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hey there thats wonderful
Do not accept my words of faith
Believing in themjust because I said them
Be like an analyst buying gold,
who cuts,burns...
and critically exsamines his producst
for authenticity.
only accept what passes the test
by proving useful and beneficial in your life
Wisdom is, and starts with, the humility to accept the fact that you don't have all the right answers, and the courage to learn to ask the right questions.
~ Anon
People spend a lifetime searching for happiness; looking for peace. They chase idle dreams, addictions, religions, even other people, hoping to fill the emptiness that plagues them. The irony is the only place they ever needed to search was within.
~ Ramona L. Anderson
Women like silent men. They think they're listening.
~ Marcel Archard
Happiness depends on ourselves.
~ Aristotle
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
~ Aristotle
Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
~ Berthold Auerbach
I no longer worry about being a brilliant conversationalist. I simply try to be a good listener. I notice that people who do that are usually welcome wherever they go.
~ Frank Bettger
People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.
~ H. Jackson Browne
And here's one from the Buddha himself -
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
I have always envied the Tibetans their simple faith, for all my life I have been a seeker. Though I learned, while in Asia, the way to meditate, the final answer to the riddle of life has not been vouchsafed to me. But I have at least learned to contemplate the events of life with tranquility and not let myself be flung to and fro by circumstances in a sea of doubt.
The most compassionate insight of my tradition and its noblest contribution to the spiritual wisdom of humanity has been its understanding and repeated enactment of the ideal of the bodhisattva, the being who takes on the suffering of all sentient beings, who undertakes the journey to liberation not for his or her own good alone but to help all others, and who eventually, after attaining liberation, does not dissolve into the absolute or flee the agony of samsara, but chooses to return again and again to devote his or her wisdom and compassion to the service of the whole world.
What the world needs more than anything is bodhisattvas, active servants of peace, “clothed,” as Longchenpa said, “in the armor of perseverance,” dedicated to their bodhisattva vision and to the spreading of wisdom into all reaches of our experience. We need bodhisattva lawyers, bodhisattva artists and politicians, bodhisattva doctors and economists, bodhisattva teachers and scientists, bodhisattva technicians and engineers, bodhisattvas everywhere, working consciously as channels of compassion and wisdom at every level and in every situation of society; working to transform their minds and actions and those of others, working tirelessly in the certain knowledge of the support of the buddhas and enlightened beings for the preservation of our world and for a more merciful future.
~ Sogyal Rinpoche
And on that theme ...
Fearlessness is the most prominent characteristic of all bodhisattvas and all who tread the bodhisattva path. For them, life has lost its terrors and suffering its sting. Instead of scorning earthly existence, or condemning its 'imperfection', they fill it with a new meaning.
~ Lama Anagorika Govinda in 'A Living Buddhism for the West'
Then said Almitra, Speak to us of Love.
And he raised his head and looked upon the people,
and there fell a stillness upon them.
And with a great voice he said:
When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest
branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them
in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant:
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire,
that you may become sacred bread for God`s sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you
that you may know the secrets of your heart,
and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life`s heart.
But if in your fear you would seek only
love`s peace and love`s pleasure,
Then it is better for you
that you cover your nakedness and
pass out of love`s threshing floor,
Into the seasonless world where you
shall laugh, but not all of your laughter,
and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself,
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed:
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say,
"God is in my heart," but rather,
"I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course
of love, for love, if it finds you worthy,
directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart
and give thanks for another day of loving:
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love`s ecstasy:
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in you heart
and a song of praise upon you lips.
Kahlil Gibran's book, published in 1923 is especially relevant and helpful
for these times and is a wonderful gift for yourself or a loved one.
Planning for the future is like going fishing in a dry gulch;
Nothing ever works out as you wanted,
so give up all your schemes and ambitions.
If you have got to think about something—
Make it the uncertainty of the hour of your death.
Again and again we need to appreciate the subtle workings of the teachings and the practice, and even when there is no extraordinary, dramatic change, to persevere with calm and patience. How important it is to be skillful and gentle with ourselves, without becoming disheartened or giving up, but trusting the spiritual path and knowing that it has its own laws and its own dynamics.
At every moment in our lives we need compassion, but what more urgent moment could there be than when we are dying? What more wonderful and consoling gift could you give to dying people than the knowledge that they are being prayed for, and that you are taking on their suffering and purifying their negative karma through your practice for them?
Even if they don’t know that you are practicing for them, you are helping them and in turn they are helping you. They are actively helping you to develop your compassion, and so to purify and heal yourself. For me, all dying people are teachers, giving to all those who help them a chance to transform themselves through developing their compassion.
If you find that meditation does not come easily in your city room, be inventive and go out into nature. Nature is always an unfailing fountain of inspiration. To calm your mind, go for a walk at dawn in the park, or watch the dew on a rose in a garden. Lie on the ground and gaze up into the sky, and let your mind expand into its spaciousness. Let the sky outside awaken a sky inside your mind. Stand by a stream and mingle your mind with its rushing; become one with its ceaseless sound. Sit by a waterfall and let its healing laughter purify your spirit. Walk on a beach and take the sea wind full and sweet against your face. Celebrate and use the beauty of moonlight to poise your mind. Sit by a lake or in a garden and, breathing quietly, let your mind fall silent as the moon comes up majestically and slowly in the cloudless night.
