We need to deal with difficult situations, with both wisdom as well as compassion, which is definitely a challenge. We need insight into just how to deal with someone's negative emotions, especially anger, without creating more aggression and harm.Of course, compassion itself can be very strong and fearless, but it needs a clarity to understand... Continue Reading →
At the very heart of that bodhicitta is the understanding of universal sameness: just as you wish to be happy, others wish to be happy; just as you wish not to suffer, others wish not to suffer. Outside of superficial differences, all sentient beings, from the smallest insect to human beings, are completely identical in... Continue Reading →
#Boddhisatva Warrior #Courage
Perhaps while we are sitting in the plane or on the train, taking a stroll or driving in the car, we could practice loving kindness meditation or tonglen. We don't have to change our posture, just send out thoughts of loving-kindness. Imagine beautiful light radiating to fill the bodies of those around us and being... Continue Reading →
Everybody, every minute, is tortured, suffering a lot. We shouldn't just ignore them and save ourselves alone. That would be a tremendous crime. In fact we CAN'T just save ourselves, because our neighbors are moaning and groaning all over the place. So, even if we could just save ourselves, we wouldn't have a peaceful sleep.... Continue Reading →
Being a bodhisattva warrior means being fearless and willing to tread the Buddhist path. It’s different from saying, “I’m not afraid of rattlesnakes” or “I’m not afraid of dogs.” When we talk about basic warriorship on the Buddhist path, we are talking about being willing to include everything, and willing to work with everything without... Continue Reading →
As we tame the wildness of our minds with the appropriate discipline, all our defects will gradually disappear and all the qualities of a Bodhisattva will bloom. As Nāgārjuna said:Someone who has acted carelessly,But later becomes careful and attentiveIs as beautiful as the bright moonemerging from the clouds.However intractable our ego-clinging might seem, it is... Continue Reading →
In inviting sentient beings as guests, the Bodhisattva, the practitioner in the mahayana, has a constant sense of the impermanence of the relationship — the guest is going to leave. So we view this as an opportune time, and there is constant appreciation. Our guests come. We entertain them and relate with them. Afterward, the... Continue Reading →
"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" —The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
One of my fav quotes The word "Empty" in Buddhism does not mean 'empty' 'nothing' or 'void' it rather refers to the nature of how every thing is interdependant and has no independent origin. Read more about it here
The true bodhisattva spirit grows out of this personal sense of freedom. You discover that you don’t feel so needy anymore. You don’t crave another refueling - with shamatha or with other people’s love and attention - because you know within yourself how to be free, how to be confident. With this sense of security... Continue Reading →
As a Buddhist, you have been taught that aggression is generally considered to be a negative emotion. Therefore your immediate reaction to any aggressive tendency or thought that arises in your mind will be to reject it. And you reject it because you are in love with your “self,” which makes you an egoist. As... Continue Reading →
So one evening I went to the area of Bodhgaya where there’s a tree grown from a cutting of the original tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment. I didn’t tell anyone where I was going. I just went by myself, with the determination to take a vow of a bodhisattva — one who works... Continue Reading →
"This warmth of the heart we are awakening is not just for people close to us, but it is for everyone. The aspiration of bodhicitta is so very vast it is said to be inconceivable. Some people define its vastness as “mission impossible.” Bodhisattvas are people who are committed to this mission of awakening the... Continue Reading →
The worldly mind thinks that being used by others is bad, it is the worst thing, but bodhisattvas are most happy to accept this." ~ Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Buddhahood comes from bodhisattvas because a Buddha has to become a bodhisattva first. Where does the bodhisattva come from? The bodhisattva comes from bodhicitta. And where does bodhicitta come from? Bodhicitta comes from compassion. So, the root of all of this, when you trace it, is compassion...and compassion comes from nurturing our warm and tender... Continue Reading →
Come back to square one, just the minimum bare bones. Relaxing with the present moment, relaxing with hopelessness, relaxing with death, not resisting the fact that things end, that things pass, that things have no lasting substance, that everything is changing all the time—that is the basic message...Every day of your life, every morning of... Continue Reading →
When you are trying to help someone, you have to have humor, self-existing humor, and you have to hold the moth in your hand, but not let it go into the flame. That’s what helping others means. Ladies and gentlemen, we have so much responsibility. A long time ago, people helped one another in this... Continue Reading →
The sutras ask, where do the Buddhas come from? And the answer in the sutras is, they come from ego. What does this mean? This means that realization comes from our ability to expand our sense of self-care and longing for happiness to include others. This is the business of a bodhisattva- Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche
