Self-Immolation

“According to the Yogācāra perspective, when bodhisattvas have reached the 6th bodhisattva stage they realize (through an argument to be explained shortly) that only mental, but no material entities exist. This rejection of a mind-independent world of objects ‘out there’ also undermines the idea of a substantial subject ‘in here’. As such, for the Yogācārin the entire world, which is ordinarily understood as divided up into distinct subjects that individually perceive a shared world of objects, is simply a causal flow of exclusively mental phenomena lacking any owners.

The Yogācāra mechanism of world-generation is spelled out by a familiar aquatic metaphor. As waves appear on the surface of a great ocean stirred by wind, appearing as separate phenomena, even though they are of the same substance as the ocean, the foundational consciousness, which contains all karmic seeds ever produced by all beings, gives rise to the phenomenal world by its own potential. This world appears to be non-mental in parts, but is in fact wholly mental.”

Jan Westerhoff

Since (things) dependently originate
And in dependence too will cease,
If not even one (of them) exists,
How can the childish think of them?

How the Dharmas of the Sugata
Are established as the very middle
Is through the ox and rabbit-horn examples.

The forms of the sun, the moon and the stars
Are seen as reflections upon water
Within a container that is pure—
Just so, the characteristics are complete.

Arya Nagarjuna

@sridmtsho

"Buddhists do not recognize a soul that is independent from the self. The self is a stream of consciousness that flows from lifetime to lifetime. It carries the karmic imprints of all the various existences. The Buddhist view of soul is an impermanent flow of consciousness and imprints"

Lama Jhampa Shaneman

Essentially, whether you live by yourself,
or your life is very public,
constantly investigate your own mind,
for both virtue and evil deeds are your own mental creations.
It will not matter whether you succeed in pleasing untamed ordinary beings
or you are praised or insulted by such fools.
You don’t need to accomplish any dharma more than
that which will allow you to die without regrets.

Patrul Rinpoche

@sridmtsho

I have never asked for donations or money in this channel, since I have always had the good karma of kind benefactors for anything a yogin might need

But today is not for me, but for the victims of the earthquakes in my country Venezuela, I will leave the PayPal of an American friend of mine, any small amounts helps lots over here, and I will post photos to the groupchat of any supplies bought with it.

The government is useless as usual and is mostly citizens leading the efforts on their own

Please put a note mentioning the venezuelan earthquake victims so my brother knows what it is about

https://paypal.me/tomcortese108

Happy International Women's Day! On this day we should appreciate the dakini activities that women across time and space have contributed to the dharma!

“How, then, are the two vehicles differentiated? Some say that the difference between Sūtra and Mantra is that Mantra was taught for those who can use desire as an aid in the path whereas the Perfection Vehicle was taught in order to tame beings within the context of separation from desire.

This opinion is wrong because both the Perfection Vehicle and the Mantra Vehicle have modes of advancing on the path without having abandoned desire and both have modes of progress by cultivating paths to abandon desire.

For, in Sūtra it is said that just as the filth of a city is helpful to the field of a sugarcane grower who knows how to utilize a substance which itself is not helpful, so the afflictions can be useful in the path. If one knows how to use the afflictions for the welfare of others, they can serve as aids in amassing the accumulations of merit, and in this sense desire is not one-pointedly to be avoided although, from the viewpoint of the entities of the afflictions, they are indeed to be abandoned.

Sūtra Bodhisattvas who have not yet thoroughly abandoned the afflictions of desire and hatred can use them for the benefit of others, as in the case of Bodhisattva kings who have fathered many children in order to further the welfare of the country through the work of their children. Here the afflictions act as secondary causes in the aiding of others.

Just as within Sūtra practice there are occasions when Bodhisattvas intentionally do not abandon afflictions but use them as aids, so in Mantra practice, according to the time and the situation, Bodhisattvas use the afflictions. However, on the occasions when there is no purpose for desire or hatred, a Mantra practitioner must intentionally seek to abandon them. If in order to be a practitioner of Mantra one necessarily had to have not abandoned desire and hatred, there would be no opportunity to become a Buddha through the Mantra path.”

