Tenzin Palmo Quotes (164) Spiritual Sayings
About the Author: Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (born 1943) is a bhik in the Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. She is an author, teacher and founder of the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in Himachal Pradesh, India. She is best known for being one of the very few Western yoginis trained in the East, having spent twelve years living in a remote cave in the Himalayas, three of those years in strict meditation retreat. Vicki Mackenzie, who wrote Cave in the Snow about her, relates that what inspired the writing of the book was reading Tenzin Palmo's statement to a Buddhist magazine that "I have made a vow to attain Enlightenment in the female form - no matter how many lifetimes it takes". See website for more info - http://tenzinpalmo.com/
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for any practice to work, the mind which is meditating and the object of meditation must merge. Often they are facing each other. One has to become completely absorbed, then the transformation will occur.
― Tenzin Palmo
“The answer lies within ourselves. If we can't find peace and happiness there, it's not going to come from the outside.
― Tenzin Palmo
Ultimately there is light and love and intelligence in this universe. And we are it, we carry that within us, it’s not just something out there, it is within us and this is what we are trying to re-connect with, our original light and love and intelligence, which is who we are, so do not get so distracted by all this other stuff, you know, really remember what we are here on this planet for.
― Tenzin Palmo
The more you realize, the more you realize how much there is to realize and, at the same time, how much you realize that there is nothing to realize. So, it's an enormous job, not something that is going to be finished in this lifetime.
― Tenzin Palmo
Traditionally, women didn't have much a role in Buddhism. The books were all written by monks, for other monks. So the general view of the feminine was rather misogynistic, with women playing the role of the forbidden other, waiting to pounce on innocent little monks! In that society, it was hard for women to become educated and get the deeper teachings and really become accomplished.
― Tenzin Palmo
The first thing is to learn how to quiet the mind, relax the mind, and bring the awareness to the front so that we are conscious of what we're doing when we're doing it without all the commentary.
― Tenzin Palmo
We have to cultivate contentment with what we have. We really don't need much. When you know this, the mind settles down. Cultivate generosity. Delight in giving. Learn to live lightly. In this way, we can begin to transform what is negative into what is positive. This is how we start to grow up.
― Tenzin Palmo
Each of us has something to do in this lifetime. We all have negative emotions to be purified and positive emotions to be cultivated. All of us need to reconnect to our source and drop our personal stories, don't we? Men, women, old, young, from here, from there - it is the same. All you can do is your practice. There is nothing else. Don't get caught up. Don't stop. We have to learn how to get out or our own way. Because ultimately, the only thing standing in our way is ourselves.
― Tenzin Palmo
There is an enormous joy and satisfaction in doing what you really want to do and are best fitted to do. When it all comes together like that, it gives you a wonderful sense of well-being and satisfaction knowing that you have been doing what you were intended to do for this lifetime.
― Tenzin Palmo
In the very deep darkness of this world, little pinpoints of light show up very brightly and can shine a long way.
― Tenzin Palmo
It's important to lighten up a bit!
― Tenzin Palmo
Buddhism is the most active one! The whole time, we're dealing with the mind and how to tame it, and how to transcend our ordinary conventional mind. This takes an enormous amount of determination and perseverance. It also requires an attitude of being relaxed and spacious, rather than tense and stressed. It's certainly not a matter of lying back and expecting it all to happen. If we don't make it happen, it won't!
― Tenzin Palmo
Some males are intelligent, some are dumb. Some females are intelligent, some are dumb. We're all human beings, no one is superior.
― Tenzin Palmo
Meditation is for you to realise that the deepest nature of your existence is beyond thoughts and emotions,
that it is incredibly vast and interconnected with all other beings.
― Tenzin Palmo
One of the advantages of being born in an affluent society is that if one has any intelligence at all, one will realize that having more and more won't solve the problem, and happiness does not lie in possessions, or even relationships: The answer lies within ourselves. If we can't find peace and happiness there, it's not going to come from the outside.
― Tenzin Palmo
Realization is wonderful, but you have to expand it until there's not a single defilement left in the mind and the mind is completely open and spacious. Even in that condition, you still use the relative mind. You use them both.
― Tenzin Palmo
The new nuns don't know that they're 'supposed' to be meek and submissive, and so in many ways they believe they can do anything, because they've seen the earlier ones do it. In this way, there's nothing for them to doubt.
― Tenzin Palmo
If you're meeting with the dharma, you have probably been a human being before.
― Tenzin Palmo
We make the commitment to stop for a moment and look at what the mind is doing, what mind state we are dwelling in. We don't judge it, we just know it. Gradually we'll become more and more accustomed to being conscious of what we're thinking and our various positive and negative states. We'll become more and more the masters of our mind, rather than the slaves.
― Tenzin Palmo
Buddhism helps us to overcome our endless ego grasping mind to open up to something so much more spacious and genuinely meaningful.
― Tenzin Palmo
If you go to any nunnery and ask them what the main obstacle is, they'll always say low self-esteem and lack of confidence. It will take time. But the difference between the first girls from Ladakh who became nuns, to the girls we have now, is very encouraging.
― Tenzin Palmo
My mother's love was really not based on attachment. Her love was genuine love. To make me happy, not how I will make her happy.
― Tenzin Palmo
I think it's crucial to recognize that we are so fortunate to have this human birth where we can practice what we want, pick up and not just read books but actually understand them. This level of education is very rare throughout history, so we shouldn't take it for granted.
― Tenzin Palmo
It's very important to realize that every person that you meet, everything that you do, with the right attitude and a little awareness and skillful means - we can transform everything - all our joys and sorrows.
Tenzin Palmo
Our pure awareness is not male or female.
― Tenzin Palmo
Even if one isn't a committed Buddhist, it just helps us become better human beings.
― Tenzin Palmo
If we greet situations with a positive attitude, we will eventually create positive returns. If we respond with a negative attitude, negative things will eventually come our way.
― Tenzin Palmo
If we want to be musicians, dancers or sportspeople, we can download a certain amount and watch DVDs and read books, but in the end we need someone to assess us and give us personal instruction. The two go together.
― Tenzin Palmo
You can still practice to be a better and kinder and happier person. That's perfectly possible.
― Tenzin Palmo
We live in a society which is heading in one direction, so it's good to have at least a few friends who share the same values and can encourage us and help us to remember that we're not alone or peculiar, but that what we're doing is a very valid way of life. This will encourage us to put the Dharma at the centre of our life and not the periphery, to use our daily life as our Dharma practice.
― Tenzin Palmo
You see people swimming, and you think, oh, how wonderful to swim. But most people stand on the edge swaying back and forth, afraid to jump. They don't think they can swim.
― Tenzin Palmo
I think to dwell continually on the dark side creates gloom and despair and anger and hatred, and that just adds to the darkness. So rather than that, we need to think of the beauty in the world, and also send out love and compassion to all beings in this world. Not just the people we like, but people who we find difficult. Because they are very deeply in need of compassion.
― Tenzin Palmo
The power of thought is extremely powerful.
― Tenzin Palmo
The Buddha always emphased the important of good friends.
― Tenzin Palmo
Develop confidence in your innate qualities and believe that these qualities will be brought to fruition.
― Tenzin Palmo
The Buddha himself said, "I still use conceptual thinking, but I'm not formed by it." And that's the Buddha.
― Tenzin Palmo
Because we're trying, because we want, it's very hard to get.
― Tenzin Palmo
Doing retreats, getting personal teachings from time to time from inspiring teachers, all of this helps to recharge our batteries. Then we get inspired and can carry what we've gained into our daily life, which is very important.
― Tenzin Palmo
The Tibetans have many teachings on how to die, consciously, and how to remain in the clear light, and it works. You can see it working, and they can stay in that state for hours, days, or weeks.
― Tenzin Palmo
There are wonderful beings in this world.
― Tenzin Palmo
It's interesting to see people's projections because one lives very much in the world of projections.
― Tenzin Palmo
You have to recharge your batteries.
― Tenzin Palmo
The Tibetans are good at learning many skillful ways to show that everything we do becomes dharma practice, depending on which kind of approach we use.
― Tenzin Palmo
I sometimes feel tremendous compassion and helplessness.
― Tenzin Palmo
Either we're aware and present, or we're not. There is no half way.
― Tenzin Palmo
We need to be sincere in our practice, but at the same time we can't take ourselves too seriously.
― Tenzin Palmo
Just because someone is very charismatic, it doesn't mean that they're genuinely qualified.
― Tenzin Palmo
I think the problem with Western students is they're very ambitious.
― Tenzin Palmo
This precious life is our opportunity. We are not the millions and millions of other things that are not human.
― Tenzin Palmo
To me the special quality (which of course many men have as well) is first of all a sharpness, a clarityIt cuts through - especially intellectual ossification. Itgets to the point. To me the dakini principle stands for the intuitive force.
― Tenzin Palmo
My mother was superb. Even when I said to her, when I was nineteen, oh, I'm going to India. Her immediate reaction was, oh yes dear, and when are you leaving? She didn't say, oh how could you leave me, your mother? Or wait a bit dear until you get a bit older and you know your own mind. She just said, well, when are you going? And that was because she loved me, not because she didn't love me.
― Tenzin Palmo
We have produced many of our problems through our confused mental states.
― Tenzin Palmo
The purpose of dharma is to help your mind to expand, to grow, to clarify. It should uphold us and create an inner sense of peace, joy, and clarity.
― Tenzin Palmo
This is a time that calls for extreme restraint. In a world of outright aggression and violence there can be no winners. To respond to violence with counter-violence only throws oil on the fire.
― Tenzin Palmo
The big lamas coming from Tibet, Ladakh, India - everywhere - have been very friendly. But I don't figure in their world. For one thing, being Western puts you outside the limits. A token female doesn't hurt - there's only one.
― Tenzin Palmo
For any practice to work, the mind which is meditating on the object must merge. Often they are facing each other. One has to become completely absorbed, then the transformation will occur.
― Tenzin Palmo
The world is full of incredible people who are embodiments of compassion. Some of them have a spiritual path; some of them don't.
― Tenzin Palmo
We do look for inspiration amongst our own sex. Why not? You go into temples and they're full of all the lineage lamas who are male. What message does that give to a young girl, except that somehow she got trapped in the wrong body because of bad things she did in a past life?
― Tenzin Palmo
For so many centuries women have been suppressed and regarded as inferior. And that of course is not right at all, that we all have buddha-nature - so what's the difference?
― Tenzin Palmo
Perhaps one of the main antidotes to depression, lack of self-esteem, loneliness and so forth is the recognition that we really do have Buddha nature. All the other problems like anger, jealousy, ambitions, are merely habitual patterns that we've learned, but aren't inherent to who we are.
― Tenzin Palmo
Basically, I want to spend my time in retreat, but to my own amazement, I agreed to help with a project to start a training center for nuns. I agreed because I think it's really very important for the Western Sangha. I don't know how I'm going to help, but it's important.
― Tenzin Palmo
Some students went to Milarepa and said, we should stop living in caves and meditating because we should go out and help beings as bodhisattvas. And Milarepa said that as long as space exists, so long will there be beings for you to help.
― Tenzin Palmo
I have made a vow to attain Enlightenment in the female form - no matter how many lifetimes it takes
― Tenzin Palmo
I've always loved the Sangha. I have the deepest, deepest respect for them. I'm very sorry that in the West people don't appreciate what the monastic order is about.
― Tenzin Palmo
I think, for East and West, the first thing we need is a good grounding in basic Buddhadharma.
― Tenzin Palmo
If nuns begin getting more empowered, where does that leave us?
― Tenzin Palmo
I think many monks hesitate to change things.
― Tenzin Palmo
As women become more educated and confident, they can start adding their voice.
― Tenzin Palmo
We have the pure nature of the mind.
― Tenzin Palmo
One thing in the Buddhadharma is that we are not our body, we are not our gender.
― Tenzin Palmo
The future of Dharma is in women's hands now because they have this energy which was never really tapped.
― Tenzin Palmo
Women are fully capable of doing everything.
― Tenzin Palmo
I've often said that the seventh paramita should be a sense of humor, so we don't take ourselves too seriously.
― Tenzin Palmo
Wherever we are and whatever we're doing, we're either conscious, or we're not.
― Tenzin Palmo
We don't always need to be sitting at the foot of the teacher, but from time to time we need someone who can overview us and give us direction.
― Tenzin Palmo
The internet can be enormously helpful, just like books can, but I don't think it's the be all and end all for really practicing Buddhism. At a certain point, as with learning any skill, we need personal instruction from someone who is more advanced than us.
― Tenzin Palmo
I never really wondered about getting from London to Lahaul. It all seemed such a natural progression. In London I felt I was in the wrong place and wanted to leave. I'd thought about going to Australia or New Zealand. It's nothing against England, but I knew I wasn't meant to be there.
― Tenzin Palmo
Most of the spiritual traditions were very theistic and the idea of an external god pulling the strings didn't resonate with me. I then discovered Buddhism and found the perfect path. I felt so grateful to the Buddha for having given the path, and not just explaining the end result, but showing so clearly how to get there.
― Tenzin Palmo
Since I was a small child, I'd believed we were inherently perfect, and that we had to keep coming back again and again until we recognized our innate perfection.
― Tenzin Palmo
We should develop a deep appreciation for all the we have, and not waste it, otherwise we'll die with deep regrets.
― Tenzin Palmo
We do have the precious opportunity of this human life.
― Tenzin Palmo
Sometimes people come and they have so much pain and confusion in their eyes... what to do? A few words is a little bit of balm but doesn't really solve the deep disease within.
― Tenzin Palmo
In India many people come to discuss things with me. I sometimes say that half of them come saying, "I have a problem, I want to find a teacher." The other half say, "I have a problem because I have a teacher!" So it's not so simple.
― Tenzin Palmo
There are many wonderfully qualified teachers out there, but that doesn't mean that each teacher is suitable to the same person, anymore than people fall in love with the same person.
― Tenzin Palmo
All of the external circumstances and the rude and difficult people we meet, instead of getting angry, upset, or frustrated, we see that we can take them all and use them on the path in a way that actually invigorates and strengthens us, rather than defeats us. It's all very practical advice, and that's why I talk a lot about how to make our daily life into Dharma practice, otherwise it's easy to feel hopeless and helpless.
― Tenzin Palmo
Nowadays, mindfulness has become a catch-all word, but the general principle of trying to be more conscious and aware in our daily life is very important. Along with this, it's helpful to contemplate some of the mind training verses which are designed to take and transform all of the problems we experience.
― Tenzin Palmo
I know many Catholic priests and nuns who use the Buddhist teachings to become better Catholics, and Jews who use them to become better Jews. Why not?! It just takes us towards more deeply recognizing our original nature, which is what we all share after all.
― Tenzin Palmo
The point with Buddhism is that it doesn't just tell you to be good, it tells you how. It doesn't just say, "Don't be angry," it shows us the methods to help us not to be angry. It gives techniques for everything that it advises us to cultivate, and all the negative qualities we need to overcome and transform.
― Tenzin Palmo
I'd say look at the teacher's students. Do you want to be like them? If you see a good and harmonious sangha, and if they're practicing well and are good people with good hearts, then you have a cause for trust.
― Tenzin Palmo
In the texts, and as His Holiness the Dalai Lama reminds us, we should check the person's behavior not when they're sitting on a big throne, but behind the scenes. How do they treat ordinary people - not the big sponsors - but just ordinary people who are of no particular importance to them.
― Tenzin Palmo
We shouldn't be too naïve, or taken in by charisma.
― Tenzin Palmo
There are certain teachers who shouldn't be teachers.
― Tenzin Palmo
We all have our own karma and so different teachers will be meaningful to different students.
― Tenzin Palmo
We have to transform those ordinary actions of our day into dharma practice because otherwise nothing is going to move.
― Tenzin Palmo
When I look back I can think that of course I've been lazy and haven't practiced as much as I could have and have wasted time. Still though, I look back on my life and I think that really, I am very happy that I lived my life the way I have and I would never ever have wished it any other way - especially, the six years with my lama and then the 18 in Lahul.
― Tenzin Palmo
The Dharma is a very, very special and precious thing. The more you practice it, the more you will realize this.
― Tenzin Palmo
I really don't know what I could teach and don't really plan to teach.
― Tenzin Palmo
In one way I would like to teach, but I have no qualifications to teach Westerners.
― Tenzin Palmo
At one time I thought that if I could really understand renunciation and bodhichitta from the depths of my heart, then, for this lifetime that would be enough.
― Tenzin Palmo
With sincerity from the depths of your heart to do the best you can, just keep going and don't worry too much that you're not Milarepa or Rechungpa.
― Tenzin Palmo
Look at your own potential. Don't overestimate your capabilities and push too hard, or underestimate them and use that as an excuse to be lazy.
― Tenzin Palmo
In Dharma practice, the most important thing is to be very sincere.
― Tenzin Palmo
Even if the hermits do not appear to benefit other beings with their presence or teachings, still they are enormously inspiring to many. Perhaps, in this lifetime, they were meant to work on their own practice, to try to purify their own mindstream so that in future lifetimes (that will last a lot longer than this one), they will be fit vessels to give the teachings to others.
― Tenzin Palmo
When I look back I feel very grateful.
― Tenzin Palmo
Forget about realizing shunyata and going on the different bhumis and all this. Just stay in the moment, stay aware, be kind and try to improve your mind.
― Tenzin Palmo
If you don't find that people find you're easier to live with than you were before, if you don't find that your heart is feeling warmer toward others and if your negative emotions are not getting any better, then there's something wrong. That is always the touchstone of the Dharma practice.
― Tenzin Palmo
Other people may tell us, "Oh, you're so much nicer." Of course you can't hope that other people will tell you that you're so much nicer, but that's always a good sign. Perhaps people find that you're easier to live with.
― Tenzin Palmo
In the beginning especially, we won't realize we're changing.
― Tenzin Palmo
It's not a matter of how much you know or can define, or how many millions of mantras or thousands of prostrations you have done, or how many months of wangs you've attended. The important thing is whether or not the mind is really changing, whether our negative emotions are really coming under control, whether we are really beginning to understand ourselves, whether our mind is really improving, and whether in our hearts there is genuine love and caring for other people.
― Tenzin Palmo
People talk over and over about bodhichitta, but so often their heart is quite cold.
― Tenzin Palmo
Try to develop some genuine love and compassion, some real caring for others.
― Tenzin Palmo
To really be of benefit to others as the Buddha always taught, we ourselves must first get out of the swamp. One of the quickest and most effective ways to do this is in isolation, with very few distractions, working very hard at it and spending all your time and efforts at changing your mind.
― Tenzin Palmo
Perhaps Westerners are in a better position to practice true renunciation than uneducated Orientals because most Western people, by the time they come to the Dharma, have led a pretty full worldly life with lots of sensual pleasures, money and lots of toys to play with. They have seen that the path of accumulation of worldly treasure does not lead to happiness or contentment. That's why they come to the Dharma.
― Tenzin Palmo
Caves are beautiful things you know. They're thermostatically controlled - warm when it's cold out and cool when it's warm. Very quiet. Nobody there. Especially in the winter - it was perfect. Also, because it's a cave, you can't do much with it.
― Tenzin Palmo
My body is not good for prostrations.
― Tenzin Palmo
In the early '60s there was very little reliable information on Tibetan Buddhism. I was living in London and I had joined the Buddhist Society. For the most part, people there were either interested in Theravada or Zen Buddhism. There was almost no one into Tibetan Buddhism at that time.
― Tenzin Palmo
All the other religions I had ever read about dealt with the idea of God, and your relationship with God. Buddhism is the only religion that deals with man himself and the nature of the mind - how to deal with yourself and your condition, here and now, as opposed to having to deal with something outside yourself.
― Tenzin Palmo
When I was 18 I read a book about Buddhism and, before I was halfway through it I said to my mother, "I'm a Buddhist!" She said, "That's great. Finish reading the book and then you can tell me all about it." From that moment on I knew I was a Buddhist.
