“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

"Four sublime states of mind have been taught by the Buddha:

Love, or loving kindness (mettā)
Compassion (karuṇā)
Sympathetic Joy (muditā)
Equanimity (upekkhā).

In Pali, the language of the Buddhist noscriptures, these four are known as Brahma-vihāra, a term which may be rendered as excellent, lofty, or sublime states of mind; or alternatively, as Brahma-like, god-like, or divine abodes.

These four attitudes are said to be excellent or sublime because they are the right or ideal way of conduct towards living beings (sattesu sammā paṭipatti). They provide, in fact, the answer to all situations arising from social contact. They are the great removers of tension, the great peace-makers in social conflict, and the great healers of wounds suffered in the struggle of existence. They level social barriers, build harmonious communities, awaken slumbering magnanimity long forgotten, revive joy and hope long abandoned, and promote human brotherhood against the forces of egotism.

The Brahma-vihāras are incompatible with a hating state of mind, and in that they are akin to Brahmā, the divine but transient ruler of the higher heavens in the traditional Buddhist picture of the universe. In contrast to many other conceptions of deities, East and West, who by their own devotees are said to show anger, wrath, jealousy, and “righteous indignation,” Brahmā is free from hate; and one who assiduously develops these four sublime states, by conduct and meditation, is said to become an equal of Brahmā (brahma-samo).

If they become the dominant influence in one’s mind, one will be reborn in congenial worlds, the realms of Brahmā. Therefore these states of mind are called god-like, Brahma-like."

Nyanaponika Thera

"The world suffers. But most people have their eyes and ears closed. They do not see the unbroken stream of tears flowing through life; they do not hear the cry of distress continually pervading the world. Their own little grief or joy bars their sight, deafens their ears. Bound by selfishness, their hearts turn stiff and narrow. Being stiff and narrow, how should they be able to strive for any higher goal, to realize that only release from selfish craving will effect their own freedom from suffering?

It is compassion that removes the heavy bar, opens the door to freedom, makes the narrow heart as wide as the world. Compassion takes away from the heart the inert weight, the paralyzing heaviness; it gives wings to those who cling to the lowlands of self.

Through compassion the fact of suffering remains vividly present to our mind, even at times when we personally are free from it. It gives us the rich experience of suffering, thus strengthening us to meet it prepared when it does befall us.

Compassion reconciles us to our own destiny by showing us the lives of others, often much harder than ours.
Behold the endless caravan of beings, men and beasts, burdened with sorrow and pain! The burden of every one of them, we also have carried in bygone times during the unfathomable sequence of repeated births. Behold this, and open your heart to compassion!

And this misery may well be our own destiny again! One who is without compassion now will one day cry for it. If sympathy with others is lacking, it will have to be acquired through one’s own long and painful experience. This is the great law of life. Knowing this, keep guard over yourself!

Beings, sunk in ignorance, lost in delusion, hasten from one state of suffering to another, not knowing the real cause, not knowing the escape from it. This insight into the general law of suffering is the real foundation of our compassion, not any isolated fact of suffering.

Hence our compassion will also include those who at the moment may be happy, but act with an evil and deluded mind. In their present deeds we shall foresee their future state of distress, and compassion will arise."

Nyanaponika Thera

"Isolated virtues, if unsupported by other qualities which give them either the needed firmness or pliancy, often deteriorate into their own characteristic defects. For instance, loving kindness, without energy and insight, may easily degenerate into a mere sentimental goodness of weak and unreliable nature. Moreover, such isolated virtues may often carry us in a direction contrary to our original aims and contrary to the welfare of others, too. It is the firm and balanced character of a person that knits isolated virtues into an organic and harmonious whole, within which the single qualities exhibit their best manifestations and avoid the pitfalls of their respective weaknesses. And this is the very function of equanimity, the way it contributes to an ideal relationship between all four sublime states.

Equanimity is a perfect, unshakable balance of mind, rooted in insight. But in its perfection and unshakable nature equanimity is not dull, heartless, and frigid. Its perfection is not due to an emotional “emptiness,” but to a “fullness” of understanding, to its being complete in itself. Its unshakable nature is not the immovability of a dead, cold stone, but the manifestation of the highest strength.

In what way, now, is equanimity perfect and unshakable? Whatever causes stagnation is here destroyed, what dams up is removed, what obstructs is destroyed. Vanished are the whirls of emotion and the meanderings of intellect. Unhindered goes the calm and majestic stream of consciousness, pure and radiant.

Watchful mindfulness (sati) has harmonized the warmth of faith (saddhā) with the penetrative keenness of wisdom (paññā); it has balanced strength of will (viriya) with calmness of mind (samādhi); and these five inner faculties (indriya) have grown into inner forces (bala) that cannot be lost again. They cannot be lost because they do not lose themselves any more in the labyrinths of the world (saṃsāra), in the endless diffuseness of life (papañca). These inner forces emanate from the mind and act upon the world, but being guarded by mindfulness, they nowhere bind themselves, and they return unchanged.

Love, compassion and sympathetic joy continue to emanate from the mind and act upon the world, but being guarded by equanimity, they cling nowhere, and return unweakened and unsullied."

Nyanaponika Thera

“For one who clings, motion exists; but for one who clings not, there is no motion. Where no motion is, there is stillness. Where stillness is, there is no craving. Where no craving is, there is neither coming nor going. Where no coming nor going is, there is neither arising nor passing away. Where neither arising nor passing away is, there is neither this world nor a world beyond, nor a state between. This, indeed, is the end of suffering.”

Udāna 8:4, Nibbāna Suttaṁ

Even a crow feels like Garuda in front of a dead snake. If your spirit is weak, even minor troubles can break you.

Shantideva

The only source of any kind of benefit to others is awareness of our own situation.

When we know how to help ourselves and how to work with our situation, our sense of compassion arises spontaneously, without the need to adhere to the rules of conduct of any religious doctrine.

Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche

We need to rethink our conception of ourselves. When we say “I” or “self,” we think of a solid and unified entity. But in reality, this “I” is merely a collection of components, and these components are ephemeral and change every moment, like a waterfall or the flame of an oil lamp. A waterfall seems continuous, but in reality it consists of a constantly changing stream of water droplets. Similarly, the flame of an oil lamp is simply a series of flickering moments without a constant flame.

Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche

"Phenomena have two distinct aspects: the conventional or relative level of reality and the ultimate or absolute level of reality. The conventional or relative nature of phenomena is suffering, difficulties, problems, and obstacles. On the ultimate or absolute level, the true nature of phenomena is the cessation of suffering and its obstacles. To become free of the conventional view we must realize the true nature first. The true nature is actually experiencing the emptiness of phenomena."

Thrangu Rinpoche

"There is a method by which we can eliminate this belief in a self which is the attachment to "I" or "me." If we examine the self The Correct View of Buddha-dharma carefully and try to discover what and where it is, we will not be able to find anything that is "I." It cannot be logically established.

Through this careful reasoning process, we will come to under-stand that the thought "I" has no inherent reality. There is no "I." It is only a delusion. This understanding undermines the belief in a self and thus cuts the root of the disturbing emotions.

The Buddha taught this method of analysis in the Foundation vehicle and showed how to attain liberation from samsara by realizing the "selflessness or egolessness of the individual." In the second turning of the wheel of dharma, the Buddha taught the methods of the Mahayana (the greater vehicle). The scope of the Mahayana is deeper than the Foundation because here we are concerned with not only helping ourselves, but also with helping all other sentient beings.

In the first turning we may fear the suffering of samsara as long as we believe that it has true existence. However, in the second turning, the Buddha taught that phenomena of samsara are also empty of any inherent true nature. Realizing the emptiness of phenomena, the belief and attachment to a self will be finally eliminated.

The teachings of the Mahayana were called "the middle turning" (the second of the three vehicles), in which the Buddha taught that all phenomena (whether body, mind, or material things) have no inherent nature of their own. All phenomena are devoid of a true nature and are therefore empty. By seeing the emptiness of all phenomena, we can become free from the belief in and attachment to a personal self and of phenomena's illusion.

We also become free from fear of suffering as well as from actual suffering. Having freedom from suffering and the fear of suffering, we are in a position to truly help other beings."

Thrangu Rinpoche

"To gain a definite understanding of emptiness, it is necessary first to receive the teachings from a teacher, to read the texts of great masters, or to study the sutras taught by the Buddha, so that one can have a strong foundation of the Buddha's teachings.

Thus, there is the wisdom or prajna that comes from studying (literally "from hearing the teachings"). It is not sufficient to simply know what the Buddha taught; one needs also to contemplate the teachings in order to understand why the teachings are correct. Then one gains the wisdom or prajna that comes from contemplating the teachings.

Both wisdoms are necessary, the wisdom arising from learning and the wisdom arising from contemplating the teachings."

Thrangu Rinpoche

"All of the aggregates are impermanent, undergo change, and are eventually destroyed. What is new eventually decays, becomes old, and finally ends. We are not a single entity but rather a coming together of the five aggregates (form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness). These various components will change and eventually come to an end.

The components are also not single. For example, a form (such as the body) does not consist of one single unit but is made up of components that are continually changing and being destroyed. The view of the self also is called "the view of that which will be destroyed" because it is a view founded upon the aggregates coming together and then dispersing. Even though elements come together and make up an entity composed of many different things, we think ofthem as a single entity. For example, our body is composed of many parts and yet we consider ourselves to be a single individual.

We see ourselves as "one being," as an "I" or a "self' who took birth, has grown older and will die. But, in fact, the self is a composite of changing aggregates that come together, undergo change, and will finally end. As babies we had a small body and the thoughts of a baby. As a grown-up we have another body and the thoughts of an adult.

As long as we are not aware of the changes that take place from childhood through adolescence to old age, we think of ourselves as a single individual. If we examine this closely, however, we discover that there is no place where the self exists and that the view of a self is nothing but a delusion. This is the delusion based on ignorance that must be eliminated."

Thrangu Rinpoche

"First, if something doesn't exist, then it doesn't exist, but whatever does exist is composite and not a single, indivisible entity. All things are made up of various ingredients and these ingredients form existing things.

Therefore, all phenomena that exist are composed of various ingredients and as a result are impermanent. Living beings die, objects wear out and disintegrate. At this coarse or obvious level of impermanence, everything changes over time, and this is obvious and can be understood by everyone. The subtle level of impermanence is the main concern here; it is the momentary impermanence of every instant.

When looking at momentary impermanence on a gross level, we can see that a person changes from childhood to adulthood.

One may think that there is continuity in the change that takes place. One may wonder when this change takes place and conclude that every year, everybody is different. However, a change doesn't automatically take place at a certain point each year.

One may conclude that every month, everybody is different, but the change doesn't automatically take place at a certain point in each month either.

One may conclude that every day or every hour, everybody changes. We follow this reasoning down to every single instant in which a change takes place, so there is impermanence in every instant.

This is the subtle level of impermanence. It is easy to see changes that take place over the years, but, in fact, changes are taking place in every instant.

[...]

Whatever phenomena we can perceive are empty like water bubbles. Although we can hear and see things, nothing has a true reality in itself; there is no true self in the individual and no true existence of phenomena. In spite of the fact that they appear, phenomena have no substantial or true reality of their own. Thus it is said that all phenomena are empty and have no self."

Thrangu Rinpoche

"When looking at momentary impermanence on a gross level, we can see that a person changes from childhood to adulthood. One may think that there is continuity in the change that takes place. One may wonder when this change takes place and conclude that every year, everybody is different.

However, a change doesn't automatically take place at a certain point each year. One may conclude that every month, everybody is different, but the change doesn't automatically take place at a certain point in each month either. One may conclude that every day or every hour, everybody changes.

We follow this reasoning down to every single instant in which a change takes place, so there is impermanence in every instant. This is the subtle level of impermanence. It is easy to see changes that take place over the years, but, in fact, changes are taking place in every instant. Chandrakirti said that even a solid-looking diamond, which is as large as a boulder, changes every single instant."

Thrangu Rinpoche