Thrangu RinpocheThe only thing that helps us when we die is whatever virtue we have been able to accumulate during our lifetime. If we have been able to generate a lot of very positive spiritual energy, it will help us, but all our worldly possessions or fame won’t make a difference.
The king of nakedly seen awareness ~ Yukhok Chatralwa
Yukhok ChatralwaHomage to great, unchanging rigpa!
In the view, king-like pure awareness,
Let meditation settle, beyond position or bias,
And, as action, let duality and delusion be destroyed.
The fruition is the already perfect three kāyas,
Beyond samaya commitments involving acceptance and rejection.
Thus, the king of nakedly seen awareness
Is sealed with the samayas of view, meditation, action and fruition.
The deeper common ground all living being share ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaWe are in many ways creatures of habit. If we live within certain conditions long enough, they come to seem natural to us. But if we had lived in different conditions, they would seem equally natural. Looking at the cultural, religious, or material conditions that others have become habituated to may make us feel that they must be totally different from us, but we are just mistaking something circumstantial for something essential. It is largely an accident of our birth and our life circumstances that we have come to find certain conditions familiar and others alien or distant. It is not an indication of anything essentially other or different about us.
Beyond any superficial circumstantial factors that differentiate us, all living beings share a much deeper common ground, as I discussed in the previous chapter. Buddhism identifies this deeper ground as the wish to be happy and the longing for freedom from suffering. This fundamental inner condition lies at the very core of our existence. Our apparent physical and circumstantial differences are relatively unimportant and shallow, compared to the more important — and much more foundational — level of reality on which we all stand.
Focusing on this deeper level can help us to access a sense of closeness and shared experience — of all being in it together. With this as our starting point, we can explore our particular conditions without experiencing them as a gulf that separates us.
Spontaneous devotion to your teacher ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheIf you have great devotion, seeing the teacher as the Buddha himself, and maintain a lofty inner view while keeping your external conduct completely down to earth, all the qualities of experience and realization will grow effortlessly. Experiences and realization in fact come through the spontaneous devotion you have to your teacher, so when they occur, they are truly due to the teacher’s kindness.
Meditation is enlightenment itself ~ Dogen Zenji
Dogen ZenjiThe Buddha meditated for six years, Bodhidharma for nine. The practice of meditation is not a method for the attainment of realization – it is enlightenment itself.
That itself which is abiding does not abide ~ Buddha Shakyamuni
Buddha ShakyamuniSubhūti, I know with clairvoyance that in the past period, during five hundred lifetimes, I was the rishi called ‘Preacher of Patience’; even then there did not arise in me the discrimination as a self; there did not arise the discrimination as a sentient being, discrimination as a living being, discrimination as a person. Subhūti, therefore, the bodhisattva mahāsattva, completely abandoning all discrimination, should generate the mind for unsurpassed perfectly complete enlightenment. One should generate the mind not abiding in form. One should generate the mind not abiding in sound, smell, taste, tactility, or phenomena. On should generate the mind not abiding in non-phenomena either. One should generate the mind not abiding in anything whatsoever. Why is that? Because that itself which is abiding does not abide. Therefore, the Tathāgata taught, ‘The bodhisattva should give gifts not abiding.’
Natural Perfection ~ Longchenpa
LongchenpaHo! The atiyoga of natural perfection! Dzogchen Ati!
The Great Perfection, in its unbiased inclusivity,
actualizes the meaning of self-sprung awareness;as the lion overawes all other beasts with his roar,
so the language of Great Perfection commands the gradual approaches;
speaking a tongue of its own, it engenders its own ultimate meaning.The land of natural perfection is free of buddhas and sentient beings;
the ground of natural perfection is free of good and bad;
the path of natural perfection has no length;
the fruition of natural perfection can neither be avoided nor attained;
the body of natural perfection is neither existent nor nonexistent;
the speech of natural perfection is neither sacred nor profane;
and the mind of natural perfection has no substance nor attribute.The space of natural perfection cannot be consumed nor voided;
the status of natural perfection is neither high nor low;
the praxis of natural perfection is neither developed nor neglected;
the potency of natural perfection is neither fulfilled nor frustrated;
the display of natural perfection is neither manifest nor latent;
the actuality of natural perfection is neither cultivated nor ignored;
and the gnosis of natural perfection is neither visible nor invisible.The hidden awareness of natural perfection is everywhere,
its parameters beyond indication,
its actuality incommunicable;the sovereign view of natural perfection is the here-and-now,
naturally present without speech or books,
irrespective of conceptual clarity or dullness,
but as spontaneous joyful creativity
its reality is nothing at all.
Not fabricated, never stained ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheThe self-arisen wisdom, which is also called bodhichitta, is not something that has been fabricated, a new product created by the conjunction of causes and conditions. It never has changed, never changes, and never will change. The absolute nature remains what it is, perfectly pure, at all times. Even if it appears obscured for impure beings at the start of the path, it has never actually been obscured. If it seems to be a mixture of pure and impure during the course of the path, it in fact always remains pure. And at the time of the result, perfect enlightenment, it is simply the same ground nature made evident and not something new that was not there before. So even though all the hallucinations that make up existence fall like rain from the sky, it cannot affect one’s confidence: the kinglike bodhichitta that is the doer-of-everything will never be stained or dampened.
Precious human life ~ Padampa Sangye
Padampa SangyeIf you spend the present meaninglessly and leave with empty hands,
People of Tingri, a human life in the future will be very hard to find.
Outer, inner, and secret practise ~ Padmasambhava
PadmasambhavaOutwardly, practise according to the sutras,
Be meticulous about cause and effect, and what you adopt or avoid.
Inwardly, practise according to the unsurpassable secret mantra,
It is important to combine generation and completion.
Secretly, practise according to the great secret Atiyoga,
And gain liberation in a body of light within a single lifetime.
Right here with us ~ Ponlop Rinpoche
Ponlop RinpocheOnly when we have a genuine, abiding desire to free ourselves from suffering and all its causes does our spiritual journey begin. That original desire is very potent and very real. It is the basis upon which we enter the path that will lead us to our goal. Yet from the point of view of the Vajrayana, or tantric, school of Buddhism, there is no place to go on that path, no end of the road where we will one day satisfy our thirst for liberty. Why? Because the very thing that we are looking for — freedom, wakefulness, enlightenment — is right here with us all the time.
Devotion ~ Sera Khandro
Sera KhandroIf you do not pray with devotion to the wish-fulfilling master,
the requisite and desired accomplishments will not come,
so diligently cultivate a mind filled with devotion.If you do not give rise to the four powers of devotion,
toward the master, the buddha of the three times,
the blessings of the wisdom mind transmission will not enter you,
so diligently give rise to devotion.If you do not serve the master’s enlightened body with devotion,
your mind will not be liberated by blessings,
so diligently bring forth this devoted mind.From the maṇḍala of the master’s enlightened speech,
when the nectar of pith instructions is bestowed,
if one-pointed devotion does not arise,
it will be difficult to tame a discursive mind like mine,
so diligently cultivate devotion.From the maṇḍala of the master’s enlightened heart,
the entrance to the profound teachings of the secret treasury is bestowed.
If you are not inspired with devotion,
it is impossible for the accomplishments of your spiritual heritage to well forth,
so definitely give rise to devotion.If you do not respectfully and in the threefold manner
please the master who is endowed with the three kindnesses,
you will lack even an atom’s worth of the essence of generation, recitation and perfection practice,
so diligently cultivate this devoted mind.The guru is the actual buddha of the three times,
whose awakened mind is endowed with the wisdom of twofold omniscience.
His compassion is neither near nor far,
but if you do not pray with devotion,
it is difficult to be held by his compassion which can lead you,
so definitely inspire yourself with devotion.
Emptiness and the law of cause and effect ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheIf you merely talk about the view of emptiness but at the same time behave inconsiderately, it is said that your conduct has become lost in the view. If you believe that, since everything is empty by nature, it is all right to do whatever you want and it makes no difference whether your actions are virtuous or non-virtuous, then your conduct has become “lost in the view.” All the great teachers say just the opposite — that the more you understand the view of emptiness, the more aware and careful you are regarding the law of cause and effect.
Webs of interdependence ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaInterdependence is not a mere theory or interesting philosophy. It impacts our lives directly every single day. By deepening our awareness of interconnectedness, we can create a far more harmonious and healthy society and live far more satisfying lives. For that to happen, we can’t just stop our analysis at the interdependence of the physical world. The human heart and mind — what we might call our inner world — form an integral part of these webs of interdependence.
The ultimate austerity ~ Kangyur Rinpoche
Kangyur RinpocheThere is no other difficult practice equal to patience – not getting angry with someone who harms you, and even if you do get angry, not remaining so. It is the ultimate austerity. Therefore do not allow yourself even the slightest occasion for anger, which is incompatible with such a sublime austerity as patience.
Experience is like a mist in the morning ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheAn important point to remember is that whatever information we gather, we also filter, so what we’re left with is a very particular kind of understanding unique to ourselves. This understanding is not realization. It’s not even an experience. It is like a patch that will eventually fall off. It’s fine to be covered in patches of understanding because sooner or later they are bound to fall off so that experience can be revealed. However, we should also be aware that living with all these patches will prolong the time we spend on the path to enlightenment. How much time do we really have left in this lifetime? Twenty years? Thirty, if we’re lucky? Given that everything we have understood so far is nothing more than a patch that’s holding together our version of samsara, are any of us really willing to spend another ten years believing in that reality? We must, therefore, be prepared to peel off those patches.
But be aware that once the inner skin has been exposed, it’s possible to mistake it for the fruit, which is why we must always be ready to accept that it is just another skin. This is not a principle we apply only to hearing, contemplation, or reading; it’s even more relevant when we meditate. This is what is meant by the Tibetan saying “Experience is like a mist in the morning. It will evaporate.”
Be gentle in judging yourself ~ Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu RinpocheWe should be quite gentle in judging ourselves and remember that the habits we are fighting against come from beginningless time and are very strong. So from time to time there will be some backsliding — though in the long run there is progress and improvement. Furthermore, remember that even having entered the gate of the Dharma, having the intention to reduce our disturbing emotions, or being concerned about disturbing emotions is amazing because most people involved in samsara never even think about this.
Merging of the ultimate meaning with the ultimate mind ~ 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai LamaThe only way to experience deep meditative equipoise and subsequent realization simultaneously, and to overcome [the] perception that the two truths are essentially different, is by bringing about that realization of emptiness at the subtle most level of consciousness. What is required is the merging of the ultimate meaning, which is emptiness, and the ultimate mind, which is the innate mind of clear light. When this occurs, then appearances and emptiness no longer appear separately, and the subtle defilements are overcome.
Seeing naked awareness ~ Dudjom Rinpoche
Dudjom RinpocheRest at ease within the uncontrived nature of mind.
By looking, nothing is seen;
Seeing nothing is actually to see naked awareness:
That itself is Buddha Kuntu Zangpo.
The truth is the reality of mind ~ Dogen Zenji
Dogen ZenjiWhat is truth? The truth is the reality of mind which is formless and pervades the ten directions. It is being used presently right before your eyes, yet people do not trust it sufficiently, so they accept terms and expressions, seeking to assess Buddhism conceptually in the written word. They are as far away as the sky is from earth.