The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: The Spiritual Classic & International Bestseller: Revised and Updated Edition

Karma means our ability to create and to change. It is creative because we can determine how and why we act. We can change. The future is in our hands, and in the hands of our heart.

Lifetimes of ignorance have brought us to identify the whole of our being with ego.

the word for “Buddhist” in Tibetan is nangpa. It means “inside-er”: someone who seeks the truth not outside, but within the nature of mind.

Mantra is the essence of sound, and the embodiment of the truth in the form of sound.

Each syllable is impregnated with spiritual power, condenses a spiritual truth, and vibrates with the blessing of the speech of the buddhas.

To bring your mind home means to bring the mind into the state of Calm Abiding through the practice of mindfulness. In its deepest sense, to bring your mind home is to turn your mind inward and to rest in the nature of mind. This itself is the highest meditation.

in a world dedicated to distraction, silence and stillness terrify us; we protect ourselves from them with noise and frantic busyness.

The definition of mantra is “that which protects the mind.” That which protects the mind from negativity, or that which protects you from your own mind, is called mantra.

In Tibetan we call it Rigpa, a primordial, pure, pristine awareness that is at once intelligent, cognizant, radiant, and always awake. It could be said to be the knowledge of knowledge itself.3

We may idealize freedom, but when it comes to our habits, we are completely enslaved.