Patrul Rinpoche Quotes

In meditation which is a continuous flow of staying in the state at all times and in every circumstance there is neither suppression nor production of dwelling and proliferation; if there is dwelling, that is the dharmakaya's own face and if there is proliferation, that is preserved as the self-liveliness of wisdom, so,

"Then, whether there is proliferation or dwelling,"

Whatever comes from mind's liveliness as discursive thoughts, be it the truth of the source - afflictions of anger, attachment, and so on - or the truth of unsatisfactoriness - the flavours of experience which are the feelings of happiness, sadness, and so on - if the nature of the discursive thoughts is known as dharmata, they become the shifting events of the dharmakaya, so,

"Anger, attachment, happiness, or sadness,"

That does not finish it though; generally speaking if they are met with through the view but not finished with by bringing them to the state with meditation, they fall into ordinary wandering in confusion and if that happens, you are bound into cyclic existence by the discursive thoughts of your own mindstream and, dharma and your own mindstream having remained separate, you become an ordinary person who has nothing special about them. Not to be separated from a great non-meditated self-resting is what is needed . . .

Additionally, whatever discursive thought or affliction arises, it is not something apart from dharmakaya wisdom, rather, t ~ Patrul Rinpoche

Just calling one's practice "approach and accomplishment" and staying in retreat for years will produce nothing but hardship. Completing hundreds of millions of mantras will not even bring the warmth of the ordinary qualities that mark one's progress on the path! In other words, if the essential points of the path are not taken into account, perseverance will amount to nothing more than chasing a mirage. ~ Patrul Rinpoche

For arousing compassion, the nineteenth-century yogi Patrul Rinpoche suggested imagining beings in torment - an animal about to be slaughtered, a person awaiting execution. To make it more immediate, he recommended imagining ourselves in their place. Particularly painful is his image of a mother with no arms watching as a raging river sweeps her child away. To contact the suffering of another being fully and directly is as painful as being in the woman's shoes. ~ Pema Chodron

Perfectly stay in the natural flow,
There is no other concentration.
Perfectly realize the natural state,
There is no other wisdom. ~ Patrul Rinpoche

Maturity is about Challenging yourself and Improving!
And then taking that experience to help others ... ~ Tsem Tulku Rinpoche

Tomorrow or the next life - which comes first, we never know. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

The secret is not to "think" about thoughts, but to allow them to flow through the mind, while keeping your mind free of afterthoughts. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

Two aspects to the relative world: relaxation and time management. ~ Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

The nature of mind is just too close to be recognized. Just as we are unable to see our own face, mind finds it difficult to look into its own nature. 2. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

Let's try an experiment. Pick up a coin. Imagine that it represents
the object at which you are grasping. Hold it tightly
clutched in your fist and extend your arm, with the palm of
your hand facing the ground. Now if you let go or relax your
grip, you will lose what you are clinging onto. That's why
you hold on.
But there's another possibility: You can let go and yet keep
REFLECTION AND CHANGE 35
hold of it. With your arm still outstretched, turn your hand
over so that it faces the sky. Release your hand and the coin
still rests on your open palm. You let go. And the coin is still
yours, even with all this space around it.
So there is a way in which we can accept impermanence
and still relish life, at one and the same time, without grasping.
Let us now think of what frequently happens in relationships.
So often it is only when people suddenly feel they are
losing their partner that they realize that they love them. Then
they cling on even tighter. But the more they grasp, the more
the other person escapes them, and the more fragile their relationship
becomes.
So often we want happiness, but the very way we pursue
it is so clumsy and unskillful that it brings only more sorrow.
Usually we assume we must grasp in order to have that something
that will ensure our happiness. We ask ourselves: How
can we possibly enjoy anything if we cannot own it? How
ofte ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

Anyen Rinpoche is a compassionate embodiment of wisdom. The skillful teachings in The Tibetan Yoga of Breath will be a source of peace and happiness for many in these troubled times, for which I am very grateful. ~ Garchen Rinpoche

Meditation could be said to be the Art of Simplicity: simply sitting, simply breathing and simply being. ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Live with compassion. Work with compassion. Die with compassion. Meditate with compassion. Enjoy with compassion. When problems come, experience them with compassion. ~ Thubten Zopa Rinpoche

Sometimes we are too polite with our suffering and allow it to dominate our life. ~ Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

