Don’t recall. Let go of what has passed.

Don’t imagine. Let go of what may come.

Don’t think. Let go of what is happening now.

Don’t examine. Don’t try to figure anything out.

Don’t control. Don’t try to make anything happen.

Rest. Relax, right now, and rest.

Tilopa

Tilopa was born in eastern India in 988. When Tilopa was a young boy, he had the special qualities of being extremely compassionate, kind, and loving. He was a cowherd and played in the forest without a care. At that time, the great Nagarjuna was out walking in the vicinity.11 He had the special insight that in this region there was someone who was an ideal vessel to receive the Vajrayana teachings. Pondering this, he proceeded to the place between the town and the river where Tilopa was taking care of water buffaloes. Nagarjuna wanted to cross the river and pretended not to know where to ford it. He went to a point in the river with rapids and high waves and pretended that he was going to walk into the raging river. Tilopa came running up to him and said, “I will help you by carrying you across. There is no need for you to be afraid or to trouble yourself.” Nagarjuna instantly saw that this child had great potential for developing intense devotion and compassion and that he had the capacity for extreme courage and diligence. He allowed the boy to carry him into the river.

Tilopa, known as Prajna Bhadra, was born in the town of Chativavo (Chittagong, which is now in Banladesh), into the Brahmin caste. His birthplace is also recorded to be Jagora (in eastern Bengal, India?). His father was Pranyasha and mother, Kashi.

When he grew up he learned all the doctrinal treatises of Brahminism. While he was wandering in various places asking for alms, he finally came to a temple and, seeing that the monks lived a life of renunciation, he entered the monastic life and became a learned in the Tripitaka, the three collections of the teachings of the Buddha.

But what we've got going wrong is we've got a kind of bifurcation [in cultural development]:

You take your classified telephone directory, and open up "Churches", and have a ruler in your hand. And you will find that the longest space is occupied by authoritarian, Bible-banging churches. And these people are barbarians, who take the written word of the Bible literally. Because they need terribly, they have a personal need, for something to depend on. ... The government realizes that there is a very large number of people like that; and therefore, to keep their votes, they have to pander to those kind of people. And these are the boys who never grew up; they always need Papa. ... The trouble is that the boys who need Papa, are violent. They have the guns. And they are the types of people who like to be soldiers, policemen — tough guys. And therefore they have a great deal of power.

Interviewed on Les Hixon's show "In The Spirit" on WBAI New York (November 1972)

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.

The Essence of Alan Watts (1977)

The initial function of spirituality emerged from questioning the human condition and also from deep experiences of wonder. The word religion itself, initially meaning to “reconnect,” seems to have come from direct experiences of something larger than just a set of fixed ideas. It marked a return to something essential that we just failed to recognize in the myopia of our everyday lives. How curious that we turn experiences of awe into dogmas and stagnant ideas. That we have come to associate faith with fundamentalism, blindness, and even terrorism gives us something important to look at.

Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel,

།ཚོགས་གཉིས་ཡིད་བཞིན་གི་ནྟོར་བུ་ལ། །སྟོན་ལམ་གིས་བྱི་དྟོར་མ་བྱས་ན།

།དགྟོས་འདྟོད་ཀི་འབྲས་བུ་མི་འབྱུང་བས། །རྗེས་བསྟོ་བ་འདི་ལ་ནན་ཏན་མཛོད།།

When you do not polish the wish fulfilling gem – the two accumulations –

with aspiration prayers,

the necessary and desired results will not arise.

Make, therefore, efforts concerning the concluding dedication.

ཅྗེས་ཕྱག་ཆྗེན་ལྔ་ལྡན་གི་རྟོགས་མགུར་བྱ་བ་སྟོབ་པ་ཉིད་ཀིས་མཛད་པའྟོ།།

The Song of the Realisation of the Five Limbs of Mahāmudrā, composed by Kyoba [Jigten

“As long as you regard yourself or any part of your experience as the "dream come true," then you are involved in self-deception. Self-deception seems always to depend upon the dream world, because you would like to see what you have not yet seen, rather that what you are now seeing. You will not accept that whatever is here now is what is, nor are you willing to go on with the situation as it is. Thus, self-deception always manifests itself in terms of trying to create or recreate a dream world, the nostalgia of the dream experience. And the opposite of self-deception is just working with the facts of life.”

― Chögyam Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

Yāna refers to a mode or method of spiritual practice in Buddhism. They were all taught by the Gautama Buddha in response to the various capacities of individuals. On an outwardly conventional level, the teachings and practices may appear contradictory, but ultimately they all have the same goal.

.::. All living beings are its roots; all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are its flowers and fruits. By benefitting all beings with the water of Great Compassion, one can realize the flowers and fruits of the Buddhas’ and Bodhisattvas’ wisdom .::. The Flower Garland Sutra 🌸

The Avatamsaka Sutra

Ch.40, translated by the Buddhist Text Translation Society

Emptiness' or 'voidness' is an expression used in Buddhist thought primarily to mark a distinction between the way things appear to be and the way they actually are, together with attendant attitudes which are held to be spiritually beneficial.

Emperor Wu: "I have built many temples, copied innumerable Sutras and ordained many monks since becoming Emperor. Therefore, I ask you, what is my merit?"

Bodhidharma: "None whatsoever!" answered Bodhidharma.

Emperor Wu: "Why no merit?"

Bodhidharma:: "Doing things for merit has an impure motive and will only bare the puny fruit of rebirth."

Emperor Wu, a little put out: "What then is the most important principle of Buddhism?"

Bodhidharma: "Vast emptiness. Nothing sacred."

Emperor Wu, by now bewildered, and not a little indignant: "Who is this that stands before me?"

Bodhidharma: "I do not know."

This "emptiness" was neither absence nor a void. . . Like the empty mirror on which all things pass, leaving no trace, this ku contains all forms and all phenomena, being a symbol of the universal emphasis. Thus this emptiness is also fullness, containing all forms and phenomena.