25+ Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche Quotes on Buddhism & Buddha-Nature

This page lists some of the all-time best Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche quotes. Enjoy!

Page Contents:

Buddhism & Buddhists Quotes
Compassion & Competition Quotes
No Self Quotes
Suffering & Liberation Quotes
Buddha-Nature Quotes

25+ Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche Quotes on Buddhism, No Self, Buddha-Nature, & More

Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche Quotes on Buddhism & Buddhists

“There are the Buddhist loyalists who like the idea of Buddhism, and then there are the practicing Buddhists who are actually engaged in the practice of Buddhism—there’s a demarcation between those.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“What we sometimes tend to do: Buddhism is the entire world, or Christianity is the entire world, or Jainism is the entire world, or Islam is the entire world, or Hinduism is the entire world—not being able to clearly see the essence of the teachings and the reasons why any philosophy or doctrine originated.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“Buddhism is not a very popular teaching at all. It is popular to a certain degree where it satisfies the intellectual mind looking for something that is glitzy. But, after a while the glitziness of the dharma fades, and then you begin to find out a lot more has to be done about your self. It’s not about belonging to a group. It’s not about feeling good for a moment or a weekend. There are certainly no Christmases to celebrate—and, I believe, no Adam and Eve to blame for original sin. It all falls on the individual self. The whole beauty of Buddhism falls down to it becoming a very practical approach of working with your own self—and that’s not a popular thing to do.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“Our love, our dedication, our devotion, our meditation, our practices and teachings somehow seem to be so much more connected to the level of the intellectual mind—in the level of intent, hope, wanting, aspirations. And yet, when it comes to actualizing them wholeheartedly and wholesomely in our actions of body, speech, and mind, we do experience a gap—called the ‘non-supporting factor’ between intent and action … There is a discrepancy between intent and action.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“A Buddhist is one who doesn’t place so much importance on the appearance of what is. It requires the honest approach of self-examination. As long as that self-examination is not cultivated by each individual, as a group singing songs about how wonderful the idea of compassion is will never actually be strong enough to bridge the gap between intent and action.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“For a Buddhist meditator, the first thought that should come in the mind is that may this life be useful—useful for oneself, useful for others.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“Who you are is the view; you do not believe in a view. You’re not loyal, or respectful, or devoted to Buddha or Buddhism; you are Buddhism.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche Quotes on Compassion & Competition

“Compassion requires introspection, tremendous courage, tremendous contemplation, tremendous insight into human nature.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“If you really want to be compassionate, start inwardly.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“‘Compassion’ is that which accomplishes selflessness … ‘Compassion’ can be defined from a Buddhist perspective as an accomplishment of selflessness—where a person is able to accomplish victory over self-grasping, conquer self-cherishing, able to gradually step-by-step tread on a path of contemplation, examination, introspection, building mindfulness and awareness that is able to allow the shifting of the focus from self to others. When we are able to practice this and accomplish this, this is then called ‘being compassionate.’” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“Without compassion, really getting anything out of Buddhism isn’t going to happen … You can never really learn about Buddhism or try to practice compassion without actually liking each other.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“It’s a direct, first-hand experience that we are all living witnesses that there is such a thing as compassion vs competition … If one is compassionate, one shouldn’t be competitive.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche Quotes on No Self

“Realizing the innate primordial nature of mind, there has to be in that realization freedom from all elaborations—no phenomena, no self as a real thing.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“I am the person, a product of the actions that I have created from my body, speech, and mind. So, the body, speech, and mind creates action. That action has a repercussion—it comes and affects my own self. And, I go back and forth producing these actions—each action becoming a result. And, at the end, this heap of all my thoughts, of my speech, of my actions begins to become this identity of this person. This identity of the person continues to perform actions that affect the lives of others and therefore interaction between self and others and the actions continue to influence one another’s lifetime at all times.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“Here we are, let loose in society 24 hours a day. And everyone continuously projects their own needs, defends their own needs, and serves the ambition, and the demands, and the expectation of ‘me.’ This consequently produces a rhythm of life that is producing tremendous animosity and tremendous greed.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“Is the reality of things as they are more predominant in the decisions you make, or are your decisions still dominated by the suppositions that there is a ‘me’ that has to be cared for and sustained?” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“Impermanence is there. Changes occur all the time.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche Quotes on Suffering & Liberation

“If you truly wish to find happiness and freedom from suffering, and if you really believe you have an empathetic attitude that really wishes sentient beings to be free from suffering and obtain absolute liberation, the key to that is only in the realization of your own fundamental nature, your own Buddha-nature.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“We assume a lot, and that assumption leads us to sustaining and projecting numerous causes and conditions that are actually an impediment to the happiness that we are seeking all the time.”

“If you want this, create the ground of it. If you do not want something, simply don’t create the causes for it.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“Buddhist teachings teach the path through which one may cultivate the best qualities, best potentials, of human beings through which one may be able to genuinely bring forth the resultant state of happiness for oneself and others. The Buddhist path believes there is the possibility of obtaining freedom from suffering of self and others through eliminating the causes that bring about suffering for self and others.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“You’re gifted with a sympathetic heart that wishes to alleviate the sufferings of self and others.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“May everything that we are able to accomplish in the form of hearing, contemplating, meditating, and accomplishing the dharma—and any merit and virtue gathered that arises from this—be the basis of happiness and liberation of all sentient beings.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“From the relative perspective, whatever I do today, whatever I say today, whatever I think today, may it be for the benefit of all sentient beings. From the absolute perspective, may I realize the absolute truth and through this may liberation arise in the lifetime of all sentient beings and one’s own self.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“Sit for a brief moment and generate genuine lovingkindness towards all sentient beings. How difficult can it be? It doesn’t need history, doesn’t need analysis, doesn’t need a philosophy, doesn’t need a technique.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche Quotes on Buddha-Nature

“Buddha-nature is pervasive and inherent in all beings. This nature is nondual … There isn’t any sentient being that does not have this Buddha-nature.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“The primordially enlightened mind or the Buddha-nature is the basis of all sentient beings—that is then the pervasive nature itself. That is also often referred to as the ‘ground nature.’” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“Buddha’s teachings all generally point to three main factors: pervasive, nondual, and inherent—which all emphasize the one crucial point that this enlightened nature is inherent of all beings.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“Dualistic obscurations need to be eliminated. When that is eliminated, then there is nonduality between the nature of the Buddha and the beings.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“Not having a clear understanding of the true nature of inner phenomena, we often live upon a belief that is nothing but assumptions.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

“The intrinsic nature of a human being is good.” — Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche