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Quotations I have found -

1910121415

Comments

  • "Training" the mind does not in any way mean forcibly subjugating or brainwashing the mind. To train the mind is first to see directly and concretely how the mind functions, a knowledge that you derive from spiritual teachings and through personal experience in meditation practice. Then you use that understanding to tame the mind and work with it skillfully, to make it more and more pliable, so that you can become master of your mind and employ it to its fullest and most beneficial end.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------

    One method of meditation that many people find useful is to rest the mind lightly on an object. You can use an object of natural beauty that invokes a special feeling of inspiration for you, such as a flower or a crystal. But something that embodies the truth, such as an image of Buddha, or Christ, or particularly your master, is even more powerful.


    Sogyal Rinpoche
  • “Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”

    http://thinkexist.com/quotation/listen-to-your-life-see-it-for-the-fathomless/1211006.html
  • If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be content to take their own and depart.

    -- Socrates
  • We all want to be loved, yes, but our most heartfelt wish is to love, deeply and universally. If this seems like an unreachable ideal, says THANISSARO BHIKKHU, the place to start—and often the most skillful response—is the simple attitude of goodwill.

    Comes from this page -

    http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3883&Itemid=0
  • If you seek liberation, you must have more than an intellectual understanding of suffering, its causes, and the antidotes; you must practice for this understanding to mature. Just as a deer shot by a hunter retreats into solitude to heal itself, so too, you should withdraw from all superfluous activity. At the very least, occasionally withdraw into solitude in order to practice. As a result, you may realize the one taste of reality and cut through the divisions created by delusion, attachment, and hatred. Once you have gained this realization, you become as fearless and powerful as a snow lion. You have then achieved the state of confidence. At this point, your own self-interest is fulfilled as you observe all phenomena as displays of awareness. Having brought your own inner transformation to perfection with the motivation of being of benefit to others, you are now fully capable of serving others' needs. This is the path of a true Dharma practitioner.

    ~ Karma Chagme from "A Spacious Path to Freedom: Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahamudra and Atiyoga"

  • Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can never learn from books.

    Author: John Lubbock

    Life exists only at this very moment, and in this moment it is infinite and eternal, for the present moment is infinitely small; before we can measure it, it has gone, and yet it exists forever.

    Author: Alan Watts

    Zen is not a particular state but the normal state: silent, peaceful, unagitated. In Zazen neither intention, analysis, specific effort nor imagination take place. It's enough just to be without hypocrisy, dogmatism, arrogance -- embracing all opposites.

    Author: Taisen Deshimaru, Zen teacher

    Something precious is lost if we rush headlong into the details of life without pausing for a moment to pay homage to the mystery of life and the gift of another day.

    Author: Kent Nerburn

    When we are in the midst of chaos, let go of the need to control it. Be awash in it, experience it in that moment, try not to control the outcome but deal with the flow as it comes.

    Author: Leo Babauta

    The very desire to seek spiritual enlightenment is in fact nothing but the grasping tendency of the ego itself, and thus the very search for enlightenment prevents it. The 'perfect practice' is therefore not to search for enlightenment but to inquire into the motive for seeking itself. You obviously seek in order to avoid the present, and yet the present alone holds the answer: to seek forever is to miss the point forever. You always already are enlightened Spirit, and therefore to seek Spirit is simply to deny Spirit.

    Author: Ken Wilber

    The secret something that is shared by all effective healing methods is the process of leading the patient to an honest and truthful self-discovery. This self-discovery is required for the initiation and continuation of self-healing; for it is only through self-healing- in contrast to curing- that patients can experience both permanent recovery and spiritual growth…the closer our perception of self approaches, the deeper our capacity for self-healing becomes. When there is a very close correspondence between self-image and truth, our self-healing powers may be virtually unlimited.

    Author: John E. Upledger

    “All experience and phenomena are understood to be a dream, this should not be just an intellectual understanding, but a vivid and lucid experience…Genuine integration of this point produces a profound change in the individual’s response to the world. Grasping and aversion is greatly diminished, and the emotional tangles that once seemed so compelling are experienced as the tug of dream stories, and no more.”

    Author: Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

    “Instead of negating the conflicting aspects of a paradox, you advance your understanding when you can hold both sides of a dichotomy in your mind at the same time, reconciling rather than negating…one could embrace paradox as an operating, operative principle, rather than seeking to deny or dissolve or dilute it…Rather than seeking to resolve dualisms and institute some grand ‘theory of everything’, ‘the science of the imagination’ would embrace and explore paradox, going deeper into conundrums, relinquishing delusory attempts to achieve certainty. We may find that thought and language are creative aspects of being, tools for transforming reality. If the universe is actually a projection of subtler levels of the psyche- a loom of maya- then we may discover that the vibratory lattices of interpenetrating worlds elaborated by current physics are descriptions of the psyche itself, in its fully ensouled unfolding.”

    Author: Daniel Pinchbeck

    http://www.wisdomcommons.org/virtues/87-mindfulness
  • As we cultivate peace and happiness in ourselves, we also nourish peace and happiness in those we love.

    The Buddha's teachings on love are clear. It is possible to live twenty-four hours a day in a state of love. Every movement, every glance, every thought, and every word can be infused with love.

    And once we have the condition of peace and joy in us, we can afford to be in any situation. Even in the situation of hell, we will be able to contribute our peace and serenity. The most important thing is for each of us to have some freedom in our heart, some stability in our heart, some peace in our heart. Only then will we be able to relieve the suffering around us.

    ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

    Come from this HUGE site -

    http://www.spiritual-experiences.com/spiritual-quotes/
  • The most complete and true happiness comes in moments when you feel right there, completely present, with no ideas about good and bad, right and wrong — just a sense of open heart and open mind.

    ~ Pema Chodron
  • "This is the best kind of voyeurism, hearing joy from your neighbors."

    ~ Chuck Sigars

    "Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why."

    ~ Eddie Cantor


    "At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities."

    ~ Jean Houston

    "The final moment of success is often no more thrilling than taking off a heavy backpack at the end of a long hike. If you went on the hike only to feel that pleasure, you are a fool. Yet people sometimes do just this. They work hard at a task and expect some special euphoria at the end. But when they achieve success and find only moderate and short-lived pleasure, they ask is that all there is? They devalue their accomplishments as a striving after wind. We can call this the progress principle: Pleasure comes more from making progress toward goals than from achieving them."

    ~ Jonathan Haidt

    From -

    http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/happiness/

    That site has a neat random feature you might care 2 try

    Cheers

  • "As soon as you look at the world through an ideology you are finished. No reality fits an ideology. Life is beyond that. That is why people are always searching for a meaning to life… Meaning is only found when you go beyond meaning. Life only makes sense when you perceive it as mystery and it makes no sense to the conceptualizing mind."

    ~ Anthony de Mello

    http://www.spiritual-experiences.com/spiritual-quotes/quote.php?teacher=13
  • CloudCloud Veteran
    Sorry to barge into your thread Quotemaster, but I have one that I love and must share!

    image
    Geoff-Allen
  • Thanks Cloud!

    Love it - along with the Imagine lyrics!

    Keepp em coming ...
  • “Most of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hinderances to the elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have ever lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor. The ancient philosophers, Chinese, Hindoo, Persian, and Greek, were a class than which none has been poorer in outward riches, none so rich in inward.”

    ~ Henry David Thoreau

    From a random quote at this site -

    http://yuttadhammo.sirimangalo.org/tag/thought/
  • “Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”

    ~ Dalai Lama XIV
  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    "My life has been filled with terrible misfortune, most of which never happened"

    -Montaigne

    "Life is a tragedy when seen in a close up, but a comedy when seen in a long shot"

    -Charlie Chaplin
  • Thanks person!
  • In the meditative tradition, we regard every feeling and perception as an opportunity to tune into the present moment -

    http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3813&Itemid=0
  • CloudCloud Veteran
    Here's another one for ya GA:

    "It's interesting to notice who it is we assassinate. Did you ever notice who it is, stop to think of who it is we kill? It's always people who've told us to live together in harmony and try to love one another. Jesus, Gandhi, Lincoln, John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, John Lennon... they all said try to live together peacefully. *BAM!* Right in the f'n head. Apparently we're not ready for that!" (George Carlin)
  • So true ...

    Thanks 4 posting!
  • One child asked, "Can you bend spoons with your mind?" Another asked, "Has God ever talked to you?" They were very disappointed when I said, "No." I went on to explain that for me a real true miracle is becoming a kind human being. If you have psychic powers but lack a kind heart, the powers are of no use. In fact, they could even be disadvantageous: people may get very upset if they find all their spoons have been bent!

    ~ Thubten Chodron

    Comes from this site -

    http://www.thubtenchodron.org/DailyLifeDharma/practicing_buddhism_in_daily_life.html
    Cloud
  • Few people are capable of wholehearted commitment, and that is why so few people experience a real transformation through their spiritual practice. It is a matter of giving up our own viewpoints, of letting go of opinions and preconceived ideas, and instead following the Buddha's guidelines. Although this sounds simple, in practice most people find it extremely difficult. Their ingrained viewpoints, based on deductions derived from cultural and social norms, are in the way.

    We must also remember that heart and mind need to work together. If we understand something rationally but don't love it, there is no completeness for us, no fulfillment. If we love something but don't understand it, the same applies. If we have a relationship with another person, and we love the person but don't understand him or her, the relationship is incomplete; if we understand that person but don't love him or her, it is equally unfulfilling. How much more so on our spiritual path. We have to understand the meaning of the teaching and also love it. In the beginning our understanding will only be partial, so our love has to be even greater.

    ~ Ayya Khema; When the Iron Eagle Flies
  • "Life is a series of opportunities 2 practice unconditional compassion."

    ~ Anon
  • When we are humble everyone is a potential best friend and our generosity naturally grows. We want to do things, to help out. A wonderful Zen tradition is called "inji-gyo," or secret good deeds. The virtue gained through performing a secret good deed is believed to be immense. So, in a monastery, if one watched closely, you might see a monk secretly mending another's robes or taking down someone's laundry and folding it before the rain comes. In our temple I often find chocolate spontaneously appearing in my mailbox, or a beautiful poem, unsigned. This year the Easter Bunny visited our Sunday service, leaving chocolate eggs under everyone's cushions, even the one prepared for a visiting Zen master. Sometimes the bathrooms are miraculously cleaned overnight. And flowers spontaneously appear in a neighbor's yard, thanks to the children in the temple. Secret good deeds. They are so much fun. In their doing you can't help but smile.

    ~ Geri Larkin
    Kangaroo
  • “The Buddhist concept of non-attachment is such a bugaboo. It doesn’t mean, in our conventional meaning, DEtachment. Of course you still love your kids, your dog, your partner! You don’t go all Fatal Attraction; you love more purely, without that Big Self attachment brings. You think Buddha didn’t love Ananda, or Rahula? Why do you think he was teaching? Love.”

    ~ The Secular Buddhist
  • This one is little out-there but who cares ...

    We are in a maze which we built, and then we fell into, now can't get out.

    To make the game into something real, something more than merely an intellectual exercise, we elected to lose our exceptional faculties, to reduce us an entire level.

    This unfortunately, includes a loss of memory.

    ~ Philip K. Dick

    http://www.crystalinks.com/quotes8.html
  • Don’t feel disturbed by the thinking mind. You are not practicing to prevent thinking, but rather to recognize and acknowledge thinking whenever it arises.

    - Sayadaw U Tejaniya, "Observing Minds Want to Know"
  • Don’t feel disturbed by the thinking mind. You are not practicing to prevent thinking, but rather to recognize and acknowledge thinking whenever it arises.

    - Sayadaw U Tejaniya, "Observing Minds Want to Know"
  • MaryAnneMaryAnne Veteran
    edited September 2012
    "Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival." — His Holiness the Dalai Lama

  • Thanks Mary Anne!
  • We need to see the primordial potential in all of our experiences in the same way a doctor sees the health and well-being in his patients. If a patient didn’t possess a fundamental well-being, what would be the point of prescribing such antidotes as medicines, exercise, or new diets?

    - Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, "Free Expression"
  • "True happiness isn't something that can be made. It isn't the result of anything. Happiness comes to those who understand that you can't seek it any more than you seek the air you breathe. It is a part of life to be found within living. All pursuit of happiness is based upon the false assumption that there is a way to possess it; you may as well try to grab a handful of breeze! Happiness is the natural expression of a stress-free life, just as sunlight naturally warms the Earth after dark clouds appear."

    ~ Guy Finley
  • Thanks cloud!

    :)
  • “Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both. Appreciating the gloriousness inspires us, encourages us, cheers us up, gives us a bigger perspective, energizes us. We feel connected. But if that's all that's happening, we get arrogant and start to look down on others, and there is a sense of making ourselves a big deal and being really serious about it, wanting it to be like that forever. The gloriousness becomes tinged by craving and addiction. On the other hand, wretchedness--life's painful aspect--softens us up considerably. Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person. When you are feeling a lot of grief, you can look right into somebody's eyes because you feel you haven't got anything to lose--you're just there. The wretchedness humbles us and softens us, but if we were only wretched, we would all just go down the tubes. We'd be so depressed, discouraged, and hopeless that we wouldn't have enough energy to eat an apple. Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us. They go together.”

    ~ Pema Chödrön, Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living
  • "Often it is difficult people who are suffering the most intensely and who are therefore most in need of compassion."

    ~ Lorne Ladner, "The Lost Art of Compassion"
  • "Whether we are paying careful attention to wholesome states when they arise, reflecting on gratitude, or feeling the delight of living with integrity (which the Buddha called 'the bliss of blamelessness'), we can access joy by shifting the focus of our awareness to what uplifts the heart."

    - James Baraz, "Lighten Up!"
  • "There are many ways up the mountain, but each of us must choose a practice that feels true to his own heart. It is not necessary for you to evaluate the practices chosen by others."

    - Jack Kornfield, "Take the One Seat"

  • "Whatever technique one is using, remember that the spirit of practice is more important than the technique. Finding a way to enjoy just sitting is key. Sitting meditation is a refuge, not a test."

    - Narayan Liebenson Grady, "The Refuge of Sitting"
  • Awareness itself is the primary currency of the human condition, and as such it deserves to be spent carefully. Sitting quietly in a serene environment, letting go of the various petty disturbances that roil and diminish consciousness, and experiencing as fully as possible the poignancy of this fleeting moment—this is an enterprise of deep intrinsic value, an aesthetic experience beyond words.

    - Andrew Olendzki, "Busy Signal"
  • The idea of naturalness is that no-working is true working. It’s the understanding that things don’t happen due to your own calculation and effort. You don’t sit there thinking, 'All right now, if I’m able to follow the eightfold path and do everything the right way, then I will attain awakening.' That’s your own deluded, ego-based effort. I did this, I am able to do that—the moment you start thinking that way, your ego mind comes into play. Yet when the karmic conditions are right, when your causes and conditions come together, you can progress along the path.

    - Reverend Patricia Kanaya Usuki, "The Great Compassion"
  • Letting go doesn't mean we don't care. Letting go doesn't mean we shut down.
    Letting go means we stop trying to force outcomes and make people behave.
    It means we give up resistance to the way things are, for the moment.
    It means we stop trying to do the impossible--controlling that which we cannot--and instead, focus on what is possible - which usually means taking care of ourselves. And we do this in gentleness, kindness, and love, as much as possible.

    ~ Melody Beattie

    http://www.livinglifefully.com/lettinggo.htm
  • “The most reasonable hypothesis is that there’s something about conscientious Buddhist practice that results in the kind of happiness we all seek.”

    http://tinyurl.com/9ukkf4n
  • To relate with others compassionately is a challenge. Really communicating to the heart and being there for someone else—our child, spouse, parent, client, patient, or the homeless woman on the street—means not shutting down on that person, which means, first of all, not shutting down on ourselves. This means allowing ourselves to feel what we feel and not pushing it away. It means accepting every aspect of ourselves, even the parts we don't like. To do this requires openness, which in Buddhism is sometimes called emptiness—not fixating or holding on to anything. Only in an open, nonjudgmental space can we acknowledge what we are feeling. Only in an open space where we're not all caught up in our own version of reality can we see and hear and feel who others really are, which allows us to be with them and communicate with them properly.

    http://admin.shambhala.com/html/learn/features/pema/books/excerpts/fallApart-excerpt.cfm
  • A smile starts on the lips, A grin spreads to the eyes, A chuckle comes from the belly; But a good laugh bursts forth from the soul, Overflows, and bubbles all around.

    – Carolyn Birmingham

    A well-balanced person is one who finds both sides of an issue laughable.

    — Herbert Procknow

    As soap is to the body, so laughter is to the soul.

    – A Jewish Proverb

    He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity’s sun rise.

    – William Blake

    I will follow the upward road today; I will keep my face to the light. I will think high thoughts as I go my way; I will do what I know is right. I will look for the flowers by the side of the road; I will laugh and love and be strong. I will try to lighten another’s load this day as I fare along.

    — Mary S. Edgar

    http://www.laughteryogaamerica.com/4fun/grow/118-quotes-laughter-joy-happiness-729.php
  • "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."

    ~ Terry Pratchett

    “There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”

    ~ John Lennon

    http://www.livelifehappy.com/life-quotes/
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