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Respect and develop pure perception and devotion toward those who are practicing Dharma as the noble sangha. If you see faults in others, think that they’re the reflections of your own delusions. If you see good qualities in others, meditate on rejoicing over them. Disclose and expel your own faults. Generate virtuous qualities and act with astonishing perserverance. Be with holy people and abandon evil friends. Stay in solitary places and promise to pursue meditation. Make sure that whatever you do is consonant with Dharma practice.

— Longchenpa

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Within the absolute, there are no distinctions; there are neither conditioned phenomena nor absolute phenomena. In the face of emptiness, there are no distinctions, none at all. Realising this without realisation is called simply ‘seeing emptiness’, seeing what cannot be seen. So it is said in the most profound sutras. Nothing to see, no one who sees, no beginning, no end, Peace. Utterly beyond ‘really there’ and ‘not really there,’ free of classification and reference point, it does not cease, does not remain, never comes, never goes; it cannot be captured in words. It cannot be expressed; it cannot be viewed; it never changes and has never ever existed as a solid reality. The yogi who realises this rids himself of the two veils: the veil of the obscuring emotions and the veil covering all that is to be known.

— Atiśa

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The essence of the sugatas pervades all beings. Generate the most vast and sublime of intentions, for each and every being has the cause of awakening — there is not a single sentient being who lacks this potential.

— Buddha

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All the enlightened ones of the past have formed awakening minds and engaged themselves progressively in the bodhisattvas’ training. In the same way, for the sake of all that lives, I now form an awakening mind and will apply myself in stages to the training of the bodhisattvas.

— Shantideva

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Observe the mind of the mind that is mindless. If you see something, that is not the mind-itself. Seeing without seeing is seeing the mind-itself. Do not be distracted from the unseen mind.

— Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsen

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Sometimes we think that to develop an open heart, to be truly loving and compassionate, means that we need to be passive, to allow others to abuse us, to smile and let anyone do what they want with us. Yet this is not what is meant by compassion. Quite the contrary. Compassion is not at all weak. It is the strength that arises out of seeing the true nature of suffering in the world. Compassion allows us to bear witness to that suffering, whether it is in ourselves or others, without fear. It allows us to name injustice without hesitation, and to act strongly, with all the skill at our disposal. To discover this mind state of compassion is to learn to live, as the Buddha put it, with sympathy for all living beings, without exception.

— Dalai Lama

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The aim of the Bodhisattvas is to accomplish the welfare of the world. Moreover, since they must look after and instruct those beings who are associated with all three types of spiritual lineage, they must also train themselves in each of those respective paths; because, if they themselves lack an accurate understanding [of those paths], they cannot possibly teach them to others.

— Lama Tsongkhapa

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世间以五欲六尘为乐，达人以禅悦法喜为真；世间以立德立功为务，达人以证悟般若为要；世间以百年长寿为久，达人以无量寿命为安；世间以迷信执我为真，达人以慈悲无我为实。

— 星云法师

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The defining characteristic of relative truth is that it is an object of consciousness that in its fundamental nature is itself essentially empty of veridical being. The defining characteristic of absolute truth is that it is an object of authentic, sublime wisdom that in its fundamental nature is itself essentially not empty of veridical being.

Because the relative does not exist in fact, it is intrinsically empty, and appears to consciousness, but not to sublime wisdom. Because the absolute exists in fact, it is not intrinsically empty, and appears to sublime wisdom, but never to consciousness.

Thus, to those who are immature, according to their own dispositions, only inauthentic characteristics appear to their consciousness, but not the authentic suchness. To the sublime wisdom of the Bodhisattvas, according to their dispositions, only the authentic appears, but not what is inauthentic.

— Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen

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Some may wonder, “It is fine to demonstrate right from the start that this mind can neither be watched nor seen, but beyond that, what is the point in investigating [whether it has a] colour and so on?” It is precisely because sentient beings do not realise that mind — which lacks a nature — definitely does not have such [colour and so forth] that they, since time without beginning, take what they call “me” and “I” to be something real. Based on that, attachment, aversion, and ignorance arise, and thus they wander in cyclic existence, the ocean of suffering. In order to put an end to that, you [must] probe into the depths of your own mind, the main root of cyclic existence, through investigating, examining, and analyzing [it]. Thus, through determining it to be empty and without identity, it is certain that you see the unmistaken actuality of the basic nature. Through being certain that mind lacks a nature, you realise that the mistakenness of clinging to any identity of cyclic existence is without reality. By the force of that, you are certain that all phenomena are empty. Consequently, our attachment to all worldly pursuits is put to an end, and the root of reification, the cause of cyclic existence, is cut through. Therefore, there is good reason for investigating the mind.

— 9th Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje