Stop Biting the Tail You're Chasing Quotes

“One very special piece of advice that Longchenpa gives is to forget yesterday’s suffering just like last night’s dream.”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Stop Biting the Tail You're Chasing: Using Buddhist Mind Training to Free Yourself from Painful Emotional Patterns

“This is the true difference between practitioners of lojong and ordinary people. Practitioners of lojong focus wholly on the goal of releasing emotional responses because they know that sooner or later their own responses will cause their own suffering. Practitioners of lojong are not concerned with the appearance of fairness and justice. Recall the example of Patrul Rinpoche, who dressed as a beggar and was unconcerned with being treated with respect and kindness when he was able to benefit the deceased. Recall the example of Geshe Ben, who saw his wish to get his own share of yogurt as his true enemy.”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Stop Biting the Tail You're Chasing: Using Buddhist Mind Training to Free Yourself from Painful Emotional Patterns

“They are not concerned with the need to enforce negative consequences on others. They are not worried about making sure that others get what they deserve. As practitioners of lojong, we must be extremely pragmatic. Allowing others to experience the natural consequences of their actions is something that we will have to accept if we are to find peace of mind. Concerning ourselves with the consequences of others’ actions gives rise to a state of mind that is resentful, angry, or wishes negativity on others, and that will only harm us in the end.”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Stop Biting the Tail You're Chasing: Using Buddhist Mind Training to Free Yourself from Painful Emotional Patterns

“If what happened cannot be changed, why worry? If it can be changed, why worry?”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Stop Biting the Tail You're Chasing: Using Buddhist Mind Training to Free Yourself from Painful Emotional Patterns

“Thinking about a physical irritation as small as a mosquito bite can really illustrate how suffering arises based on attachment to the body. When our identification and attachment are untempered and intense, we cannot help ourselves—we automatically engage in behavior that irritates and agitates what is already painful. We hurt ourselves, even though we are doing our best to relieve our own suffering. Isn’t this what we are doing all the time? When we attach to the physical experience of suffering, whether it be something as small as a mosquito bite or as painful as an illness such as cancer, even more pain is sure to follow.”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Stop Biting the Tail You're Chasing: Using Buddhist Mind Training to Free Yourself from Painful Emotional Patterns

“Until now, we may have told many stories to ourselves and others to explain or justify what has happened to us in our lives. We may have thought long and hard about how others caused us to suffer needlessly or unjustly. But if we take the time to look in the mirror, we begin to see through the storylines of our personal drama. We realize that our self-cherishing is the author, the director, and the star of everything that is happening around us. These outer enemies are just our partners in the dance of life, here for a moment and then gone. But our thoughts, feelings, and reactions to the people and events in our lives have endured, making these momentary encounters ever present and vivid within the mind. Thus our attachment to momentary happiness and suffering stays with us, and we have roiled in misery as a result.”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Stop Biting the Tail You're Chasing: Using Buddhist Mind Training to Free Yourself from Painful Emotional Patterns

“Our own master, Tsara Dharmakirti Rinpoche, also lived by this advice. He took the Way of a Bodhisattva as one of his heart practices, taking this text with him everywhere he traveled. There are many stories of him living by the words of Patrul Rinpoche and the other lojong masters. One story recounts how, after the Communist restructuring of Tibet, he was placed in charge of the tent where food for the local village was collected and distributed. At that time, the villagers could only eat their quota of food, and the distribution of food was highly regulated. Because our master was respected and revered by others, the women who oversaw the milk collection offered in secret to let him have as much milk as he wanted. Tsara Dharmakirti Rinpoche loved milk, and one day he went into the tent and lifted the lid on a large vat of milk, thinking of scooping up a ladleful. But before he did so, he thought about the suffering caused by focusing on personal wishes and desires. He put the lid back on the vat of milk and resolved to drink only black tea from then on.”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Stop Biting the Tail You're Chasing: Using Buddhist Mind Training to Free Yourself from Painful Emotional Patterns

“The great masters of the Buddhist tradition, as well as the Buddhist teachings on bodhichitta and lojong, teach us that self-protection is a tendency that needs to be reversed in order to experience genuine happiness”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Stop Biting the Tail You're Chasing: Using Buddhist Mind Training to Free Yourself from Painful Emotional Patterns