Shabkar > Quotes

“My native land is all lands,
In no particular direction.
My monastery is the solitary mountains,
In no particular place.
My family is all the beings of the six realms.”
― Shabkar

“In the beginning I took the teacher as the teacher,
In the middle I took the scriptures as the teacher,
In the end I took my own mind as the teacher.”
― Shabkar, The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin

“If someone has compassion, he is a Buddha;
Without compassion, he is a Lord of Death.
With compassion, the root of Dharma is planted,
Without compassion, the root of Dharma is rotten.
One with compassion is kind even when angry,
One without compassion will kill even as he smiles.
For one with compassion, even his enemies will turn into friends,
Without compassion, even his friends turn into enemies.
With compassion, one has all Dharmas,
Without compassion, one has no Dharma at all.
With compassion, one is a Buddhist,
Without compassion, one is worse than a heretic.
Even if meditating on voidness, one needs compassion as its essence.
A Dharma practitioner must have a compassionate nature.
Compassion is the distinctive characteristic of Buddhism.
Compassion is the very essence of all Dharma.
Great compassion is like a wish-fulfilling gem.
Great compassion will fulfill the hopes of self and others.
Therefore, all of you, practitioners and laypeople,
Cultivate compassion and you will achieve Buddhahood.
May all men and women who hear this song,
With great compassion, benefit all beings!”
― Shabkar, The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin

“All appearances are vast openness,
Blissful and utterly free.

With a free, happy mind
I sing this song of joy.

When one looks toward one's own mind -
The root of all phenomena -
There is nothing but vivid emptiness,
Nothing concrete there to be taken as real.

It is present and transparent, utter openness,
Without outside, without inside -
An all pervasiveness
Without boundary and without direction.

The wide-open expanse of the view,
The true condition of the mind,
Is like the sky, like space:
Without center, without edge, without goal.

By leaving whatever i experience
Relaxed in ease, just as it is,
I have arrived at the vast plain
That is the absolute expanse.

Dissolving into the expanse of emptiness
That has no limits and no boundary,
Everything i see, everything i hear,
My own mind, and the sky all merge.

Not once has the notion arisen
Of these being seperate and distinct.

In the absolute expanse of awareness
All things are blended into that single taste -
But, relatively, each and every phenomenom is distinctly,
clearly seen.

Wondrous!”
― Shabkar, The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin

“The root of all that exists,
Samsara and nirvana, is one's own mind.
Primordially, mind is emptiness.

Merge into the sky-like absolute expanse,
Empty, luminous, beyond clinging.

Outside, inside; eyes open or closed,
Day, night; asleep or awake:
No difference.

During practice, after practice,
Mind, appearances:
Blend them.

Continuously, without wavering,
Merge completely with this vibrant, sky-like state.”
― Shabkar, The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin