"The basis of the view is egolessness which is called in the sutras "the view of what will be destroyed." This view explains the aggregates (Skt. skandha) which continually change, are accumulated, and are destroyed. All of the aggregates are impermanent, undergo change, and are eventually destroyed. What is new eventually decays, becomes old, and finally ends. We are not a single entity but rather a coming together of the five aggregates (form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness).

These various components will change and eventually come to an end. The components are also not single. For example, a form (such as the body) does not consist of one single unit but is made up of components that are continually changing and being destroyed. The view of the self also is called "the view of that which will be destroyed" because it is a view founded upon the aggregates coming together and then dispersing.

Even though elements come together and make up an entity composed of many different things, we think of them as a single entity. For example, our body is composed of many parts and yet we consider ourselves to be a single individual. We see ourselves as "one being", as an "I" or a "self" who took birth, has grown older and will die. But, in fact, the self is a composite of changing aggregates that come together, undergo change, and will finally end. As babies we had a small body and the thoughts of a baby. As a grown-up we have another body and the thoughts of an adult. As long as we are not aware of the changes that take place from childhood through adolescence to old age, we think of ourselves as a single individual.

If we examine this closely, however, we discover that there is no place where the self exists and that the view of a self is nothing but a delusion. This is the delusion based on ignorance that must be eliminated."

Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche

"We experience illness, problems, misery, and suffering in life but where do all of these difficulties and obstacles come from? They come from attachment to the self. As long as we mistakenly perceive the world, we think that pain and misery come from outside ourselves. By failing to understand the source of suffering, we think others bring pain and affliction upon us. We do not realize that attachment to the self is the source of all our suffering."

Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche

"First, if something doesn't exist, then it doesn't exist, but whatever does exist is composite and not a single, indivisible entity. All things are made up of various ingredients and these ingredients form existing things. Therefore, all phenomena that exist are composed of various ingredients and as a result are impermanent. Living beings die, objects wear out and disintegrate. At this coarse or obvious level of impermanence, everything changes over time, and this is obvious and can be understood by everyone. The subtle level of impermanence is the main concern here; it is the momentary impermanence of every instant.

When looking at momentary impermanence on a gross level, we can see that a person changes from childhood to adulthood. One may think that there is continuity in the change that takes place. One may wonder when this change takes place and conclude that every year, everybody is different. However, a change doesn't automatically take place at a certain point each year. One may conclude that every month, everybody is different, but the change doesn't automatically take place at a certain point in each month either. One may conclude that every day or every hour, everybody changes. We follow this reasoning down to every single instant in which a change takes place, so there is impermanence in every instant.

This is the subtle level of impermanence. It is easy to see changes that take place over the years, but, in fact, changes are taking place in every instant."

Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche

"Whatever phenomena we can perceive are empty like water bubbles. Although we can hear and see things, nothing has a true reality in itself; there is no true self in the individual and no true existence of phenomena. In spite of the fact that they appear, phenomena have no substantial or true reality of their own. Thus it is said that all phenomena are empty and have no self."

Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche

Eva rūpaṁ yaññaṁ yajitvā vā yājetvā vā kāyassa bhedā paraṁ maraṇā sugatiṁ saggaṁ lokaṁ uppajjita

"He who celebrates such a sacrifice, or causes it, to be celebrated, is reborn at the dissolution of the body, after death, into an state of happiness in heaven"

The Buddha in regards to the performance of the Mahayajña or Great Vedic Sacrifice

- Digha Nikaya 5: 4.6

"I cannot wash away your negativities and sins with water, nor can I remove your pain and suffering by my hand, nor can I transfer my realizations to you."

"The only way I can help you is through giving teaching, and you should strive to liberate yourself."

