+~
+The Buddhist teaching is superior in four ways: view, meditation, behavior,
+and fruit.
+
+1. The "four seals" that distinguish the [Buddhist] view are as follows: all
+composed phenomena are impermanent, all contaminated things are miserable, all
+phenomena are selfless, and nirvana is peace.
+
+2. Buddhist meditation serves as an antidote to all cyclic existence within
+the three realms.
+
+3. Buddhist behavior is free from the two extremes, having abandoned both the
+extreme of overindulgence of desire, which is a case of being desirous and
+wanting good and great quantities of food and clothing, and the extreme of
+being too tired and worn out in body and mind.
+
+4. The fruits are the true cessations, which are abandonments such that the
+obstruction that is removed does not arise again [and which comes about]
+through analyzing individually the nonexistence of the referent object of the
+conception of self.
+
+These four [view, meditation, behavior, and fruit] are the distinguishing
+features of Buddhist doctrine.
+ -- Jamyang Shayba, from "Buddhist Philosophy: Losang Gonchok's Short
+ Commentary to Jamyang Shayba's Root Text on Tenets", by Daniel Cozort
+ and Craig Preston, page 88.
+~
+When you are busy and preoccupied, you feel hassled by your own existence.
+You are so busy that you think that you do not have any time to spare for your
+practice. Such torment and busyness seem to be monumental or historic, but
+that is not the case. As far as we are concerned, that kind of torment is
+absolutely ordinary. As you begin to work on that, you realize that the
+inconvenience, discomfort, and anguish that you experience is no more than
+anybody else experiences. So your experience is no longer regarded as
+monumental—no more than if you step on a cat's tail, and the cat cries
+out, "Wooaaaoow!" However, it is still a problematic situation. Therefore
+you need to practice the paramita of discipline, which overcomes that type of
+preoccupation altogether. You begin to realize that preoccupations are
+garbage; they are worth flushing out so that something real could come up.
+Then paramita activity begins to make sense, and you begin to act in a more
+genuine way.
+ -- Chögyam Trungpa, from "The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma.
+ Volume Two: The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion"
+~
+If we unbalance nature, humankind will suffer. Furthermore, we must consider
+future generations: a clean environment is a human right like any other. It
+is therefore part of our responsibility toward others to ensure that the world
+we pass on is as healthy as, if not healthier than, we found it. This is not
+quite such a difficult proposition as it might sound. For although there is a
+limit to what we as individuals can do, there is no limit to what a universal
+response might achieve. It is up to us as individuals to do what we can,
+however little that may be. Just because switching off the light on leaving
+the room seems inconsequential, it does not mean we shouldn't do it.
+ -- His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, from "The Pocket Dalai Lama"
+~
+Basically we are trying to put a stop to frivolity of any kind. Frivolity is
+an interesting word. It can mean being crazy and indulging unnecessarily in a
+very crude fashion, but it could also mean indulging in something in the name
+of humor and overdoing it slightly. If you are embarrassed to deal with a
+particular subject, you find another subject to discuss. If you are tired of
+drinking vodka, you switch to sake. If you are bored with talking to one
+person, you switch to somebody else. Frivolity is anything that creates
+further confusion, or the longing for further confusion. Confusion may seem
+luxurious: when you no longer have it, you begin to miss that confusion, and
+you would like to re-create it. It is like going back to an adult bookshop
+and getting more magazines. But with discipline, you control any form of
+potential escape from reality.
+ -- Chögyam Trungpa, from "The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma.
+ Volume Two: The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion"
+~
+ The essence of all the songs can be epitomized by the four dharmas of
+Gampopa. These are: (1) one’s mind becomes dharmic; (2) that dharma
+practice becomes path; (3) in following that path, confusion is removed; (4)
+having removed confusion, everything dawns as wisdom.
+ The first dharma is the ground, where our mind becomes dharmic so that we
+and the dharma are no longer separate entities. We develop true renunciation
+and have a sense of revulsion towards samsara. The second dharma is the path.
+When our mind goes along with the dharma, the dharma becomes the path, and any
+obstacles, whether extreme or ordinary, become a part of our journey. The
+third dharma is the fruition. As the journey is taking place, the process of
+the journey liberates us from confusion and anxiety. We are delighted by our
+journey and we feel it is good. The fourth dharma is the total vision. When
+we are able to overcome confusion and anxiety, even our anxiety is not
+regarded as anti-dharma or anti-path. Cosmic wakefulness takes place.
+ -- Chögyam Trungpa's in the foreword to "The Rain of Wisdom: The Essence of
+ the Ocean of True Meaning"
+~
+Scrutinize Apperances
+
+No matter what our mind makes appear as an object of one of our six
+collections of consciousness—sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile or
+bodily sensations, or mental objects or events—we thoroughly scrutinize its
+mode of appearance. Our mind is making it appear as though its existence were
+established by virtue of itself, empowered by some truly and inherently
+existent self-nature—and not by virtue simply of mental labeling
+establishing its existence as what can be labeled "this" or "that"
+from this side. We thoroughly scrutinize this mode of appearance and the mode
+of existence it implies. There does appear to be something solidly there, not
+existing as what it is by virtue simply of mental labeling, but by virtue of
+itself, independently of anything else. But, by reminding ourselves that it
+does not exist as it appears to exist—by being mindful that its existence
+and identity are not established through its own power—we automatically
+reconfirm and become even stronger in our conviction in its bare mode of
+existence. In other words, as the text [the First Panchen Lama’s A Root
+Text for the Precious Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra] says, "[You
+experience] their bare mode of existence dawning in an exposed, resplendent
+manner."
+ -- His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, from "The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition
+ of Mahamudra"
+~
+The dakini principle must not be oversimplified, as it carries many levels of
+meaning. On an outer level, accomplished female practitioners were called
+dakinis.... But ultimately, though she appears in female form, a dakini
+defies gender definitions. “To really meet the dakini, you have to go
+beyond duality,” Khandro Rinpoche teaches, referring to an essential
+understanding in Vajrayana that the absolute reality cannot be grasped
+intellectually. The Tibetan word for dakini, khandro, means “sky-goer” or
+“space-dancer,” which indicates that these ethereal awakened ones have
+left the confinements of solid earth and have the vastness of open space to
+play in.
+ -- Michaela Haas, from "Dakini Power: Twelve Extraordinary Women Shaping the
+ Transmission of Tibetan Buddhism in the West"
+