods within each complete breath.
In doing this, some people combine the phases of the breath with the mental repetition of the three mantra syllables: OM AH HUM (HUNG)--OM coordinated with the in-breath, AH with the retention of the breath, and HUM (HUNG) with the out-breath. But what is most important here is simply to recollect, as they occur, the inhalation, retention, and exhalation, so that, while you are inhaling, you are aware that you are doing so; while you are retaining the breath, you are aware that you are doing so; and while you are exhaling, you are aware that you are doing so. In the beginning, it is recommended that beginners start with doing, for example, twenty-one of these breaths as a series, and it is important to practice with enough mindfulness so that, while you breathe in, and so forth, you maintain an awareness of what part of the breathing process you are in.
--from The Ninth Karmapa's Ocean of Definitive Meaning by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, edited, introduced and annotated by Lama Tashi Namgyal
- July 21
...if a fire which consumes
One house moves to another,
It is right to throw out anything
Like straw which could ignite.
Likewise anything to which the mind
Is attached ignites the fire of anger.
Fearing our merit will be consumed,
It should be discarded at once.
If a house is on fire and the fire is spreading, we need to clear away straw, wood or anything else which is highly flammable and could cause a conflagration that would consume our entire home and property. Similarly, one way to prevent desire and attachment is to avoid contact with the objects that stimulate it. If anything comes between us and what we desire or if the thing to which we're attached is harmed or threatened, we instantly feel angry. This destroys the positive energy we've created.
Another way is not to avoid the objects but to contemplate their unappealing aspects, because desire results from focusing only on their attractive side. The third way is to contemplate their lack of true existence, since desire and clinging are based on seeing them as very real and objectively existent. Whichever technique we employ, the aim is to prevent desire and attachment, since they bring many other problems.
--from The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas by Geshe Sonam Rinchen, translated and edited by Ruth Sonam
- July 14
By building up good habits of the mind in meditation, our behavior in daily life gradually changes. Our anger decreases, we are better able to make decisions, and we become less dissatisfied and restless. These results of meditation can be experienced now. But we should always try to have a broader and more encompassing motivation to meditate than just our own present happiness. If we generate the motivation to meditate in order to make preparation for future lives, to attain liberation from the cycle of constantly recurring problems, or to reach the state of full enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, then naturally our minds will also be peaceful now. In addition, we'll be able to attain those high and noble goals.
--from Buddhism for Beginners by Thubten Chodron
- July 9
A Song on Impermanence
With this spouse and these near and dear ones you desire to live together,
Inseparable for all times, but there is no doubt that you will be separated.
From this excellent home you would like to be inseparable forever
And take root in it, but you will surely depart.
From this happiness, well-being, and wealth you want to be inseparable forever
So you can relish them, but it is certain you will lose them.
From this supreme human body with its freedoms and riches you wish to be inseparable
And own it until the end of times, but there is no way that you won't die.
From this really great teacher you yearn to be inseparable
And listen to the dharma for all eternity, but there is no question that you will be separated.
From these good friends you wish to be inseparable forever
So you can hang out together, but it's a sure thing that you will be parted.
Therefore, from today on, don your armor of vigor--
The time has come to travel to the land of inseparable great bliss.
You friends who have developed weariness from the depths of your hearts,
I, a dharma-beggar, request you to do so.
-by the Omniscient Longchen Rabjam
--from Straight from the Heart: Buddhist Pith Instructions translated and introduced by Karl Brunnhölzl
- June 29
Three Forms of Compassion
Chandrakirti explained three types of compassion: compassion aimed at suffering, aimed at phenomena, and unaimed. With the first, we look at animate beings in light of their suffering and develop the wish for them to be free from both that suffering and its causes. One source of their suffering is their unawareness that they even have any problems, let alone their not knowing the causes of their problems. For example, our friend becomes upset at the slightest thing that goes wrong and sees this as normal. He or she does not understand that hypersensitivity is to blame and that something can be done to remedy this. When we see this sad situation, our compassion for our friend becomes even stronger.
Compassion aimed at phenomena looks at beings in light of their moment-to-moment changes. With it, we wish others to be free of suffering and its causes based on the understanding that these both are impermanent. We also see that others are unaware of this fact and so, when depressed, for example, they make their sufferings worse by imagining that they will last forever. Realizing this further enhances compassion for them.
Unaimed compassion looks at beings in terms of their voidness. It has the same wish as the other two forms, but is based on not identifying others concretely with their suffering. Seeing that others do not have this insight and that consequently they identify themselves with their problems intensifies our compassion for them even more.
--from Developing Balanced Sensitivity: Practical Buddhist Exercises for Daily Life by Alexander Berzin
- June 23
Life would be unbearable if everything stayed the same because human beings find situations that are fixed and predictable very hard to tolerate. Even in small matters, we become uneasy if we feel there is no end in sight. I know of couples who live harmoniously together for ten years then marry and are divorced within a year. As soon as they feel bound to each other for the rest of their lives, they begin to fight. Impermanence removes our reasons for quarrelling with each other. Arguments only break out if we imagine that our relationships are endless. When we appreciate that our time with our families, partners, and friends may be shorter than we think, we get on better with each other. Awareness of impermanence gives us extraordinary inner strength and resilience.
--from Mind Training by Ringu Tulku, edited by B.M. Shaughnessy
- June 16
The Rolling Stones have a song that goes,
"Wild horses couldn't drag me away.
Wild, wild horses, we'll ride them some day."
That is the level that we have to reach, where wild horses cannot drag us away from the present moment of awareness. Once we have reached that level of training, then even in the bardos of death we will be able to guide our mind steadily past all difficulties toward awakening, toward freedom from samsara.
There is another well-known image; it compares our wild minds to a mad elephant in a china shop. When untamed, this elephant can very easily destroy many things in the shop, and even the shop itself. With one move, the elephant can destroy a wall; and with another move, another wall. In only four moves, this elephant can destroy the whole structure. In the same way, if our minds are not tamed, they can easily destroy our whole collection of virtue--all the merit and wisdom we have accumulated through the accomplishment of countless positive deeds.
Vipashyana meditation is the process of taming and training our minds. How do we do it? We catch our minds with shamatha and we train them with vipashyana. Then we ride our minds with mindfulness while remaining aware of the greater environment. Following these methods, we will reach our goal quite quickly--especially when we remember the thought of impermanence, which works like a whip.
--from Mind Beyond Death by Dzogchen Ponlop
- June 12
...if you have not purified ordinary appearances into emptiness, how could you possibly meditate on the mandala circle? The fact that all phenomena are emptiness, that samsara and nirvana are inseparable, is the very reason we are able to actualize this by meditating on the mandala circle. In other words, emptiness is the basis for the development stage. As it is said, "For the one to whom emptiness is possible, anything is possible." If all phenomena were not empty and ordinary appearances were truly present, development stage meditation would be impossible, as the following quotation points out: "Even though one might empower wheat to be rice, rice won't actually appear." However, even if all phenomena are realized to be empty in this way, without the momentum of great compassion you will not be able to manifest the rupakayas to benefit others. This is similar to the listeners and solitary buddhas, who enter into a state of cessation and do not benefit others with rupakaya emanations.
Once one understands this point, it will be like the following saying: "All these phenomena are like an illusion and birth is like taking a stroll in a park...." Said differently, one will no longer dwell in existence, while through compassion, one will not get caught up in a state of peace either. This is the great, universal path of the offspring of the victorious ones. For all these reasons, making sure the three absorptions are not isolated from one another is a vitally important point.
--from Deity, Mantra, and Wisdom: Development Stage Meditation in Tibetan Buddhist Tantra by Jigme Lingpa, Patrul Rinpoche, and Getse Mahapandita, translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee
- June 1
Immeasurable Joy
Because such love and compassion have not arisen in their mindstreams, people don't understand that all sentient beings are their kind mothers. They hold on to them as friends or foes, and the power of bad karmic action causes them to experience the immeasurable suffering of cyclic existence. "Wouldn't it be a joy if I could carry the suffering of those mothers, and if all beings could have all of my happiness and virtue? In order to establish these mothers in happiness, what a joy it would be if, until cyclic existence is empty, their suffering and the cause and effect of suffering, their sins and the cause and effect of sins, would all ripen in me and these mothers would become abundantly happy. I give my body, enjoyments, power, prestige, and roots of virtue in all times for the sake of these mothers. I won't pursue my own peace and happiness for even a moment. I will work for the welfare of beings without regard for life or limb. These mothers must have the entire range of happiness and the causes of happiness." With that thought, meditate on joy.
"Furthermore, I will not shrink away from the specific harm done to sentient beings, or any kind of sickness, suffering, misfortune, enemies, and obstructions that happen to me for their sakes. What a joy if all the suffering of beings ripened in me, so that I would have that kind of suffering. And even a greater joy when those suffering beings are free of suffering and dwell in exceptional happiness."
Generate an extraordinary attitude with that thinking. It is important that such joy does not stray into any kind of bias. And if you know it all to be like a dream or an illusion, free of fixation to true existence, it is called immeasurable joy.
--from Machik's Complete Explanation: Clarifying the Meaning of Chod translated and edited by Sarah Harding, a Tsadra Foundation Series book
- May 26
Not recognizing their own face, but letting them run wild, one thought leads to many kinds of [other] thoughts. If you fall into letting this continue, you wander around in confusion. Through directly looking at the face of whatever thought that comes up at the very start [of a potential train of thought], without being able to stand its own ground, just like a rainbow fading away in space, this thought vanishes into emptiness. Since you arrive at such within the previous experience of stillness, if you become familiar with it, the stream of confusion is severed through thoughts coming to rest on their own and vanishing on their own. Hence, if you know how to sustain this, even if you regard movement as a flaw and [try to] stop it, you need neither stop it nor [apply] any other remedy for the movement of thoughts. Rather, by sustaining the state of realizing their own essence, you realize the essential point that all the various appearances of happiness and suffering emerge from the mind and dissolve back into the mind. Through this, you realize the essential point that all of cyclic existence and nirvana is produced by the mind, the mind resting naturally settled without being affected by thoughts about the three times.
--from Straight from the Heart: Buddhist Pith Instructions translated and introduced by Karl Brünnholzl
- May 19
Focusing the Mind on the Deity
Those with superior mental capacity should refine their ability by practicing the development stage without any sense of clinging or fixation. In this approach, the appearance of the deity and its ornaments are visualized in such a way that they are totally complete, vivid, and distinct from the very beginning. This is the form of great wisdom, the union of development and completion. Beyond being an identifiable entity with a precise nature, it appears clearly yet is devoid of any essence. In other words, clarity and emptiness are indivisible. Like the reflection of the moon in a lake, its very nature is to appear in a distinct manner, down to the pupils of the eyes, while in reality it is empty.
Those with moderate mental capacity should begin their meditation with a sudden recollection of the deity's complete appearance. The next step is to meditate on the clear appearance of the head, and, once this is stable, to then meditate progressively on the right arm, left arm, torso, right and left legs, and finally on the complete form of the deity and its seat. Training in the development stage of illusory clear appearance keeps one from straying into the view of nihilism. When one grows weary of this, the practitioner should recollect purity and refine his or her ability in the essence of this process, the vajralike absorption. This key point keeps one from straying into the belief in permanence.
For beginners with less mental capacity, it may be difficult to visualize in either of these ways. When not yet familiar with this process, one's ability should be refined using a permanent form. Take a consecrated and well-formed representation of the yidam deity, such as a painting or clay statue made by a skilled artisan, and place it before you. Without intentionally meditating, look directly at it from top to bottom without blinking. This is referred to as the auxiliary practice of setting mindfulness into motion. At first, the agitated movement of conditioned thought patterns will be experienced. This is the experience of movement, which is said to be "like water cascading off a cliff."
--from Deity, Mantra, and Wisdom: Development Stage Meditation in Tibetan Buddhist Tantra by Jigme Lingpa, Patrul Rinpoche,and Getse Mahapandita, translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee, fore. by Trulshik Rinpoche, fore. by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche
- May 12
3.2.4 The way in which experiences dawn through practicing [Mahamudra]
In beginners, this is similar to water [gushing down] a gorge.
In between, it is the gentle flow of the river Ganga.
Finally, all waters meet like a mother and her child.
--Tilopa
The meditative equipoise of beginners entails intense movement of thoughts, similar to water gushing down a narrow gorge. The reason for this is as follows. Though there is some slight resting in equipoise, thoughts proliferate. Right at that point, through the remedy of alertness and by considering that you like resting in meditative concentration and dislike not resting in it, you rest in meditative equipoise again. Through such an approach, your mind becomes somewhat uplifted.
The meditative equipoise of those who have attained a little bit more stability than that and are of middling faculties is similar to the gentle flow of the river Ganga. The reason is as follows. Even if some thoughts come up, a little here and there, their own face is immediately recognized, so that the movement of thoughts does not run wild. Without various notions that chase after these [subtle thoughts] or any physical and mental effort, all thoughts that come up will dawn slowly. There is also no need to make great effort in [applying] their remedies. Rather, these happen naturally or of their own accord.
Finally, in the meditative equipoise of those with highest faculties, neither thoughts to be relinquished arise nor is there any need to newly create some remedial wisdom, because there is nothing to be relinquished. Since existence and peace have become one taste, mother and child luminosity blend, or, expanse and wisdom have become indifferentiable. Once the tributary waters and the ocean have become one taste, like a mother and her child meeting, they cannot be disturbed.
--from Straight from the Heart: Buddhist Pith Instructions translated and introduced by Karl Brünnholzl
- May 7
The Suffering of Change
Feelings of suffering change into those of happiness. Feelings of happiness change into suffering. Both arise in dependence upon internal and external causes which change. For example, we see food as pleasurable, but if we eat too much, then it causes suffering. When we are young, we see our bodies as a source of pleasure. As we become older, the same body becomes a source of suffering.
Just as a wave is always changing, so the nature of suffering is always to change. It may be experienced as pleasure or as suffering, but it arises from the same source. Pleasure arises from suffering. Seeing pleasure as happiness constitutes suffering.
...Pain and pleasure are of the same nature. Although they look different at different times, they both arise from the same sea of delusion and karmic action. Pleasure or pain, one or the other, arises and then falls back into the ocean. Thus we can conclude that pleasure and pain within the ocean of samsara are basically suffering, and dissolve into suffering.
This becomes evident in the wide variety of sudden changes of experience depicted in films. Love and hatred, happiness and family strife, peace and war, follow each other in rapid succession. The continuous change, although exaggerated in films, is characteristic of life in general.
--from The Four Noble Truths by Ven. Gen Lobsang Gyatso, translated by Ven. Sherab Gyatso
- April 28
The cloistered environment stands in stark contrast to the uncontrolled environment of everyday active life in the modern world. When I was a graduate student living in a family housing unit at Stanford University, I meditated early in the morning. At about 7:00 outside our window, a group of little girls would begin shrieking and driving their plastic tractors and tricycles across the bricks. I was meditating and these girls were disturbing my peace. I got to feeling pretty sorry for myself so I phoned my lama, Gyatrul Rinpoche, and asked for advice. He gave me a one-liner, "Just view it." This was not just Rinpoche's way of telling me to quit whining, but a reminder of the more encompassing teaching to embrace obstacles in practice. And carry on. We can't always control our environment, but we can embrace it, the good, the bad, and the loud, and integrate it into Dharma practice.
--from Buddhism with an Attitude: The Tibetan Seven-Point Mind-Training by B. Alan Wallace, edited by Lynn Quirolo
- April 21
It would be wrong to say, as some do, that if we don't recite prayers while being aware of their meaning and merely repeat the words mindlessly, it has no benefit whatsoever--like prayer flags flapping in the wind. However, there are indeed differences in the level of benefits and blessings derived from prayers according to the way we recite them. Therefore, keeping this in mind, at the beginning of the practice, generate bodhicitta. During the main practice, some will use an object of concentration and some will practice without an object of concentration; each person should do what is best according to their level. At the end, one should dedicate the merit in a way that is pure from the three conceptual spheres to the best of one's ability. The most important and essential thing in making [prayer] meaningful is to depend on those three stages of practice--generation of bodhicitta, the main practice and dedication of merit. All must do the complete three stages of practice.