The value of compassion cannot be over-emphasized. Anyone can criticize. It takes a true believer to be compassionate. No greater ;burden can be borne by an individual than to know no one cares or understands.
~ Arthur H. Stainback
When we come into contact with the other person, our thoughts and actions should express our mind of compassion, even if that person says and does things that are not easy to accept. We practice in this way until we see clearly that our love is not contingent upon the other person being lovable.
Each time the losses and deceptions of life teach us about impermanence, they bring us closer to the truth. When you fall from a great height, there is only one possible place to land: on the ground—the ground of truth. And if you have the understanding that comes from spiritual practice, then falling is in no way a disaster, but the discovery of an inner refuge.
When people begin to meditate, they often say that their thoughts are running riot and have become wilder than ever before. But I reassure them and say that this is a good sign. Far from meaning that your thoughts have become wilder, it shows that you have become quieter and are finally aware of just how noisy your thoughts have always been. Don’t be disheartened or give up. Whatever arises, just keep being present, keep returning to the breath, even in the midst of all the confusion.
Though one were to live a hundred years without wisdom and with a mind unstilled by meditation, the life of a single day is better if one is wise and practises meditation.
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
In the same way that rain breaks into a house with a bad roof, desire breaks into the mind that has not been practising meditation.
Don't indulge in careless behaviour. Don't be the friend of sensual pleasures. He who meditates attentively attains abundant joy.
Verily, from meditation arises wisdom. Without meditation wisdom wanes. Knowing this twofold path of gain and loss, let one so conduct oneself that wisdom may increase.
As you continue to practice meditation, you may have all kinds of experiences, both good and bad. You might experience states of bliss, clarity, or absence of thoughts. In one way these are very good experiences, and signs of progress in meditation. For when you experience bliss, it’s a sign that desire has temporarily dissolved. When you experience real clarity, it’s a sign that aggression has temporarily ceased. When you experience a state of absence of thought, it’s a sign that your ignorance has temporarily died. By themselves they are good experiences, but if you get attached to them, they become obstacles.
Experiences are not realization in themselves; but if we remain free of attachment to them, they become what they really are—that is, materials for realization.
~ Sogyal again
For MANY more like this ... plug the followin into Google -
Enlightenment is real; and each of us, whoever we are, can in the right circumstances and with the right training realize the nature of mind and so know in us what is deathless and eternally pure. This is the promise of all the great mystical traditions of the world, and it has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled in countless thousands of human lives.
The wonder of this promise is that it is something not exotic, not fantastic, not for an elite, but for all of humanity; and when we realize it, the masters tell us, it is unexpectedly ordinary.
Spiritual truth is not something elaborate and esoteric, it is in fact profound common sense. When you realize the nature of mind, layers of confusion peel away. You don’t actually “become” a buddha, you simply cease, slowly, to be deluded. And being a buddha is not being some omnipotent spiritual superman, but becoming at last a true human being.
“A truly wise man will not be carried away by any of the eight winds: prosperity, decline, disgrace, honour, praise, censure, suffering and pleasure. He is neither elated by prosperity nor grieved by decline. The heavenly gods will surely protect one who does not bend before the eight winds”
(The Eight Winds: Writings of Nichiren Daishonin)
“The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths to it are not found, they are made and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination."
[Anon.]
"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that they are difficult."
[Seneca]
“It is important for each person to embark on a journey in search of the truth. The truth, however, actually lies in compassionate actions to assist the weak or those enduring hardship and suffering. It is not to be found in highbrow, intellectual knowledge.”
[Daisaku Ikeda: “Faith into Action” p18]
“To be dragged around by other people or the environment is not the way of life that the Lotus Sutra teaches. True happiness is not feeling happiness one moment and misery the next. Overcoming the tendency to blame our sufferings on others or on the environment enables us to greatly expand our state of life… In every case, whether we feel happy or unhappy, ultimately depends on us ourselves. Without changing our own state of life, we can find no true happiness. But when we do change our inner state, our entire world is transformed. The ultimate means for effecting such a change is chanting daimoku.”
[Daisaku Ikeda: Lecture on “Happiness in this World”, UKE April, 1997]
The Lotus Sutra teaches that all people possess the supremely noble Buddha nature, which is the source of infinite hope and courage. In other words, hope and courage do not lie somewhere far out of reach, nor are they bestowed on us from without. Anyone who aligns themselves with the Mystic Law can tap from within their lives an indomitable state of being as vast as the universe and make it shine forth with sunlike brilliance, wherever they may be.
[Daisaku Ikeda]
“While many people may at first be inspired to practice Buddhism by the desire for personal happiness, to overcome illness or some other seemingly insurmountable challenge, as their life-state expands, they naturally develop a deeper concern for the happiness of others. Perceiving the interconnectedness of all beings, they take compassionate action, including sharing with others the insights of Buddhism, so they may also tap into the same rich inner resources that lie within their lives.”
Intending to be helpful and without personal investment,
You tell your friends what is really wrong with them.
You may have been honest but your words gnaw at their heart.
Speak pleasantly - that's my sincere advice.
You engage in discussions, defending your views and refuting others'
Thinking that you are clarifying the teachings.
But this just gives rise to emotional posturing.
Keep quiet - that's my sincere advice.
"There are these four unconjecturables that are not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about them. Which four?
"The Buddha-range of the Buddhas is an unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about it.
"The jhana-range of a person in jhana...
"The [precise working out of the] results of kamma...
"Conjecture about [the origin, etc., of] the world is an unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about it.
"These are the four unconjecturables that are not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about them."
I am looking up a few of the quotes you made Kenny:
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."
__________________
The wind gives me/enough fallen leaves/to make a fire.
--ryokan
physicist Erwin Schrödinger wrote, “There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks.” He was referring to the counter-intuitive model of quantum physics in which subatomic particles—those little ghosts of which we are all constituted—are understood as existing in multiple locations simultaneously.
"Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace."
— Siddhārtha Gautama
“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” buddha
"THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS"
Work Out Your Own Salvation (2:12-18)
And your statement was first quoted by Buddha:
Work out your own salvation with diligence
Once while he was away from his hut, a thief came and stole his few possessions. When Ryokan san returned, the thief was just leaving and he saw that one possession had been left behind. Ryokan san picked up the cushion and ran after the thief to give it to him. Later he wrote this poem:
The thief left it there
There in the window frame -
The shining moon
.
Ryokan sounds very interesting. I must look him up.
( English version by
Mei Hui Huang and Larry Smith )
In stubborn stupidity, I live on alone
befriended by trees and herbs.
Too lazy to learn right from wrong,
I laugh at myself, ignoring others.
Lifting my bony shanks, I cross the stream,
a sack in my hand, blessed by spring weather.
Living thus, I want for nothing,
at peace with all the world.
Your finger points to the moon,
but the finger is blind until the moon appears.
What connection has moon and finger?
Are they separate objects or bound?
This is a question for beginners
wrapped in seas of ignorance.
Yet one who looks beyond metaphor
knows there is no finger; there is no moon.
One of my favourite poems from the 13th century Sufi poet Rumi
Whoever finds love
beneath hurt and grief
disappears into emptiness
with a thousand new disguises
One of my family's favourite stories....
Ikkyu, the Zen master, was very clever even as a young boy.
His teacher had a precious teacup, a rare antique.
Ikkyu happened to break this cup one day and was greatly perplexed.
Hearing the footsteps of his teacher, he held the pieces of the cup behind him.
When the master appeared, Ikkyu asked: "Why do people have to die?"
"This is natural," explained the older man. "Everything has to die and has just so long to live."
Ikkyu, produced the shattered cup, adding : "It was time for your cup to die."
“If we have lived before,” I’m often asked, “why don’t we remember it?” But why should the fact that we cannot remember our past lives mean that we have never lived before? After all, experiences—of our childhood, or of yesterday, or even of what we were thinking an hour ago—were vivid as they occurred, but the memory of them has almost totally eroded, as though they had never taken place. If we cannot remember what we were doing or thinking last Monday, how on earth do we imagine it would be easy, or normal, to remember what we were doing in a previous lifetime?
Try to be mindful, and let things take their natural course. Then your mind will become still in any surroundings, like a clear forest pool. All kinds of wonderful, rare animals will come to drink at the pool, and you will clearly see the nature of all things. You will see many strange and wonderful things come and go, but you will be still. This is the happiness of the Buddha.
~ Ajahn Chah
The Buddha said that we should completely subdue our minds. Whatever we do, for good or ill, it is our mind that is the true agent. In the very depths of our being, we all desire one thing: we want to be happy. We don't want to suffer. But because of this - this wanting - the three defilements of craving, aversion, and ignorance arise, and suffering is what we get. It is because of these defilements that we accumulate actions that prevent us from escaping from Samsara.
So it is important right from the start to see the difference between a good motivation and an evil one. Our own mindfulness should be our teacher. We must examine what is positive and what is negative with mindfulness. If positive thoughts arise, we should go along with them. If nonvirtuous thoughts arise, we should put a stop to them. A virtuous mind is the source of happiness. An unvirtuous mind is the source of pain.
~ Dudjom Rinpoche, Counsels from My Heart
Buddha was a human being, like you or me. He never claimed divinity, he merely knew he had the buddha nature, the seed of enlightenment, and that everyone else did too. The buddha nature is simply the birthright of every sentient being, and I always say: “Our buddha nature is as good as any buddha’s buddha nature.”
~ Sogyal Rinpoche
If we see others in trouble, although we cannot immediately take their suffering upon ourselves, we should make the wish to be able to relieve them from their misfortunes. Prayers like this will bear fruit eventually. Again, if others have very strong afflictive emotions, we should think, 'May all their emotions be concentrated in me.' With fervent conviction, we should persist in thinking like this until we have some sign or feeling that we have been able to take upon ourselves the suffering and emotions of others. This might take the form of an increase in our own emotions or of the actual experience of the suffering and pain of others.
This is how to bring hardships onto the path in order to free ourselves from hopes and fears--hopes, for instance, that we will not get ill, or fears that we might do so. They will thus be pacified in the equal taste of happiness and suffering. Eventually, through the power of Bodhichitta, we will reach the point where we are free even from the hope of accomplishing Bodhichitta and the fear of not doing so. Therefore we should have love for our enemies and try as much as possible to avoid getting angry with them, or harbouring any negative thoughts towards them. We should also try as much as possible to overcome our biased attachment to family and relatives. If you bind a crooked tree to a large wooden stake, it will eventually grow straight. Up to now, our minds have always been crooked, thinking how we might trick and mislead people, but this [Bodhichitta] practice, as Geshe Langri Tangpa said, will make our minds straight and true.
