Quote

I think the problem with Western students is they're very ambitious.

Tenzin Palmo

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Tenzin Palmo
Age: 82
Born: 1943
Born: January 1
Author
Bhikkhuni
Nun
Writer
Herts
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
Thinking
Ambitious
Western
Students
Problem
Think

More quotes by Tenzin Palmo

Image
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
Image
Because we're trying, because we want, it's very hard to get.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
Obviously the dharma is every breath we take, every thought we think, every word we speak, if we do it with awareness and an open, caring heart.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
The future of Dharma is in women's hands now because they have this energy which was never really tapped.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
If you become a monk because it's an easy life, because you're going to be fed, and sheltered and people will respect you, then that is not a very meritorious motivation.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
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
Image
Tibetans - at least traditionally - are so totally permeated with the dharma that they don't see any difference between dharma and everyday life, really. And therefore they enjoy it because they don't make a separation.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
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
Image
Actually we've got countless lifetimes, so relax.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
Different people are different.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
The real spiritual power is enabling beings to realize the nature of the mind. That's the power of Buddha activity.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
I don't think I've changed anything, but I hope that by my talks I have encouraged people in their practice. That's as much as any of us can do.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
The Buddha said that samsara by its nature is painful. He didn't say it was a joyride.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
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
Image
When one has a decisive realization of the inherent nature of the mind, which has no ego, it has no sense of duality between oneself and the cup, and a deep sense of interpenetration of the whole dharma. Then whatever we do is spontaneously perfect Buddha activity. And anybody who is even slightly tuned in will get a very deep experience of that.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
We only think about the difficult people and the horrible things that happen. That's what gets all the media attention.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
The Buddha always emphased the important of good friends.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
If nuns begin getting more empowered, where does that leave us?
Tenzin Palmo
Image
A dog, however nice he is, and sweet-tempered, doesn't have much of a range of options. A human being does.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
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