Quotes from Daniel Odier

The whole difficulty of the spontaneity for which the tantrika longs, whether Shaivist or Buddhist, is to succeed in seizing the moment with the same lively agility with which one would seize a venomous snake. Hesitation can be fatal.

Says Saraha: By means of that same essence by which one is born, lives and dies, By means of that one gains the highest bliss.

Each day, according to your sensitivity and your mood, choose to enter into total communication with the objects of your desire or, more simply, with the states that spontaneously present themselves and that harbor the power to bring you a kind of satisfaction you no doubt underestimate

The desire to be wholly available to life suffices. You do not have to be involved in, or to practice, or to believe anything whatsoever. The ultimate things present themselves in such a simple way that it is enough to experience them by yourself.

You will discover that if you can find such pleasure in presence, then your joy no longer depends on exceptional circumstances waited for in a state of neurotic tension but on simple reality, as it presents itself to you from moment to moment.

you will discover that true presence brings you pleasure incommensurate with events. The most banal thing—a cup of tea, a few steps, opening a door, a glance at the sky—can be enough to make you happy during the time you are present and well after.

to be nothing is to enter into totality

The different Tantric schools, however, completely reject all formalism, dogmatism, puritanism, eviction of women, and existence of castes. They place the spiritual and mystical path in the social context by abolishing all differences between people.

The Buddha said this clearly: "I teach Reality. . . . That is the inner realm truly taught by the Masters.

the Lankavatara Sutra transmitted by Bodhidharma, declared: "There is not a trace of the absolute outside of reality.

in the activity of the senses the authentic foundation of existence.

Consciousness, says Asanga, is "hindered by the view of the 'I': from there comes its agitated and powerless tension. This can be remedied by stabilizing consciousness in the inner world, which amounts to re-establishing consciousness in consciousness

This inner gaze is devoid of all tension or strain: how could it belong to an intellect strained with effort?

The state of nirvana infuses all of samsara, and the absolute is found in reality

The sage is thus capable of acting with lightning-bolt speed, because dualistic thought no longer paralyzes him. His acts are instantaneous and carriers of light; this is what is called nonaction.

The mind is used to, and marvelously capable of, moving quickly and harmonizing with the flow of life, which itself also has great mobility. Every time we intervene to make something that is transitory by nature last, we block the natural flow of life. Every time we intervene in an attempt to cut off a sensation or an emotion that does not correspond to our desires, we paralyze, we block the natural flow of life.

Love without freedom does not exist.

As Abhinavagupta says, "In Tantrism, nothing is advised, nothing is forbidden.

Curiously, you will see that the more incandescent your desire, the less it will turn toward objects of desire, because it no longer needs them to mask incompletion.

In the state of cosmic equilibrium There is nothing to abandon or practice, No meditation or post-meditation period.

To encounter such a being who wants nothing from you, who refuses nothing, who takes nothing, and who does not even want to lead you to liberation is the experience of all those who approach an authentic master. Such frequent contact makes us keen to attain the fluidity that we perceived in the mirror held out to us. A master is nothing else but the mirror of our own freedom.

When myriad experiences leave no trace, how great! To practice like this is liberation.

Someone who desires to be fully alive has to do nothing but observe without inner commentary the automatic mechanisms that stop him from tasting the tremoring vibration of life. This observation alone is the key to our liberation. It requires naked and silent awareness, detached from all objectives.

mahamudra is: Too close to be recognized, Too deep to grasp, Too easy to believe, Too amazing to be understood intellectually. Those are the four obstacles that prevent its recognition.