Today’s quotes comes to us from Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche (1905-1989).
At age fifteen, Rinpoche began studies at Palpung Monastery–the major center of study and practice in the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. After ten years of study at Palpung, he was a solitary yogi for fifteen years.
He eventually found his way back to Palpung, where he resumed studies with the meditation master Drupon Norbu Dondrup, who “entrusted him with the rare transmission of the teaching of the Shangpa Kagyu.”
Rinpoche went on to become abbot of the meditation center at Palpung and also served as the meditation teacher of His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa. His tenure in this role ended when he was forced to flee to India after the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
In exile, he established the first three-year retreat center (in the Shangpa and Karma Kagyu lineages) for Westerners in France, and taught widely. He also authored many books, including The Dharma: That Illuminates All Beings Impartially Like the Light of the Sun and the Moon, Excellent Buddhism: An Exemplary Life, Foundation of Buddhist Meditation, Foundations of Tibetan Buddhism, Gently Whispered, Profound Buddhism: From Hinayana to Vajrayana, Secret Buddhism: Vajrayana Practices, and Luminous Mind: The Way of the Buddha.
Here’s the quote–from Luminous Mind: The Way of the Buddha (Wisdom Publications, 1996), pg. 5:
All spiritual traditions, whether Buddhist or non-Buddhist, differ in their forms in order to adapt to the abilities and faculties of different kinds of people; all of them, however, work towards establishing beings on the path of well-being and liberation. Since they all derive from perfectly enlightened activity, without exception they merit our trust.
[Photo via emptyness0.]
