Don’t Believe Anything

Do not believe anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe anything simply because it is found written in your scriptures. Do not believe anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for generations.

But when you know: “These things are good; these things are not blamable; these things are praised by the wise. Undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness,” accept and practice them.

𑁋Buddha Shakyamuni, Kalama Sutra

Activism

Getting involved in the political debate is tempting, but it rarely leads to anything positive, and it usually increases our own agitation and that of others.

We should not be disinterested in what happens in our surroundings, and when there is a need to protect the oppressed (even if it is only with words), we must do so. However, polarizing attacks and counterattacks do not lead to peace, welfare, or enlightenment.

Contributing to peace with kind thoughts, words, and deeds is preferable. That is activism. 𑁋TN

Not Me, Not Mine

Certainly, any form, sensation, perception, volition, or consciousness past, future, or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or excellent, distant or near, must be observed wisely, according to reality, in this way: ‘This is not me. This is not mine. This is not my self.’

—Budha Sakyamuni, Anatta-lakkhana Sutta

Connected with the Goal

Those things that I have known with direct knowledge but have not taught are far more numerous than what I have taught. And why haven’t I taught them? Because they are not connected with the goal, do not relate to the essentials of the holy life, and do not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, stilling, direct knowledge, self-awakening, and liberation. That is why I have not taught them.

And what have I taught? “This is suffering. This is the cause of suffering. This is the cessation of suffering. This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering.” This is what I have taught. And why have I taught these things? Because they are connected with the goal, relate to the essentials of the holy life, and lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, stilling, direct knowledge, self-awakening, and liberation. This is why I have taught them.

—Buddha Shakyamuni, Siṁsapā Sutra

Purpose

We share our experience of the Path with others, not to show how much we know, but to reveal how the Dharma informs and transforms our lives. 𑁋TN

Anticipation

In desire, anticipation is everything.

There is no lasting pleasure in possession. 𑁋TN

Five Rare Opportunities

Rare is the appearance of a Buddha in the world.

Rare is to be born a human being.

Rare is to be endowed with faith in the Three Jewels, karma, and its results.

Rare is to go forth on the Path.

Rare is to hear the Teachings of the Buddha.

𑁋Abhaya Sutra

Views

The various Buddhist views of reality do not compete with nor refute each other. They are indispensable at various times and for different persons. They are necessary while helpful.

There is an orderly progression from Vaibhasika realism to Sautrantika subtle realism and Madhyamika self-emptiness to the realization of Maha Madhyamika other emptiness.

If we grasp these stages as “The Truth”, we lose Right View and become attached to blind belief.

GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SO’HA

Go, go, go beyond, go perfectly beyond to enlightenment!

Certainty

If you do not meditate, you will not gain certainty; if you do, you will. But what sort of certainty? If you meditate with a strong, joyful endeavor, signs will appear showing that you have become used to remaining in your enlightened nature. The fierce, tight dualistic clinging to experienced phenomena will gradually loosen up, and your obsession with happiness and suffering, hopes and fears, and so on, will slowly weaken. Your devotion to the teacher and trust in his instructions will grow.

After a time, your tense, dualistic attitudes will evaporate and you will get to the point where gold and pebbles, food and filth, gods and demons, virtue and nonvirtue, are all the same for you. You will be at a loss to choose between paradise and hell!

But until you reach that point 𑁋while you are still caught in the experiences of dualistic perception𑁋 virtue and non-virtue, Buddha Pure Lands and hells, happiness and pain, actions and their results, all of this is real for you.

𑁋Dudjom Rinpoche

Confidence

Original wakefulness is intrinsic and self-existing. It does not arise anew, but is present within you from the beginning. Decide firmly that the view is to recognize just that!

To “possess confidence” in this means to realize that like space, the enlightened mind is spontaneously present from the beginning. Like the sun, it is free from any basis for the darkness of ignorance. Like a lotus flower, it is untainted by faults. Like gold, it doesn’t alter its own nature. Like the ocean, it is unmoving. Like a river, it is unceasing. Like Mount Sumeru, it is utterly unchanging.

Once you realize that this is how it is and stabilize it, that is called “possessing the view of realization.”

𑁋Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava