Penetrating Wisdom: The Aspiration of Samantabhadra by Dzogchen Ponlop

All that appears and exists, all of samsara and nirvana, has one ground, two paths and two results.

The connate ignorance is a distracted, mindless cognition.  The labeling ignorance is holding self and other to be two. The two ignorances, connate and labeling, are the ground of the confusion of all beings.

From the emergence of subtle clinging coarse habit gradually develops.

Beings are tormented by attachment to the pleasant.

Through the emergence of a subtle, fearful cognition of externally-apparent objects the habit of aversion grows, coarse enmity, beating, and killing are born. 

Even if you don't have complete faith and trust, it is important to have some sense of openness to the possibility. 

The manifestations we experience as outside appearance are a simple manifestation of luminous mind.  This luminosity, the clarity nature of our mind, gets to a point of intensity.  When we don't recognize that intensity as the clarity of mind, it is projected outside and duality begins.

Buddhas manifest in accordance with the situation.  They manifest in whatever way they can in order to tame the suffering of sentient beings.

Connate ignorance is actually the nature of not recognizing.

Unclarity is the nature of doubt.

If you conquer just one enemy, your aggression, it is like conquering all the objects of this anger. 

The main thing that we need to learn is how to be in whatever state we are in.

The main problem of jealousy is lack of appreciation.

Mind Before Death by Dzogchen Ponlop

Leaving this life is similar in many ways to going on a long trip.  In this case, the trip we are

making is a journey of mind.  We are leaving behind this body, our loved ones, our possessions, and all our experiences of this life, and moving on to the next.

Beyond death there is mind; and where there is mind, there is uninterrupted display: spacious, radiant, and continually manifesting. 

We think, “Oh, now I am starting to get angry,” or “now I am feeling really jealous”.  We can see the emotion coming and we can control it.  And, gradually, transcend it.

Contemplation is the bridge between our conceptual understanding and everyday experience and the nonconceptual experience of meditation.

The experiences of contemplation may be very powerful and may seem to be experiences of realization; however, we should not mistake them for actual realization.

When an emotion appears, you observe the emotion without stopping it or indulging it.

If we do not become familiar with our emotions, then we will always fear them – even more so in the bardos of death.

In the bardos after death, this kind of spontaneous movement is not pure fantasy or speculation.  Sudden shifts of consciousness bring about corresponding shifts in the environment.  When the mind jumps from one thought to the next, we go along with it.

Develop our mindfulness, awareness and stability of mind.  To the degree that we can accomplish this, we will possess the equanimity and strength of mind that allow us to reflect with awareness on whatever appearances arise for us without reacting to them in any repetitive, habitual way.

Whatever mental stability and insights we develop in this life will unfailingly guide and support us through the bardos of death.  Likewise, those habitual negative tendencies that we have not overcome will condition our experiences at the time and become reliable supports for the continuation of our suffering.

Preparing for [death] experiences begins with simply being who we are and where we are in this very moment.  If we want to be successful in terms of experiencing our death and journey after death, then we have to master the experience of nowness. Whatever we are going through, this is who we are in the moment.

Meditation is not meditating on anything; rather, it is simply a process of familiarization – familiarizing ourselves with the nature of our mind.

The inner essential nature of mind … is the basis for the development of the inner essential body.  The inner essential body is in turn the basis for the development of the coarse body.

Once we have identified our strongest emotion, then we can focus on the practices that will alleviate it.

When we look carefully at our experience, we can see that we often function as though we were half asleep; we simply react to whatever is in front of us, just as we do in dreams.

It is the union of space and awareness that is the source of all phenomena.

Buddhist teachings tells us that the best, most potent time in our practice is the time when things go completely wrong and we hit rock bottom.  It is in such difficult moments that we are most able to look deeply into our lives and find a true connection between what we are experiencing and our practice.

We have to train our minds not only to hear the sound of words, but also to notice how we connect their meaning with our thought processes and concepts.  In this way, we will come to see how we mingle sound and our thoughts about sound together to make a solid world, a solid reality.

Thoughts appear to our minds; they arise, abide for a fleeting moment and then they cease.  What is the nature of these thoughts? They are not physical phenomena.  They are mental events, the movements of mind itself.

When death occurs, we will be faced with our own fear and uncertainty as we go through the process of the dissolution of our consciousness. … In each of the bardos of the death and after-death states, we will be faced with the challenge of meeting our own mind at every turn in the form of unfamiliar and vivid experiences.

Our dream experiences, like our daytime experiences, arise from our habitual tendencies.  The formation and reinforcement of these tendencies is linked to the accumulation of karmic seeds acquired in the past that condition our way of perceiving, thinking and acting in the present.

If it is aggression that appears, we think, “I should not have this aggression! I should be experiencing the nature of mind”. Consequently, we push the aggression away and try to find the nature of mind else where. However, there is nothing to be found elsewhere.  There is nowhere we can find the nature of mind outside the aggression we are experiencing now.  Therefore, we have to look at that aggression as straightforwardly as possible.

Look straight at whatever is there in any moment of consciousness, without labelling it or altering it.

We will realize the nature of mind only when we have the courage and awareness to look directly at the present moment of our experience – whether it is a virtuous thought, a perception or a negative, disturbing emotion.  It does not matter. The nature of mind is right here.

In order to uproot our anger, in order to fully transcend it, we need to be present with the full experience of that emotion and penetrate its essence.

We need to overcome one of our greatest problems, which is our habitual tendency to dwell in a poverty mentality – a state of perpetual dissatisfaction.

The heart chakra has a strong relationship to the functioning of the mind.

Chakra: a point along the central channel of the subtle body where the three primary nadis intersect to form a specific configuration, or “dharma wheel”.

During our life, the generative essences that we have received from our parents abide within the central channel in the form of two spheres of luminous bright light, or bindus.  One of these dwells at the top of the central channel at the crown chakra… and the other abides at the lower end of the central channel…. When death is about to occur, the two bindus begin to move toward one another. After the white and red bindus meet at the heart center and envelop one’s intrinsic awareness, giving rise to the “black experience”.  Then consciousness dissolves into space and space itself dissolves into luminosity, into the buddha wisdom, or alaya-jnana, at the heart center.

When we are approaching death, when our consciousness is leaving our body, our consciousness senses that there are nine gates through which it can leave.  Of these nine, eight are gates that will lead us to take rebirth in one of the three realms of samsara: the desire realm, form realm or the formless realm. In speaking of these gates, we are referring to body orifices; the eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth, the navel, the urethra, the anus and the spot between the eyes. The one gate that will lead us to liberation is located at the crown chakra at the top of the head. It is the door of the central channel, and it is this opening that is regarded as the gateway to the direct realization of mahamudra.

Poverty mentality results in our mind become distracted and neurotic. The whole point of this spiritual journey is to develop a sense of sanity and to have a clear, one-pointed mind as opposed to having a mind that is split into many directions due to our narrow understanding.

When our mind is under the influence of confusion, we perceive the natural energy or expression of the five buddha families as the five poisons or kleshas: passion aggression, ignorance, jealously and pride. When we are free from confusion, the essence of the five poisons is realized as wisdom and we perceive the five buddha families.... Whenever we experience the brilliance and intensity of our emotions, we are meeting these buddhas. 

Dealing with kleshas is like riding a wave.  When you ride a wave, if you try to change it, it is not going to work. But if you ride it naturally, if you go along with the wave and become one with it, then there is a sense of grace and beauty. 

If you want to speed up your progress, push the accelerator of compassion, love and bodhichitta. If you want to slow down your discovery, put more focus on "self" -- on self-liberation, individual salvation, or individual freedom.

The bardo of becoming begins when we regain consciousness after having fainted in the bardo of dharmata.

Continuity itself is relative.  From the absolute point of view, there is no time, so there is no notion of continuity or of discontinuity. ... It is this moment-to-moment sense of continuity that becomes the basis for the imputation of a "self". As soon as we perceive this "self", we also perceive "other" and duality is complete.

One of our strongest habitual tendencies as sentient beings is that of moving, or being unstill.  We do not have a very strong habitual tendency of stillness or resting.  This is said to be the root of all confused habitual tendencies: not abiding or resting within the all-basis wisdom. 

No one is born a scholar or a sage.  We must study and work hard. Even geniuses need to read books, if only once.

It is actually much easier to work with our mind when we are free of pain, have a stable environment and possess the ground of a physical body.  We should focus on achieving the realization of the nature of mind here and now.

Either keep attacking this problem on the level you have been, being whipped around by emotions and circumstances, or you can dig deep within yourself and step back from the internal storm.  There is also another path-- feeling and being with it all as it flows but this takes immense fortitude and self-compassion.

Emotional Rescue by Dzogchen Ponlop

Besides the hidden emotions running on constantly beneath the surface of your awareness, there’s a stream of fleeting thoughts that runs right along with them. 

You have to let it come to let it go.

How many of the qualities I see in a person really belong to the person and how many are just my projections?

When you’re in risky emotional territory, there’s nothing more important than being kind to yourself.

Your baggage is not better or worse, it’s just yours.

Your emotions – freed from your anxieties, fears, and labels—are the energetic expression of your vast human potential for happiness, creativity, and compassion.

Compassion is not a mild, generalized feeling of, Gosh, isn’t that a shame? It’s a powerful and compelling response to the suffering of others that wants to ease the suffering.

You’re asked to pay attention, to observe, to see.  What are you asked to see? Yourself, your habits, what you’re feeling.

The mind can never just settle down and feel at ease.

If you limit your compassionate activities to people who are easy, attractive, and full of fun, then whatever you do, whatever actions you perform, may not necessarily be genuine compassion.

When we’re present in our life, we have an opportunity to discover who we are with all our confusions and suffering, and who we are beyond the confusion and pain.  The alternative is to avoid direct contact with our experience to hang out in a buffered world that doesn’t quite soothe or inspire.  As human beings, we seem to want both – we long for what’s real, for adventure and meaning but we also want to be comfortable. 

This is not about recognizing what kind of thoughts we’re having.  It’s about discovering what our emotions are at their very core.

Emotions get their power from a simple but deep-seated source: our lack of self-knowledge.

Gradually, you discover that your emotions themselves are the doorway to the freedom you’re looking for – they open the way for you (instead of holding you back).

All emotions – whether we view them as good or bad – have a single essence that’s beyond good or bad.  No matter what they look like on the surface or how you judge them, emotions – at their core – are basically positive…. Before an emotion escalates to a fever pitch or you’ve managed to chill it out, there’s a basic energy that gives rise to it.  This energy runs through all your emotions – good, bad, or neutral.  It’s simply an upsurge that’s been stimulated by something in your environment.

Learn to recognize the moment when you’ve tripped mentally and are knocked off balance….. Then watch how, in your very next moment, all of the habitual reactions kick in.

You can make a commitment to being awake and engage with your life, or you can just close your eyes and hope for the best.

To discover your basic attitude, your starting point, try looking at what you instinctively do when an emotion pops up.

You have to be willing to feel, even when you want to shut down.

Rebel Buddha: On the Road to Freedom by Dzogchen Ponlop

All quotes from Dzogchen's book

Drama is illusion that acts like truth and dharma is truth itself -- the way things are, the basic state of reality that does not change from day to day according to fashion or our mood or agenda.  To change dharma into drama, all we need are the elements of any good play: emotion, conflict, and action -- a sense that something urgent and meaningful is happening to the characters involved. 