~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of the Seven Point Mind Training
"Blues do not promise that people will not be unhappy, but that unhappiness can be transcended, not by faith in God, but by faith in one's own ability to accept unhappiness without ever conceding oneself to it."
The holy secret of the practice of Tonglen is one that the mystic masters and saints of every tradition know; and living it and embodying it, with the abandon and fervor of true wisdom and true compassion, is what fills their lives with joy. One modern figure who has dedicated her life to serving the sick and dying and who radiates this joy of giving and receiving is Mother Teresa. I know of no more inspiring statement of the spiritual essence of Tonglen than these words of hers:
We all long for heaven where God is, but we have it in our power to be in heaven with Him at this very moment. But being happy with Him now means:
Loving as He loves,
Helping as He helps,
Giving as He gives,
Serving as He serves,
Rescuing as He rescues,
Being with Him twenty-four hours,
Touching Him in his distressing disguise.
One day the Buddha held up a flower in front of an audience of 1,250 monks and nuns. he did not say anything for quite a long time. The audience was perfectly silent. Everyone seemed to be thinking hard, trying to see the meaning behind the Buddha's gesture. Then, suddenly, the Buddha smiled. He smiled because someone in the audience smiled at him and at the flower.... To me the meaning is quite simple. When someone holds up a flower and shows it to you, he wants you to see it. If you keep thinking, you miss the flower. The person who was not thinking, who was just himself, was able to encounter the flower in depth, and he smiled.
That is the problem of life. If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything.
Peace Is Every Step
Mindfulness is the energy that helps us to be truly present. When you are truly present, you are more in control of situations, you have more love, patience, understanding, and compassion. That strengthens and improves your quality of being. It can be very healing to touch your true nature of no-self. Psychotherapy can learn a lot from this teaching.
Answers from the Heart: Practical Responses to Burning Questions
Mindfulness is not just a word or a discourse by the Buddha, but a meaningful state of mind. It means we have to be here now, in this very moment, and we have to know what is happening internally and externally. It means being alert to our motives and learning to change unwholesome thoughts and emotions into wholesome ones. Mindfulness is a mental activity that in due course eliminates all suffering.
Do everything with a mind that lets go. Do not expect any praise or reward. If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace. If you let go completely, you will know complete peace and freedom. Your struggles with the world will have come to an end.
Someone commented, I can observe desire and aversion in my mind, but its hard to observe delusion. You're riding on a horse and asking where the horse is! was Ajahn Chah's reply.
Just know yourself, this is your witness. Don't make decisions on the strength of your desires. Desires can puff us up into thinking we are something which we're not. We must be very circumspect.
"To be a warrior is not a simple matter of wishing to be one. It is rather an endless struggle that will go on to the very last moment of our lives. Nobody is born a warrior in exactly the same way that that nobody is born an average man. We make ourselves into one or the other." "Only as a warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges"-Don Juan
Thanks robot!
When we accept the way things are we are able to love everything and everybody. When we are not able to accept even one thing in this world right now, then how could we ever develop boundless love? Lack of acceptance is conflict. Conflict is pain. It is psychological pain. It is a spiritual illness. As long as our hearts are tormented by that pain, we do not have the strength to give our heart to anything and because of that it is impossible to bring about inner awakening. Enlightenment, you see, is just another name for boundless love.
It is almost impossible to practice loving-kindness towards all living beings without addressing, in a meaningful way, the innumerable problems arising in our own lives. It is a contradiction, you see. It does not work. If our heart is tormented because we are not able to accept things the way they are, then it is impossible to open our heart. It is impossible to let go of all of our defenses and embrace others. Therefore we have to constantly practice and deepen our awareness. We have to remind ourselves to accept things as they are. This is pretty much what the teachings called Mind Training are all about. Mind Training in Buddhism is about carrying those perspectives and even reciting slogans, phrases like "I shall accept the way things are."
"All the darkness in the world can't extinguish the light from a single candle."
Francis Of Assisi (The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi
"In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you."
Leo Tolstoy
Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."
Robert Louis Stevenson
"The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly." Siddhārtha Gautama
"Sometimes our flame goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being." Albert Schweitzer
"With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy."
Max Ehrmann
There is a spark of hope, a playful humor about the posture we take in meditation, which lies in the secret understanding that we all have the buddha nature. So when you assume this posture, you are playfully imitating a buddha, acknowledging and giving real encouragement to the emergence of your own buddha nature. You begin to respect yourself as a potential buddha.
At the same time, you still recognize your relative condition. But because you have let yourself be inspired by a joyful trust in your own true buddha nature, you can accept your negative aspects more easily and deal with them more generously and with more humor.
When you meditate, invite yourself to feel the self-esteem, the dignity, and the strong humility of the buddha that you are. If you simply let yourself be inspired by this joyful trust, it is enough: Out of this understanding and confidence, meditation will naturally arise.
The following comes from a wonderful little book called "The Meditation Bible" by Madonna Gauding. I highly recommend it!
THE BODHISATTVA VOW
In Mahayana Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is one who has already attained enlightenment but who postpones his or her entrance into nirvana because of profound compassion for others. This meditation introduces you to the vow.
The core of the Mahayana Buddhist path is the Bodhisattva vow. In taking the vow, you commit to achieving enlightenment, so as to free all beings from suffering. The emphasis is on compassion and service. You vow to help others while awakening yourself, through the pracice of the Six Perfections or Six virtues, called Paramitas. These Six Perfections are: generosity; morality; patience; enthusiasm; meditation and wisdom. You don't have to be a Buddhist or take the vow to meditate on the Six perfections.
1. Sit on a cushion or chair in a quiet place. Meditate on your breath for five minutes to calm your mind and prepare to meditate on the Perfections.
2. Think of ways you can be generous with your material possessions, such as giving some money to charities. Work harder to make life safer for people nd be generous about sharing your spiritual knowledge.
3. Contemplate morality and how you can better avoid unwholesome actions, live an ethical life and work for the benefit of others.
4. Think about patience and how to tolerate injury and insult without getting angry, how to bear hardship courageously and be patient as you try to develop spiritually.
5. Consider how to develop enthusiasm for your spiritual path, sustain your interest in it and refrain from giving up on yourself.
6. Contemplate meditation and how to control your mind, develoop positive qualities through your practice, and develop a peaceful and tranquil mind.
7. Think about wisdom and how to understand the true nature of reality. Understand that everything you do has consequences and everything is interdependent; know what can really help others.
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.
Let me explain what we mean by compassion. Usually, our concept of compassion or love refers to the feeling of closeness we have with our friends and loved ones. Sometimes, compassion also carries a sense of pity. This is wrong - any love or compassion which entails looking down on the other is not genuine compassion. To be genuine, compassion must be based on respect for the other, and on the realisation that others have the right to be happy and overcome suffering just as much as you. On this basis, since you can see that others are suffering, you develop a genuine sense of concern for them.
"If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart."
~ Socrates
"He has great tranquility of heart who cares neither for the praises nor the fault-finding of men."
~ Honore de Balzac
"One reason why birds and horses are not unhappy because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses."
~ Dale Carnegie
"Life is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on."
~ Samuel Butler
"Live your questions now and perhaps, even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers."
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
"People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centred. Love them anyway."
~ Mother Teresa
"Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best."
~ Henry Van Dyke
Thanks Geoff - Allen some inspiring words there...
"People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centred. Love them anyway."
~ Mother Teresa
I am familiar with a longer quote attributed to Mother Teresa of Calcutta ( this was a powerful prayer for me in the beginning of my 12 step days ) -
People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centred.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you've got and you will probably get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world your best anyway.
You see, it’s not the score that somebody else keeps on your life that counts in the end, it's the score you keep on your life that makes the difference.
Have faith in your values.
"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
"Do not believe a spiritual teaching just because:
1. it is repeatedly recited,
2. it is written in a scripture,
3. it was handed from guru to disciple,
4. everyone around you believes it,
5. it has supernatural qualities,
6. it fits my beliefs anyway,
7. it sounds rational to me,
8. it is taught by a respectable person,
9. it was said to be the truth by the teacher,
10. one must defend it or fight for it.
However, only when it agrees with your experience and reason, and when it is conducive to the good and gain of oneself and all others, then one should accept the teachings, and live up to them."
Comments
Do not accept my words of faith
Believing in themjust because I said them
Be like an analyst buying gold,
who cuts,burns...
and critically exsamines his producst
for authenticity.
only accept what passes the test
by proving useful and beneficial in your life
- The Buddha
If you want some one-liners - over 500 of them! Try plugging the following into Google -
vegard one liners
Namaste
~ Anon
People spend a lifetime searching for happiness; looking for peace. They chase idle dreams, addictions, religions, even other people, hoping to fill the emptiness that plagues them. The irony is the only place they ever needed to search was within.
~ Ramona L. Anderson
Women like silent men. They think they're listening.
~ Marcel Archard
Happiness depends on ourselves.
~ Aristotle
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
~ Aristotle
Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
~ Berthold Auerbach
I no longer worry about being a brilliant conversationalist. I simply try to be a good listener. I notice that people who do that are usually welcome wherever they go.
~ Frank Bettger
People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.
~ H. Jackson Browne
And here's one from the Buddha himself -
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
Have a good one!
-Heinrich Harrer, Seven Years in Tibet
The most compassionate insight of my tradition and its noblest contribution to the spiritual wisdom of humanity has been its understanding and repeated enactment of the ideal of the bodhisattva, the being who takes on the suffering of all sentient beings, who undertakes the journey to liberation not for his or her own good alone but to help all others, and who eventually, after attaining liberation, does not dissolve into the absolute or flee the agony of samsara, but chooses to return again and again to devote his or her wisdom and compassion to the service of the whole world.
What the world needs more than anything is bodhisattvas, active servants of peace, “clothed,” as Longchenpa said, “in the armor of perseverance,” dedicated to their bodhisattva vision and to the spreading of wisdom into all reaches of our experience. We need bodhisattva lawyers, bodhisattva artists and politicians, bodhisattva doctors and economists, bodhisattva teachers and scientists, bodhisattva technicians and engineers, bodhisattvas everywhere, working consciously as channels of compassion and wisdom at every level and in every situation of society; working to transform their minds and actions and those of others, working tirelessly in the certain knowledge of the support of the buddhas and enlightened beings for the preservation of our world and for a more merciful future.
