“Bodhisattvas are not attached to their own happiness,
Nor are they crushed by their own sufferings.
They suffer because others suffer,
And find joy in others’ happiness.”

“I myself have practiced without distraction

You too should follow this example.”

- Padampa Sangye

"It is worth noting here that to be "sectarian" in the sense of exclusively dedicating yourself to the study and practice of one particular school is not necessarily a negative thing. Most Ti­betan lamas train in this way. This is positive sectarianism. Negative sectarianism is to follow one tradition exclusively, while looking down on other traditions."

H.H Dalai Lama

Who is Batuka Bhairva

"In short, attaining and bringing to completion all the bodhisattva deeds, and, likewise, attaining and bringing to completion the perfections, levels, forbearances, concentrations, superknowledges, retentions of teachings heard, dedications, aspirational prayers, confidence to speak, and all the qualities of a buddha are contingent upon the guru. The guru is the root from which they arise. The guru is the source and creator from which they are produced. The guru increases them. They depend upon the guru. The guru is their cause."

Bodhisattvapiṭaka

Who is Vajrayogini? The texts refer to her reverentially as a “blessed one” (bhagavati), as a “deity” (devata) or “goddess” (devi). She is divine in the sense that she embodies enlightenment; and as she is worshiped at the center of a mandala of other enlightened beings, the supreme focus of devotion, she has the status of a buddha. In the opening verse to the Vajravarahi Sadhana., the author salutes her as a vajradevi, that is, as a Vajrayana or tantric Buddhist (vajra) goddess, and in the final verse prays that all beings may become enlightened like her, that is, that they may attain “the state of the glorious vajra goddess” (snvajradevipadavt).

—Elizabeth English

"The wise should not befriend
Those who are without faith or who are stingy,
Those who lie, or who speak divisively;
They should not accompany sinful persons.

Even those who do not sin Create the doubt that they might be doing so
If they rely on those who do sin,
Thereby increasing that which is unpleasant.

The person who relies on the unreliable
Will have faults as a result,
Just as unsmeared arrows are tainted
When arrows smeared with poison are placed in the same quiver."

"The worst person, though keeping good company, does not become better than middling. The best, when keeping company with the worst, readily becomes part of the worst."

Geshe Drom-don-ba

On Buddha-nature:

"As is stated in the King of Meditative Absorption Sutra:

The Essence of the Well-gone One pervades all migrators.

The Small Parinirvana Sutra says:

All sentient beings have the Essence of the Thus-gone One.'

Also, the Sutra of the Great Parinirvana says:

For example, as butter permeates milk, likewise the Essence of the Thus-gone One pervades all sentient beings.

And in the Ornament of Mahayana Sutra:

Even though suchness is not different for any being, One is called "Thus-gone One" when it is fully purified. Therefore, all beings are of its essence."

"There are some who only commit nonvirtuous actions. There are some who consistently destroy positive qualities. There are some who lack the virtue which leads to liberation. So, those who have no virtue do not possess the cause of enlightenment."

Ornament of Mahayana Sutra

"It is rare to be human, it is rare to keep a human life, it is rare to find the holy Dharma teachings, and it is also rare for a Buddha to appear."
...

"It is difficult to find human birth. It is hard to achieve the excellent freedom. It is also rare for a Buddha to appear on this earth. It is difficult also to find devoted interest in the Dharma. It is difficult also to have perfect aspiration."

...

"It is difficult to find freedom from the eight unfavorable conditions. It is difficult to find a human birth. It is difficult to find the perfect leisure. It is difficult also to find the appearance of a Buddha. It is difficult also to find persons with all the senses. It is difficult also to hear the Dharma teaching of a Buddha. It is difficult also to attend the precious holy beings. It is difficult also to find authentic spiritual masters. It is difficult also to fully practice that which is taught in the perfect teachings. It is difficult also to have a right livelihood.' It is difficult also to find persons who make effort in the human realm according to the Dharma."

"This was explained by the Buddha in the sutras:

"Suppose that this whole earth were an ocean and a person threw in a yoke that had only one hole. The yoke would float back and forth in all the four directions. Underneath that ocean, there is a blind tortoise who lives for many thousands of years but who comes up above the surface once every hundred years. It would be very difficult for the tortoise's head to meet with the yoke's hole; still, it is possible. To be born in a precious human life is much more difficult."

Why is a precious human life difficult to find? This body of leisure and endowments is gained through the accumulation of virtuous deeds, and those who are born in the three lower realms do not know how to accumulate virtue. Rather, they constantly commit evil deeds. Therefore, only those born in the three lower realms with a very small amount of negative karma, and whose karma could ripen in another lifetime, are the ones who have an opportunity to be born in a human life.

In Sanskrit, "man" is purusha, which translates as "capacity" or "ability." Hence, a human life with the qualities of leisure and endowment provides the capacity or ability to attain either the temporary high realms or definite goodness; therefore, it is called purusha."

Gampopa

"By seeing the suffering within one's own mind-stream, one yearns to completely exhaust the suffering of others. This is called the supreme person."

"About this mind... In truth there is nothing really wrong with it. It is intrinsically pure. Within itself it's already peaceful. That the mind is not peaceful these days is because it follows moods. The real mind doesn't have anything to it, it is simply (an aspect of) Nature. It becomes peaceful or agitated because moods deceive it. The untrained mind is stupid. Sense impressions come and trick it into happiness, suffering, gladness and sorrow, but the mind's true nature is none of those things. That gladness or sadness is not the mind, but only a mood coming to deceive us. The untrained mind gets lost and follows these things, it forgets itself. Then we think that it is we who are upset or at ease or whatever.

But really this mind of ours is already unmoving and peaceful... really peaceful! Just like a leaf which is still as long as no wind blows. If a wind comes up the leaf flutters. The fluttering is due to the wind -- the 'fluttering' is due to those sense impressions; the mind follows them. If it doesn't follow them, it doesn't 'flutter.' If we know fully the true nature of sense impressions we will be unmoved.

Our practice is simply to see the Original Mind. So we must train the mind to know those sense impressions, and not get lost in them. To make it peaceful. Just this is the aim of all this difficult practice we put ourselves through."

Ajahn Chah

All meanings in samsara are just like a dream. They have no true inherent existence and arise only as the display of pure awareness. When one fails to understand appearances as merely the display of pure awareness and identifies them as arising from self, i.e. self-identifies with them, then they become the experience of samsara.

This is a misinterpretation of the nature of the display, which would be like misinterpreting a striped rope to be a snake. Samsara is actually the confused perception of the display of rigpa, pure awareness.

If an appearance is not recognized as arising from the ground, then in that moment the confusion begins. A confused sentient being begins in the very moment when they fail to recognize their own display for what it is.

They are covering or obscuring their own nature by failing to recognize it as the display of the ground. This is called "not seeing it as one's own nature when it arises", the "unawareness of singular identity", and this precisely is the beginning of samsara.

If we were to ask whether the inconceivable qualities of buddha nature that we develop as we grow on the path are new qualities, the answer is no. They are qualities that we possess right now. Although we are developing on the path, we are simply bringing out or actualizing our inherent noble qualities that we've possessed all along, because we are originally Buddha.

~ Yangthang Rinpoche

“According to Buddhism, all living beings experience the results of their own actions and are born in worlds appropriate to their actions. But because the world is not subject to the results of its own actions, the world itself does not give rise to another world. Instead, it is produced through the collective actions (sādhāraṇa-karman) of large numbers of people. In other words, the world is created not by God, but by people. Therefore, it is people who must bear responsibility for the state of the world.”

Shogo Watanabe

Everyone.
I'm happy to announce.
I've created a Substack account. Where I'll be posting the rare gems/History/Philosophy from Kashmir Shaivism.

Do join my Substack and you can contribute here if you want by buying subnoscription.

👇
https://substack.com/@ishaivite

“Beings are the owners of their actions, the heirs of their actions; they spring from their actions, are bound to their actions, and are supported by their actions. Whatever deeds they do, good or bad, of those they shall be heirs.”

Bhikkhu Bodhi