"It is by making illusory offerings through illusory practice that we can complete the gathering of illusory accumulations. Through this cause—namely the accumulation of merit—we can gain the result, which is the perfection of wisdom. Four such methods which involve very little difficulty and yet are exceptionally meaningful and beneficial are the offerings of sang, water tormas, sur[ and one’s own body. The individual who practises these regularly and diligently will gather the accumulations, purify the obscurations, and, in particular, will pacify any obstacles and factors that prevent the accomplishment of the Dharma and awakening in the present lifetime, becoming free of them like the sun emerging from the clouds. Since they also support our progress along the path leading to the supreme attainment of Dzogpachenpo, it makes sense for us to put our energy into practising them."

Dodrupchen Jikmé Tenpé Nyima

“Since everything is but an illusion,
Perfect in being what it is,
Having nothing to do with good or bad,
Acceptance or rejection,
One might as well burst out laughing!”

Excerpt From, The Natural Freedom of the Nature of Mind (Tib. སེམས་ཉིད་རང་གྲོལ་, Semnyi Rangdrol, — part of Longchenpa's Trilogy of Natural Freedom. It has three chapters, related to the Ground, Path and Fruition, which contains these oft-quoted lines.

Artist: Nicholas Roerich

"Human life plants the seed
For going beyond cyclic existence,
The supreme seed of glorious enlightenment.
Human life is a stream of good qualities
Better than a wish-granting jewel.
Who here would attain it and then waste it?"

Āryaśūra

"With behavior such as mine
I will not attain a human body again.
If I do not attain it,
I will commit sin and never be virtuous.

If I do not cultivate virtue
Even when I have the chance to do so,
What virtue will I cultivate in a miserable realm,
Completely confused and suffering?

If I cultivate no virtue
And accumulate sins, I will not hear even the name
"Happy realms" for a billion eons.

Thus the Bhagavan said
That this human life is as difficult to obtain
As it is for a sea turtle to put its neck
Into a yoke tossing about on the vast ocean.

If even a single moment's wrongdoing
Causes you to abide in the Unrelenting Hell for an eon,
It goes without saying that you will not enter a happy realm
Due to sins heaped up since beginningless time."

Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds

"Since it is even more difficult to obtain a human life from an animal life
Than for a sea turtle's head to enter
The aperture of a yoke floating upon the great ocean,
o King, lord of humankind, make this life fruitful by practicing the sublime teaching.

One who is born as a human,
And then becomes involved in wrongdoing
Is even more foolish than one who fills
A golden vessel adorned with jewels with vomit."

Nagarjuna

"If you wish to attain unsurpassed enlightenment,
Which has inconceivable greatness,
Be intent on practice and achieve its heart,
For enlightenment depends upon practice.

As this body of perfect leisure and opportunity
Was very difficult to obtain, and once obtained
Will be very difficult to possess again,
Make it meaningful by striving at practice."

Mahāyāna-patha-sādhana-saṃgraha

“Pure mind is like the empty sky,
without memory, supreme meditation;
it is our own nature, unstirring, uncontrived,
and wherever that abides is the superior mind,
one in buddhahood without any sign,
one in view free of limiting elaboration,
one in meditation free of limiting ideation,
one in conduct free of limiting endeavor,
and one in fruition free of limiting attainment.

vast! spacious!
released as it stands!
with neither realization nor non-realization;
experience consummate! no mind!
it is open to infinity.”

- Longchenpa

Prof. Alexis Sanderson - Readings in the Tantrāloka I
___________

In these lectures Professor Sanderson will introduce the opening verses of the Tantrāloka of Abhinavagupta, that author's monumental exposition of the Saiva Tantras from the standpoint of the Śākta Śaiva tradition known as the Trika and the philosophical non-dualism of the Pratyabhijñā texts.

Alexis Sanderson began his Indological career as a student of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1969, studying the Kashmirian Śaiva literature in Kashmir with the Śaiva Guru Swami Lakshman Joo from 1971 to 1977. He was Associate Professor (University Lecturer) of Sanskrit at Oxford and a Fellow of Wolfson College from 1977 to 1992 and then the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College from 1992 to 2015.

Since then, he has been preparing a critical edition of the Tantrāloka with a translation and commentary. His field is early medieval religion in India and Southeast Asia, focusing on the history of Śaivism, its relations with the state, and its influence on Buddhism and Vaishnavism.

https://youtu.be/hxaz7FbtPFk

- Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

"Buddha is without beginning, middle, or end. He is peace itself, fully self-awakened and self-expanded in buddhahood. Having reached this state, he shows the indestructible, permanent path so that those who have no realization may realize. Wielding the supreme sword and vajra of knowledge and compassionate love, he cuts the seedling of suffering and destroys the wall of doubts along with its surrounding thicket of various views. I bow down to this Buddha.

Being uncreated and spontaneously present, not a realization due to extraneous conditions, wielding knowledge, compassionate love, and ability, buddhahood has [the qualities of] the two benefits.

Its nature is without beginning, middle, or end; hence [the state of a buddha] is uncreated. Since it possesses the peaceful dharmakaya, it is described as being “spontaneously present.” Since it must be realized through self-awareness, it is not a realization due to extraneous conditions. These three aspects being realized, there is knowledge."

Mahāyānottaratantra Śāstra

"This mind being by nature clear light, they have seen the poisons to be essenceless and therefore truly realize [the nature of] every being as peace, the ultimate non-existence of a self. They perceive that the Perfect Buddha pervades them all. They possess the understanding that is free from the veils. Thus seeing that beings are utterly pure and that [this purity pervades] their limitless number, they are endowed with the vision of primordial wisdom."

Mahāyānottaratantra Śāstra;

"The perfect buddhakaya is all-embracing, suchness cannot be differentiated, and all beings have the disposition. Thus they always have buddha nature. The Buddha has said that all beings have buddha nature since buddha wisdom is always present within the assembly of beings, since this undefiled nature is free from duality, and since the disposition to buddhahood has been named after its fruit."

Mahāyānottaratantra Śāstra;

"The [dharmakaya] is purity, since its nature is pure and [even] the remaining imprints are fully removed.
It is true self, since all conceptual elaboration in terms of self and non-self is totally stilled.
It is true happiness, since [even] the aggregates of mental nature and their causes are reversed.
It is permanence, since the cycle of existence and the state beyond pain are realized as one."

Mahāyānottaratantra Śāstra;

"The nature of mind as the element of space does not [depend upon] causes or conditions, nor does it [depend on] a gathering of these.
It has neither arising, cessation, nor abiding.

This clear and luminous nature of mind is as changeless as space.
It is not afflicted by desire and so on, the adventitious stains, which are sprung from incorrect thoughts.

It is not brought into existence by the water of karma, of the poisons, and so on.
Hence it is also not consumed by the cruel fires of dying, falling sick, and aging."

Mahāyānottaratantra Śāstra;

I have seen much of samsara. I am not even minutely attached to the trappings of royal life. A golden palace is no different from a prison. Queens are no different from the daughters of Mara [evil forces]. The three sweet substances are no different from dog-meat, pus, and blood. There is not the slightest difference between the beauty of wearing silks and jewels and donning a filthy blanket in a cemetery. I shall go into the forest to meditate.

—Atisha

"There is no birth like the human birth. Both the gods and the manes desire it. For the Jiva the human body is of all the bodies the most difficult to come by.

For this it is said that the human birth is attained with extreme difficulty It is said in all the Sastras that of the jiva's eighty-four lakhs of births the human birth is the most fruitful. In no other birth can the Jiva acquire knowledge of the Truth. Human birth is the stepping stone to the path of Liberation. But rare are the meritorious who come by it."

Visvasara Tantra

"Here on this mutable and ignorant earth, who is the lover and who is the friend? All passes here, nothing remains the same. None is for any on this transient globe. He whom thou lovest now, a stranger came and into a far strangeness shall depart."

Sri Aurobindo