Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche Quotes

What is drama, and what is dharma? I guess you could say drama is illusion that acts like truth, and dharma is truth itself—the way things are, the basic state of reality that does not change from day to day according to fashion or our mood or agenda.

From this perspective, we can say that genuine faith is simply confidence and trust in ourselves, in our own intelligence and understanding, which then extends to the path we’re traveling.

In Buddhism, we aren’t trying to look at the physical world by itself; instead, we’re looking at the mind and its relationship to the appearances of the world. We observe the mind to see what the mind itself is and how it acts in relation to our internal and external experiences of everything—from thoughts and emotions to actual things.

When your own painful experiences inspire you to the extent that you become truly determined to break free of suffering, that is what the Buddha taught as the attitude of “renunciation.

Whatever our desires may be, getting the object of our desire is not the same thing as contentment, which comes from within. In the end, we’ll never find complete contentment, a perfect sense of peace, if our mind isn’t content and at peace.

The Buddhist view asserts that the nature of all beings is primordially pure and replete with positive qualities. Once we wake up enough to see through our confusion, we see that even our problematic thoughts and emotions are, at heart, part of this pure awareness.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

Buddhism is primarily a study of mind and a system for training the mind. It is spiritual in nature, not religious. Its goal is self-knowledge, not salvation; freedom, not heaven. It relies on reason and analysis, contemplation and meditation, to transform knowledge about something into knowledge that surpasses understanding.

Buddhist spiritual path is the mind. The closest thing to the notion of a god in Buddhism is probably the state of enlightenment. But even enlightenment is regarded as a human accomplishment: the development of consciousness to its highest state. The Buddha taught that every human being has the capacity to achieve that level of realization. That’s the difference in the approaches of nontheistic and theistic traditions. If I said, “I want to become God,” it would sound crazy or even blasphemous to a theist. It would be considered a very ambitious, very ego-centered thought. But in the Buddhist tradition, we’re encouraged to become like Buddha—awakened ones.

Once we walk through that door, however, we’re met with a paradox: the forms disappear. On the other side, there are no statues of buddhas, no incense bowls, no sound of gongs or chanting, no tatami mats or brocades, no meditation cushions, and no meditators. Why? These forms and activities are simply the means to enter the open dimension of our own mind. The wisdom they point to has no tangible form of its own.

All of our training relies on these two practices: mindfulness and awareness. Awareness is our consciousness of being in the present. Mindfulness means “to remember” or “not to forget” to watch the mind and see when it drifts away from the present. The moment we see that, we’re back again. Without the activity of mindfulness, we get lost in the mind’s continual flow of thoughts, and our awareness becomes like a child lost in a thick forest. Of the two, mindfulness is usually emphasized more because it’s responsible for maintaining the continuity of our awareness. Mindfulness means to remember again and again. It has a certain quality of repetitiveness. That’s how we develop all of our habitual patterns, negative or positive—through repetition. So in this case, by cultivating a sense of mindful presence, we’re establishing a positive tendency that has the power to transform any negative tendency.

If we don't take advantage of the opportunity that's in front of us in any moment - to awaken, to se, to know, to break free- then we may be giving up our very last chance.

There’s an Asian proverb that says, “Medicine, if taken with knowledge; poison, if abused.” This is how our emotions are.

Buddhist spiritual path does not fit neatly into the category or general understanding of religion, except perhaps in an academic sense. You can practice Buddhism as a traditional religion, if that’s what suits you. There are Buddhist churches that provide a sense of community for their members and a regular schedule of social activities and meditation practice. The values of harmonious, compassionate living are cultivated, and there’s a sense of reverence for the Buddha and the great teachers who came after him. This is a valuable aspect of the tradition as well, and it’s the way Buddhism is practiced in many places around the world. However, the essence of Buddhism transcends all these forms. It is the pure wisdom and compassion that exists in inconceivable measure within the minds of all beings, and the Buddhist spiritual path is the journey we take to fully realize this true nature of mind.

Our blind faith in our mundane reality is no different from religious blind faith: someone tells you that heaven and hell exist, and consequently you fix your hopes on one and live in fear of the other. But what do “heaven” and “hell” really mean? Where are they? What act will push you across the line into one or the other? If you die at the age of eighteen or eighty, will you be forever young or forever old in heaven? Buddha’s advice to us is to challenge our blind faith wherever it manifests.

This emptiness, it turned out, was a revolutionary discovery, full of possibilities to free me from my lifelong blind faith in realism, which suddenly seemed so naïve and simpleminded.

There is no inherent awakening power in cultural forms that have become dissociated from the wisdom and practicality that gave birth to them. They turn into illusions themselves and become part of the drama of religious culture.

The word buddha, however, simply means “awake” or “awakened.” It does not refer to a particular historical person or to a philosophy or religion.

Although Buddhism can be practiced “religiously,” in many respects, it isn’t really a religion. Because of its emphasis on questioning and working with the mind, it is spiritual in nature. But because it relies on logical analysis and reasoning, as well as on meditation, many Buddhist teachers regard Buddhism as a science of mind rather than a religion.