Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices

we promote the concept of democracy as a method for achieving freedom. Yet in reality it is just another chain that shackles us to the disastrous decisions those we vote into power

So, rather than immediately opening your practice book, first take a few moments to cut that chain of thoughts.

I can almost hear you thinking, “I’m certain to end up acting negatively. I won’t be able to help myself! So perhaps I’d better not practise Vajrasattva.” But these thoughts are just a sign that you are taking this information too literally.

A split second spent on doing something beneficial that also brings you closer to the truth, however unpleasant or unfashionable, is far more valuable than engaging in an extravaganza of more enjoyable and ostentatiously helpful activities that merely result in a higher rebirth, or other worldly boons.

To sit by running water is said to develop a sense of urgency about practice that encourages renunciation and a revulsion for samsara,

the great masters have pointed out, that to maintain mindfulness for as long as it takes to drink a cup of tea accumulates more merit than years of practising generosity, discipline and asceticism.

beginners must be content to base the majority of their practice on make-believe.

Unless you happen to be a hidden buddha, ignorant beings like us usually achieve more when motivated by the wish to accomplish a goal.

we find it equally hard to believe that our human guru, who yawns and drinks tea, and so on, is a real buddha.