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
Those who cling to perceptions and views wander the world offending people
Those who cling to perceptions and views wander the world offending people.
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
There is continuity
After death, our mind doesn’t come to a complete stop – like water drying up or a flame going out. There is continuity. Just as wherever the body goes, the shadow comes along with it – similarly, wherever our mind goes, our karma comes along too. You must have an unshakably firm belief in this.
– Khunu Rinpoche
We have incredible freedom to develop our minds in any way we desire
Since healing comes essentially from our mind, not from our body, it’s important to understand the nature of the mind. The intrinsic nature of the mind is pure, in the sense that it is not one with the defects of the mind, with disturbing thoughts and obscures. All the defects of our mind — selfishness, ignorance, anger, attachment, guilt, and other disturbing thoughts — are temporary, not permanent and eternal. And since the cause of our suffering, disturbing thoughts and obscures, is temporary, so is our suffering.
The mind is also empty of real existence, of existence on its own side. This quality of the mind, known as the Nature of the Buddha, gives us the potential to completely free ourselves from all suffering, including disease, and from the causes of suffering and to achieve whatever happiness we desire, including that of enlightenment. Because the mind has so much potential, we don’t have to be depressed or hopeless. It’s not like we have to experience problems forever. We have incredible freedom to develop our minds in any way we desire. It’s just a matter of finding the right way to harness the potential of our minds.”
Lama Zopa RinpocheGreat news
Don’t conclude that your mind is significantly different from anyone else’s. We all have this monkey mind. Once we put the monkey under the magnifying glass, the mind commonly appears crazier than ever. It’s not. You are just allowing yourself to become acquainted with how crazy it has always been. This is great news.
– Mingyur Rinpoche
The practice of karma
Karma is not something complicated or philosophical. Karma means watching your body, watching your mouth, and watching your mind. Trying to keep these three doors as pure as possible is the practice of karma.
– Lama Yeshe
With thanks to Just Dharma Quotes
Signs of Practice
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.
– Dudjom Rinpoche
Corrosion begins as soon as creation begins
Wishing for “happily ever after” is nothing more than a desire for permanence in disguise. Fabricating concepts such as “eternal love,” “everlasting happiness,” and “salvation” generates more evidence of impermanence. Our intention and the result are at odds. We intend to establish ourselves and our world, but we forget that the corrosion begins as soon as creation begins. What we aim for is not decay, but what we do leads directly to decay.
– Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
With thanks to Just Dharma Quotes
‘Heart Sutra’ translation by Thich Nhat Hanh
Avalokiteshvara
while practicing deeply with
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore,
suddenly discovered that
all of the five Skandhas are equally empty,
and with this realization
he overcame all Ill-being.
“Listen Sariputra,
this Body itself is Emptiness
and Emptiness itself is this Body.
This Body is not other than Emptiness
and Emptiness is not other than this Body.
The same is true of Feelings,
Perceptions, Mental Formations,
and Consciousness.
“Listen Sariputra,
all phenomena bear the mark of Emptiness;
their true nature is the nature of
no Birth no Death,
no Being no Non-being,
no Defilement no Purity,
no Increasing no Decreasing.
“That is why in Emptiness,
Body, Feelings, Perceptions,
Mental Formations and Consciousness
are not separate self entities.
The Eighteen Realms of Phenomena
which are the six Sense Organs,
the six Sense Objects,
and the six Consciousnesses
are also not separate self entities.
The Twelve Links of Interdependent Arising
and their Extinction
are also not separate self entities.
Ill-being, the Causes of Ill-being,
the End of Ill-being, the Path,
insight and attainment,
are also not separate self entities.
Whoever can see this
no longer needs anything to attain.
Bodhisattvas who practice
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore
see no more obstacles in their mind,
and because there
are no more obstacles in their mind,
they can overcome all fear,
destroy all wrong perceptions
and realize Perfect Nirvana.
“All Buddhas in the past, present and future
by practicing
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore
are all capable of attaining
Authentic and Perfect Enlightenment.
“Therefore Sariputra,
it should be known that
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore
is a Great Mantra,
the most illuminating mantra,
the highest mantra,
a mantra beyond compare,
the True Wisdom that has the power
to put an end to all kinds of suffering.
Therefore let us proclaim
a mantra to praise
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore.
Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!
Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!
If you don’t remember death, you don’t remember Dharma
If you don’t remember death, you don’t remember Dharma, so why not take the opportunity to practice and enjoy life with Dharma? This is the safest life, now and in the future.
In the practice of meditation, opinions may provide a way to escape
In the practice of meditation, opinions may provide a way to escape; they create a kind of slothfulness and obscure one’s clarity of vision. The clarity of our consciousness is veiled by prefabricated concepts. Whatever we see we try to fit into some pigeonhole. So concepts and theories can become obstacles. In the practice of meditation, one tries to transcend concepts, and one tries to find out what is.
– Chögyam Trungpa
from the book “Meditation in Action”
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