+~
+Imagination relies on empty perception. Painting relies on empty planes.
+Sculpture relies on empty space. Music relies on empty time. Literature
+relies on empty concepts. If we are to realize the art of freedom, if we are
+to discover our creative potential, we need to rely on the experience of our
+intrinsic vibrant emptiness--the beginningless ground of what we are.
+ -- Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, from "Roaring Silence: Discovering
+ the Mind of Dzogchen", published by Shambhala Publications and Snow Lion
+ Publications.
+~
+Detachment doesn't mean "throw it away" or "don't have feelings
+about it." It definitely does not mean denying or obstructing the mind's
+natural tendency to project. Imagine you are about to go into a cotton
+factory. Before entering you pour glue all over your body, and then you
+demand, "I don't want any cotton balls to stick to my body, but I won't
+remove the glue from my body either." Then you enter the cotton factory.
+Of course the glue, by its nature, makes cotton balls stick to you. In
+meditative language, that kind of stickiness is called deliberation or
+fabrication, and here we call it the state of nondetachment. The state of
+nondetachment is when you get entangled and you make the story line similar to
+that of a daytime soap opera in which four characters go on for twenty years.
+It keeps on multiplying and you exaggerate the situation. You create a state
+in your mind that is full of grasping, clinging, and attachment.
+ -- Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche from "The Healing Power of Meditation: Leading
+ Experts on Buddhism, Psychology, and Medicine Explore the Health Benefits
+ of Contemplative Practice", edited by Andy Fraser, published by Shambhala
+ Publications and Snow Lion Publications.
+~
+ According to Sthiramati, though samsara has the nature of nirvana, in
+ordinary beings true reality is obscured by their tendencies of clinging to a
+self and really existing phenomena. Thus, they do not see emptiness, which
+actually exists, but they naturally perceive the actually nonexistent
+phenomena of apprehender and apprehended, just as when mistakenly not seeing
+an existent rope, but seeing it as a nonexistent snake.
+ Bodhisattvas lack the clinging to a self and phenomena and thus they
+naturally see true reality—emptiness—while not seeing any duality, just as
+correctly seeing an existent rope, while not seeing it as a nonexistent snake.
+When existent emptiness—true reality—is seen and the nonexistent
+characteristics of apprehender and apprehended are not seen anymore, the
+alaya-consciousness—the dependent nature—has undergone the fundamental
+change. This fundamental change is liberation and nirvana.
+ Just as people liberated from bondage can do what they please, once this
+fundamental change occurs, bodhisattvas are liberated because they have gained
+mastery over their minds, which abide like space without any appearance of
+characteristics. Thus, no matter what they encounter, they are able to act as
+they please without being bound by any attachment or aversion.
+ -- Karl Brunnhölzl, from "Mining for Wisdom within Delusion: Maitreya's
+ Distinction between Phenomena and the Nature of Phenomena and Its Indian
+ and Tibetan Commentaries", published by Shambhala Publications and Snow
+ Lion Publications
+~
+Our awareness of feelings in the body and mind ranges from simple frustration
+and malaise to anguish, despair, and white-hot physical pain, and from simple
+pleasures to extraordinary ecstasy. As we become clearly cognizant of the
+bandwidth of our own feelings, we direct our awareness externally. We become
+vividly aware that myriad sentient beings around us are not simply objects of
+our pleasure, displeasure, or indifference, but have feelings just like ours.
+By turning our awareness outward and closely applying mindfulness to other
+sentient beings, we can empathize with their feelings. When we empathize with
+another's suffering and we attend closely, compassion arises. The suffering
+of unpleasant feelings is the very source of the experience of compassion.
+ -- B. Alan Wallace, in "Minding Closely: The Four Applications of
+ Mindfulness", works published by Shambhala Publications and Snow Lion
+ Publications
+~
+It is our aim to have genuine loving-kindness toward all sentient beings
+because we see them suffering. In the Mahayana tradition, it says that
+through our innumerable lifetimes, at some time or other, every single
+sentient being has been in the relation to us of our mother, our friends, or
+someone who has helped us. We look at all sentient beings in this way. We
+feel a deep yearning to help them because they have helped us. When we
+contemplate in this way, we find that some kind of compassion begins to take
+place.
