What does the growth or decline of the Buddha Dharma depend on? It depends on whether Buddhists’ minds are developing positively or not. So that is what we should pay attention to, rather than the outer costume people wear or the number of followers and so forth. སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་པ་དར་རྒུད་ནི་གང་ལ་རག་ལས་ཟེར་ན། མིའི་བསམ་བློ་ཡག་སྡུག་གི་འཕེལ་རིམ་ཞིག་ལས་ཕྱིའི་ཆ་ལུགས་དང་ཆོས་ལུགས་པ་ཟེར་བའི་གྲངས་འབོར་ལ་མི་ལྟ།
If your idea of practicing the Dharma is simply to adopt new tasks or activities—thinking, “Now I’m going to recite this mantra or meditate on that deity”—while your fundamental way of perceiving life remains unchanged, holding on to your likes and dislikes, you can be certain that it will be impossible to become a true […]
What is the Buddhist path? At the beginning, we converted to the three treasures: Buddha as teacher, Dhamma as the way, and monks as the company. Then we learn and practice, gradually improving ourselves until we become the three treasures. This means – our bodies become monastic treasures, our words become magic treasures, our hearts […]
Recently, some of the children have been bringing me afternoon tea before I’ve had chance to go for it myself. The last couple of days, they also brought a few tomatoes with the tea. I assumed the tomatoes were put out for everyone, but today I asked the child who brought them, and it turns […]
FROM REFUGEE TO REFUGE The path of a Buddhist looks like this: We begin by going for refuge in the Three Jewels, which means taking the Buddha as our teacher, taking the Dharma as our path, and taking the Sangha as our companions on the path. Then we study and practise and improve ourselves until […]
THE TWO BENEFITS To benefit oneself, think less and do less; to benefit others, think more and do more. 9th June 2025, Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal
We fail to recognise our afflictions (negative emotions) due to our inability to consider the long term—we only think about our immediate and temporary circumstances. When we see only what is right in front of us, we may feel that committing negative actions driven by greed or anger has no immediate consequence. In fact, we […]
Understanding Buddhism is understanding desire; desire is not a tradition. Understanding Buddhism is understanding anger and ignorance; anger is not a tradition, and ignorance is not a tradition. Understanding Buddhism is understanding suffering; suffering is not a tradition. To learn Buddhism is to learn how to be kind; kindness is not a tradition. Buddhism is […]
When seeking to improve, don’t begin by chasing new habits or “good things” to do. Without knowing yourself, no amount of external effort will lead to true transformation – that’s certain. Instead, turn inward and ask: What flaws within me do I need to change? The moment we recognise our shortcomings, there is hope. It […]
There are three areas for us as Buddhists to train in: 1. Knowledge 2. Loving kindness 3. Ability We must study the texts and reality to increase our knowledge and insight. We must also cultivate and enhance our love and compassion for others. Finally, we must increase the scope of our abilities to work for […]
Attempting to tame or train others will be futile until one has tamed oneself. It will become mere interfering or busy-bodying. If you first tame your own mind, however, people will be enamoured and impressed by you. They may wish to emulate you. At that point, you will probably be able to help students. Drupon […]
A: A real Buddhist looks inwardly, not outwardly. They don’t pay too much attention to what others do or say, nor do they just parrot the words of their Lama or what the Buddha taught in the sutras. They recognise the dharma within themselves. I think that is the way of real Buddhists. 16 November […]
When meditating try to recognise your current thoughts. It's manageable—even when we become foggy, we can still identify our fogginess. Observe yourself carefully and be aware. This is very important for beginners. We are unable to identify our thoughts clearly and at times we may find ourselves unable to meditate well. The more experience we […]
If, after staying in a quiet retreat, you become more intolerant of noise and disturbances, it is a sign that your practice has not gone well. In fact, it has made you worse—now you cannot tolerate something you could before. Yes, it is taught that when we begin practicing, we should go to a quiet, […]
If you want to proceed along the path yourself, the best thing you can do is to exert yourself in study and practice. If you can’t do this fully yourself but wish to see the Buddhadharma thrive, the next best thing you can do is offer support to others who can and are studying and […]
