Generating Bodhicitta: (Penguin Petit)

by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche

The most urgent and fundamental political problem is to restore to people an insight into the power and freedom of their attention.

He points to the three types of spiritual practitioners: the wise, the wiser and the wisest. The wise ones strive for happy future lives whereas the wiser ones will attempt to attain liberation from cyclic existence. The wisest, however, will opt to realize the ultimate goal of enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.

His Holiness urges us to seek inner refuge and remove the delusions and emotional afflictions from the mind, and thus facilitate valid perception. Purifying the mind and generating inner qualities cannot be achieved by somebody else. We have to take responsibility for our liberation

He wants us to avoid grasping at material objects and seek instead an indestructible understanding of the ultimate nature of the mind.

The essence of the spiritual path is the good heart and the greatest, highest good heart is bodhicitta—the determination to become a Buddha in order to liberate all sentient beings from suffering.

six perfections—generosity, discipline, patience, energy, meditation and wisdom.

if during our lifetime we refrain from committing negative actions, death won’t be difficult to face and it can be a joyous experience like that of a child coming home.

Even though things and the self appear as self-existent, they are the sport of emptiness, like a magician’s creations. A firm faith thus arises from understanding the true nature of reality as emptiness.

The desire-laden thrust into the future prevents people from living on a second-to-second basis, but apparently, as is obvious from the lives of the Lamas, realizing emptiness might create the magic moment when life is as it should be.

In this life, everything that comes to us is, directly or indirectly, due to the kindness of others. We buy food from others in the market; the clothing we wear and the houses we live in depend upon the help of others. And to attain the ultimate goals of nirvana and Buddhahood, we are completely dependent upon others; without them we would be unable to meditate upon love, compassion, trust, and so forth, and thus could not generate spiritual experiences. Also, any meditation teaching we receive has come from the

We meditate upon the precious nature and unique opportunities of human existence, which makes us appreciate our situation. We then meditate upon impermanence and death, which helps us transcend grasping at the petty aspects of life and directs our mind to search for spiritual knowledge.