Best Of
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
Manifest plainness
Embrace simplicity
Reduce selfishness
Have few desires
Lao Tzu
Jeffrey
Re: Benefits of a Loving Mind
Our local Tibetan Lama says that there is no enlightenment without developing both wisdom and compassion.
And both of these come from developing an ongoing state of awareness/mindfulness.
As we become self-aware and start to feel compassion for our own habits of ignorance, we start to see that others are just like us ... trying to become happier. This awareness triggers a sense of kinship with all living beings, and that is the source of developing compassion.
Without compassion we are too focused on ourselves ... too ego-centered ... to develop the wisdom needed to live in ongoing enlightenment.
Re: Being a light unto yourself
Tee Hee
Back to analogue?
Here is somone I have on my wall shrine as a manifestation of the Maitreya
lobster
Re: Is it better to believe in one life or in many?
I'm not sure it matters. Yes, if you are afraid of creating negative karmic imprints within yourself which might cause a bad rebirth, it might matter. But fear is not a very good motivator when it comes to the matter of mind-training (such as doing your Buddhist meditation).
Buddhism tells us that the Past is just a memory and no-longer matters. And that the Future never arises -- it is always tomorrow. All we have is THIS moment, but when we handle this moment as working on enlightenment, then the internal future we are creating will be positive (and the only thing which really matters IS the internal moment, at this moment in time, Here and Now).
Lastly, it is said that when we die our self-identify and memories also die and all that passes on is a very subtle energy carrying our karma imprints.
So focusing on past/future lives is focusing on something which doesn't really matter. It is this moment, and how we are relating to it, which matters.
Re: Being a light unto yourself
On a related note, my mother just declared “everything online is AI”. Which may soon be coming true… if you can no longer trust video footage as a facsimile of the real world, or text as having been typed by a human… maybe it’s time to find an entirely-analogue hermitage somewhere?
Jeroen