-- Traleg Kyabgon, from "The Practice of Lojong: Cultivating Compassion
through Training the Mind", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava says:
+
+ If you want to go sightseeing, try touring your own clear,
+ mirrorlike mind instead.
+
+ What technique can we use to effectively start our journey to realizing
+our natural, pristine state?
+ The clearest instructions for doing this come from Guru Rinpoche
+Padmasambhava, the main architect of the Pristine Mind teachings. Guru
+Rinpoche has given us the essential opening instructions for practicing
+Pristine Mind meditation in four steps:
+
+ Don’t follow the past.
+ Don’t anticipate the future.
+ Remain in the present moment.
+ Leave your mind alone.
+
+ We must understand these instructions. They are designed to help us stay
+in the present moment. Some other forms of meditation teachings say that
+remaining in the present moment is the ultimate objective of meditation.
+However, the present moment itself is not ultimate reality, ultimate truth, or
+the ultimate goal of Pristine Mind meditation. Nor is it what I mean when I
+refer to our fundamental nature. Instead, being in the present moment, with
+our mind calm and relaxed, simply creates the right conditions to begin to
+connect with our Pristine Mind.
+ --Excerpted from "Our Pristine Mind: A Practical Guide to Unconditional
+ Happiness", by Orgyen Chowang, published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+Some people think that causes are not necessary. They think that things do
+not need causes and can exist without them. This is mistaken. Think about
+it. If you plant a seed in a flowerpot, a flower will grow. It will not grow
+from this table in front of me now. What is the reason for that? The causes
+for a flower are present in a flowerpot, and for that reason a flower can grow
+there. The causes for a flower are not present on the surface of this table,
+and for that reason a flower cannot grow there. If things arose in the
+absence of causes, a flower would have to be able to grow from the surface of
+this table even though the causes for a flower are not present there. Or, as
+we know, flowers bloom in the summer but not in the winter. What is the
+reason for that? In the summer, the causes and conditions for the growth of
+flowers are complete. In the winter, they are not. In dependence upon that,
+flowers grow in the summer but not in the winter. If causes were not
+necessary, flowers would grow in the winter also. They would grow at all
+times.
+ -- Khenchen Thrangu, "Essential Practice: Lectures on Kamalashīla’s
+ Stages of Meditation in the Middle Way School", published by Shambhala
+ Publications
+~
+ Human beings have many kinds of suffering. Some human beings are put into
+prisons. Some are destitute. Some are enslaved by others. Thus, they are
+not actually hell-beings, but their sufferings are like those of hell-beings;
+they are not actually hungry ghosts, but their sufferings are like those of
+hungry ghosts; and they are not actually animals, but their sufferings are
+like those of animals. We think in that way about the sufferings that human
+beings experience. Some human beings are wealthy and comfortable. However,
+that wealth and comfort does not last for a very long time. Not being able to
+enjoy wealth and comfort for a long time, in the end suffering comes to them
+too. When we think about the suffering that they experience, compassion
+arises.
+ The demigods suffer from continual jealousy of and warfare with the gods
+of the Desire Realm. As for the gods, though comfortable temporarily, later
+they fall down into painful situations and, at the time of falling, they
+suffer greatly. Similarly, even the gods of the Form Realm and the Formless
+Realm cannot just stay there. They fall down to the states of hell-beings,
+hungry ghosts, animals, humans, and so forth. When they fall, mentally they
+suffer greatly. Therefore, sentient beings born in the states of the six
+wanderers have nothing but suffering. If we think about that, compassion can
+arise.
+ -- Khenchen Thrangu, "Essential Practice: Lectures on Kamalashīla’s
+ Stages of Meditation in the Middle Way School", published by Shambhala
+ Publications
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