110+ Tenzin Palmo Quotes On Heart, Snow And Spiritual

Tenzin Palmo is a Tibetan author and Buddhist nun. She is best known for being one of the first Western women to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun. She has written several books about her spiritual journey and her experiences living in a Himalayan cave for twelve years. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Tenzin Palmo on love, life, heart.

Top 10 Tenzin Palmo Quotes

1. The answer lies within ourselves. If we can't find peace and happiness there, it's not going to come from the outside.
2. 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.
3. If we greet situations with a positive attitude, we will eventually create positive returns. If we respond with a negative attitude, negative things will eventually come our way.
4. In the very deep darkness of this world, little pinpoints of light show up very brightly and can shine a long way.
5. The first thing is to learn how to quiet the mind, relax the mind, and bring the awareness to the front so that we are conscious of what we're doing when we're doing it without all the commentary.
6. Develop confidence in your innate qualities and believe that these qualities will be brought to fruition.
7. The Buddha himself said, "I still use conceptual thinking, but I'm not formed by it." And that's the Buddha.
8. You see people swimming, and you think, oh, how wonderful to swim. But most people stand on the edge swaying back and forth, afraid to jump. They don't think they can swim.
9. This is a time that calls for extreme restraint. In a world of outright aggression and violence there can be no winners. To respond to violence with counter-violence only throws oil on the fire.
10. The purpose of dharma is to help your mind to expand, to grow, to clarify. It should uphold us and create an inner sense of peace, joy, and clarity.

Tenzin Palmo Short Quotes

• I sometimes feel tremendous compassion and helplessness.
• You can still practice to be a better and kinder and happier person. That's perfectly possible.
• Either we're aware and present, or we're not. There is no half way.
• The power of thought is extremely powerful.
• We need to be sincere in our practice, but at the same time we can't take ourselves too seriously.
• Just because someone is very charismatic, it doesn't mean that they're genuinely qualified.
• If you're meeting with the dharma, you have probably been a human being before.
• My body is not good for prostrations.
• When we read history we find that in all ages people have thought, this is the dark age.
• First you have to help yourself.

Tenzin Palmo Quotes About Love

My mother's love was really not based on attachment. Her love was genuine love. To make me happy, not how I will make her happy. — Tenzin Palmo

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

Try to develop some genuine love and compassion, some real caring for others. — Tenzin Palmo

There are many wonderfully qualified teachers out there, but that doesn't mean that each teacher is suitable to the same person, anymore than people fall in love with the same person. — Tenzin Palmo

I've always loved the Sangha. I have the deepest, deepest respect for them. I'm very sorry that in the West people don't appreciate what the monastic order is about. — Tenzin Palmo

Tenzin Palmo Quotes About Life

We do look for inspiration amongst our own sex. Why not? You go into temples and they're full of all the lineage lamas who are male. What message does that give to a young girl, except that somehow she got trapped in the wrong body because of bad things she did in a past life? — Tenzin Palmo

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

This precious life is our opportunity. We are not the millions and millions of other things that are not human. — Tenzin Palmo

Monastic life cuts off the distractions and emotional entanglements one becomes involved in, in the lay life. — Tenzin Palmo

Doing retreats, getting personal teachings from time to time from inspiring teachers, all of this helps to recharge our batteries. Then we get inspired and can carry what we've gained into our daily life, which is very important. — Tenzin Palmo

We do have the precious opportunity of this human life. — Tenzin Palmo

In this life you have obstacles. — Tenzin Palmo

Most of the people I talk to are not going to go off and live in a cave. Why should they? So I talk about how people can stop separating dharma practice - going on retreats, going to dharma centers, hearing talks, reading books - from their ordinary life. — Tenzin Palmo

It's unlikely that you were a frog in a past life. — Tenzin Palmo

I do think that someone who decides to devote themselves entirely to the spiritual life, that that is more meritorious. — Tenzin Palmo

Tenzin Palmo Quotes About Heart

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

If you don't find that people find you're easier to live with than you were before, if you don't find that your heart is feeling warmer toward others and if your negative emotions are not getting any better, then there's something wrong. That is always the touchstone of the Dharma practice. — Tenzin Palmo

People talk over and over about bodhichitta, but so often their heart is quite cold. — Tenzin Palmo

Once one has understand what is Buddhadharma, what is not Buddhadharma, and once one has had enough view to see the different approaches, then it's important to really look at what speaks to one's heart. — Tenzin Palmo

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

At one time I thought that if I could really understand renunciation and bodhichitta from the depths of my heart, then, for this lifetime that would be enough. — Tenzin Palmo

With sincerity from the depths of your heart to do the best you can, just keep going and don't worry too much that you're not Milarepa or Rechungpa. — Tenzin Palmo

The dharma is here. And the dharma is in your heart. Where else would it be? — Tenzin Palmo

Tenzin Palmo Quotes About Spiritual

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

The real spiritual power is enabling beings to realize the nature of the mind. That's the power of Buddha activity. — Tenzin Palmo

Until you are open, you cannot receive. — Tenzin Palmo

Tenzin Palmo Famous Quotes And Sayings

We have to cultivate contentment with what we have. We really don't need much. When you know this, the mind settles down. Cultivate generosity. Delight in giving. Learn to live lightly. In this way, we can begin to transform what is negative into what is positive. This is how we start to grow up. — Tenzin Palmo

The more you realize, the more you realize how much there is to realize and, at the same time, how much you realize that there is nothing to realize. So, it's an enormous job, not something that is going to be finished in this lifetime. — Tenzin Palmo

To me the special quality (which of course many men have as well) is first of all a sharpness, a clarityIt cuts through - especially intellectual ossification. Itgets to the point. To me the dakini principle stands for the intuitive force. — Tenzin Palmo

It's very important to realize that every person that you meet, everything that you do, with the right attitude and a little awareness and skillful means - we can transform everything - all our joys and sorrows. — Tenzin Palmo

Perhaps one of the main antidotes to depression, lack of self-esteem, loneliness and so forth is the recognition that we really do have Buddha nature. All the other problems like anger, jealousy, ambitions, are merely habitual patterns that we've learned, but aren't inherent to who we are. — Tenzin Palmo

Some students went to Milarepa and said, we should stop living in caves and meditating because we should go out and help beings as bodhisattvas. And Milarepa said that as long as space exists, so long will there be beings for you to help. — Tenzin Palmo

There are wars, there's pestilence, there are plagues, there is corruption in religious circles, corruption in the government, when was it not? — Tenzin Palmo

From the point of view of emptiness, there is neither being nor non-being, but we're not on the point of view of emptiness, we're on the point of view of our relative being. — Tenzin Palmo

If you take the time to study how to be a doctor and how to use your scalpel and your medicine, then there are endless beings out there to help. — Tenzin Palmo

Basically, I want to spend my time in retreat, but to my own amazement, I agreed to help with a project to start a training center for nuns. I agreed because I think it's really very important for the Western Sangha. I don't know how I'm going to help, but it's important. — Tenzin Palmo

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

The Tibetans are good at learning many skillful ways to show that everything we do becomes dharma practice, depending on which kind of approach we use. — Tenzin Palmo

Don't be thinking that this lama over there is giving better teachings or that this lama over here is giving more secret initiations. Leave that. Just keep the practice very simple, try to stay in the moment and try to stay mindful. — Tenzin Palmo

Most religions have always appreciated the extreme power of concentrated thought directed toward the benefit of others, especially when that person is practicing in solitude. That's why they have contemplative orders. — Tenzin Palmo

We only think about the difficult people and the horrible things that happen. That's what gets all the media attention. — Tenzin Palmo

It's interesting that in those countries like Taiwan or Korea, where nuns are given equal opportunities for study and practice, they also develop great social awareness. — Tenzin Palmo

To become effortless takes a lot of effort. It's good to compare it to learning an instrument or learning a sport. — Tenzin Palmo

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

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

Our thinking can create liberation or it can create imprisonment. It depends on how we use our mind. — Tenzin Palmo

