Quote

To be completely enlightened means that you're a Buddha.I don't speak of enlightenment.

Tenzin Palmo

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Tenzin Palmo
Age: 81
Born: 1943
Born: January 1
Author
Bhikkhuni
Nun
Writer
Herts
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
Enlightened
Enlightenment
Completely
Means
Speak
Mean
Buddha

More quotes by 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 have to transform those ordinary actions of our day into dharma practice because otherwise nothing is going to move.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
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
Image
I think we females have a lot of work to do for each other.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
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
Image
My mother was a spiritualist. We had weekly séances at our house with a neighbor who was a medium and various friends, and so I was brought up with the idea that there are many realms of being all around us. So that prepared me for Buddhism, and especially Tibetan Buddhism with all its talk of different realms and dimensions of being.
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
I remember asking my mother if she believed in reincarnation and she said that that sounded very sensible, and I thought, yes, it does to me too. So I always believed in it. I can't remember when I didn't.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
The Buddha always emphased the important of good friends.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
The dharma is the most precious thing in the world and we should put it at the center of our hearts and transform our whole lives into dharma practice. Otherwise, at the time of death, we will look back and say, now what was all that about? If we truly want to benefit others and ourselves, we have to do it. No excuses.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
I don't know why I got reborn as a female. Maybe in my past life I had some sympathy or something for women, but I certainly wasn't a female last time.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
I think the problem with Western students is they're very ambitious.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
In one way I would like to teach, but I have no qualifications to teach Westerners.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
It's unlikely that you were a frog in a past life.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
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
Image
You can certainly learn how to rest in the nature of the mind.
Tenzin Palmo
Image
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
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
Image
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
Image
I think the difference is that when we drink tea, we just drink tea. But if you're in the presence of a genuine master, they don't have to do anything but drink their tea, and yet it affects you at an incredibly profound level.
Tenzin Palmo