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.

Everything I read stays in my mind and leads to internal discourse, it leads nowhere.
Writing this I know it will echo in my mind for the rest of the day.
How distracted I am, distracting others.
We are distracting each other.
From what?

"The need for ceaseless agitation, for unending change, and for ever-increasing speed is matching the speed with which events themselves succeed one another. It is a dispersion in a multiplicity that is no longer unified by consciousness of any higher principle; in daily life, as in scientific ideas, it is analysis driven to an extreme, endless subdivision, a veritable disintegration of human activity in all the orders in which this can still be exercised... These are the inevitable results of an ever more pronounced materialization, for matter is essentially multiplicity and division, and this is why all that proceeds from matter can beget only strife and all manner of conflicts between peoples as between individuals. The deeper one sinks into matter, the more the elements of division and opposition gain force and scope; and, contrariwise, the more one rises toward pure spirituality, the nearer one approaches that unity which can only be fully realized by consciousness of universal principles."

~René Guénon

Another day of valuing each other’s content.

Being primordial awareness..
How else would eternity pass the time?

The sky knows how foolishly I’m grasping after clouds.

Put your identity in something impermanent you will die wanting to live.
Put your identity in something eternal you will live wanting to die.

Identify as nothing. For nothing can contain everything.

Only then can you let yourself relate,
to everything and everyone.
To every passing moment.