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Would you say 'thoughts are dharmakaya' and 'essence of thoughts is dharmakaya' have the same meaning?

That is 'if' its seen/recognised. Then that very recognition immediately generates a spark of liberative potential. Not seen, would it be right to assume that thoughts naturally releases its karmic impetus to proliferate and generate even more karmic traces and seeds due to latent karmic imprints? I would think so. sorry for deviating, but this is an important reminder i think, because in order to deconstruct fixations correctly, which is part of the aim of rangtong/shentong debates, this liberative potential empty of a possessor yet imbued with enlightening qualities is definitely worthy of note so as to arrive at a more definitive understanding.

Dzogchen reminds practitioners that thoughts are filled with the essence of liberation. Those who recognise this recognises the Dharmakaya and will no longer be subject to distractive and destructive habitual patterns caused by not recognising mind essence. Have not come across any literature, even in Mahamudra, that says thoughts are Dharmakaya. Would be interesting to read some Mahamudra texts which point to this.

http://www.rinpoche.com/teachings/shentong.htm

Guru Shri Singha said, "The natural condition of things is devoid of something to be experienced. So what are you experiencing? What is it that experiences? What are you so elated about? I myself do not experience anything. Have you achieved something superior to that? Your experiences are an achievement which differs from that of the buddhas and of the three times. Fixating on having an experience should be recognized as being seduced by Mara. All your experiences are contrived and result from fabrication. They will still come and go. They will not enable you to face difficulties. They are but a blanket of good concepts. You have not untied the knot of conceptual thinking. It is like having a latent sickness within. You might be blissful at present but it will not help. Since you have not penetrated to the core, the zombie of confusion still walks around. If you regard meditation experience as paramount you cannot resolve the view while submerged in concepts. If you allow yourself to become fascinated by a fraction of samadhi, thinking that there is nothing higher and regard it as the perfection of samadhi, you will not cut through the activity of conceptual thinking. You will not exhaust the layers of meditation experience and the dirt of ignorance will not be purified. For each meditation experience there is a temporary fascination. Perceiving them to be the only truth, you will become obscured. By obscuring the reality which is utterly free from attachment and transition, the instance of attachment and transition have turned these blissful results of yours into nothing but straying. If you cling to clarity and regard it as the highest, you achieve the highest state in a realm of form. If you cling to the emptiness experience of nonthought and regard it as the highest, you achieve the highest state in the formless realm. If you cling to bliss and regard it as the highest, you will attain nothing but the highest state in the realm of desire. This will not result in attaining unexcelled enlightenment, the supreme siddhi of Mahamudra." ~ Shri Singha and The Liberation of Padmasambhava ~

I was always under the impression that there are more rituals in Taoism than Buddhism, and this i concluded having been brought up in a family where one side practiced one and the other, other. Perhaps it was just a peculiarity of sorts, though the many Taoist temples i have had the good fortune to visit were not exactly 'do as you please' places. In contrast, i think there's less emphasis on disciplinary codes in Buddhism, generally speaking, from what i have observed growing up in SE Asia. Sure, there were always a certain sombre strictness present, but in Buddhist surrounds, there's also that underlying kindness which kind of neutralises that, whereas this is not immediately evident when i ventured within the abodes that profess to practice the Tao.

Unless we connect with the two types of precious bodhicitta, we will not approach enlightenment even in the slightest; this is certain. The two types of bodhicitta are relative bodhicitta, compassion, and ultimate bodhicitta, the insight into emptiness. Without these two, there is absolutely no way to take even one step closer towards buddhahood. Any Dharma practice devoid of these two kinds of bodhicitta will not bring the practitioner even one step toward enlightenment - I will swear to that. ~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche ~

~ DHARMARAKSITA ~ When drops of water fill a vase, it is not the first drop that fills it, nor the last drop or each drop individually; through the gathering of dependent factors the vase is filled. Likewise, when someone experiences joy and suffering – the effects – this is not due to the first instant of their cause; nor is it due to the last instant of the cause. Joy and pain are felt through coming together of dependent factors. So within this mere appearance I will observe ethical norms.

The encouragement often reminded to practitioners is one of returning the awareness to a state of least contrivance, as often as possible. If the awareness strays, gently note the straying, and then lead the mind home to recognise its intrinsic nature, which is spacious and vast, suffused with knowing, and never, from beginningless time, sullied by dualistic conditions which is basically the cause of delusional views.

Resting one’s mind without fabrication is considered the single key point of the realization of all the countless profound and extensive oral instructions in meditation practice such as Mahamudra, Dzogchen, Lamdrey, Cho, Zhije and so forth. The oral instructions appear in various modes due to the differences in ways of human understanding. Some meditators regard meditation practice as simply a thought-free state of mind in which all gross and subtle perceptions of the six senses have ceased. This is called straying into a dull state of shamatha. Some presume stable meditation to be a state of neutral dullness not embraced by mindfulness. Some regard meditation as complete clarity, smooth bliss or utter voidness and cling to those experiences. Some chop their meditation into fragments, believing the objective of meditation to be a vacant state of mind between the cessation of one thought and the arising of the next. Some hold on to such thoughts as, "The mind-nature is dharmakaya! It is empty! It cannot be grasped!" To think, "Everything is devoid of true existence! It is like a magical illusion! Its like space!" and to regard that as the meditation state is to have fallen into the extreme of intellectual assumption. Some people claim that whatever is thought or whatever occurs is of the nature of meditation. They stray into craziness by falling under the power of ordinary thinking. Most others regard thinking as a defect and inhibit it. They believe in resting in meditation after controlling what is being thought and tie themselves up in fixated mindfulness or an ascetic state of mind. In short, the mind may be still, in turmoil as thoughts and disturbing emotions, or tranquil in any of the experiences of bliss, clarity, and non-thought. Knowing how to sustain the spontaneity of innate naturalness directly in whatever occurs, without having to fabricate, reject or change anything is extremely rare. ~ Tsele Natsok Rangdrol - "THE LAMP OF MAHAMUDRA"

Death is certain, but when it will arrive is not. One thing that’s for sure is that we are not going to live for one hundred years. One hundred years from now, pretty much everybody alive today will be dead. It is very important to remember impermanence. The Kadampa geshes used to remember impermanence all the time in order to avoid seeking the comfort of the temporal life. They felt that if they didn’t bring it to mind in the morning they were in danger of wasting the entire afternoon, and if they didn’t bring it to mind in the afternoon they were in danger of wasting the whole night. By constantly keeping impermanence in mind, they were able to prevent the meaningless thought seeking only the comfort of this life from arising. ~ Khunu Rinpoche

To innermost bliss, I pay homage! Were I to explain Mahamudra, I would say - All phenomena? Your own mind! If you look outside for meaning, you'll get confused. Phenomena are like a dream, empty of true nature, And mind is merely the flux of awareness, No self nature: just energy flow. No true nature: just like the sky. All phenomena are alike, sky-like. That's Mahamudra, as we call it. It doesn't have an identity to show; For that reason, the nature of mind Is itself the very state of Mahamudra ................... What are notions of going or staying? Or, for that matter, "meditating" in solitude? If you don't get this, You free yourself only on the surface. But if you do get it, what can ever fetter you? Abide in an undistracted state. Trying to adjust body and mind won't produce meditation. Trying to apply techniques won't produce meditation either. ~ Maitripa

"So don't be in a hurry and try to rush your practice. Do your meditation gently and gradually step by step. If you become peaceful, then accept it; if you don't become peaceful, then accept that also. That's the nature of the mind. We must find our own practice and persistently keep at it." ~ Ajahn Chah

