Before going on retreat Yongey Mingyur left this message:

“In parting, I would like to give you one small piece of advice to keep in your heart. You may have heard me say this before, but it is the key point of the entire path, so it bears repeating: All that we are looking for in life — all the happiness, contentment, and peace of mind — is right here in the present moment. Our very own awareness is itself fundamentally pure and good. The only problem is that we get so caught up in the ups and downs of life that we don’t take the time to pause and notice what we already have.

Don’t forget to make space in your life to recognize the richness of your basic nature, to see the purity of your being and let its innate qualities of love, compassion, and wisdom naturally emerge. Nurture this recognition as you would a small seedling. Allow it to grow and flourish.

I will keep you in my heart and in my prayers.

Yours in the Dharma,
Yongey Mingyur

Light symbolises wisdom as contrasted to darkness which symbolises ignorance. The offering of light to the Buddha reminds a Buddhist that the goal of Enlightenment is attained when wisdom drives away the darkness of ignorance.

With lights brightly shining,
Abolishing this gloom,
I honour the Enlightened One,
Who dispels the darkness of ignorance

A beggar had been sitting by the side of the road for thirty years.
One day a stranger walked by.
“Spare some change?” mumbled the beggar.
“I have nothing to give you,” said the stranger. Then he asked: “What’s that you’re sitting on?”
“Nothing, ” replied the beggar. “Just an old box. I’ve been sitting on it for as long as I can remember
“Ever look inside?,” asked the stranger.
“No,” said the beggar. “What’s the point, there’s nothing in there.”
“Have a look inside,” insisted the stranger. The beggar, reluctantly, managed to pry open the lid. With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw that the box was filled with gold.

I am that stranger who has nothing to give you and who is telling you to look inside. Not inside any box, as in the parable, but somewhere even closer: inside yourself.

-Eckhart Tolle

“The way people treat us is their karma. The way we react is our own.”

Trulshik Rinpoche

“Prayers in the Buddhist sense are not requests to a power outside ourselves and for personal advantages, but the calling up of forces that dwell within ourselves and that can only be effective if we are free of selfish desires.”

Gesar, Fall 1997…………..Lama Anagarika Govinda