Your awakened mind is always a good mind; it's never dull or confused.  It's never distressed by the doubts, fears, and emotions that so often torture us.  Instead, your true mind is a mind of joy, free from all suffering.  That is who you really are.  That is the true nature of your mind and the mind of everyone.

Ironically, what blocks your view of your mind's true nature -- your buddha mind -- is also your own mind, the part of your mind that is always busy, constantly involved in a steady stream of thoughts, emotions, and concepts.  This busy mind is who you think you are.

In our ordinary life, we're like dreamers believing that the dream we're having is real.

Buddhism is primarily a study of mind and a system for training the mind.  It is spiritual in nature, not religious.  The goal is self-knowledge, not salvation; freedom, not heaven.  It relies on reason and analysis, contemplation and meditation, to transform knowledge about something into knowledge that surpasses understanding.

A spiritual path can exist within or outside a religious context.  Religion and spirituality can be complimentary or separate practices and experiences.

From the Buddhist point of view, there not only no savior, there is no one to be saved.

If we believe that our senses and our conceptual mind are giving us a true and complete picture of the world and who we are in it, we're just fooling ourselves.  We need to expand our understanding beyond our sense perceptions and concepts, which are nothing but tiny windows through which we see only a partial reality.

Genuine faith is simply confidence and trust in ourselves, in our own intelligence and understanding, which then extends to the path we're travelling. 

Because truly direct experiences of the world are not often present in our ordinary life, we find ourselves living either in concepts or in an emotional world of past or future.

We go so quickly from perception to concept to emotion, and from there, it's just one more step to value judgments, concepts so solidified that they've grown impervious to doubt and questioning.

We may think that our exhaustion comes from our job or our family, but in many cases, it's not the job or family itself -- it's our mind.  What's exhausting us is how we relate to our life conceptually and emotionally.

The question you should ask yourself is, "What am I clinging to?"

We may not be conscious of it, but the reality of our aloneness is with us all the time, and we feel it in different ways.  We might experience it as a sense of dissatisfaction or restlessness, or we may feel undercurrents of anxiety or depression.  Whenever we are or whatever we're doing in a given moment,  it never seems to be quite enough.

Suffering is a problem for us only when we can't see any possibility of freeing ourselves from it.  When we're willing to work with our pain, it becomes a productive experience. 

The key thing to remember is that when an emotion arises, it's just a simple thought in the beginning -- nothing more.  But then we take it further.

When your relationship with your mind is based on trust instead of ignorance, fear, and hopelessness, your mind becomes calm, clear, and open.

Discipline goes beyond just following a set of rules, it requires genuine discrimination, empathy, and honesty.  Still it's your own discipline you're developing.  You're the one on the road, making your way to your own freedom.

It may come as a surprise to us, but by studying our mind, we discover our heart; by freezing our mind, we open our heart.

Instead of seeking to protect ourselves from confusion and chaos, we begin to appreciate that confusion as being full of opportunities to train our mind further.

A mind of anger, whether overt or hidden, always cuts off communication and makes us insensible to the feelings of others.

If we think that the … view of practicing compassion is going around saving the unenlightened, then that's no different from the view of the religious sects whose members knock on our doors.

No matter how bad it looks or how horrible it may feel at times, this mind we have right now is our only hope for awakening.  … Whatever we've been depositing into the bank account of our mind over the course of our lifetime has been drawing interest to the point where we're now pretty rich with it, whatever it may be.

A meeting of minds or hearts is never about just one person; it's like a chemical reaction, and alchemy that can transform both.

You don't need a new or better heart.  You need only to recognize the heart you have and work with it, believe in it, and challenge it. 

It is in the arena of our own life that you become a warrior and win your freedom.

How far are you willing to go from your baseline of opinion and values to reach out to someone who's confused and suffering?

It's often in our efforts to help others in their confusion that we can experience some kind of liberation of our own confusion.