We have to transform those ordinary actions of our day into dharma practice because otherwise nothing is going to move. — Tenzin Palmo

When I heard that our bodies change when we get a bit older, I thought, oh good, now I'll go back to being a boy again. But it didn't happen like that. — Tenzin Palmo

As a human being, we have everything we need. It's enough suffering to give us incentive to go on, but not so much that we don't know where to turn. — Tenzin Palmo

What I like about Tibetan Buddhism is it was taken to Tibet in the 7th century and then again in the 11th. It has everything that had been collected in India up until that time. And so on all levels, it's so vast. — Tenzin Palmo

When you learn an instrument, it takes an awful lot of time to just learn the scales, and then eventually when you have completely mastered the instrument, the music plays for you. But you still have to keep practicing. And it takes an awful lot of practice. Nonetheless, if you diligently practice, hours and hours and hours and hours, you probably won't get it. You'll probably just end up hurting your fingers. — Tenzin Palmo

To want not to want, you'll tie yourself in knots. So this is why the Tibetans always say, just relax the mind and open. — Tenzin Palmo

If you're born in the higher realms, then it's too pleasant, and you don't have any incentive to practice. If you're born in the lower realms, you don't have any opportunity to practice. — Tenzin Palmo

When I was in retreat I just did my meditation sessions and, in-between, reading and things I had to do. — Tenzin Palmo

Still all the tulkus being born are men. — Tenzin Palmo

We have the pure nature of the mind. — Tenzin Palmo

Why do some people, when they want to practice, keep coming against problems and difficulties, and obstacles - inner obstacles and outer obstacles? It's because of the lack of merit. — Tenzin Palmo

Nowadays, mindfulness has become a catch-all word, but the general principle of trying to be more conscious and aware in our daily life is very important. Along with this, it's helpful to contemplate some of the mind training verses which are designed to take and transform all of the problems we experience. — Tenzin Palmo

Of course, now as a woman you can do so much, without being necessarily a rinpoche. — Tenzin Palmo

In the beginning especially, we won't realize we're changing. — Tenzin Palmo

Because we're trying, because we want, it's very hard to get. — Tenzin Palmo

There are other ways of benefiting than by being a recognized tulku and sitting on a throne. — Tenzin Palmo

Every country that meets Buddhism molds it into their own indigenous religion, as America will. A very clear example of this is Japan, which threw out almost all the dharma, and just kept that essence, which spoke to them. — Tenzin Palmo

We all have our own karma and so different teachers will be meaningful to different students. — Tenzin Palmo

I think it's a meritorious action to become a monk, provided that your motivation is pure. — Tenzin Palmo

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

If you want to be a doctor, you may say, There are all these beings, they're sick, they're dying, I've got to go out and help them. And so you grab a bag full of scalpels and medicine and rush off. Even though your motivation is very pure, you end up harming beings because you don't know what you're doing. — Tenzin Palmo

We should develop a deep appreciation for all the we have, and not waste it, otherwise we'll die with deep regrets. — Tenzin Palmo

We're normally caught up in the current of our thinking, feelings and emotions. With awareness, we can observe it all without being swept away. This gives us access to something much vaster and deeper than our usual compressed minds. All of us can access this. It's not so difficult. With some instruction and practice, anybody can do it. — Tenzin Palmo

There is a basic problem that a lot of Western monks and nuns become ordained without really understanding or appreciating what the monastic life is all about. — Tenzin Palmo

The nature of the mind is completely incredible. — Tenzin Palmo

Whether we're in retreat or out in the world, we should try to develop the quality of awareness as much as possible. — Tenzin Palmo

I think to dwell continually on the dark side creates gloom and despair and anger and hatred, and that just adds to the darkness. So rather than that, we need to think of the beauty in the world, and also send out love and compassion to all beings in this world. Not just the people we like, but people who we find difficult. Because they are very deeply in need of compassion. — Tenzin Palmo

We've been human countless times and done everything you can imagine. So we've been planting all these negative seeds, and they're going to come up. — Tenzin Palmo

A dog, however nice he is, and sweet-tempered, doesn't have much of a range of options. A human being does. — Tenzin Palmo

We are educated. We can think. We have the freedom to think. — Tenzin Palmo

Why are we sitting? Why are we practicing? Why are we doing anything? It's not so I can be happy. It's so I can embody the dharma in order to benefit other beings. — Tenzin Palmo

As women become more educated and confident, they can start adding their voice. — Tenzin Palmo

I think we females have a lot of work to do for each other. — Tenzin Palmo

We try to be present when we are drinking our tea, which isn't as easy as it sounds. It's very easy to think, right now I'm going to be really present while I'm drinking my tea, here I am drinking my tea, and I'm so present, look this is easy, I am here drinking my tea and I know I'm drinking my tea blah blah blah blah... right? And the one place where the mind is not, is here. It's just thinking about being here. — Tenzin Palmo

We're reborn every second, every moment. — Tenzin Palmo

The internet can be enormously helpful, just like books can, but I don't think it's the be all and end all for really practicing Buddhism. At a certain point, as with learning any skill, we need personal instruction from someone who is more advanced than us. — Tenzin Palmo

For any practice to work, the mind which is meditating on the object must merge. Often they are facing each other. One has to become completely absorbed, then the transformation will occur. — Tenzin Palmo

My mother was superb. Even when I said to her, when I was nineteen, oh, I'm going to India. Her immediate reaction was, oh yes dear, and when are you leaving? She didn't say, oh how could you leave me, your mother? Or wait a bit dear until you get a bit older and you know your own mind. She just said, well, when are you going? And that was because she loved me, not because she didn't love me. — Tenzin Palmo

We have produced many of our problems through our confused mental states. — Tenzin Palmo

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

I think the problem with Western students is they're very ambitious. — Tenzin Palmo

Other people may tell us, "Oh, you're so much nicer." Of course you can't hope that other people will tell you that you're so much nicer, but that's always a good sign. Perhaps people find that you're easier to live with. — Tenzin Palmo

The Dharma is a very, very special and precious thing. The more you practice it, the more you will realize this. — Tenzin Palmo

The Buddha always emphased the important of good friends. — Tenzin Palmo

We're always given the message that our potential is so limited, which is so sad. Actually, our potential is infinite. — Tenzin Palmo

From the point of view of the relative world, merit is very important. — Tenzin Palmo

The very best players, when they are practicing, put everything they've got into it. But then they leave it for a while. And it's the same in dharma practice. — Tenzin Palmo

We live in a society which is heading in one direction, so it's good to have at least a few friends who share the same values and can encourage us and help us to remember that we're not alone or peculiar, but that what we're doing is a very valid way of life. This will encourage us to put the Dharma at the centre of our life and not the periphery, to use our daily life as our Dharma practice. — Tenzin Palmo

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

In India many people come to discuss things with me. I sometimes say that half of them come saying, "I have a problem, I want to find a teacher." The other half say, "I have a problem because I have a teacher!" So it's not so simple. — Tenzin Palmo

People should find what approach really speaks to them, and then do it. Obviously, better with a good teacher, who can help you on the path. But in any case, basic principles. — Tenzin Palmo

Distraction is the main problem for us all - what the Buddha called the monkey mind. We need to tame this monkey mind. — Tenzin Palmo

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

We're not lowly sinners, we're not worthless beings. We are something jewel-like and beautiful. — Tenzin Palmo

It's only when all the dust is completely gone from the mirror, and there is only mirror, no dust, that we're really enlightened. So that's a lot of work. — Tenzin Palmo

The Buddha said that samsara by its nature is painful. He didn't say it was a joyride. — Tenzin Palmo

Women are fully capable of doing everything. — Tenzin Palmo

Life Lessons by Tenzin Palmo

1. Tenzin Palmo's work teaches us the importance of perseverance, self-discipline and dedication to our goals.
2. She also emphasizes the need to remain humble and open to learning from our mistakes and failures.
3. Finally, her work encourages us to stay true to our spiritual path and trust in the power of our inner wisdom.