the things and being the things you want to do and to be. When we walk for the sake of walking, when we sit for the sake of sitting, when we drink for the sake of drinking tea, we don't do it for some- thing or someone else. Awakening means to see that truth - that you want to know how to enjoy, how to live deeply, in a very simple way. You don't want to waste your time anymore. Cherish the time that you are given. Thich Nhat Hanh |
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No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious. George Bernard Shaw Zen has no gates. The purpose of Buddha's words is to enlighten others. Therefore Zen should be gate- less. But, how does one pass through the gateless gate? Mumon The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution. Paul Cezanne |
| There ain't no answer. There ain't gonna be any answer. There never has been an answer. There's the answer. Gertrude Stein An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly understood; an inconvenience is only an adven- ture wrongly considered. G. K. Chesterton We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. Plato If you don’t find God in the next person you meet, it’s a waste of time looking for him further. Mohandas K. Gandhi |
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Compassion
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Sometimes we think that to develop an open heart, to be truly loving and compassionate, means that we need to be passive, to allow others to abuse us, to smile and let anyone do what they want with us. Yet this is not what is meant by compassion. Quite the contrary. Compassion is not at all weak. It is the strength that arises out of seeing the true nature of suffering in the world. Compassion allows us to bear witness to that suffering, whether it is in ourselves or others, without fear; it allows us to name injustice without hesitation, and to act strongly, with all the skill at our disposal. To develop this mind state of compassion...is to learn to live, as the Buddha put it, with sympathy for all living beings, without exception. Sharon Salzberg |
| Tibetan Prayer
Grant that I may be given appropriate difficulties and sufferings on this journey so that my heart may be truly awakened and my practice of liberation and universal compassion may be truly fulfilled. Tibetan Prayer of Making Difficulties Into the Path Empty, empty! Happy, happy! Ajahn Jumnien Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events not of words. Trust movement. Alfred Adler Habit, laziness, and fear conspire to keep us comfortably within the familiar. Jane Hirshfield |
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When people start to mediate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline, the often think that somehow they're going to improve, which is a sort of subtle aggression against who they really are. It's a bit like saying, "If I jog, I'll be a much better person." "If I could only get a nicer house, I'd be a better person."If I could meditate and calm down, I'd be a better person."... But loving-kindness-- maitri--toward ourselves doesn't mean getting rid of anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy after all these years. We can still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That's the ground, that's what we study, that's what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest. Pema Chodron |
| May you trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. Edward Abbey Nothing is permanent: The sun and the moon rise and then set, The bright clear day is followed by the deep, dark night. From hour to hour, everything changes. Kalu Rinpoche The best things in life are nearest. Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Robert Louis Stevenson All the harm, fear, and suffering in the world are caused by attachment to the self: Why should I hold on to this great demon? Shantideva |
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Imagine how it might feel to suspend all your judging and instead to let each moment be just as it is, without attempting to evaluate it as "good" or "bad." This would be a true stillness, a true liberation. Meditation means cultivating a non-judging attitude toward what comes up in the mind, come what may. Jon Kabat-Zinn Nobody sees a flower—really—it is so small it takes time—we haven’t time—and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. Georgia O’Keeffe It is our mind, and that alone, that chains us or sets us free. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche |
The near-enemy of love is attachment. Attachment masquerades as love. It says, "I will love you if you will love me back." It is a kind of "businessman's" love. So we think, "I will love this person as long as he doesn't change. I will love that thing if it will be the way I want it." But this isn't love at all--it is attachment. There is a big difference between love, which allows and honors and appreciates, and attachment, which grasps and demands and aims to possess. When attachment becomes confused with love, it actually separates us from another person. We feel we need this other person in order to be happy. This quality of attach- ment also leads us to offer love only toward certain people, excluding others. Joseph Goldstein |
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To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life. John Burroughs Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. Rumi I should never have made my success in life if I had not bestowed upon the least thing I have ever under- taken the same attention and care I have bestowed upon the greatest. Charles Dickens I know what I have given you. I do not know what you have received. Antonio Porchia |
What Happens to Most Pieces of Truth One day Mara, the Buddhist god of ignorance and evil, was traveling through the villages of India with his attendants. He saw a man doing walking meditation whose face was lit up in wonder. The man had just discovered something on the ground in front of him. Mara's attendants asked what that was and Mara replied, "A piece of truth." "Doesn't this bother you when someone finds a piece of the truth, O evil one?" his attendants asked. "No," Mara replied. "Right after this they usually make a belief out of it." Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield |
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When we look back on this life, we see that when people are born, no one has thoughts of joy, sadness, hatred, bitterness. Are we not born with the state of Buddha mind, given by our parents? But once intelligence develops, we learn habits from others, and our own personal mental habits emerge, and the Buddha mind is turned into a monster because of self-importance. We argue, lose our temper, muse over useless things, repeat the same thoughts again and again....It is darkness to darkness in an endless cycle. Bankei |