“Someone had heard that the Buddha was incredibly humane and benevolent, and came dashing up to scold the Buddha. The Buddha pitied his foolish arrogance and thus kept silent, not responding to him. The Buddha waited for him to end his diatribe and then asked, “When you give a gift to someone and they do not accept it, what do you do?” He replied, “I take it home.” The Buddha then told him, “Today you scold me and I don't accept it, so please return and take it away with you!”.
When we slander or scold another person and if that person does not care, then not only are you unable to harm the other person, but instead you just harm yourself. It is just like giving a gift to someone who does not accept it, in that the only thing you can do is to return home with it, so we must be prudent and cautious.”
If a person commits many transgressions, but does not repent and immediately stop the will to commit them, then the consequences of the transgressions will return to him, like the sea broadening and deepening when water returns to it.
If one with evil knows it is wrong, rectifies one's faults and thereby attains goodness, then day by day the offences diminish, and eventually one attains the Way.”
“There are no phenomena, whether compounded or uncompounded (the ten directions, the three times, the three worlds, and so on), that exist separately from one’s own mind.”
It seems that the situation in all these worlds is unbearable. I need to find a source of Refuge that can protect me from being reborn there. Who can protect me? Not even Brahma, Indra, or the ruler of the universe, let alone all the others. Only the Three Jewels can. Therefore, I will turn to the Buddha as my teacher, put his teachings into practice, and consider the spiritual community as my companions on the path. As for refuge, although I take refuge in the Buddha, it is the Teaching that protects me. Even the Buddha cannot pluck me out of cyclic existence like a hair from a river. To gain protection, I must receive the Dharma teachings and then put them into practice.
“I have preached that ultimate meaning is realized internally by each saint, while reasoning is attained in the give and take [of joint discussion] among common worldlings.
Dharmodgata, from this principle you should understand that ultimate meaning transcends the descriptions of reasoned meaning. Furthermore, Dharmodgata, I have preached that ultimate meaning does not function through images, but the functioning of reason does move within the realm of images. From this principle, Dharmodgata, you should understand that ultimate meaning transcends the descriptions of reasoned meaning.
Furthermore, Dharmodgata, I preach that ultimate meaning is ineffable, but the functioning of reason moves within the realm of language. From this principle, Dharmodgata, you should understand that ultimate meaning transcends the descriptions of reasoned meaning. Furthermore, Dharmodgata, I teach that ultimate meaning severs all expression, but the functioning of reason moves within the realm of expression.
From this principle, Dharmodgata, you should understand that ultimate meaning transcends the descriptions of reasoned meaning.
In like fashion, Dharmodgata, reason is entirely unable to comprehend, evaluate, or appreciate the descriptive marks of ultimate meaning, which transcend the functioning of any reasoning.”
”Other sentient beings, not foolish, who have gained insight into the holy truth, who have attained the transcendent insight of the saints, do truly understand that in all things reality is apart from language. After they have seen and heard about conditioned and unconditioned things, they think that what they have learned are most certainly not really existing conditioned and unconditioned things.
Rather they are descriptions engendered from imagination and are magical, confused understandings in which one produces concepts about the conditioned and the unconditioned, concepts about whether they exist or not. They do not tenaciously cling to verbal expressions that are engendered from what they have seen and heard or think that only [those expressions] are true and everything else false.
[But,] in order to express the meanings they know, they follow the accepted language. Afterwards they are not forced to reconsider. Thus, good son, the saints, being freed from language through their holy wisdom and insight in this regard, realize the perfect awakening that reality is truly apart from language. It is because they desire to lead others to realize perfect awakening that they provisionally establish names and concepts and call things conditioned or unconditioned.”
“In the Mahayana, the three worlds are established to be only consciousness, according to the sutra that affirms: "O sons of the Victorious, the three worlds are only mind (citta) ... [The word] "only" is [used] with the purpose of denying (the existence of external) things.”
“Their classification is fourfold: those who have many legs, four legs, two legs, and those who are without legs. Where are they located? Ocean, plain, or forest. For most of them, the ocean is the place they abide.
What type of suffering do they experience?
The suffering of being used, the suffering of slaughter, and the suffering of being eaten by one another. The first is accorded to the domestic animals under the power of humans. As is stated:
«Powerless, they are tortured. Hands, feet, whips, and iron hooks enslave them.»
The second suffering is accorded to wild animals. As is stated:
«Some die for pearls, wool, bone, blood, meat, and skin.»
The third suffering is accorded to the majority, who abide in the big oceans. As is said:
«They eat whatever falls into their mouths.»
What is the life span of the animals? This is indefinite. The longest is one-quarter kalpa. As is said:
«Among the animals, the longest life span is one antahkalpa at the most.»”
Gampopa, The Jewel Ornament of Liberation, Kagyu Lamrim
“One of little awareness is tangled in the web of the Impurities; like an insect in a [spider’s] web, he plays & struggles in the cage of the body. But one of developed awareness is discerning . . . like a dancer, he reels with the various powers [of Consciousness], free of the mental-emotional states of the judgmental mind (buddhi), manifesting both [what he] wills and sublime peace.”
“First of all, mentally separate the layers of skin [from the flesh] and then with the scalpel of discrimination separate the flesh from the skeletal frame. And having split open even the bones look right down into the marrow. While examining this ask yourself, «Where is the essence?»”
"The Dharma in terms of the truth of the path is utter purity, being free from the mental poisons along with their remaining imprints. It is clarity, since it is endowed with the brilliant light rays of the direct knowledge of all aspects. This is primordial wisdom, which is free from the veil of the hindrances to knowledge. With regard to the objects of perception, it fully overcomes desire and attachment towards agreeable objects, aversion and anger towards disagreeable objects, and the darkness of dull indifference, which is ignorance and delusion, when facing neutral objects. For this reason it acts as a remedy. I faithfully bow down to this sacred Dharma, which in these three aspects is similar to the sun."
Concentrate on listening to this instruction! Your consciousness never had a beginning and will never have an end....! Your consciousness was never created by any cause! It will never be destroyed by any circumstance! Therefore, abide in peace and effortlessness, in the indescribable and uncreated state! Then the fruit, Awakening, will be found in you without your striving for it! Otherwise, you will not find any Awakened One! For there is no way to what is eternally Present in you - as your original nature and essence!
“Profound and tranquil, free from complexity, Uncompounded luminous clarity, Beyond the mind of conceptual ideas; This is the depth of the mind of the buddhas.
In this, there is not a thing to be removed, Nor anything that needs to be added. It is merely the immaculate, Looking naturally at itself.”
“Beings are the owners of their actions, the heirs of their actions; they spring from their actions, are bound to their actions, and are supported by their actions. Whatever deeds they do, good or bad, of those they shall be heirs.”
“According to Buddhism, all living beings experience the results of their own actions and are born in worlds appropriate to their actions. But because the world is not subject to the results of its own actions, the world itself does not give rise to another world. Instead, it is produced through the collective actions (sādhāraṇa-karman) of large numbers of people. In other words, the world is created not by God, but by people. Therefore, it is people who must bear responsibility for the state of the world.”
