"Vision is mind.
Mind is empty.
Emptiness is clear light.
Clear light is union.
Union is great bliss."

Dawa Gyaltsen

"Say that someone demolishes all the stūpas
found here in Jambudvīpa;
the bad actions of someone who abandons the sūtras are far more grave.

Even if someone murders as many arhats
as there are grains of sand in the Ganges,
the bad actions of someone who abandons the sūtras are far more grave."

Samādhirājasūtra

"Faith is the foremost vehicle
leading to definite release.
For that reason the intelligent
rely on the pursuit of faith.

In those lacking faith,
virtuous phenomena do not arise,
just as in seeds burnt by fire,
no green sprout can germinate."

Daśadharmakasūtra

"If you engage in no practice of pure Dharma at all for the sake of lasting happiness but strive your entire life merely to eliminate your suffering and attain happiness, then you are like an animal despite your fortunate rebirth since animals do the same."

Je Tsongkhapa

By and large, human beings tend to prefer to fit in to society by following accepted rules of etiquette and being gentle, polite, and respectful. The irony is that this is also how most people imagine a spiritual person should behave. When a so-called dharma practitioner is seen to behave badly, we shake our heads over her audacity at presenting herself as a follower of the Buddha. Yet such judgments are better avoided, because to “fit in” is not what a genuine dharma practitioner strives for.

Think of Tilopa, for example. He looked so outlandish that if he turned up on your doorstep today, odds are you would refuse to let him in. And you would have a point. He would most likely be almost completely naked; if you were lucky, he might be sporting some kind of G-string; his hair would never have been introduced to shampoo; and protruding from his mouth would quiver the tail of a live fish. What would your moral judgment be of such a being? “Him! A Buddhist?” This is how our theistic, moralistic, and judgmental minds work. Of course, there is nothing wrong with morality, but the point of spiritual practice, according to the vajrayana teachings, is to go beyond all our concepts, including those of morality.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

Any kind of adherence to views prevents the realization of a truly open awareness, the only capable of reflecting the boundless wholeness. Therefore, merely understanding the absence of inherent existence (through inferential conclusions - as in madhyamika-prasangika) is not enough to understand the Ultimate

“Of all the battles in the world, ignorance is the most dangerous enemy and anger the deadliest weapon. Only a warrior of wisdom wielding the spear of compassion can defeat them”

- Chamtrul Rinpoche

"As a disciple you must regard your Guru as an Enlightened Being. Even if from his own point of view he is not Enlightened and you, his disciple, have gained Buddhahood before him, you must still show him respect and pay homage.

For instance, Maitreya, the fifth and next Buddha of the thousand of this world age, who now presides over Tusita Buddha-field, became Enlightened before his Guru, Sakyamuni Buddha. To demonstrate respect for his Guru, Maitreya has a stupa or reliquary monument on his forehead.

Likewise Avalokitesvara, the incarnation of the compassion of all the Buddhas, is crowned in his eleven-headed aspect with the head of his Guru, Amitabha Buddha, the one who presides over Sukhavati Buddha-field.
This learning from a Guru should not be like killing a deer to extract its musk and then discarding its corpse.

Even after attaining Enlightenment you must still continue to honor your Guru who made all your achievements possible."

Geshe Ngawang Dhargey

"In the Vajra Vehicle, like the lesser vehicles, the practitioner overcomes all forms of ignorant conceptuality that create the grasped difference of this and that. By doing so, the phenomena produced by dualistic grasping are stopped and the conventional mindstream is eliminated. The practitioner opens up his inherent wisdom and the complete display of wisdom appearances with it. The experience of these pure appearances is the experience of bliss. Hence the practitioner returns to a wisdom which is a wisdom of co-emergent bliss-emptiness."

Tony Duff

If you fully understand karma, at the deepest level, you will not only have compassion for beings who are suffering, but you will also have compassion for any beings who are harming others.

- Chamtrul Rinpoche

New blog! And a brand new entry!

On the Buddhist Concept of Divine Monarchy according to the Golden Light Sutra

https://vajrakingdom.wordpress.com/2023/03/15/on-the-buddhist-concept-of-divine-monarchy-according-to-the-golden-light-sutra/

"It is difficult to feel fear without thinking that something is going wrong. We react impulsively when we judge others or ourselves in an attempt to escape the pain of suffering.

It doesn't work, just as running away into the woods doesn't work either. Even sacred places are doomed to disappoint us if we go there motivated by a desire to escape. However, if we take refuge in the Dhamma, interest in understanding fear and learning from it can be triggered.

Can we experience the feeling of fear without becoming afraid? Fear is still fear, but it is recognized through an expanded consciousness that is less foggy and less threatened. We can even begin to realize that fear too 'is what it is'.

A non-judgmental and wholehearted recognition, in body and mind, of the condition of fear, here and now, can transform our pain into freedom. The willingness to recognize where we stand is the way."

Ajahn Munindo

How to interpret surface level contradictions? Listen to this explanation from a Buddhist: “These stories are not contradictory because Highly Realized beings
abide in the Expanse of Great Equanimity with Perfect understanding and can do anything. Everything is possible. Everything is flexible. Enlightened beings can appear in any way they want or need to.”
~ Buddhist Scholar KPS Rinpoche

"The best response to negative emotion is to allow it to self-liberate, by remaining in non-dual consciousness, free from attachment and aversion. If we can do this, the emotion passes through us like a bird flying through space; no trace of its passage remains. The emotion arises and then spontaneously dissolves into emptiness."

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

“By acknowledging that mind is continuous and the root circumstance of all phenomena, we must try to recognize its pure essence, which is Buddha nature. We must try to transform temporary obscurations into positive, contributing circumstances in order to become the same as all Buddhas. We must try to distill the pure essence from the unclear confusion of subject and object which remains in the fragile coincidence container of our nihilist habit's fragmented mind. Instead of creating impure and contradictory phenomena which are the cause of suffering, we must create pure and complementary phenomena through positive habits that create positive karma in our continuous Buddha nature land until we transcend the phenomena of relative truth and attain enlightenment”

~ Thinley Norbu Rinpoche

"Some people think that moral ethics and discipline are not important when practicing the highest tantra yoga and the vision of emptiness; they think that the precepts are meant for lower practitioners and not for advanced ones. This may be going too far. On the contrary, those who are more realized in the subtle aspects of Dharma have an even more sensitive and genuine conduct, setting a great example for the followers.

Following the precepts and keeping them is a 24-hour a day practice. It is a real test for Dharma practitioners to sustain their discipline at every moment for the rest of their lives. Using all our energy in virtuous ways is a very important method for training the body, speech, and mind."

Khenpo Konchog Gyaltsen

"The nature of space transcends color and shape,
Neither stained nor changed by black or white.
Likewise, the essence of your mind transcends color and shape,
Unpolluted by black or white qualities, misdeeds or virtues.

Just as the bright, clear essence of the sun
Cannot be obscured by the murk of a thousand aeons,
Likewise, the luminous essence of your mind
Can’t be obscured by aeons of samsara.

Though space is given the appellation “empty,”
There’s nothing in space that can be described as such.
Likewise, though mind is described as luminous,
There’s nothing to give a name, saying it’s like this.

Therefore, the nature of mind has always been like space.
There are no phenomena at all not contained within it."

Tilopa

“Each sentient being is like a sleeping buddha who is dreaming about inherent existence of self and of all phenomena, and believing the dream to be true.

The practice of buddhism is like the method to wake up from this dream, by waking up to the reality of the lack of inherent existence of self and of all phenomena, to become a fully awakened buddha for the benefit of all sentient beings who are still dreaming”

~ Chamtrul Rinpoche