~ Sogyal Rinpoche
And on that theme ...
Fearlessness is the most prominent characteristic of all bodhisattvas and all who tread the bodhisattva path. For them, life has lost its terrors and suffering its sting. Instead of scorning earthly existence, or condemning its 'imperfection', they fill it with a new meaning.
~ Lama Anagorika Govinda in 'A Living Buddhism for the West'
Namaste
Then said Almitra, Speak to us of Love.
And he raised his head and looked upon the people,
and there fell a stillness upon them.
And with a great voice he said:
When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest
branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them
in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant:
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire,
that you may become sacred bread for God`s sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you
that you may know the secrets of your heart,
and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life`s heart.
But if in your fear you would seek only
love`s peace and love`s pleasure,
Then it is better for you
that you cover your nakedness and
pass out of love`s threshing floor,
Into the seasonless world where you
shall laugh, but not all of your laughter,
and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself,
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed:
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say,
"God is in my heart," but rather,
"I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course
of love, for love, if it finds you worthy,
directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart
and give thanks for another day of loving:
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love`s ecstasy:
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in you heart
and a song of praise upon you lips.
Kahlil Gibran's book, published in 1923 is especially relevant and helpful
for these times and is a wonderful gift for yourself or a loved one.
The rest of this book is on a few sites ...
Cheers
Nothing ever works out as you wanted,
so give up all your schemes and ambitions.
If you have got to think about something—
Make it the uncertainty of the hour of your death.
~ GYALSÉ RINPOCHE
Have a good one!
~ Sogyal Rinpoche
Even if they don’t know that you are practicing for them, you are helping them and in turn they are helping you. They are actively helping you to develop your compassion, and so to purify and heal yourself. For me, all dying people are teachers, giving to all those who help them a chance to transform themselves through developing their compassion.
~ Sogyal Rinpoche
Have a good one!
~ Sogyal Rinpoche
Cheers
~ Arthur H. Stainback
When we come into contact with the other person, our thoughts and actions should express our mind of compassion, even if that person says and does things that are not easy to accept. We practice in this way until we see clearly that our love is not contingent upon the other person being lovable.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Have a great day!
~ Sogyal again
Cheers
~ Sogyal Rinpoche
Cheers
~ Edwin Arlington Robinson
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
In the same way that rain breaks into a house with a bad roof, desire breaks into the mind that has not been practising meditation.
Don't indulge in careless behaviour. Don't be the friend of sensual pleasures. He who meditates attentively attains abundant joy.
Verily, from meditation arises wisdom. Without meditation wisdom wanes. Knowing this twofold path of gain and loss, let one so conduct oneself that wisdom may increase.
Cheers
Experiences are not realization in themselves; but if we remain free of attachment to them, they become what they really are—that is, materials for realization.
~ Sogyal again
For MANY more like this ... plug the followin into Google -
viewonbuddhism dharma quotes meditation
Cheers
The wonder of this promise is that it is something not exotic, not fantastic, not for an elite, but for all of humanity; and when we realize it, the masters tell us, it is unexpectedly ordinary.
Spiritual truth is not something elaborate and esoteric, it is in fact profound common sense. When you realize the nature of mind, layers of confusion peel away. You don’t actually “become” a buddha, you simply cease, slowly, to be deluded. And being a buddha is not being some omnipotent spiritual superman, but becoming at last a true human being.
Have a good one!
(The Eight Winds: Writings of Nichiren Daishonin)
“The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths to it are not found, they are made and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination."
[Anon.]
"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that they are difficult."
[Seneca]
“It is important for each person to embark on a journey in search of the truth. The truth, however, actually lies in compassionate actions to assist the weak or those enduring hardship and suffering. It is not to be found in highbrow, intellectual knowledge.”
[Daisaku Ikeda: “Faith into Action” p18]
“To be dragged around by other people or the environment is not the way of life that the Lotus Sutra teaches. True happiness is not feeling happiness one moment and misery the next. Overcoming the tendency to blame our sufferings on others or on the environment enables us to greatly expand our state of life… In every case, whether we feel happy or unhappy, ultimately depends on us ourselves. Without changing our own state of life, we can find no true happiness. But when we do change our inner state, our entire world is transformed. The ultimate means for effecting such a change is chanting daimoku.”
[Daisaku Ikeda: Lecture on “Happiness in this World”, UKE April, 1997]
The Lotus Sutra teaches that all people possess the supremely noble Buddha nature, which is the source of infinite hope and courage. In other words, hope and courage do not lie somewhere far out of reach, nor are they bestowed on us from without. Anyone who aligns themselves with the Mystic Law can tap from within their lives an indomitable state of being as vast as the universe and make it shine forth with sunlike brilliance, wherever they may be.
[Daisaku Ikeda]
“While many people may at first be inspired to practice Buddhism by the desire for personal happiness, to overcome illness or some other seemingly insurmountable challenge, as their life-state expands, they naturally develop a deeper concern for the happiness of others. Perceiving the interconnectedness of all beings, they take compassionate action, including sharing with others the insights of Buddhism, so they may also tap into the same rich inner resources that lie within their lives.”
