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mahayanapilgrim · 10 hours
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"It was told in the Jataka Tales that Shakyamuni Buddha was a merchant in a past life and he traveled to the land of Raksha where many female demons attempted to seduce him with a myriad of tricks and intrigues. But after careful consideration, he found that although their appearances were mesmerizing, pain and deceit were at their core.
The joy we encounter during samsara is exactly the same.
It changes in the blink of an eye, as impermanent as a flash of lightning. Will any of our possessions that are here today be here tomorrow? Will our strong and healthy bodies be free of illness tomorrow? Since it is impossible to predict the outcome of anything, so it was said that 'all phenomena are like lightning!"-
HH Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche
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mahayanapilgrim · 10 hours
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DILGO KHYENTSE RINPOCHE
Where Shechen Gyaltsap's note says "Ultimately these are the cause of suffering", he means that if we follow worldly ways, we may become quite successful, we may be rich and influential or have the command of a large army, but in order to achieve that we will have committed exclusively negative actions involving deceit, lies, and malice.
These are the very cause of suffering, and it is for this reason that Lord Buddha and his followers left home and became renunciants. They lived in secluded hermitages and devoted their lives to practicing the Dharma, living on food given to them as alms and free from the negativity that comes from all the things one normally does to earn a living.
- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche - Zurchungpa's Testament
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mahayanapilgrim · 10 hours
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"For beings who are strong in their devoted faith
I am swifter in compassion than all other Buddhas.
Until the three worlds of samsara are all void of beings,
Padmasambhava's compassion will not be exhausted."
~ Padmasambhava
From: "White lotus: An explanation of the Seven-line prayer to Guru Padmasambhava"
By Jamgön Mipham
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mahayanapilgrim · 13 hours
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The mind is malleable: it is capable of change. So we need to learn to see how we can transform it. We need to identify the ways to achieve that transformation and put them into action. Samsara, the circle of existences, and nirvana, the state beyond it, are not like geographical locations far from one another. They are two states of mind. Samsara is a deviation from knowledge, a distorted vision of reality that makes the mind the slave of negative emotions, while nirvana is a state of inner freedom, free of any conceptual and emotional obstacles.
All things, including nirvana, arise from causes and conditions. To find happiness, it is indispensable to have a correct view of the nature of mind and the world. Someone who has a wrong view about that nature cannot transform themselves to attain liberation. What is meant by "right view" is not faith or believing in a particular dogma but a clear understanding that is reached through thoroughly examining reality. This kind of examination will refute the belief in the independent existence of things, which is the root of our distorted vision of the world, and replace it with the right view.
Acquiring the right view implies a recognition that the nature of buddhahood is the essence of our own mind, our fundamental cognitive ability, luminous and pure without confusion. It also involves identifying the factors that keep us from perceiving that nature, so that it becomes possible for us to remove them.
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mahayanapilgrim · 13 hours
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"The categories of teachings are endless. The entrance doors to the vehicles are innumerable. The words to be explained are extensive. Even if you succeed in memorizing millions of volumes of dharma scriptures, unless you are able to practice the essential meaning, you can never be sure that they will help you at the moment of death. And even if your education in studies and reflections is boundless, unless you succeed in being in harmony with the dharma, you will not tame your enemy, negative emotions. Even if you succeed in being the owner of a trillion worlds, unless you can curtail your plans from within with the feeling that nothing more is needed, you will never know contentment. Unless you prepare yourself with the attitude that your death could happen at any time, you cannot achieve the great aim that is surely needed at the time of death."
- Longchenpa, from the book "Quintessential Dzogchen:
Confusion Dawns as Wisdom" translated by Erik Pema Kunsang
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mahayanapilgrim · 23 hours
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No amount of intellectual knowledge can satisfy the need for the direct experience that is beyond concepts and duality. Do not be a fool and spend your whole life in a book.
Of course you must study the teachings, but you must also know when it is time to put what you have learned into practice.
Only direct experience can set you free.
~ Chamtrul Rinpoche
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mahayanapilgrim · 1 day
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SEEING NOTHING BUT DARKNESS
When one explains the dharma, people say, "This person is a fool. He knows about the dharma but he knows nothing of worldly affairs."
If one explains how to achieve happiness and how to escape rebirth in the lower realms, people simply do not believe it.
Because of their jaundiced views, they misinterpret. They are like people who cover their eyes when the sun shines; they see nothing but darkness. This is only due to their wrong perception.
- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
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mahayanapilgrim · 1 day
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ADVICE from the LOTUS BORN
Although your realization is equal to that of the Buddhas', make offerings to the Three Jewels.
Although you have gained mastery over your mind, direct your innermost aims towards the Dharma.
Although the nature of the Great Perfection is supreme, don't disparage other teachings.
Although you have realized that Buddhas and sentient beings are equal, embrace all beings with compassion.
Although the paths and bhumis are beyond training and journeying, don't forsake purifying your obscurations through Dharma activities.
Although the accumulations are beyond gathering, don't sever the roots of conditioned virtue.
Although your mind lies beyond birth and death, this illusory body does die, so practice while remembering death.
Although you experience Dharmata free from thought, maintain the attitude of Bodhichitta.
Although you have attained the fruition of Dharmakaya, keep company with your Yidam.
Although Dharmakaya is not some other place, seek the true meaning.
Although Buddhahood is not anywhere else, dedicate any virtue you create towards unexcelled enlightenment.
Although everything experienced is Original Wakefulness, don't let your mind stray into samsara.
Although your mind essence is the Awakened One, always worship the Deity and your Master.
Although you have realized the nature of the Great Perfection, don't abandon your Yidam.
Those who, instead of doing this, speak foolishly with boastful words only damage the Three Jewels and will find not even an instant of happiness.
~ PADMASAMBHAVA
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mahayanapilgrim · 1 day
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Uphold virtue, refrain from creating negative karma. Don't speak ill of others. Don't meddle in others' affairs. Don't spread rumors about others' lives.
Good words lead to good outcomes.
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mahayanapilgrim · 2 days
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A SPONTANEOUS VAJRA SONG
Happiness can not be found through great effort and willpower,
- but is already present,
- in open relaxation and letting go.
Don't strain yourself,
there is nothing to do or undo.
Whatever momentarily arises in the body-mind
- has no real importance at all,
- has little reality whatsoever.
Why identify with, and become attached to it,
- passing judgment upon it and ourselves?
Far better to simply
let the entire game happen on its own,
- springing up and falling back like waves
- without changing or manipulating anything and notice how everything vanishes and
reappears, magically, again and again, time without end.
Only our searching for happiness
- prevents us from seeing it.
It's like a vivid rainbow which you pursue without ever catching,
- or a dog chasing its own tail.
Although peace and happiness do not exist as an actual thing or place,
- it is always available
- and accompanies you every instant.
Don't believe in the reality of good and bad experiences.
They are like today's ephemeral weather,
- like rainbows in the sky.
Wanting to grasp the ungraspable, you exhaust yourself in vain.
As soon as you open and relax this tight fist of grasping,
- infinite space is there - open, inviting and comfortable.
Make use of this spaciousness,
- this freedom and natural ease.
Don't search any further
looking for the great awakened elephant, who is already resting quietly at home,
- in front of your own hearth.
Nothing to do or undo, nothing to force, nothing to want, and nothing missing
Emaho! Marvelous!
Everything happens by itself.
~ LAMA GENDUN RINPOCHE
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mahayanapilgrim · 2 days
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Question: Sometimes we use a mala when we recite mantras. Why do we need to count the numbers if we are reciting the mantras our whole life?
GR: We count numbers as an encouragement because if we don't have numbers we won't even hold our mala. Of course for someone who practices the 'Om Ah Hung' and recite the mantra continuously, then there is no need to count anything. If every sound becomes mantra, then even when you go on the plane, every sound becomes mantra.
And when all sounds become mantra, then there is no need to even hold the mala or count any mantra. - Garchen Rinpoche
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mahayanapilgrim · 2 days
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Once we have recognized that all outer phenomena are simply the self-manifestations of our own awareness or absolute nature, outer conditioned phenomena cannot deceive our inner absolute nature. This recognition that outer phenomena are our own projections is like a mother and child meeting: between them there is certain recognition, without hesitation or mistake.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
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mahayanapilgrim · 2 days
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"Those who get sick are the lucky ones," Trungpa Rinpoche would say. If your neurosis doesn't affect your body, you will just keep pushing on in your current direction until your mind reaches a point of no return.
The body, it turns out, is an ally in meditation practice.
Physical distress in sitting calls our mind away from its fantasies of spiritual attainment, and brings it back to the here and now. In Buddhism, this is known as synchronizing body and mind; through practice, our mind attunes itself more and more with the body, the concrete and earthy reality of our situation. This is the meaning of paying attention to the breath in meditation: we cultivate the ability to pay attention and be present to this subtle manifestation of our physicality. In mindfulness of breathing, we are training to surrender..."There is no division between the spirituality of the mind and the spirituality of the body; they are both the same..."
- Trungpa Rinpoche
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mahayanapilgrim · 2 days
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The Diamond Sutra
"All living beings, whether born from eggs, from the womb, from moisture, or spontaneously; whether they have form or do not have form; whether they are aware or unaware, whether they are not aware or not unaware, all living beings will eventually be led by me to the final Nirvana, the final ending of the cycle of birth and death. And when this unfathomable, infinite number of living beings have all been liberated, in truth not even a single being has actually been liberated."
"Why Subhuti? Because if a disciple still clings to the arbitrary illusions of form or phenomena such as an ego, a personality, a self, a separate person, or a universal self existing eternally, then that person is not an authentic disciple."
Excerpt From THE DIAMOND SUTRA
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mahayanapilgrim · 2 days
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When we say Yes to life, meeting whatever befalls us with authentic presence, we grow happier, deeper, wiser, more loving and caring.
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mahayanapilgrim · 2 days
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Like a cup of milk, adding a little sugar changes the entire cup, turning it into sweet milk.
Similarly, Bodhisattvas, if we can remember to infuse a little compassion into every situation, it's like sugar changing milk; it transforms ordinary beings into
Bodhisattvas.
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mahayanapilgrim · 2 days
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Elsewhere in the causal and resultant vehicles, you might find mind techniques that involve practicing virtuous deeds, visualizing deities and reciting mantras, or the meditative absorptions of the generation and completion phases, but nothing quite like this. Search within the scriptural tradition, and you will come to know this for yourself. As the omniscient Longchenpa said:
Although it is not unreasonable to practice with effort based on cause and effect, In the supreme vehicle it is more acceptable to remain evenly, unmoving. And: Ati teaches the inseparability of cause and effect.
Unfeasible in lower approaches, here it is a crucial point.
This is extremely important for understanding all the crucial points of the Dzogchen path.
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