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1 " You who thoroughly cultivated loving-kindness are the spiritual guide of all beings. Unshakeable like Mount Meru, you remain utterly unperturbed. —THE KING OF MEDITATION SUTRA, CHAPTER 14When the Buddha sat beneath the Bodhi Tree and the hordes of demons, known as maras, rose up around him, hurling spears and shooting arrows, his samadhi transformed the weapons into a rain of blossoms. Loving-kindness has the power to turn enemies into teachers and aggressions into adornments. It is the ground from which the other three immeasurables draw their power. When we train in loving-kindness, we expand outward into the experience of those around us. Our tightness loosens, our compassion grows. We feel the joys and sufferings of others more deeply, and we are moved to help them. We take delight in the successes of our friends. Our equanimity becomes rooted in an indestructibly pure intention, in which distance and closeness of relation are no longer relevant. This is why the Buddha said we can become unshakeable like Mount Meru. "
― Phakchok Rinpoche , In the Footsteps of Bodhisattvas: Buddhist Teachings on the Essence of Meditation
2 " We are also taught to guard our body, speech, and mind against the influence of unwholesome companions. We do not judge people who are unruly or negative, but we are advised to protect the mind from swinging, which naturally happens when we continuously associate with such companions. On the flip side, the tradition offers us a beautiful metaphor about associating with virtuous people. It is said that if you place a normal piece of wood in a sandalwood forest, in time that normal piece of wood will begin to take on the sweet smell of sandalwood. In the same way, even if we are a normal person, if we associate with noble companions, we will naturally begin to give rise to the qualities of virtue and wisdom. "
3 " The root of virtue is a mind free from the three poisons of aversion, attachment, and ignorance. The root of merit is the practice of the six perfections (in Sanskrit they are known as the paramitas). They constitute engaged bodhichitta. The first five—generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, and meditation—are the source of merit. When they are embraced by the sixth—transcendent wisdom (prajnaparamita)—they become true paramitas, or perfections. A virtuous mind that practices the paramitas is suffused with supreme joy; and this is the mind of a bodhisattva. "
4 " You cannot walk this whole path alone, and if you try, you will fail. So, you begin to turn your mind toward the Buddha and all those who inherited the teachings of the Buddha, all the great masters of the past. "
5 " The Buddha does not subscribe to any school. It is impossible for the Awakened One to be bound by the limitations of a conceptual system. The Buddha is one who has gone beyond the afflictive and cognitive obscurations and attained victory. What, then, can the Buddha teach? The true Buddha can only teach what is useful for bringing beings to liberation. He teaches only that which will escort beings beyond affliction —precisely in accordance with their unique karma and capacity. The awakened ones teach that which brought them to realization. "
6 " The Buddha displayed ultimate sincerity. For that reason, we should read the life story of the Buddha as well as the Jataka Tales, which detail his previous lives, so that we too can understand how to be sincere practitioners. The Buddha can emotionally influence us through the narrative of his story. Stories can teach us in a way that philosophy cannot. Philosophy doesn’t create an intimate relationship with the body of the Buddha, which walked in the world as a radiant sun of love and wisdom. When we read the biographies of great masters and practitioners, we can start to see the same way that the Buddha sees—without judgment, with purity and equality, with the loving-kindness that holds each and every being as dearer to him than his own body. When we read about the actionsof the noble ones, we cannot help but carry those actions into our own lives. A bodhisattva replicates the activities of the Buddha in their own life, as best they can. "
7 " The dualistic mind cannot apprehend the nondual union of form and emptiness. Only by giving rise to the nondual mind can nondual experience unfold. No matter how much we think about nonduality, we will not experience it unless we walk a path that leads us to suspend conceptuality altogether. "
