actually shine forth.
-- Longchenpa, "You Are the Eyes of the World"
+~
+ Devotion, or mögü in Tibetan, can be divided into two aspects: möpa and
+küpa. Möpa means "longing" or "wanting," and küpa means "humility,"
+"respect," or "being without arrogance." With küpa, you are not pretending
+to be somebody who has reached a higher level of wisdom. So in devotion,
+longing and humbleness are put together. That state of mind brings openness
+to the teacher and to the dharma.
+ With küpa, the longing of möpa does not become purely an emotional
+indulgence or demand on the part of either the student or the teacher. The
+devotion of küpa is the respect or sacredness that comes from that experience
+of aah [the space before first thought]! Küpa arises because every highlight
+in your life has always been touched by the sacredness of vajrayana, even
+before you knew it.
+ -- Chogyam Trungpa, from "The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma,
+ Volume Three: The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness"
+~
+All suffering in this life and others is created by the unsubdued mind.
+Similarly, the basis of all the practices of the six paramitas, such as
+generosity, moral discipline, and so on, is the mind.
+
+Nothing is more important than guarding the mind. Let us constantly keep
+watch over the wild elephant of the mind, curbing it with mindfulness and
+vigilance. This is how to avoid being influenced by different external
+conditions. But even in retreat in a very secluded place, if the mind is not
+kept under control, it will wander all over the place. Even completely alone,
+we can have an enormous amount of negative emotions.
+
+How are we to guard the mind? We should use attentiveness to watch our
+thoughts and use mindfulness to judge whether we are acting correctly. With
+these two we have the means to annihilate all adverse conditions. But without
+them, we will not see whether our thoughts are positive or negative or whether
+we are doing right or wrong, nor will we then be able to use antidotes as
+necessary.
+ -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+The great yogi Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol replies to a Losar Day request from
+his disciple Depa Wangpo on what to adopt and what to reject regarding
+attitude and conduct...
+
+ Don’t harm your friends and neighbors; help them.
+ Don’t be stingy; use your wealth for offerings and charity.
+ Don’t let your body be idle; do prostrations and circumambulations.
+ Don’t let your mouth be idle; recite the mani mantra.
+ Always have pure thoughts towards others.
+
+ In brief, keeping Death in mind, practice the sacred Dharma.
+ Give up doing wrong, and do what is wholesome.
+ Whatever happiness and sufferings you undergo,
+ Regard them as the result of previous actions.
+ Always act in accord with the Dharma.
+ Even though I may be far away,
+ These instructions will remain like my very presence.
+ Keep them in mind!
+
+ -- Shabkar Natshok Rangdrol, in "The Life of Shabkar"
+~
+On the very night of Dodrupchen’s death, his spiritual testament was
+received by his principal disciple, Do Khyentse. Dodrupchen appeared in the
+sky in a radiant light body and an attire of lights. He was floating on a
+carpet of light, which was held up by four dakinis. In a very enchanting
+voice he sang the verses of his testament, which include the following lines:
+
+ I am going into the expanse of the Wisdom of the Ultimate Sphere,
+ Which is the state that transcends thoughts and expressions.
+ I am going into the state of Mirrorlike Wisdom,
+ Which is the ceaseless clear glow, fresh and open.
+ I am going into the expanse of the Wisdom of Evenness,
+ In which all the thoughts of grasping and grasper have vanished into the
+ ultimate sphere.
+ I am going into the Wisdom of Discriminative Awareness,
+ Which is the clarity, the dawn of six kinds of foreknowledge.
+ I am going into the state of the Wisdom of Accomplishment,
+ Which emanates various manifestations in accordance with [the needs of]
+ trainable beings.
+
+ Son, please stay healthy.
+ Now you have won over the obstructions of your life.
+ Until all the phenomenal existents are liberated as the signs and
+ teachings [of Dharma],
+ [You should be] aware of samsara and nirvana as dreams and illusions.
+ Dedicate yourself to the meditation where there is no reference point.
+ This is the empowerment of total entrustment and aspiration.
+ This is the supreme empowerment of empowerments.
+
+ -- from "Masters of Meditation and Miracles", by Tulku Thondup.
+~
+ The view of interdependence makes for a great openness of mind. In general,
+instead of realizing that what we experience arises from a complicated network
+of causes, we tend to attribute happiness or sadness, for example, to single,
+individual sources. But if this were so, as soon as we came into contact with
+what we consider to be good, we would be automatically happy, and conversely,
+in the case of bad things, invariably sad. The causes of joy and sorrow would
+be easy to identify and target. It would all be very simple, and there would
+be good reason for our anger and attachment. When, on the other hand, we
+consider that everything we experience results from a complex interplay of
+causes and conditions, we find that there is no single thing to desire or
+resent, and it is more difficult for the afflictions of attachment or anger to
+arise. In this way, the view of interdependence makes our minds more relaxed
+and open.
+ By training our minds and getting used to this view, we change our way of
+seeing things, and as a result we gradually change our behavior and do less
+harm to others. As it says in the sutras:
+
+ Abandon evildoing;
+ Practice virtue well;
+ Subdue your mind:
+ This is the Buddha's teaching.
+
+ -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, from "For the Benefit of All Beings"
+~
+In the avadhuti, the main path of enlightenment,
+Prana and mind, bliss and warmth, are united,
+Becoming unconditioned great bliss.
+The wisdom of unobscured insight dawns.
+
+"This is unsurpassable," the guru has said.
+The darkness of ignorance is purified in space.
+One is free from the two obscurations of grasping and fixation.
+Therefore bliss and luminosity dawn in simplicity.
+
+This appearance of collective coincidence
+Is a reflection without self-nature.
+All appearances are realized like that,
+And just like appearances in a dream,
+All dharmas arise as illusions...
+
+When thoughts arise, rest naturally.
+When dreaming, be mindful without corrupting it.
+When in the pardo, don’t control, but be aware.
+When there is fruition, let it arise without obscuration.
+
+ -- from "The Life of Marpa the Translator" translated by Chögyam Trungpa
+ and the Nalanda Translation Committee.
+~
+The Four Seals in Buddhism are:
+
+ All products are impermanent.
+ (or all compounded phenomena are impermanent?)
+ ('du byed thams cad mi rtag pa)
+
+ All contaminated objects are miserable.
+ (zag bcas thams cad sdug bsngal ba)
+
+ All phenomena are selfless.
+ (chos thams cad bdag med pa)
+
+ Nirvana is peace.
+ (mya ngan las 'das ba zhi ba)
+
+ --from "Meditation on Emptiness" (London: Wisdom, 1983), by Jeffrey Hopkins
+~
+ When you pass away, nothing will do you any good except for the pure Dharma.
+You will not simply disappear when you die. Rather, what happens next will be
+dictated by your previous actions.
+ For these reasons, you should exert yourself by whatever means necessary to
+free yourself from samsara, which is nothing but a vast ocean of suffering!
+Practice your teacher’s guidance concerning what to do and what to give up
+to the letter, without falling under the influence of immature friends or bad
+influences. To the best of your ability, incorporate this genuine teaching on
+the certainty of death into each and every day.
+ Keeping all this in mind, arouse faith in the Three Jewels so that you will
+be able to practice in this manner, thinking to yourself, “Think of me,
+Three Jewels!” At the same time, be sure to generate an intense sense of
+renunciation and subdue your mind stream.
+ -- from "Entrance to the Great Perfection: A Guide to the Dzogchen
+ Preliminary Practices", edited and translated by Cortland Dahl
+~
+I would like to mention my visit to Lourdes as a pilgrim. There, in front of
+the cave, I experienced something very special. I felt a spiritual vibration,
+a kind of spiritual presence there. And then, in front of the image of the
+Virgin Mary, I prayed. I expressed my admiration for this holy place that has
+long been a source of inspiration and strength, that has provided spiritual
+solace, comfort and healing to millions of people. And I prayed that this may
+continue for a long time to come. My prayer there was not directed to any
+clearly defined object, like Buddha or Jesus Christ or a bodhisattva, but was
+simply directed to all great beings who have infinite compassion towards all
+sentient beings.
+ -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+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.