Then Ven. Ananda went to the Blessed One and on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there he said to the Blessed One, "It is said that the world is empty, the world is empty, lord. In what respect is it said that the world is empty?"

"Insofar as it is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self: Thus it is said, Ananda, that the world is empty. And what is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self? The eye is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self. Forms... Eye-consciousness... Eye-contact is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self.

"The ear is empty...

"The nose is empty...

"The tongue is empty...

"The body is empty...

"The intellect is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self. Ideas... Intellect-consciousness... Intellect-contact is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self. Thus it is said that the world is empty."

- Shunya Sutra

"Because the habit of falling into a state of dullness and confusion as we grasp onto pleasure is so deeply ingrained in us, it is unreasonable to imagine that we can immediately transform intensely desirous energy into pure and expansive mental clarity.

Even though tantra is the quickest path to the completeness of the enlightened experience, we still must progress in stages according to our capacity, otherwise we will be taking on a burden we are not yet strong enough to carry. We then risk ending up like those poor countries who, in their efforts to modernize themselves, have taken on too much too quickly. So often the unfortunate result is that their simple and relatively balanced lives are thrown into confusion. Thus, although the intended purpose of their rapid industrialization was to bring benefit, the actual result is even greater restlessness and dissatisfaction than before.

Similarly, if our practice of tantric transformation is not appropriate to our emotional level and mental capacity—if we think to take on and transform more desirous energy than we can handle—this will only lead us to a more confused state than we are in at the moment."

Lama Yeshe

"If we want to understand how we are ordinarily misled by our false projections and how we can begin to break free from their influence, it is helpful to think of the analogy of our dream experiences. When we wake up in the morning, where are all the people we were just dreaming about? Where did they come from? And where did they go? Are they real or not? Of course not. These dream people and their dream experiences all arose from our sleeping, dreaming mind; they were mere appearances to that mind. They were real only as long as we remained in the dream-state; to the waking mind of the next morning they are only an insubstantial memory. While we were asleep they seemed so true, as if they were really out there, having a concrete existence quite apart from ourselves. But when we wake up we realize that they were only the projections of our dreaming mind. Despite how real they seemed, these people in fact lack even an atom of self-existence. Completely empty of any objective existence whatsoever, they were only the hallucination of our dream experience.

In a very similar way, everything we experience while we are awake, including our strong sense of self, is also empty of true existence. Despite their concrete appearance of existing out there somehow, these phenomena do not in fact exist from their own side at all. Only as long as our ordinary, conventional mind is functioning, or switched on, do these relative phenomena exist for us. If this ordinary mind were to be switched off, these ordinary phenomena would cease to appear to our mind.

The point is that the people and things that make up our sensory world do not exist in the solid, objective way that they now appear to us. These appearances are nothing but the manifestations of our ordinary consciousness; they are merely apprehended or labeled by our superstitious mind. However, our basic problem is not that things appear to be self-existent, but that we accept the appearance as if it were true."

Lama Yeshe

"When you contemplate your own consciousness with intense awareness, leaving aside all thoughts of good and bad, you are automatically led to the experience of nonduality. How is this possible?

Think of it like this: the clean, clear blue sky is like consciousness, while the smoke and pollution pumped into the sky are like the unnatural, artificial concepts manufactured by ego-grasping ignorance. Now, even though we say the pollutants are contaminating the atmosphere, the sky itself never really becomes contaminated by the pollution. The sky and the pollution each retain their own characteristic nature. In other words, on a fundamental level the sky remains unaffected no matter how much toxic energy enters it. The proof of this is that when conditions change the sky can become clear once again. In the same way, no matter how many problems may be created by artificial ego concepts, they never affect the clean clear nature of our consciousness itself. From the relative point of view, our consciousness remains pure because its clear nature never becomes mixed with the nature of confusion.

From an ultimate point of view as well, our consciousness always remains clear and pure. The nondual characteristic of the mind is never damaged by the dualistic concepts that arise in it. In this respect consciousness is pure, always has been pure, and will always remain pure.

“Is the nature of deluded minds such as jealousy and anger also clear?” you may ask. Yes, all minds equally possess this clear, immaterial nature. Whether they are positive or negative, unmistaken or deluded, all minds clearly reflect their own appropriate objects. Just as a mirror has to be clear and uncovered for it to reflect the image of the face before it, whether the face is handsome or ugly, so too must the mind be clear. If any state of mind were not clear, it would not reflect anything, good or bad.

We can compare positive states of mind to water at rest and deluded states of mind to turbulent, boiling water. If we investigate the nature of the boiling water we will discover that, despite the turbulence, each individual droplet is still clear. The same is true of the mind: whether it is calm or boiled into turbulence by the overwhelming complexity of dualistic views, its basic nature remains clear and conscious.

The conclusion, then, is that we all have the capacity to move from the confused, polluted state of ego-conflict to the natural clean and clear state of pure consciousness itself. We should never think that our mind has somehow become irreversibly contaminated. This is impossible. If we can train ourselves to identify and enter into the natural, unaffected state of our consciousness, we will eventually experience the freedom of nondual awareness."

Lama Yeshe

"Realizing that our fundamental human quality is clear and pure allows us to cut through all partial, limiting and self-imprisoning concepts. In the clear space of the fully relaxed mind there is no distinction between your fundamental reality and my fundamental reality. One is not better than the other; one is not worse than the other. Ultimately, there is no good and bad, no pure and impure. The whole point of meditation or prayer or whatever we are trying to do is to discover the fundamental principle of human nature, to go into this deep nature, to touch our mind, the fundamental principle of totality, nonduality. The moment we reach this experience there is no room for heavy concepts, heavy emotions or sentimentality. Just be! At the moment of this experience, there are no concepts labeled by the dualistic mind. At such a time there is no Buddha, no God, no heaven or hell. Just being—the great peace, the great satisfaction."

Lama Yeshe

"We have all had the experience of being so absorbed in something that we remain oblivious to things that would ordinarily distract or disturb us. Similarly, if we contemplate deeply and continuously enough upon the formless clarity of our own mind, it is possible to stop perceiving the forms, sounds, smells, and so forth that come to us through the doors of our senses. As these sensory experiences and our gross conceptual thoughts subside, the gateway to superstition closes and we become aware of an upsurge of ecstatic, blissful energy from within. This tremendous surge of bliss happens spontaneously; we do not have to fabricate it in any way. And the more we experience this deep internal state of bliss, the more profound our absorption into it will become. This opens the way for us to experience expansive, liberated, and all-encompassing states of consciousness that are presently unknown to us."

Lama Yeshe

"The clear, pure, and blissful state of mind that we have been describing exists within each one of us right now. Yet the fact that we have this fundamentally pure nature does not mean that we are already enlightened. Until we rid ourselves of hatred, greed, jealousy, and all the other symptoms of the false ego shrouding our mind, we are certainly not enlightened. There is no such thing as a buddha with delusions. But beneath the gross levels at which these delusions function there is something more subtle, more basic to our nature. And it is this essential aspect of our human consciousness that has the potential of becoming fully awakened and everlastingly blissful."

Lama Yeshe

"According to Buddhist psychology, whether an object brings satisfaction or not depends upon a decision made beforehand by your consciousness. Even before you see a particular thing, your mind has already decided, “This will make me happy.” Then when you actually contact it with your eyesight you think, “Oh, this is very nice!” The same is true for a negative reaction. If your consciousness has already decided that you do not like a certain person, then when you actually meet him you will see nothing but an unpleasant person. In other words, all the seemingly real good things that we like and bad things that we dislike are, in fact, creations of our own mind."

Lama Yeshe

"This subject of practice with a consort is open to great misinterpretation, especially by people who have made only superficial contact with Buddhist tantra. Many Westerners, for instance, because they have seen Tibetan paintings and statues showing deities in embrace, have the mistaken notion that Tibetan Buddhism is mainly concerned with sexual contact between men and women. As was pointed out earlier, what this art is actually representing is the experience of total unity—of method and wisdom, bliss and emptiness—characteristic of the fully enlightened state. But now with the mention of the completion stage practices there is a further opportunity for confusion to arise. Therefore it should be emphasized that until we have gained mastery over our subtle body and have “embraced” the blissful kundalini energy dormant within, we are not at all qualified to embrace an external consort.

