portuguêsQuotes by Chatral Rinpoche
Kyabjé Chatral Rinpoche, Sangye Dorje (1913–30 Dec 2015) was a renowned Dzogchen master, a reclusive yogin famous for his great realization and strict discipline. He shunned institutional and political involvement his whole life, choosing instead to live the life of a wandering yogin. A lay yogin, he was also greatly concerned with maintaining strict discipline in the context of the Dzogchen view. He was especially well known for his advocacy of vegetarianism and his yearly practice of ransoming the lives of thousands of animals in India. In addition to his emphasis on the union of view and conduct, Rinpoche also stressed the practice of retreat. He passed into parinirvana in Yangleshö in Nepal on December 30th, 2015, at the age of 102.
You might remain sealed in strict retreat for months or even years,
But if you fail to make any progress in the state of your mind,
Later, when you tell everyone about all that you did over such a long time,
Aren’t you just bragging about all of the hardships and deprivation?
By imposing hefty taxes on the poor,
We gather donations to erect statues or distribute offerings.
This semblance of positive deeds can amass negative karma.
Cultivating virtues in the mind is my heartfelt advice.
I am sorry, there is nothing special about me and I have nothing to teach you. Please go elsewhere for teachings. (CA)
To obtain real peace and happiness in this world one has simply to follow the path of ahimsa - nonviolence - which naturally is common to all the religions of the world. If we do not like to experience any pain or suffering of any kind, how can we expect any other creature - whether big or small - to feel otherwise?
There is no better prayer or worship we can offer to Lord Buddha than being thoughtful, kind, compassionate and abstaining from taking the life of any fellow human being, animal, bird, fish or insect.
There is no better sign of accomplishment than a disciplined mind. This is true victory for the real warrior who carries no weapons.
If you lack the wealth of contentment in your mind,
You’ll think you need all kinds of useless things,
And end up even worse than just an ordinary person,
Because you won’t manage even a single session of practice.
So set your mind on freedom from the need for anything at all.
If you don’t reflect on death and impermanence,
There’ll be no way to practice Dharma purely.
Practice will remain an aspiration,
One that is constantly postponed.
And you may feel regret the day that death comes,
But by then it’s too late!
LEAVE BEHIND ALL OF THIS LIFE'S PREOCCUPATIONS LIKE SO MUCH SPIT IN THE DUST
You won't be here for long, practise now without delay.
You are like a traveller in this life, don't build a castle where you are just resting a while.
No action will be of any help; put accomplishment into practice.
You never know when your body will become worm-fodder or simply disappear; don't get distracted by this life's appearances.
Think of your body as a servant or a thing to carry you about,
Do not allow it to rest in idleness for a single moment.
Use it well, push your body, speech and mind to virtue.
We abide nowhere, we possess nothing.
Pleasure-seeking practitioners who fail to turn their minds from this life’s concerns, cut their connection to the authentic Dharma. So take care to avoid becoming stubbornly immune to the teachings.
During this degenerate age in the outer world, there are many natural disasters due to the upsetting of the four elements. Also, demonic forces come with their many weapons to incite the fighting of wars. All of those forces have caused the world to come to ruin and led all to tremble - so terrified that their hair stands up on end. Still, the demonic forces find it necessary to come up with new types of weapons. If we were called on to confront them, there is no way we Dharma practitioners could defeat them. That is why we make supplication prayers to the three jewels, do the aspiration prayers, the offering prayers and the prayers of invocation. We are responsible for those activities. This is what I urge you to do.
ཆོས་པ་ཞེས་པ་འདི་ལ་རིགས་གསུམ་ཡོད།
There are three kinds of Dharma practitioners:
དང་པོ་དེ་ནི། ཕྱི་ཡི་རྣམ་པར་ཆོས་པ་ལྟར་སྣང་ཡང་ནང་ངོ་མ་ཆོས་པ་མིན།
Firstly, there are those who look like practitioners outwardly, but inwardly they are not real practitioners;
གཉིས་པ་དེ་ནི། ཁ་བཤད་ཆེ་ཡང་ཉམས་རྟོགས་གང་ཡང་མེད།
Secondly, they are those who talk very high, but have no realization at all;
གསུམ་པ་ནི། ཕྱི་ཡི་རྣམ་པ་ཆོས་པ་འདྲ་མེད་ཀྱང་ནང་དོན་དམ་གྱི་ཆོས་པ་ལྷད་མེད་གཅིག་ཡིན།
Thirdly, there are those who do not look like practitioners outwardly, but who are in fact genuine practitioners inside.
Without hoping to know all while missing what’s most important, I'll remain throughout my life within the understanding of the one thing that liberates all.
Turning us back from the road to the lower planes of existence,
It shows us the road to the higher planes of existence,
And leads to where there is no old age and death
To this bodhicitta, in homage I bow.
I bow to those who have given birth
To this most precious and sacred of minds,
Who bring bliss to even those who cause them harm.
In such sources of happiness, I take refuge.
You might dine on the finest meal of delicious meat and alcohol,
But it all turns into something impure the very next morning,
And there is nothing more to it all than that.
So be content with life-sustaining provisions and simple clothes,
And be a loser when it comes to food, clothing and conversation
If we do not like to experience any pain or suffering of any kind, how can we expect any other creature, whether they are big or small, to feel differently?
There’s no real happiness among any of the six classes of beings.
If we consider the sufferings of the three lower realms,
When you feel upset just by hearing about them,
How will you possibly cope when you experience them directly?
Even the happiness and pleasures of the three upper realms,
Are just like fine food that’s been laced with poison,
Enjoyable at first, but in the long run a cause of ruin.
There is one single fact of cardinal importance: that on this earth, a human being can commit no greater sin than taking the life of another living being. By implication, there is no bigger source of accumulating merit than saving life. To obtain real peace and happiness in this world one has simply to follow the path of ahimsa—nonviolence—which naturally is common to all the religions of the world. If we do not like to experience any pain or suffering of any kind, how can we expect any other creature—whether big or small—to feel otherwise? There is no better prayer or worship we can offer to Lord Buddha than being thoughtful, kind, compassionate and abstaining from taking the life of any fellow human being, animal, bird, fish or insect. (CA)
No matter where you stay, be it a busy place or a solitary retreat, the only things that you need to conquer are your mind's five poisons, and your own true enemies, the eight worldly concerns — nothing else.
CA - Compassionate Action
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