Sky Dharma

extraordinary

"We cannot rely on the Buddha’s walking of the Middle Way 2,500 years ago, or even our own discovery of it yesterday"

— Sharon Salzberg

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Nice photo via “Dalai Lama Photo of the Day”

"In the end, this life of pain
always revels its true nature;
but it shows itself to the fortunate
long before"

— Tibetan saying (via sahaworld)

"There’s no point of view or theory in reality itself."

— Milarepa

Secret Yogis

Even in this world, and even now, there are said to be many hidden yogis or discreet yogis, called bepay naljor in Tibetan. It means those realized ones who are not generally recognized as great spiritual sages or saints, but have deeply tasted the fruit of enlightenment, and are living it. Perhaps they are anonymously doing their good works here among us right now!

The infinite vast expanse is one’s own inconceivable nature. Who can say who has realized it and who hasn’t? When we travel around the world or experience other dimensions, there are so many beings who have tasted it. We can see it in their behavior, in their countenance, and in stories that are told—not just in the Dzogchen tradition or the Buddhist tradition, but in any tradition, and in our Western world too.

This true nature is so vast and inconceivable that even some birds and animals and beings in other unseen dimensions can be said to have realized it, as in some of the ancient Indian Jataka stories and other teaching tales. It is always said that everything is the self-radiant display of the primordial Buddha Samantabhadra. There are infinite numbers of Buddhas and infinite numbers of beings. Who can say who is excluded from it?

—from Natural Great Perfection: Dzogchen Teachings and Vajra Songs by Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche (via Snow Lion Publications)

Reblogged from fuckyeahzenmind

“Not correcting”, by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

“For ordinary beings, mind is discursive. It moves. It moves towards objects. It moves towards the three times. It is constantly thinking about one thing or another. Mind is moved by thoughts of the five poisons. When mind encounters an object it likes, it moves towards that object with thoughts of attachment. When mind encounters an object it does not like, it moves towards that object with thoughts of aversion, thoughts of anger.When mind judges something incorrectly, it moves towards that object with bewilderment. When one’s mind believes that one has qualities that one does not have, it moves towards oneself with thoughts of arrogance. When mind looks at somebody else and sees things that it does not have, it moves towards that person with thoughts of jealously. In this way, thoughts of the five poisons constantly move the mind.

“Leave thinking mind to rest without contrivances.” When thoughts of the five poisons are moving the mind, just let mind rest without trying to fix anything, without trying to change anything, without reviewing the past kleshas (disturbing mental states) or wondering what happened to them; and without anticipating what types of disturbing states of mind one might experience in the future. Do not review the past, do not guess the future. Just let mind relax as it is right now.

We do not need to try to prevent thoughts of desire from arising. We do not need to try to stop thoughts of anger or jealously once they have arisen. Do not try to prevent anything; do not try to stop or change anything; just simply do not take any of those movements of mind to be truly existent. That is the instruction because we could not stop the thoughts of the five poisons from arising, even if we wanted to! We could not do that, but we do not have to. All we have to do is recognize that these thoughts lack any essence.

How do we do this? Whatever thought arises, look straight at it with your eye of wisdom and settle into its basic nature. When you do that, all thoughts and all disturbing states of mind are liberated within the dharmakaya. They are self-liberated. The whole collection of thoughts is free just as it is. This is awareness, and this awareness is awareness-emptiness. Since this awareness-emptiness is pure in nature, whatever obscurations there may be have no essence. Awareness itself is self-liberated. It is free just as it is”

—- Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, via Danny Fischer

"When there is “hello”, there is also “goodbye"

Meditation retreat with Mingyur Rinpoche in São Paulo, Brazil →

Mingyur Rinpoche’s “Joy of Living” level 1 —- very nice!

"In brief, without being mindful of death, whatever Dharma practices you take up will be merely superficial"

— Milarepa (via sahaworld)

Devotion

“The real object of devotion is thought-free wakefulness, which is the ultimate guru of our innate nature — your natural mind, your self-existing wakefulness or natural awareness. This is the true view of Mahamudra and Dzogchen. So first we must recognise, then train in that recognition and attain stability. But remember, this recognition must be genuine and not some kind of personal concept we’ve made up. If we can train in genuine thought-free wakefulness, then it is possible to awaken to enlightenment fully and completely in this very lifetime. But it doesn’t help much just to train in your own intellectualized version of the view, no matter how long you try. That is why it is said that Vajrayana can be very risky, but also has great advantages”.

—— Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche

"We should know how to make the distinction between self existing wakefulness and dualistic mind. Believing that we are sustaining the natural state of mind while we are caught up with ordinary thinking is not much use. We need to identify the genuine, the authentic — this is important. We need to identify that which is utterly empty, utterly naked, not confined to anything, totally clear and cognizant yet not fixated on anything."

— Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche

"My father is wisdom and my mother is voidness. My country is the country of Dharma. I am of no caste and no creed. I am sustained by perplexity; and I am here to destroy lust, anger and sloth"

—

Guru Padmasambhava

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