No lotus without mud
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The signs of progress
What are the signs of progress in our practice? What can we expect? Should we wait for a signal from the guru — or an award? According to Karma Chagme Rinpoche, we will have no experiences, no special dreams, no pure visions. The “king of all signs,” also known as the “sign of no-sign,” which was highly prized by the Kagyupa masters of the past, is when renunciation mind, sadness and devotion blaze in your mind. The signs to be cherished most include an escalating appetite for dharma practice; noticing the futility of everything you do; ever-increasing conflicts as a result of old habits; and while you may still have the urge to party with your friends, to be plagued by the unwelcome sense that the whole thing is a useless waste of time. Therefore do not constantly aim to finish the practice. Instead, try to accept that your spiritual journey will never end. Your journey began with the wish that you, personally, bring all sentient beings to enlightenment, so until that wish is fulfilled, your activities as a bodhisattva will never cease.
– Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
It is not you
The nature of mind has to be recognized by the nature of mind. It is not ‘you’ recognizing your nature of mind; it is your nature of mind recognizes your nature of mind. It is so easy therefore it is so difficult. It is there all the time. Our mind recognizes our nature of mind all the time. We are never separate. But somehow, as it is said in the mahamudra prayer, “self awareness, under the power of ignorance, is confused into a ‘self'”. So because of ignorance, the nature of mind that we recognize every moment, every moment we mistake it as ‘I’.
– Tai Situ Rinpoche
from the book “Shangpa Kagyu Teaching
The purpose of having a long life is not just for our own happiness
“The purpose of having a long life is not just for our own happiness. The purpose of life, every day, every hour, every minute, every second, is to be useful for others, to be beneficial for others, to cause happiness for numberless other sentient beings. Those who are suffering, who need your help and support, who need your compassion, who need your loving kindness, are numberless. Whether it is one sentient being or many, the meaning of life every day is to make our lives beneficial for them. That is the purpose of living.”
Clearly seeing what is truth and what is illusion
The point of training in higher knowledge is not to become a container of facts or a believer in any particular philosophical system. The whole point is to clearly see what is truth and what is illusion in how we live. It means we understand the relationship of cause and effect, and we see how it functions in our life. We see that suffering is the natural result of a certain cause and that ultimately that cause is our self-clinging. We see that happiness is the result of a certain cause and that ultimately that cause is transcending our self-clinging.
– Ponlop Rinpoche
When you reach the threshold of death
When you reach the threshold of death, the friends and relatives around you have no way of accompanying you any further. There is very little they can do to help you at all. Not even the richest magnate can take a penny of his wealth with him, and it would be in vain that even the most powerful of generals ordered his troops to keep death at bay — like everyone else, he will just have to surrender.
Your consciousness will leave your body and wander in the bardo. There, with an illusory mental body, you will find yourself alone in the shadows, lost and desperate, not knowing what to do, not knowing where to go. The hallucinations that torment most beings at that time are terrifying beyond description. Although they are no more than projections of the mind, they nevertheless have a powerful reality at the time.
The only possible source of comfort will be the experience you may have acquired through practicing the Dharma. That is why it is so important to make the effort to practice now. Even in times of peace, a nation foresees the eventuality of war and remains ready to respond. In the same way, stay on the alert, and prepare yourself for death by practicing the Dharma. Like an eternal harvest, it will keep you supplied with provisions for the life to come and will be the very basis of your future happiness.
– Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
With thanks to Just Dharma Quotes
How much “ego” do you need?
Q: How much “ego” do you need?
A: Just enough so that you don’t step in front of a bus.”
~ Shunryu Suzuki
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