21 Enlightenment Quotes By Tulku Thondup Rinpoche

Tulku Thondup Rinpoche was born in Golok, Amdo, in 1939. He was recognized at the age of 4 as the reincarnation of Konme Khenpo, a famous scholar of the Dodrupchen monastery.

For the past 30 years, Rinpoche has lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he translates, writes, and teaches under the auspices of the Buddhayana Foundation.

According to Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, when we awaken loving-kindness through spiritual practice, our outlook on life totally changes and we ourselves can become a true source of joy and inspiration to others.

Here are 21 enlightenment quotes by Tulku Thondup Rinpoche:

#1 ”We constantly bounce between hope and fear under the all-seeing eyes of some imagined higher authority or judge.”

#2 ”The mind is like the sea, which can be rough on the surface, with mountainous waves stirred up by ferocious wind, but calm and peaceful at the bottom.”

#3 ”Merging your awareness with the experience ensures the fruition of the meditation with the greatest certainty. Open awareness helps unite your mind with the result of healing.”

#4 ”Always we should appreciate what we are able to do, and not feel bad about what we haven’t done.”

#5 ”When we cross the gates of death, our karma is all we take with us. Everything else that we enjoyed in this life we leave behind.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BD5P-dEOfWY/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

#6 ”Our mental attitudes and concepts are formed by habits that are totally conditioned by physical and external circumstances and they are enslaved by those circumstances.”

#7 ”Our perceptions are soaked in this judgmental mentality.”

#8 “It can be so empowering for us to understand, even on a conceptual level, that we are enlightened in our true nature.”

#9 ”You become what you are seeing, hearing, and feeling.”

#10 ”The goal is to calmly enjoy the particular experience, resting in awareness of what you are feeling, without grasping at it or analyzing it or needing to think about it in words. Just remain one with the experience, in open awareness, in silence, like water that has merged in water.”

#11 ”The true nature or the intrinsic awareness (Tib., rig pa) of the mind is utmost peaceful, omniscient and fully enlightened, as the sky is always pure and clear.”

#12 ”If you can solve your problem, Then what is the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, Then what is the use of worrying?”

#13 ”While the details of our habits differ across cultures, we all share, regardless where we’re from, a mentality of seeing the world in terms of rewards and penalties for right and wrong.”

#14 ”Our karma is the only thing that will count in determining our rebirth, for our next life is nothing but the effects of our karmic tendencies that materialize in our perception.”

#15 ”Every now and then a spiritual or secular giant of unimaginable power appears on the world stage to bring order and harmony.”

#16 ”If a person’s mind is open, peaceful and kind, all his or her thoughts and efforts will benefit himself or herself and others.”

#17 ”Karma isn’t fate. Nor is it a punishment imposed on us by some external agent. We create our own karma. Karma is the result of the choices that we make every moment of every day.”

#18 ”In order to refrain from committing any evil deeds, one must persistently follow the guideline of physical and mental disciplines.”

#19 ”When we are self-critical—thinking, say, that our meditation was too short or not good enough—we take away from its power to help us.”

#20 “Even if you have a lot of work to do, if you think of it as wonderful, and if you feel it as wonderful, it will transform into the energy of joy and fire, instead of becoming a burden.” 

#21 ”When we contemplate our mortality and the increments of life, it is hard not to feel a sense of urgency to make the most of our precious human life.”