I have arrived. I am home.
In the here. In the now.
I am solid. I am free.
In the ultimate I dwell.

To take an in-breath, to smile, and to touch the conditions of happiness that are available,
is something that all of us can do.
Because of that we can stop and establish ourselves in the present moment.
That is the teaching of living happily in the present moment.

Please train yourself to make the present moment,
the here and the now, your true home.
That is the only home that we have.
That is the only place where we can touch life.

Dhyana Master Thich Nhat Hanh

Child of illusion

It is essential to realize now, in life, when we still have a body,
that its convincing appearance of solidity is a mere illusion.

The most powerful way to realize this is to learn how,
after meditation, to become a “child of illusion”:
to refrain from solidifying, as we are always tempted to do,
the perceptions of ourselves and our world;
and to go on, like the “child of illusion,” seeing directly, as we do in meditation,
that all phenomena are illusory and dreamlike.

This practice deepens our body’s illusory nature realization,
and is one of the most profound and inspiring insights to help us to let go.

Sogyal Rinpoche

True Nature

I explain to you matters pertaining to enlightenment,
But don't try to keep your mind on them.

Just turn to the ocean of your true nature
And develop practical accord with its essence.

Master Yangshan

Real happiness

The Buddha discovered that real happiness
includes not only being fed and clothed well,
but above all maintaining a peaceful mind.

The Buddha was able to realize transcendental wisdom because his mind,
free from disputes and material desires, was tranquil and serene.
The Buddha's teachings are derived from his personal experiences and realization.
He was able to realize the truth by mindful contemplation.

Dhyana Master Cheng-Yen

The Meditative Mind

The more we know of the Dhamma, the more we can watch whether we comply with its guidelines.
There is no blame attached to our inability to do so.
But the least we can do is to know the guidelines and know where we're making mistakes.

Then we practice to get nearer and nearer to absolute reality,
until one day we will actually ”be” the Dhamma.

Ayya Khema

Maintaining concentration

For adepts the principle of maintaining concentration and insight is not a matter of effort;
it is spontaneous and effortless, with no particular time frame.

When seeing and hearing, they are just so;
when dressing and eating, they are just so;
when conversing with people, they are just so.

Whatever they are doing,
walking, standing, sitting, reclining, speaking, silent, rejoicing,
at all times and in everything they are thus.

Master Chinul

Mind in meditation

What should we “do” with the mind in meditation?
Nothing at all. Just leave it, simply, as it is.

One master described meditation as
“Mind, suspended in space, nowhere.”

Sogyal Rinpoche

Remember the view

Wrong views and wrong convictions can be the most devastating of all our delusions.
On the other hand, the heart of Buddha’s teaching is to see
“the actual state of things, as they are,” and this is called the true View.

It is a view that is all-embracing, as the role of spiritual teachings
is precisely to give us a complete perspective on the nature of mind and reality.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Present moment

If students really have the intention to seek to be sages,
Then they must seek to focus their attention on this present moment.

This is the basis for becoming a sage.

Master Zou Shouyi

In daily life

In daily life, you have opportunities for continuous illumination.
When you cook an opportunity to reach enlightenment.
When you clean the floor you have a chance to reach enlightenment.

Whatever you do, have it, therefore, expect no help from anyone.
Do not waste our forces to seek a place of refuge.
Protect yourself and grow right up to heaven, is all.

Suzuki Roshi

Returning to silence

When you really want to know who you are or what the real significance of human life,
human suffering is, very naturally you come back to silence,
even though you don't want to, you return to an area of no-sound.

It cannot be explained, but in this silence you can realize, even if only dimly,
what the real point is that you want to know.
Whatever kind of question you ask or whatever you think,
finally you have to return to silence.

This silence is vast; you don't know what it is.

Suzuki Roshi

Put the Teaching into practice

Little though he recites the sacred texts,
but puts the Teaching into practice,
forsaking lust, hatred, and delusion.

With true wisdom and emancipated mind,
clinging to nothing of this or any other world
he indeed partakes of the blessings of a holy life.

Dhammapada 20

Loving-kindness for yourself

Don’t forget to have loving-kindness for yourself.

You are also a living being who deserves,
who needs love and compassion.
In fact, you can’t really love others
until you learn to love yourself.

That doesn’t mean being selfish and egotistical.
It means being a friend to yourself,
accepting yourself as you are with your faults and limitations,
knowing that you can change and grow.

Ven. Sangye Khadro

Persevering

Again and again we need to appreciate
the subtle workings of the teachings and the practice.

And even when there is no extraordinary, dramatic change,
to persevere with calm and patience.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Giving

When you are Empty
You are not fearful of giving
Because you are not giving
A part of yourself.

You have realized emptiness.

When you are preoccupied with yourself
And feel full of yourself
You will feel fear to give away
A part of yourself.

Des Boo-ngoh

Vagaries

The vagaries of life
though painful,
teach us not to cling
to this fleeting world.

Master Ikkyu

Pain and Practice

If you feel pain,
I need to practice
again and again.

Dharma Master

Bodhicitta

The compassionate wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all others,
is called Bodhicitta in Sanskrit.

We could translate it as “the heart of our enlightened mind.”
In our tradition we pray with such urgency:

“Those who haven’t yet given birth to precious Bodhicitta,
May they give birth soon,
Those who have given birth,
May their Bodhicitta not lessen
but increase further and further.”

Sogyal Rinpoche

To live by example

The best way to teach
is to live by example.

Buddha taught not so much by words,
but by the way He lived.

Des Boo-Ngoh

I will not run away from suffering

The times when you are suffering can be those when you are open,
and where you are extremely vulnerable can be where your greatest strength really lies.

Say to yourself:

“I am not going to run away from this suffering. I want to use it in the best and richest way I can,
so that I can become more compassionate and more helpful to others.”

Suffering, after all, can teach us about compassion.
If you suffer, you will know how it is when others suffer.
And if you are in a position to help others,
it is through your suffering that you will find the understanding and compassion to do so.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Wholesome transformations

In the Patthana Pali it is said,

"Akusalo dhamma kusalassa dhammassa upanissaya paccayena paccayo
unwholesome mental factors too, can however support the formation of wholesome mental factors."

So even small unwholesome mental attachments can lead to good states of mind.
In this view, teachers and preachers should teach the Dhamma
with sincerity and goodwill to promote such developments.

And disciples and devotees, on their part, should properly practise what is taught,
so as to get beneficial results.

Ashin Janakabhivamsa
Selangor Buddhist Vipassana Society

Compassion and pity

Compassion is a far greater and nobler thing than pity.

Pity has its roots in fear and carries a sense of arrogance and condescension,
sometimes even a smug feeling of “I’m glad it’s not me.”

As Stephen Levine says:

“When your fear touches someone’s pain it becomes pity;
when your love touches someone’s pain, it becomes compassion.”

To train in compassion is to know that all beings are the same and suffer in similar ways,
to honour all those who suffer, and to know that you are neither separate from nor superior to anyone.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Twenty minutes

Often people ask me:

“How long should I meditate? And when?
Should I practice twenty minutes in the morning and in the evening,
or is it better to do several short practices during the day?”

Yes, it is good to meditate for twenty minutes,
though that is not to say that twenty minutes is the limit.
I have not found in the scriptures any reference to twenty minutes;
I think it is a notion that has been contrived in the West,
and I call it Meditation Western Standard Time.

The point is not how long you meditate;
the point is whether the practice actually brings you to a certain state of mindfulness and presence,
where you are a little open and able to connect with your heart essence.

And five minutes of wakeful sitting practice
is of far greater value than twenty minutes of dozing!

Sogyal Rinpoche

Refuges along the Path

Usually we think of Going for Refuge as the first step of Buddhist practice,
a formula that one recites at the beginning of one's life as a Buddhist,
but which afterwards drops away into the background.

However, the act of Going for Refuge can be used as a vehicle of practice,
a method of self-cultivation, because when one Goes for Refuge
what one is actually doing is giving a particular direction to the mind.

If it is done mindfully, slowly, and deliberately,
the Going for Refuge activates certain factors of the mind.
We will consider one way this happens in terms of five spiritual faculties (indriya).

The five faculties are faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom.
By Going for Refuge consciously, one is actually arousing, strengthening,
and reinforcing these five mental qualities to the point
where they become guiding factors of spiritual development.

Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi

The beginner’s mind

The beginner’s mind is an open mind, an empty mind, a ready mind,
and if we really listen with a beginner’s mind, we might really begin to hear.

For if we listen with a silent mind,
as free as possible from the clamour of preconceived ideas,
a possibility will be created for the truth of the teachings to pierce us,
and for the meaning of life and death to become increasingly and startlingly clear.

My master Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche said:

“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.”

Sogyal Rinpoche

Empty

'How can this world be empty,
as I see beings all the time!?'

Don't misunderstand the term,
that's where you are having trouble, friend.

Beings exist,
along with their minds and bodies.
However, their minds and bodies are constantly changing,
in a flux, unstable, always changing
into something different than what it was before.

This what was meant by 'empty,'
not anything else.
Empty means 'empty of substance',
and not 'non-existent'.

I hope that makes sense.

Bhikkhu Samahita

The value of mistakes

How many mistakes,
can someone make,
in one lifetime?

How much knowledge,
can be gained,
from those very mistakes?

The light of experience,
makes all lives bright.

Bhikkhu Samahita

The key

Taking life seriously does not mean spending our whole lives meditating
as if we were living in the Himalaya Mountains or in the old days in Tibet.

In the modern world, we have to work to earn our living,
but we should not get entangled in a nine-to-five existence,
where we live without any view of the deeper meaning of life.

Our task is to strike a balance, to find a middle way,
to learn not to overextend ourselves with extraneous activities and preoccupations,
but to simplify our lives more and more.

The key to finding a happy balance in modern life is simplicity.

Sogyal Rinpoche

When you are practicing meditation

When you are practicing meditation,
it’s important not to get involved in mental commentary, analysis, or internal gossip.

Do not mistake the running commentary in your mind
(“Now I’m breathing in, now I’m breathing out”) for mindfulness;
what is important is pure presence.

Don’t concentrate too much on the breath; give it about 25 percent of your attention,
with the other 75 percent quietly and spaciously relaxed.

As you become more mindful of your breathing,
you will find that you become more and more present,
gather all your scattered aspects back into yourself, and become whole.

Sogyal Rinpoche

A flower in sunlight

Feeling the living presence of Buddha, of Padmasambhava, of your master,
and simply opening your heart and mind to the embodiment of truth,
really does bless and transform your mind.

As you invoke Buddha,
your own Buddha nature is inspired to awaken and blossom,
as naturally as a flower in sunlight.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Meditate with your breath

When you meditate, breathe naturally, just as you always do.

Focus your awareness lightly on the outbreath.
When you breathe out, just flow out with the outbreath.
Each time you breathe out, you are letting go and releasing all your grasping.
Imagine your breath dissolving into the all-pervading expanse of truth.

Each time you breathe out, and before you breathe in again,
you will find that there is a natural gap, as your grasping dissolves.

Rest in that gap, in that open space.

And when, naturally, you breathe in, don’t focus especially on the inbreath,
but go on resting your mind in the gap that has opened up.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Realize enlightenment

Even if you do cultivate myriad practices,
if you don’t know the mind,
you cannot realize enlightenment.

How can there be any way
to fulfil the way of the Buddha
if you don’t realize enlightenment?

Master Daikaku (1235 -1309)

Your heart is like a cup

If your cup is small,
a little bit of salt will make the water salty.

If your heart is small,
then a little bit of pain can make you suffer.

Your heart must be large.

Dhyana Master Thich Nhat Hanh

Bringing your mind home

Isn’t it extraordinary that our minds cannot stay still
for longer than a few moments without grasping after distraction?

We are fragmented into so many different aspects.
We don’t know who we really are,
or what aspects of ourselves we should identify with or believe in.

So many contradictory voices, dictates, and feelings fight for control over our inner lives
that we find ourselves scattered everywhere, in all directions, leaving nobody at home.

Meditation, then, is bringing your mind home.

Sogyal Rinpoche

The nature of your mind

To recognize the nature of your mind
is to engender in the ground of your being
an understanding that will change your entire worldview
and help you discover and develop, naturally and spontaneously,
a compassionate desire to serve all beings.

As well as a direct knowledge of how best you can do so,
with whatever skill or ability you have, in whatever circumstances you find yourself.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Share your love

My heartfelt advice to those in the depths of grief and despair,
after losing someone they dearly loved is to pray for help and strength and grace.

Pray that you will survive and discover the richest possible meaning
to the new life you now find yourself in.

Be vulnerable and receptive, be courageous and patient.
Above all, look into your life to find ways of sharing your love more deeply with others now.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Looking at your life directly

Bereavement can force you to look at your life directly,
compelling you to find a purpose in it where there may not have been one before.

When suddenly you find yourself alone after the death of someone you love,
it can feel as if you are being given a new life and are being asked:

“What will you do with this life?
And why do you wish to continue living?”

Sogyal Rinpoche

There is always hope

In Tibet we say:

“Negative action has one good quality: it can be purified.”

So there is always hope.
Even murderers and the most hardened criminals
can change and overcome the conditioning that led them to their crimes.

Our present condition, if we use it skilfully and with wisdom,
can be an inspiration to free ourselves from the bondage of suffering.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Come and See

Buddhism is always a question of knowing and seeing,
and not that of believing.

The teaching of the Buddha is qualified as Ehi-Passiko,
inviting you to come and see, but not to come and believe.

Ven. Dr. W. Rahula

Enemy of religion

There is little of what we call dogma in the Buddha's teaching.

With a breadth of view rare in that age
and not common in ours, He refuses to stifle criticism.

Intolerance seemed to him the greatest enemy of religion.

Dr. S Radhakrishnan

No force

To force oneself to believe and to accept a thing without understanding
is political, and not spiritual or intellectual.

Ven. W. Rahula

Right Speech

Right speech thus becomes a part of the path to freedom.
This is not easy. Most people find it difficult.

We can easily believe deluded projections
and dismiss someone with insensitivity and unkindness.

Or we can believe in some petty complaint
and then poke someone in a heartless manner.

Or we might feel jealous of someone's success and tear them down behind their backs
so many ways to close the heart and get lost in wrong speech.
The empathy and love in the heart gets smothered and we end up feeling more and more alienated.

The precept on speech is a very useful mirror
to help us notice the motivations and intentions that lie behind our words.

Master Ajahn Viradhammo

Arising and passing away

You should practice bringing everything back to your own mind.
Look at your mind with this mindfulness and clear comprehension and develop this wisdom.

With these three conditions there will arise a ''letting go''.
You'll know the constant arising and passing away of all phenomena.

You should know that that which is arising and passing away is only the activity of mind.

Master Ajahn Chah

Emotions

Emotions can and do cloud our minds.
When we allow our preferences to act as filters we only see filtered material.

From a Zen point of view then, life should be lived deeply in the raw.
Does this mean we should not love or hate? No.
It does mean that we should be aware that such emotions are of our own making
and act as blinders to reality.

It is this distortion that creates discord and disturbs our peace.
Both life and death, love and hate, like and dislike are not separate things,
but the same thing on a continuum.

One cannot be without the other.
Hate one, love the other, and we find ourselves arguing with reality itself.

Sodaiho Roshi

Strong mirrors

The Buddhist teaching around compassion and empathy
and affectionate participation in life puts up strong mirrors.

We try to have universal empathy but it can be a challenge.
The first monk I met said to me

'Don't worry about the parts of Buddhism you agree with.
It is the bits you find difficult to follow which are the tough ones'.

These are like mirrors which present a challenge to the mind.

Venerable Ajahn Viradhammo

Community

To me community implies a sense of affection for one's place,
for the trees, for the water one uses, for the air one breathes, for the food one eats,
for governance, for the street one uses, for one's neighbour,
for the shoemaker, for the greengrocer and so on.

A Buddhist culture implies the sense of developing community
by being responsible for all these very real things.

Venerable Ajahn Viradhammo

Remain vulnerable

Whatever you do, don’t shut off your pain;
accept your pain and remain vulnerable.

However desperate you become, accept your pain as it is,
because it is in fact trying to hand you a priceless gift:
the chance of discovering, through spiritual practice, what lies behind sorrow.

“Grief,” Rumi wrote, “can be the garden of compassion.
If you keep your heart open through everything,
your pain can become your greatest ally
in your life’s search for love and understanding.”

Sogyal Rinpoche

The quality of thought

The quality of your life
Follows
The quality of your thought.

Think about it.

Des boo ngoh

Meditation as it is

Take care not to impose anything on the mind.
When you meditate, there should be no effort to control,
and no attempt to be peaceful.

Don’t be overly solemn or feel that you are taking part in some special ritual;
let go even of the idea that you are meditating.

Let your body remain as it is, and your breath as you find it.
Think of yourself as the sky, holding the whole universe.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Consciousness

Is consciousness something having to do with the brain?
We tend to think of it as some kind of mental state that depends on the brain.
The attitude of Western scientists is that consciousness is in the brain.

But the more you explore it with mindfulness and understanding you see that the brain,
the nervous system, the whole psychophysical formation here,
arises in this consciousness and it is imbued with this consciousness.
That is why we can be aware of the body.

Reflecting on the four postures — sitting, standing, walking and lying down.
Being aware of sitting as it is being experienced now,
you are not limited to something that is in the brain, but the body is in the consciousness,
you are aware of the whole body in the experience of sitting.

Ajahn Sumedho

Am I really being honest with myself?

Am I really being honest with myself?

Is a good question to pose at the right time,
for we never really like to see ourselves in our more negative orunlikeable modes.

But in fact, seeing clearly is not just a matter
of taking on board more honest perceptions of oneself;
rather, it is to see that all perceptions of self,
if grasped at and believed in,
distort the truth; creating only more deception and dukkha.

Ajahn Jitindriya

The beginning of the Path

When the Buddha taught the First Noble Truth,
he said that taking refuge in human existence is an unsatisfactory experience.

If one attaches to this mortal frame, one will suffer.
Not getting what you want is painful
    –  that’s quite easy to relate to  –  
Getting what you don’t want can also be painful.

But as we walk a little further in the footsteps of the Buddha,
even getting what we want is painful!

This is the beginning of the path of awakening.

Ajahn Sundara

Well-being

A human being can experience a sustaining sense of well-being or happiness
that is not dependent on circumstances.

The Buddha's intention was not to create a religion,
nor to accumulate a great number of disciples,
but to help those who wished to be helped towards the simple goal of well-being.

Ajahn Sucitto

Truth: Agree to Disagree

The Buddha taught thus (D.I,164)

“Those things about which there is no agreement, let us put aside.
Those things about which there is agreement,
let the wise bring up, discuss, and examine.”

As one should amicably agree to discuss for truth if possible,
one should amicably agree to disagree only as a last resort.

Shian

A gap

In the ordinary mind, we perceive the stream of thoughts as continuous,
but in reality this is not the case.
You will discover for yourself that there is a gap between each thought.

When the past thought is past,
and the future thought has not yet arisen,
you will always find a gap in which the nature of mind, is revealed.

So the work of meditation is to allow thoughts to slow down,
to make that gap become more and more apparent.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Deep listening

Listening is a far more difficult process than most people imagine.
Really to listen in the way that is meant by the masters is to let go utterly of ourselves,
to let go of all the information, all the concepts, all the ideas,
and all the prejudices that our heads are stuffed with.

If you really listen to the teachings, those concepts,
which are our real hindrance,
the one thing that stands between us and our true nature,
can slowly and steadily be washed away.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Confidence: Triple Gem

Of what use is a confident doctor,
confident with his medicine,
confident with his nurses who serves it,
if the patients lack confidence in them?

The greatest doctor is the Buddha.
The greatest medicine is the Dharma he discovered.
The greatest nurses is the Arya Sangha he nurtured.
The doubtful patients are us?

Shian

A new day

Waking up in the morning,
I am aware of just how precious a new day is:
Its freshness should not be taken for granted.

So, what will I do with this day?
What will you do with this day?

Dharma Teacher

Undefiled love

What begins as defiled love may end in hatred.
Defiled love is the foundation of samsara.
If we cultivate undefiled, pure love, however,
we shall no longer generate the hatred
which arises out of the second nature of defiled love.

Untroubled by hatred, all beings can coexist peacefully,
free to strive even for liberation.

Dharma Teacher

The mind in meditation

What should we “do” with the mind in meditation?
Nothing at all.

Just leave it, simply, as it is.

One master described meditation as
“Mind, suspended in space, nowhere.”

Sogyal Rinpoche

Beginner's mind

You can't learn Buddhism
Without a beginner's mind.

If you act as though you are learned
You can't learn.

Desmond Chong

Taking impermanence to heart

Taking impermanence truly to heart is to be slowly freed from the idea of grasping.

At the beginning this may be painful to accept.
But as we reflect, slowly our hearts and minds go through a gradual transformation.
Letting go begins to feel more natural, and becomes easier and easier.

The more we reflect, the more we develop the view of letting go.
It is then that a complete shift takes place in our way of looking at everything.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Wasting

Over the ages you have followed objects,
Never once turning back to look within.

Time slips away;
Months and years are wasted.

Master Kuei-Shan (771-854)

Like the sky

The nature of mind is the background to the whole of life and death like the sky,
which enfolds the whole universe in its embrace.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Happiness: the Four Immeasurables Minds

Loving-kindness: May all be happy.
Compassion: May all not be unhappy.

Appreciative Joy: May all be happy that others are happy.
Equanimity: May all be equally happy.

Shian

Karma: by Inaction

Usually, karma is taught to be created by intentional action,
but it is easily forgotten how our inactions can have effects too.
Intentional inactions create karma to some extent as willful “mental action” too - e.g.

Intentionally not clarifying a dispute (out of lack of loving kindness and compassion)
or not thanking (out of lack of gratitude),
or not apologizing (out of lack of humility; pride),
or not praising or rejoicing (out of lack of appreciative joy; or jealousy)
or not seeking understanding other’s mistakes (out of being needlessly judgmental)

Shian