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Quotations I have found -
Greetings all!
I see the other quotes thread has been closed. A lot of good ones in it ...
Still have plenty I could have posted 2 it
"Love means to love that which is unlovable, or it is no virtue at all; forgiving means to pardon the unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all; faith means believing the unbelievable, or it is no virtue at all; And to hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all."
~ G.K. Chesterton.
"It is true that overcoming obstacles and difficulties accelerates spiritual progress. The most serious lifetime difficulties, like severe psychiatric illness or physical disability, may be signs of life progress, not regress. In my opinion, it is often the very strongest souls who have chosen to shoulder these burdens because they provide great opportunities for growth."
"Things are not as they seem, nor are they otherwise."
~ Zen proverb
"If I am OK with me, I have no need to make you wrong."
~ source unknown
"You Can Rise No Higher Than Your Lowest Opinion of Another."
~ Chuck Gallozzi
"When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people."
~ Abraham Joshua Heschel
"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness."
~ Dalai Lama
"Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom."
~ Theodore Rubin
"They called me crazy, I called them crazy, and damn them! They outvoted me!"
~ Nathaniel Lee
Lord help me to be the person my dog thinks I am.
"Relate yourself to every man as if you were in his place."
~ The Urantia book
"The older I grow, the more I listen to people who don't say much."
~ Germain G. Glidden
"I was taught that when I am racked with a resentment, anger, hate towards another, that is driving me nuts. All I need to do, is pray for that person for two weeks, wishing that they would have the joy, happiness, gifts/wealth that I would want to have given to me. It was hard to try the first few times, but it always works."
~ Richard Nordeen
"God loves each of us as if there were only one of us."
~ Saint Augustine
"The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts"
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
~ Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy
"Stubborness does have its helpful features. You always know what you are going to be thinking tomorrow."
~ Anonymous
"Society honors its living conformists and its dead troublemakers."
~ Mignon McLaughlin
"Not all those who wander are lost." ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
~ Mark Twain
"If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
~ Anatole France
"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well."
~ Foe Ancis
"Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else."
That's a good start - feel free 2 add your own ...
Namaste
I see the other quotes thread has been closed. A lot of good ones in it ...
Still have plenty I could have posted 2 it
"Love means to love that which is unlovable, or it is no virtue at all; forgiving means to pardon the unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all; faith means believing the unbelievable, or it is no virtue at all; And to hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all."
~ G.K. Chesterton.
"It is true that overcoming obstacles and difficulties accelerates spiritual progress. The most serious lifetime difficulties, like severe psychiatric illness or physical disability, may be signs of life progress, not regress. In my opinion, it is often the very strongest souls who have chosen to shoulder these burdens because they provide great opportunities for growth."
"Things are not as they seem, nor are they otherwise."
~ Zen proverb
"If I am OK with me, I have no need to make you wrong."
~ source unknown
"You Can Rise No Higher Than Your Lowest Opinion of Another."
~ Chuck Gallozzi
"When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people."
~ Abraham Joshua Heschel
"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness."
~ Dalai Lama
"Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom."
~ Theodore Rubin
"They called me crazy, I called them crazy, and damn them! They outvoted me!"
~ Nathaniel Lee
Lord help me to be the person my dog thinks I am.
"Relate yourself to every man as if you were in his place."
~ The Urantia book
"The older I grow, the more I listen to people who don't say much."
~ Germain G. Glidden
"I was taught that when I am racked with a resentment, anger, hate towards another, that is driving me nuts. All I need to do, is pray for that person for two weeks, wishing that they would have the joy, happiness, gifts/wealth that I would want to have given to me. It was hard to try the first few times, but it always works."
~ Richard Nordeen
"God loves each of us as if there were only one of us."
~ Saint Augustine
"The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts"
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
~ Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy
"Stubborness does have its helpful features. You always know what you are going to be thinking tomorrow."
~ Anonymous
"Society honors its living conformists and its dead troublemakers."
~ Mignon McLaughlin
"Not all those who wander are lost." ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
~ Mark Twain
"If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
~ Anatole France
"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well."
~ Foe Ancis
"Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else."
That's a good start - feel free 2 add your own ...
