Top 120 Sogyal Rinpoche Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 3 of 3

101. “But, in fact, impermanence is like some of the people we meet in life – difficult and disturbing at first, but on deeper acquaintance far friendlier and less unnerving than we could have imagined.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

102. “The birth of a man is the birth of his sorrow. The longer he lives, the more stupid he becomes, because his anxiety to avoid unavoidable death becomes more and more acute. What bitterness! He lives for what is always out of reach! His thirst for survival in the future makes him incapable of living in the present. CHUANG TZU.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

103. “Just look at your mind for a few minutes. You will see that it is like a flea, constantly hopping to and fro. You will see that thoughts arise without any reason, without any connection. Swept along by the chaos of every moment, we are the victims of the fickleness of our mind.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

104. “We are acting as if we were the last generation on the planet. Without.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

105. “The secret is not to “think” about thoughts, but to allow them to flow through the mind, while keeping your mind free of afterthoughts.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

106. “As long as you cultivate stillness, you may enjoy peace, but whenever your mind is a little bit disturbed, deluded thoughts will set in again.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

107. “When I came to the West, I realized there was much hunger for spiritual teachings, but no environment for spirituality.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

108. “The Dalai Lama has warned: ‘Too many people have the Dharma only on their lips. Instead of using the Dharma to destroy their own negative thoughts, they regard the Dharma as a possession and themselves as the owner.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

109. “And being a buddha is not being some omnipotent spiritual superman, but becoming at last a true human being.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

110. “The only truly serious goals in life are learning to love other people and acquiring knowledge.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

111. “Knowing that I cannot escape it, I see no point in worrying about.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

112. “We are acting as if we were the last generation on the planet. Without a radical change in heart, in mind, in vision, the earth will end up like Venus, charred and dead.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

113. “Sometimes even when the cell door is flung open, the prisoner chooses not to escape.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

114. “Don’t worry about anything. Even if you find your attention wandering, there is no particular ‘thing’ you have to hold onto. Just let go, and drift in the awareness of the blessing. Don’t let small, niggling questions distract.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

115. “Because the dying also are unable to help themselves, we should relieve them of discomfort and anxiety, and assist them, as far as we can, to die with composure.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

116. “As Stephen Levine says: “When your fear touches someone’s pain it becomes pity; when your love touches someone’s pain, it becomes compassion.”4.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

117. “We need to make a very clear distinction between what is in our ego’s self-interest and what is in our ultimate interest; it is from mistaking one for the other that all our suffering comes.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

118. “We do not know where death awaits us: so let us wait for it everywhere. To practice death is to practice freedom. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave. MONTAIGNE.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

119. “When your amnesia over your identity begins to be cured, you will realize finally that dak dzin, grasping at self, is the root cause of all your suffering. You will understand at last how much harm it has done both to yourself and to others, and you will realize that both the noblest and the wisest thing to do is to cherish others instead of cherishing yourself. This will bring healing to your heart, healing to your mind, and healing to your spirit. It.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

120. “Anyone looking honestly at life will see that we live in a constant state of suspense and ambiguity.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

121. “As a Buddhist, I view death as a normal process, a reality that I accept will occur as long as I remain in this earthly existence. Knowing that I cannot escape it, I see no point in worrying about it. I tend to think of death as being like changing your clothes when they are old and worn out, rather than as some final end. Yet death is unpredictable: We do not know when or how it will take place. So it is only sensible to take certain precautions before it actually happens.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

122. “To meditate is to make a complete break with how we “normally” operate, for it is a state free of all cares and concerns, in which there is no competition, no desire to possess or grasp at anything, no intense and anxious struggle, and no hunger to achieve: an ambitionless state where there is neither acceptance nor rejection, neither hope nor fear, a state in which we slowly begin to release all those emotions and concepts that have imprisoned us into the space of natural simplicity.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

123. “Shantideva said: Whatever joy there is in this world All comes from desiring others to be happy, And whatever suffering there is in this world All comes from desiring myself to be happy.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

124. “At the heart of all religions is the certainty that there is a fundamental truth, and that this life is a sacred opportunity to evolve and realize it.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

125. “There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; my philosophy is kindness.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

126. “But whether we fear death and refuse to face it, or whether we romanticize it, death is trivialized. Both despair and euphoria about death are an evasion. Death is neither depressing nor exciting; it is simply a fact of life.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

127. “Of all footprints That of the elephant is supreme; Of all mindfulness meditations That on death is supreme.7.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

128. “What is really baffling about life is that sometimes, despite all our confusion, we can also be really wise!”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

129. “Milarepa wrote: In horror of death, I took to the mountains – Again and again I meditated on the uncertainty of the hour of death, Capturing the fortress of the deathless unending nature of mind. Now all fear of death is over and done.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

130. “Thomas Merton wrote: “What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

131. “What need is there to say more? The childish work for their own benefit, The buddhas work for the benefit of others. Just look at the difference between them. If I do not exchange my happiness For the suffering of others, I shall not attain the state of buddhahood And even in samsara I shall have no real joy.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

132. “The posture we take when we meditate signifies that we are linking absolute and relative, sky and ground, heaven and earth, like two wings of a bird, integrating the skylike, deathless nature of mind and the ground of our transient, mortal nature. The.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche

133. “You see, we are all dying. It’s only a matter of time.”

— Sogyal Rinpoche