To develop genuine devotion, you must know the meaning of teachings. The main emphasis in Buddhism is to transform the mind, and this transformation depends upon meditation. In order to meditate correctly, you must have knowledge.
Three qualities enable people to understand the teachings: objectivity, which means an open mind; intelligence, which is the critical faculty to discern the real meaning by checking the teachings of Buddha; and interest and commitment, which means enthusiasm.
Anything that contradicts experience and logic should be abandoned.
It is through listening that your mind will turn with faith and devotion, and you will be able to cultivate joy within your mind and make your mind stable.
Mahayana has four reliances. First: reliance on the teaching, not on the teacher. Second: reliance on the meaning, not on the words that express it. Third: reliance on the definitive meaning, not on the provisional meaning. Fourth: reliance on the transcendent wisdom of deep experience, not on mere knowledge.
If we see pride among people who have no idea about Dharma, it is understandable. However, if afflictive emotions and haughtiness are present among Dharma practitioners, it is a great disgrace to the practice.
Individuals who are best suited for practice of Dharma are those who are not only intellectually gifted, but also have single-minded faith and dedication and are wise.
Although individuals may be highly intelligent, they are sometimes dogged by skepticism and doubts. They are clever, but they tend to be hesitant and skeptical and are never really able to settle down. These people are the least receptive.
As a spiritual trainee, you must be prepared to endure the hardships involved in a genuine spiritual pursuit and be determined to sustain your effort and will. You must anticipate the multiple obstacles that you are bound to encounter along the path and understand the key to successful practice is never to lose your determination.
The story of the Buddha's personal life is the story of someone who attained full enlightenment through hard work and unwavering dedication.
Laziness will stop your progress in your spiritual practice.
When a day seems to be long, idle gossip makes our day seem shorter. But it is one of the worst ways in which we waste our time. If a tailor just holds the needle in his hand and goes on talking to a customer, the tailoring does not get finished. Besides, the needle might prick his finger. In short, meaningless gossip prevents us from doing any kind of work.
If you rely on someone who has lower qualities than yourself, that will lead to your degeneration. If you rely on someone who has qualities similar to yourself, you will stay where you are. It is only if you rely on someone who has better qualities than yourself, that you will achieve sublime status.
The advantage of relying on a spiritual teacher is that if you have accumulated an action that would project you into a negative state of existence, the result of that could be experienced just in this life in the form of minor sufferings or minor problems, or even experiencing the result in a dream and through that way one could destroy the destructive results of negative actions.
If you go more deeply into your own spiritual practice, emphasizing 'wisdom and compassion, you will encounter the suffering of other sentient beings again and again, and you will have the capacity to acknowledge it, respond to it and feel deep compassion rather than apathy or impotence.
When contemplating suffering, do not fall into the feeling of self-importance or conceit. Cultivating wisdom helps us to avoid these pitfalls. But it is hard to generalize because each person's courage and forbearance are unique.
The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being.
A single word or expression in tantra can have four different meanings corresponding to the four levels of interpretation. These levels are known as the four modes of understanding. They are: (i) the literal meaning; (ii) the general meaning; (iii) the hidden meaning; and (iv) the ultimate meaning. 55
Calm abiding is a heightened state of awareness when your body and mind become especially flexible, receptive and serviceable. Special insight is also a heightened state of awareness, in which your faculty of analysis is immensely advanced. Thus calm abiding is absorptive in nature, whereas special insight is analytic in nature.
There is a true feminist movement in Buddhism. Following her attainment of bodhicitta, the goddess Tara looked upon those striving towards full awakening and she felt that there were too few women who attained Buddhahood. So she vowed, 'I have developed bodhicitta as a woman. For all of my lifetimes along the path I vow to be born as a woman, and in my final lifetime when I attain Buddhahood, then too I will be a woman.'
The problems we encounter are never the result of starting a project or work on an inappropriate day or time. Buddha always talked about negative experiences as the result of having performed negative actions. So, for a good practitioner there is no good day or bad day.
There is no way to escape death, it is just like trying to escape when you are surrounded by four great mountains touching the sky. There is no escape from these four mountains of birth, old age, sickness and death.
Ageing destroys youth, sickness destroys health, degeneration of life destroys all excellent qualities and death destroys life. Even if you are a great runner, you cannot run away from death. You cannot stop death with your wealth, through your magic performances or recitation of mantras or even medicines. Therefore, it is wise to prepare for your death.
Discipline is a supreme ornament and, whether worn by old, young or middle-aged, it gives birth only to happiness. It is perfume
Due to karmic influences, the •world appears in different ways to different people. When a human being, a god and a preta – three sentient beings – look at one bowl of water, the karmic factors make the human being see it as water, while the god sees nectar and the preta sees blood.
A blossoming tree becomes bare
Some people who are sweet and attractive, strong and healthy, happen to die young. They are masters in disguise teaching us about impermanence.
Natural environment sustains the life of all beings universally. Trees are referred to in accounts of the principal events of Buddha's life. His mother leaned against a tree for support as she gave birth to him. He attained enlightenment seated beneath a tree, and finally passed away as trees stood witness overhead.
The Bible says that swords can be turned into ploughshares. It is a beautiful image, a weapon transformed into a tool to serve basic human needs, representing an attitude of inner and outer disarmament.
The true sufferings and true causes of sufferings are the effect and cause on the side of things that we do not want; the true cessation and the true paths are the effect and cause on the side of things that we desire.
The truth of suffering is that we experience many different types of suffering: suffering of suffering – things such as headaches; suffering of changes – feeling of restlessness after being comfortable; and all-pervasive suffering that acts as the basis of the first two categories and is under the control of karma and the disturbing mind.
From one point of view we can say that we have human bodies and are practicing the Buddha's teachings and are thus much better than insects. But we can also say that insects are innocent and free from guile, whereas we often lie and misrepresent ourselves in devious ways in order to achieve our ends or better ourselves. From this perspective, we are much worse than insects.
No matter who we are with, we often think things like, 'I am stronger than him', 'I am more beautiful than her', 'I am more intelligent', and so forth – we generate much pride. This is not good. Instead, we should always remain humble.
To develop patience, you need someone who wilfully hurts you. Such people give us the real opportunity to practise tolerance. They test our inner strength in a way that even our guru cannot. Basically, patience protects us from being discouraged.
It is better not to avoid events or persons who annoy you and give rise to anger, if your anger is not too strong. But if the encounter is not possible, work on your anger and develop compassion by