+ -- Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in "The Tibetan Buddhism Reader", published by
+ Shambhala Publications
+~
+If there is one constant tendency of our fickle and ever-changing minds, it is
+our strong predilection for ordinary distractions. Until we learn to master
+our thoughts and attain true stability of mind, our commitment is bound to be
+hesitant, and we run the risk of being distracted by activities with little
+true meaning, wasting our life and the precious opportunities for the Dharma
+it has brought us. To postpone the practice of Dharma until tomorrow is
+tantamount to postponing it till we die.
+ -- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Padampa Sangye, in "The Hundred Verses of
+ Advice: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on What Matters Most", published by
+ Shambhala Publications
+~
+The dharma is based on honesty, on not having self-deception of any kind.
+When the dharma says blue, it is blue; when it says red, it is red. Dharma is
+like saying fire is hot, or the sky is blue: it is speaking the truth. The
+difference is that dharma is the truth of the reality of the journey toward
+freedom. Saying that red is red does not particularly liberate you from
+seeing green or yellow. But when dharma speaks about reality, we see that it
+is worth stepping out of our little world of habitual patterns, our little
+nest. In that way, the dharma brings greater vision.
+ -- Chögyam Trungpa, from "The Path of Individual Liberation, Volume One of
+ The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma", published by Shambhala
+ Publications
+~
+ So, what makes you a Buddhist? You may not have been born in a Buddhist
+country or to a Buddhist family, you may not wear robes or shave your head,
+you may eat meat and idolize Eminem and Paris Hilton. That doesn't mean you
+cannot be a Buddhist. In order to be a Buddhist, you must accept that all
+compounded phenomena are impermanent, all emotions are pain, all things have
+no inherent existence, and enlightenment is beyond concepts.
+ It's not necessary to be constantly and endlessly mindful of these four
+truths. But they must reside in your mind. You don't walk around
+persistently remembering your own name, but when someone asks your name, you
+remember it instantly. There is no doubt. Anyone who accepts these four
+seals, even independently of Buddha's teachings, even never having heard the
+name Shakyamuni Buddha, can be considered to be on the same path as he.
+ -- Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, from "What Makes You Not a Buddhist",
+ published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+The self-centered thought is not who we are. The self-centered thought is
+different from the mind that wants to be happy because we’re sentient
+beings. Everybody wants to be happy. There’s no problem with wanting to be
+happy. The problem is the way the self-centered thought goes about thinking
+of our happiness and the way it goes about getting happiness. It is a
+distorted mental state that can be eliminated by seeing its disadvantages,
+applying the antidotes, and cultivating the mind that cherishes others.
+ - Thubten Chodron, from "Don’t Believe Everything You Think: Living with
+ Wisdom and Compassion", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+ According to the sutras, numerous eons ago, when the Buddha was an ordinary
+being, he took rebirth in a hell realm. He suffered gravely there as a result
+of his past negative karma.
+ He and a companion were forced to pull a wheel of fire on which a wrathful
+hell-guard was sitting, holding a burning club with which to beat them. His
+companion was so weak that he couldn’t pull the wheel anymore. The hell-
+guard stabbed his companion with a burning trident. His companion kept crying
+loudly and bleeding profusely. At that moment, with strong love and
+compassion, the Buddha developed enlightened aspiration, a vow to take
+responsibility for helping his companion and all the suffering beings from the
+depth of his heart, and he became a bodhisattva for the first time.
+ The bodhisattva begged the hell-guard, "Please have a little mercy on my
+suffering companion." At that, in a rage the hellguard hit him with a
+burning trident. Because of the power of his strong compassion, the
+bodhisattva died and was liberated from the hell-realm. His evil deeds of
+many eons were purified instantly by the power of such enlightened aspiration.
+Thereafter, he started his journey toward the fully enlightened state of
+buddhahood.
+ -- Tulku Thondup, from "Incarnation: The History and Mysticism of the Tulku
+ Tradition of Tibet"
+