Bodhichitta Kadampa Buddhist Center in Midland

The more familiar our mind is with virtue, the calmer and more peaceful it becomes.

When our mind is peaceful, we are free from worries and mental discomfort, and we experience true happiness.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "The New Mediation Handbook"

It is important to remember that Dharma practice is not confined to our activities during the meditation session; it should permeate our whole life.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "The New Mediation Handbook"

All beings other than Buddhas experience mistaken appearances all the time, day and night, even during sleep.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "The New Mediation Handbook"

Just as there is room in the sky for a thunderstorm, so there is room in the vast space of our mind for a few painful feelings; and just as a storm has no power to destroy the sky, so unpleasant feelings have no power to destroy our mind.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "How to Solve Our Human Problems"

If we had to give back everything that others have given us, we would have nothing left at all.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, “How to Transform Your Life”

Kadampa Meditation Center Texas

EMPOWERMENT OF BUDDHA VAJRASATTVA
Friday 11/20
Streaming Online

What does it mean to purify our mind? Much more than just a temporary good feeling, if we remove all traces of negative karma from our mind there will be nothing standing in the way of our happiness and ability to help others.
If your first thought is "but not my mind, it's a mess in there" then this event is for you! There exists a holy being whose sole purpose is to help. All Buddhas specifically appear in the form of Vajrasattva to purify the minds of living beings, so you don't have to do it alone.

Come make a connection with Buddha Vajrasattva during our special weekend event. Everyone is welcome!

https://www.meditationintexas.org/courses-events/vajrasattva-empowerment-20

Wisdom provides our spiritual practice with vision.

Wisdom is a special type of understanding that induces peace of mind by clearly distinguishing what is virtuous and to be practiced from what is non-virtuous and to be avoided.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, “Introduction to Buddhism”

The law of karma is a special instance of the law of cause and effect, according to which all our actions of body, speech and mind are causes and all our experiences are their effects.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "How to Transform Your Life"

May all living beings uninterruptedly hear the sweet sound of Dharma issuing forth from birds and trees, beams of light, and even space itself.

- Shantideva

So much of the stress and tension we normally experience comes from our mind, and many of the problems we experience, including poor health, are caused or aggravated by this stress.

Just by doing breathing meditation for ten or fifteen minutes each day, we will be able to reduce this stress.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "The New Mediation Handbook"

At the beginning, even if our meditation does not seem to be going well, we should remember that simply by applying effort to training in meditation, we are creating the mental karma to experience inner peace in the future.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "How to Transform Your Life"

We can consider the story of Asanga, who came across a dying dog who in reality turned out to be an emanation of Buddha Maitreya.

The dog before us may appear to be an ordinary animal, but the fact is that we do not know its true nature.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

THE GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF KARMA

For every action we perform, we experience a similar result.
...if we perform positive actions we will experience happy results and not unhappiness, if we perform negative actions we will experience only unhappy results, and if we perform neutral actions we will experience neutral results.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "How to Transform Your Life"

With the practice of patience I should train in effort
Because the fruit of enlightenment depends upon it.
Just as a candle flame cannot move without wind,
So the collections of wisdom and merit cannot grow without effort.

-Shantideva, "Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life"

Therefore, I should dispel others' suffering simply because it is suffering, just like mine; and I should bring others happiness simply because they are living beings, just like me.

- Shantideva

Patient acceptance not only helps us, it also helps those with whom we are patient.

Being accepted feels very different from being judged.

When someone feels judged, they automatically become tight and defensive, but when they feel accepted they can relax, and this allows their good qualities to come to the surface.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "How to Solve Our Human Problems"

The essence of Dharma practice is to reduce and eventually to completely eradicate our delusions, and to replace them with peaceful, virtuous states of mind.

-Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "How to Solve Our Human Problems"

Bodhichitta Kadampa Buddhist Center in Midland's cover photo

Meditations for Relaxation (US Edition Sample) 02. Meditation 1 - Inner Peace

Free 10 min guided meditation. Please enjoy! https://bit.ly/2ziJjuT

soundcloud.com The first of three guided meditations, this is a basic breathing meditation that helps to disengage the mind from the busyness of everyday life and create a special feeling of inner peace. Visit Tharp

For as long as we feel that there is a gap between our mind and emptiness—that our mind is “here” and emptiness is “there”—our mind will not mix with emptiness.

Knowing that all emptinesses are the same nature helps to close this gap.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "How to Transform Your Life"

By training in meditation, we create an inner space and clarity that enable us to control our mind regardless of the external circumstances.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "The New Mediation Handbook"

"Sometimes our mind is like a crazy elephant, creating so many problems and dangers for ourself and others.
By sincerely engaging in spiritual practice we can reverse this situation and gain mastery over our mind.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, “How to Transform Your Life”

We do not need to blame ourself for the many delusions we have inherited from our previous life,

but if we wish for our future self to enjoy peace and happiness it is our responsibility to remove these delusions from our mind.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso “How to Transform Your Life”

If something can be remedied
Why be unhappy about it?
And if there is no remedy for it,
There is still no point in being unhappy.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "How to Solve Our Human Problems"

Buddha compared our Buddha nature to a gold nugget in dirt, because no matter how disgusting a person's delusions may be, the real nature of their mind remains undefiled, like pure gold.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "Eight Steps to Happiness"

The intensity of our suffering is in direct proportion to the intensity of our self-grasping.

We cannot immediately stop self-grasping, but if we stand back from the problem just enough to glimpse how self-grasping is creating the problem, the strength of our self-grasping is undermined.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "How to Solve Our Human Problems"

The mind that spontaneously thinks each and every day, 'I may die today' is the realization of death.

It is this realization that directly eliminates our laziness of attachment and opens the door to the spiritual path.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, “How to Transform Your Life”

We may think that our suffering is caused by other people, by poor material conditions or by society, but in reality it all comes from our own deluded states of mind.

-Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "How to Solve Our Human Problems"

Without destroying fire,
We cannot stop being burned;
Likewise, without destroying self-cherishing,
We cannot stop experiencing suffering.

- Shantideva

Usually we find it difficult to control our mind.
It seems that our mind is like a balloon in the wind—blown here and there by external circumstances.

If things go well, our mind is happy, but if they go badly, it immediately becomes unhappy.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "The New Mediation Handbook"

What exactly is self-cherishing?

Self-cherishing is our mind that thinks “I am important” while neglecting others.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, “How to Transform Your Life”

We should keep a watch over our mind at all times by applying mindfulness, alertness, and conscientiousness;
and we should try to abandon whatever bad habits we may have.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "The New Mediation Handbook"

We should not allow a gulf to develop between our meditation and our daily life, because the success of our meditation depends on the purity of our conduct outside the meditation session.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, "The New Mediation Handbook"

New Kadampa Tradition

THE POWER OF PRAYER

During the Fall Festival 2020 Gen-la Dekyong is teaching how to develop and improve the power of prayers so that we can truly benefit ourself and others.

Follow the Festival daily on the Festival Diaries: https://kadampa.org/2020/10/fall-festival-2020-day-3

STILL TIME TO REGISTER
I you have not already registered for the Festival, there is still time to do so: https://kadampafestivals.org/fall/how-to-book