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

Regarding the practice of Mantra & Tantra without the guidance of a Guru:

"Pustake likhitā vidyā yena sundari yapyate
Sidhir na jāyate tasya kalpakoti-ṣaṭair api.

O Beauteous one! He who does Japa of a Vidyā [Mantra] learnt from a book can never attain Siddhi even if he persists for countless millions of years."

Ṣaṭkarmadīpikā

“A Guru should never sell mantra-knowledge to a disciple. A Guru who sells mantra is sinful and surely goes to hell.

Mantra-dīkṣā is to be given only through generosity and grace. One whose mind is tainted by greed is not a Guru and cannot uplift a disciple.

Whoever gives dīkṣā out of desire for wealth takes the wrong path. For such a person, no siddhi of the mantra arises; the practice becomes fruitless.”

Kulārṇava Tantra 13.108–110

“All the lokas must be regarded as planes of consciousness which are attainable... in the physical body.

In effect while still on earth we can raise ourselves to the plane of our choice and will inevitably re-manifest there when the term of earthly existence is ended. But any law, to be a true universal principle, must operate both ways; we cannot logically expect the cosmic law to work only in our favour. If it did, there would be no point in man’s freedom of choice in moral issues. Where it is open to man to go upward, forward, it must be open to him to descend in the scale of spiritual evolution also.

Greed, hatred, sensuality and inertia all have their appropriate spheres of manifestation and their corresponding corporeal forms. When these types of consciousness arise more frequently than their spiritual opposites of generosity, love, purity and energy, they create the form of the next birth.”

Francis Story

“All the rivers in the world, carrying the waters that ripen flowers and fruit and cause forests to thrive, flow due to the power of the Naga King who resides in Lake Madröpa. Similarly any explanation, debate, composition, practice, and attainment of fruition achieved by his retinue of disciples depends solely on the power of the Victorious One himself.”

Sūtrasamuccaya

[T]hrough turning away from the linguistic fabrications of what is seen, heard, perceived, and spoken in the world, mastery over what is seen, heard, perceived, and spoken is attained.

— Vasubandhu

"As long as the state of enlightenment is not recognized, beings continue to experience illusory birth and death, along with the happiness and suffering inherent in conditioned existence. However, whatever the experience, the essence of enlightenment remains unpolluted, unobscured, and unmodified, just as sunlight maintains its nature of light regardless of the type of object it strikes.

The essence is not conditioned by any form of embodied life, whether fortunate or miserable, nor is it conditioned by any act, good or evil, or by knowledge or lack of knowledge. Although the essence is attended by impurity, its nature, like gold embedded in ore, remains always pure, untouched by emotional afflictions and conceptions."

Elio Guarisco

"Actuality is not defined as an absolute and static emptiness. Its power of manifestation or “radiance” (mdangs), owing to unawareness of its nature and to emotional patterns related to unawareness, becomes the basis for the particular appearances or visions that seem to bind one. When the veils of unawareness and emotional patterns lessen to some extent, there arise pure visions and contemplative experiences reflecting the essential purity of the actuality.

When unawareness and emotional patterns are fully recognized as the mere play of the manifesting power of reality, the entire breadth of the potential of one’s being unfolds."

Elio Guarisco

"Continuum as actuality (rang bzhin), though deemed causal (rgyu), does not mean the presence of the original state of being as a mere potential to be actualized in the future. Actuality points to the full presence of original being, even when it is not recognized. Lack of recognition is like a veil or cloud of unawareness which, however thick, does not pollute the very nature of one’s original state. As explained by the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé, actuality means “an awakened being attended by stains.” Although accompanied by impurity, the being remains the same, just as a gold statue wrapped in rags is still a gold statue."

Elio Guarisco

"In Buddhist scriptures, this original nature is principally referred to as “mind” (sems), as in “ever-perfect mind” (kun tu bzang po’i sems) or “mind nature” (sems nyid ). In this context, “mind” does not mean object-bound experience but instead the ever-perfect and intrinsic awareness that has no beginning or end. Since it is free from the dichotomy of knower and known, this mind is no different from the reality it perceives.

