People living in great poverty with begging hands and pitiful eyes are struggling to find bliss.

People living in great wealth with sagging bellies and greedy eyes are hoping to find bliss.

Old people feebly walk about with stick in hand to find bliss. Young people proudly walk about with cock in hands to find bliss.

Lowly clerks, though they don’t like their position, lick the boots of high executives to find bliss. High executives, though they fear revolution, continue to abuse lowly clerks to find bliss.

Some couples meet and marry in order to find bliss. Some couples separate and divorce in order to find bliss.

Some people insult each other in order to find bliss. Some people praise each other in order to find bliss.

Some people commit suicide to shorten their lives in order to find bliss. Some people become health fanatics to live a long life in order to find bliss.

Feculent pigs wallow in dirty mud to find bliss. Beautiful swans glide in clean pools to find bliss.

Some people are very narrow-minded in order to find bliss. Some people are very open-minded in order to find bliss.

Some government are facist in order to find bliss. Some government are democratic in order to find bliss.

Some people, including monks, keep short hair in order to find bliss. Some people, including yogis, keep long hair in order to find bliss.

Some ritualist ring the bell from inside and beat the drum from outside, creating noise to find bliss. Some meditators sit alone watching their mind inside and their noses outside, creating silence to find bliss.

Hermits go to a fresh-air hermitage and shit warm turds in cool, pleasant meadows to find bliss. Socializers go to stuffy Dharma centers, the cool thing to do, and meet warm lovers to find bliss.

Non-religious persons hate religious persons in order to find bliss. Religious persons hate non-religious persons in order to find bliss.

Some sectarians expose their hard penis for all to see and debauch prudish doctrines in order to find bliss. Some supposed nonsectarians bend their hard penis in nonsectarian jockstraps and seduce open-fly sectarians in order to find bliss.

Hinayana followers try to abandon desire to find bliss. Inner Vajrayana followers try to use desire to find bliss.

Hot steam ascends to form clouds that condense into a cool, pleasant rain. Cool water descends to turn generators that convert it’s power into warm, glowing lights.

Bodhisattvas are praying and manifesting activity, sometimes in a masochistic style, sometimes in a sadistic style, in order for all sentient beings to find bliss.

Lord Buddha taught in countless different ways so that all beings with countless different faculties can find bliss.

Anyway, wherever they go, all sentient beings from insects to wise men appear to be competing, running a race to find bliss. So, to find bliss, all you have to do is choose your target; don’t bother about anyone’s target.

Thinley Norbu Rinpoche

The Galdr is a type of Magician in old norse culture who made spells “galdror” and sang magical songs. There is a form of poetic meter known as galdralag. The word galdr is connected to the swedish words ’galen’ meaning mad or in love. And ’gala’ the roosters crow at sunrise.

A perfect symbol for the galdr as a Vajrayana practitioner is therefore the rooster. As he wakes people from sleep or drives them mad.

Enlightenment awaits the devoted.

The Mahayana scriptures speak of those who are completely ready to open, those who are just about ready to open and those who have the potential to open. Those who have the potential are intellectual people who are interested in the subject but who do not allow enough room for this instinct to spring out. Those who are almost ready are quite openminded, but they are watching themselves more than necessary. Those who are completely ready to open have heard the secret word, the password of tathagata: someone has already done it, somebody has already crossed over, it is the open path, it is possible, it is the tathagata path. Therefore, disregarding how or when or why, simply open. It is a beautiful thing, it has already happened to someone else, why not to you? Why do you discriminate between "me" and the rest of the tathagatas?

"Tathagata" means "those who have experienced the tathata," which is, "as it is": those who have experienced "as it is." In other words, the idea of tathagata is a way of inspiration,
a starting point; it tells us that other people have already made it, that others have already experienced it. This instinct has already inspired someone, the instinct of "awake," of openness, of coolness in the sense of intelligence.

- Chögyam Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

Bodhidharma explains why he came to China. He arrived during the Liú Sòng Dynasty (420–479) :

"And the only reason I’ve come to China is to transmit the instantaneous teaching of the Mahayana. This Mind is the Buddha. I don’t talk about precepts, devotions or ascetic practices such immersing yourself in water and fire, treading a wheel of knives, eating one meal a day, or never lying down. These are fanatical, provisional teachings. Once you recognize your moving, miraculously aware nature, yours is the mind of all Buddhas. Buddhas of the past and future only talk about transmitting the Mind.

They teach nothing else if someone understands this teaching, even if he’s illiterate he’s a Buddha. If You don’t see your own miraculously aware nature, you’ll never find a Buddha even if you break your body into atoms.

