Buddhist Practice Quotes

“Dāna isn’t about how much I give. It’s about how tightly I was holding on before I let go. The real practice starts when something in me says, “Mine. Keep it.” That’s the moment I look at my hand, look at my heart, and ask whether I really need to keep my grip.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Ten Pāramīs

“I know renunciation is developing when a want can be loud and still not run the next move.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Ten Pāramīs

“Wisdom gets practical the moment I catch what happened turning into my story about what happened. Paññā asks me not to confuse the two. But it is larger than that. It trains the mind to penetrate experience more accurately, understand what is actually happening, and become less governed by confusion.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Ten Pāramīs

“Viriya gets very simple: see what needs to be done, get up, and do it. Then, when I get tired, distracted, discouraged, or knocked off course, I come back and do it again. That’s the practice.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Ten Pāramīs

“Something can hurt, anger can arrive, and I still do not have to let aversion choose what I do next. Dhammapāla’s khanti is the acceptance and endurance of what is difficult without being conquered by anger or opposition. One place I practice that is the first wave: noticing anger or resistance before I turn it into speech or action. I may not like what is happening. I may work to change it. But the reaction does not automatically get the next move.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Ten Pāramīs

“Adhiṭṭhāna asks a harder question than “Can I refuse to quit?” It asks what I have actually committed myself to and whether that direction genuinely leads toward awakening. The method may change. The commitment is supposed to survive the change. My recurring test is whether I am adapting the route or quietly abandoning the direction.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Ten Pāramīs

“Mettā gets harder the minute goodwill has to survive conflict. Dhammapāla puts the welfare of beings at the center and describes the quality as benevolence, shaped by compassion and skillful means. In practice, I may have to say no, set a boundary, walk away, or hold someone accountable and still refuse to make their suffering the goal.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Ten Pāramīs

“I can care deeply about someone and still lose my balance around what I want from them. Upekkhā asks something harder: can I stay involved without letting hope, fear, or somebody else’s choices decide who I am going to be?”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Ten Pāramīs

“You are becoming whatever you keep practicing. Resentment, patience, grasping, truthfulness, avoidance, mettā, all of it gets stronger with repetition. So do not try to fix all ten pāramīs at once. Look at where you keep losing your footing, start there, and practice something different. Drop by drop, that becomes a life.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Ten Pāramīs

“Sacca is simple: do not knowingly make what is false appear true. Say what happened. Admit what you do not know. Own what you did. Keep your word when keeping it costs you something. And watch what happens when the story starts shifting because the truth is embarrassing, inconvenient, or bad for the image you would rather present. Dhammapāla anchors all of this in one specific traditional center: non-deceptiveness in speech.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Ten Pāramīs

“My values are easy to name. Sīla shows me whether my behavior can be trusted when anger, fear, desire, or convenience gives me every reason to make an exception.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Ten Pāramīs

“You are practicing something every day, whether you mean to or not. Resentment. Generosity. Grasping. Patience. Deception. Truthfulness. The pāramīs simply make you look at what you keep rehearsing and ask the question that matters: Is this really the person I want to become?”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Ten Pāramīs

“In Buddhist practice, the outward and inward aspects of taking the one seat meet on our meditation cushion.”
― Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life

“Life is but a wheel
Cycling birth and death around
Like seasons changing”
― Eric Overby, Senses

“Where does my next thought come from?
Hold your next thought as long as you can,
Try it.
It’s like holding water in your hands.
Like holding fog.
Allusory.
A new one springs up
From the nowhere
And dissipates as quickly.”
― Eric Overby, Legacy

“Although each of the yanas, or vehicles (theg-pa) to enlightenment, is perfectly correct and sufficient to catry the practitioner to liberation, each of them possesses its own definitive view and its own particular methods, as explained in the introduction above. However, Dzogchen Atiyoga represents their culmination in therms of its being the view of the Dharmakaya itself. And since Dzogchen is itself not curtailed or restricted by any limitations in terms of practice, a Dzogchenpa, or Dzogchen practitioner, is able to use any of the methods found in these other vehicles and practice them when found useful or necessary. But this is always done while maintaining the Dzogchen point of view. Once having ascended to the summit of the mountain peak of Dzogchen, we should not retrace our steps to any lesser view, for this would create an obstacle to our further development. In terms of the spiritual path of liberation and enlightenment, the higher level of teaching includes and enhances the lower levels of teaching, rather than excluding them. Thus all of the methods found in the Sutras and the Tantras lie open to the Dzogchenpa, but such a practice is not thereby limited by them. The practice should be tailored to the individual, to his or her needs and capacities, and not coercing the individual to fit the mold of the practice. This is a profound point and should be understood well. Thus is says in the text {the Conclusion of Patrul's "Special Teaching of the Wise and Glorious King"} that all of the methods of found in the eight lower vehicles, that is, the Sutras and the Tantras, accompany the view of Dzogchen as its friends and helpers.”
― John Myrdhin Reynolds, The Golden Letters: The Tibetan Teachings of Garab Dorje, First Dzogchen Master