Self-Immolation

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. Taranatha

“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.” Ārya-saṃdhi-nirmocana-sūtra

”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.” Ārya-saṃdhi-nirmocana-sūtra

“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.” Vasubandhu

The god said, “How is it then, Mañjuśrī, that the Dharma taught by the Thus-gone One is not false?” Mañjuśrī said, “Divine son, on the ultimate level, the Thus-gone One does not speak falsely. Nor does he speak truly. And why is that? Ultimately, divine son, the Thus-gone One has not arisen. And so, ultimately he speaks neither falsely nor truly. Divine son, what do you think? Are explanations given by magical creations of the Thus-gone One true or false?” The god said, “Mañjuśrī, explanations given by magical creations of the Thus-gone One are not true, nor are they false. Why is that? Mañjuśrī, ultimately there is nothing truly established in that which is emanated by the Thus-gone One.” Mañjuśrī said, “So it is, divine son, so it is. The Thus-gone One knows that all phenomena are unestablished in the ultimate sense. Whatever is unestablished in the ultimate sense should not be called true nor should it be called false in the context of the ultimate. Why is that? Because ultimately all phenomena are unborn.” —Saṃvṛti­paramārtha­satya­nirdeśa Sutra

The Animal Realm: “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.”

~ Triśirobhairava-tantra

“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?»” Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra

Gods, Eternalism, Nihilism and the problem with Sunyata (Emptiness); a Traditional Buddhist thought about. People simple do not understand that does not matter what appears in the field of consciousness, the reality is Emptiness (Sunyata). Does not matter if billions of God's appear in your front and say that they are the truth, they don't. Truth is far more beyond than the existence of "God" in this simplistic form. Whatever occurs, if God's throw people into hell or heaven for their "sins", whether gods of many types exist and they are the "true gods" or not, it simple does not matter in any sense. The nature of reality whom is emptiness is unchanged, all this gods are deluded if they think that they will live forever or thar just him are the "true god" and all others are "false". Even if a god throws a poor soul into the infernal realms thinking that she will stay there forever, or in paradise eternally with him, it doesn't make any difference. And whether he believes himself to be the original god predecessor to all others, and that humanity is subjugated by other gods or by a particular enemy, does not matter. What he thinks he knows or doesn't know about what happened in reality, the history of existence, of chaos, of the universe, of the world; All these things are so uncertain and prone to error that it is impossible to take any possible fixed position for granted. Whatever his story, if he thinks he came from the most distant people and is the most powerful, if he thinks the soul needs this instead of that, none of that matters in the end, because it's all as uncertain as a mirage. Whatever he thinks he can do or not do, that this or that is the right way; In the end they are all wrong. They are just ordinary beings who no matter how powerful they are, no matter how understanding they are, perfect, complete, "beyond everything" or everyone else, in the end this is a matter of perspective based on the way they see reality based on in his karma and in the type of "thought-form", of energy corresponding to the particular realm in which he finds himself, in the particular experience connected to his particular inner world, he is not Reality by itself. No matter how much they believe in it with all your might. In the end they are just creatures in Samsara like you and me, going through a period of existence of millions or billions of years, all the while believing themselves to be ineffable, when in fact they too will return to the lower realms. Because it's like this? Simple. Because according to the Buddhist doctrine of Emptiness, even concepts such as Unity, Absolute, Perfection, God, Ineffable, The All, The Supreme, The Highest and etc; they are all empty of themselves. They are not the state of perfection, of complete and infinite, absolute, definitive knowledge. They depend on concepts that are opposite to them and that are Samsara as much as they are. In that case, such divine concepts are only the realm of the devas, nothing more and nothing less. Reality is beyond any real substance, ballast, solidity, fixation, conceptualization; and this also includes both nihilistic concepts about nothing and eternalist concepts about everything. Nihilism is an opposite view, it says the opposite to concepts related to the deva realm and lead to the infernal realms as it is ignorance. In the end, it's like the wonderful Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche says: "the bad news is that you are falling without a parachute; the good news is that there is no ground." To understand this it is necessary to understand and study Sunyata deeply, as in fact, it has nothing to do with the old divinatory concepts, although they seem to be. It's far, far beyond.

"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." Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé

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! Guru Padmasambhava

“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.” Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche

“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.” Bhikkhu Bodhi

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“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.” Shogo Watanabe

"In India the guru of the Seven Tathagatas, Manjushri holds upwards the Sword of wisdom which completely severs the Enemy(Ignorance). In other words, there is absolutely no sentient being that cannot be reached by that blade. The one who begins to study the martial conduct, if he is solely and wholeheartedly devoted to the worthy deva Arya Marici, he becomes capable of accomplishing mysterious proficiencies." Sonten-no Kinsei(Prohibitions of the Worthy Devas)

All meanings in samsara are just like a dream. They have no true inherent existence and arise only as the display of pure awareness. When one fails to understand appearances as merely the display of pure awareness and identifies them as arising from self, i.e. self-identifies with them, then they become the experience of samsara. This is a misinterpretation of the nature of the display, which would be like misinterpreting a striped rope to be a snake. Samsara is actually the confused perception of the display of rigpa, pure awareness. If an appearance is not recognized as arising from the ground, then in that moment the confusion begins. A confused sentient being begins in the very moment when they fail to recognize their own display for what it is. They are covering or obscuring their own nature by failing to recognize it as the display of the ground. This is called "not seeing it as one's own nature when it arises", the "unawareness of singular identity", and this precisely is the beginning of samsara. If we were to ask whether the inconceivable qualities of buddha nature that we develop as we grow on the path are new qualities, the answer is no. They are qualities that we possess right now. Although we are developing on the path, we are simply bringing out or actualizing our inherent noble qualities that we've possessed all along, because we are originally Buddha. ~ Yangthang Rinpoche