As we hate ourselves less, we tend to hate other people less too.
In self-giving you must be so careful of egotism. You must be so careful when you are aiding others in their liberation not to have a sense of self.
In my estimation it’s silly to go out and spend your time aiding people if you don’t have your own act together yet. So I’d rather you spend the time, get it right, and it’ll all work out a lot better.
It’s suggested that enlightenment has some tremendous compassion, some driving necessity to help humanity. I don’t think that’s the case at all. I think humanity wishes it were the case since it’s humanity that writes the various scriptures.
I realize that there’s a thing called the bodhisattva ideal, and it’s a very nice pinnacle of attention. It’s a very egotistical thought, ultimately.
To have to liberate everybody doesn’t sound very free to me. You’re gong to go liberate people who maybe don’t want to be liberated.
To feel that you are the Buddha of all times and places and that in some way the salvation of anyone, including yourself, depends upon you, I think there’s a lot of ego involved in such a view, not much self-transcendence.
I respect self-giving and I’ve tried to lead my life with that as the ideal. But real self-giving is when we take our being, that which is most precious to us, and we throw it into eternity with a total sense of offering.
Selfless-giving burns away the layers of the onion. Purity and humility keep meditation and selfless-giving clear. Love radiates through the entire practice because we do all of it only for love.
Love the fading flowers as much as you love the undifferentiated which lasts forever.
By perfecting the practices of zazen and mindfulness, by learning patience and love and by realizing the essential emptiness of all phenomena, you will discover nirvana.
Your mind is made up of light. We call it the dharmakaya, the clear light of reality. The transcendental eternal light is everywhere. It’s the light of god or whatever you want to call it.
The Tibetan Buddhist realization is that mind does not have any particular qualities or attributes of its own. It’s clear – clear light.
The white light is the joker in the deck. It creates transmutations that are completely unpredictable, which is what makes it fun, which is why it scares the hell out of most people.
Life reorders you when you go into the clear light. Even the causal structure is liquefied. The clear light of reality, the dharmakaya, changes us into beings of light.
Within the universe there is a pure light. It is a light that is beyond all darkness. It does not give way to anything. It is the light of existence, the dharmakaya.
Enlightenment is a timeless void. It’s an emptiness that’s filled with the most excellent light.
Keep your mind centered on that which leads to light, intensively. Accept no substitute.
As you go into light for longer and longer periods, as you progress in your meditation practice, you transform, you become illumined, you overcome all limitation, all sorrow, and all pain. You learn not to be bound by desire, and eventually you transcend death itself.
The miracle of enlightenment is that you take the self and let it dissolve in the white light of eternity.