Namaste
1
Comments
"We do not "come into" into this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean "waves," the universe "peoples." Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe." - Alan Watts
"The man of Tao remains unknown. Perfect virtue produces nothing. "No-Self" is "True-Self." And the greatest man is Nobody" - Chuang Tzu
"If you are afraid of death, of nothingness, of non-being; it's because you have wrong perceptions on death and non-being." - Thich Nhat Hanh
"I respect you too much to respect your ridiculous ideas." - Richard Dawkins
"Faith is believing what you know ain't so." - Mark Twain
"But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be." - Alan Watts
"God exists or God does not exist. Leave it for us. Your task is to learn how to live peacefully." - Dalai Lama
All freedom is our natural and eternal right, not the gift of some dark suit or uniform to decide if it's gonna give it to us or not. - David Icke
"Because you're not thinking about existence and being, you're not really thinking at all." - Michael Tsarion
"The idea of the Universe being ruled by that marvelous old gentleman, is no longer plausible. It isn't that anybody has disproved it, but it just somehow doesn't go with the vast infinitude of the Universe." - Alan Watts
"We can accept God becoming Man to save Man, but we cannot accept Man becoming God to save himself" - Vernon Howard
"I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it." - Mark Twain
.
It's nmerely closed, not invisible. people may still visit it to read.....
But I thought it apposite to give you the opportunity to begin your very own thread.
Which you have done.
marvellous!
Enjoy, everyone!
Thanks 4 the input!
Here's one more before I log off ...
"When a man starts 2 examine his mind, he's not really sure what he might find."
~ Anon
~ Elbert Hubbard
"You can observe a lot by watching."
~ Yogi Berra
"The simplest questions are the hardest to answer."
~ Northrop Frye
"Remember that happiness is a way of travel - not a destination."
~ Roy M. Goodman
"Love is your window to the Infinite. Enjoy the view."
~ author unknown
"Words were invented to describe inner and outer pictures and feelings which go ahead with them. In using words we all become magicians, movie directors or sound artists, creating a powerful kaleidoscope of picturesque landscapes and imaginations. Some find this natural. I find it highly magical and mystical."
~ Hans Taeger
"Do not cling to anything, to any idea; because clinging is the bondage, even to the idea of enlightenment."
~ Osho
Love me when I least deserve it, because that's when I need it most.
~ Swedish proverb
"Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight."
~ Anonymous
"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another that states that this has already happened."
~ Douglas Adams
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer."
~ Thoreau
"The second commandment that Jesus referred to was not to love others instead of ourselves, but to love them as ourselves. Before we can love and serve others, we must love ourselves, even in our imperfection. If we don't embrace our own defects, we can't love others with their shortcomings."
~ Jim Warner
"You have forgotten what it was like to be loved without condition. You do not remember the experience of the love of God. And so you try to imagine what God's love must be like, based on what you see of love in the world."
~ Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God
"That which you judge, you will one day become."
~ Neale again
"The love you withhold is the pain that you carry."
~ Anon
"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."
~ Albert Einstein
"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself."
~ Eleanor Roosevelt
"Work as if you have no money. Love as if you have never been hurt. Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. And live everyday as if it were your last."
~ Anonymous
"May all beings learn how to nourish themselves with joy each day."
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
"The world is extremely interesting to a joyful soul."
~ Alexandra Stoddard
~ William Blake
~ Gary Zukav
"To watch your thoughts as they drift slowly by is something you should definitely try."
~ Anon
Have a good one!
~ Marianne Williamson
~ Pema Chodron
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<o></o>
There is no real self. What we feel or experience as being a 'self' is merely a mental formation, merely a certain kind of thinking. When the mind is free of thinking, the mind can realize there is no self because 'self' is merely a thought. When the mind must communicate, then it realizes self is merely a word it must use or thought is must use.
__________________
Sounds to me like you ran your mind train off its usual tracks, and you liked it
__________________
An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.
__________________
Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.
__________________
He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.
__________________
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
__________________
In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.
__________________
In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.
__________________
It is better to travel well than to arrive.
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Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.
__________________
The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground.
__________________
The tongue like a sharp knife... Kills without drawing blood.
__________________
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
__________________
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.
__________________
Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.
__________________
You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.
__________________
“Smile, breathe and go slowly”
__________________
"We create our own darkness and have the capacity to create our own light. Darkness and Light are created and destroyed by our own efforts alone."
__________________
All conditioned things are impermanent. Work out your own salvation with diligence....The Buddha's last words.<o></o>
__________________
Realize that freedom is beyond the walls of ego, when you've wasted so much time decorating.
__________________
Aren’t we lost within our everyday lives? Never truly knowing who we are, always looking for that sense of purpose, of being but, always falling just short.
It seems to me, to be time to awake
__________________
The greatest obstacle to discovery isn't ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.
__________________
We're all 'lost souls' on this ship of samsara together. If it goes down ... the captain, the officers, the ordinary seamen, and even the ship's cat, ... all end up in Davy Jones locker together. Equal at last. Surely it's better to realize our fundamental equality beforehand and work together for our common good?
__________________
I was sitting outside and saw an ant crawl on my big toe. I moved my toe a little, and the ant began to run around trying to get away from this moving surface.
For a while it circled around on my toe looking for an escape, when all it needed to do was "let go" and it would have fallen to the ground, where it wanted to be.
It left me asking the question, "How do you let go of the very surface you walk on?" <o></o>
__________________
Seek the wisdom that will untie you now. See the path that demands your whole being. Leave that which is not, but appears to be. Seek that which is, but is not apparent.
__________________<o></o>
The winds give me enough fallen leaves to make a fire.<o></o>
__________________<o></o>
The thief left it there, there in the window frame, the shining moon.<o></o>
__________________<o></o>
"If you try to straighten out the world without really straightening yourself out first, your own inner goodness will eventually break down, and then where will you be? You won't be able to do anybody -- yourself or anyone else -- any good at all."
__________________
We all want happiness, but for the most part we aren't interested in building the causes for happiness. All we want are the results. But if we don't take an interest in the causes, how are the results going to come our way?"
__________________
"Is that the sort of person you are? -- always carrying food around in your pocket for fear there'll be nothing to eat?" Then he explained: "If you jot everything down, you'll feel it's okay to forget what you've written, because it's all there in your notebook. The end result is that all the Dhamma will be in your notebook, and none in your heart."
__________________
"Nothing comes from focusing on the faults of others. You can get more done by looking at your own faults instead."
__________________
"How good or bad other people are is their own business. Focus on your own business instead."
__________________
"If you're going to teach the Dhamma to people, but they're not intent on listening, or not ready for what you have to say, then no matter how fantastic the Dhamma you're trying to teach, it still counts as idle chatter, because it doesn't serve any purpose."
__________________
"We each have two ears and one mouth — which shows that we should give more time to listening, and less to speaking."
__________________
"If something's really good, you don't have to advertise."
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"If you want to be a good person, make sure you know where true goodness really lies. Don't just go through the motions of being good."
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"When you start out practicing, the Buddha asks you to believe in only one thing: karma. As for things aside from that, whether or not you believe them isn't really important."
__________________
"It's not all that necessary to observe the eight precepts, but make sure you observe the one precept, okay? Do you know what the one precept is?" "Not doing any evil. I want you to hold onto this one for life."
__________________
You think that good means hating what is bad. What’s bad is the hating mind itself.<o></o>
__________________<o></o>
If you are not amazed by how naive you were yesterday, you're standing still. If you are not terrified of the next step, your eyes are closed. If you are standing still and your eyes are closed, you're only dreaming you're awake. A caged bird with all that boundless sky.
__________________
If religion were true, its followers would not try to bludgeon their young into an artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth, irrespective of artificial backgrounds or practical consequences.
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Every branch of human knowledge, if traced up to its source and final principles, vanishes into mystery.
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Life is short, but there is always time enough for courtesy.
__________________
He said, "Humans have a problem with infinity. The ancient Greeks would not accept the existence of zero." "Why is that?" I asked. He took the coffee cup he was holding and set it down on a napkin. Then he picked up the cup. It left a ring. He showed it to me, "Where did the circle begin?"
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Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.
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Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.
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One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything.
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No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.
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Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.
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Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
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Do not speak- unless it improves on silence
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If you touch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything.
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People with opinions just go around bothering each other.
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There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks .
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The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve.<o></o>
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Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.<o></o>
__________________<o></o>
Self-sacrifice is the real miracle out of which all the reported miracles grow<o></o>
__________________<o></o>
The guy who takes a chance, who walks the line between the known and unknown, who is unafraid of failure, will succeed.<o></o>
__________________<o></o>
Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.<o></o>
__________________<o></o>
Intelligence flourishes only in the ages when belief withers.
__________________
Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.<o></o>
__________________<o></o>
Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.
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When the axe entered the forest, the trees looked at the handle and said “hey its one of us”.
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Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time.
Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, which is the only fact we have.
It seems to me that we ought to rejoice in the fact of death - ought to decide, indeed, to earn one’s death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life.
One is responsible for life:
It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return. <o></o>
__________________<o></o>
Someone once asked a meditation instructor, "I keep falling asleep when I meditate. What can I do about it?"
"Well, what's the problem?"
"Well, I'm falling asleep."
"There's no problem with that."
"Um, OK."
"...at the moment you fall asleep, is there a greater volume of air passing through your left nostril, or your right nostril?"
"I don't know."
"Ah, that's a problem."
<o>
</o>
Many were 'new' to me anyway.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama:
"Every human being has the same potential for compassion; the only question is whether we really take any care of that potential, and develop and implement it in our daily life. My hope is that more and more people will realise the value of compassion, and so follow the path of altruism. As for myself, ever since I became a Buddhist monk, that has been my real destiny - for usually I think of myself as just one simple Buddhist monk, no more and no less."
Namaste
The near enemy of lovingkindness is attachment...At first, attachment may feel like love, but as it grows it becomes more clearly the opposite, characterized by clinging, controlling, and fear.
The near enemy of compassion is pity, and this also separates us. Pity feels sorry for "that poor person over there," as if he were somehow different from us...
The near enemy of sympathetic joy (the joy in the happiness of others) is comparison, which looks to see if we have more of, the same as, or less than another...
The near enemy of equanimity is indifference. True equanimity is balance in the midst of experience, whereas indifference is a withdrawal and not caring, based on fear...
If we do not recognize and understand the near enemies, they will deaden our spiritual practice. The compartments they make cannot shield us for long from the pain and unpredictability of life, but they will surely stifle the joy and open connectedness of true relationships.
~ Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened."
Winston Churchill
If we were to rub two pieces of wood together but stop and attend to something else before sparks were produced, we would never attain fire. In the same way, if we practice sporadically, for example at weekends and during retreats, but neglect our daily practice, we can seldom achieve lasting results.
***************************************************************
As a rock remains unmoved by a storm, so the wise man remains unmoved by praise of blame.
More to follow ... if I remember ...
Cheers
~ Marianne Williamson
Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one!'
~ CS Lewis
Namaste
Oops - Don't want 2 imply those 2 came from the same book but I can't edit the heading ... oh well ...
"If you can't answer a man's arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names." ~ Elbert Green Hubbard
"Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof."
~ Galbraith's Law
"There are two rules for success: 1) Never tell everything you know."
~ Roger H. Lincoln
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and say the opposite."
~ Sam Levenson
"Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you."
~ C. G. Jung
"Like the bee gathering honey from the different flowers, the wise person accepts the essence of the different scriptures and sees only the good in all religions."
~ Gandhi
"Life may have no meaning. Or even worse, it may have a meaning of which I disapprove. "
~ Ashleigh Brilliant
"Most of my problems have no answer or else the answer is worse than the problem."
~ Ashleigh Brilliant
"My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I am right." ~ Ashleigh Brilliant
"My sources are unreliable, but their information is fascinating." ~ Ashleigh Brilliant
"When you forgive somebody else you accept the responsibility for your own future."
~ Zig Ziglar
"Let everyone sweep in front of his own door and the whole world will be clean."
~ Goethe
"If you view all the things that happen to you, both good and bad, as opportunities, then you operate out of a higher level of consciousness."
~ Les Brown
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
~Thomas Edison
"Money can't buy friends, but you can get a better class of enemy."
~ Spike Milligan
"Having more money does not insure happiness. People with ten million dollars are no happier than people with nine million dollars."
~ Hobart Brown
"In a few minutes a computer can make a mistake so great that it would take many men many months to equal it."
~ Merle Meacham
"Internet is so big, so powerful and pointless that for some people it is a complete substitute for life."
~ Andrew Brown
"We have all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true."
~ R. Wilensky
"The best computer is a man, and it's the only one that can be mass-produced by unskilled labor."
~ Wernher von Braun
"Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law."
~ Buddha (563-483 B.C.)
"To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness."
~ Robert Muller
"A person's ability to forgive is in proportion to the greatness of his soul."
~ Author Unknown
"Welcome anything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else."
~ Andre Gide
"When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and arguments. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change."
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in 7 years!"
~ Mark Twain
"Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps."
~ Emo Phillips
Enjoy!
~ Paulo Coelho
I have read a couple of his books and highly recommend them!
Cheers
Here's one from Sogyal Rinpoche -
Imagine you are sitting in front of a glass door that leads out into your garden, looking through it, gazing out into space. It seems as though there is nothing between you and the sky, because you cannot see the surface of the glass. You would bang your nose if you got up and tried to walk through, thinking it wasn’t there. But if you touch it you will see at once that there is something there that holds your fingerprints, something that comes between you and the space outside.
In the same manner, the ground of the ordinary mind prevents us from breaking through to the skylike nature of our mind, even if we can still have glimpses of it. We have to break out of the ground of the ordinary mind altogether, to discover and let in the fresh air of Rigpa.
Cheers
It is a fact of life that many people are troubled by negative mind states yet do little about it in terms of developing skills to deal with it. Yet even when the mind goes sour it is within most people's capacity to arouse feelings of loving-kindness to sweeten it. Loving-kindness, as a meditation practice, specifically retrains the mind to overcome all forms of negativity. It brings about positive attitudinal changes as the meditation systematically develops the quality of 'loving-acceptance'. In this way, it acts as a form of self-psychotherapy, a way of healing the troubled mind to free it from its pain and confusion.
Loving-kindness is practised as the first of a series of meditations that produce four qualities of love: Friendliness (metta), Compassion (karuna), Appreciative Joy (mudita) and Equanimity (upekkha). The quality of 'friendliness' is expressed as warmth that reaches out and embraces others. When loving-kindness matures it naturally overflows into compassion, because it empathizes with people's difficulties; while on the other hand one needs to be wary of pity, as its the near enemy, merely mimicking the quality of concern without empathy. The positive expression of empathy is an appreciation of other people's good qualities or good fortune rather than feelings of jealousy towards them, which is the enemy of appreciative joy. This series of meditations comes to maturity in the state of on-looking equanimity. This equanimity has to be cultivated within the context of this series of meditations or else it tends to manifest as its near enemy, indifference or aloofness.
It remains caring and on looking with an equal spread of feeling and acceptance toward all people, relationships and situations without discrimination.
Have a good one!
Not all of the quotes are Buddhist ... I take wisdom from any source
So, I wouldn't call myself a Buddhist but I love the approach rather than the dogma of most alternate religions. Was raised a Catholic but never really felt it suited my style of mind
Anyway, keep reading because I have more quotes up my sleeve.
Namaste
When I see beings of unpleasant character
Oppressed by strong negativity and suffering,
May I hold them dear - for they are rare to find -
As if I have discovered a jewel treasure!
This verse refers to the special case of relating to people who are socially marginalised, perhaps because of their behaviour, their appearance, their destitution, or on account of some illness. Whoever practices bodhichitta must take special care of these people, as if, on meeting them, you have found a real treasure. Instead of feeling repulsed, a true practitioner of these altruistic principles should engage and take on the challenge of relating. In fact, the way we interact with people of this kind could give a great impetus to our spiritual practice.
From The Dalai Lama's Little Book of Wisdom
Peace ~ Love ~ Happiness
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On the subject of giving up talking, I am reminded of a fascinating little book called "The Hermit" by Lobsang Rampa. Not sure if it is still in print. The copy I read was from a library and I have moved since then. Highly recommend it 4 the spin on all religions and a few extraterrestrials thrown in.
Thanks 4 sharing the link even if it will take a while 4 me to see the video.
"There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path."
"What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about your senses, what you feel, taste, smell, or see, then all you're talking about are electrical signals interpreted by your brain."
"What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad."
OK GEOFF GOOD LUCK HOPE YOU ENJOY IT
Still no luck installing the software I need. I'm no computer wiz - just use it for email and browsing these daze.
Yes we have a few time zones in Oz. I live in Melbourne which is down the south-west corner of the continent.
How about some more quotes ...
The experience of the practice itself teaches us that any conception or ideal of awakened being can only be a hindrance - neither practice nor awakening is about ideas or images. And yet, however limited the finger-pointing at the moon, still we point, we turn to one another for direction. So I have come to think that if the bodhisattva's task is to continue to practice until every pebble, every blade of grass, awakens, surely the passions, difficult or blissful, can also be included in that vow. And if awakening is also already present, inescapably and everywhere present from the beginning, how can the emotions not be part of that singing life of grasses and fish and oil tankers and subways and cats in heat who wake us, furious and smiling, in the middle of the brief summer night?
Jane Hirshfield, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
When we trust with our open heart, whatever occurs, at the very moment that it occurs, can be perceived as fresh and unstained by the clouds of hope and fear. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche used the phrase, "first thought, best thought" to refer to that first moment of fresh perception, before the colorful and coloring clouds of judgment and personal interpretation take over. "First thought" is "best thought" because it has not yet got covered over by all our opinions and interpretations, our hopes and fears, our likes and dislikes. It is direct perception of the world as it is. Sometimes we discover "first thought, best thought" by relaxing into the present moment in a very simple way.
~ Jeremy Hayward
We try so hard to hang on to the teachings and "get it," but actually the truth sinks in like rain into very hard earth. The rain is very gentle, and we soften up slowly at our own speed. But when that happens, something has fundamentally changed in us. That hard earth has softened. It doesn't seem to happen by trying to get it or capture it. It happens by letting go; it happens by relaxing your mind, and it happens by the aspiration and the longing to want to communicate with yourelf and others. Each of us finds our own way.
~ Pema Chodron
Have a good one!
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- Shunryu Suzuki G'NIGHT MATE
I think there is a book called 'Zen mind beginners mind'.
Cheers
~ Sharon Salzberg
Namaste
I think there's also a camera other at the top of a building in our CBD. Can't recall exactly where ...
Night All
Advice from the Dalai Lama
For peace of mind, practice inner disarmament
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Spend 5 minutes at the beginning of each day remembering we all want the same things (to be happy and be loved) and we are all connected to one another.
Spend 5 minutes -- breathing in -- cherishing yourself; and, breathing out cherishing others. If you think about people you have difficulty cherishing, extend your cherishing to them anyway.
During the day extend that attitude to everyone you meet.
Practice cherishing the "simplest" person (clerks, attendants, etc) or people you dislike.
Continue this practice no matter what happens or what anyone does to you.
These thoughts are very simple, inspiring and helpful.
The practice of cherishing can be taken very deeply if done wordlessly, allowing yourself to feel the love and appreciation that already exists in your heart.
Namaste
It's something I constantly remind myself 2 do ... reminds me of another quote from my favouirite cartoonist:
"Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that."
~ Michael Leunig
Here's a couple from Alan Watts I found yesterday at Brainy Quote:
But I'll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything.
If you study the writings of the mystics, you will always find things in them that appear to be paradoxes, as in Zen, particularly.
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
Cheers
YOU KNOW GEOFF the one thing that i have found that is common to all religious scripture is ''the golden rule'' so simple and so difficult
Here's a couple more:
Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who do not always agree with you until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire until you have formed the habit of looking for the good instead of the bad there is in others, you will be neither successful nor happy.
~ Napolean Hill
The essence of any religion lies solely in the answer to the question: why do I exist, and what is my relationship to the infinite universe that surrounds me?
~ Leo Tolstoy
You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.
Peace ~ Love ~ Happiness
~ Napolean Hill
whenever i try this i feel so phoney what to do?
First, be gentle with yourself. Maybe you're not (yet) ready for that practice. Speaking personally, I can't believe how much I have changed in the past ten years. I thought I would be angry & cynical to my dying day!
Not sure if this will help but it's one of the quotes I had been keeping up my sleeve:
"Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew."
~ Saint Francis de Sales
Best of luck!
May all beings be happy
May all beings be healed and whole
May all have whatever they want and need
May all be protected from harm, and free from fear
May all beings enjoy inner peace and ease
May all be awakened, liberated and free
May there be peace in this world and throughout the entire universe.
Found it in a great little book by Lama Surya Das called 'Awakening the Buddha Within'.
I highly recommend it!
~ Ellen DeGeneres
Buddha's words from the Pali Canon.
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MY PROBLEM IS WISHING WELL TO MY ENEMYS I FEEL SO PHONY. it does say universal love. what to do
The good cannot exist without evil. The friend cannot exist without the foe.
"Everybody on earth knowing that beauty is beautiful makes ugliness. Everybody knowing that goodness is good makes wickedness For being and nonbeing arise together; hard and easy complete each other; long and short shape each other; high and low depend on each other; note and voice make the music together; before and after follow each other." - Lao Tzu
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Glad you liked the quote, David.
Here's a few more on the subject of friendship from a little book I am currenltly browsing -
The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another; What! You too? I thought I was the only one.
~ C.S. Lewis
A friend is someone who can sing you the song of your heart when you've forgotten it.
~ Anonymous
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.
~ Francois de la Rochefoucauld
Kind words do not cost much. They never blister the tongue or lips. They make other people good-natured. They also produce their own image on men's souls, and a beautiful image it is.
~ Blaise Pascal
Enjoy