The aim of far too many teachings these days is to make people “feel good,” and even some Buddhist masters are beginning to sound like New Age apostles. Their talks are entirely devoted to validating the manifestation of ego and endorsing the “rightness” of our feelings, neither of which have anything to do with the teachings we find in the pith instructions. So, if you are only concerned about feeling good, you are far better off having a full body massage or listening to some uplifting or life-affirming music than receiving dharma teachings, which were definitely not designed to cheer you up. On the contrary, the dharma was devised specifically to expose your failings and make you feel awful.
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices
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Further quotes from the book Not for Happiness:
- Spiritual practice is like riding a bicycle
- Rip that ego apart
- Everything we experience is a product of mind
- Maintaining a strong grip on the habits
- The signs of progress
- It’s all a matter of motivation
- No substitute for being guided by a guru
- The merit of maintaining mindfulness
- Mind-made illusions
- Wealth is contentment
- No end to samsara’s sufferings
- What Is Bodhichitta
- Dharma is not a therapy
- What is merit
- Our fundamental problem
- Altruism bolsters self-confidence
- Adapting the Dharma
- Nothing genuinely works in samsara
- Relative and absolute truth
- Self Trapped