Category: Tibetan Buddhism

The Intentions

bsam pa bzang na sa dang lam yang bzang/ /
bsam pa ngan na sa dang lam yang ngan/ /
thams cad bsam pa dag la rag las pas/ /
rtag par bsam pa bzang la ‘bad par bya/ /

If the intentions are good, then so will be the levels and paths.
If the intentions are bad, then the levels and paths will be too.
Since everything depends on one’s intentions,
Always strive to make sure that they are positive.

~ Je Tsongkhapa, A Literary Gem of Poetry ~

Tantra

You say yes. You say yes to everything. You need not fight, you need not even swim – you simply float with the current. The river is going by itself, on its own accord, everything reaches to the ultimate ocean. You simply don’t create any disturbance, you don’t push the river, you simply go with it.

That going with it, floating with it, relaxing with it, is tantra.

Practice to be like the earth

The Buddha said, “Suppose you have a cup of pure water; if you have a handful of salt, and you pour it into that water and stir it up, you cannot drink it anymore, because it’s too salty. But if you take the same amount of salt, and pour it into the river, then the river is so large that it is not affected, and all of us can continue to drink the water from the river. The river is enormous, that is why it has the capacity to receive, to embrace and to transform. If our hearts are big, we can do very much the same thing. We suffer because our hearts are small; it means that our understanding and compassion are too limited.”

“Rahula, practice to be like the earth. Why? No matter what people pour onto the earth, whether it’s milk, cream, flowers, perfume or urine, excrement, the earth will not discriminate. It will receive them all, and the earth will not suffer. Why? Because the earth is large, and in no time at all the earth can transform all these things into flowers and green leaves. So practice, Rahula, in order to be like the earth. You can accept, receive, and embrace everything, and you don’t have to suffer. Sometime later you can transform all this garbage into flowers again.

Practice like the air; no matter what you throw into it, the air can receive, embrace and transform it, and that is because the air is large.

Practice in order to be like water. Water has the same capacity of receiving, embracing and transforming. And practice to be like fire, because whatever you give to fire, whether it’s beautiful or ugly, clean or dirty, the fire will burn them all, and reduce everything to ash. Because the fire is large, the fire has the capacity to transform.

That is why, Rahula, you should practice like the earth, like the water, like the air, like the fire, so that your heart becomes unlimited. Anything negative, any insult, any action that is unkind to you, you can embrace all, and you don’t have to suffer, because your heart is so large. That is why it is said in the sutra that if you suffer too much, that is because your heart is still not large. In order to make your heart large, the practice of looking deeply will help, because it will bring understanding. When understanding is there, compassion and forgiveness will be possible.”

Thich Nhat Hanh: When I have a toothache

When I have a toothache, I discover that not having a toothache is a wonderful thing. That is peace. I had to have a toothache in order to be enlightened, to know that not having one is wonderful. My non-toothache is peace, is joy. But when I do not have a toothache, I do not seem to be happy. Therefore, I look deeply in the present moment and see that I have a non-toothache, that can make me very happy already.

Thich Nhat Hanh