You Are IT

Particles, the building blocks of the universe, remain possibility waves until they’re observed. Energy and matter are potentials within consciousness. Consciousness translates electromagnetic vibrations into sound, texture, taste, smell, and form. We call our internal experience from our five senses the external world.

– Deepak Chopra, via Twitter

Don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, “This contemplative is our teacher.”

When you know for yourselves that “these mental qualities are skillful; these mental qualities are blameless; these mental qualities are praised by the wise; these mental qualities, when adopted and carried out, lead to welfare and to happiness” — then you should enter and remain in them.

– Thanissaro Bhikkhu, from Faith in Awakening

Because Zen and Doctrine
Have the same origin and taste,
Don’t judge them bitter or sweet
According to your own lights.
If you chase after heaving waves,
You’ll probably have to ask
Directions to the ferry.

– Soyo Taeneung (1562-1649)

When we question ego-mind directly, it is exposed for what it is: the absence of everything we believe it to be.

We can actually see through this seemingly solid ego-mind, or self. But what are we left with then? We are left with an open, intelligent awareness, unfettered by a self to cherish or protect.

This is the primordial wisdom mind of all beings. Relaxing into this discovery is true meditation—and true meditation brings ultimate realization and freedom from suffering.

– Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, from “Searching for Self”

Simply by turning on the light, you can instantly destroy the darkness. Likewise, even a rather simple analysis of ego-clinging and afflictive emotions can make them collapse. By suppression we may temporarily subdue our afflictive emotions, but only an investigation of their true nature will completely eradicate them.

– Dilgo Kyentse Rinpoche, from “An Investigation of the Mind”

I wandered for many years
After leaving the dusty world,
Then built a cozy home
On the blue mountain.
Loving fidelity, I plant a
Thousand bamboos
And a hundred foot pine
As symbols of my integrity.
I plant mums around the wall,
I’m comfortably secluded;
I recite poems in the moonlight;
The sound is crisp and clean.
There’s no pleasure like growing
Old on the mountain.
Why should I go crazy
When the road is blocked?

– Buhyu Sunsoo (1543-1615)

Finding a teacher to learn the truth
Is nothing special
It’s like riding a cow to return home.
If you can stride freely atop
A hundred foot pole
Countless buddhas will only be
Sparks in your eyes.

– Buhyu Sunsoo (1543-1615)

Reality does not need or want to be changed. It has gone to great trouble to establish itself as it is, and it is perfect. This very world of today, as it appears before us in all its glory and horror, is the sacred landscape we live in. What is. Our role is not to arrogantly critique this Great Perfection, picking and choosing in it according to the conventional wisdom of the day; our job is simply to join in with it. And there’s no need to have a poverty mentality about the life in this world. It is not now and has never been in any danger. No matter what happens on this planet, there will always be plenty of good life-filled worlds for us to join in with.

– John McClellan, from “Nondual Ecology”

Mind is unlimited. So therefore, you have many different conceptions and different phenomena’s, because your mind’s unlimited. The only limitation is in the way of thinking.

-Thinley Norbu Rinpoche

The person who is free and easy
Beyond every boundary, is enlightened.
He doesn’t hoe much,
But there are no weeds in his field.

– Jungkwan Haean (b 1567)