-- "Self-Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness", translation and
commentary by John Myrdhin Reynolds, foreword by Namkhai Norbu,
published by Snow Lion Publications
+##Our mind needs to stretch to encompass emptiness. Our minds are so stuck in
+the idea, "Things exist the way they appear to me. What I see is reality. It
+is 100 percent true. There's nothing to doubt. Things exist exactly as they
+appear to my senses, exactly as they appear to my mental consciousness." We
+hardly ever doubt that. Not only do we have the appearance of inherent
+existence to our sense consciousnesses and mental consciousness, but also our
+mental consciousness grasps on to that appearance and says, "Yes! Everything
+really exists in this findable, independent way. Everything is real as it
+appears to me."
+
+##When we believe there's a real "me," then we have to protect that self and
+bring it happiness. Thus, we are attached to things that are pleasurable and
+become angry at anything unpleasant. Pride, jealousy, laziness, and the whole
+gamut of negative emotions follow. Motivated by these, we act physically,
+verbally, and mentally. These actions, or karma, leave seeds on our
+mindstream, and when these ripen, they influence what we experience. We again
+relate to these experiences ignorantly, so more emotions arise, motivating us
+to create more karma. As a result, cyclic existence with all its difficulties
+continues on and on, created by our mind, dependent on the ignorance that
+misconceives the nature of ourselves and all other phenomena.
+
+##...However, when we investigate more deeply and look beyond appearances, we
+realize that it's impossible for things to exist in the way they appear.
+Seeing this gives us a kind of spaciousness and freedom because, if samsara
+were inherently existent and everything really did exist the way it appears to
+us, then transformation and change could not occur...and the best we could
+ever have is what we have right now. Thinking about the emptiness of inherent
+existence shows us the possibility for change. Beauty can come forth because
+nothing is inherently concrete, fixed, or findable.(p.105)
+
+##--Thubten Chodron, "Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of
+Chenrezig", foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama, published by Snow Lion Publications
+
+Three Meditations
+
+(4 lines per verse)
+
+######If one does not sow the seed
+
+######Of appreciation for a perfect guru,
+
+######The tree of spiritual power is not born.
+
+######With undivided mind entrust yourself.
+
+######Human life is rare and precious,
+
+######Yet if not inspired by thoughts of death,
+
+######One wastes it on materialism:
+
+######Be ready to die at any moment.
+
+######All living beings have been our mothers,
+
+######Three circles of suffering always binding them.
+
+######Ignoble it would be not to repay them,
+
+######Not to strive to attain enlightenment. (p.100)
+
+##The colophon [inscription] for this poem reads, "Written at the request of
+Ritropa Samdrub, an Amdo monk from Dechen Monastery, who begged for a short
+teaching...." The Seventh Dalai Lama advises him to establish three central
+pillars in his spiritual practice: (1) a disciplined spiritual connection with
+his teacher; (2) awareness of the preciousness of life, and the uncertainty of
+the time of death; and (3) the mind of love and compassion for all living
+beings, coupled with the aspiration to enlightenment as the best means of
+fulfilling that love and compassion.
+
+##--The Seventh Dalai Lama, "Meditations to Transform the Mind", translated,
+edited, and introduced by Glenn Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications
+
+##Courageous Bodhisattvas risk their lives to help others, and so, when we are
+in relatively better, more comfortable situations, we must certainly practice
+giving. Even if they are threatened, the courageous ones will not engage in
+improper actions. Instead, after examining the situation carefully, when they
+find that certain actions are correct and justified, on the basis of reason,
+they engage in them even at the risk of their lives. That is the way of the
+decent, civilized and courageous ones, who do not follow misleading paths.(p.20)
+
+##--H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama, "Generous Wisdom: Commentaries by H.H. the
+Dalai Lama XIV on the Jatakamala, Garland of Birth Stories", translated by
+Tenzin Dorjee, edited by Dexter Roberts
+
+##One day, when a very learned scholar or geshe and I were discussing the fact
+that the self is an elusive phenomenon, that it is unfindable in either body
+or mind, he remarked: 'If the self did not exist at all, in a sense that would
+make things very simple. There would be no experience of suffering and pain,
+because there would be no subject to undergo such experiences. However, that
+is not the case. Regardless of whether we can actually find it or not, there
+is an individual being who undergoes the experience of pain and pleasure, who
+is the subject of experiences, who perceives things and so on. Based on our
+own experience we do know that there is something--whatever we may call it--
+that makes it possible for us to undergo these experiences. We have something
+called discernment or the ability to perceive things.'
+
+##In fact, when we examine the experience of suffering, although some
+sufferings are at the sensory or bodily level, such as physical pain, even the
+very experience of pain is intimately connected with consciousness or mind and
+therefore is part of our mental world. This is what distinguishes sentient
+beings from other biological organisms, such as plants, trees and so on.
+Sentient beings have a subjective dimension, which we may choose to call
+experience, consciousness or the mental world.
+
+##....One thing we can understand, both through scientific analysis and also
+from our own personal experience or perception, is that whatever experiences
+we have now are consequences of preceding conditions. Nothing comes into
+being without a cause. Just as everything in the material world must have a
+cause or condition that gives rise to it, so must all experiences in the
+mental world also have causes and conditions.(p.74)
+
+##--from Lighting the Way by the Dalai Lama, translated by Geshe Thupten
+Jinpa, published by Snow Lion Publications
+
+
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