Woetoe’s Reviews > The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying > Status Update

‘For real communication to be established, you must make a determined effort to see the person in terms of his or her own life, character, background and history, and to accept the person unreservedly.’

‘Remember that your task is not to convert anyone to anything, but to help the person in front of you get in touch with his or her own strength, confidence, faith and spirituality, whatever that might be.’

‘When you leave each thing in its own state, then its shape doesn’t change, its color doesn’t fade, and its glow does not dissapear. Whatever appears is unstained by any grasping, so then all that you perceive arises as the naked wisdom of Rigpa, which is the indivisibility of luminosity and emptiness.’

‘Become as resourceful in inspiring yourself to enter your own peace as you are at being neurotic and competitive in the world.’

‘Have a spacious, open and compassionete attitude toward your thoughts and emotions, because in fact your thoughts are your family, the family of your mind. Be like an old wise man, watching a child play.’

‘Thoughts and emotion are the radiance and expression of the very nature of your mind. They rise from the mind, but where do they dissolve? Back into the mind. Whatever arises, do not see it as a particular problem. If you do not impulsively react, if you are only patient, it will once again settle into its essential nature.’

‘As you continue to practice, then meditation slowly arises. Meditation is not something you can “do”, it is something that has to happen spontaneously, only when the practice has been perfected.’

‘Rest in natural great peace

This exhausted mind

Beaten helpless by karma and neurotic thought. Like the relentless fury of the pounding waves in the infinite ocean of samsara.’

‘Spiritual truth is not something elaborate and esoteric, it is in fact profound common sense. When you realize the nature of mind, layers of confusion peel away. You don’t actually “become” a buddha, you simply cease, slowly, to be deluded. Being a buddha is not being some omnipotent spiritual superman, but becoming at last a true human being.’