--from Compassionate Action by Chatral Rinpoche, edited, introduced, and annotated by Zach Larson
- April 14
Phowa is a practice which should be done repeatedly, all through our lives so that we can do it naturally and purposefully at the time of death. I have heard a story about a Tibetan who was dying and his family called the lama to be with him. The lama sat beside him and told him to think only of his root guru and forget everything else. He said, "I can't recall my guru, I can only think of a sizzling sausage being warmed in the ashes of a fire." The lama was very skillful: "That is excellent!" he said. "Dewachen, the paradise of the Amitaba Buddha, is full of sausages; they grow on every tree. You only have to open your mouth and you will have all the sausages you want. The color of Amitaba is like the embers of a fire, so think of him and you will go to his realm." It is said that the man went straight to the pure land of Dewachen.
--from Mind Training, by Ringu Tulku, edited by B.M. Shaughnessy
- April 8
Actually, if we look around, people whom we don't like and people who harm us are in the minority. Let's say we're at work, at a social gathering, or at a Dharma center with thirty people. How many of them do we really dislike? We may have problems with a few people here and there, but we manage to stay in a room together, don't we? It's not like we despise them and they hate us. The number of people we can't stand in this world is actually very small. These people are rare. To practice patience we need the people that we don't like. We can't practice patience with our friends or with people who are kind to us. Finding people that we don't like or who threaten us is not so easy. So, when we finally find them, they are a precious treasure! They are rare to find. When we meet them, we can think, "Fantastic, I get to practice patience now."
They say that high-level bodhisattvas pray to meet disgusting, uncooperative people because they want to practice patience. Of course, when you really want to meet obnoxious people, they don't show up! Why don't they turn up for high-level bodhisattvas? Because high-level bodhisattvas don't have any anger. We could be sitting in a room with many people whom we consider unbearable, but high-level bodhisattvas don't see them that way at all. To them, these people appear lovable. Bodhisattvas have such a hard time finding detestable people, whereas we come across them so easily! So, when we find people whom we don't like, feel threatened by, or find despicable, we should recognize that there aren't so many of them around. Therefore, we should cherish them and take the opportunity to practice patience with them.
--from Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of Chenrezig, by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama
- March 31
Gampopa performed inconceivably magnificent manifestations. Following is but a brief account.
People in Lhasa witnessed Gampopa's arrival on the thirteenth day of the first month. There, he made preparations, and on the fourteenth day performed a consecration ceremony. On the fifteenth, he concluded with a ritual of appreciation. This was related by many people from Lhasa. The patron Gebum said, "The lama came to my place on the thirteenth and prepared. On the fourteenth day, he did a consecration ceremony, and on the fifteenth he did conclusion rituals in appreciation. And he flew in the sky! How marvelous!" The monks at his base monastery said, "Gampopa came out of retreat on the thirteenth, and gave meditation instructions on the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth to those who had gathered here from all over Tibet. He didn't go anywhere." But then his attendant Salgyang said, "For the entire three winter months the precious lama was in retreat in his cell. He has not given teachings, but remained fasting and silent." So in this way, he manifested in four places at one time.
Another time, the disciple Legze asked, "In the past, Hearers and others accomplished the meditative absorption called 'exhaustion and suppression.' Why not now?" Gampopa replied, "Because you could not train your mind well." The next morning, Legze went to offer yogurt to the lama but all he saw in Gampopa's bed was a huge fire that touched the ceiling. He was so frightened, he immediately rushed out and told Salgyang. They hurried inside together. There was no fire, just the Dharma Lord sitting on his seat. In this way, he demonstrated the accomplishment of the meditative absorption called exhaustion and suppression of the five elements.
--from The Jewel Ornament of Liberation: The Wish-Fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings, by Gampopa, translated by Khenpo Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche, edited by Ani K. Trinlay Chodron, foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama
- March 25
If through listening to this explanation of the Seven Point Mind Training we come to recognise how important Bodhichitta is, this will be an infallible cause of our enlightenment. Of all the eighty four thousand different sections of the doctrine, the precious Bodhichitta is the very essence. By hearing the words of such a teaching, it is impossible even for demons, whose nature it is to kill and to do harm, not to have positive thoughts! Kham, a region in East Tibet, was haunted in the past by many ghosts and evil spirits, and this was one of the reasons why Patrul Rinpoche used to explain the "Bodhicharyavatara" continually to his disciples. Before long, there were no more ghosts--or at least, no one came to any more harm. Such is the hidden power of Bodhichitta!
--from Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of the Seven Point Mind Training, by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, translated by the Padmakara Translation Group
- March 18
Setting a Specific Intention for Our Practice
We should think about how we can make the best use of our practice so that we get the most out of it in the short time we have in this life. We do not have the leisure of wasting our time here by delaying the benefits of our practice. We have to use these situations as effectively as we can.
Before you begin any practice, first think very carefully about your motivation. When we are engaged in the threefold process of study, contemplation and meditation, we should be very specific, very clear about why we are doing it. We should remind ourselves, "I am doing this to transcend my negative emotions and my ego-clinging." This is a general example of a specific intention. However, to be more precise, we need to consider the unique make-up of our own individual kleshas [intense states of suffering, and ignorance]. Once we have identified our strongest emotion, then we can focus on the practices that will alleviate it. We begin with whichever emotion is strongest for us and then we move on to the next strongest, followed by the next, and so on.
It is important for us to prioritize our practice in this way. We have to keep our intention very clear in all three phases--in our study, in our contemplation and in our meditation. During shamatha or other practices, when thoughts come up, we recall that our purpose is to overcome our disturbing emotions and kleshas. We have to have a sense of willpower or determination in our minds. In order for the remedy to work, we must tell ourselves, "Yes, I am going to transcend this anger. I am going to work with it." Otherwise, if we do not have a clear idea, if we simply sit there with an indefinite or vague intention, then the effect also will be vague. We may have sat for one hour and although that time will not have been wasted, because it was not directed in an intentional way, the experience will not be so sharp, to the point or effective.
--from Mind Beyond Death, by Dzogchen Ponlop
- March 10
An inexpressible, self-arisen expanse
Without the names "samsara" and "nirvana."
Here, "self-arisen" means the primordial state. It is not something we can fully express with words or concepts. It's beyond words or concepts. The nature of all is not biased; it is not restricted to one or another. The nature of all exists in one identical state. That ground, that nature, does not have any name such as samsara or nirvana. That is the foundation, that is the ground. It is beyond samsara and nirvana. Not knowing the ground means wandering in samsara. If you recognize this ground, if you truly experience this ground, buddhahood is attained. That is the fruition. That is the result of our practice and our path.
...The ground, that fundamental state of simplicity, is the origin of all elaborations. This pure basic state is like a simple artist's canvas. We paint different images on this canvas. We can paint the image of a buddha, and it becomes very pure, beautiful, and inspiring to look at. We can also paint a devil on the same canvas, which can create our fundamental suffering, our basic pain. However, the basis of both is the same simple state of canvas that is completely pure and totally free from the images we project on it. It is totally free, whether that image is a buddha or a devil. That is the origin.
--from Penetrating Wisdom: The Aspiration of Samantabhadra, by the Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
- March 3
Buddha traveled and taught widely for some forty-five years after his enlightenment, and his audiences were diverse. Even though India at the time was a highly literate society, nothing of what he said was written down during his lifetime. Instead, various individuals were entrusted with memorizing the gist of each discourse. The work of transcribing his words took place only with the passage of generations.
Tibetans believe that this reluctance on the part of the Buddha and his immediate followers to commit the enlightenment teachings to paper, and instead to preserve them as oral traditions, was a purposeful strategy gauged to maintain the maximum fluidity and living power of the enlightenment experience. It only became necessary to write things down when the darkness of the changing times threatened the very survival of the legacy. An oral tradition becomes lost to history should its holders pass away without first passing on their lineages.
This intended fluidity, and the according safeguard against the establishment of an "enlightenment dogma" is perhaps best demonstrated by a verse that the Buddha himself said shortly before his death:
Do not accept any of my words on faith,
Believing them just because I said them.
Be like an analyst buying gold, who cuts, burns,
And critically examines his product for authenticity.
Only accept what passes the test
By proving useful and beneficial in your life.
This simple statement empowered future generations of Buddhist teachers to accept and reject at will anything said by Buddha himself as well by his early disciples. If something that was said by them did not pass the test of personal analysis, one could simply discard it as being limited in application to particular times, people, or situations, and therefore as only contextually valid.
--from The Dalai Lamas on Tantra, translated, edited and introduced by Glenn H. Mullin
- February 25
Self-discipline brings us into relationship with one of the six perfections of the bodhisattva, that of enthusiastic perseverance, which implies the willingness to engage in a process with effort and enthusiasm over a prolonged period. No material or spiritual qualities are gained without some degree of effort. Perseverance enables the practitioner to carry on and trust in the process, even when it feels hopeless. It makes it possible to face difficulties and obstacles in the path with confidence and courage, rather than giving up because it feels too hard. Self-discipline helps us remain in the vessel and not run away.
My Tibetan retreat guide described the maintenance of self-discipline over time like keeping a pot heating on a stove. If we continually remove it from the heat the pot never boils. Similarly he felt that when someone enters into the discipline of retreat, it should be maintained as rigorously as possible. In doing so the alchemical vessel will be maintained, and the "cooking" can take place. Transformation only occurs when the vessel is maintained in this way.
--from The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra by Rob Preece, foreword by Stephen Batchelor
- February 18
What is undistracted calm abiding? It is meditative absorption free of the six types of distraction. What are these six?
(1) Inherent distraction refers to the eye consciousness and the other four collections of consciousness. Because they are naturally directed outward, they [cause one to] emerge from meditative absorption.
(2) External distraction refers to a mental consciousness that reaches out towards or engages objects.
(3) Internal distraction concerns dullness and agitation, as well as savoring one's meditative absorption.
(4) The distraction of marks occurs when, trusting in meditative absorption, one apprehends marks of it and becomes attached.
(5) Distraction brought about by negative tendencies is when directing the mind involves the apprehending of an ego. This is said to refer to the mental act of pridefully believing oneself to be superior to others, or [simply any mental act] that involves apprehending an "I."
(6) The distraction of directing the mind occurs when one is caught up in the mindset of, and directs the mind in the style of, the Lesser Vehicle.
The undistracted calm abiding that is determined by the elimination of those six is the unique calm abiding of the Great Vehicle. This is a state of one-pointed inner rest, a flawless calm abiding. In it, there is no apprehension of marks, as is the case when inner absorption alone is believed to bring liberation. Neither does it involve the ego apprehension that occurs in the concentrations of non-Buddhists. Further, one does not direct the mind as one would when cultivating the supports for the inferior paths [to liberation]. This is how the wise should understand the calm abiding of the Great Vehicle.
--from Middle Beyond Extremes: Maitreya's 'Madhyantavibhaga' with commentaries by Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee
- February 12
Not to be busy
Tibetans say that once upon a time all the yaks that live in Tibet were living in India as water buffalo. It was very, very hot in India so some of them decided if they were to keep walking to the north they would get to a place that would be nice and cool. So they climbed up in the mountains, and as they were climbing their hair started to grow. Because of this the water buffalo in India often turn their head and look out expectantly and they are waiting for their brothers who have wandered off. In a similar way at one time all the buffalo of samsara and nirvana were living together and one day some of them wandered off and came into samsara. They keep looking around to see who else is there and where the other half is, because the basic quality of our ordinary sense of self is that it is very lonely. Something is missing in our lives and we don't quite know what it is, but we keep looking and looking to find this missing part. We can look for it in terms of possessions, we can look for it in terms of the form of our body, trying to change it through dieting or hair style or whatever. You can look in terms of friends. Anything. And this keeps us very, very busy. Sometimes the busyness can be very exhausting, but when we stop then we feel lonely. So we get busy again. Dharma is very helpful here if you want distraction because there are many kinds of ways to be busy in the dharma. You can focus on having lots of dharma possessions. You can focus on learning the text by heart, on the mantras and mudras, on serving the tsog, on doing meditations. There is always something to be busy with.
In Tibet many, many people practiced dharma but not so many seem to get enlightened. There are many kinds of dharma and if we practice in a way that doesn't focus on the essential point but on secondary and tertiary levels it is easy to get lost. It is really important, given that we have limited time, to focus on what is essential. Many people when they get a plate of food will eat the things they don't like so much first and leave the special thing to the end. But when when we apply this to life we can make a big mistake. The time for deep practice is now. You can learn all about Padmasambhava and what his clothes mean and what his hair style means but if you don't know the nature of your own mind then knowledge about Padmasambhava is just some more concepts.
--from Being Right Here: A Dzogchen Treasure Text of Nuden Dorje entitled "The Mirror of Clear Meaning" with commentary by James Low
- February 3
In commenting on the first instruction spoken by Manjushri, we considered the question of attachment to this lifetime and the faults that come from this attachment. However, the question of attachment goes deeper. It is not just a matter of giving up attachment to this life's rewards but of losing our taste and affinity for the whole of worldly existence. This is why it is necessary to contemplate and meditate upon the faults of conditioned existence. Otherwise, we may imagine that samsara possesses any manner of attractive qualities. Pondering the shortcomings of samsara should bring forth in us a tangible sense of disgust, as we are confronted with our own misguided pursuit of worldly ends.
--from Parting from the Four Attachments: Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen's Song of Experience on Mind Training and the View by Chogye Trichen Rinpoche, commentary translated by Thubten Choedak, Root Text and Lineage Prayer translated by H. H. Sakya Trizin and Jay Goldberg, compiled and edited by John Deweese
- January 27
Question: Certain associates can say things to me that spark an aggressive reaction. Why is it so easy to spark this feeling of negativity if there is not an accumulation of energy behind it?
Rinpoche: This is because of your pattern of clinging to the idea that you should have all the good things, and nothing that bothers you should ever happen, as I explained earlier. This is wishful thinking, because the nature of the world is not like that at all. The ego game you have planned is itself the explanation for how easily your anger is sparked. Because you have planned such a delicate, impossible game, and there are many things that can happen, anything that jeopardizes the plan of your ego upsets you. It is not an accumulation of energy but the pattern of clinging that is at fault.
--from Dharma Paths by Venerable Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, translated by Ngodup Burkhar and Chojor Radha, edited by Laura M. Roth
- January 20
The view is to believe in and understand the buddha nature, the essence of all the buddhas. If one knows the buddha nature, then that is to know the unchanging essence which is free from any limitation, the original primordial nature of the mind as it is. This is not like a light bulb that suddenly comes on or something that is newly acquired. It is the nature as it has always been and always will be: primordially perfect. To recognize the buddha nature is the view. To fail to recognize the buddha nature is to deviate into confusion. If you recognize your buddha nature, this is the same as having an audience with all the buddhas. You will meet face to face with all your root teachers.
--from Meditation, Transformation, and Dream Yoga by Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche, translated by B. Alan Wallace and Sangye Khandro, published by Snow Lion Publications
- January 13
The bodhisattva, as the personification of individuation, discovers a unique capacity to awaken his or her potential to work for the welfare of others in whichever way most suits his or her individual disposition. When I consider my own teachers, one thing I particularly value is their capacity to be authentically themselves. They each have their unique personality and quality that is a genuine expression of their individuality. There is no contradiction between our Western need to be individuals and the Buddhist path. Buddhism does not demand that we become clones of some ideal. Rather, it asks us to respond to who we are and awaken our full potential, expressing it within our particular individual capacity. My Tibetan teachers have supremely individualistic personalities, something I love and value deeply. They respond to me as an individual with my own personality, which they would never ask me to relinquish. The fact that they were each on their own unique journey within the Buddhist path was, for me, a sublime example of the bodhisattva as an individuated person who has truly responded to the inner call to awaken.
--from The Wisdom of Imperfection: The Challenge of Individuation in Buddhist Life by Rob Preece, published by Snow Lion Publications
- January 6
An instruction that matches examples and their meanings to show how the absolute nature permeates everything. (SG*)
These various examples give a general idea of the absolute nature. (DK*)
...there are four examples and their meanings. Take the example of a Sugata's body: whichever way one looks at it, it is beautiful. (Z*)
Similarly, everything a realized being does, since it is permeated with the realization of the unborn nature, is bliss, for he does not have ordinary attachment and aversion. (Z & SG*)
Whether one looks at a Sugata's face or any other part of his body, one never feels one has looked enough. It is an example of ultimate beauty. Similarly, those for whom everything is backed by the realization of the unborn nature no longer have ordinary attachment and aversion, and such persons can therefore act like enlightened beings: whatever they do is bliss. Since they have fully realized the absolute nature, there is no question of telling them, "This is the right thing to do; that is something you should not do." They have no concepts or limits, so they can act as they wish. Everything they do will be nothing but bliss. (DK*)
--from Zurchungpa's Testament: A Commentary on Zurchung Sherab Trakpa's Eighty Chapters of Personal Advice by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, translated by the Padmakara Translation Group, published by Snow Lion Publications
*Note:
Z - Zurchungpa's root text (bold)
DK - Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche's commentary (normal text)
SG - Shechen Gyaltsap's notes (italics)
2006
- December 30
The practice of compassion begins at home. We have our parents, our children, and our brothers and sisters, who perhaps irritate us the most, and we begin our practice of loving-kindness and compassion with them. Then gradually we extend our compassion out into our greater community, our country, neighbouring countries, the world, and finally to all sentient beings equally without exception.
Extending compassion in this way makes it evident that it is not very easy to instantly have compassion for "all sentient beings." Theoretically it may be comfortable to have compassion for "all sentient beings," but through our practice we realize that "all sentient beings" is a collection of individuals. When we actually try to generate compassion for each and every individual, it becomes much more challenging. But if we cannot work with one individual, then how can we work with all sentient beings? Therefore it is important for us to reflect more practically, to work with compassion for individuals and then extend that compassion further.
--from Trainings in Compassion: Manuals on the Meditation of Avalokiteshvara translated by Tyler Dewar under the guidance of The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
- December 23
A bodhisattva is someone who says from the depth of his or her heart, "I want to be liberated and find ways to overcome all the problems of the world. I want to help all my fellow beings to do likewise. I long to attain the highest state of everlasting peace and happiness, in which all suffering has ceased, and I want to do so for myself and for all sentient beings." According to the Buddha's teaching, anyone who makes this firm and heartfelt commitment is a bodhisattva. We become bodhisattvas from the moment we have this vast and open heart, called bodhichitta, the mind bent on bringing lasting happiness to all sentient beings.
Buddhist literature defines three types of bodhisattvas: the kinglike bodhisattva, the captainlike bodhisattva, and the shepherdlike bodhisattva. A kinglike bodhisattva is like a good king who first wants everything luxurious for himself, like a big palace, a large entourage, a beautiful queen, and so on. But once his happiness has been achieved, he also wants to help and support his subjects as much as possible. Accordingly, a kinglike bodhisattva has the motivation, "First, I want to free myself from samsara and attain perfect enlightenment. As soon as I have reached buddhahood, I will help all other sentient beings to become buddhas as well."
A captainlike bodhisattva would say, "I would like to become a buddha, and I will take all other sentient beings along with me so that we reach enlightenment together." This is just as the captain of a ship crosses the sea, he takes his passengers with him, and they reach the far shore simultaneously.
A shepherdlike bodhisattva is inspired by thinking, "I want to help all sentient beings to reach enlightenment and see the truth. Only when this is achieved and samsara is emptied will I become a buddha myself." In actual fact it may not happen this way, but anyone who has this motivation is called a "shepherdlike bodhisattva." In the old days, sheep were not kept in fenced pastures, and the shepherds had to bring them down from the mountains to protect them from wolves. They would follow behind the sheep, guiding them into their pen and lock them in. A shepherd would take care of his sheep first, and only then would he go home and eat.
The bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara developed this shepherdlike motivation and is therefore considered to be the most courageous and compassionate of beings. He vowed, "I will not attain complete enlightenment until I have led all sentient beings to liberation without leaving a single one behind."
--from Daring Steps Toward Fearlessness: The Three Vehicles of Buddhism by Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, edited and translated by Rosemarie Fuchs
- December 16
Wouldn't life be boring without attachment?
No. In fact it's attachment that makes us restless and prevents us from enjoying things. For example, suppose we're attached to chocolate cake. Even while we're eating it, we're not tasting it and enjoying it completely. We're usually either criticizing ourselves for eating something fattening, comparing the taste of this chocolate cake to other cakes we've eaten in the past, or planning how to get another piece. In any case, we're not really experiencing the chocolate cake in the present.
On the other hand, without attachment, we can think clearly about whether we want to eat the cake, and if we decide to, we can eat it peacefully, tasting and enjoying every bite without craving for more or being dissatisfied because it isn't as good as we expected. As we diminish our attachment, life becomes more interesting because we're able to open up to what's happening in each moment.
--from Buddhism for Beginners by Thubten Chodron
- December 9
We ordinary individuals share the characteristic of having our attempts to gain happiness thwarted by our own destructive self-centeredness. It is unsuitable to keep holding onto the self-centered attitude while ignoring others. If two friends find themselves floundering in a muddy swamp they should not ridicule each other, but combine their energies to get out. Both ourselves and others are in the same position of wanting happiness and not wanting suffering, but we are entangled in a web of ignorance that prevents us from achieving those goals. Far from regarding it as an "every man for himself" situation, we should meditate upon the equality of self and others and the need to be helpful to other beings.
--from Bodhicitta: Cultivating the Compassionate Mind of Enlightenment by Ven. Lobsang Gyatso, translated by Ven. Sherab Gyatso
- December 2
Question: Is there a buildup of awareness that happens by the practice of recognizing or looking for your own basic nature so that, over time, it dispels the fear of these emotions?
Rinpoche: Yes, awareness is developed through the discipline of meditation. Beginning with shamatha meditation, we develop lots of awareness and mindfulness on the path. Then, in Mahamudra and Dzogchen, we emphasize a different aspect of mindfulness and awareness. Mindfulness and awareness come from the discipline of meditation, which continues in our everyday life. Therefore, formal sitting practice is very important for us. For that reason, many teachers tell us to sit at least 10-15 minutes every day. That helps us to generate this continuity of awareness in our everyday life. There is no easy solution for manifesting awareness or mindfulness in our everyday life without some discipline in practice. The only problem is that when a student hears a teacher say that they must sit every day, that's the time students usually begin to change their guru!
--from Penetrating Wisdom: The Aspiration of Samantabhadra by The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
- November 23
Rejoicing in the actions of others is the major antidote to jealousy. When we admire the virtuous deeds of ourselves and of others, a great increase of merit is created. Jealousy is very harmful, and must be destroyed by rejoicing. If we rejoice in the virtue of someone whose understanding is less than our own, we gain greater merit than that person. If we rejoice in the merit of someone with understanding equal to ours, we gain equal merit. If we rejoice in the realization or virtue of someone more highly realized than we are, we accumulate some fraction of the merit that they do. We must rejoice in virtue because we have taken bodhisattva vows. If other beings practice well it helps us; therefore we should rejoice in their positive actions. This is the easiest way to accumulate merit with little hardship. With consistent effort the practice of rejoicing becomes very powerful and is greatly praised by many masters.
--from Chod in the Ganden Tradition: The Oral Instructions of Kyabje Zong Rinpoche by Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, edited by David Molk
- November 18
When you have many excuses not to do your work, ask yourself what guarantee you have of another chance to do what needs to be done. Time lost is lost for good. No matter how much you promise to improve, no matter what good intentions you have for making it up, the time is gone for good. Feeling sorry about the situation will not bring it back. You can never buy back that precious piece of time. You may think, "Well, that piece of time has passed, but I still have a long stretch of time left." No, you do not! What guarantee is there that you will have another piece of time like this one? Wake up and stop the excuses; they never made sense before and do not make sense now. Laziness and procrastination have never worked in a sound and helpful way. It is only sound and helpful to get things moving.
--from Dharma Paths by Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, translated by Ngodup Burkhar and Chojor Radha, edited by Laura M. Roth
- November 11
Bare awareness is not easy to develop and maintain because of the mind's disposition to be constantly preoccupied by thoughts. We easily lose attention because our mind is so busy. When we do, our emotional life can creep up on us and take us over. Without mindfulness, the capacity to maintain attention, disidentification is very difficult, and bare awareness even more so. Through meditation it is possible to cultivate a quiet, unintrusive awareness that greatly strengthens our capacity to remain with our feelings. We simply allow their presence without judging them, or needing to make them different.
The early stage of meditation focuses attention and cultivates mindfulness. Mindfulness is our capacity to watch and remain conscious as emotions, feelings, and thoughts arise. We may begin in meditation by observing the breath and gradually quietening the mind from the constant discursive chatter that interrupts our attention. In time a quality of bare awareness is established free from the conceptual confusion that discriminates and evaluates what arises and parcels it up in conceptual boxes of good or bad. Furthermore, this quiet awareness does not become pulled into the contents of mental activity and drown in their confusion.
--from The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra by Rob Preece, Foreword by Stephen Batchelor
- November 4
...many people, critical of Dzogchen, question why we need to practice at all if, as according to Dzogchen, the primordial state is already the enlightened state. If our true nature is already Buddhahood, what is the need to cultivate enlightenment? We cannot side-step these criticisms since, according to Dzogchen, Buddhahood is indeed our natural state; we do not create it, but simply discover it through our meditation. But if we simply agree with our critics, this would mean there is no need to practice. These are important things to think about. We must answer that although the natural state of the mind is primordially pure, there are two ways of being pure. Defilements, or obscurations, are not in the nature of the mind (sems nyid) but in the moving mind (sems), so they can be purified. It is as in the Tibetan story of the old beggar woman who slept on a pillow of gold every night: she was rich, but since she did not appreciate the value of gold, she thought she was poor. In the same way, the primordial purity of our mind is of no use to us if we are not aware of it and do not integrate it with our moving mind. If we realize our innate purity but only integrate with it from time to time, we are not totally realized. Being in total integration all the time is final realization. But many people prefer thinking and speaking about integration to actualizing it.
--from Wonders of the Natural Mind: The Essence of Dzogchen in the Native Bon Tradition of Tibet by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama, edited by Andrew Lukianowicz
- October 28
The entire environment we perceive around us arises, in part, in dependence upon our sense faculties. The environment we experience does not truly exist "out there." Sight is dependent upon visual faculties, hearing is dependent upon auditory faculties, and tactile sensations depend on nerve endings. Psychologically, all that we experience is dependent upon ourselves. We do not experience anything purely objectively. The arising and perceiving of experience is co-emergent between ourselves and the world around us. Yet, the deep belief persists that the world really exists "out there" now and eons before we were born.
The Buddhist hypothesis extends beyond the psychological. The Buddhist hypothesis is this: that which is perceived arises in dependence upon the perception of it. Things are empty of independent, inherent existence. What appears to exist" out there" is empty of objective existence from its own side. This does not mean that nothing exists apart from our perceptions. Rather, it means that by probing the nature of existence of anything we experience perceptually or conceptually, we find that nothing exists by its own independent nature. Another way of phrasing this is that appearance extends all the way down to the root and there is nothing beyond the appearances. Appearances extend down to quarks; nothing is there purely objectively and nothing is there purely subjectively. This is the Buddhist hypothesis.
--from Buddhism with an Attitude: The Seven-Point Mind-Training, by B. Alan Wallace, edited by Lynn Quirolo
- October 21
45
Apart from the perfection of wisdom,
All virtuous practices such as
The perfection of giving are described
As skillful means by the Victorious Ones.
The first five perfections--giving, ethical discipline, patience, enthusiastic effort and concentration--as well as meditation on impermanence, on the connection between actions and their effects and the cultivation of compassion, love and the altruistic intention are all skillful means. In fact all positive practices which do not constitute the cultivation of wisdom fall into the category of skillful means.
46
Whoever, under the influence of familiarity
With skillful means, cultivates wisdom
Will quickly attain enlightenment--
Not just by meditating on selflessness.
When stability in practices which develop skillful means has been gained, the Bodhisattva meditates on the selflessness of persons and other phenomena and thereby overcomes clinging to their true existence. This leads swiftly to enlightenment. If we confine our efforts only to understanding reality, our understanding lacks the power to destroy all the obstructions that prevent omniscience and we may remain locked in a state of solitary peace. Cultivation of skillful means prevents this and adds such power to our understanding of reality that, like a blazing fire, it consumes all obstructions.
--from Atisha's Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, commentary by Geshe Sonam Rinchen, translated and edited by Ruth Sonam
- October 15
Both mindfulness and discriminative alertness are needed in responding to sensory input of the three types--attractive, unattractive and neutral. Once again, in this tradition mindfulness does not mean simply to witness. It is a more discriminative kind of thing. You are asking yourself, "What is my response?" and then actively responding by applying the antidotes to attachment and hostility. The word mindfulness is a little bit different in different contexts. Here, mindfulness refers to the mental faculty of being able to maintain continuity of awareness of an object. Vigilance is concerned with the quality of mind, watching to see, for example, if the mind is veering off to other objects.
--from Calming the Mind: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on Cultivating Meditative Quiescence by Gen Lamrimpa (Ven. Jampal Tenzin), translated by B. Alan Wallace, edited by Hart Sprager
- October 8
Both mindfulness and discriminative alertness are needed in responding to sensory input of the three types--attractive, unattractive and neutral. Once again, in this tradition mindfulness does not mean simply to witness. It is a more discriminative kind of thing. You are asking yourself, "What is my response?" and then actively responding by applying the antidotes to attachment and hostility. The word mindfulness is a little bit different in different contexts. Here, mindfulness refers to the mental faculty of being able to maintain continuity of awareness of an object. Vigilance is concerned with the quality of mind, watching to see, for example, if the mind is veering off to other objects.
--from Calming the Mind: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on Cultivating Meditative Quiescence by Gen Lamrimpa (Ven. Jampal Tenzin), translated by B. Alan Wallace, edited by Hart Sprager
- September 30
Love and Attachment
People often wonder how to reconcile the Buddha's teachings on non-attachment with those on love. How can we love others without being attached to them? Non-attachment is a balanced state of mind in which we cease overestimating others' qualities. By having a more accurate view of others, our unrealistic expectations fall away, as does our clinging. This leaves us open to loving others for who they are, instead of for what they do for us. Our hearts can open to care for everyone impartially, wishing everyone to be happy simply because he or she is a living being. The feeling of warmth that was previously reserved for a select few can now be expanded to a great number of people.
--from Taming the Mind by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron
- September 24
4. The power of abandonment. In this practice what is being abandoned is self-grasping. We are reminded again that since beginningless time beyond all imagination, self-grasping has lain at the very core of all mental distortions and afflictions. It has brought us to unfavorable rebirths and is responsible for all the undesirable circumstances that we encounter. It is self-centeredness that obstructs realization and prevents us from deriving the full benefit from our spiritual practice. Recognize when self-grasping manifests in daily life. It is important to notice it especially at times of passion, when we are aroused or irritated, and try not to succumb to it for even a moment.
To be free of self-centeredness continuously for a whole year may be difficult, but [rejecting it for] a moment is easy. ...the more of these moments we can saturate with the cherishing of others, the more we are molding ourselves into the bodhisattvas that we will become.
--from The Seven-Point Mind Training by B. Alan Wallace
- September 17
Karmic potentials give rise to a broad array of impulses that affect our lives. Collective karmic potentials from previous actions of a huge number of beings--including ourselves--give rise, for example, to the impulse for a universe to evolve with specific environments and life forms into which we and these beings subsequently take rebirth. These collective potentials also give rise to the impulses that drive the physical and biological laws that govern that universe--ranging from the weather patterns of its planets to the life-cycle habits of each species on them. They also account for the impulses behind the instinctive daily behavior characteristic of each life form.
--from Taking the Kalachakra Initiation by Alexander Berzin
- September 10
Once the body, channels, and wind are balanced, the next step is to keep your mind in the natural state through meditation. By simply maintaining the mind as it is, without adding or subtracting anything, one will reach the inner nature, which is unchanging and indestructible.
