Quotes from Tashi Tsering

the test of our practice is how we handle problems.

Every object that brings us pleasure can also bring us suffering and anxiety. The more we value an object, the more we worry that it will be broken or taken from us. That is the nature of our mind and of our relationship with objects.

Clinging to a problem does not make it disappear, but rather just makes it worse, aggravating the problem and leading to frustration and anger in relation to the problem and even in relation to ourselves.

Realizing that this problem is only temporary, like all things, and it too will pass, gives us more space to find ways to resolve it.

We are always making assumptions about wholes based on knowing only parts.

Now this, bhikkhus, is the noble truth of suffering: birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering; union with what is displeasing is suffering; separation from what is pleasing is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering.

Conditioned existence refers to the pervasive way our lives, including our body and our thoughts, arise in dependence on contaminated past actions.

Because the motivation you start any action with determines how beneficial or harmful the result of that action will be, it is always best to begin anything with as vast a motivation as possible.

It is vital that we are clear that the Prasangika Madhyamaka masters are not denying the existence of self, body, pain, table, and so on; they are arguing that the mind apprehends these things as if they have inherent nature, which they do not.

Someone from a dysfunctional family or someone with no education is less likely to be able to control the anger and frustrations that arise in everyday life.

When we misconceive reality it is very easy to become obsessed. And then, when our obsession lets us down, which will definitely happen sooner or later, we will experience anger and depression.

A mind cannot exist independently, without an object. By its very nature, mind is the subject, the agent, the doer. Subject and object are interdependent—without one the other cannot exist. This is why if, through deep meditation, we free our minds from interaction with all external and internal objects, the subjective mind will naturally focus on itself as the object.

We are ignorant of the fundamental nature of the way things exist, and we feel anxiety because of this.

We see things as existing permanently and cling to anything that reinforces our concept of permanence, pushing away anything that threatens it. Attachment and aversion are the roots of all other problems, and they themselves are caused by ignorance. Thus ignorance, attachment, and aversion—what Buddhism calls the three poisons—are the origin (the second noble truth) of suffering (the first noble truth).

In Tibetan we say, "Build the dike before the water comes.

Understanding conventional truth enables the practitioner to develop the method side—compassion, concentration, and ethics—whereas understanding ultimate truth leads to the realization of the wisdom side—emptiness.

People who want to be free from suffering need to cultivate an understanding of reality, the wisdom of ultimate truth, while developing the method side of the practice, which entails a thorough understanding of conventional truth. There is no other way.

The antidote to such self-contempt is to develop a deep understanding of the buddha nature that we all possess, and see that nothing is impossible with perseverance.