127 Quotes by Sogyal Rinpoche

Let the sky outside awake a sky inside your mind.

Whatever you do, don’t shut off your pain. Accept your pain and remain vulnerable. However desperate you become, don’t shut off your pain because it is in fact trying to hand you a precious gift – the chance of discovery through spiritual practice, what lies behind sorrow. And don’t we know and only far too well, that protection from pain doesn’t work. And when we try and defend ourselves from suffering, we only suffer more and don’t learn what we can from experience.

The absolute truth cannot be realized within the domain of the ordinary mind, and the path beyond the ordinary mind is the path of the heart.

Tibetan thangka paintings and derive strength from their beauty.

Just because we go through a difficult situation, it doesn’t mean that the future is predetermined. The future is very much in our hands, in our actions.

When I came to the West, I realized there was much hunger for spiritual teachings, but no environment for spirituality.

Just as if you put your finger into water, it will get wet, and if you put it into fire, it will burn, so if you invest your mind in the wisdom mind of the Buddhas, it will transform into their wisdom nature.

I can’t say it strongly enough; to integrate meditation in action is the whole ground and point and purpose of meditation.

There are so many ways of making the approach to meditation as joyful as possible. You can find the music that most exalts you and use it to open your heart and mind. You can collect pieces of poetry, or quotations of lines of teachings that over the years have moved you, and keep them always at hand to elevate your spirit.