― Tenzin Palmo
You can certainly learn how to rest in the nature of the mind.
― Tenzin Palmo
Learn not to be too ambitious; not to expect if you have a 9-to-5 job and three kids, that you're likely to get buddhahood in one lifetime.
― Tenzin Palmo
People should find what approach really speaks to them, and then do it. Obviously, better with a good teacher, who can help you on the path. But in any case, basic principles.
― Tenzin Palmo
Different people are different.
― Tenzin Palmo
When I was in retreat I just did my meditation sessions and, in-between, reading and things I had to do.
― Tenzin Palmo
I think if you really start practicing, the energy comes. I was always very happy and grateful for the opportunity to have the time, solitude and good health to be able to do it.
― Tenzin Palmo
In a monastic setting, if someone doesn't want to obey the rules and just wants to live the way they've always lived as a lay person, then why did they become ordained? They have no sense that they have to give something up to gain so much.
― Tenzin Palmo
I think it would help if, when people are first ordained, they underwent a period of strict training, maybe for several years. During this time they would learn basic Buddhist philosophy in a monastic community where all the teaching and training was directed toward living a perfect monastic life and wasn't channeled out to fit into the lay life - which is what usually happens in Dharma centers where the teachings are directed toward how to live the Dharma in your everyday life.
― Tenzin Palmo
Everyone should not be ordained, but for those who really feel that the only thing that matters in this world is the Dharma, then it is a logical step to adopt a form of life that automatically precludes worldly distractions.
― Tenzin Palmo
Monastic life cuts off the distractions and emotional entanglements one becomes involved in, in the lay life.
― Tenzin Palmo
Joining the Sangha and renouncing worldly life is necessary in order to devote your whole life and all your energies toward the Dharma.
― Tenzin Palmo
There is a basic problem that a lot of Western monks and nuns become ordained without really understanding or appreciating what the monastic life is all about.
― Tenzin Palmo
To be a nun is a very great blessing. It's a great inspiration to think that the Sangha goes all the way back to the Buddha and that so many fantastic, really truly-realized beings have been ordained. Thinking of all those members, such a wonderful, exalted and holy order - I love the Sangha.
― Tenzin Palmo
I find that being with other people dissipates my energy.
― Tenzin Palmo
As my lama always told me, I learned that I practice better when I'm by myself.
― Tenzin Palmo
One of the beauties of the Buddhadharma is there are so many approaches, and not everything is right for everybody.
― Tenzin Palmo
I think it's a meritorious action to become a monk, provided that your motivation is pure.
― Tenzin Palmo
The dharma is here. And the dharma is in your heart. Where else would it be?
― Tenzin Palmo
I do think that someone who decides to devote themselves entirely to the spiritual life, that that is more meritorious.
― Tenzin Palmo
The problem is that our inherent ignorance keeps us in samsara and unable to benefit ourselves and others on a really deep level.
― Tenzin Palmo
One has to find a balance. I don't say that when you leave it you forget all about the dharma or practice, but there have to be times when you throw yourself into it, and then there are times when you just relax and realize that wherever you go, you cannot get out of the dharma.
― Tenzin Palmo
The very best players, when they are practicing, put everything they've got into it. But then they leave it for a while. And it's the same in dharma practice.
― Tenzin Palmo
If you take the time to study how to be a doctor and how to use your scalpel and your medicine, then there are endless beings out there to help.
― Tenzin Palmo
From a Buddhist point of view, the first thing to help is yourself, to get your own mind together. And to really understand how to benefit beings, not just on the physical level, but on all levels. Then there are endless beings you can benefit.
― Tenzin Palmo
When you learn an instrument, it takes an awful lot of time to just learn the scales, and then eventually when you have completely mastered the instrument, the music plays for you. But you still have to keep practicing. And it takes an awful lot of practice. Nonetheless, if you diligently practice, hours and hours and hours and hours, you probably won't get it. You'll probably just end up hurting your fingers.
― Tenzin Palmo
To become effortless takes a lot of effort. It's good to compare it to learning an instrument or learning a sport.
― Tenzin Palmo
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