From Heart of Buddha: Openness Clarity Sensitivity (Oxford 2016) One of the Ati texts says: Even though sentient beings like ourselves suffer all the pangs of samsaric existence, they never did anything wrong. And Samantabhadra, the All-Good, who never fell into samsaric existence and never suffered, never did a good…
To be sensitive there has to be some degree of openness and awareness, so these three qualities are the basis of what it is to be a sentient being, whether animal or human or anything else. There is therefore a basic kinship between all beings that goes very deep; right…
One of the dangers of expressing Dharma in the West is people have this idea that you’ve got to behave in a particular way. It’s prescriptive in other words. You have to be a good girl or a good boy and do this and do that and it’s not a…
Nobody can tell you, “Reality is like this!” or “Read my book for a complete explanation of all the secrets of the universe.” The truth has to be perceived directly, which is why even buddhas can never really communicate it to others. It isn’t that they don’t want to; we…
From Heart of Buddha: Openness Clarity Sensitivity (Oxford 2016) The mind becomes bored very easily, so it begins to create things to make life interesting for you. It starts creating its own picture show. And the picture show is just thoughts, images, feelings. Sometimes they’re happy; sometimes they’re not. Funnily…
Opinions, emotions, prejudices and ideas change, but even so they are still what we identify with. We think all this is ‘me,’ but actually it is just something that arises within that space [of] awareness and sensitivity. It is just a feature of that. The person in charge is not…
This month’s quotation is from a teaching Rigdzin Shikpo gave on Refuge and Bodhisattva vows. The entire teaching is made available to students who prepare to go for refuge with Rigdzin Shikpo. Some practice traditions are based on a kind of superstition in making bold statements like “May I die…
Both the Oxford and Bristol Path of Freedom groups are starting new courses this week as we ease into the summer months. Both courses are part of our Path of Freedom programme, a curriculum that is open to all and establishes a basic grounding in Buddhist ideas and practice through…
Meditation is most powerful and effective when we start with the right kind of view. View, in this sense, is a way of seeing that leads to a deeper understanding of the nature of experience, rather than holding a particular dogma or set of beliefs. Our ordinary worldview is something…
From Mandala Principles in the Dzogchen Tradition (Heidelberg 2016) If the buddhas are able infinitely to help sentient beings, why is the world in such a mess? Well, you must never forget that everybody who isn’t a fully enlightened buddha is a confused, unenlightened buddha. And that means you can…
