Great Throughts Treasury

"The more and more you listen, the more and more you hear; the more and more you hear, the deeper and deeper your understanding becomes."

"It is crucial to understand and to gain the conviction that the laws of cause and effect govern the universe and all beings. … There are only two way to erase the trace left by a harmful act: either by going through the experience of suffering that is its natural consequence, or by purifying it with the appropriate antidotes before the appearance of its dire effects."

"The only position from which you can never fall is the awakened state."

"Compassion is the effortless radiance of emptiness, free of concepts and beyond description. That is how a buddha’s activity for beings can be limitless. If you understand this, you will know that even when a cool breeze blows upon a sick person burning with fever, that itself is the blessings and compassion of the buddhas."

"To go beyond samsara and nirvana, we will need the two wings of emptiness and compassion. From now on, let us use these two wings to fly fearlessly into the sky of the life to come"

"A good mind is like a rich ground of gleaming gold, lightening up the whole sky with its golden radiance. But if body speech and mind are not tamed, there is very little chance that you will achieve any realization whatsoever. Be aware of your thoughts, words and actions at all times. If they take the wrong direction, your study and practise of the Dharma will be of no use."

"A spiritual teacher and his teachings are as rare and precious as the blue lotus known as Udumvara, whose buds form when a Buddha appears in the world, opens when he attains enlightenment, and wither when he leaves his body."

"And those of you who are capable of renouncing a family lifestyle for the monastic life should pray that, once you attain enlightenment, your friends and those close to you will be the first disciples whom you lead on the road to liberation."

"Banishing all hope and all fear, rest in the diamond-like certainty that the primordial simplicity of awareness is itself Buddhahood. That is the way of perfect bliss, in which all the qualities of enlightenment will flourish without effort."

"As soon as you have met a spiritual teacher and have received the teacher’s instructions, you are ready to set out on the path of awakening."

"As long as you, like most people, fail to recognize the true value of human existence you will just fritter your life away in futile activity and distraction. When life comes all too soon to its inevitable end, you will not have achieved anything worthwhile at all. But once you really see the unique opportunity that human life can bring, you will definitely direct all your energy into reaping its true worth by putting the Dharma into practice"

"Brandish the sword of transcendent knowledge and annihilate the demon of attachment to I and to the reality of phenomena."

"Be the master of your destiny."

"Generosity should always be exercised impartially toward all – the poor, the sick, the aged, and the traveller from afar – without discrimination between friend and stranger …"

"From now on, let us use these two wings"

"If you master your mind, it will remain naturally concentrated, peaceful and aware. You will even be able to wander around in a crowd without being distracted and carried away by desire or aversion."

"If you recognize the emptiness of your thoughts instead of solidifying them, the arising and subsiding of each thought will clarify and strengthen your realization of emptiness."

"If you vanquish ego-clinging today, tonight you will be enlightened. If you vanquish it tomorrow, you will be enlightened tomorrow night. But if you never vanquish it, you will never be enlightened. Yet I is just a thought. Thoughts and feelings have no intrinsic solidity, form, shape, or color. When a thought of anger arises in the mind with such force that you feel aggressive and destructive, is anger brandishing a weapon? Is it at the head of an army? Can it burn things like fire, crush them like a rock, or carry them away like a violent river? No. Anger, like any other thought or feeling, has no true existence—- not even a definitive location in your body, speech, or mind. It is just like wind roaring in empty space."

"Money can be finished but enlightenment will never be finished."

"A dharma-practitioner should be able to cope with all possible circumstances, neither created by the good nor cast into despair by the bad. In either case, free from expectations and doubt, one should remember the guru. Happiness and sorrow, joy and suffering, though nothing in themselves, can become either a help or a hindrance on the path. What we ourselves make of these experinces is the test of the genuiness of our practise. This is the true essence of the guru yoga and is itself the main practise."

"It is… vital to distinguish what you should adopt from what you should reject, without any error or ambiguity."

"It is always beneficial to be near a spiritual teacher. These masters are like gardens or medicinal plants, sanctuaries of wisdom. In the presence of a realized master, you will rapidly attain enlightment. In the presence of an erudite scholar, you will aquire great knowledge. In the presence of a great meditator, spiritual experience will dawn in your mind. In the presence of a bodhisattva, your compassion will expand, just as an ordinary log placed next to a log of sandalwood becomes saturated, little by little, with its fragrance."

"It is not corrupted at the beginning of the practice; it is not improved at the end."

"It seems very important for all of us to seek ultimate peace and freedom. If we are constantly being disturbed and losing our inner peace and freedom, what kind of happiness do we have, after all?"

"If you have no mastery over your mind and are influenced and conditioned by habitual tendencies, even in the quiet of an insolated retreat your thoughts will follow one upon another like ripples on water. Memories of past events will well up vividly in your mind – as will plans, decisions, and speculation about your future. You will spend your whole time running after thoughts and concepts, a lot of mental activity with no benefit at all for your practice."

"In essence, the mind is insubstantial and omnipresent. … (It) is without beginning or end, in both space and time."

"In Tibet after 1959, under conditions of intense persecution, tens of thousands of people continued to practise the Dharma secretly, and they have emerged from their ordeal with even greater faith. But in your case nobody is forbidding you to pray or to practise. So recite the Mani Mantra, reflect on the teachings, and fuse them into your being by meditating on them every day, even if it is for no more than a few moments. The Dharma is something that you yourself have to practise, no one else can do it for you."

"In the midst of clouds of impermanence and illusion, dances the lightning of life. Can you say you won’t die tomorrow? Practice the Dharma."

"In truth, if you cannot tame your own mind, what else is there to tame? What is the use of doing many other practices? The aim of the whole Buddhist path, both Basic and the Great Vehicles, is to tame and understand your mind."

"Instead of allowing wild thoughts to enslave you, realize their essential emptiness. If you subdue the hatred within, you will discover that there is not a single enemy left outside. Otherwise, even if you could overpower everyone in the whole world, your hatred will only grow stronger. Indulging it will never make it subside. The only truly intolerable enemy is hatred itself. Examine the nature of hatred; you will find that it is no more than a thought."

"Just devote yourself to recognizing the empty nature of the mind."

"Just pruning a few branches (of a tree) is not enough. In the same way, unless you uproot the emotions, they will just grow again, more vigorous than ever."

"Keep in mind the many beings who are suffering in the same way as you are, and pray that your suffering may absorb theirs and that they may be liberated from all suffering. In this way, illness can teach us compassion."

"Like nomads moving camp every season, we change our native land with every rebirth."

"Long ago, in one of Lord Buddha’s precious lives, when he was a Bodhisattva in the form of a snake, some cruel children caught him to death. Had he been wanted, the Bodhisattva could have annihilated them with a single glance; but as his heart was free from the slightest thought of anger, that was not what he did. Instead, he prayed that through the connection they were making with him by killing him, they would in future become his disciples and be led by him to enlightment. This exemplary courage and patience was the result of his complete realization of voidness and compassion."

"Love and nonattachment are the basis of true generosity."

"Maintain that state of simplicity. If you encounter happiness, success, prosperity, or other favorable conditions, consider them as dreams or illusions, and do not get attached to any of them. If you are stricken by illness, calumny, deprivation, or other physical and mental trials, do not let yourself get discouraged, but rekindle your compassion and generate the wish that through your suffering all beings suffering may be exhausted. Whatever circumstances arise, do not plunge into either elation or misery, but stay free and comfortable, in unshaken serenity."

"Mastery of the mind is achieved through constant awareness of all your thoughts and actions. Check your mind over and over again, and as soon as negative thoughts arise, remedy them with the appropriate antidotes."

"May the auspiciosness of your joy and Dharma practice prevail."

"May the circumstances always be joyful and harmonious."

"May your life be long and firm like the earth."

"Mind is what creates both samsara and nirvana. Yet there is nothing much to it – it is just thoughts. Once we recognize that thoughts are empty, the mind will no longer have the power to deceive us. But as long as we take our deluded thoughts as real, they will continue to torment us mercilessly, as they have been doing throughout countless past lives. To gain control over the mind, we need to be aware of what to do and what to avoid, and we also need to be alert and vigilant, constantly examining all our thoughts, words and actions."

"Mind, like a crystal, is colored by its surroundings. You are bound to reflect the qualities and shortcomings of the good or bad friends whose company you keep. If you associate with the malevolent, the selfish, the rancorous, the intolerant, and the arrogant, their faults will affect you. You would do better to keep your distance."

"Never forget how swiftly this life will be over, like a flash of summer lightning or the wave of a hand. Now that you have the opportunity to practice dharma, do not waste a single moment on anything else."

"No student … can do without the guidance of an authentic spiritual master."

"Obstacles can arise from good as well as bad circumstances, but they should never deter or overpower you. Be like the earth, which supports all living creatures indiscriminately, without distinguishing good from bad. The earth is simply there. Your practice should be strengthened by the difficult situations you encounter, just as a bonfire in a strong wind is not blown out, but blazes even brighter."

"Once you have recognize the empty nature of mind, to allow love to rise for someone who is harming you becomes easy. But without that recognition, it is very hard to stop anger from arising instead, is it not? Look into it, and you will see that mind is what does positive actions, and mind is what make circumstances negative."

"Once you have the view, although the delusory perceptions of samsara may arise in your mind, you will be like the sky; when a rainbow appears in front of it, it’s not particularly flattered, and when the clouds appear, it’s not particularly disappointed either. There is a deep sense of contentment. You chuckle from inside as you see the facade of samsara and nirvana; the view will keep you constantly amused, with a little inner smile bubbling away all the time."

"One of the meaning of the word Dharma is that which holds. It holds and guides those who give themselves to it with confidence. A person being swept away by the swift current of a river can be gripped by a firm hand and handed on to the bank. In the same way, the teacher’s hook can pull us out of the round of the deaths and rebirths, as long, as we can hold out to him the ring of our faith."

"Once you overcome the hatred within your mind, you will discover that in the world outside, there is no longer any such thing as even a single enemy."