Your up and down emotions are like clouds in the sky; beyond them, the real, basic human nature is clear and pure.
Be as careful as you can. Our minds are funny. Sometimes we are skeptical of things that are really worthwhile and completely accepting of things that we should avoid. Try to avoid extremes and follow the middle way, checking with wisdom wherever you go.
Real happiness in life starts when you begin to cherish others.
Once you realize the true evolution of your mental problems, you’ll never blame any other living being for how you feel.
Less desire means less pain.
If you have compassion in your everyday life, you collect the most extensive merit and purify much negative karma in a very short time. Many lifetimes, many eons of negative karma get purified. That helps you realize emptiness.
When you meet miserable conditions, it is extremely important to use skillful means. In other words, there is a meditation to mix with whatever suffering you experience. When you apply the teachings in this way, all sufferings are mixed with virtue. All experiences of suffering become virtue.
In Buddhism, we are not particularly interested in the quest for intellectual knowledge alone. We are much more interested in understanding what’s happening here and now, in comprehending our present experience, what we are at this very moment, our fundamental nature.
You are responsible for your own problems just as you’re responsible for your own liberation and enlightenment.