Best Of
Re: Good and Bad People
Here is a thought.
Happy and contented people don't do harm to others.
You can put the blame on the poisons of greed, fear, anger and aversion that is the cause of all the "badness".
The "rich" want more because they always feel they don't have enough.
The "poor" hate the rich because they fear that what they have is going to be taken away.
Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.
Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow
“He abused me, he struck me, he overpowered me, he robbed me.” Those who harbor such thoughts do not still their hatred.
“He abused me, he struck me, he overpowered me, he robbed me.” Those who do not harbor such thoughts still their hatred.
Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is a law eternal.
There are those who do not realize that one day we all must die. But those who do realize this settle their quarrels.
Just as a storm throws down a weak tree, so does Mara overpower the man who lives for the pursuit of pleasures, who is uncontrolled in his senses, immoderate in eating, indolent, and dissipated. [1]
Just as a storm cannot prevail against a rocky mountain, so Mara can never overpower the man who lives meditating on the impurities, who is controlled in his senses, moderate in eating, and filled with faith and earnest effort. [2]
Whoever being depraved, devoid of self-control and truthfulness, should don the monk’s yellow robe, he surely is not worthy of the robe.
But whoever is purged of depravity, well-established in virtues and filled with self-control and truthfulness, he indeed is worthy of the yellow robe.
Those who mistake the unessential to be essential and the essential to be unessential, dwelling in wrong thoughts, never arrive at the essential.
Those who know the essential to be essential and the unessential to be unessential, dwelling in right thoughts, do arrive at the essential.
Just as rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, so passion penetrates an undeveloped mind.
Just as rain does not break through a well-thatched house, so passion never penetrates a well-developed mind.
Re: Good and Bad People
Platitudes for Buddhists? Or...
Maybe we should work out who is who and what is what? 
lobster
Re: Buddhist quotes
We are compelled more by the dreams of things than the things themselves. We crave and cling to mental fabrications. Even the “I” that is seemingly propelled along by this compulsive flow is an endless series of mental constructs.
Andy Karr, “Between Neuro-Skepticism and Ultimate Liberation”
Jeffrey
Re: Bodhisattvas?
I would like here to throw in my hey penny.
When we relax, stop trying to question, "Am I doing the Bodhisattva thing?" as if deliberately weighing our thoughts and actions on an invisible scale, "This will get me points" or "This will get me demerits.", and we just, without judgement or comparison, appreciate ourselves and others, the only question is two fold.
1. Am I being true to myself?
2. Are my word and deeds helping or harming?
Bodhisattvas are ordinary people. We could pass a thousand Bodhisattvas on the street and not "see" them as such.
Many years ago, in a discussion on who or what is Bodhisattva, a fellow used the analogy of a thief fleeing from the police. As he is running, he sees a child going into the street and into heavy traffic. At that moment, he pulls the child to safety. Though he is a thief, in that moment, his action was that of a Bodhisattva. In that moment, he was a Bodhisattva. He brought up that, no matter what general life state we may be in, we still posses the life state of (or the potential of) Buddha or Bodhisattva. They are life conditions and potentials within all of us, just as is sadness, joy or contentment.
granted this is just a rudimentary presentation, and we are all striving toward ever greater awakening, but perhaps, it opens the door.
Peace to all
Lionduck
Re: What is my practice? Where is my practice? Who is my teacher?
My Buddhism is Based o the Lotus Sutra. Specifically SGI.
My practice is everywhere
My teacher is everyone and everything
Seriously, my primary practice is at home and at weekly gatherings.
I learn and grow through interaction with fellow practitioners, mentors, personal study
and normal (occasionally not so normal) interaction within my environment - living.
Generally, if you think your Buddhist practice begin an ends with your formal practice,
think gain. Everyone and everything is and can be your teacher, your mentor.
The practice of Buddhism is the practice of living.
Yes, you will stumble.
Yes you will wander and wonder.
Perfection is not the point.
Peace to all
Lionduck
Re: What is my practice? Where is my practice? Who is my teacher?
Thank you for your time. A lost meditator here seeking advice once again.
Practice for the sake of practice with no expectations in mind.
And now for the perfect practice paradox
Practice makes perfect, and perfect practice makes perfect practice. Perfect practice is accepting that practice is not always perfect. For if it is perfect, it can no longer be practice, and if it is no longer practice, then why practice?
In other words @Kotishka, what is happening is practice in motion, the ups and downs, the trials and errors, the swings and roundabouts: Dukkha, Sukha, Sukha, Dukkha, the rhythm of life in Samsara.
Shoshin1
Re: What is my practice? Where is my practice? Who is my teacher?
@Kotishka said:
. Meanwhile I practice shikantaza...that being.... I face the wall, eyes slightly open, straight back, and bam: let it start baby!
Hey Kotishka
Of course, one could always consider turning around and facing the other half of existence.
Bad zen joke!
A mind seeking a teacher or a better explanation of a practice, is not in itself a sign of a lost pilgrim. If you have a practice that allows an objective observation of the incoming data feeds of all your sense gates and can allow them a collegial co-existence with each other, equanimity and suffering's reductions will inevitably follow.
If you ever again think you're lacking because of the absence of a teacher, consider that whatever makes you reluctant to practice in any moment is actually your real teacher.
Forget about your strengths in meditation; they will take care of themselves.
Like the spokes of the 8 fold path where the entire wheel is only as strong as the weakest spoke, your meditative progression can simply be buttressed by how you practice wherever you are least inclined to meditate. Here, the right teaching for you might exist where ever its hardest for you to meditate.
Cheers
H.
how