Cheers
You tell your friends what is really wrong with them.
You may have been honest but your words gnaw at their heart.
Speak pleasantly - that's my sincere advice.
You engage in discussions, defending your views and refuting others'
Thinking that you are clarifying the teachings.
But this just gives rise to emotional posturing.
Keep quiet - that's my sincere advice.
Thirty Pieces of Sincere Advice
by Longchenpa
The Buddha said:
"There are these four unconjecturables that are not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about them. Which four?
"The Buddha-range of the Buddhas is an unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about it.
"The jhana-range of a person in jhana...
"The [precise working out of the] results of kamma...
"Conjecture about [the origin, etc., of] the world is an unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about it.
"These are the four unconjecturables that are not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about them."
_/\_
.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/fuang/itself.html
The wind gives me/enough fallen leaves/to make a fire.
--ryokan
physicist Erwin Schrödinger wrote, “There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks.” He was referring to the counter-intuitive model of quantum physics in which subatomic particles—those little ghosts of which we are all constituted—are understood as existing in multiple locations simultaneously.
"Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace."
— Siddhārtha Gautama
“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” buddha
"THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS"
Work Out Your Own Salvation (2:12-18)
And your statement was first quoted by Buddha:
Work out your own salvation with diligence
.
Ryokan sounds very interesting. I must look him up.
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( English version by
Mei Hui Huang and Larry Smith )
In stubborn stupidity, I live on alone
befriended by trees and herbs.
Too lazy to learn right from wrong,
I laugh at myself, ignoring others.
Lifting my bony shanks, I cross the stream,
a sack in my hand, blessed by spring weather.
Living thus, I want for nothing,
at peace with all the world.
Your finger points to the moon,
but the finger is blind until the moon appears.
What connection has moon and finger?
Are they separate objects or bound?
This is a question for beginners
wrapped in seas of ignorance.
Yet one who looks beyond metaphor
knows there is no finger; there is no moon.
One of my favourite poems from the 13th century Sufi poet Rumi
Whoever finds love
beneath hurt and grief
disappears into emptiness
with a thousand new disguises
Ikkyu, the Zen master, was very clever even as a young boy.
His teacher had a precious teacup, a rare antique.
Ikkyu happened to break this cup one day and was greatly perplexed.
Hearing the footsteps of his teacher, he held the pieces of the cup behind him.
When the master appeared, Ikkyu asked: "Why do people have to die?"
"This is natural," explained the older man. "Everything has to die and has just so long to live."
Ikkyu, produced the shattered cup, adding : "It was time for your cup to die."
~ Sogyal Rinpoche
Cheers
Thanks 4 your well-wishes. Right back at you!
It is still wintry here in Australia but hopefully spring arrives soon.
If you want an interesting online book, try plugging the following into Google -
Chosen to Remember Journey from Perception to Knowledge
Cheers
~ Ajahn Chah
The Buddha said that we should completely subdue our minds. Whatever we do, for good or ill, it is our mind that is the true agent. In the very depths of our being, we all desire one thing: we want to be happy. We don't want to suffer. But because of this - this wanting - the three defilements of craving, aversion, and ignorance arise, and suffering is what we get. It is because of these defilements that we accumulate actions that prevent us from escaping from Samsara.
So it is important right from the start to see the difference between a good motivation and an evil one. Our own mindfulness should be our teacher. We must examine what is positive and what is negative with mindfulness. If positive thoughts arise, we should go along with them. If nonvirtuous thoughts arise, we should put a stop to them. A virtuous mind is the source of happiness. An unvirtuous mind is the source of pain.
~ Dudjom Rinpoche, Counsels from My Heart
Peace ~ Love ~ Happiness
~ Sogyal Rinpoche
Cheers
This is how to bring hardships onto the path in order to free ourselves from hopes and fears--hopes, for instance, that we will not get ill, or fears that we might do so. They will thus be pacified in the equal taste of happiness and suffering. Eventually, through the power of Bodhichitta, we will reach the point where we are free even from the hope of accomplishing Bodhichitta and the fear of not doing so. Therefore we should have love for our enemies and try as much as possible to avoid getting angry with them, or harbouring any negative thoughts towards them. We should also try as much as possible to overcome our biased attachment to family and relatives. If you bind a crooked tree to a large wooden stake, it will eventually grow straight. Up to now, our minds have always been crooked, thinking how we might trick and mislead people, but this [Bodhichitta] practice, as Geshe Langri Tangpa said, will make our minds straight and true.
~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of the Seven Point Mind Training
Enjoy!
Gerald Early
We all long for heaven where God is, but we have it in our power to be in heaven with Him at this very moment. But being happy with Him now means:
Loving as He loves,
Helping as He helps,
Giving as He gives,
Serving as He serves,
Rescuing as He rescues,
Being with Him twenty-four hours,
Touching Him in his distressing disguise.
Cheers
That is the problem of life. If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything.
Peace Is Every Step
Mindfulness is the energy that helps us to be truly present. When you are truly present, you are more in control of situations, you have more love, patience, understanding, and compassion. That strengthens and improves your quality of being. It can be very healing to touch your true nature of no-self. Psychotherapy can learn a lot from this teaching.
Answers from the Heart: Practical Responses to Burning Questions
Have a good one!
