“Those who are wise see that all experiences of adversity and felicity depend upon the mind. They seek happiness that arises from within the mind. They realize then that all the causes for happiness come from within themselves, and no longer need to be dependent upon external circumstances.

They achieve what is called personal freedom or self-control. They're not afflicted by the harms of other sentient beings. If you have personal power or freedom, then this will be something that holds true even at the time of death. You are always free, because you are free.

Without accomplishing this, you are like the foolish whose minds never become steady. There will be an endless flood of obstacles that seem to be plaguing you which go on and on. The foolish then go running after external objects in their pursuit of happiness. Whatever happiness they achieve is something that leads to yet more suffering. There arises an inability to be satisfied because, whenever you think happiness arises due to external events, this will be endless.”

Gyatrul Rinpoche

“The view is to believe in and understand the buddha nature, the essence of all the buddhas. If one knows the buddha nature, then that is to know the unchanging essence which is free from any limitation, the original primordial nature of the mind as it is. This is not like a light bulb that suddenly comes on or something that is newly acquired. It is the nature as it has always been and always will be: primordially perfect. To recognize the buddha nature is the view.

To fail to recognize the buddha nature is to deviate into confusion. If you recognize your buddha nature, this is the same as having an audience with all the buddhas. You will meet face to face with all your root teachers.

Where is it? How can you see it? Why don't you see it? You are in a state of obscurity which is only temporary, like a suddenly-arising condition such as the clouds that obscure the sun. You know the sun is there, as it always is; but you cannot see it, because it is temporarily covered by clouds. That does not mean the sun is no longer there. Like that, while you are in this sudden condition of habituation with karmic afflictions and obscurations, you must train on the path to remove them.

The path is practiced only to remove obscurations and to accumulate merit, so that you can realize your own nature. When the wind comes along and blows the clouds away, the sun is then revealed. Such is the potency of the path through which the obscurations dissolve. The buddha nature is revealed.”

Gyatrul Rinpoche

“Apart from the power of mental imprints, (phe­nomena) do not exist.
All avenues of appearances, negative and affir­mative,
Are dream-like, though they are apprehended as external phenomena.”

Lochen Dharma Shri

"First, if you want to practice the teachings, but have not done so, you have not yet made a deep enough commitment. With the recklessness of a lunatic, you must make a radical decision: to listen to the advice of a qualified spiritual master and to no one else.

"Having made this deep commitment, begin the preliminary practices, using the “four thoughts that turn the mind to dharma” in order to tame your mind.

"Next, no matter what happens to you, good or bad, recognize that ordinary worldly preoccupations do not have the slightest meaning whatsoever, not even so much as a tiny seed of sesame.

"Until you are able to regard the ordinary affairs of samsara with a kind of natural revulsion—like someone sick with hepatitis served a pile of greasy food—you are likely to turn into a hyperactive renunciant, like an ox with its tail caught in a door.

"If you’re motivated to give up ordinary activities just from a fleeting impulse of renunciation, you’ll wind up a failed “realized yogi,” a jaded “great meditator,” like someone who wastes his time soaking hard, ruined boots in water, hoping someday they’ll soften again.

"Until you have completely come to understand the “four thoughts that turn the mind to dharma” and have created a real capacity to renounce ordinary life, don’t even bother mouthing mantras and giving up ordinary activities to do practice. This is important.

"Conversely, once you begin to experience an unwavering weariness with samsara, an authentic sense of renunciation, immutable devotion and strong sense of self-confidence, you have taken the first step: adamantine freedom from the opinions of others.

"This is the time to distance yourself from friends and from enemies, to give up plans, to ignore everything that you were supposed to get done, unswayed by the opinions of your friends or partners. This is the time to turn a deaf ear to both your superiors and your subordinates. This is the time to decide, on your own, to take up the reins of your destiny and make your escape, like a wild animal caught in a trap, working to set itself free...

"...Also, unless you are propelled along the path by the life force of constant diligence and relentless perseverance, even though you are knowledgeable about the noscriptures of the nine vehicles, this will not result in attaining buddhahood in a single lifetime.

"However, take confidence in knowing that, one day, merely by having heard the words the Three Jewels, you will attain the enlightened state."

— Patrul Rinpoche, Enlightened Vagabond

“All animate and inanimate phenomena, including oneself and others, and things that are designated and characterized as obstacles, demons and hindrances, seem to be truly existent. However, apart from the deceptive appearances of one's own mind, there is nothing whatever that exists in reality. Things do indeed appear, but they are not real. Regard these as illusory hallucinations, like the appearances of a dream which do not, in fact, exist, and see them simply as random, unconnected appearances.”

Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje

The Madman Heruka from Tsang 1452-1507, was an author and a master of the Kagyu school of Tantrik Buddhism. Born in Tsang Tibet, he is best known as a biographer and compiler of the Life of Milarepa and The Collections of Songs of Milarepa. Tsangnyön Heruka was a Nyönpa "religious madman". He was ordained as a monk as a child, but at the age of 21 he renounced his vows and trained under various tantrik yogis from different schools. After Heruka left the monastery, he became a wandering yogi for the rest of his life, never staying in one place permanently. He was known to keep his hair long, carry a khatvanga and drink from a kapala (skull bowl). When local villagers saw his body covered in human ashes and blood with his hair adorned by human fingers and toes, they gave him the name 'Nyönpa' (madman). He later used the name Trantung Gyelpo "King of the Blood-drinkers" which he received from the deity Hevajra in a vision, "blood drinker" being the Tibetan name for the deity Heruka. These eccentric ways were influenced by an Indian sect of yogis called Kapalikas "skull-bearers", who practiced austerities as well as dressing in loincloths and human ashes and carrying symbols of the dakinis such as bone ornaments and skulls. Many monks questioned his behavior and way of dress but Tsangnyön Heruka Trantung Gyelpo was known to strongly defend his unconventional practice through rigorous argument and accurate quotations from noscriptures. One day He appeared on a market place naked with brown sugar in one hand and feces in the other eating from both. Another day he was seen eating the brains of someone who had died of smallpox. It's said from this time on he was completely free from all misunderstandings and the dualities of samsara and nirvana became one and the same to him.

“What is the benefit of peacefully abiding, allowing the mind to remain still, in a natural state which is motionless? Until you are able to develop quiescence, you will not be able to control or suppress deluded mental afflictions. They will continue to arise and control the mind. The only way to get a handle on that and put an end to it is to accomplish quiescence. Once that is accomplished, all other spiritual qualities will arise from that basis, such as super knowledge, clair­voyance, the ability to see into the minds of others, to recall the past, and so forth.

These are mundane qualities that arise on the path but are developed only after the mind can abide peacefully. Qualities such as heightened awareness and clairvoyance must be de­veloped, because it is through them that one is able to understand and realize the fundamental nature of the mind.

As it says in the Bodhicharyavatara, one of the most important mahayana texts, "Having developed enthusiasm in this way, I should place my mind in concentration; for one whose mind is distracted dwells between the fangs of mental afflictions."

An individual who has been able to accomplish quiescence will no longer be overpowered by attach­ment to ordinary activities and contact with worldly people. The mind automatically turns from attach­ment and attraction to cyclic existence, because quies­cence is the experience of mental contentment and bliss which is far more sublime than ordinary attrac­tions that arise from confused perception.

When the mind is at peace, it can then be directed to concentrate undistractedly for indefinite periods of time. Quies­cence destroys delusion because mental afflictions do not arise when one is experiencing the equipoise of single-pointed concentration. People who have achieved quiescence naturally experience compassion as they view the predicament in which other living beings are ensnared. Pure com­passion arises as they begin to clearly perceive the nature of emptiness in all aspects of reality.

These are only a few of many qualities as taught by the Buddha which are the direct result of accomplishing quies­cence. Quiescence is the preparation and basis for the main practice which is the cultivation of the primor­dial wisdom of insight. These two meditations are complimentary.

The success that one has in develop­ing insight is dependent on the success that one has with developing quiescence. If you are able to de­velop quiescence only to a certain degree, then your experience of insight will be limited. However, if you are able to fully accomplish quiescence, then you will be able to fully perfect insight as well. If that is the case, then that is as good as saying perfect enlighten­ment will be realized.”

Gyatrul Rinpoche

Illusion-Like Thoughts

“All of our different activities are projections of the mind, created by our thoughts. If you follow these deluded thoughts, there will be no end to your mind being upset by delusion, just as when the wind blows over the surface of a lake, the crystal clarity of the water is masked by ripples.”

~ HH Dilgo Khentsye Rinpoche

Zurchungpa's Testament, pg 267 – on Wisdom – Snow Lion Publications

“One can impute emptiness logically when an independent reality of the self or of other phenomena is sought and not found. One also experiences it directly through meditation when the mind abides without ideas of existence or non-existence or both or neither. Meditators experience emptiness as a kind of fullness.

Emptiness allows for the unimpeded radiance of intrinsic awareness. In the experiential sense, then, it is not only a lack of something, but also a quality of knowing, or pristine cognition, a luminous quality that is the actual nature of the mind that can be experienced once the veils of concepts and emotions have been cleared away.

This experience is often referred to as clear light or radiance and also as "compassion." It is not something other than emptiness, for without emptiness it could not occur. It is the radiance-awareness that is the primordially pure basis of all manifestation and perception, the buddha nature.

This very nature of mind was always already there and is never corrupted or damaged, but only covered up by confusion. As such, it is the basis of spiritual practice, and also the goal or result. Buddha is not found anywhere outside of the intrinsic state of one's own mind. In the traditional breakdown, then, of ground, path, and fruition, the ground is one's own true nature, the fruition is the discovery of that, and the path is whatever it takes to make the discovery.

Kongtrul describes the identity of ground (basis) and fruition when he says:

The basis of purification is the eternal, noncomposite realm of reality that fully permeates all beings as the buddha nature.”

Sarah Harding

"Empty, luminous, and infinite in potential, mind can be understood as having five basic qualities: emptiness, mobility, clarity, continuity, and stability. Each of these corresponds respectively to the five principal elements of space, air, fire, water, and earth.

We have already described mind as not being a tangible thing: it is indeterminate, omnipresent, and immaterial; it is emptiness, with the nature of space.

Thoughts and mental states constantly arise in the mind; this movement and fluctuation is the air element’s nature.

Furthermore, mind is clear; it can know, and that clear lucidity is the fire element’s nature.

And mind is continuous; its experiences are an uninterrupted flow of thoughts and perceptions. This continuity is the water element’s nature.

Finally, mind is the ground, or basis, from which arise all knowable things in samsara as well as nirvana, and this quality is the earth element’s nature."

From: "Luminous Mind: The Way of the Buddha"

~ Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche

Just as cattle pulling carts manage to grasp only a tuft of grass, so also people who are caught up in desires have many hard things to endure and few pleasant things to enjoy.

Shantideva

In fact, essential reality (dharmata) transcends all conceptual fabrications, & the Buddha taught this to his disciples very clearly.

In this way the Buddha taught the path that dissolves all conceptual fabrications and thereby leads to the peace that is free from samsara's suffering.

Suffering comes from taking things to be real—from taking friends & enemies to be real, from taking birth and death to be real, from taking clean & dirty to be real, & from taking happiness & pain in general to be real.

The Buddha taught that the true nature of reality actually transcends all these concepts...& he also taught us how to realize this.

Since putting the Buddha's teachings into practice leads to the complete transcendence of suffering & the perfect awakening of the omniscient enlightened mind, then these teachings are the greatest words ever spoken, and the Buddha himself is the supreme of all who speak.

For these reasons, the Buddha is worthy of our respect & our prostration.

—Khenchen Tsultrim Gyamtso

We should try to get used to the fact that everything we see, do and think is an interpretation created by our mind. This in itself is an important milestone on the path to practicing non-duality. And “getting used to it” in this case means reminding ourselves of it over and over again.

Dzongsar Jamyang Kyentse Rinpoche

"The Tantrik devotee is very much committed to a human guru, with whom he has personally come into contact in the transactional world. The guidance that he gets from the master is by no means imaginary, it is concrete and practical. While the guru is an individual, he also symbolizes the theme of personal transmission of the secret of realization in a succession of masters. This succession is known as Sampradaya which is defined in the Tantrik texts as whispering into the ears of the prepared disciple the highest truth so as to awaken him spiritually."

- The Tantra of Sri-Chakra

“The word kula refers to the family or grouping of the yoginīs and of the 'Mothers'. It is also taken to mean the corporeal body, the body of power, the cosmic body, the totality of things so that by entering into a 'family', a kula, the worshipper enters into the totality of cosmic powers, the kula. He himself, in his own body, is the embodiment of the 'Mothers' and of the whole of reality. By being initiated into a 'Mother' he also enters into one or other level of his own body and becomes master of the powers identified with it. By piercing all the circles of his body he is master of the totality and attains the central deity which is identified with the true self of the worshipper, his 'blissful inner consciousness' of whom the eighth 'Mothers' are the projections.”

