"Some people call themselves tantric practitioners and engage in crude behavior, but that is not the action of a tantrika.

Mahayana means to cherish all sentient beings with impartial compassion.

It will not suffice to claim oneself a tantric practitioner and then refrain from adopting what is virtuous and not avoiding or shunning evil deeds. It is essential for all tantric practitioners to cultivate great compassion in their being."

Padmasambhava

“You actually have this awareness within you. It is the clear, naked wisdom of dharmakaya. But who can introduce you to it? On what should you take your strand? What should you be certain of? To begin with, it is your teacher that shows you the state of your awareness. And when you recognize it for yourself, it is then that you are introduced to your own nature.”

“Introduction to the nature of mind”

~ Dudjom Rinpoche

“Do not misinterpret how he (Teacher/Guru) acts

Most of India’s siddhas lived
As common evil-doers, base outcastes, more degenerate than the lowest of the low”

Most of the mighty siddhas of India like Savaripa who was a hunter and others, adopted very lowly lifestyles, often those of outcaste.

The great pandita Naropa (Guru of Marpa who was the guru of Jetsun Milarepa) had already become highly learned and accomplished. But his yidam(meditational deity) told him that his teacher from previous lives was the great Tilopa, and that to find him he should travel to eastern India. Naropa set off immediately, but upon arriving in the east he had no idea where to find Tilopa. He asked the local people but they knew nothing.

“Is there nobody in these parts named Tilopa” he insisted.

“There is someone called Tilopa the Outcaste or Tilopa the Beggar” Naropa thought, “The actions of siddhas are incomprehensible. That might be him.” He asked where Tilopa the Beggar lived. “By the ruined wall over there, where the smoke is coming from,” they replied.

When he got to the place that had been pointed out, he found Tilopa seated in front of a wooden tub of fish, of which some were still alive and some dead. Tilopa took a fish, grilled it over the fire and put it in his mouth snapping his fingers. Naropa prostrated himself before him and asked Tilopa to accept him as his disciple.

“What are you talking about?” Tilopa said. “I’m just a beggar!” But Naropa insisted, so Tilopa accepted him.

Now Tilopa was not killing those fish just because he was hungry and could find nothing else to eat. Fish are completely ignorant of what to do and what not to do, creatures with many negative actions and Tilopa had the power to free them. By eating their flesh he was making a link with their consciousness, which he could then transfer to a pure Buddhafield. (The snapping of the fingers is part of a practice for transferring the consciousness [‘Pho ba] of another being to a pure realm)

It is therefore important not to take any of your teacher’s actions in the wrong way and to train ourselves to have only pure perceptions.

“Words of My Perfect Teacher”

- Patrul Rinpoche

"Suppose, bhikkhus, that a person was to throw a yoke with a single hole into the great ocean, and it was carried about in all directions by the winds. Suppose there were a blind tortoise that emerged from the ocean once every hundred years.

What do you think, bhikkhus, would that tortoise put his neck through the hole in the yoke? − He might, bhante, after some very long period of time. − Sooner, bhikkhus, would that blind turtle put his neck through the yoke than would a fool escape back to the human realm once having fallen to a lower realm (vinipāta).

Why is that? Because there is no dhamma-faring there, no peace, no doing of good deeds or making of merit. There is only mutual devouring there; there the strong consume the weak.

If, bhikkhus, that fool after some long time regains the human state it is into a low family that he is born; a family of outcastes, hunters, bamboo gatherers, carters or refuse cleaners. Among such clans is he reborn. There he is poor; he finds little food with much difficulty. There clothing is hard to come by. He is of bad colour, ugly, deformed, sickly, blind or crippled or palsied. He gets no food, drink, clothing, vehicles, garlands, dwelling, bedding or lights. There he misconducts himself by body, speech and mind and at the break-up of the body he arises after death in a lower birth, even in niraya. Such is the nature of the total and utter fool."

Bālapaṇḍita Sutta

"Nihilism is a form of ignorance, it is an ignorance of the true nature of reality. This ignorance can only be dispelled by wisdom and understanding." (The Samyutta Nikaya 22.95)

"Nihilism is a form of suffering, it is a suffering that comes from the belief that life is meaningless. This suffering can only be ended by finding meaning in life." (The Dhammapada 122)

"Nihilism is a form of violence, it is a violence that is done to oneself and to others. This violence can only be stopped by compassion and love." (The Lotus Sutra)

"Nihilism is a form of death, it is a death of the spirit. This death can only be avoided by living a life of truth and meaning." (The Dhammapada)

"There is nothing to be removed from it and nothing to be added. The real should be seen as real, and seeing the real, you become liberated. The [buddha] element is empty of adventitious [stains], which have the defining characteristic of being separable; but it is not empty of unsurpassable qualities, which have the defining characteristic of not being separable."

Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

"These [third turning] sūtras teach that the dharmadhātu, that is, the intrinsically pure nature of the mind or buddha-element (khams), the essence of the Tathāgatas (the tathāgatagarbha), is primordially present in all beings. It is present from the very beginning and it is unchanging. Spontaneously, and from the very first, its appearing aspect is the source of the major and minor marks of the rūpakāya (the body of form); and its emptiness aspect is the dharmakāya (the body of ultimate reality) beyond all conceptual extremes. Since all enlightened qualities are naturally present within it, it is like a jewel; since it is unchanging, it is like space; and since it pervades all beings, as if moistening them, it is like water.

The nature of the mind is primordially luminous. As it is said in the Prajñāpāramitā in Eight Thousand Lines, “As for the mind, the mind does not exist; the nature of the mind is luminosity.” This is the buddha-element (khams) or potential (rigs) present in all beings."

Longchenpa

"The eight consciousnesses are the ālaya-consciousness, the afflicted mind (Skt. kliṣṭamanas, Tib. nyon yid), the mental consciousness (Skt. manovijñāna, Tib. yid kyi rnam shes), and the five sense consciousnesses. The ālaya-consciousness is nothing but the sum of the virtuous, unvirtuous, and neutral tendencies that make up the continuum of a sentient being. Thus, it is not like a container that is different from its contents, but more like the constant flow of the water that is called a river. In other words, there is no other underlying, permanent substratum or entity apart from the momentary mental impulses that constitute this everchanging flow.

Due to various conditions — mainly the stirring of the afflicted mind (comparable to wind or a strong current) — the various appearances of the five sense consciousnesses and the (mainly conceptual) mental consciousness together with their seemingly external and conceptual objects emerge from the ālaya-consciousness in every moment. Right after each moment of this dualistic interaction of subjects and objects, the imprints created by them merge back into — or are “stored” — in the ālaya, just like waves on the surface of a river.

In this way, the ālaya-consciousness is both a cause for saṃsāric appearances and a result, that is, their imprints. This does not mean that the ālaya actively creates anything, it is just the sum of the dynamic process of various causes and conditions interacting, otherwise known as dependent origination. In this way, it is equivalent to fundamental ignorance and the karma accumulated by it, serving as the basis for all saṃsāric appearances and representing the sum of all factors to be relinquished in order to attain liberation. Thus, it ceases upon the attainment of buddhahood."

Karl Brunnhölzl

"Hārītī is invoked today for the health of children and for an easy birth. In India she was originally a demon who fed on small children. Legend says that grieving villagers appealed to the Buddha to deliver them from her, and so the Buddha hid one of her ten thousand children from her. Mad with grief, Hārītī searched frantically for the missing child and then, unable to find it, went to the Buddha for help, believing him omniscient.

"Here you are," said the Buddha, "grief-stricken because one of your ten thousand children is missing. How do you think the villagers, who have only two or three, feel when they lose one?"

Hārītī then awoke to the extent of her wrongdoing and became a deity that protected children."

Akira Sadakata

"All beings are Buddhas,
But this is concealed by adventitious stains.
When their stains are purified,
Their Buddhahood is revealed."

"The teacher embodies the essence of all Buddhas throughout the three times.

He is the union of the Three Jewels: his body is the Sangha, his speech the Dharma, his mind the Buddha.

He is the union of the Three Roots: his body is the teacher, his speech the yidam, his mind the dakini.

He is the union of the three kayas: his body is the nirmamakaya, his speech the sambhogakaya, his mind the dharmakaya.

He is the embodiment of all the Buddhas of the past, source of all the Buddhas of the future and the representative of all the Buddhas of the present.

Since he takes as his disciples degenerate beings like us, whom none of the thousand Buddhas of the Good Kalpa could help, his compassion and bounty exceed that of all Buddhas."

Patrul Rinpoche

Happy 88th birthday to the light of compassion in this Sahaloka, this world of enduring many sufferings.

Hail to the Guru!

In the gap between thoughts, non-conceptual wisdom shines continuously.

~ Milarepa

"In the Shaivite tradition, the god's companions (kaulas) are described as a troupe of freakish, adventurous delinquent and wild young people, who prowl in the night, shouting in the storm, singing, dancing and ceaselessly playing outrageous tricks on sages and gods. They are called Ganas, the 'vagabonds', corresponding to the Cretan Korybantes and the Celtic Korrigans (fairies' sons). Like the Sileni and Satyrs, some of them have goat's or bird's feet. The Ganas mock the rules of ethics and social order. They personify the joy of living, courage and imagination, which are all youthful values. They live in harmony with nature and oppose the destructive ambition of the city and the deceitful moralism which both hides and expresses it. These delinquents of heaven are always there to restore true values and to assist the 'god-mad' who are persecuted and mocked by the powerful."

Alain Daniélou

Lord Śīva said:

Those lowest of the Beings who insult Śākta, Bhaīrava, along with Devgaņas drink their blood.

Gaņa of Bhaīrava and Bhaīravī always destroys these sinners. Bahūraktapāyī Gaņa always drinks their blood.

Those who kill Śaktas, verbally abuses Śāktas, or insult Śāktas, O Dévésī, Śīvavallabhā pierces their head.

There is no Upāsaka superior to Śākta in three worlds.

Muņdamālā Tantra 3.41-44

"The dakinis are the most important element of the enlightened feminine in Tibetan Buddhism.. They are the luminous, subtle, spiritual energy, the key, the gatekeeper, the guardian of the unconditioned state. If we are not willing to invite the dakini into our life then we cannot enter into the subtle states of mind. Sometimes the dakinis appear as messengers, sometimes as guides and sometimes as protectors.. Dakinis have a quality of playfulness, expressing emptiness and pulling the rug out from under you."

- Lama Tsultrim Allione

Here's an excerpt from an article by Sthaneshwar-ji at Sutra Journal,
" Tantra in the Western imagination stands for exotic and orgasmic rituals coming from India and Tibet that blend sex and meditation. Tantric practice is often compared with pagan animistic rituals that include blood and sex, and the supernatural powers described in Tantric texts are often compared with magic. This does not mean that Tantra has always been painted positively in its homeland. For most native Indians, Tantra stands for scary witchcraft and ghoulish Aghoris that capture the imagination when one thinks of a ‘Tantrik’. With the 20th century guru movements and the vacuum resulting from a lack of traditional awareness, the ‘exotic’ side of Tantra appears to be in transit, doubling back to India in changed form.

"Historically, Tantra has remained elastic in adopting practices that cannot be blended together to make one single practice or belief. The contemporary categorization of Tantra subsumes this intrinsic diversity, with its practices contradictory to each other, and philosophies supporting different goals. As Tantra becomes grossly simplified, the market that consumes Tantra is little concerned with the problems inherent to blending Hindu and Buddhist Tantras, left-hand and right-hand Tantras, and various disciplines (Acharas). Once again, this homogenization is doubling back ..."
http://www.sutrajournal.com/tantra-and-the-west-sthaneshwar-timalsina

And another ...
http://www.sutrajournal.com/mantra-by-sthaneshwar-timalsina

Regarding the practice of Mantra & Tantra without the guidance of a Guru:

"Pustake likhitā vidyā yena sundari yapyate
Sidhir na jāyate tasya kalpakoti-ṣaṭair api.

O Beauteous one! He who does Japa of a Vidyā [Mantra] learnt from a book can never attain Siddhi even if he persists for countless millions of years."

Ṣaṭkarmadīpikā

"O Kuleśvari!
For a Kaulika non-drink is a drink, not to be eaten is worth eating, and that which should not be resorted to is worth resorting.

O Kuleśvari!
For a Kaulika there is neither injunction nor rejection, neither merit or demerit, neither heaven nor hell.

Such a Yogī lives in a way that the men of the world may laugh, feel disgust, revile and seeing bypass him from a distance leaving him alone. He would go about in different guises, at times like one worthy, at time like one fallen, and at times like a ghost or a demon."

Kulārṇava Tantra