CTR Quote of the Week

One of the problems connected with intellect and intellectual understanding is that, if we look for and come up with answers, conclusions, logical deductions, we

Many people believe that if you sit and meditate a lot, you don’t have to read or study anything at all. They say that just

If you want to stop a war, you have to stop your pain, your version of the war. You have to relate with your own

The past is fiction, and the future is a dream, and we are just living on the edge of a razor blade. It is extraordinarily

We are involved in a sense of struggle in our lives. We are trying to defeat somebody or win somebody over, to get rid of

Mandala is a way of looking at situations in terms of relativity: if that exists, this exists; if this exists, that exists. Things exist interdependently,

Dancing to the music of life is living with the four seasons, to use the metaphor of how a plant grows throughout the year. This

When you are in direct contact with life, rather than strategizing a result, the situation automatically provides you with your next move. Life becomes like

Mystical experience lies in our actual living situation. It’s a question of relating with the body, the physical situation. If you put your hand on

In working with others, the approach of genuine spirituality is to just do it, just help. If you’re doing it unskillfully, you’ll be pushed back.

Here is the really good news: We are intrinsically buddha, or intrinsically awake, and we are intrinsically good. Without exception, and without the need for

Buddha can’t be avoided. Buddha is everywhere. Enlightenment possibilities are all over the place. Whether you’re going to get married tomorrow, whether you’re going to

People often talk about trying to hold back their tears, but as human beings, we should take pride in our capacity to be sad and

We have a fear of facing ourselves. That is the obstacle. Experiencing the innermost core of our existence is very embarrassing to a lot of

From the genuine spiritual point of view, as opposed to an idealized viewpoint, society is an extremely potent arena, full of vibrant qualities of energy.

Do you think spirituality is something purely transcendental? It’s questionable. Real spirituality might have something to do with ordinary life. If spirituality does have something

When you begin to see your own karmic situation, including your aggression and other emotions, what you are seeing is what the Buddha calls the

If anybody asks if Buddhists believe in reincarnation, you should say, “As Buddhists we don’t believe in any dogma. We believe what we experience.” That’s

Sometimes in meditation there is a gap in normal consciousness, a sudden complete openness. This only arises when one has ceased to think in terms

Free oneself from memories of, and conceptions about, meditation. Each moment of meditation is completely unique and full of the potentiality of new discovery, so

In meditation see through the illusion of past, present and future. The past is but a present memory or condition, the future a present projection,

Meditation is always perfect, so there is no need to correct anything. Since everything that arises is simply the play of the mind, there are

One should think of meditation as just a natural function of everyday life, like eating or breathing, not as a special, formal event to be

In meditation one should get the feeling of opening oneself out completely to the whole universe with absolute simplicity and nakedness of mind, ridding oneself