John R. Depuche

“Many people have this fantasy of somehow coming across some yogi or lama sitting on a mountain-top who looks up and says, “Ah, I’ve been waiting for you. What took you so long?” People think that if they could only find the perfect master who’s just right for them, all their problems would be solved. Sometimes I say to people, “Look, even if you meet your master, that’s when your problems begin!” In fact, even if the Buddha himself was sitting in front of us right now, what could he do to our untamed and uncontrolled minds? The only thing he could do is tell us to practice.”

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo

Sarvaṃ ca yujyate tasya śūnyatā yasya yujyate |

Sarvaṃ na yujyate tasya śūnyaṃ yasya na yujyate ||

All is possible when emptiness is possible.

Nothing is possible when emptiness is impossible.

-Chapter 24, verse 14, of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Nāgārjuna).

“In Buddhism, purification is a science based on understanding the psychomechanics of karma, or action-the law of cause and effect-and entails the application of what are called the four opponent powers. Sometimes referred to as "confession," Buddhist purification is very different from the Christian conception of the term, although parallels certainly exist. Every action, whether physical, verbal, or mental, leaves an imprint on consciousness, like a seed planted in a field. When the conditions are right, this imprint ripens into an experience. Positive imprints, or "good" karma, result in happiness; negative imprints, or "bad" karma, bring suffering. Every action has four aspects that determine whether the action is complete or incomplete: motivation, object, performance, and completion.

To be complete, the action of killing, for instance, would require the motivation, or intention, to kill; a sentient being as the object to be killed; performance of the action, either directly or indirectly, that is, doing it oneself or ordering someone else to do it; and completion of the action, with the other sentient being dying before the killer. If an action is complete in all four aspects, it becomes what is called a throwing karma, an action that can determine your state of rebirth by throwing you into one of the six samsaric realms. If one or more of the four branches is missing, the action becomes a completing karma, determining the quality of the experiences you will have in this and future lives.

A completing karma brings three types of result: the result similar to the cause in experience, the result similar to the cause in habit, and the environmental result. Thus, a complete negative karma has four suffering results. For killing, these four could be rebirth in a hell, a short life plagued with illness, a tendency to kill other beings, and rebirth in a very dangerous place. Although all this applies equally to positive as well as negative actions, in the context of purification we focus on the latter. The four opponent powers work — and are all necessary — because each one counters one of the four negative karmic results.

The first power-taking refuge and generating bodhichitta-is called the power of the object, or the power of dependence, and purifies the environmental result. It is called the power of dependence because our recovery depends upon the object that hurt us. For example, to get up after you have fallen over and hurt yourself, you depend upon the same ground that hurt you. Similarly, almost all the negative karma we create has as its object either holy objects or sentient beings. In order to purify it we take refuge in holy objects and generate bodhichitta for the sake of all sentient beings. The second power is the power of release, which counteracts the result similar to the cause in experience. The third power is the power of the remedy, which is the antidote to the throwing karma that cat.ises us to be reborn in the three lower realms. Finally, the fourth power is that of indestructible determination, by which we overcome our lifetime-to-lifetime tendency to habitually create negativities again and again.

Thus, in neutralizing the four results of negative karma, the four opponent powers purify them completely, preventing us from ever having to experience their suffering results. This kind of explicit logic lies behind all Buddhist practice. The third power embraces many different kinds of remedy, from making prostrations to building stupas to reciting the hundred-syllable Vajrasattva mantra to meditating on emptiness. Ideally, several of these are practiced simultaneously.”

Nicholas Ribush

Nibbānaṃ paramaṃ sukhaṃ.
"Nibbāna is the highest happiness."

The Buddha describes the excellence of Nibbāna, it’s better than anything else, better than anything you can imagine. So that’s where we’re headed as we practice.

- Ajahn Ṭhānissaro

Even creating a small bad deed will result in terrible fear and disasters in future lives, like having ingested poison.

Even creating a little merit will bring great happiness in future lives and accomplish vast objectives, like grains that ripen to perfection.

From: The Collection of Indicative Verses