"In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer..." -- Albert Camus
I think this speaks volumes and very relevant to Buddhism, even if it didn't mean to be.
~ Ayya Khema, 'Be an Island'
Cheers
Someone commented, I can observe desire and aversion in my mind, but its hard to observe delusion. You're riding on a horse and asking where the horse is! was Ajahn Chah's reply.
Just know yourself, this is your witness. Don't make decisions on the strength of your desires. Desires can puff us up into thinking we are something which we're not. We must be very circumspect.
Cheers
When we accept the way things are we are able to love everything and everybody. When we are not able to accept even one thing in this world right now, then how could we ever develop boundless love? Lack of acceptance is conflict. Conflict is pain. It is psychological pain. It is a spiritual illness. As long as our hearts are tormented by that pain, we do not have the strength to give our heart to anything and because of that it is impossible to bring about inner awakening. Enlightenment, you see, is just another name for boundless love.
It is almost impossible to practice loving-kindness towards all living beings without addressing, in a meaningful way, the innumerable problems arising in our own lives. It is a contradiction, you see. It does not work. If our heart is tormented because we are not able to accept things the way they are, then it is impossible to open our heart. It is impossible to let go of all of our defenses and embrace others. Therefore we have to constantly practice and deepen our awareness. We have to remind ourselves to accept things as they are. This is pretty much what the teachings called Mind Training are all about. Mind Training in Buddhism is about carrying those perspectives and even reciting slogans, phrases like "I shall accept the way things are."
~ Anam Thubten, No Self, No Problem
Cheers
Francis Of Assisi (The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi
"In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you."
Leo Tolstoy
Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."
Robert Louis Stevenson
"The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly." Siddhārtha Gautama
"Sometimes our flame goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being." Albert Schweitzer
"With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy."
Max Ehrmann
At the same time, you still recognize your relative condition. But because you have let yourself be inspired by a joyful trust in your own true buddha nature, you can accept your negative aspects more easily and deal with them more generously and with more humor.
When you meditate, invite yourself to feel the self-esteem, the dignity, and the strong humility of the buddha that you are. If you simply let yourself be inspired by this joyful trust, it is enough: Out of this understanding and confidence, meditation will naturally arise.
~ Sogyal Rinpoche
Peace ~ Love ~ Happiness
THE BODHISATTVA VOW
In Mahayana Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is one who has already attained enlightenment but who postpones his or her entrance into nirvana because of profound compassion for others. This meditation introduces you to the vow.
The core of the Mahayana Buddhist path is the Bodhisattva vow. In taking the vow, you commit to achieving enlightenment, so as to free all beings from suffering. The emphasis is on compassion and service. You vow to help others while awakening yourself, through the pracice of the Six Perfections or Six virtues, called Paramitas. These Six Perfections are: generosity; morality; patience; enthusiasm; meditation and wisdom. You don't have to be a Buddhist or take the vow to meditate on the Six perfections.
1. Sit on a cushion or chair in a quiet place. Meditate on your breath for five minutes to calm your mind and prepare to meditate on the Perfections.
2. Think of ways you can be generous with your material possessions, such as giving some money to charities. Work harder to make life safer for people nd be generous about sharing your spiritual knowledge.
3. Contemplate morality and how you can better avoid unwholesome actions, live an ethical life and work for the benefit of others.
4. Think about patience and how to tolerate injury and insult without getting angry, how to bear hardship courageously and be patient as you try to develop spiritually.
5. Consider how to develop enthusiasm for your spiritual path, sustain your interest in it and refrain from giving up on yourself.
6. Contemplate meditation and how to control your mind, develoop positive qualities through your practice, and develop a peaceful and tranquil mind.
7. Think about wisdom and how to understand the true nature of reality. Understand that everything you do has consequences and everything is interdependent; know what can really help others.
Enjoy!
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
Cheers
Cheers
Try pluggin that into Google & seeing what you get
Cheers
~ Socrates
"He has great tranquility of heart who cares neither for the praises nor the fault-finding of men."
~ Honore de Balzac
"One reason why birds and horses are not unhappy because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses."
~ Dale Carnegie
"Life is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on."
~ Samuel Butler
"Live your questions now and perhaps, even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers."
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
"People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centred. Love them anyway."
~ Mother Teresa
"Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best."
~ Henry Van Dyke
Have a good one!
"People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centred. Love them anyway."
~ Mother Teresa
I am familiar with a longer quote attributed to Mother Teresa of Calcutta ( this was a powerful prayer for me in the beginning of my 12 step days ) -
People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centred.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you've got and you will probably get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world your best anyway.
You see, it’s not the score that somebody else keeps on your life that counts in the end, it's the score you keep on your life that makes the difference.
Have faith in your values.
Keep em coming if you have any more!
Cheers
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
Cheers
"Do not believe a spiritual teaching just because:
1. it is repeatedly recited,
2. it is written in a scripture,
3. it was handed from guru to disciple,
4. everyone around you believes it,
5. it has supernatural qualities,
6. it fits my beliefs anyway,
7. it sounds rational to me,
8. it is taught by a respectable person,
9. it was said to be the truth by the teacher,
10. one must defend it or fight for it.
However, only when it agrees with your experience and reason, and when it is conducive to the good and gain of oneself and all others, then one should accept the teachings, and live up to them."
Cheers!