The Wisdom of No Escape: And the Path of Loving Kindness

In England, where he had first encountered Western students, the people who were attracted to Buddhism were Buddhist scholars who couldn’t hear the dharma because they couldn’t let go of their preconceived ideas of how it fit in with preconceived scholarly notions.

The opposite of samsara is when all the walls fall down, when the cocoon completely disappears and we are totally open to whatever may happen, with no withdrawing, no centralizing into ourselves. That is what we aspire to, the warrior’s journey.

Wholeheartedness is a precious gift, but no one can actually give it to you. You have to find the path that has heart and then walk it impeccably. In doing that, you again and again encounter your own uptightness, your own headaches, your own falling flat on your face. But in wholeheartedly practicing and wholeheartedly following that path, this in

Our mind is always seeking zones of safety. We’re in this zone of safety and that’s what we consider life, getting it all together, security. Death is losing that. That’s what we fear, that’s what makes us anxious. You could call death an embarrassment—feeling awkward and off the mark. Being totally confused and not knowing which way to turn could

In one of our chants we say, “Whatever arises is fresh, the essence of realization. Grant your blessings so that my meditation is free from conceptions.” Freshness here means willingness to sit up if you’re slouching. If you want to stay in bed all day with the covers over your head, it means willingness to get up and take a shower with really good

Refugee: that’s what it means to become a Buddhist, that’s what it means to become one who wholeheartedly is using one’s life to wake up instead of to go to sleep. It’s very inconvenient.

Once I had been doing that myself; in order to stop, I had to hear Rinpoche say that shopping is actually always trying to find security, always trying to feel good about yourself.

Sometimes it’s said that the end of every out-breath is actually the end; the opportunity is there to die completely. Suzuki Roshi gave the instructions, “Sit still. Don’t anticipate. Just be willing to die over and over again.”

Then Jamgon Kongtrul said to him, “Someday you’re going to meet the people who make these things, and you’re going to work with them. It’s not going to be easy, because you’re going to find that they’re more interested in staying asleep than in waking up.” That’s what he said about us. So when you realize that’s true about yourself, remind yourself