Tao Te Ching

The Power of Goodness, the Wisdom Beyond Words
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Thinley Norbu གདུང་སྲས་ཕྲིན་ལས་ནོར་བུ

(Kyabjé Dungse)

1931 – 2011 CE

Oldest son of Nyingma head, Dudjom Rinpoche; Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche's father, and Longchenpa/ Longchen Rabjam lineage manifestation; Thinly Norbu Rinpoche became one of the major teachers of ancient Tibetan wisdom to the modern, Western world. He first came to the usa in 1976; but, unlike most famous spiritual teachers of the time, he kept a lower profile, shunned publicity, and maintained a quiet life practicing and writing books.

Eras

Unlisted Sources

Magic Dance (1981)

Quotes by Thinley Norbu (27 quotes)

“Even though mind is not touchable, even though you cannot see mind, even though you cannot show what it is, it is obvious that if there were no mind, there could be no phenomena even in this life.”

Themes: Mind

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“The guru introduces us to our own Buddha-nature. Believing with faith and devotion in one’s own guru or sublime teacher can introduce our own mind to its own Buddha-nature.”

Themes: Teachers

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“Giving up dualistic mind is not like throwing away garbage, or as easy as just saying it... dualistic mind has existed for countless lives, beings obviously have not had any power to give it up. That is why grasping mind exists, which continuously causes suffering.”

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“Science is not always positive. How many lives were lost from nuclear weapons, and how much energy was lost that could have gone toward the development of countries instead of their destruction? It is unnecessary to believe in developing only in a scientific way. It is also unnecessary to be against the idea of a spiritual path, because those who follow a spiritual path and develop spiritual qualities can help to create peace in the world.”

Themes: Science Religion

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“In the West these days, though they have good intentions, parents’ main advice to children is 'You must be strong. You must have self-esteem. You must not lose your hold on yourself. You must stand on your own feet. Don’t depend on others.' —but what is self? Modern people are afraid of losing their own ordinary egos. What else do they have to lose but that?”

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“If someone thinks he doesn't depend on others, he is like a sick person who thinks he doesn't have to go to a doctor because he can cure himself with poison, or like a poor person who says he doesn't have to depend on richer people even though he has an empty wallet.”

Themes: Health Delusion

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“Almost all Western teachers of Buddhism are either nihilists or eternalists, and not actual Buddhist lineage holders…Sometimes American Buddhism looks like communism, sometimes like democracy, sometimes like socialism, and sometimes like nothing, only circling between worldly systems, never cutting from them but only circling between negative phenomena.”

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“If we believe in the continuity of mind, then love inconspicuously connects us to the ones we love with continuous positive energy, so that even tangible separations between people who love each other do not reduce the intangible power of love.”

Themes: Continuity

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“If we practice meditation, we can inhale all of the elements so that our inner and outer elements are mixed inseparably and our mind pervades everywhere, dissolving into clear space.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

Chapters: 34. An Unmoored Boat

Themes: Meditation

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“The external air and internal breath are linked through breathing. The external space of the sky and the internal space of the mind are linked through openness.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

Chapters: 39. Oneness

Themes: Oneness

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“It is always very difficult and painful to move from an old familiar place to a new unfamiliar place. It is very difficult to change... Habits follow wherever we go and changing our habits remains the greatest difficulty.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

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“Power expressed without foresight always returns eventually, reverses confidence into pathetic impotence.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

Themes: Power Confidence

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“Through skillful means we are able to conserve subtle energy by expressing it carefully in small amounts with pauses... When we express ourselves excessively with excitement... our energy is lost and we feel anxious and depressed... it is best to keep energy contained without expressing it until we get results, until we develop confidence.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

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“Whenever we stay in the extreme of nihilism or in the extreme of eternalism, we divide phenomena from emptiness, and because of our division habit, we cannot go beyond in the pure light secret essence of the elements.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

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“Enlightened mind reflects all the five wisdoms in equanimity. But... because of our obscured ordinary mind, our ego makes categories out of equanimity. With ego and categories come substance, with the birth of substance comes its death, and with death comes suffering.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

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“Desire creates love through attachment to pleasurable circumstances: love creates anger by controlling through grasping. The basis of both is ignorance which creates only darkness by confusing love with anger through grasping.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

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“Suffering in hopefulness is the eternalist. Suffering in hopelessness is the nihilist. Beyond both hopefulness and hopelessness is the Buddhist.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

Themes: Buddhism

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“Meditators create a field of bliss around themselves through their spontaneous luminous power, and use their pure elements to help other attain the same level and join with then in the same mandala, the same mind.”

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“If we only use our strength to help ourselves, we will automatically make hierarchies to prevent others in a subtle way from being equal. As a result of this style in which those on top try to keep others down, everyone's mind becomes heavy.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

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“If we really want to make pure dharma institutions, we must only temporarily depend on society's heavy customs in order to ultimately go beyond into wisdom's customlessness.”

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“According to the Tantric path, women are the source of wisdom phenomena and the support of desireless bliss through desire... those who do not depend on women can never be liberated.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

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“When we love, we think that we love an object. But really, love is inherent without the subject and only reflects to the object.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

Themes: Love

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“In the crystal-mirror theater of Awareness Mind, the supreme artist performs his magical displays. But rare indeed is the clear-insight audience capable of viewing this wisdom.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

Themes: Magic

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“Ordinary artists express themselves for fame, fortune, or power. They only make art which becomes a master controlling them. Artists must go beyond outward, obvious expressions and experience the subtle, inner elements; the source of the outer, gross elements. Then they can make art which reflects what people need.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

Themes: Art

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“If we can recognize our own mysterious secret wisdom essence... then enlightenment is no longer mysterious because—inseparable from the Buddha—we are the mysterious.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

Themes: Enlightenment

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“Beings who have wisdom intelligence often become isolated eccentrics because ordinary-minded people cannot accept their Wisdom Mind phenomena... Because wisdom eccentrics see all the connections between the visible and the invisible elements, they want to express what is true according to sublime actual relative truth.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

Themes: Crazy Wisdom

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“So I had better fly in the ten directions even though I have lost the social custom and people call me aimless.
So I had better stay in one place even though I have lost the gypsy custom and people call me lazy.”

from Magic Dance (1981)

Themes: Paradox Travel

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