- Buddha Shakymuni

"The Indian monasteries taught not only Buddhism but, e.g., Hindu thought and other disciplines such as medicine. Monasteries like Nālandā and Vikramaśīla also trained missionaries in the skills needed in order to transmit Buddhism to Central Asia, China, and Tibet (Buddhism reached Korea and Vietnam via China, and Japan from China and Korea). More ominously for the history of Indian Buddhism, it is from the Gupta period that we can see the flowering of what has come to be called ‘Hinduism’ in its classical Purāṇic form, the form in which broadly speaking it is now familiar. It is admittedly difficult to show in detail the mutual influences of Hinduism and Buddhism at this time, although the influence of Buddhist thought on Gauḍapāda (seventh century), the founder of Advaita Vedānta, is quite clear. It is arguable that the positive influence of classical Hinduism on Buddhism was more often in the direction of practices – the forms of Mahāyāna devotionalism, for example – than directly on philosophical thought."

Paul Williams

Herambaṃ madhuraiḥ śivaṃ ca garalaiḥ śayairnavair nandinam|
ṣaḍvaktraṃ kadalīphalair ditisutāsṛgbhiś ca pañcānanam||
vyastā pūrayituṃ suśuṣkavadanā riktodarā bhadrike|
dṛṅmātraṃ mayi dehi bhikṣunikarair yasmād asi tvaṃ vṛtā||

"With sweets to Ganesha, with all kinds of intoxicants to Shiva, with new and fresh grass to Nandin, with banana fruits to Kumara, and with the blood of demons to your lion, you are very busy feeding them all, and so your face is dry and your belly empty. Oh Bhadrakali, all you have to do is give me a glance, as you are surrounded by a huge circle of beggars."

"Are there no asses and the like to whom home and forest are alike and who wander about naked without shame? Do they all become Yogins thereby?

If men could get liberated by smearing themselves with dust and ashes, are all the country folk, who live amidst dust and ashes, liberated?

Denizens of forest like deer and other animals subsist on grass, leaves, and water. Then, O Devi! do they become Yogins Thereby?

Frogs and fishes live all their lives in rivers like Ganges; do they acquire special merit thereby?

O Devi! Parrots and mynas recite before people the sacred words with delight; are they to be regarded great scholars from such recitations?

Pigeons eat nothing but stone; Cātakas; (the bird Cucculus Melanoleucus) does not drink earth-water; are these too, Yogins?

Animals like pigs, bear the winter cold and summer heat and for them food fit or unfit is alike; are they Yogins thereby?

Indeed, such privations and self denials are, O Kulésvarī; only for deceiving the world while direct Knowledge of Truth Alone is the means for Liberation."

Kaularnava Tantra

"Tantra, as a way of inner growth, makes us see more, so that we really become individuals rather than mere entities in an amorphous context. But tantra goes still further. It goes beyond the idea of a growth or a progress. There are further stages and subdivisions within the tradition, which deal with the fact that even after we have learned to relate properly to our problems, life still goes on. The idea here is that spiritual practice is a continual movement. It is only from the point of view of discursive thought that we begin somewhere, progress or develop, and then reach a certain goal. It is not as though, having found enlightenment, the process is completed and everything comes to an end. Rather, the fact is that we continue to live, so we must continually start anew.

Nevertheless, through the previous stages, we have found a way, a way of relating, a certain continuity. This continuity of a way of relating is the basic meaning of tantra. In a sense this is an extremely simple point. In general, however, we find that there is scarcely anything more difficult than this kind of simplicity."

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

"Dwelling or fixing comes from an attitude of trying to prove something, trying to maintain the "me" and "my" of ego's territory. One needs to prove that ego's thesis is secure. This is an attempt to ignore the samsaric circle, the samsaric whirlpool. This vicious circle is too painful a truth to accept, so one is seeking something else to replace it with. One seeks to replace the basic irritation or pain with the pleasure of a fixed belief in oneself by dwelling on something, a certain spiritual effort or just worldly things. It seems that, as something to be dwelled on, conceptualized ideas of religion or spiritual teachings or the domestic situations of life are extensions of the ego.

One does not simply see tables and chairs as they are; one sees my manifestation of table, my manifestation of chair. One sees constantly the "me" or "my" in these things; they are seen constantly in relationship to me and my security."