The instructions for this type of meditation are very simple. One begins by sitting with good posture on a cushion, because it is important to stay straight. Then, one simply maintains the natural clarity of the mind, without analyzing one's experiences or being disturbed by thoughts. In the dzogchen style of meditation, there is actually nothing to do except relax in the mind's nature of clarity and emptiness. Inner awareness is different than external awareness; it is called clear-light emptiness. It is helpful to use the sky as an analogy for the true nature of the mind--when you let your mind mingle with the open space of the sky, you do not need any particular focus. Simply maintain the mind naturally, without discrimination or judgments, and experience its nature as being spacious as the sky.
--from Opening the Door to Our Primordial Nature by Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche
- September 3
2' The benefits of cultivating mindfulness of death
When those who have a little understanding of the teaching conclude that they will die today or tomorrow, they see that friends and material possessions will not accompany them, and so they stop craving them. Naturally they then wish to take full advantage of their human birth through virtuous deeds such as giving gifts. Just so, if you create an authentic mindfulness of death, you will see that all toiling for worldly things such as goods, respect, and fame is as fruitless as winnowing chaff, and is a source of deception. Then you will turn away from wrongdoing. With constant and respectful effort you will accumulate good karma by doing such virtuous deeds as going for refuge and maintaining ethical discipline. You will thereby bring lasting significance to things, like the body, that would not have had such significance. You will ascend to a sublime state and will lead others there as well. What could be more meaningful?
--from The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, Volume 1 by Tsong-kha-pa, translated by The Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee
- August 26
5. Your present naked awareness
How amazing!
Your present, naked awareness--
Unspoiled by thoughts of past, present, or future,
Not fettered by mind grasping to so-called "meditation"
Nor falling into a pervasive blankness of so-called "non-meditation"--
The natural state nakedly sustained,
Is the practice of Great Perfection.
Regardless of what thoughts arise during that practice,
To reject negative ones or foster positive ones is unnecessary.
Mere recognition liberates them in their own ground.
Take this liberation upon arising as the path's key point.
Destroy whatever meditative experiences arise, and relax.
A tantric practitioner without fixation is deeply content.
You've reached your goal of contentment right now.
What is the use of numerous enumerations of Buddha's teachings
When you discover Buddha Kuntu Zangpo within yourself?
Keep the meaning of these words close to your heart.
--from Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoche's Heart Advice by Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, translated by Ron Garry, a Tsadra Foundation Series book
- August 18
...recognizing that we have certain obligations, and recognizing at the same time that spiritual practice is the core of a meaningful life, what do we do? There really is an answer. It is not easy, but it is tremendously fruitful, and it keeps on opening and opening further: transform those actions that are already obligations by applying Dharma to them.
Take eating, for instance. We have to do it two or three times a day, but we don't have to wolf down the food. There is no one who cannot sit and pause first for thirty seconds. Even fast-food is worth the thirty seconds it takes to recognize the immense number of beings who have provided us with this food. Pausing like this ties us into the community of life, at least on planet earth, as we recognize that we are indebted to others. We have received, and as we take the food, let us do it with the aspiration, "May this be returned. May I use my abilities to the fullest to serve those who have served me." And that includes everyone, directly or indirectly. The service may occur on a very mundane level, but insofar as we mature spiritually, our responsibility increases according to our abilities. Not because someone tells us, "Now you have to do this," but simply as we gain insight into the nature and sources of suffering and of contentment, then we have something all the more valuable to offer others.
--from The Seven-Point Mind Training by B. Alan Wallace
- August 12
The Paramita of Meditative Concentration
It is said in the Teachings that without taking up the Paramita of Meditative Concentration, it would be impossible to realize the nature of mind. We should think of meditative concentration as the practice that brings stability to our minds, and creates the good conditions to practice unfocused meditation--in other words, resting in the uncontrived natural state.
If we make a quick examination of our own mind, we can see the reason this kind of stability is so crucial. Although physics has observed light to be the fastest traveling phenomenon known to man, actually the speed at which our minds travel is even faster. We can circle the globe in a matter of seconds, and our minds generate doubts, emotions, and conceptual thoughts at a speed that defies that of all other phenomena. Because we lack basic mental stability, conceptual thoughts arise endlessly. So, if our goal is to realize the nature of mind, we first have to learn to still our minds, and free ourselves from distraction. The method for quieting the mind is called "meditative concentration." Once we have gained some initial mind stability, it is even more important that we continue our training so that this stability will increase. Without such stability, it is impossible for us to successfully learn to abide in the uncontrived view.
--from The Union of Dzogchen and Bodhichitta by Anyen Rinpoche, translated by Allison Graboski
- August 5
Meditation is hard work, but it is also the most rewarding thing we can do with our time. As we begin to see the mechanisms we previously took for granted and start to understand them, the knots inside our minds begin to loosen. We feel a tremendous sense of freedom, space and release inside us. As we begin to understand our warped thinking patterns and our neuroses, we see them directly. We begin to develop compassion for ourselves, for our pain and confusion. Now that we start to look with clarity, we can see the pain and confusion in the eyes of other people, and we naturally develop compassion for them. It doesn't matter how outwardly successful people may appear, we can see their pain when we look into their eyes. It is very rare to come across people whose eyes are truly sparkling with joy.
--from Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings on Practical Buddhism by Tenzin Palmo
- July 29
There isn't a single one of us who has never felt hostile and angry, so we know about the effects of anger. Does it make us feel better or worse? It stirs us up, makes us miserable and destroys our tranquillity. It is quite easy to recognize anger as a foe and to see how it harms us because its destructiveness is apparent. But we find it much harder and are also reluctant to acknowledge the harm done by attachment because it is a foe masquerading as a friend. When desire or attachment first arises, it feels quite pleasurable but eventually it lands us in trouble. It wants to possess what it has fabricated and we reach out for something which, in fact, does not exist. Failure to get what we want frustrates us and anger quickly follows. The third of the poisons, confusion or ignorance, simply stimulates desire and anger and lies at the root of all the disturbing emotions.
--from Eight Verses for Training the Mind by Geshe Sonam Rinchen, translated and edited by Ruth Sonam
- July 22
In the Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path Je Tsongkhapa says that when we are training ourselves in any of the perfections, for instance in generosity, we should make sure that we practice all the other five perfections--in this case ethical discipline, patience, enthusiastic effort, concentration, and wisdom--and the six excellent factors. When we perform a generous action, ethical discipline will be included if we take care to refrain from doing anything unethical at the same time. In certain situations, for instance, we may be tempted to speak harshly or condescendingly as we give.
Generosity gives rise to abundance, and by insuring that our practice is complete, we create the right environment to use these resources constructively. Sometimes when we give, people respond ungratefully. If we can resist getting upset, we are practicing patience. Giving not out of a sense of obligation or reluctantly nor with a wish to outdo others but with joy is the practice of enthusiastic effort. Directing our full attention to an act of generosity is concentration. Discerning and understanding what is appropriate to give and what is not, and remembering that the giver, the act of generosity, and the recipient are all interdependent and empty of inherent existence are the practice of wisdom.
Including these different factors in our actions will bring many excellent results such as a good body and mind, the resources we need, a pleasant appearance, supportive companions, the ability to complete what we undertake, and the focus not to be distracted by the disturbing emotions and so forth. This is how to insure that we will enjoy many conducive conditions in a future human life. On the other hand, our miserliness or impatience now could make us face many difficult circumstances in the future.
--from How Karma Works: The Twelve Links of Dependent Arising by Geshe Sonam Rinchen, translated by Ruth Sonam
- July 15
...if we see others in trouble, although we cannot immediately take their suffering upon ourselves, we should make the wish to be able to relieve them from their misfortunes. Prayers like this will bear fruit eventually. Again, if others have very strong afflictive emotions, we should think, 'May all their emotions be concentrated in me.' With fervent conviction, we should persist in thinking like this until we have some sign or feeling that we have been able to take upon ourselves the suffering and emotions of others. This might take the form of an increase in our own emotions or of the actual experience of the suffering and pain of others.
This is how to bring hardships onto the path in order to free ourselves from hopes and fears--hopes, for instance, that we will not get ill, or fears that we might do so. They will thus be pacified in the equal taste of happiness and suffering. Eventually, through the power of Bodhichitta, we will reach the point where we are free even from the hope of accomplishing Bodhichitta and the fear of not doing so. Therefore we should have love for our enemies and try as much as possible to avoid getting angry with them, or harbouring any negative thoughts towards them. We should also try as much as possible to overcome our biased attachment to family and relatives. If you bind a crooked tree to a large wooden stake, it will eventually grow straight. Up to now, our minds have always been crooked, thinking how we might trick and mislead people, but this [Bodhichitta] practice, as Geshe Langri Tangpa said, will make our minds straight and true.
--from Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of the Seven Point Mind Training by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, translated by the Padmakara Translation Group
- July 8
Being the Mirror
When we say that we have knowledge, or that we have discovered our real nature and we are in this nature, that means that we are "being the mirror." You see, "being the mirror" or "looking in the mirror" are two completely different things. If we "are the mirror," then we have no concept of dualistic vision.
If a reflection manifests in the mirror, why is it manifesting? There are two reasons. One is because the mirror has the capacity to manifest infinite reflections. This is the mirror's quality. If there is an object in front of the mirror, whose capacity it is to reflect, naturally a reflection will appear in the mirror. Furthermore, the mirror has no idea of checking or accepting the object it is reflecting. The mirror doesn't need any program for that. This is what is called its qualification, or infinite potentiality.
In the same way, when we have infinite potentiality, but we are ignorant of our real nature, then we always conceive that "I am here" and "the object is there," "I am looking and seeing an object," and so on. We do not discover that we are like a mirror, and if we never discover this, then of course there is no way that we can function like the mirror. When you discover that you are like the mirror, then there is a possibility that you will be the mirror.
When you are the mirror, then you have no problems with reflections--they can be big, small, nice, ugly, any kind. For you, the reflections are only a manifestation of your quality, which is like that of a mirror. When you have no problems with reflections, then you understand self-liberation. You are not changing or transforming something. You are only being in your real nature.
--from Dzogchen Teachings by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, edited by Jim Valby and Adriano Clemente
- July 2
It is important to recognize the difference between an enlightened experience and the state of enlightenment. To penetrate the veil is to see the nature of reality for the first time. This enlightened experience in the Zen tradition might be called a "satori." This is a powerful shift of insight that shakes our reality. No longer can we live with the delusion we may have once held. Our solidly held concepts about reality begin to crumble. Samsara shakes, as Lama Yeshe once put it. This experience may not be comfortable. To come so close to this existential threshold challenges our secure sense of identity and can be frightening. Indeed, as a Tibetan lama once said, this fear is a sign that we are close to the edge. We are beginning to recognize the lack of substance of our ego-identity. Our "wisdom eye" has opened to a new truth--an ultimate truth, as opposed to relative truth.
When we penetrate the veil, however, the work is not yet done. We may have had an enlightened experience, but there is further to travel. As Gen Jhampa Wangdu once said while I was in retreat, it is not difficult to experience emptiness; the problem is holding it. For this insight to have its full effect, the mind needs to be able to sustain awareness for prolonged periods of time. Tibetan teachers will sometimes say we may hit the nail, but only with a quality of focused attention can we repeatedly do so. With the development of tranquil abiding, the veil can be cleared completely in the way the red ring of fire created by the incense burn[ing] slowly expands and consumes the entire film of tissue paper. The mind is gradually cleansed of the emotional turmoil and confusion that is generated by the misconceptions we have about reality.
--from The Wisdom of Imperfection: The Challenge of Individuation in Buddhist Life by Rob Preece
- June 24
"Train yourself in three hard disciplines."
These are the difficult practices of mindfulness, of expulsion and of 'interrupting the flow.'
As for the first of these, the difficult practice of mindfulness, it is necessary to recognize afflictive emotions as soon as they arise and it is hard, at first, to remain sufficiently aware to be able to do this. However, when negative emotions arise, we should identify them as anger, desire or stupidity. Even when emotions have been recognized, it is not easy to drive them out with the antidote. If, for instance, an uncontrollably strong emotion comes over us, so that we feel helplessly in its power, we should nevertheless confront it and question it. Where are its weapons? Where are its muscles? Where is its great army and its political strength? We will see that emotions are just insubstantial thoughts, by nature empty: they come from nowhere, they go nowhere, they remain nowhere. When we are able to repel our defiled emotions, there comes the difficult practice of 'interrupting the flow.' This means that, on the basis of the antidote described, defiled emotions are eliminated just like a bird flying through the air: no trace is left behind. These are practices in which we should really strive.
--from Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of the Seven Point Mind Training by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, translated by The Padmakara Translation Group
- June 19
Direct Experience
In the Dzogchen teachings, a teacher explains methods that you can apply for discovering that state. When you say that you are practicing or following Dzogchen teachings, it doesn't mean that you are reciting some prayers or mantras, or doing some visualization. It means that, following a teacher and using methods, you discover that state. When you have discovered that state, then you still need many kinds of methods for realizing it. Discovering the state of your real nature and realizing it are completely different things.
Many people have the idea that when they have had some experience or discovery, they are enlightened; however, this discovery does not mean they are enlightened. The state of enlightenment means you have direct knowledge of what the state of rigpa is, and you are not just learning through intellectual study. When you follow a teaching in an intellectual way, you have many ideas at first--thinking, judging, and making analysis. You can follow or reject these ideas; but when you have many problems, you discover that perhaps this is not real knowledge. It is like following something blindly because you haven't had any direct experience. Direct introduction and discovering our real nature mean we have direct experience through our senses, and that through these experiences we discover our real nature.
For example, if I show you an object, you can look at it and know its form and color. Now if I ask you to forget about it, you can't. If I ask you to change your idea about that object, you can't. Why? Because seeing that object is your direct experience. Discovering your real nature is similar to that.
When you are studying in an intellectual way, you are following another person's idea. For example, you can believe your teacher today, but maybe what your teacher says will not be true for you tomorrow. You can always change your ideas. You have this problem because you have not discovered your state. This is the weak point of intellectual study.
--from Dzogchen Teachings by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, edited by Jim Valby and Adriano Clemente
- June 10
If we do not uncover [our] problems--and I saw this in myself--we risk placing a veneer of spirituality over deeply buried emotional wounds from chidhood that do not simply go away.
...When this happens there is greater potential for our spirituality to become simply another expression of our personal pathology. We can falsify the qualities valued in the path without realizing it. Renunciation can become another level of denial and avoidance; compassion can become a sickly sentimentality that has no substance to it. Our desire to help others can come from "compulsive caring," or a compulsion to sacrifice ourselves because we feel worthless. The Buddhist idea of emptiness can likewise be falsified by the desire to disappear psychologically and merge or lose ego boundaries. Lack of identity, formless vagueness, and absence of boundaries do not exemplify the Buddhist idea of emptiness. My own version of this misconception was to try to live an ideal of the pure and pious only to find it was a form of repression I could not ultimately sustain.
At the heart of Buddhist practice is the search for a solution to our fundamental wounds. Healing the emotional damage we often carry within is truly the object of this practice. If we wish to resolve these problems, we need to be open and honest about their reality within us. Only when we do will any spiritual practice address what we need. The aim of Buddhist practice is not a spiritual transcendence that dissociates from our suffering. Nor is it the search for salvation in some form of external divine being that we hope will save us in our distress. As one of my teachers, Lama Thubten Yeshe, once said, "Buddhism is very practical; you just have to recognize that your mind is the cause of suffering. If you change your mind, you can find liberation." This message is very simple but by no means easy to follow; In order to do so, however, we must begin to recognize where we are psychologically wounded.
--from The Wisdom of Imperfection: The Challenge of Individuation in Buddhist Life by Rob Preece
- June 4
Due to misunderstanding each other's needs and concerns, miscommunication occurs on the international level as well [as the personal level]. In all these situations--personal and international--freeing ourselves from our narrow understanding of a situation by seeing it from the other's viewpoint is an effective remedy for anger. We can ask ourselves, "If I had grown up in that person's family, society, time in history, and cultural conditions, what would my needs and concerns be in this situation?"
