Chamtrul Rinpoche

Never underestimate the importance of blessings. They uplift, clarify, and brighten your mind’s energy, resulting in your mind becoming more powerful, and your practice becoming more fruitful.

You do not have to run around searching for blessings. Just how the sun shines on to this world without ever discriminating, the compassionate wisdom energy of all of the buddhas pervades everything. No matter where you are, no matter what you do, this energy is always there, it is always with you. You are never alone.

But just as you need to open your eyes to experience the light of the sun, you have to open your mind with unshakable devotion to experience the blessings of the energy of the buddhas. The more that your mind opens, the greater the blessings that will energize your mind and power your practice all of the way to your enlightenment.

Just fill your mind with devotion, and your mind will just open up to their energy, and then the blessings will just naturally arise. Remember, the greater your devotion, the greater the blessings.

~ Chamtrul Rinpoche

Even though the sun is always there, it will only be seen once the wind has blown away the clouds. Likewise, when the wind of dharma practice has blown away the clouds of obscurations, the nature of mind will appear.

~ Chamtrul Rinpoche

Restoring our inner peace and bringing benefit to others,
The flames of anger and hatred will cease
When love and compassion arise,
As if pouring water onto fire.

~ Chamtrul Rinpoche

Of course you must study the dharma to know exactly what you have to do, but you must also understand that an inch of practice can sometimes be worth a mile of theory.

~ Chamtrul Rinpoche

If you want to become a bodhisattva on the path to buddhahood, sooner or later you absolutely must cultivate immeasurable love and compassion for all sentient beings without exception, in order to be able to cultivate bodhicitta - the mind of enlightenment - the sincerest heartfelt loving and compassionate wish to attain the enlightened state of a buddha for the benefit of all sentient beings without exception. Once you have cultivated this absolutely authentic bodhicitta, you have at last become a bodhisattva on the path to buddhahood.

The problem for so many people is that they don’t believe in their bodhisattva potential, so their love and compassion remains extremely limited, and it usually extends no further than to their closest family members. And even then, their love and compassion for certain family members is rarely stable. Many people say things like, “That person was so horrible to me, how can I possibly ever love them?!” Although there is no denying that that person may have acted harmfully towards you and had caused you to suffer, if you only focus on those worldly superficial circumstances that drives you apart, and not on the deepest spiritual reality that forever lovingly bonds you, you will struggle to forgive them, let alone have love and compassion for them.

So in order to get over this obstacle, you must first believe in your bodhisattva potential, and then cultivate immeasurable equanimity towards literally all sentient beings without exception. And from that foundation of immeasurable equanimity, your love and compassion becomes unshakeably stable and truly immeasurable and all-encompassing towards each and every sentient being without exception - just like how the sun shines on to our world, without ever discriminating, it illuminates all. And then from that you will be able to cultivate authentic bodhicitta, and at last you would have actualised your potential as a bodhisattva on the path to buddhahood.

It is very simple to cultivate immeasurable equanimity if you can just deeply understand that throughout beginningless samsara, all sentient beings have been your mother in the past, and each one of them has loved and cared for you. And then if you can also deeply understand that ultimately all sentient beings are no different than you, as each one of them has buddha nature, and that they all want to be happy and never want to suffer.

By focusing on these unshakable deepest spiritual similarities, instead of focusing on worldly transitory superficial differences that drive you apart, equanimity will easily arise. It will feel like that on the very deepest level every sentient being without exception is ultimately an equal part of one infinitely big loving and caring family. Quite simply, the more you contemplate this, the greater your equanimity will be.

The greater your equanimity, the greater your love and compassion towards all sentient beings without exception, no matter who they are, no matter where they are, no matter what form that they have, and no matter whether you had previously considered them to be a stranger or even an enemy. When this becomes immeasurable, you will then easily cultivate authentic bodhicitta and become a bodhisattva.

I have unshakable faith in your potential, and so should you. Become a bodhisattva on the path to buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings.

~ Chamtrul Rinpoche

No matter what obstacles you may experience on the path, never give up. Because all of the buddhas became enlightened for you. They know your potential, and they will not stop helping you until you are enlightened too.

So turn your obstacles into challenges, and put what you have learnt into practice, and keep going, while always remembering that no matter what is going on in your life, they will be with you every step of the way.

~ Chamtrul Rinpoche

Imagine that you are on your deathbed, and that you are looking back in time to this moment that is happening right now. What would you have wished that you did?

If you can practice the buddhadharma from now, right up to your last breath, you will die with no regrets.

~ Chamtrul Rinpoche

( Picture of White Tara, Long-life deity)

When a river flows through a very wide valley, the flow of water is very weak. But where that valley narrows, the flow of water becomes powerful.

Likewise, a scattered mind has very little power, compared to when it is absorbed in concentration. The greater the concentrative absorption, the greater the power of the mind, and the greater the power of any practice that it engages in.

Without perfecting your absorbed concentration, your practice will never be as powerful as it can be.

~ Chamtrul Rinpoche

The result of your path is determined by your motivation, no matter what practice or action that you engage in. It is your motivation behind your practice or action that determines the type of momentum that is built up in your mind. For example, you could make thousands and thousands of lavish offerings at a buddhist shrine with the motivation of wishing that the positive karma ripens into a fortunate situation for yourself. But you would get closer to enlightenment by making just one single offering of anything anywhere with the motivation of bodhicitta.

No matter what practice or action that you engage in, it is so important to check your motivation, as it is only bodhicitta that will take you to buddhahood.

~ Chamtrul Rinpoche

(Often translated as the mind of enlightenment, bodhicitta is the compassionate wish to attain the enlightened state of a buddha for the benefit of all beings.)