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There are certain people who people think are enlightened. The problem with the word enlightenment is what you mean by it.

Tenzin Palmo

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Tenzin Palmo
Age: 81
Born: 1943
Born: January 1
Author
Bhikkhuni
Nun
Writer
Herts
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
Think
Thinking
People
Enlightened
Enlightenment
Word
Certain
Problem
Mean

More quotes by Tenzin Palmo

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Basically, I feel to spend the rest of my life doing retreat.
Tenzin Palmo
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I think we females have a lot of work to do for each other.
Tenzin Palmo
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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
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Many people are benefiting beings, but from a dharma point of view, if you are a dharma practitioner, then the first priority is to get yourself together.
Tenzin Palmo
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We don't want to go to heaven. We want to be reborn so that we can keep going and realize the dharma so we can benefit other beings, endlessly. It's a very different thing.
Tenzin Palmo
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There are other ways of benefiting than by being a recognized tulku and sitting on a throne.
Tenzin Palmo
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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
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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
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The Buddha himself said, I still use conceptual thinking, but I'm not formed by it. And that's the Buddha.
Tenzin Palmo
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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
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The power of thought is extremely powerful.
Tenzin Palmo
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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
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If you lose interest in the dharma, then you might be reborn in a place where you are unlikely to meet with the dharma. And then you're completely off the path.
Tenzin Palmo
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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
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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
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We all have our own karma and so different teachers will be meaningful to different students.
Tenzin Palmo
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We are educated. We can think. We have the freedom to think.
Tenzin Palmo
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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
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We do have the precious opportunity of this human life.
Tenzin Palmo
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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