When we look at the situation from the other person's viewpoint, sometimes we see that she perceives it differently than we thought she did. Other times, we realize that we have little idea of how a situation appears to another person or what her needs and concerns are. Therefore, we need to ask her; and when she responds, we need to listen, without interrupting. It is all too easy, when someone explains her view to us, to correct her or tell her that she should not feel the way she does. This only inflames the other person, and convinces her, with good reason, that we don't understand. Rather, we need to listen from our heart to what she says. After she has fully expressed herself, we can share our perspectives, and generally, a productive discussion will ensue.
--from Working with Anger by Thubten Chodron
- May 27
Of the three kayas, the Dharmakaya is linked to our mind, Sambhogakaya to our speech, or communicative principle, and the Nirmanakaya to our ordinary body.
The process of the three blendings in brief is as follows.
We experience the clear light of the waking state naturally during cIimax, and it can also be induced with yogic methods. Moreover, we naturally experience it at the moment of going to sleep, and at the moment of death. The principle here is that this clear light mind as experienced in each of the three occasions (waking, sleep and death) is the highest experience of our consciousness, and in it we dwell in a mental state of blissful, formless non-duality similar to that of the Dharmakaya wisdom of a buddha. Thus when we experience the clear light mind in any of these three occasions we should blend it with the Dharmakaya.
The first movement from this clear light mind is likened to the Sambhogakaya experience. In the waking state this occurs in our meditation when we fall out of the clear light that is induced with yogic techniques and the conceptual mind is aroused. In sleep it occurs after the clear light of the moment of entering sleep passes and we begin to dream. At death it occurs when the clear light flash at the moment of death passes and we leave our body and enter the bardo realm.
A buddha's Sambhogakaya is only visible to an arya, or saint, and not to an ordinary being; in the same way our thoughts, dreams, and bardo visions are not visible to ordinary beings but nonetheless are experiences of form. These subtle form experiences are to be linked to the natural realization of the illusory, blissful, and perfect nature of being; they are to be seen as an illusory theater made manifest for the benefit of the world. In other words, they are to be blended with the Sambhogakaya. This is the second set of three blendings.
The third blending is that of blending rebirth with the Nirmanakaya. Rebirth from the bardo of the waking state occurs every time that we arise from a meditation session and once more go about our ordinary life; rebirth from the bardo of the sleep / dream state occurs when we wake up and once more enter the work-a-day world; and rebirth from the bardo of becoming, or death bardo, occurs when we complete the unwinding process of the afterlife state and once again are ready to enter into a new body.
The basic principle underlying these three blendings is that what occurs to us at the time of death also occurs to us in miniature form at the time of going to sleep and can be induced in the waking state by means of the inner heat yogas.
--from Readings on the Six Yogas of Naropa translated, edited and introduced by Glenn H. Mullin
- May 20
How is it that mistaken mind overwhelms the unmistaken mind, unmistaken reality? To give an example, during the day when the sun is shining one does not see any stars and thus one would think that there are no stars at all, that they just plain do not exist. Just so, afflictive emotions shine so brightly and are so powerful that it is as if unmistaken reality, unmistaken mind, does not exist at all. When you seek out this unmistaken mind from within, you come to understand that there is an unmistaken mind--a reality of the mind--that does not die, that does not scurry after pleasure and pain. This mind that does not follow after pleasure and pain has a mode of being that is emptiness--but not an emptiness in the sense of an empty house or an empty vessel; rather, it is endowed with the inconceivable self-effulgence of unmistaken reality, of pristine wisdom.
When you search for this that is beyond mistaken mind, mistaken mind just stops; gradually like dawn there comes to be a time when pristine wisdom manifests a little. With the beginning of dawn there is not just darkness but some light, and so it is when the self-effulgence, the self-color, the self-nature of the pristine wisdom shows itself a little; one generates a suspicion that there is wisdom beyond mistaken mind. As Aryadeva says, "When you generate doubt thinking that there might be such a reality, cyclic existence is torn to tatters." How does cyclic existence come to be torn to tatters, or wrecked, made into a mess by doubt? For instance, if a table is wrecked, broken up, it cannot perform the function of a table; just so, when the self-effulgence of unmistaken pristine wisdom begins to dawn with this state of doubt, cyclic existence is wrecked and torn to tatters.
--from Fundamental Mind: The Nyingma View of the Great Completeness by Mi-pam-gya-tso, practical commentary by Khetsun Sangpo Rinbochay, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins
- May 13
Aspiration and Action Bodhichitta
Bodhichitta is the one practice we cannot do without. Even if we have been given the precious oral instructions on realizing the nature of mind, they will not be the sufficient cause for realization if we have not learned to generate Bodhichitta. The great Dzogchen yogi Patrul Rinpoche said,
If we have only one thing, the precious Bodhichitta is enough.
If we have nothing else, we must have the method of the precious Bodhichitta.
We should learn to develop Bodhichitta in a twofold way: through our aspirations and through our actions. Aspiration Bodhichitta is our initial wish that all sentient beings be liberated from the vast ocean of samsara's suffering. Action Bodhichitta requires that we first generate aspiration Bodhichitta, and practice the Six Paramitas as the method to establish the two benefits of 1) attaining Buddhahood oneself to 2) be of ultimate benefit to others. The way to practice aspiration and action Bodhichitta was taught by the omniscient Patrul Rinpoche, who said,
The instructions for aspiration [Bodhichitta] are to practice the Four Immeasurables;
The instructions for action [Bodhichitta] are to practice the Paramitas.
--from The Union of Dzogchen and Bodhichitta by Anyen Rinpoche, translated by Allison Graboski
- May 6
When you meditate with concentration, there are three particular experiences that arise: bliss, clarity, and nonthought. Sometimes you feel great joy, sometimes your mind is very clear, and sometimes there is complete equanimity. To experience these you do not need to meditate for a long time, although for a beginner these experiences will not last long because of the limited ability of a beginner's meditation.
The experience of meditative bliss is greater than ordinary worldly happiness. Sometimes when you are meditating, a feeling of blissfulness suddenly arises from the subtle state of your mind and pervades your entire body. This bliss is healthy and brings out your inner qualities. Some people use drugs to induce blissfulness and visions, but drugs are external supports that cannot bring lasting happiness. The bliss experienced in meditation can last for many days, according to your ability to meditate. When you experience this kind of bliss, on the outside you might look very poor, but inside you remain very joyful.
The second main experience in meditation is clarity. Sometimes while meditating you can suddenly feel that your mind is very clear and bright. Even if you are meditating in the dark, you do not feel heavy or tired. Sometimes your body feels very light and your mind is very clear, and many kinds of reflections appear. Clarity brings great wisdom and the ability to read other people's minds, as well as to see your own past and future lives.
The third main experience is nonthought, or a state of equanimity without distractions. Beginners can also experience this. Nonthought is more settled than the experiences of bliss and clarity. If you have thoughts, they suddenly dissolve and you can remain continuously in meditation. As your ability to meditate develops, your mind becomes more and more settled, so that you can meditate for one hour or one week or one month without being distracted by thoughts. You simply remain in the natural state for as long as you want.
--from Opening to Our Primordial Nature by Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal, edited by Ann Helm and Michael White
- April 30
Every single sentient being wishes to be happy and free of suffering. By no means does Buddhism say this is wrong; rather, this is where we start from.
The very root of this yearning for happiness, this yearning to be free of suffering, is the fundamental expression of the buddha-nature. If for the time being we turn our gaze away from the myriad ways that we can stray from the agenda--trying to find happiness by buying a more luxurious car, or a bigger house, or getting a better job--and just come back to the primary desire of wishing to be happy, we find at the very source of our yearning for happiness the buddha-nature wanting to realize itself. It's like a seed that wants to spring into the sunlight. Sometimes it gets terribly contorted, when we want to injure somebody else for the sake of our own happiness, but the fundamental yearning is something to be
embraced.
--from The Four Immeasurables: Cultivating a Boundless Heart by B. Alan Wallace, edited by Zara Houshmand
- April 22
The more we generate an attitude of contentment in our lives, the happier we will be and the more open we will be to engage in genuine Dharma practice. Letting go of the eight worldly concerns brings mental peace right now.
The defining characteristic of a thought or action being Dharma is whether or not we're attached to the happiness of this life. The eight worldly concerns are completely involved with attachment to the happiness of this life. How can we practice genuine Dharma when our self-centered mind is fixated on getting our own way and making everyone and everything around us suit our preferences and needs?
That doesn't mean the happiness of this life is bad or wrong. The Buddha did not say that we should suffer in this life so that we'll get our reward in heaven. The objects we're attached to and have aversion for aren't the problem; there's nothing wrong with experiencing pleasure and happiness. Those aren't the issue. Rather, attachment to pleasant feelings and to the people, objects, and situations that cause them, and aversion to unpleasant ones—it is these emotions that create trouble. They make us unhappy and propel us to harm others in order to get what we want. The troublemakers of attachment and hostility are what we want to abandon, not people and things. There is nothing wrong with being happy. But when we're attached to it, we actually create more unhappiness for ourselves.
--from How to Free Your Mind: Tara the Liberator by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron
- April 15
With a determination to accomplish
The highest welfare for all sentient beings
Who surpass even a wish-granting jewel
I will learn to hold them supremely dear.
Never mind neglecting other sentient beings, you should take them as a treasure through which temporary and final aims can be achieved and should cherish them one-pointedly. Others should be considered more dear, more important than yourself. Initially, it is in dependence upon sentient beings—others—that you generate the altruistic aspiration to highest enlightenment. In the middle, it is in relation to sentient beings that you increase this good mind higher and higher and practice the deeds of the path in order to achieve enlightenment. Finally, in the end, it is for the sake of sentient beings that you achieve Buddhahood. Since sentient beings are the aim and basis of all of this marvelous development, they are more important than even a wish-granting jewel, and should always be treated with respect, kindness, and love.
You might think, "My mind is so full of the afflictive emotions. How could I possibly do this?" However, the mind does what it is used to. What we are not used to, we find difficult, but with familiarity, previously difficult things become easy. Thus Shantideva's Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds says, "There is nothing which, with time, you cannot get used to."
--from the revised and updated Kindness, Clarity, and Insight by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, edited and translated by Jeffrey Hopkins, co-edited by Elizabeth Napper
- April 8
b. Keeping bounteousness in mind
Possessions are ephemeral and essenceless
Know this and give them generously to monks,
To brahmins, to the poor, and to your friends:
Beyond there is no greater friend than gift.
Having realized that possessions such as food are inconstant and fluctuate, that in changing and transforming they are devoid of essence, in order to make them meaningful try to use them properly, giving to those with good qualities (monks and brahmins), to those who suffer (the poor, the sick, and so forth), to those who help you (friends) and to those you venerate (spiritual teachers and parents). Even beyond the world there is no friend more sublime, more beneficial, than giving, because it gives rise directly and indirectly to ripened effects that are inexhaustible.
-- from Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend: with Commentary by Kangyur Rinpoche by Nagarjuna, translated by the Padmakara Translation Group
- April 2
Guilt and Shame
When we meditate, things from the past come up, and we have to work with them. We may remember times when we treated others horribly--hurting their feelings, deceiving them, repaying their kindness with spite, manipulating them, cheating them. While regret for these actions is appropriate and necessary to purify these karmas, we often fall into guilt and shame instead. Guilt and shame are obstacles to overcome on the path, because they keep us trapped in our self-centered melodrama entitled "How Bad I Am." Regret, on the other hand, realizes that we erred, leads us to purify, and motivates us to refrain from acting like that in the future.
How do we counteract guilt and shame? One way is to recognize that the person who did that action no longer exists. You are different now. Is the person who did that action five years ago the same person you are now? If she were exactly the same person, you would still be doing the same action. The present "you" exists in a continuum from that person, but is not exactly the same as her. Look back at the person you were with compassion. You can understand the suffering and confusion she was experiencing that made her act in that way.
-- from Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of Chenrezig by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama
- March 25
We think of ourselves as being the child of specific parents, as belonging to a certain gender and race, as a citizen of a specific nation, and as a member of a caste, class and community within that country, etc. Our identification with these transient reference points, be they racial, linguistic, cultural, conceptual, or gender-specific, can become lifelong love affairs, hate affairs, or guilt affairs. What Guru Rinpoche's birth symbolizes for me is the fact that from the first moment he recognized the unborn and undying nature of his mind, primordially pure awareness. He identified with that, rather than with his body, wherever it may have come from, be it a womb, a lotus, a stork, or a cabbage patch. Whatever physical, linguistic, or conceptual worlds he adopted, he wore as ephemeral ornaments on the infinite expanse of timeless awareness. ...Guru Rinpoche was not an individual who followed a spiritual path until illumination. He was an enlightened being who appeared in different guises entirely as a manifestation to help others, including the guise of an individual who followed the spiritual path.
--from Guru Rinpoche: His Life and Times by Ngawang Zangpo
- March 17
Often we see other sentient beings as hassles: "This mosquito is disturbing me. Those politicians are corrupt. Why can't my colleagues do their work correctly?" and so on. But when we see sentient beings as being more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel, our perspective completely changes. For example, when we look at a fly buzzing around, we train ourselves to think, "My enlightenment depends on that fly." This isn't fanciful thinking because, in fact, our enlightenment does depend on that fly. If that fly isn't included in our bodhicitta, then we don't have bodhicitta, and we won't receive the wonderful results of generating bodhicitta--the tremendous purification and creation of positive potential.
Imagine training your mind so that when you look at every single living being, you think, "My enlightenment depends on that being. The drunk who just got on the bus--my enlightenment depends on him. The soldier in Iraq--my enlightenment depends on him. My brothers and sisters, the teller at the bank, the janitor at my workplace, the president of the United States, the suicide bombers in the Middle East, the slug in my garden, my eighth-grade boyfriend, the babysitter when I was a kid--my enlightenment depends on each of them." All sentient beings are actually that precious to us.
--from Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of Chenrezig by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron
- March 10
The term emptiness does not carry here any connotation of void or of absolute nothingness. It should be understood as the naturally open and serene state of the mind. Thus, to affirm the emptiness of phenomena does not in any way mean that they do not exist in the way that the horn of a hare or skyflowers do not exist. Instead, emptiness refers to the insight that, at the ultimate level, both interior phenomena--sensations, perceptions and the "I"--and exterior phenomena--all the appearances of the phenomenal world--have no real existence, although they do appear in different forms. The Heart Sutra summarizes this as follows:
Form is emptiness, emptiness is form,
Emptiness is not other than form,
Form is not other than emptiness.
--from Machig Labdrön and the Foundations of Chöd by Jérôme Edou
- March 3
Position
Different body postures open or compress particular energetic channels and influence the flow of subtle energy. We use this understanding to aid specific processes in the practice. The Tibetan tradition considers the negative emotions to be more closely associated with the primary channel on the right side of the body in men and on the left in women. When a man sleeps on his right side, the channel that carries mostly negative prana is forced a little closed and the left channel opens. Also the lung, the physical organ, on that side is a bit compressed so the opposite lung is a little more responsible for the breath.
You are probably already familiar with effects from lying on your side: when you lie on your right side you find it easier to breathe through your left nostril. For men, we consider this position beneficial to the movement of the positive wisdom prana through the left channel. Women benefit from the reverse, opening the wisdom channel that is on their right side by sleeping on their left. This affects dreams in a positive fashion and makes the dream practice easier. Opening the flow of the wisdom prana is a provisional expedient, as ultimately we want the balanced prana to move into the central channel.
Furthermore, by paying attention to posture, awareness is kept more stable during sleep. Where I come from, most people sleep on a three-foot by six-foot Tibetan carpet. If one moves too much, one falls out of bed. But that does not usually happen, because when one sleeps on something small, the position of the body is held in the sleeping mind throughout the night... Here, in the big beds of the West, the sleeper can rotate like the hands of a clock and not fall, but holding the position anyway will help maintain awareness.
-- from The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, edited by Mark Dahlby
- February 24
Inwardly, we defend against death by the very structure of our ego. Our ego claims to have the ability to provide us with happiness based on its belief in its own permanent existence. On the one hand, to believe in ego results in denying death. On the other, to accept death is to question the very nature of ego as a permanent, on-going structure and to confront very strong defense mechanisms. As a result, we have strong resistance to contemplating death. This resistance is also the same resistance that comes up when we meditate. Please recognize it for what it is and move on.
-- from A Beginner's Guide to Tibetan Buddhism: Notes from a Practitioner's Journey by Bruce Newman
- February 17
(2) What one has to abandon: how to get rid of arrogance by means of an antidote
"I'm not beyond my karma, the deeds I've done;
I'll still fall ill, age, die, and leave my friends."
Think like this again and yet again
And with this remedy avoid all arrogance.
"I will be sick, I will grow old, I will die, I will be separated from those I love, my relations and so forth. In such manner, the fully ripened effect of my actions will come to me and to no one else, and I am therefore not above depending on what I did in former lives." To think like this again and again is the antidote to such things as arrogance: make every effort not to become arrogant by meditating on this antidote.
-- from Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend: with Commentary by Kangyur Rinpoche by Nagarjuna, translated by the Padmakara Translation Group
- February 10
...the Transcendent Conqueror presented the two truths with respect to all inner and outer things, like sprouts and everything else. Genuine truth is described as being simply the authentic object of the noble ones' original wisdom that sees what is authentic and true; there is no identity actually established there for conceptual mind to find. Relative truth is the false object seen from the perspective of the conceptual mind whose eye of wisdom is completely covered by the cataract of ignorance, as is the case with ordinary beings. It is therefore posited as being this conceptual mind. The object perceived does not exist in the way that this mind perceives it to be.
Thus, the Teacher explained that every thing found holds two natures within: a genuine nature and a relative one. From among these two, the object of the noble ones' authentic vision is the precise nature of reality, genuine truth, and the object of false seeing is relative truth.
-- from The Moon of Wisdom: Chapter Six of Chandrakirti's "Entering the Middle Way" with Commentary from the Eighth Karmapa Mikyo Dorje's "Chariot of the Dagpo Kagyu Siddhas" by Chandrakirti, trans. by Ari Goldfield, Jules Levinson, Jim Scott and Birgit Scott under guidance of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche
- February 4
...by respecting and serving your teachers you exhaust karma whose effects you would otherwise experience in the miserable realms. Your action of serving the teacher expends these miserable effects and replaces them with only slight harm to your body and mind in this lifetime, either in actuality or in dreams. In addition, the benefits of respecting and serving your teachers are tremendous, such as a collection of virtue which surpasses even the roots of virtue that you derive from making offerings to limitless buddhas, and so forth. As the Sutra of Ksitigarbha says:
"Those whom the teachers care for will purify the karma that would otherwise cause them to wander through the miserable realms for ten million limitless eons. They purify this karma with harm to their bodies and minds in this lifetime. This harm includes sickness such as an infectious disease with fever and calamities such as famine. They may purify their karma by merely undergoing something as little as a dream or a scolding. They produce more roots of virtue in one morning than those who give gifts to, worship, or observe precepts from limitless tens of millions of buddhas. Those who respect and serve their gurus are endowed with unimaginable good qualities."
-- from The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment: Lam Rim Chen Mo by Tsong-kha-pa, translated by the Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee under editorial guidance of Joshua Cutler and Guy Newland, foreword by Robert A.F. Thurman
- January 27
...it is difficult to recognize an authentic teacher, because these qualities are internal. We can not depend upon external factors, but external factors are what we see. It is very difficult to see the inner qualities of another person. A businessman might be friendlier to us than our best friend, while his unseen motivation is merely to make a sale. Likewise, if a "teacher" acts in a very kind and loving manner towards us it does not necessarily mean that he is compassionate and selfless, because we cannot see his motivation. We also cannot determine a teacher's qualifications based upon her fame, or whether she has thousands of students. So the seeker is left with this paradox.
There is no simple solution, but there are things we can do. First, it is important that we familiarize ourselves with the characteristics* discussed by Kongtrul Rinpoche. Second, we must maintain awareness of our own motivation during the process of finding a teacher. Am I seeking a teacher in order to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, or am I seeking to fulfill my need to acquire the prestige associated with a famous teacher, or am I merely attracted to a lama's beautiful retreat land or the social scene of a hip sangha, and so on.
These motivations need to be acknowledged if we are to recognize an authentic wisdom teacher, because the teacher you find is related to your karma, and your karma is intimately connected to your motivation. Fortunately, there are methods that help us purify our motivation and create the proper conditions for finding a wisdom teacher, such as bringing our awareness to our motivations as much as possible, doing daily meditation practice, and praying to the Triple Gem [Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha] that we will meet and recognize an authentic wisdom teacher.
-- from The Teacher-Student Relationship: A Translation of 'The Explanation of the Master and Student Relationship, How to Follow the Master, and How to Teach and Listen to the Dharma' by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye, translated and introduced by Ron Garry
*"Whatever lama is followed must definitely have these qualities: He holds a pure lineage since he has not contradicted the commitments and prohibitions of the three vows.... He should be very learned...clear about the sutras, tantras, and shastras. His mind-stream should be so saturated with compassion that he loves all the limitless sentient beings as his only child. He should be expert in the outer tripitakas and on the inner level he should be expert in the ritual of the four classes of tantras of the secret mantra. He should have manifested the outstanding noble qualities of abandomnent and realization in his mind-stream by having relied upon practicing the meaning of this. He gathers fortunate disciples by the four ways of attracting: generosity, pleasant speech, his conduct should benefit others, and he should act in accord with the dharma."--Patrul Rinpoche
- January 20
How would we feel if one of our children was overpowered by a serious disease and did some terrible things without knowing what he or she was doing? We should try to view someone dear who suddenly hurts us in the same light. If we can see that person is out of control and sick with negative emotions, we will not feel so much hatred and disgust. There may be resentment, and we may not be able to love that person more than before, but almost automatically there will be a certain sympathy that will lessen or end our hatred and allow us to forgive.
-- from Daring Steps Toward Fearlessness: The Three Vehicles of Buddhism by Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, edited and translated by Rosemarie Fuchs
- January 13
There is a tradition of reciting prayers of request to the spiritual teachers of the lineage at the beginning of each study session, starting with the Buddha Shakyamuni and ending with our own personal teachers. What do we request? As we chant each verse, we take to mind the inspiring qualities of the great masters mentioned in it and ask them to bless us to develop compassion, wisdom and power similar to their own. Blessings are experienced in the form of a transformation which affects our body, speech and mind. Our mind becomes more serviceable and flexible, our way of speaking and acting more constructive. We become more open to the message of how to bring about inner transformation that has been handed down through this long line of spiritual teachers.
Our teachers pass on the instructions they have received from their own teachers, the knowledge they have culled from their reading and everything they have understood and experienced as a result of their personal practice, without holding anything back. They are motivated by compassion and their deep wish to help us. To communicate it to us they choose whatever means are most effective--sometimes stern, sometimes gentle. This process must take place in an atmosphere of mutual trust, something very rare in relationships today. In the past the relationship between students and teachers was even closer and more trusting than that between siblings--and in Tibet brothers and sisters generally enjoyed a close and loving bond. Today this is a dying tradition, yet a good relationship between student and teacher is vital even for the communication of secular knowledge, let alone where spiritual wisdom is concerned.
-- from Atisha's Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment: An Oral Teaching by Geshe Sonam Rinchen translated and edited by Ruth Sonam
- January 6
Patience is like a beautiful ornament. When you become a person with great patience, it brings a certain element of charm to your life. You are loved by others, and you give no problems to your friends. You bring an element of joy, happiness, and calmness to other people's lives - your friends, your family, and the community. You do not have to ask to be accepted; everyone longs for your presence. Everyone looks up to you and respects you, not because you have worked for that or expected it, not because you were competing for their favor, but simply because of the nature of patience. You are respected and trusted, and you acquire dignity with the practice of patience. When you are honored, it is with sincerity, and it is something you can live up to.
...Just hearing about patience does not mean you are experiencing it now or will easily develop it. To lay the ground for training the mind, you must first tame the mind. To tame the mind, it is extremely important to do the basic shamata [tranquility meditation, calm abiding] practice, which develops calmness and tranquility. Then you can add the practice of patience, understanding the benefits of patience and reminding yourself to take advantage of the available antidotes.
-- from Dharma Paths by Ven. Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, translated by Ngödup Burkhar and Chöjor Radha, edited by Laura M. Roth
2005
- December 31
9. Glorious Lama (excerpt)
...Those with faith have a refuge.
Those with compassion have an altruistic attitude.
Those with incisive knowledge have realization.
Those with respect and devotion have blessings.
Those with shame avoid carelessness.
Those who avoid carelessness have a guarded mind.
Those who have a guarded mind have vows and samaya.
Those who have vows and samaya have spiritual attainments.
Calm and self-control are signs of listening to the Dharma;
Few passions, signs of meditation;
Harmony with everyone is the sign of a practitioner;
Your mind at ease, the sign of accomplishment.
The root of phenomena is your own mind.
If you tame your mind, you are a practitioner.
If you are a practitioner, your mind is tamed.
When your mind is tamed, that is liberation.
-- from Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoche's Heart Advice by His Holiness Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, translated by Ron Garry
- December 23
...everbody thinks that compassion is important, and everyone has compassion. True enough, but the Buddha gave uncommon quintessential instructions when he taught the methods for cultivating compassion, and the differences are extraordinarily important.
Generally, everyone feels compassion, but the compassion is flawed. In what way? We measure it out. For instance, some feel compassion for human beings but not for animals and other types of sentient beings. Others feel compassion for animals and some other types of sentient beings but not for humans. Others, who feel compassion for human beings, feel compassion for the human beings of their own country but not for the human beings of other countries. Then, some feel compassion for their friends but not for anyone else. Thus, it seems that we draw a line somewhere. We feel compassion for those on one side of the line but not for those on the other side of the line. We feel compassion for one group but not for another. That is where our compassion is flawed. What did the Buddha say about that? It is not necessary to draw that line. Nor is it suitable. Everyone wants compassion, and we can extend our compassion to everyone.
-- from Lectures on Kamalashila's 'Stages of Meditation in the Middle Way School' by Kenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, translated by Jules B. Levinson
- December 16
...mantra of the perfection of wisdom:
DAYATA (OM) GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SWAHA.
A mantra is that which protects the mind. Through this mantra, which is the perfection of wisdom itself, we can overcome the demon of ignorance that possesses us and find unsurpassable happiness. It protects the minds of those who practice it from all fears and describes how to make the transition from worldly existence to the supreme state beyond sorrow. It is a mantra of great knowledge because it saves us from the poison of ignorance and its imprints. It is an unsurpassable mantra because it frees us from suffering and its causes as no other path of insight can. The incomparable is the state beyond suffering. Since it helps us to attain that state, it is comparable to the incomparable. It totally pacifies suffering because it rids us of all the troubles of the world and their causes. The world here refers to ordinary beings like us. Our troubles are many but foremost are birth, aging, sickness, and death. This mantra does not deceive us and it is true because wisdom sees things as they actually are without any error or deception. It is therefore transcendent.
-- from The Heart Sutra: An Oral Teaching by Geshe Sonam Rinchen, translated and edited by Ruth Sonam
- December 9
The real source of my suffering is self-centeredness: my car, my possession, my well-being. Without the self-centeredness, the suffering would not arise. What would happen instead? It is important to imagine this fully and to focus on examples of your own. Think of some misfortune that makes you want to lash out, that gives rise to anger or misery. Then imagine how you might respond without suffering. Recognize that we need not experience the misery, let alone the anger, resentment, and hostility. The choice is ours.
Let's continue with the previous example. You see that there is a dent in the car. What needs to be done? Get the other driver's license number, notify the police, contact the insurance agency, deal with all the details. Simply do it and accept it. Accept it gladly as a way to strengthen your mind further, to develop patience and the armor of forbearance. There is no way to become a Buddha and remain a vulnerable wimp. Patience does not suddenly appear as a bonus after full enlightenment. Part of the whole process of awakening is to develop greater forbearance and equanimity in adversity. Santideva, in the sixth chapter of his Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, eloquently points out that there is no way to develop patience without encountering adversity, and patience is indispensable for our own growth on the path to awakening.
-- from The Seven-Point Mind Training by B. Alan Wallace, edited by Zara Houshmand
- December 2
I - What Is a Treasure?
According to the Nyingma School, the Treasures are most often comprised of spiritual instructions concealed by enlightened beings for the purpose of discovery at a later predestined time when their message will invigorate the Buddhist teaching and deepen spiritual understanding. Central to this process is the figure of the Treasure revealer (gter ston) - the person who acts as a medium for the re-emergence of this inspired material into the human world. Accordingly, beginning in the eleventh century and continuing into the present, the Nyingma School identifies a large number of Treasure revealers and grants authoritative status to their discoveries.
The idea that religious truth lies concealed within the world of phenomena awaiting discovery by spiritually gifted people is by no means a concept exclusive to the Nyingma School or Tibetan Buddhism as a whole. Throughout Buddhist literature there are numerous descriptions of teachings being inherently present in the phenomenal world ready to be perceived by individuals possessing inspired levels of consciousness and, accordingly, spiritual revelations have surfaced on numerous occasions throughout the course of Buddhist history.
-- from Tibetan Treasure Literature: Revelation, Tradition, and Accomplishment in Visionary Buddhism by Andreas Doctor
- November 24
The Tantric Way of Purifying One's Views
The second important attitude is the Tantric way of purifying one's views, which means to transform one's ordinary and dualistic views and conceptions into a higher spiritual vision.
For instance, you transform the place where teachings are received from an ordinary classroom into a complete and perfected mandala of the deities. You view the teacher as a pure form of Shen Lha Okar, the Buddha of Compassion, by mentally transforming him from an ordinary person into an enlightened one who has manifested in a human body to guide all sentient beings. You transform your companions and classmates from ordinary beings into deities and goddesses, and believe that they all have love, compassion, and care for all sentient beings.
The purpose of transforming your views into pure visions toward these objects is to realize the extraordinary nature of this experience. This gives you a special reason to receive blessings and powers from the teacher (lama), the enlightened ones (Sangye), the deities (yidam), and the female manifestations of the enlightened ones (khadro), in order to develop your wisdom and stability. This is the essence of the practice of purifying one's view according to the Tantric ways.
-- from Opening the Door to Bön by Latri Khenpo and Geshe Nyima Dakpa Rinpoche
- November 17
13. Transforming suffering into the path
Even if someone tries to cut off your head
When you haven't done the slightest thing wrong,
Out of compassion take all his misdeeds
Upon yourself --
This is the practice of Bodhisattvas.
- from "The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas" by Gyelsay Togme Sangpo
Although we have done nothing to deserve it, someone may attack us, beat us, or perpetrate other forms of violence on us. Certainly it is tempting to get angry in such a situation, but our anger will do no good. In fact, this person is creating the cause for his own unfortunate rebirth by attacking us, and the karma he creates is even heavier if we hold any of the three sets of vows: pratimoksha, Bodhisattva, or tantric. Thus, we cultivate compassion, and wish to take the person's karma and resultant suffering on ourselves. For example, if a crazy person attacks a person who is sane, the latter will not only not fight back but try to help, by giving him medicine and wanting him to get well. The sane person sees that the crazy person does not know what he is doing. He is out of control.
Similarly, when someone harms us, we should recognize that he too is out of control and is being led by his three poisonous attitudes. Similarly, we can remember that we are experiencing the ripening result of harmful actions we did in past lives, so why blame the other person? In addition, that person is causing our negative karma to be exhausted now, rather than later when the result could be much more difficult to bear. In this way, we will not be angry or retaliate, but will pray for and try to help the other. In "The Eight Verses of Thought Transformation," it says, "Whenever I meet a person of bad nature who is overwhelmed by negative energy and intense suffering, I will hold such a rare one dear, as if I had found a precious treasure." People like this suffer greatly because they think only of themselves, not of others, and thus they are worthy of compassion, the wish that they be free from suffering and its causes.
Being patient when harmed by others does not mean that we take no action to prevent harm from occurring. Rather, patience frees our mind from the fog of anger and gives us the clarity and kindness to respond to a situation in a helpful way. Free of anger, we look for ways to resolve conflict other than seeking revenge.
-- from Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage: An Explanation of "The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas" by Geshe Jampa Tegchok, edited by Thubten Chodron
- November 11
Giving with an open heart brings us joy and directly benefits others. Goods are then shared more equitably within our society and among nations, soothing the ill-feeling of social inequity and promoting world peace. Sharing is a source of our continued existence as a species. As His Holiness the Dalai Lama says, it is not survival of the fittest, but survival of those who cooperate the most, that makes a species prosper. None of us exists independently; we have to depend on others simply to stay alive. Thus, helping others and sharing wealth benefits both self and others. Generosity makes us happy now, enables our species to continue to prosper, and creates positive karma that brings us prosperity in the future. In addition, it is an essential trait of an enlightened being. Who ever heard of a stingy Buddha?
-- from How to Free Your Mind: Tara the Liberator by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron
- November 4
When the sun is freed from clouds, the sun becomes clear and bright. Similarly, when obstructions to omniscience are abandoned, wisdom becomes clear light.
How does wisdom that is like the sun in a sky free from clouds dawn? It is described as yogic direct perception. Between ordinary beings - those born in dependence upon their individual karma - and yogins, here we are considering yogins. Their wisdom is not speculation from an inferential point of view, as is the case with ordinary beings. Neither is it pensive and lacking in clarity. Rather, it sees directly, for which reason it is called yogic direct perception. When we ordinary beings think about a thing, there is something in the way, obstruction, due to which we do not see clearly and directly. When those obstructions - the afflictive obstructions and the obstructions to omniscience - have been dispelled, then knowledge arises as yogic direct perception.
When yogic direct perception arises, how does it see? It sees phenomena in a conventional context and it also sees reality in an ultimate context. In the conventional context, wisdom sees the shapes, colors, and defining characteristics of whatever things exist in worldly realms, individually and without mixing them, just as they are. This wisdom knows the varieties of phenomena. Similarly, in the context of reality, wisdom sees the meaning of emptiness directly; this wisdom knows the mode of all phenomena. In dependence upon release from the afflictive obstruction and the obstruction to omniscience, the wisdoms knowing the modes and the varieties actually arise.
Someone in whom those two wisdoms are present is a buddha.
-- from Essential Practice: Lectures on Kamalashila's 'Stages of Meditation in the Middle Way School' by Kenchen Thrangu Rinpoche translated by Jules B. Levinson
- October 27
Dzogchen could be defined as a way to relax completely. This can be clearly understood from the terms used to denote the state of contemplation, such as "leave it just as it is" (cog bzhag), "cutting loose one's tension" (khregs chod), beyond effort" (rtsol bral), and so on. Some scholars have classified Dzogchen as a "direct path," comparing it to teachings such as Zen, where this expression is often used. In Dzogchen texts, however, the phrases "direct path" and "nongradual path" (cig car) are never used, because the concept of a "direct path" implies necessarily that there must be, on the one hand, a place from which one departs, and on the other, a place where one arrives. But in Dzogchen there is a single principle of the state of knowledge, and if one possesses this state one discovers that right from the beginning one is already there where one wants to arrive. For this reason the state is said to be "self-perfected" (lhun grub).
-- from Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State, by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu edited by Adriano Clemente, translated from the Italian by John Shane
- October 20
There is a story about a princess who had a small eye problem that she felt was really bad. Being the king's daughter, she was rather spoiled and kept crying all the time. When the doctors wanted to apply medicine, she would invariably refuse any medical treatment and kept touching the sore spot on her eye. In this way it became worse and worse, until finally the king proclaimed a large reward for whoever could cure his daughter. After some time, a man arrived who claimed to be a famous physician, but actually was not even a doctor.
He declared that he could definitely cure the princess and was admitted to her chamber. After he had examined her, he exclaimed, "Oh, I'm so sorry!" "What is it?" the princess inquired. The doctor said, "There is nothing much wrong with your eye, but there is something else that is really serious." The princess was alarmed and asked, "What on earth is so serious?" He hesitated and said, "It is really bad. I shouldn't tell you about it." No matter how much she insisted, he refused to tell her, saying that he could not speak without the king's permission.
When the king arrived, the doctor was still reluctant to reveal his findings. Finally the king commanded, "Tell us what is wrong. Whatever it is, you have to tell us!" At last the doctor said, "Well, the eye will get better within a few days - that is no problem. The big problem is that the princess will grow a tail, which will become at least nine fathoms long. It may start growing very soon. If she can detect the first moment it appears, I might be able to prevent it from growing." At this news everyone was deeply concerned. And the princess, what did she do? She stayed in bed, day and night, directing all her attention to detecting when the tail might appear. Thus, after a few days, her eye got well.
This shows how we usually react. We focus on our little problem and it becomes the center around which everything else revolves. So far, we have done this repeatedly, life after life. We think, "My wishes, my interests, my likes and dislikes come first!" As long as we function on this basis, we will remain unchanged. Driven by impulses of desire and rejection, we will travel the roads of samsara without finding a way out. As long as attachment and aversion are our sources of living and drive us onward, we cannot rest.
-- from Daring Steps toward Fearlessness: The Three Vehicles of Buddhism, by Ringu Tulku Rinpoché edited and translated by Rosemarie Fuchs
- October 13
A conventional enemy may harm us, but patience and a refusal to retaliate can bring us benefit both in this life and in the future. However, tolerance towards [our own] hostile disturbing emotions and attempts at peaceful coexistence with them will never bring us any reward. They will do us nothing but harm if we don't take steps to drive them out. No conventional enemy can do us such harm. The most an ordinary enemy can do is to defeat us for a short space of time or destroy us in this life, but the disturbing emotions will insure our misery for many lifetimes to come. Shantideva says:
All other foes that I appease and wait upon
Will show me favors, give me every aid,
But should I serve my dark defiled emotions,
They will only harm me, draw me down to grief.
-- from Eight Verses for Training the Mind: An Oral Teaching by Geshe Sonam Rinchen translated and edited by Ruth Sonam
- October 6
The wise perceive that all things - persons and phenomena - arise in reliance upon their own causes and conditions, and that based on this process we impute mental labels upon things. The phenomena themselves have no true or inherent existence from their own side. They have no self-nature whatsoever.
Were persons or phenomena to have a self-presence, there would be no need for them to rely upon causes and conditions. Therefore one can be certain that even the smallest speck of matter has no true, inherent existence from its own side.
Although all things lack even the smallest speck of true existence, nonetheless conventionally the laws of causes and conditions operate through them, and conventionally all the phenomena in samsara and nirvana seem to exist, arising in the same manner as do illusions, dreams and a reflected image.
-- from The Six Yogas of Naropa: Tsongkhapa's commentary entitled "A Book of Three Inspirations: A Treatise on the Stages of Training in the Profound Path of Naro's Six Dharmas" commonly referred to as "The Three Inspirations" by Glenn H. Mullin
- September 29
If persons who have attained calm abiding keep their minds in calm abiding, not only does the force of their meditative stabilization remain but their other good qualities increase and do not degenerate. Similarly, persons who have achieved special insight have clear perception not only with respect to the object of observation on which they have been meditating but also with respect to any other object to which they turn their minds. Persons who cultivate calm abiding but not special insight will gain the factor of stability but not that of an intense clarity; they will not be able to manifest any antidote to the afflictive emotions. One must achieve an intensity of clarity in order for anything to serve as an antidote to ignorance, and to achieve that clarity one must cultivate special insight.
-- from Calm Abiding and Special Insight: Achieving Spiritual Transformation through Meditation by Geshe Gedün Lodrö, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, co-edited by Anne C. Klein and Leah Zahler
- September 22
It can be difficult to accept others and to accept ourselves. "I should be better. I should be something different. I should have more." All of this is conception; it's all mental fabrication. It's just the mind churning up "shoulds," "ought tos," and "supposed tos." All this is conceptual rubbish, and yet we believe it. Part of the solution is to recognize that these thoughts are conceptual rubbish and not reality; this gives us the mental space not to believe them. When we stop believing them, it becomes much easier to accept what we are at any given moment, knowing we will change in the next moment. We'll be able to accept what others are in one moment, knowing that they will be different in the next moment. This is good stuff for everyday practice; it's very practical.
-- from How to Free Your Mind: Tara the Liberator by Thubten Chodron
- September 15
Tantric yogis succeed in their cultivation of wisdom more quickly than do practitioners of the Perfection Vehicle because the tantric yogi, employing deity yoga, can achieve a mind that is a union of calm abiding and special insight -- a mind of alert one-pointedness that realizes emptiness -- in far less time than the period of countless great aeons required for those who practice sutra paths alone. Tantric yogis use deity yoga to enhance meditation on emptiness; their use of deity yoga brings them more quickly to an initial direct cognition of emptiness by enhancing their ability to combine meditative stability with analysis.... Also, in Highest Yoga Tantra, powerful, subtle consciousnesses that realize emptiness are manifested, whereby the obstructions to liberation and omniscience are quickly overcome.
-- from Highest Yoga Tantra by Daniel Cozort
- September 8
Being Mindful of Impermanence
Loved ones who have long kept company will part.
Wealth created with difficulty will be left behind.
Consciousness, the guest, will leave the guest house of the body.
Let go of this life --
This is the practice of Bodhisattvas.
Although we have this human life with freedom and richness, which is so valuable and difficult to get, it cannot last forever. This is because it is not permanent and is subject to decay moment by moment. This life will eventually become non-existent because our body and mind will separate. Although death meditation involves reflecting on the moment by moment changing nature of our life, it principally entails recognizing that one day it will come to a complete stop and our mind will leave our body behind. Therefore, we must take the essence from this life each day and try to fulfill a great Dharma purpose because we will not have this opportunity for long.
-- from Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage: An Explanation of "The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas" by Geshe Jampa Tegchok, edited by Thubten Chodron
- September 1
Everything is interdependent. This friendly statement just begins to skim the surface. What Buddhist contemplatives are saying is that in the whole universe right down to the subatomic level, nothing exists purely objectively or purely subjectively. We can say, "Oh, it's mere appearance. I get it." We can focus in and observe that nothing exists in the mind purely subjectively or objectively, that there is profound interdependence. But when we really experience this, our perception of the world as a whole is profoundly altered.
-- from Buddhism with an Attitude: The Tibetan Seven-Point Mind-Training by B. Alan Wallace, edited by Lynn Quirolo
- August 25
The Buddhist notion of diligence is to delight in positive deeds. Its opposite, called le lo in Tibetan, has three aspects. Le lo is usually translated as "laziness," though only its first aspect refers to laziness as we usually understand it. The first aspect is not doing something because of indolence, even though we know that it is good and ought to be done. The second aspect is faintheartedness. This comes about when we underestimate our qualities and abilities, thinking, "I'm so incompetent and weak. It would be good to do that, but I could never accomplish it." Not having the confidence of thinking, "I can do it," we end up doing nothing. The third aspect refers to being very busy and seeming diligent, but wasting time and energy on meaningless activities that will not accomplish anything in the long run. When we do many things for no real purpose, we fail to focus on what is truly worthwhile and our path has no clear direction. When we refrain from these three aspects of laziness, we are diligent.
-- from Daring Steps Toward Fearlessness: The Three Vehicles of Buddhism by Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, edited and translated by Rosemarie Fuchs
- August 17
In general, most non-Buddhist religions meditate on the deity as being outside the physical body. In these cases the deity takes the form of a refuge, or of a protector or messenger. Thus do they meditate, and of course this is fine. In the Buddhist tradition, however, the deity is not meditated on as being outside of the physical body. One meditates on the deity as being one's own essence expressing itself through oneself arising as the deity. One therefore thinks, " I am the deity," and with this conviction one meditates. Why is it justifiable to meditate in this manner? ...our own mind is in essence exactly the same as the mind of a Buddha. In the philosophical treatises this is sometimes referred to as "sugatagarbha' or 'buddha-nature'.
-- from Everyday Consciousness and Buddha-Awakening by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, translated and edited by Susanne Schefczyk
- August 9
Training in compassion has the capacity to be both profound and vast -- both absolute and relative. Compassion has the quality of being approachable and at the same time ungraspable. It manifests both the quality of shunyata, emptiness, or egolessness, as well as the qualities of kindness and joyfulness. Therefore, from the Mahayana point of view, compassion is the most important practice we could ever engage in. It can lead us to the full realization of enlightenment without any need for other practices.
-- from Trainings in Compassion: Manuals on the Meditation of Avalokiteshvara translated by Tyler Dewar under the guidance of The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
- August 1
While I was in Malaysia, I saw a T-shirt depicting a surfboard aloft huge waves. Sitting on the surfboard was a figure meditating cross-legged. The slogan read, "Riding the waves of life, be mindful, be happy." That's it. Awareness. Being present. Knowing thoughts as thoughts, emotions as emotions. It's just like riding a surfboard. You gradually develop the poise to cruise along on the roughest seas until, no longer immersed in the waves, you are riding on top of them. Of course you have to start with small waves until you get your balance. Then the higher the wave, the better! Likewise, when we begin to train in awareness, it is better if we have an atmosphere which is nonthreatening and peaceful. That's why people go on retreat. That's also a reason why people set aside regular sitting periods. But once we learn how to be balanced, we become like a surfer who finds that the bigger the wave, the greater the fun.
-- from Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings on Practical Buddhism, by Ani Tenzin Palmo
- July 25
Starting Dzogchen Practice
When we start to practice, in order to grasp the normal mind, our first practice consists in engaging our mind. For example, if we have a problem of some kind, we may go to a movie to distract ourselves from our problem. Likewise when we start to practice, we try to calm down our problem-creating mind in order to be able to observe the nature of thought. The observation of the arising, abiding, and dissolving of thought in the empty state of the mind is an essential practice in Dzogchen in order to discover that moving thoughts are of the same nature as the thoughtless state of the mind. Since we are not accustomed to meditation, it seems very difficult, and every slight sound or movement, outside or inside the mind itself, becomes a major distraction interfering with our ability to continue to practice. In order to overcome this problem, we engage the mind in a practice so that it is not so easily distracted, by focusing attention so that the movement of the mind caused by thought or sense perception does not have the power to divert our concentration. This first stage, of grasping the mind, is concentration practice, described in detail in the Bonpo 'Ati' system.
-- from Wonders of the Natural Mind: The Essence of Dzogchen in the Native Bon Tradition of Tibet, by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
- July 18
45. This fresh present knowing, unbound
This fresh present knowing,
Unbound by the intellect that clings to meditation,
Is naked unobstructed non-meditation.
Relax at ease
And settle in the state of naturalness.
This is the meaning of realization of meditation.
When thoughts move, let them.
Movement arises and is liberated without a trace.
When there is no movement, don't search for it.
This is empty luminosity, naked empty awareness.
Tantric practice without suppression or cultivation of thoughts
Brings the accomplishment of the destruction of hope and fear.
There is nothing more to add to this.
Madman Dudjom said this:
Let it remain like this in your heart.
-- from Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoché's Heart Advice, translated and introduced by Ron Garry
- July 11
Value Our Good Circumstances
We often focus on a few circumstances in our life that aren't going well instead of all those that are. Although we all have problems, when we over-emphasize their importance, we easily begin thinking that we are incapable and worthless. Such self-hatred immobilizes us and prevents us from developing our good qualities and sharing them with others.
When we look at the broad picture, however, we can see many positive things in our life. We can rejoice that we are alive and appreciate whatever degree of good health we have. We also have food (often too much!), shelter, clothing, medicine, friends, relatives, and a myriad of good circumstances. Many of the people reading this book live in peaceful places, not in war-torn areas. Many have jobs they like, and family and friends they appreciate. We shouldn't take these for granted. Most importantly, from a spiritual viewpoint, we have access to an authentic path, qualified teachers to guide us, and kind companions who encourage us. We have genuine spiritual aspirations and the time to cultivate these. Thinking about these good conditions one by one, we will be filled with joy, and any sense of being incapable and hopeless will vanish.!
-- from Working with Anger by Thubten Chodron
- July 4
15. This fresh state of present awareness, unspoiled
This fresh state of present awareness (da lta'i shes pa)
Unspoiled by dualistic thoughts,
Effortlessly sustained in the natural state,
Is Buddha Kuntu Zangpo's wisdom mind.
Do not hope or fear for good or bad outcomes.
Regardless of what formulation of thought occurs, they arise and
are liberated simultaneously;
Their essential nature is empty awareness.
Reach that unmoving, unassailable state.
I, Jñana, spoke these words immediately
In response to Zangmo's supplication. May this be virtuous!
-- from Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoché's Heart Advice translated and introduced by Ron Garry
- June 27
Number of Recitations
The sixth
section of the yoga of speech concerns measuring the accumulation of mantra recitations. How do
you know when you have recited enough of a particular mantra? Generally speaking, you should
count a mantra until you achieve some common spiritual power and ideally until you achieve the
supreme spiritual attainment. Wouldn't that be the best way?
After all, if you are really hungry, don't you eat until you are satisfied? Similarly, if you plan a trip to San Francisco,
you want to travel until you arrive at your destination. You would not travel halfway and be
satisfied with that, would you? In the same way, when you recite a mantra, you have a specific
goal in mind: to gain the supreme spiritual attainment - buddhahood. Wouldn't it be wise to
keep on reciting the mantra until you have achieved your goal, or at least until you achieve
some perceptible improvement?
-- from The Generation Stage in Buddhist Tantra by
Gyatrul Rinpoche
- June 20
In his autobiography "Freedom in Exile," His Holiness the Dalai Lama speaks of his attachment as a child to the monastery's Master of the Kitchen, commenting, "I sometimes think that the act of bringing food is one of the basic roots of all relationships." And the connection between giving food and understanding the interrelationship of all life is recognized also in stories about the belated discovery of an enlightened master who lived humbly as a monastery cook; or the stories of a great lama who gathers his disciples to test their progress, only to discover that the most highly realized of all is the cook, who has neither meditated nor studied, but who simply served the others.
May you have long life,
may the house be filled with grain,
and may you have the luck
to make use of this abundance.
-Tibetan drinking song
-- from The Lhasa Moon Tibetan Cookbook, by Tsering Wangmo and Zara Houshmand
- June 13
...they say that the initial realization of the nature of the mind is the first breakthrough. It's a very important point in all Buddhist schools. At that moment, you cease to be an ordinary person. You become in Buddhist parlance an "arya," a noble one. It doesn't mean you are finished. It doesn't mean you are a high level bodhisattva. We can fall back from this. But still, this is a big breakthrough. We now understand what is true and what is not true. We don't have to take it all on faith any more. It is a direct non-dual experience. The point is that it is very easy. It's not difficult, and it's not something that can only be attained after years and years of practice.
Our main obstacle is the fact that we don't know how to relax our minds enough to be open to this experience. In the back of our minds we keep thinking this is something so difficult and so advanced. For this reason we don't recognize what is in front of our face. This is why a teacher can be extraordinarily helpful. A teacher living within that realization is able - if the mind of the disciple is completely open - to transmit his or her experience. The problem here is that we have too many hopes and fears; it creates a barrier. It is very hard to be open. You can't just will it.
-- from Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings on Practical Buddhism, by Ani Tenzin Palmo
- June 6
The indivisible nature of mind is said to possess a "mobile quality." This mobile quality is described as currents of energy which flow through the channels of various parts of the body, presiding over physical as well as mental functions, and pass through the nostrils as breathing. Such currents of energy, called "winds" (rlung, vayu), serve as the bridge between body and mind.
The winds are a blend of two types of energy, one associated with emotionality, called karmic or conditioned wind (las kyi rlung), and the other related to the original state of the individual, called pristine awareness wind (ye shes kyi rlung). Distinguished in terms of the three principles, darkness (tamas), mobility (rajas), and buoyancy (sattva), winds are of three types: wind of Rahu, solar wind, and lunar wind.
Moreover, the winds are differentiated as the five root winds (rtsa ba'i rlung), the natures of the five elements, and five branch winds (yan lag gi rlung), produced through the five elemental transformations. The winds of the five elements, or five mandalas, flow back and forth through the right and left nostrils in the order of generation of the elements and of birth (first space, then wind, fire, water, earth) and in the order of dissolution of the elements and of death (first earth, then water, and so on), respectively. In one day, they are exhaled and inhaled 21,600 times, divided between the two nostrils, a time corresponding to eight periods or watches (thun).
The outward movement of these energy currents as the breath diminishes the strength of the wind associated with pristine awareness. Therefore, when outward movement increases, there occur signs of death. If the winds are held inside, pristine awareness wind is strengthened. Hence, many extraordinary powers such as longevity are gained through breath control techniques for "holding the winds" in the central channel.
-- from The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Six, Part Four: Systems of Buddhist Tantra, The Indestructible Way of Secret Mantra, by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye
- May 30
Spiritual Mentors
The Buddhist teachings differentiate between flash insights (nyam, nyams), and stable realizations (togpa, rtogs-pa). A flash insight does not make a significant change in one's life, but may lead in that direction. A stable realization, on the other hand, whether it be partial or complete, actually produces a noticeable improvement that lasts. The distinction we are drawing here between Dharma instructors and spiritual mentors derives from this difference. Dharma instructors may have either insight or realization, whereas spiritual mentors need to have some level of stable realization.
-- from Relating to a Spiritual Teacher: Building a Healthy Relationship by Alexander Berzin
- May 23
Relaxation involves a kind of awareness which reverses the normal tendency that we have. Because, as we have seen, this ordinary sense of self that we have lacks inherent self existence, it has to keep constructing itself and that requires a particular kind of effort. The ego's root feeling is that if I do not hold myself together there will be a falling apart into something chaotic and difficult. So there is anxiety, an energetic anxiety which is located in the body, in the whole energetic system of the body and interpersonal turbulence reminds us again and again "If I don't keep it together, I will get in trouble." The belief in reincarnation indicates that for many lifetimes we have been caught up in this anxiety, this nervous contraction which is holding our ordinary grasping sense of self in place.
-- from Being Right Here: A Dzogchen Treasure Text of Nuden Dorje entitled 'The Mirror of Clear Meaning' with commentary by James Low
- May 16
Our exaggerated sense of self and our compulsion to find happiness for this larger-than-life self we have fabricated cause us to ignore, neglect and harm others. Of course, it is our right to love and take care of ourselves, but not at the expense of others. While "As long as I'm alright" is our motto, we have no hesitation in acting with total disregard for others.
We may find this description of self-concern altogether too crass to apply to us. "I'm not like that," we object, but though we may not consciously think in this way, when self-concern is operating, our behavior shows a cold indifference to others. Conflicts between partners, parents and children and with other family members, conflicts between students and teachers and on a larger scale within and between countries have their source in personal and collective self-concern.
...Buddhas and Bodhisattvas see clearly that our neglect of others, our self-preoccupation and our disregard for the connection between actions and their effects are responsible for all our miseries.
-- from The Three Principal Aspects of the Path: An Oral Teaching by Geshe Sonam Rinchen translated and edited by Ruth Sonam
- May 9
Guardians of the teachings
There are eight principal classes of Guardians each with many subdivisions. Some are highly realized beings, others not realized at all. Every place - every continent, country, city, mountain, river, lake or forest - has its particular dominant energy, or Guardian, as have every year, hour and even minute: these are not highly evolved energies.
The various teachings all have energies which have special relationships with them: these are more realized Guardians. These energies are iconographically portrayed as they were perceived when they manifested to masters who had contact with them, and their awesome power is represented by their terrifyingly ferocious forms, their many arms and heads, and their ornaments of the charnel ground. As with all the figures in tantric iconography, it is not correct to interpret the figures of the guardians as merely symbolic, as some Western writers have been tempted to do. Though the iconographic forms have been shaped by the perceptions and culture of those who saw the original manifestation and by the development of tradition, actual beings are represented.
-- from The Crystal and the Way of Light: Sutra, Tantra and Dzogchen, Teachings of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu compiled and edited by John Shane
- May 2
Nothing is easier than to bring others down to our level, particularly in cultures where it is taken as a sign of keen intelligence to view every person and situation as a challenge to "name the ten things wrong with this picture." The presence of Guru Rinpoche in so many forms in our world makes us question life in a way pre-1959 persons rarely had to. Life isn't the same after meeting the Dalai Lama or Kyentse Rinpoche and others. We can't erase them from our minds, as inconvenient as these open doors to enlightenment might be. We had other plans; we didn't ask to see so vividly another totally different horizon.
The question, How can I integrate this into my daily life? doesn't plumb the depth of the inquiry. I have translated for lamas in North America, Europe, and Asia, and have found this to be the typical North American question. I think the best answer is, You can't; don't even try. But I have to wonder about the question itself. What do you do when an event or an encounter changes your life? If you won a 10,000,000 dollar jackpot, if a dear friend dies, or if you fall deeply in love, do you ask, How can I integrate this into my daily life? Some events change us, are earth-shattering, and are not meant to be integrated into what can sometimes feel like a rat race existence. Meeting Guru Rinpoche is one such event.
-- from Guru Rinpoche: His Life and Times by Ngawang Zangpo
- April 25
In discursive meditations it is imperative that one's growing disenchantment with mundane existence is complemented with growing confidence in the real possibility of true freedom and lasting joy that transcends the vicissitudes of conditioned existence. Without this faith and the yearning for such liberation, the meditations may easily result in profound depression, in which everything seems hollow, unreal, and futile. Thus instead of polarizing one's desires towards the single-pointed pursuit of nirvana, one is reduced to a debilitating kind of spiritual sloth.
-- from Balancing the Mind: A Tibetan Buddhist Approach to Refining Attention by B. Alan Wallace
- April 18
The mind is beyond expression, thought and conceptualization, because it is empty. Yet, there is phenomena and appearance. The objects that you cling to in this waking reality are dreamlike, but if you do not inquire into the nature of this dream, you remain attracted as though there were really something here. Upon examination, you find that these objects have no true existence at all and are just like space. A practitioner who understands that phenomena lack inherent existence and resemble space should then examine himself or herself to discover whether he or she possesses an individual self. Then it will be discovered that there is no truly existing examiner either.
-- from The Generation Stage in Buddhist Tantra by Gyatrul Rinpoche
- April 11
Why are there fierce protectors?
Peaceful deities such as Tara have a certain energy that calms and gladdens our mind. But
sometimes our mind is so belligerent and stuck that we need the kind of energy that goes "Pow!"
to wake us up or to pull us out of unproductive behavior. For this reason, the Buddhas' wisdom
and compassion appear in the form of these wrathful deities to demonstrate clean-clear wisdom
and compassion that act directly. This active wisdom doesn't vacillate and pamper us. This
wisdom doesn't say, "Well, maybe," or, "Poor you. You deserve to be treated well, not like that
horrible person treated you." Instead, it's forceful: "Cut it out! Stop those false expectations
and preconceptions right now!" Sometimes we need that strong, wise energy to be in our face to
wake us up to the fact that our afflictions and old patterns of thought and behavior are making
us miserable.
-- from How to Free Your Mind: Tara the Liberator by Thubten Chodron
- April 4
Bodhisattvas are motivated by universal
compassion, and they seek the ultimate goal of buddhahood in order to be of service to others.
They embark on this path with the generation of the mind of enlightenment, which Geshe Rabten
states is "the wish for Supreme Enlightenment for the sake of others. The sign of the true
Bodhicitta is the constant readiness to undergo any sacrifice for the happines of all beings."
Unlike ordinary beings, who think of their own advantage, bodhisattvas consider how best to
benefit others.
-- from Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism by John Powers
- March 28
Through the skillful methods of
tantra, meditators are able to cultivate pleasure in a way that actually aids in spiritual
progress. Afflicted grasping and desires based on mistaken ideas are the problem, not happiness
and pleasure. If the pursuit of happiness and pleasure can be separated from afflictive
emotions, then it can be incorporated into the path and will even become a powerful aid to the
attainment of enlightenment.
-- from Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism by John
Powers
- March 21
Despite the Buddha's advocacy of
selflessness, however, some passages in the sutras seemed to contradict this. The clearest
example was the statement in the 'Anguttara-nikaya' in which the Buddha said there was
"one person... who was born out of compassion for the world, for the profit, welfare and
happiness of gods and humans," and that this "one person was a Tathagata, a "fully enlightened
one," that is to say, the Buddha himself.
How can one reconcile this with the doctrine of
selflessness? The Theravadin Buddhaghosa's commentary on this sutra says that the expression
"one person" is "conventional speech" ('sammuti-katha', not "ultimate speech
('paramattha-katha'). Here, the Buddha was speaking figuratively when he referred to "one
person." Buddhaghosa says that the Buddha had two teachings-"conventional teachings"
('sammati-desana') and "ultimate teachings" ('paramattha-desana'):
- Thus, the Blessed One gives the conventional teachings to those who, having heard the
teaching in terms of the conventional, are able to understand these distinctions, having
penetrated the meaning, having got rid of obscurity, and he gives the ultimate teachings to
those who, having heard the teaching in terms of the ultimate, are able to understand the
distinctions, having penetrated the meaning, having got rid of obscurity.
--
from Echoes from an Empty Sky: The Origins of the Buddhist Doctrine of the Two Truths
by John B. Buescher
- March 14
The Tibetan word that is usually
translated as "blessing" or "inspiration" can more literally be translated as "to transform into
magnificence." We are asking the Buddhas to transform our minds into magnificence. How that
happens isn't by the Buddha going in and pulling some switches inside our mind. Because our
mind is conditioned and changing, the mental energy of the Buddha's realizations can affect our
energy, so to speak. Conditioned phenomena affect each other, so the force of Tara's
realizations can positively affect our mind.
-- from How to Free Your Mind by Thubten
Chodron
- March 7
The value of transmission is not only
that of introducing the state of knowledge, but lies also in its function of bringing about
the maturing of the transmission, right up until one reaches realization. For this reason the
relationship that links master and disciple is a very close one. The master, in Dzogchen, is
not just like a friend who helps and collaborates with the disciple; rather the master is
himself or herself the path. This is because the practice of contemplation develops through the
unification of the state of the disciple with that of the master. The master is extremely
important, too, at the Sutra and the Tantra levels of teaching, in the former because he or she
is the holder of Buddha's teachings, and in the latter because he or she is the source of all
the manifestations of transformation.
-- from Dzogchen: The Self-perfected Stateby
Chogyal Namkhai Norbu
- February 28
The practice of pure perception is
effective when it is practiced a lot. In pure perception, look beyond the surface and imagine
that other people are none other than expressions of buddha-mind. We can choose to focus on
positive attributes. What we attend to becomes our reality and if we attend to the buddhas in
situations, in things, in other people it is the buddhas we engage with and the reality of the
buddhas that becomes our reality.
-- from Buddhism with an Attitude: Tibetan
Seven-Point Mind-Training by B. Alan Wallace
- February 21
As progress is made in dream
practice, dreams become clearer and more detailed, and a larger part of each dream is
remembered. This is a result of bringing greater awareness into the dream state. Beyond this
increased awareness in ordinary dreams is a second kind of dream called the dream of clarity,
which arises when the mind and the prana are balanced and the dreamer has developed the capacity
to remain in non-personal presence. Unlike the samsaric dream, in which the mind is swept here
and there by karmic prana, in the dream of clarity the dreamer is stable. Though images and
information arise, they are based less on personal karmic traces and instead present knowledge
available directly from consciousness below the level of the conventional self.
-- from
The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
- February 14
We often get angry when something
we consider undesirable happens. But what use is this anger? If we can change the situation,
then let's go ahead and do it. There's no need to be angry. It's very useful to think like this
when confronted with social problems and injustice. They can be changed, so rather than be
angry, it's wiser to work calmly to improve the society.
On the
other hand, if the situation can't be changed, anger is equally useless. Once our leg is
broken, we can't unbreak it. All of the corruption in the world can't be solved in a year.
Getting angry at something we can't alter makes us miserable. Worrying about or fearing
something that hasn't h | | |