The Buddha is your real body, your original mind. This mind has no form or characteristics, no cause or effect, no tendons or bones. It’s like space. You can’t hold it. Its not the mind of materialists or nihilists. Except for a Tathagata,(a Buddha) no one else- no mortal, no deluded being-can fathom it."

A Song of Instruction to Gampopa
By Milarepa
 
 
Son, when simplicity dawns in the mind,
Do not follow after conventional terms.
There’s a danger you’ll get trapped in the eight Dharma’s circle.
Rest in a state free of pride.
Do you understand this, Teacher from Central Tibet?
Do you understand this, Takpo Lhajey?
 
When self-liberation dawns from within,

Do not engage in the reasonings of logic.
There’s a danger you’ll just waste your energy.
Son, rest free of thoughts.
Do you understand this, Teacher from Central Tibet?
Do you understand this, Takpo Lhajey?
 
When you realize your own mind is emptiness,
Do not engage in the reasoning “beyond one or many”.
There is a danger that you’ll fall into a nihilistic emptiness.
Do you understand this, Teacher from Central Tibet?
Do you understand this, Takpo Lhajey?
 

When immersed in Mahamudra meditaion,
Do not exert yourself in virtuous acts of body and speech.
There’s a danger the wisdom of nonthought will disappear.
Son, rest uncontrived and loose.
Do you understand this, Teacher from Central Tibet?
Do you understand this, Takpo Lhajey?
When the signs foretold by the scriptures arise,
Do not boast with joy or cling to them.
There’s a danger you’ll get the prophecy of maras instead.
Rest free of clinging.
Do you understand this, Teacher from Central Tibet?
Do you understand this, Takpo Lhajey?

 
When you gain resolution regarding your mind,
Do not yearn for the higher cognitive powers.
There’s a danger you’ll be carried away by the mara of pretentiousness.
Son, rest free of fear and hope.
Do you understand this, Teacher from Central Tibet?
Do you understand this, Takpo Lhajey?

If you know how to look with the eye of faith,
All the blessings you desire will fall like rain.

- Milarepa

Try this. 🏵

If one is not putting forth genuine effort in attaining to the divine, then there shouldn't be any question as to why one's life remains unchanged or mundane.

These things operate off of sincerity and genuine intention. Are we really opening ourselves up to being students of the Guru? Cultivate the student's mind. Be open and be real.

We could all benefit from a brutally honest heart check.

We are a species with amnesia

Some people use psychedelics in search for spiritual attainments. It’s easier to go on a mad 12 hour acid trip than to sit still and quiet for an hour. Funny how things work.

Advice
From the lips of Nyala Sogyal:
Whilst resting in meditation, you may take care of your practice like a mother her baby. But if, at that time, your rigpa is not radiantly aware, then you will not be able to liberate even a single thought.
What is it you have to liberate?
Good and bad circumstances—these two.
Good circumstances can creep in stealthily, like thieves, and if you are not able to be on guard, notice them and liberate them, they will become the demonic force of devaputra (seduction through desire).
Bad circumstances will come more obviously, aroused by things like attachment to the form of an attractive woman (or man) or aversion towards an enemy.
If you are not able to liberate them, then when you meet the actual circumstances themselves, your true failing as a Dharma practitioner will be exposed.
Now, what is it that liberates?
The wisdom of rigpa.
What is it you liberate?
Arising thoughts, good and bad.
How do you liberate them?
Each thought, upon arising, like waves dissolving back into the water they came from.
The real, true sign of whether you can liberate or not is when you actually meet, face to face, negative circumstances and thoughts, which arise blazing like a raging fire or bubbling like boiling water. If at that very moment you are able to liberate them, then that is really the same as a true miracle.
If you are able to liberate one attachment, one aversion, one negative thought, then many aeons of negative karma are purified.
Such a person I call a mahāsiddha; such a person I call clairvoyant—even omniscient.
In case you might not have heard this kind of advice before, I thought you might find it amusing. So I, the old man, offer it to Lama Lobsang and Gelek—please accept it with joy!

Rigpa is simply ever present awareness. It doesn’t need anything to be aware of.

If you don’t cultivate it through mindfulness until you realise your natural ability of non-action or not value. You will be like an npc. Preprogrammed and predictable. Whatever you are presented with, will cause you to act or value. Forcing you to take a stand for or against every single thing, or follow any thought revealed to you. These views aren’t you, but you will identify with them, and when they are questioned yourself are questioned, and when they die, you feel like you die.
There is nothing to be right about.
Constantly responding with craving or aversion, fight or flight, is making you devoid of free will.