Lamrim Quotes

“Next, to meditate the spirit of enlightenment, while meditating the master-deity on your head, reflect in the following manner: If I ask myself whether I now have the ability to establish all sentient beings in complete and perfect Buddhahood, I will have to admit that I do not have the ability to establish so much […]

“Who should these poor mother sentient beings put their hope in, if not me? Who does the responsibility of freeing these mothers fall upon, if not me? Nothing could be a more shameful and embarrassing act than ignoring these kind mothers and selfishly working only to free yourself from samsara!…Now I shall ignore myself and, by every […]

“Ever-enhancing your enlightened motive of bodhicitta is the central axle of the Mahayana path. It is the basis and foundation for great waves of (enlightening) conduct. Like a gold-making elixir, (it turns) everything (you do) into the two collections, (building up) a treasure of merit gathered from infinitely collected virtues. Knowing this, bodhisattvas hold this […]

“The observed objects of compassion are sentient beings who suffer due to any of the three kinds of suffering. Its aspect is the thought: “If only they were free from these sufferings,” “May they be free from them,” and “I will free them from them.” The sequence of the meditations is to meditate on compassion […]

“The way to cultivate love is as follows. Just as you can develop compassion once you have repeatedly thought about how living beings are made miserable by suffering, develop love by thinking repeatedly about how living beings lack all happiness, both contaminated and uncontaminated. When you become familiar with this, you will naturally wish for […]

“Having first generated sympathetic love For all sentient beings, Think of all of them without exception Undergoing the sufferings of the three lower realms, Of birth, of dying and the like, And with the wish to free beings From the pain of manifest suffering, From the suffering [of change] and from their causes, Generate the […]

“Meditating on repaying kindness [which all sentient beings have shown you when they were your mother in previous lives]: 1. Even though you do not recognize them due to birth, death, and transmigration, it would be shameful 2. To neglect those who have been kind does not accord with the well-mannered 3. As it would […]

“When you were reborn as wild animals, your mothers treated you with loving kindness and looked after you. When your mother was a bird, for example, she shielded you with her wings for nearly a month. And if enemies threatened, such as a man with a stick, she would protect her precious chick with her […]

“Why is it necessary to train one’s mind according to the seven-point instruction, causes and effect, which is the tradition of the great Lord, the glorious Atisha? Buddhahood originates in the spirit of enlightenment, which in turn arises from the superior intention. This proceeds from compassion, which arises from love. The latter derives from repaying […]

“Even implacable foes of past lives Have become friends in this life, and done me service. Past lives’ friends, too, become in this life Real foes, who even attack my life. Even in this life, from early to later parts, In every year and month and day, And moment by moment, friends and foes change. […]