Reality is a “continuum” in the sense that its nature does not change into something else and cannot be fragmented into parts. Regardless of the degree of evolution or debasement of an individual, that reality or ever-perfect mind remains unaltered as the very essence or nucleus of one’s being.

From the state of an ordinary individual, the beginning, so to speak, up to the end of awakening, such reality is unceasingly present. Hence, there is no ultimate distinction between an ordinary being and an awakened one."

Elio Guarisco

Not once in the entire endless series of lives was there a real birth. There was only the appearance of birth.

There was never a real death, only a change in appearance, similar to the transition from sleep to wakefulness...

... throughout the endless succession of lives, there was never any real experience of transitioning from one state to another or any real experience of being in any other place.

This is similar to images in a dream.

Longchenpa

"So many people regularly intoxicate themselves with all kinds of things, in order to try to temporarily escape from their boredom, problems, and suffering.

They chase after the fleeting experience of some kind of distorted state of perception, and an intoxicant induced bliss and happiness, which eventually puts so much strain on their mental and physical health, and also strain on those around them. This is very sad, because a samsaric sentient being’s perception is already distorted, and intoxicants just amplify it, which will just contribute to perpetuating samsara - their uncontrollable recurring rebirth with further problems and suffering.

If they are chasing after bliss and happiness, they should know that if you could take all of the bliss and happiness that comes from meditation, and put it into a bottle, and then give it to them, it would become their favourite drink. Because no intoxicant induced sensation could come close to the magnificent energetic bliss and happiness that one experiences from meditation.

Of course, unfortunately it is not possible to put the effects of meditation into a bottle. But the good news is, that unlike any expensive and harmful intoxicant, meditation is always free of charge, and there are no harmful side effects, and it is always good for your mental and physical health, and it is always available, and the more meditation that you do, the more health, bliss and happiness that you will experience, and the closer that you will get to your freedom from samsara, where you will experience the supreme everlasting pure bliss of nirvana, and further, the enlightened state of a buddha."

Chamtrul Rinpoche

"The mental consciousness, in concert with the five sensory consciousnesses, fashions the scene of the world as if it were a stage. Consciousness itself dances like a ballerina; the manas performs tricks like a conjurer."

Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra

"According to Avalokitesvara, this sheet of paper is empty; but according to our analysis, it is full of everything. There seems to be a contradiction between our observation and his. Avalokita found the five skandhas empty. But, empty of what? The key word is empty. To be empty is to be empty of something.

The five skandhas, which may be translated into English as five heaps, or five aggregates, are the five elements that comprise a human being. These five elements flow like a river in every one of us. In fact, these are really five rivers flowing together in us: the river of form, which means our body, the river of feelings, the river of perceptions, the river of mental formations, and the river of consciousness. They are always flowing in us. So according to Avalokita, when he looked deeply into the nature of these five rivers, he suddenly saw that all five are empty.

And if we ask, "Empty of what?" he has to answer. And this is what he said: "They are empty of a separate self." That means none of these five rivers can exist by itself alone.
Each of the five rivers has to be made by the other four. They have to co-exist; they have to inter-be with all the others.

In our bodies we have lungs, heart, kidneys, stomach, and blood. None of these can exist independently. They can only co-exist with the others. Your lungs and your blood are two things, but neither can exist separately.

The lungs take in air and enrich the blood, and, in turn, the blood nourishes the lungs. Without the blood the lungs cannot be alive, and without the lungs, the blood cannot be cleansed. Lungs and blood inter-are. The same is true with kidneys and blood, kidneys and stomach, lungs and heart, blood and heart, and so on.

When Avalokita says that our sheet of paper is empty, he means it is empty of a separate, independent existence. It cannot just be by itself. It has to inter-be with the sunshine, the cloud, the forest, the logger, the mind, and everything else. It is empty of a separate self.

But, empty of a separate self means full of everything. So it seems that our observation and that of Avalokita do not contradict each other after all."

Thich Nhat Hanh