“This is what the path of Dharma is like. It's not that you have to do all the practices. It is sufficient to take just one of them, whichever one you really have an affinity with, and through practicing that one alone, for the rest of your life, you will achieve enlightenment. Whichever practice you choose doesn't matter; they are all valid methods for achieving enlightenment - if you practice. The key is to practice with diligence for the rest of your life.” ~ Dhomang Yangthang, 'The Union of Dzogchen and Mahamudra`

False views make up the world true views are the world beyond when true and false views are both dismissed your buddha nature will be manifest this is simply the straightforward teaching also known as the Mahayana delusion lasts countless kalpas awareness takes but an instant ~ Hui-neng ~

double like

SHRI SINGHA'S INSTRUCTION Padmasambhava asked: "Great Master, how is the nature of mind of Buddhas and sentient beings?" Shri Singha replied: The nature of the mind of Buddhas and sentient beings does not consist of any entity whatsoever. Yet, while it is not an entity, I have not found it to be in one absolute way. When one fails to find a reference point in the mind, something to identify, conceptions are liberated in themselves; there is no demon which can harm it. That is called 'cutting through outer misconceptions'. This is the way to cut through inner misconceptions: This self-wakefulness of knowing cannot be found to have arisen from a particular cause, to have produced from certain conditions, or to possess such and such an identity. Even I, Shri Singha, have not discovered any mind that could be described as being such and such. So, Padmasambhava, I too have no mind to show you as being in any one absolute way. Having spoken in this way, he dissolved into indestructible space.

"It is very fortunate to hear the words of an enlightened being, free of all obscurations and full of compassion and love for all sentient beings. All compounded things are impermanent. All duality is suffering. All phenomena are emptiness and egolessness. Nirvana is peace." ~ Buddha Shakyamuni

~ Secret yogis ~ Even in this world, and even now, there are said to be many hidden yogis or discreet yogis, called bepay naljor in Tibetan. It means those realized ones who are not generally recognized as great spiritual sages or saints, but have deeply tasted the fruit of enlightenment, and are living it. Perhaps they are anonymously doing their good works here among us right now. The infinite vast expanse is one’s own inconceivable nature. Who can say who has realized it and who hasn’t? When we travel around the world or experience other dimensions, there are so many beings who have tasted it. We can see it in their behavior, in their countenance, and in stories that are told—not just in the Dzogchen tradition or the Buddhist tradition, but in any tradition, and in our Western world too. This true nature is so vast and inconceivable that even some birds and animals and beings in other unseen dimensions can be said to have realized it, as in some of the ancient Indian Jataka stories and other teaching tales. It is always said that everything is the self-radiant display of the primordial Buddha Samantabhadra. There are infinite numbers of Buddhas and infinite numbers of beings. Who can say who is excluded from it? ~ Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche

These 'leeches' are your teachers. They teach you about your limits and help you explore spiritual sanctity - strength and weaknesses, love and fear, and other dualistic notions we generally hold, and which gives meaning to our ideas of what freedom actually means. If it was me, i'd bow down to offer my gratefulness for lessons that are otherwise unfamiliar to the uninitiated.

We do not have control over the arising of discursive thoughts. Discursive thoughts do not arise according to a schedule; they can and do arise at any time whatsoever. Exactly in accordance with that, meditation needs to be something which can and does arise at any time whatsoever. In other words, given that the arising of discursive thoughts is unscheduled, to have meditation which is liberating we need a meditation in which the arising of discursive thoughts comes together with the meditation, and the meditation comes together with the arising of discursive thoughts. – Tsoknyi Rinpoche

Liberation as ever-perfect does not refer to the liberation of a Buddha that has occurred in the past, such as that of Shakyamuni Buddha, but to the way in which countless beings are liberated right now and will continue to be liberated in the future simply by realizing their primordial purity. The basis, the path, and the ultimate result in this system are all of a singular, undifferentiated nature - total, pure awareness. Thus, the primordial freedom that one seeks to attain by practicing the spiritual path is something that one already possesses. Intrinsic freedom is itself the path that leads to the actualization of the goal. ~ Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye