Self-Immolation

"I bow at the feet of the masters who teach that all phenomena merely arise from conditions, without any self, sentient beings, soul, or creator, and are like a dream, an illusion, a mirage, or an echo. I bow at the feet of the masters who clearly teach that objects appear to be external, but are merely the habitual propensities of mind, and that even mind, intellect, and consciousness are mere names, mere designations, just emptiness like space. I bow at the feet of the masters who teach that the aggregates of form and so forth are like foam, water bubbles, a mirage, and so forth, and who teach that the sensory bases are the same as an empty town, the constituents the same as vicious vipers. I bow at the feet of the masters who teach that all the phenomena of existence and nirvāṇa are birthless and ceaseless, free from going, coming, and remaining, without extremes and middle, each empty of essence." Dolpopa

The 8 Negations No origination, no extinction; No permanence, no impermanence; No identity, no difference; No arrival, no departure.

"Whatever is the dharmatā form is the primordial awareness of emptiness. Whatever is the primordial awareness of emptiness, appears as the dharmatā form. Even if you understand merely that these two have a common locus, in order to refute any doubt that thinks it possible for there to be empty primordial awareness that is not the ultimate form (don dam gyi gzugs), and that it is possible for there to be ultimate form that is not empty primordial awareness [there are the lines]: “Emptiness is no other than form.” Here ‘empty’ [does] not [mean] completely empty, but primordial awareness empty of dualism. The ultimate form aggregate (don dam pa’i gzug phungs) is not the form aggregate. The ultimate aspect of the form aggregate within the [endowed with] all supreme aspects dharmadhātu is the dharmatā form aggregate or the ultimate form aggregate." Tāranātha

"Since the apparent does not ultimately exist it is empty-of-self. It appears to consciousness but does not appear to primordial awareness. Since the ultimate exists, it is empty of other. It appears to primordial awareness but not to consciousness." Dolpopa

“The mind cannot be grasped; it is the expanse of emptiness Consciousness is clear and empty, free from conceptual mind Leave the mind as it is and look, with awareness observing itself And you will meet insight meditation face to face” ~ Gyalwa Yangonpa

"I bow at the feet of the masters who teach that, like a butter lamp within a vase, the treasure of a pauper, and so forth, the sugata essence, luminosity, or the dharmakāya exists within the sheath of the relative, incidental aggregates. I bow at the feet of the masters who carefully distinguish, “All imagined and dependent phenomena are nonexistent, but the fully established true nature is never nonexistent,” teaching what transcends existence and nonexistence, and eternalism and nihilism. I bow at the feet of the masters who teach, “All relative phenomena are merely the dependent origination of cause and result, but the self-arisen absolute transcends dependent origination,” teaching the difference between primordial awareness that arises from conditions, and what is self-arisen." Dolpopa

"Concerning this statement, “Form is empty of form,” there are also three aspects of form—imagined form, imputed form, and the form of the true nature. That which is the form of entities apprehended by childish ordinary persons as characteristics suitable to be form and so forth is known as “imagined form.” Precisely that, in whatever aspect it becomes an object of consciousness appearing as an external entity, is known as “imputed form.” That which is free from the aspects of both the imagined and the imputed, and is solely the fully established thusness, is known as “the form of the true nature.” That which is the fully established, the form of the true nature, is empty of the characteristics of existence as imagined form and so forth, and also empty of form that appears in the aspect of an object imputed as form, so it is known as “empty.” Thus it is explained. But you may have doubts, wondering, “Does that which is the form of the true nature, empty of imagined and imputed form, have some other characteristic of form? Why is it even known as ‘form’?” Therefore it is explained, “That which is the emptiness of form is also not form.” Precisely that which is empty of imagined and imputed form is the characteristic of the fully established. That form of the true nature is not the quintessence of form, because it is in all aspects isolated from the aspect of form." Vasubandhu, Vast Explication (Bṛhaṭṭīkā)

"All of this is merely mind, Coming about like an illusion. Through this, good and bad actions, As well as good and bad rebirths [occur]. Through the wheel of mind stopping, All phenomena come to a standstill. Therefore, the nature of phenomena is identityless. Hence, the nature of phenomena is completely pure." Nagarjuna, Mahāyānaviṃśikā Verses 19-20

If I cling to conditions, then I cling to their passing. I have a heaven & a hell within; no need to wonder what exists after death. If I have no conditions, then there is no passing. There is neither heaven nor hell; no need to wonder what exists after death. —Al Ablah

A hundred things may be explained, a thousand told, But one things only should you grasp. Know one thing and everything is freed – Remain within your inner nature, your awareness! Guru Padmasambhava

I take refuge in the Guru. ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿ གུ་རུ་བཛྲ་དྷ་ར་བྷཊྚཱ་ར་ཀ་མཉྫུ་ཤྲཱི་ཝཱགིནྡྲ་སུ་མ་ཏི་ཛྙཱ་ན་ཤཱ་ས་ན་དྷ་ར་ས་མུ་དྲ་ཤྲཱི་བྷ་དྲ་སརྦ་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུཾ་ཧཱུཾ།

“Each sentient being is like a sleeping buddha who is dreaming about inherent existence of self and of all phenomena, and believing the dream to be true. The practice of buddhism is like the method to wake up from this dream, by waking up to the reality of the lack of inherent existence of self and of all phenomena, to become a fully awakened buddha for the benefit of all sentient beings who are still dreaming” ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche

Rare Kushan art showing a Kushan Buddhist respectfully approaching Zeus (identified with his nimbus)

"The nature of space transcends color and shape, Neither stained nor changed by black or white. Likewise, the essence of your mind transcends color and shape, Unpolluted by black or white qualities, misdeeds or virtues. Just as the bright, clear essence of the sun Cannot be obscured by the murk of a thousand aeons, Likewise, the luminous essence of your mind Can’t be obscured by aeons of samsara. Though space is given the appellation “empty,” There’s nothing in space that can be described as such. Likewise, though mind is described as luminous, There’s nothing to give a name, saying it’s like this. Therefore, the nature of mind has always been like space. There are no phenomena at all not contained within it." Tilopa

"The nature of space transcends color and shape, Neither stained nor changed by black or white. Likewise, the essence of your mind transcends color and shape, Unpolluted by black or white qualities, misdeeds or virtues. Just as the bright, clear essence of the sun Cannot be obscured by the murk of a thousand aeons, Likewise, the luminous essence of your mind Can’t be obscured by aeons of samsara. Though space is given the appellation “empty,” There’s nothing in space that can be described as such. Likewise, though mind is described as luminous, There’s nothing to give a name, saying it’s like this. Therefore, the nature of mind has always been like space. There are no phenomena at all not contained within it." Tilopa

"Some people think that moral ethics and discipline are not important when practicing the highest tantra yoga and the vision of emptiness; they think that the precepts are meant for lower practitioners and not for advanced ones. This may be going too far. On the contrary, those who are more realized in the subtle aspects of Dharma have an even more sensitive and genuine conduct, setting a great example for the followers. Following the precepts and keeping them is a 24-hour a day practice. It is a real test for Dharma practitioners to sustain their discipline at every moment for the rest of their lives. Using all our energy in virtuous ways is a very important method for training the body, speech, and mind." Khenpo Konchog Gyaltsen