(1) (Healthy) reliance on a kind spiritual master, the foundation for all good qualities, is the root of the path. Seeing this well, I request inspiration to rely with great appreciation, through many endeavors.
(2) This excellent working basis with its respites, found but once, is difficult to obtain. Having realized its great importance, I request inspiration to develop without disruption an attitude to take its essence in all ways, day and night.
(3) At death, my body and life-force will perish quickly like bubbles on a moving stream. Remembering this and having found stable certainty that after death, the fruits of my glowing and murky actions will follow behind,
(4) Like a shadow to a body, I request inspiration always to take care to rid myself of even the slightest, most minor action that would build up a network of faults and to accomplish every possible deed that will build up a network of constructive force.
(5) The splendors of compulsive existence, even when indulged in, never suffice; the gateway of all problems, they are unfit to make my mind secure. Aware of these pitfalls, I request inspiration to develop a great avid interest in liberation’s bliss.
(6) I request inspiration to take to heart, with mindfulness, alertness, and great care, induced by this pure motivating thought, the practices for individual liberation, the root of the teachings.
(7) Just as I have fallen into the ocean of compulsive existence, so, too, have all wandering beings – they have been my mothers. Seeing this, I request inspiration to grow to a supreme bodhichitta aim to take responsibility to free these wandering beings.
(8) Even if I have developed merely this resolve, if I lack the habit of the three types of ethical discipline, I will be unable to attain a (supreme) purified state. Seeing this well, I request inspiration to train with strong efforts in the bodhisattva vows.
(9) I request inspiration quickly to develop on my mind-stream a path that combines the pair: a stilled, settled mind and an exceptionally perceptive mind, by stilling mental wandering toward objects of distortion and properly discerning the correct meaning (of voidness).
(10) When I have trained myself through the common paths and become a vessel, I request inspiration easily to board the Diamond-strong Vehicle, the supreme of all vehicles, the sacred fording passage for those of good fortune.
(11) Then, when I have found uncontrived certainty in what has been said, that the foundation for realizing the two types of actual attainments is the closely bonding practices and vow restraints kept totally pure, I request inspiration to uphold them even at the cost of my life.
(12) Then, understanding correctly the essential points of the two stages that are the essence of the tantra classes, I request inspiration to actualize them in accord with the Holy One’s enlightening speech, never straying from the conduct of four (daily) sessions of yoga.
(13) I request inspiration for the feet of the spiritual mentors who indicate the excellent path like this and of friends for proper practice to remain firm, and for the masses of outer and inner interference to be stilled.
(14) May I never be parted for all my lives from perfect gurus; may I put to good use the all-around perfect Dharma; and by achieving in full all good qualities of the stages and paths, may I quickly attain a Vajradhara supreme state.
Tsongkhapa, from the Berzin Archives, translation by A. Berzin
Category: Dharma Quotes
Quotes by historical luminaries and contemporary teachers of dharma.
On Teachers and Teachings
” Faith in one’s guru does not mean blind faith, it does not mean believing “My guru is perfect” even though your guru is not perfect. It is not pretending that your guru’s defects are qualities. It is not rationalizing every foible of the guru into a superhuman virtue. After all, most gurus will have defects. You need to recognize them for what they are. You don’t have to pretend your guru’s defects are qualities, because the object of your devotion is not the foibles, quirks, or defects of your guru, but the Dharma that your guru is teaching you. You are not practicing the guru’s foibles. As long as the Dharma you receive is authentic and pure, then the guru is a fit object for your devotion. You need to recognize the defects of your guru as defects- you don’t need to pretend they are otherwise. The guru’s defects cannot hurt you, because it is not they that you create or cultivate. You follow the teaching of the guru, and “trust” meaning trust in the validity of the teachings themselves.”
Thrangu Rinpoche, contemporary Tibetan Buddhist Master in Creation and Completion, a book written by Jamgon Kongtrul
Buddha’s Teachings on How to Express Loving-Kindness
The Buddha Shakyamuni’s Words on Kindness in the Metta Sutra
This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness, and who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright, straightforward and gentle in speech.
Humble and not conceited, contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful, not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing that the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: In gladness and in safety, may all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be; whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen, those living near and far away, those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!
Let none deceive another, nor despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings,
Radiating kindness over the entire world, spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths; outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection. This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views, the pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
being freed from all sense desires, is not born again into this world.