Lodro Rinzler > Quotes

“Patience from a Buddhist perspective is not a "wait and see" attitude, but rather one of "just be there"... Patience can also be based on not expecting anything.Think of patience as an act of being open to whatever comes your way. When you begin to solidify expectations, you get frustrated because they are not met in the way you had hoped... With no set idea of how something is supposed to be, it is hard to get stuck on things not happening in the time frame you desired. Instead, you are just being there, open to the possibilities of your life.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into a Bar . . .: A Guide to Life for a New Generation

“You let your motivation shine, and other people are attracted to your passion and commitment.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into a Bar . . .: A Guide to Life for a New Generation

“It is the fact that we long for what we don’t have, and that makes us unhappy. It is the fact that when we get what we longed for, we’re already thinking about something new that could entertain us.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into a Bar . . .: A Guide to Life for a New Generation

“One of the beautiful things about Buddhism is that it does not worship Buddha as a god or deity, but instead celebrates the Buddha as an example of a normal person like you and me who applied a good deal of discipline and gentleness to his meditation practice, and ended up opening his mind and heart in a very big way.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into a Bar . . .: A Guide to Life for a New Generation

“So much of our pain comes from looking at our life in a “me” versus “the world” mentality.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into a Bar . . .: A Guide to Life for a New Generation

“If you are constantly solidifying strong opinions and expectations, it is just as if you are sticking an arrow in your eye.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into a Bar . . .: A Guide to Life for a New Generation

“You may not have spent years meditating or received instruction from all the best teachers in all the various philosophical schools. That does not mean you can’t open your heart to the world and make a difference. You don’t have to wait until you’re enlightened. You don’t have to ask anyone’s permission. You just have to offer yourself, as you are, and allow your vulnerable heart to transform the world.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into a Bar . . .: A Guide to Life for a New Generation

“Knowing your intention is key in all things.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into the Office: A Guide to Livelihood for a New Generation

“Here’s the messed up thing: most of us take our ever-changing self and partner it to another ever-changing being, entering into an ever-changing romantic relationship, and think that all three of those things are supposed to come together in a way that is permanent and stable. It’s like multiplying impermanence times three and thinking we’re going to find everlasting happiness. In some sense, it’s foolish of us to think that we will go out and meet “the one” and will live happily ever after, based on how much everything morphs over time.”
― Lodro Rinzler, Love Hurts: Buddhist Advice for the Heartbroken

“If you can smile in the face of uncertainty, you are well trained.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into the Office: A Guide to Livelihood for a New Generation

“With care and consideration of your partner, falling in love does not have to be such a roller coaster; we just have to learn to handle our expectations.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into a Bar . . .: A Guide to Life for a New Generation

“buddha nature, or basic goodness.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into a Bar . . .: A Guide to Life for a New Generation

“The Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche once pointed out, “If you put one hundred percent of your heart into facing yourself, then you connect with this unconditional goodness. Whereas, if you only put fifty percent into the situation, you are trying to bargain with the situation, and nothing very much will happen.”
― Lodro Rinzler, Walk Like a Buddha: Even if Your Boss Sucks, Your Ex Is Torturing You, and You're Hungover Again

“One way to think of this dignity is to equate when you are on the path with unraveling a ball of yarn. You have wound your sense of self so tightly that it's hard to be anything other than you, a big ball of yarn. That's just who you are, not string, or threads, but a ball of yarn.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into a Bar . . .: A Guide to Life for a New Generation

“There is a fine line between being selfish—when your motivation is to do anything possible to make sure you come out on top—and taking care of yourself so you can be of assistance to others. You have to take care of yourself, or you can’t continue to be helpful to others.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into the Office: A Guide to Livelihood for a New Generation

“Meditation is practiced by traditions all over the world. It is not a Buddhist practice per se, or even a religious practice, and has existed for centuries. The only reason you and I ought to practice meditation is because our friend Sid used it as a tool to discover his innate wisdom, and lived happily ever after as a result. We too can touch the wisdom behind our confusion. We too can look at the display on our movie screen, and see it as illusory. Sid is most commonly”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into a Bar . . .: A Guide to Life for a New Generation

“I can’t overestimate the importance of accepting ourselves exactly as we are right now, not as we wish we were or think we ought to be.”8”
― Lodro Rinzler, Walk Like a Buddha: Even if Your Boss Sucks, Your Ex Is Torturing You, and You're Hungover Again

“That is the purpose of meditation practice: to become more present and aware of every aspect of our life.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into the Office: A Guide to Livelihood for a New Generation

“Many internal story lines are not rooted in our basic sanity or wisdom, but rather in our confusion.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into a Bar . . .: A Guide to Life for a New Generation

“At the point where you find yourself closing down from communicating openly in a relationship, you have a choice about how you would like to proceed. One way forward is to lay fresh layers of protection around your vulnerable heart. You are dampening the other person’s ability to hurt you, but you are also less able to communicate your own love genuinely. You are essentially preparing yourself for an inevitable breakup.

The alternative is loosening up your expectations and reconnecting with that curiosity you were able to offer at the beginning of the relationship. You commit to exploring where you are stuck, where you have put up that protective shielding, and how you can open yourself more to your partner. This is a way to deepen a relationship, by recommitting to applying gentle curiosity toward learning about your lover.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into a Bar . . .: A Guide to Life for a New Generation

“Specifically, for those of you familiar with the various turnings of the wheel of dharma, or the Buddha’s teachings, this is a book that deals with Mahayana teachings, that is, teachings on bringing an open mind and heart to all of our worldly interactions. This is a guidebook to becoming the kind of authentic leader this world needs. I”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into the Office: A Guide to Livelihood for a New Generation

“Our fantasies, our fairy tales, our stories that we tell ourselves that all seem so, so real—those are the things that break. And that is what causes us pain.”
― Lodro Rinzler, Love Hurts: Buddhist Advice for the Heartbroken

“Bodhisattvas lean into their world and are present enough in the moment that they can do whatever is needed.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into the Office: A Guide to Livelihood for a New Generation

“The Tibetan word for meditation is gom, which can be more literally translated as “become familiar with.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into the Office: A Guide to Livelihood for a New Generation

“the heartbreak was based in feeling that things should be one way, and becoming disappointed to learn that they were another.”
― Lodro Rinzler, Love Hurts: Buddhist Advice for the Heartbroken

“When you feel you want to lean into aggression, I recommend you practice benevolence through being just as kind as you would want to be irate.”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into the Office: A Guide to Livelihood for a New Generation

“Very few of them had it all figured out, which is a scary state, yet full of possibility. I”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into the Office: A Guide to Livelihood for a New Generation

“People who are genuinely connected to basic goodness do not go out of their way to throw shade at other people; they try to use their speech to lift other people up.”
― Lodro Rinzler, Take Back Your Mind: Buddhist Advice for Anxious Times

“PREVENTING TOO MANY ACTIVITIES The third quality of being a dharmic person is very interesting: it’s the idea that we don’t need to churn up a lot of things for us to do. We can simplify our lives through our body, speech, and mind. To”
― Lodro Rinzler, Sit Like a Buddha: A Pocket Guide to Meditation

“People deal with all sorts of obstacles at work. There is the fear of failure, plus confrontations with mindless bureaucracy, with other people’s egos, with your own ego, with unethical practices, with incompetence, and a wide variety of issues related to race, gender, and sexual orientation”
― Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into the Office: A Guide to Livelihood for a New Generation