Our fundamental nature is intrinsic.

Our fundamental nature is intrinsic. No sane, intelligent human being is impeded from being in touch with this basic nature. There is no one standing between you and it, no one is appearing like a mara to perform dances of distraction. At any given moment, each one of you — even with no understanding of Buddhism — has the natural potential to realize you are completely and inseparably united with your intrinsic wisdom nature. You have never been separate from it for a moment. It is not a sometimes-there-sometimes-not quality or an adornment that’s been attached or added on to you.

~ Khandro Rinpoche

The Mind Is Like Space

The essential nature of the mind is like space. There is no such thing as a mind that truly exists or a mind that is inherently established even though we might find reasonings, scriptures, or experience to the contrary. Mind is empty. Our ordinary mind, however, becomes confused in thinking that things really exist. The nature of our mind is emptiness, but not a blankness, not the result of mere negation: emptiness is also radiant clarity, the basis for the appearances of both samsara and nirvana. The mind is like space and it also has a clear and knowing aspect, which allows us to say, “This is space.” Resting in mind’s empty, clear nature, we will be at ease as we move along the path of practice.

~ 17th Karmapa

The Innate Beyond Subject And Object

Phenomena are the radiance of the innate absolute;

Mind's nature is the wisdom of the innate absolute.

The ultimate teacher - phenomena and mind merged in one taste -

Dwells naturally within myself. Ah ho! What a joy!

 ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Four Faults of Natural Awareness

So close you can’t see it. 

So deep you can’t fathom it. 

So simple you can’t believe it. 

So good you can’t accept it.

~ Kalu Rinpoche

Without causes and conditions, it is originally present.

Lady Tsogyal asked: 

Since it is meaningless not to cut through these three ways of straying, how should we transform them?

The master replied: 

Tsogyal, the empty essence of your awareness is not created by anyone. Without causes and conditions, it is originally present. Don’t try to change or alter awareness. Let it remain exactly as it is! Thus you will be free from straying and awaken within the state of primordial purity. In the same way, your cognizant nature is originally and spontaneously present indivisible from emptiness. Its expression, the unconfined capacity of whatever arises, has no concrete existence. Recognize that all three aspects [of awareness] are a great indivisible unity. Thus you awaken as the indivisibility of the three kayas.

~ Padmasambhava

Look at the one who is looking.

Look at this picture, then look at your mind. Look at the one who is looking. If you see this, you are the excellent one

~ Dudjom Rinpche

Mind is empty

Mind is empty, and while being empty, it still knows or experiences. Space is empty and does not know anything. That is the difference between space and mind. Mind is similar to space in that it is insub­stantial, not material. Isn’t it quite amazing that some­thing that is insubstantial is also able to experience?

There is mind, but it is not tangible or substantial. You cannot say that there is no mind because it is the basis of everything; it is that which experiences every possible thing. You cannot say really that there is a thing called mind, and yet at the same time you can­not say that there is no mind. It lies beyond both extremes of being and not being. That is why it is said, "Not existent, since even a buddha does not see it; not nonexistent, since it is the basis of both samsara and nirvana."

~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Fearless in the face of death.

Lady Tsogyal asked the master:
Where do we find an abode that is fearless in the face of death?

The master (Padmasambhava) replied:
When you realize that the nature of your mind never arises, you may seem to change bodies, but you do not move from the empty and lucid dharmakaya, the nature of your mind. You can firmly resolve on that.

The Nature of Mind

No words can describe it 

No example can point to it 

Samsara does not make it worse 

Nirvana does not make it better 

It has never been born 

It has never ceased 

It has never been liberated 

It has never been deluded 

It has never existed 

It has never been nonexistent 

It has no limits at all 

It does not fall into any kind of category.

~ Dudjom Rinpoche

Bliss that you experience upon realizing the nature of mind.

If you were to gather all the glory, enjoyment, pleasure and happiness of the world and put it all together, it would not approach one tiny fraction of the bliss that you experience upon realizing the nature of mind.

~ Kyabje Chatral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche

Understanding the nature of the mind

To understand the nature of the mind, there are two ways: one is easier, the other is harder. The easier way involves your lama introducing you to the nature of the mind, and on that basis you work on that and come to know the mind and its nature.

As for the harder way, even if a lama introduces the nature of the mind, still it may be difficult to understand its nature. Therefore, to really understand the true nature of the mind, the introduction by the lama must be supplemented by faith, belief, and longing supplications. Then you will receive the siddhi of your guru.

Many people can talk about the nature of the mind, but when you have a karmic connection with a lama, even though the words are the same, the effect is different.

 ~ 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje

Realization

Experience is always changing, like the movement of clouds against the sky. Realization – the stable awareness of the true nature of your mind – is like the sky itself, an unchanging background against which shifting experience occur.

~ Mingyur Rinpoche

Recognizing Who We Are

When it comes to the true nature of mind, this isn’t something that we get from a spiritual tradition or religion. It’s not something that we need to seek from a guru or that we need to find by going to a sacred place, but it’s a matter of recognizing who we are, whatever that it is. When we see this completely clearly, when who we actually are becomes completely evident and obvious to us, and we recognize it and appreciate it in a completely perfect way, then that I think is what is called recognizing the true nature of mind. Then we fully make this a reality for ourselves.

~ 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje

Buddha nature cannot be fabricated.

If our nature wasn't already enlightened, we couldn't awaken to it no matter how hard we tried. Buddha nature cannot be fabricated. Our nature is primordially enlightened, but at present our ordinary body, speech and discursive thinking obscures it. The nature of our mind, buddha nature, is like space itself, but it is space obscured by clouds. The whole point of Dharma practice is to remove the clouds and allow the actualization of what already is – the awakened state of mind, the buddha nature. The nature of our mind is primordially pure, primordially enlightened. The way to remove our two obscurations is to train in conditioned virtue and the unconditioned training in original wakefulness – the two accumulations.

~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche - "As It Is, Vol. 2"