There would be no chance to get to know death at all ... if it happened only once. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

How many of us are swept away by what I have come to call an 'active laziness'?
It consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity, so that there is no time at all to confront the real issues. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

The point is to be free, not to be crazy. ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche

Ask yourself these two questions: Do I remember at every moment that I am dying, and that everyone and everything else is, and so treat all beings at all times with compassion? Has my understanding of death and impermanence become so keen and so urgent that I am devoting every second to the pursuit of enlightenment? If you can answer "yes" to both of these, then you really understand impermanence. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

If you vanquish ego-clinging today, tonight you will be enlightened. ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

When the nature of mind is introduced by a master, it is just too simple for us to believe. Our ordinary mind tells us this cannot be, there must be something more to it than this. It must surely be more "glorious", with light blazing in space around us, angels with flowing golden hair swooping down to meet us, and a deep Wizard of Oz voice announcing, "Now you have been introduced to the nature of your mind." There is no such drama. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

People will die as they have lived, as themselves. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

The longing for happiness and freedom from suffering
expresses the great natural potential of mind. ~ Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Seeing that nothing is solid or permanent you begin to make yourself at home in the unknown. ~ Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

It is compassion, then, that is the best protection; it is also, as the great masters of the past have always known, the source of all healing. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

There's no difference between what is seen and the mind that sees it. ~ Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Happiness and unhappiness are not primarily created by the material world or the physical body. First and foremost, they are decisions of the mind. ~ Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

There was a small glass vase between us, three gladioli in a few ounces of water. One of the gladioli had dropped a petal- brushstroke of purple on fine white cloth. Rinpoche drank the last sip of his tea, then set the cup aside, took the petal with his thumb and second finger, placed it on the middle of the saucer in front of him, and turned the cup upside down to cover it.
"I feel a lesson coming on," I said ...
"The flower is the good inside every person," he said. "The cup is like a wall, to protect. Many people have that wall."
"Armor" I said. He nodded.
"Why?"
"Because to live without the cup means you must feel the world as the world really is. ~ Roland Merullo

Let yourself become that space that welcomes any experience without judgement. ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche

Don't let us take doubts with exaggerated seriousness nor let them grow out of proportion, or become black-and-white or fanatical about them. What we need to learn is how slowly to change our culturally conditioned and passionate involvement with doubt into a free, humorous, and compassionate one. This means giving doubts time, and giving ourselves time to find answers to our questions that are not merely intellectual or "philosophical," but living and real and genuine and workable. Doubts cannot resolve themselves immediately; but if we are patient a space can be created within us, in which doubts can be carefully and objectively examined, unraveled, dissolved, and healed. What we lack, especially in this culture, is the right undistracted and richly spacious environment of the mind, which can only be created through sustained meditation practice, and in which insights can be given the change slowly to mature and ripen. 129-130 ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

What's recommended is that if you have a good experience, don't get too excited. And if you have a bad experience, don't mistake it for a serious deviation or a sidetrack that you have to find your way back from. If you have a bad experience, just continue practicing as you were. In other words, whatever happens, just keep looking at your mind. ~ Thrangu Rinpoche

So often we want happiness, but the very way we pursue it is so clumsy and unskillful that it brings only more sorrow. Usually we assume we must grasp in order to have that something that will ensure our happiness. [ ... ] Learning to live is learning to let go. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

The basic nature of all conscious beings is 'self-existing wakefulness'.
Self-existing meaning spontaneous or without effort and wakefulness meaning natural awareness.
To ignore our basic nature, is to wander in fear and confusion,
to directly realise our essential nature is to be Enlightened. ~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Like this cup, you are full of opinions and speculations. To see the light of wisdom... you first must empty your cup. ~ Lama Rinpoche

Let your heart go out in spontaneous and immeasurable compassion. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

As Trungpa Rinpoche put it, "Everybody loves something, even if it's only tortillas." Bodhichitta ~ Pema Chodron

What most of us need, almost more than anything, is the courage and humility really to ask for help, from the depths of our hearts: to ask for the compassion of the enlightened beings, to ask for purification and healing, to ask for the power to understand the meaning of our suffering and transform it; at a relative level to ask for the growth in our lives of clarity, peace, and discernment, and to ask for the realization of the absolute nature of mind that comes from merging with the deathless wisdom mind of the master. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche