The way of perfect bliss

Banishing all hope and all fear, rest in the diamond-like certainty that the primordial simplicity of awareness is itself buddhahood. That is the way of perfect bliss, in which all the qualities of enlightenment will flourish without effort.

~ Dilgo Khyentse 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

One deity, one mantra, and one practice.

One deity, Chenrezi, embodies all Buddhas;

One mantra, the six syllables, embodies all mantras;

One Dharma, bodhichitta, embodies all practices of the development and completion stages.

Knowing the one which liberates all, recite the six-syllable mantra.

The Buddha Shākyamuni himself is an emanation of Chenrezi; the Dharma, which shows us what to avoid and what to cultivate, is perfectly contained in the six-syllable mantra; the Saṅgha, the Bodhisattvas who help us along the path, are emanations of Chenrezi as well. Chenrezi is thus the union of the Three Jewels. Just as one reservoir collects countless drops of rain, Chenrezi’s compassion includes all the wisdom of Mañjushrī and all the power of Vajrapāṇi. With this one deity, one mantra, and one practice, you can accomplish everything.

The many deities are infinitely diverse: peaceful or wrathful, with one, three, or many heads, and with two, four, six, or many more arms, each one symbolizing a different quality. Yet you can be confident that all of them are included in Chenrezi. In the same way, since all the beneficial power of the immense variety of other mantras is contained in the six-syllable mantra by itself, you can put all your heart into reciting just the one mantra. Your body, speech, and mind are essentially one with the enlightened body, speech, and mind of Chenrezi; this you should recognize as the quintessence of the practice.

~ The heart treasure of the enlightened ones / Patrul Rinpoche; with commentary by Dilgo Khyentse.

Being in the present

Being in the present is so important in buddhism. It is the core strategy of buddhism to do whatever it takes to keep the mind present, to have ones mind from going astray. Every single method that exists in buddhism is for that result.

~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

The Four Immeasurables

Love means wishing for the happiness of others.

Like a loving mother cherishing her child,

One’s body, wealth, and virtue all amassed one gives for others’ benefit,

While training to endure the harms that they inflict.

Compassion is a powerful state of mind,

An inability to tolerate the fact that others suffer.

Beings in the six realms are entrapped by sorrow and its cause,

And seeing this brings tears to one’s eyes.

Joy is to delight in other’s pleasure and success;

It is to cultivate the wish that all have happiness.

It is a joy one feels when they achieve it for themselves

And is the wish that they should never be deprived of it

Impartiality is freedom from attachment and hostility,

When sides and factions are all seen as equal,

When enemy and friend and neither –

Are all treated with an evenhanded kindness.

We should practice these four attitudes, remembering

That all is without true existence.

~ Jigme Lingpa

Pay attention

Please be careful in the future to pay attention. Karma can be very subtle and tricky. We might think something is no big deal, but it may turn out to have serious consequences, so pay good attention to the karmic process. This is what every practitioner needs to pay attention to, even those with the highest realization.

~ Dudjom Rinpoche

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