Best Of
Re: Buddhist quotes
“The society is sick. Mother Earth has the capacity to heal herself. It may take a million years, or ten million. She is not in a hurry. We don’t have to die to return to Mother Earth. Mother Earth is within us now. She knows how to act. All we have to do is not act, and Mother Earth acts for us. Look at your breathing. In, out, it happens automatically. With your in breath, think ‘healing is taking place’. With your out breath, think ‘healing is taking place’. Do not act. Just relax. This is practice through non-practice. This way, we heal our society, and help Mother Earth.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
Jeroen
Re: Letting go of games
See if this resonates with you, @marcitko, in the context of strategy games:
“As we have seen, having – the concept of ownership – is a fiction created by the ego to give itself solidity and permanency and make itself stand out, make itself special. Since you cannot find yourself through having, however, there is another more powerful drive underneath it that pertains to the structure of the ego: the need for more, which we could also call “wanting.” No ego can last for long without the need for more. Therefore, wanting keeps the ego alive much more than having. The ego wants to want more than it wants to have. And so the shallow satisfaction of having is always replaced by more wanting. This is the psychological need for more, that is to say, more things to identify with. It is an addictive need, not an authentic one.”
from A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
Jeroen
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“Last year, I had a life-changing experience at 90 years old. I went to space, after decades of playing an iconic science-fiction character who was exploring the universe. I thought I would experience a deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for endless exploration.
"I was absolutely wrong. The strongest feeling, that dominated everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced.
"I understood, in the clearest possible way, that we were living on a tiny oasis of life, surrounded by an immensity of death. I didn’t see infinite possibilities of worlds to explore, of adventures to have, or living creatures to connect with. I saw the deepest darkness I could have ever imagined, contrasting so starkly with the welcoming warmth of our nurturing home planet.
"This was an immensely powerful awakening for me. It filled me with sadness. I realized that we had spent decades, if not centuries, being obsessed with looking away, with looking outside. I did my share in popularizing the idea that space was the final frontier. But I had to get to space to understand that Earth is and will stay our only home. And that we have been ravaging it, relentlessly, making it uninhabitable."
— William Shatner, actor
Jeroen
Re: So HUNGRY to NOT CRAVE
Does anybody else get fired up thinking about the equanimity that is possible in an imagined future on the Buddhist path?
Strangely. Once we no longer crave the results. We practice more or tread the path more insightfully and mindfully. I can not think of anything which is not practice.
If we feel our equanimity could be greater, we will never be satisfied. It is a bit like opening a Christmas present from the inside... and finding the world is the present...
lobster
Re: Death
Not bad. I’ve often found that the presence of death has a wonderfully clarifying effect on one’s priorities. Suddenly your heart speaks, and you notice that all the blithering that the mind does about bills, work, cars, it doesn’t matter at all. What matters is that you haven’t seen your brother in twenty years.
Jeroen
Re: So HUNGRY to NOT CRAVE
@Shoshin1 said:
Don't have expectations, just practice, forget about trying to achieve something and things will eventually fall into place....
Years ago, one of the first times I received meditation instruction at a Zen center, the instructor said gently before we started that "you're not trying to achieve anything." I thought it was good advice but also out of left field, since we had just met and she didn't know my motivations.
But of course she did know, even if I didn't yet.
Re: So HUNGRY to NOT CRAVE
Thus have I heard...
Om Mani Padme Hung ....The Jewel is (already) in the Lotus
What you crave for, you already have. it's your craving which is keeping you from it.
Don't have expectations, just practice, forget about trying to achieve something and things will eventually fall into place....
The Dalai Lama once said "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."
That's the weird and wonderful Dharma for ya...
Shoshin1
Death
I sometimes wonder what is actually important?
Here are some answers I found helpful...
https://www.joanwestenberg.com/the-mortality-matrix-a-framework-for-decision-making-in-an-overwhelmed-world/
lobster