The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this life.
SOGYAL RINPOCHEWhat will happen to us then if we have no clue of any deeper reality?
More Sogyal Rinpoche Quotes
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The real glory of meditation lies not in any method but in its continual living experience of presence, in its bliss, clarity, peace, and most important of all, complete absence of grasping.
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Just as if you put your finger into water, it will get wet, and if you put it into fire, it will burn, so if you invest your mind in the wisdom mind of the Buddhas, it will transform into their wisdom nature.
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The most essential thing in life is to establish an unafraid, heartfelt communication with others.
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The other is the hidden spiritual being, whose still voice of wisdom you have only rarely heard or attended to – you have uncovered in yourself your own wise guide.
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Even if we have accumulated a lot of negative karma, if we are able to make a real change of heart at the moment of death, it can decisively influence our future, and transform our karma, for the moment of death is an exceptionally powerful opportunity to purify karma.
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Let the sky outside awake a sky inside your mind.
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And to think that all this springs from a civilization that claims to adore life, but actually starves it of any real meaning; that endlessly speaks of making people “happy”, but in fact blocks their way to the source of real joy.
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When no such thing occurs, they feel extremely disappointed. But the real miracle of meditation is more ordinary and much more useful. . . .
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Western laziness consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity, so that there is no time at all to confront the real issues.
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Let your heart go out in spontaneous and immeasurable compassion.
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Spiritual warriors can still be frightened, but even so they are courageous enough to taste suffering, to relate clearly to their fundamental fear, and to draw out without evasion the lessons from difficulties.
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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.
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This is the real and urgent reason why we must prepare now to meet death wisely, to transform our karmic future, and to avoid the tragedy of falling into delusion again and again and repeating the painful round of birth and death.
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There would be no chance to get to know death at all …if it happened only once.
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For most of us, karma and negative emotions obscure the ability to see our own intrinsic nature, and the nature of reality.
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The act of meditation is being spacious.
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Samsara is the mind turned outwardly, lost in its projections. Nirvana is the mind turned inwardly, recognizing its true nature.
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At every moment in our lives we need compassion, but what more urgent moment could there be than when we are dying?
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We know, in Milarepa’s words: “This thing called ‘corpse’ we dread so much is living with us here and now.”
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All my masters would give this as their advice, for this is the essence of what is needed as you come to die: “Be free of attachment and aversion. Keep your mind pure. And unite your mind with Buddha.”
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What will happen to us then if we have no clue of any deeper reality?
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Isn’t that why we have tried to fill every moment of time with noise and activity, however boring or trivial, to ensure that we are never left in silence with this stranger on our own?
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The whole of our life is a teaching of how to uncover that strong goodness, and a training toward realizing it.
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Living with the immediacy of death helps you sort out your priorities in life. It helps you to live a less trivial life.
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Every time I hear the rush of a mountain stream, or the waves crashing on the shore, or my own heartbeat,
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And when you talk about realization, accomplishment for that matter enlightenment is that when you realize the fundamental essence of your mind.
SOGYAL RINPOCHE