Chamtrul Rinpoche

Never underestimate the importance of blessings. They uplift, clarify, and brighten your mind’s energy, resulting in your mind becoming more powerful, and your practice becoming more fruitful.

You do not have to run around searching for blessings. Just how the sun shines on to this world without ever discriminating, the compassionate wisdom energy of all of the buddhas pervades everything. No matter where you are, no matter what you do, this energy is always there, it is always with you. You are never alone.

But just as you need to open your eyes to experience the light of the sun, you have to open your mind with unshakable devotion to experience the blessings of the energy of the buddhas. The more that your mind opens, the greater the blessings that will energize your mind and power your practice all of the way to your enlightenment.

Just fill your mind with devotion, and your mind will just open up to their energy, and then the blessings will just naturally arise. Remember, the greater your devotion, the greater the blessings.

~ Chamtrul Rinpoche

Of course you must study the dharma to know exactly what you have to do, but you must also understand that an inch of practice can sometimes be worth a mile of theory.

~ Chamtrul Rinpoche

The result of your path is determined by your motivation, no matter what practice or action that you engage in. It is your motivation behind your practice or action that determines the type of momentum that is built up in your mind. For example, you could make thousands and thousands of lavish offerings at a buddhist shrine with the motivation of wishing that the positive karma ripens into a fortunate situation for yourself. But you would get closer to enlightenment by making just one single offering of anything anywhere with the motivation of bodhicitta.

No matter what practice or action that you engage in, it is so important to check your motivation, as it is only bodhicitta that will take you to buddhahood.

~ Chamtrul Rinpoche

(Often translated as the mind of enlightenment, bodhicitta is the compassionate wish to attain the enlightened state of a buddha for the benefit of all beings.)