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

"I understood clearly that nothing dies. Citta certainly doesn't die; in fact, it becomes more pronounced. The more fully we investigate the four elements, dividing them into their original properties, the more distinctly pronounced citta appears. So where can death be found? And what is it that dies? The four elements - earth, water, wind and fire - they do not die. As for citta, how can it die? It becomes more visible, more aware and more insightful. This essential knowing nature never dies, so why is citta so afraid of death? Because it deceives itself. For ages and ages it has been deceiving itself into believing in death, when in fact nothing ever dies."

Ācariya Mahā Boowa Ñāṇasampanno Thera

It is clear that both the breath and substances can lead to altered states of consciousness. Both are associated with Soma (the nectar of the gods), Otherir (the mead of poetry) and Amrita (the resultant immortality). Vayu, the prana, or life of the world, was the first to drink soma, and Othinn is both the giver of Ond, the divine breath, and the claimer of the mead of poetry. But reliance on drugs, while useful for breaking down barriers, does not lead to sustained spiritual development. Breathing techniques, however, take some time and effort to master but are with one for the rest of one's life. The inner nectars of the breath, must eventually replace the outer nectars in order to return to the primordial state.

Having said that, even those who have strong experiences with the breath do not often become any sort of spiritual master. Clearly then, altered states in themselves are not sufficient to attain either the common or supreme siddhis or powers. Just as outer rituals of offering must be replaced by inner rituals of transformation in order to achieve personal insight, gnosis or prajna. One must link experience with correct views and lucid awareness. One must steadily dissolve subject and object dualism, and learn to rest in the natural state of awareness.

As with Bardo Yoga, the means of enlightenment in the journey between death and rebirth, one must recognise phenomena as the projections of one's own mind. This is not to say that phenomena are not real, rather that the nature of our minds transcends the common appearance of reality.

For a spiritual master, then, all sacred rites take place within the self, and while outer rites are still conducted, one uses one's inner realisations to make the rite beneficial to others, rather than seeking to benefit oneself.

This kind of mastery is not the result of intellectual knowledge, nor of simple devotion, but the disciplined practice of mindful awareness and inner alchemy, combined with devotion and compassion.

It is all well and good to gain a comprehensive understanding of the inner mythology of a religion, or even an understanding of such traditions as Platonic theurgy, but without a clear tradition of practice and attainment passed from master to disciple, self realisation is nigh impossible.

If one looks at myth and tradition and thinks that inner attainment is not spoken of and is therefore undesirable, then one has fallen into the trap of spiritual materialism, reducing the truth to mere impermanent forms, contingent manifestations with no inherent truth. In all Indo-European traditions the gods themselves, be they of the highest degree, are subject to the cycles of existence. One's gods, people and ancestors are indeed precious, but without transcendent understanding they are no more than a ripple on the the great ocean of beginningless being.

Even an unimaginably vast eon of bliss is nothing in the face of infinite time. One must find that which is beyond all sense of relativity or be forever adrift.

What then is beyond cyclic existence? Is it the blown-out state of Nirvana? No, that is but an expedient means of the Hinayana teachings, and is impossible in the first place. The only possible truth is the non-duality of relative phenomena and ultimate awareness, and through awakening to this one can experience all relative phenomena as the blissful ornaments of unobstructed ultimate space-like mind.

This is the nature of what Vajrayana Buddhists call Mahamudra, the great royal seal that is the proof of true perception. This is the goal beyond life and death for which even the highest gods would give their very lives to attain.

"There are no external forms.
It is one's own mind that appears as the external.
Since they do not comprehend the mind,
The childish conceive of conditioned phenomena."

Lankavatara sutra

"The learned understand the conditioned and the unconditioned.
When the perceptions of attributes has entirely collapsed,
And one remains beyond attributes,
All phenomena are perfectly understood to be empty."

"Existence" and "nonexistence" are both extremes.
"Clean" and "unclean" are extremes as well.
Hence, fully abandoning the extremes of both,
The learned do not even remain in the middle."

Samādhirājasūtra