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What Makes You Not a Buddhist QUOTES

What Makes You Not a Buddhist QUOTES

1 " Although we use words such as achieving, wishing, and praying for enlightenment, ultimately we don’t acquire enlightenment from an external source. A more correct way to put it is discovering the enlightenment that has always been there. Enlightenment is part of our true nature. Our true nature is like a golden statue; however, it is still in its mold, which is like our defilements and ignorance. Because ignorance and emotion are not an inherent part of our nature, just as the mold is not part of the statue, there is such a thing as primordial purity. When the mold is broken, the statue emerges. When our defilements are removed, our true buddhanature is revealed. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

2 " If it were not for certain people's greed for wealth, the highways would be filled with cars powered by the sun, and no one would be starving. Such advances are technologically and physically possible, but apparently not emotionally possible. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

3 " We are like monkeys who dwell in the forest and shit on the very branches from which we hang. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

4 " Most of the time we are trying to make the good things last, or we are thinking about replacing them with something even better in the future, or we are sunk in the past, reminiscing about happier times. Ironically, we never truly appreciated the experience for which we are nostalgic because we were too busy clinging to our hopes and fears at the time. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

5 " We usually appreciate only half the cycle of impermanence. We can accept birth but not death, gain but not loss, or the end of exams but not the beginning. True liberation comes from appreciating the whole cycle and not grasping onto those things we find agreeable. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

6 " However, the path itself must eventually be abandoned, just as you abandon a boat when you reach the other shore. You must disembark once you have arrived. At the point of total realization, you must abandon Buddhism. The spiritual path is a temporary solution, a placebo to be used until emptiness is understood. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

7 " Fearlessness is generated when you can appreciate uncertainty, when you have faith in the impossibility of these interconnected components remaining static and permanent. You will find yourself, in a very true sense, preparing for the worst while allowing for the best....By knowing that something is lying in wait for you just around the bend, by accepting that countless potentialities exist from this moment forward, you acquire the skill of pervasive awareness and foresight like that of a gifted general, not paranoid but prepared. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

8 " Subconsciously we are lured by the expectation that we will reach a stage where we don’t have to fix anything ever again. One day we will reach “happily ever after.” We are convinced of the notion of “resolution.” It’s as if everything that we’ve experienced up until now, our whole lives to this moment, was a dress rehearsal. We believe our grand performance is yet to come, so we do not live for today. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

9 " If there is no blind hope, there is also no disappointment. If one knows that everything is impermanent, one does not grasp, and if one does not grasp, one will not think in terms of having or lacking, and therefore one lives fully. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

10 " One is a Buddhist if he or she accepts the following four truths: All compounded things are impermanent. All emotions are pain. All things have no inherent existence. Nirvana is beyond concepts. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

11 " [from the Acknowledgments page] ...and while comments are very welcome, I would suggest it is a waste of your precious time. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

12 " Like a child at the cinema, we get caught up in the illusion. From this comes all of our vanity, ambition, and insecurity. We fall in love with the illusions we have created and develop excessive pride in our appearance, our possessions, and our accomplishments. It’s like wearing a mask and proudly thinking that the mask is really you. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

13 " A more appropriate question to ask a Buddhist is simply, “What is life?” From our understanding of impermanence, the answer should be obvious: “Life is a big array of assembled phenomena, and thus life is impermanent.” It is a constant shifting, a collection of transitory experiences. And although myriad life-forms exist, one thing we all have in common is that no living being wishes to suffer. We "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

14 " Every time we make an assumption—for example, that we understand our spouse—we are exposing ourselves like an open wound. Assumptions and expectations that rely on someone or something else leave us vulnerable. At any moment, one of the uncountable possible contradictions can pop up and sprinkle salt on our assumptions, causing us to flinch and howl. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

15 " If you dream that you are flying and continue to believe that you can fly even after you wake up, that becomes a problem. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

16 " All methods of Buddhism can be explained with the four seals—all compounded phenomena are impermanent, all emotions are pain, all things have no inherent existence, and enlightenment is beyond concepts. Every act and deed encouraged by Buddhist scriptures is based on these four truths, or seals. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

17 " Driven by the hunger for fame and originality, we are like these monkeys, thinking that we are so clever in discovering things and convincing our fellow humans to see what we see, think what we think, driven by ambition to be the savior, the clever one, the seer of all. We have all kinds of small ambitions, such as impressing a girl, or big ambitions, such as landing on Mars. And "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

18 " Law and justice are designed to keep the peace and create harmonious society, but in many cases the criminal justice system works to the advantage of the crooks and the wealthy, while the poor and the innocent suffer from unfair laws. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

19 " Hell does not exist as a permanent state somewhere underground, where the damned suffer eternal torture. It is more like a nightmare. A dream in which an elephant tramples you comes about because of a number of conditions—first of all sleep, and perhaps you have some negative history with elephants. It doesn’t matter how long the nightmare lasts; during that time you are in hell. Then, because of the causes and conditions of an alarm clock or because you simply have finished sleeping, you wake up. The dream is a temporary hell, and it is not unlike our concepts of a “real” hell. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist

20 " If we know, even a little bit, that some of our familiar concepts, feelings, and objects exist only as a dream, we develop a much better sense of humour. Recognizing the humour in our situation prevents suffering. We still experience emotions, but they can no longer play tricks on us or pull the wool over our eyes. "

― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse , What Makes You Not a Buddhist