Top 240 Quotes & Sayings by Tenzin Palmo - Page 4

Until time and space exist... I vow to come back for the benefit of other beings.

I think if you really start practicing, the energy comes. I was always very happy and grateful for the opportunity to have the time, solitude and good health to be able to do it.

I remember asking my mother if she believed in reincarnation and she said that that sounded very sensible, and I thought, yes, it does to me too. So I always believed in it. I can't remember when I didn't.

We don't want to go to heaven. We want to be reborn so that we can keep going and realize the dharma so we can benefit other beings, endlessly. It's a very different thing.

Monastic life cuts off the distractions and emotional entanglements one becomes involved in, in the lay life.

The very best players, when they are practicing, put everything they've got into it. But then they leave it for a while. And it's the same in dharma practice.

We're always given the message that our potential is so limited, which is so sad. Actually, our potential is infinite.

People talk over and over about bodhichitta, but so often their heart is quite cold.

My body is not good for prostrations.

Caves are beautiful things you know. They're thermostatically controlled - warm when it's cold out and cool when it's warm. Very quiet. Nobody there. Especially in the winter - it was perfect. Also, because it's a cave, you can't do much with it.

If you go to any nunnery and ask them what the main obstacle is, they'll always say low self-esteem and lack of confidence. It will take time. But the difference between the first girls from Ladakh who became nuns, to the girls we have now, is very encouraging.

If you just follow your inner calling, then you just go ahead.

The Buddha said that samsara by its nature is painful. He didn't say it was a joyride.

Different people are different.

In the early '60s there was very little reliable information on Tibetan Buddhism. I was living in London and I had joined the Buddhist Society. For the most part, people there were either interested in Theravada or Zen Buddhism. There was almost no one into Tibetan Buddhism at that time.

A dog, however nice he is, and sweet-tempered, doesn't have much of a range of options. A human being does.

The dharma is here. And the dharma is in your heart. Where else would it be?

When I was in retreat I just did my meditation sessions and, in-between, reading and things I had to do.

I think, for East and West, the first thing we need is a good grounding in basic Buddhadharma.

I don't know why I got reborn as a female. Maybe in my past life I had some sympathy or something for women, but I certainly wasn't a female last time.

We're not lowly sinners, we're not worthless beings. We are something jewel-like and beautiful.

You have to recharge your batteries.

In Dharma practice, the most important thing is to be very sincere.

Everyone should not be ordained, but for those who really feel that the only thing that matters in this world is the Dharma, then it is a logical step to adopt a form of life that automatically precludes worldly distractions.

Other people may tell us, "Oh, you're so much nicer." Of course you can't hope that other people will tell you that you're so much nicer, but that's always a good sign. Perhaps people find that you're easier to live with.

To be a nun is a very great blessing. It's a great inspiration to think that the Sangha goes all the way back to the Buddha and that so many fantastic, really truly-realized beings have been ordained. Thinking of all those members, such a wonderful, exalted and holy order - I love the Sangha.

We're not making up merit scores for ourselves. We're making up merit scores so that we can be reborn in a situation where we can really live to benefit ourselves and others.

When I look back I feel very grateful.

Forget about realizing shunyata and going on the different bhumis and all this. Just stay in the moment, stay aware, be kind and try to improve your mind.

If nuns begin getting more empowered, where does that leave us?

At the age of 21 I was so sensible and became a nun. I am very grateful to myself for that.

Western Tibetan Buddhists are always looking out there at the distant snow peaks and they lose the flowers along the path.

We have the pure nature of the mind.

If you're born in the higher realms, then it's too pleasant, and you don't have any incentive to practice. If you're born in the lower realms, you don't have any opportunity to practice.

Women are fully capable of doing everything.

When you learn an instrument, it takes an awful lot of time to just learn the scales, and then eventually when you have completely mastered the instrument, the music plays for you. But you still have to keep practicing. And it takes an awful lot of practice. Nonetheless, if you diligently practice, hours and hours and hours and hours, you probably won't get it. You'll probably just end up hurting your fingers.

The new nuns don't know that they're 'supposed' to be meek and submissive, and so in many ways they believe they can do anything, because they've seen the earlier ones do it. In this way, there's nothing for them to doubt.

Why are we sitting? Why are we practicing? Why are we doing anything? It's not so I can be happy. It's so I can embody the dharma in order to benefit other beings.

Until you are open, you cannot receive.

There are wars, there's pestilence, there are plagues, there is corruption in religious circles, corruption in the government, when was it not?

Obviously being relaxed doesn't mean that you make no effort.

I think many monks hesitate to change things.

Once one has understand what is Buddhadharma, what is not Buddhadharma, and once one has had enough view to see the different approaches, then it's important to really look at what speaks to one's heart.

There is a basic problem that a lot of Western monks and nuns become ordained without really understanding or appreciating what the monastic life is all about.

Joining the Sangha and renouncing worldly life is necessary in order to devote your whole life and all your energies toward the Dharma.

We try to be present when we are drinking our tea, which isn't as easy as it sounds. It's very easy to think, right now I'm going to be really present while I'm drinking my tea, here I am drinking my tea, and I'm so present, look this is easy, I am here drinking my tea and I know I'm drinking my tea blah blah blah blah... right? And the one place where the mind is not, is here. It's just thinking about being here.

If you lose interest in the dharma, then you might be reborn in a place where you are unlikely to meet with the dharma. And then you're completely off the path.

One has to find a balance. I don't say that when you leave it you forget all about the dharma or practice, but there have to be times when you throw yourself into it, and then there are times when you just relax and realize that wherever you go, you cannot get out of the dharma.

You can certainly learn how to rest in the nature of the mind.

The Dharma is a very, very special and precious thing. The more you practice it, the more you will realize this.

Tibetans - at least traditionally - are so totally permeated with the dharma that they don't see any difference between dharma and everyday life, really. And therefore they enjoy it because they don't make a separation.

Yes, times are not good, but when were times good? This is samsara.

The nature of the mind is completely incredible.

For so many centuries women have been suppressed and regarded as inferior. And that of course is not right at all, that we all have buddha-nature - so what's the difference?

Learn not to be too ambitious; not to expect if you have a 9-to-5 job and three kids, that you're likely to get buddhahood in one lifetime.

The real spiritual power is enabling beings to realize the nature of the mind. That's the power of Buddha activity.

Don't be thinking that this lama over there is giving better teachings or that this lama over here is giving more secret initiations. Leave that. Just keep the practice very simple, try to stay in the moment and try to stay mindful.

People should find what approach really speaks to them, and then do it. Obviously, better with a good teacher, who can help you on the path. But in any case, basic principles.

To want not to want, you'll tie yourself in knots. So this is why the Tibetans always say, just relax the mind and open.

All the other religions I had ever read about dealt with the idea of God, and your relationship with God. Buddhism is the only religion that deals with man himself and the nature of the mind - how to deal with yourself and your condition, here and now, as opposed to having to deal with something outside yourself.