There are vast differences between tantric embrace and ordinary sexual contact. How different these two are becomes clear when we remember that at the time of the completion stage the practitioner has dissolved the energy winds into his or her central channel, thereby experiencing the same mental and physical absorptions occurring at the time of death. Unless these death-like experiences have been entered into with full consciousness and control, it is a farce to talk about tantric embrace. Moreover, while in ordinary sex it is the man who enters the woman’s body, in true tantric embrace it is the woman’s energy that penetrates the man!"

Lama Yeshe

"Extend yourself greatly, immeasurably; leap beyond every body, surpass Kronos, become Aion, and you can apprehend theos. Having supposed that for you there is nothing that is not possible, regard yourself as deathless, capable of apprehending everything: every craft, all learning, the nature of every living being. Become elevated above every elevation, deeper than every depth. Gather within yourself awareness of every creation; of Fire and Water; the Dry and the Moist; and jointly be at all places on land, at sea, in the heavens. Be not yet born; in the womb; young; old; having died; what is beyond death.
And if you apprehend all that together - durations, places, occurrences, quality, quantity - you will be capable of apprehending theos."

Corpus Hermeticum, XI

"What is knowledge that does not proceed from love?"

Bettina von Arnim

At this time you have received a precious human life qualified with eight freedoms and ten fortunes, a precious human body that is like a dream. Receiving a precious human body is rare; it happens just once.

This perfect human rebirth is highly meaningful. With it you can achieve the happiness of this life and whatever else you wish for. If you wish to again attain a human rebirth, you can. In addition, if you wish to have a body endowed with the eight favorable qualities, you can create its causes during your present precious human life.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

"The Absolute void is Bhairava who is beyond the senses and the mind, beyond all the categories of these instruments. From the point of view of the human mind, He is most void. from the point of view of Reality, He is most full, for He is the source of all manifestation."

Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra

"All forms of suffering are like a child's death in a dream.
Holding illusory appearances to be true makes you weary.
Therefore, when you meet with disagreeable circumstances,
See them as illusory.
This is the practice of bodhisattvas."

Togme Zangpo, The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas

“Those who worship to achieve a certain reward receive a reward that is (however) as prone to decay as a kingdom found in a dream. However, those who act righteously without hoping for reward attain nirvana and are freed from reincarnation.”

- The Mahanirvana Tantra

"The ultimate guru, the dharmakaya, the transcendental wisdom of non-dual bliss and emptiness, is eternal. It is the primordial savior (liberator), the originator (source) without beginning or end, that pervades all existence."

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

"The moment anger arises, your mind believes in a creator. You think that someone else is creating your problem. "The problem I'm experiencing came from that person." That is similar to believing in an external creator. You hold two contradictory attitudes-you talk about and believe karma and the philosophy of Buddhism, but when you encounter a difficulty in your daily life, you think that there is an external being who created it! Instead of practicing that there is no creator, you practice that there is a creator because the problem came from somebody else. "That person created my problem." In daily life, you become just like practitioners of other religions; you practice that there is a creator. Even though you do not use the word "God," you believe that there is a creator, somebody else who created your problem. With this as the basis, anger arises.

But the minute that you think that you are the creator, that your mind is the creator, that whatever you are experiencing comes from karma you yourself have created, you know that there is nothing external to blame, so there is no basis for anger to arise. The wish to retaliate and harm someone else is based on the belief that the other person is harming you, that you are an innocent victim who has nothing to do with the problem."

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

us on the right

"Even though we might say that we’re following a spiritual path or leading a meditator’s life, we’re not serious. It doesn’t matter if we sit in meditation, go to church on Sundays, visit the temple regularly or do any other kind of customary religious activity; that doesn’t mean anything. The actions that we need to do are those that actually lead us to everlasting, peaceful happiness, the truly joyful state, not those that simply bring up and down transitory pleasure. Actions that bounce us up and down are not true Dharma, not true meditation, not true religion—here I can make a definitive statement. Check up: we might think we’re doing something spiritual but is our polluted mind simply dreaming?"

Lama Yeshe

“I understood that, in general, all things related to samsara and nirvana are interdependent. Also, I perceived that the alaya [the fundamental consciousness] is neutral.

Samsara is the result of a wrong point of view. Nirvana is realized through perfect awareness. I perceived that the essence of both resided in the luminous and empty consciousness.”

- Milarepa