Clear light ~ Thinley Norbu Rinpoche

At the time of the meditation of tranquil stillness and true seeing, although this meditation is not the basic nature of clarity and emptiness just as it is, it is the arising of an aspect of experience that is similar, like the way the form of the sky appears in water. This is called an example demonstrating clear light. The essential nature of wisdom is free from the coverings of experience, like stainless sky. When this is realized, it is called absolute clear light.

By realizing the basic nature of the great bliss of the clear light of empty awareness and by continuously sustaining it, when one actually accomplishes the stages of the path, the consciousness of the five senses will dissolve into mind. Mind will dissolve into the consciousness of alaya. When alaya dissolves into the dharmata of empty clear light, even though there is no consciousness, because consciousness is purified from the root, self-awareness wisdom light will arise like stainless sky. Thus it is also said. For example, when gold mixed with earth, stone, sand, and so on is melted down and refined, the power of the ordinary stain or nature of the elements of earth and stone is reduced more and more, like the gross energy of obscurations, and the quality of the element gold is purified more and more. Eventually the time will come when even the object of purification, the gold itself, will be purified and there will be nothing left.

Thinley Norbu Rinpoche

Mingle the practice with your own being ~ Padmasambhava

Don’t mistake mere words to be the meaning of the teachings. Mingle the practice with your own being and attain liberation from samsara right now.

Padmasambhava

Always Maintain Only a Joyful Mind ~ Pema Chödron

Constantly apply cheerfulness, if for no other reason than because you are on this spiritual path. Have a sense of gratitude to everything, even difficult emotions, because of their potential to wake you up.

Pema Chödron

Always watch over mind and speech ~ Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye

Atisha, the protector of the snowland, said:
“Among many, examine your speech;
When you stay alone, examine your mind.”
Briefly he taught these two points.

The mind is the root of faults
And the mouth is the gateway for these faults to emerge.
Thus, always watch over both.

Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye

At the time of death ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

So if you waste your life now on endless minor tasks, you can be sure that at the time of death you will weep with regret and be stricken with intense anxiety, like a thief who has just been thrown into jail and anxiously anticipates his punishment. A person might find himself with nothing to eat, no clothes to wear, and no house to live in; but if his mind is filled with faith in his teacher and the Three Jewels, that person will both live and die with his heart always joyful and confident.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Thinking while resting in the natural state ~ Thrangu Rinpoche

Resting in the natural state does not mean that you cannot think about things or work. The idea is to rest in the natural state and think at the same time. If you can do that, you can think things through and work but there are no painful or sharp feelings.

Thrangu Rinpoche

Recognition ~ Mingyur Rinpoche

Awareness is the natural, innate, knowing quality of mind that is with us all the time. We cannot function without awareness; we would have no experience of anything without awareness. However, we do not always recognize it. In fact, most of the time we don’t. Meditation teaches us to recognize the awareness that we already have.

Mingyur Rinpoche

Allow the practice itself to be liberation ~ Dogen Zenji

In your meditation you yourself are the mirror reflecting the solution of your problems. The human mind has absolute freedom within its true nature. You can attain your freedom intuitively. Do not work for freedom, rather allow the practice itself to be liberation.

Dogen Zenji

Without Going Anywhere, You’ll Arrive ~ Milarepa

When resting evenly in meditation with the points of body,
If appearances cease and you are without thoughts,
These are the doings of a lethargic shamatha.
But when you rouse yourself with mindfulness,
It’s like a candle, self-luminous and shining bright,
Or like a flower that’s naturally vivid and clear.
Like looking with your eyes at the glow of the sky,
Awareness-emptiness is naked, open, and clear.

That nonconceptuality that’s luminous and clear
Is the arising of the shamatha experience.
On the basis of that meditative experience,
While supplicating the precious jewels,
Gain certainty by studying and contemplating the dharma.
Take the vipashyana that brings the understanding of no self
And tie the sturdy rope of shamatha to that.
Then that strong noble being with love and compassion
Through the mighty strength of rousing bodhichitta to benefit others,
Having been lifted up with a pure aspiration
To the completely pure path of seeing,
There, vipashyana directly realizes the purity that cannot be seen
And then the faults of mind’s hopes and fears will be known.
Without going anywhere, you’ll arrive at the Buddha’s ground.
Without looking at anything, you’ll see dharmakaya.
Without achieving anything, your aim will be spontaneously accomplished.

Milarepa

The four boundless qualities ~ Kangyur Rinpoche

Focusing on all sentient beings, practice the four boundless qualities: love, which is the wish that they be happy; compassion, the wish that they be free from suffering; sympathetic joy, which is to feel happy when they are happy; and impartiality, which is to treat them impartially as equals, without attachment or aversion.

Kangyur Rinpoche

To the ant it is everything ~ Lama Zopa Rinpoche

It is no more logical to think “I am more important than this person” than it is to think “I’m more important than this insect.” Such a view has not one single logical reason to support it but is merely dictatorial and egotistical reasoning. An ant’s life may be of little consequence to us, but to the ant it is everything.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The most important attitude and practice ~ Kalu Rinpoche

The essence of the Lama or Buddha is emptiness; their nature, clarity; their appearance, the play of unimpeded awareness. Apart from that they have no real material form, shape or colour, whatsoever – like the empty luminosity of space. When we know them to be like that we can develop faith, merge our minds with theirs, and let our minds rest peacefully. This attitude and practice are most important.

Kalu Rinpoche

The possibility to achieve complete enlightenment ~ Thrangu Rinpoche

Except for not putting forth the necessary exertion, there is no reason whatsoever why we cannot achieve complete enlightenment. Because we have this nature that allows for enlightenment to be achieved, we should never think, “I could practice forever and it won’t do any good.”

Thrangu Rinpoche

To be by not being ~ Chögyam Trungpa

It is a very powerful thing that we could be by doing nothing. In fact, we be by not being. Struggle does not play an important part in order to exist. We don’t have to strategize further ways of maintaining ourselves or existing ourselves.

Chögyam Trungpa

The workings of interdependence ~ 17th Karmapa

When we sip our tea or coffee, start our car, enter a shop, or exchange greetings with someone while out for a stroll, we are enjoying those experiences as a direct result of interdependence. All these moments bear direct witness to the workings of interdependence. Such daily occurrences are a continuous procession of opportunities to recognize that others are indispensable to our well-being.

17th Karmapa

Neither discouragement nor pride ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

For a bodhisattva who has realized emptiness, the number of beings to be liberated and the time it might take to liberate them arouse feelings neither of discouragement nor of pride. Dawning freely in your enlightened mind is an all-inclusive compassion, devoid of all concepts of subject and object. Having realized the sameness of self and others, you remain as unchanging as primordial space.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Five Ways Sustaining the Essence ~ Dakpo Tashi Namgyal

Elevate your experience and remain wide open like the sky.
Expand your mindfulness and remain pervasive like the earth.
Steady your attention and remain unshakable like a mountain.
Brighten your awareness and remain shining like a flame.
Clear your thoughtfree wakefulness and remain lucid like a crystal.

Dakpo Tashi Namgyal

Welcome each breath with kindness ~ Ajahn Brahm

As you begin your practice, think something like “breath, the door of my heart is open to you no matter how you feel, no matter what you do.” You will soon be looking at your breathing with compassion, embracing it as it is instead of finding fault.

Ajahn Brahm

Strive to understand relativity ~ Lama Tsongkhapa

Even though you experience transcendence,
and cultivate the spirit of enlightenment,
without wisdom from realizing emptiness,
you cannot cut off the root of the cyclic life —
so you should strive to understand relativity.

Lama Tsongkhapa

The blessing of the guru ~ Thrangu Rinpoche

Before, you didn’t know how to practice, and then you did. Many things changed as a result. Maybe you had no confidence in Dharma, and then you came to have confidence. You had no devotion, and then you came to have devotion. You came to have more compassion than you did before. Your meditation improved. Now, none of these things were precisely given to you by your root guru, but nevertheless something happens surrounding your relationship with the root guru, and this is what we call the blessing of the guru.

Thrangu Rinpoche