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- /.....*.....*****\
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-~
-liquid ball of fur
-dances with a beam of light,
-never catches it.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Om Muni Muni Maha Muni Yea Swaha
-~
-Gun dro nga tang yul nge nga
-Gewa ju jik dza nyon druk
-Nye nyon nyi shu shen gyur shi
-Sem chung nga jik di dak o.
-~
-religious letter games...
-
- DEVIL
- EVIL
- GOOD
- GOD
-~
-Nam Myoho Renge Kyo
-~
-Om Mani Padme Hum
-~
-Om Shanthi Om
-~
-Om A Ra Ba Tsa Na Di
-~
-om a ra ba tsa na di
-om a ra ba tsa na di
-om a ra ba tsa na di
-om a ra ba tsa na di
-om a ra ba tsa na di
-om a ra ba tsa na di
-om a ra ba tsa na di di di di di di di di di di di di di di di di di di di di
-~
-Om Mani Padme Hum (Hail to the Lotus Jewel)
-~
-The paths are many, the truth is one
-~
-Mickey Mouse has no wife, no horse, no mustache
-~
-where you are is where you were when you are where you will be.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-don't let them immanentize your personal eschaton
-~
-nga tsho gyis rang gi gyo bar sems can song ba'i dgos.
-(we should be self-motivating sentient beings.)
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-The man in whom Tao
-Acts without impediment
-Harms no other being
-By his actions
-Yet he does not know himself
-To be "kind," to be "gentle"
-~
-When an archer is shooting for nothing
-He has all his skill.
-If he shoots for a brass buckle
-He is already nervous.
-If he shoots for a prize of gold
-He goes blind
-Or sees two targets--
-He is out of his mind!
-
-His skill has not changed. But the prize
-Divides him. He cares.
-He thinks more of winning
-Than of shooting--
-And the need to win
-Drains him of power.
-~
-By giving, resources; by ethics, bliss
-~
-One may lead a horse to water, but cannot make him think.
-~
-time does not exist
-~
-neither i nor you nor anything exists truly
-i, you and everything each have our own existence
-the view between the two extremes is the middle way
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Mickey Mouse and Mickey Rooney have something in common.
-~
-Natural language is hard.
- -- (a prominent natural language scholar; do you know who? i don't.)
-~
-not this not this not this, what is it?
-~
-there it is.
-~
-ribong ra chos jan,
-med ba thal,
-sangs rgyas kyi tshad mas ma nges ba'i phyir.
-(the subject "horns of a rabbit" does not exist because it is not an object
-validly cognized by a buddha.)
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-what you don't see is what you get when you don't look. -- fred t. hamster
-~
-this bell's knelling is never quelled,
- while service is rendered,
-tin staccato splattered over cupric strands,
- spraying crazed meaning to distant lands.
-what is it?
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others.
- -- Shakyamuni Buddha
-~
-It is hard to think of what one is doing when one is doing it.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-No program is so finished that a few bug fixes won't destroy it.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Words obscure meaning. -- fred t. hamster
-~
-There's a Ribong in my Attic, There's a Ribong in my Chair.
-There's a Ribong in my Dipstick, There's a Ribong in my Hair.
-In fact, there's a Ribong everywhere.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-In the context of a spreadsheet system, the user must ensure that the
-sheet is thoroughly spread onto the bed.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-nechung: unable to open fortunes.dat file. (just kidding)
-~
-are you only using half your brain?
-if you can only think in terms of logical conclusions, rational assumptions,
-and common sense OR
-if you can only think in terms of intuitive jumps, esthetic motivations,
-and the fluid nature of reality,
-then you probably are stuck on one side of your head. try moving into
-both halves.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-time has eight eyes and three elbows...
-and millions of clocks.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-i refuse to ignore what i cannot perceive. -- fred t. hamster
-~
-if you can't change your mind,
-are you sure you've still got one?
-~
-The only people who deserve to be called "Americans" are called "Indians".
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-you are contemplative and analytical by nature
-~
-annal nathrac
-uthvad bethos
-dochiel diende
- -- Merlin in Excalibur
-~
-Charlottesville, Virginia: gravity well for the soul.
-~
-if one is always ambiguous enough, he is never wrong.
-but he never says anything either.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Protect Children, Feed Bunnies, Heal Sickness, Understand Reality
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Improve the environment and the government;
-feed politicians toxic waste.
-~
-alright, so it was a slow night.
-alright, so it was a slow knight.
-all night, what a slow knight.
-there's slightly white snow tonight.
-tight flights light from the height of night.
-a byte too trite.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-sasquatch in my breakfast cereal. -- fred t. hamster
-~
-"what i say is unimportant." -- david w andrews
-"i'll keep that in mind." -- chris koeritz
-~
-"are Israelis Catholic?" -- christine kelly
-~
-support the police,
-beat yourself up.
- -- seen in April 1991 High Times
-~
-support the IRA,
-get bombed.
- -- co-authored by dave and chris
-~
-we grow old as soon as we cease to love and trust.
- -- Madame De Choiseul
-~
-marijuana is a natural mollifier.
-~
-I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the
-monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-few minds wear out;
-more rust out.
- -- Christian N. Bovee
-~
-Vitality shows not only in the ability to persist,
-but the ability to start over.
- -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
-~
-One meets his destiny often in the road he takes to avoid it.
- -- French Proverb
-~
-The cobra will bite you whether you call it cobra or Mr. Cobra.
- -- Indian Proverb
-~
-The first casualty when war comes is truth. -- Hiram Johnson, 1917
-~
-Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the
-love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity
-encourages.
- -- Samuel Johnson, from The Idler, 1758
-~
-Luck sometimes visits a fool, but never sits down with him.
- -- German Proverb
-~
-How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were? -- Satchel Page
-~
-Yeah, you got a point there man. Just let
-your hair grow and nobody'll ever find out.
- -- Cheech Marin
-~
-Eloquence is vehement simplicity. -- Richard Cecil
-~
-Two of my correspondents labeled me 'self-righteous', by which
-they seem to have meant that they think they are righter
-than i think i am.
- -- Wendell Berry
-~
-Every thought I have imprisoned in expression I must free by my deeds.
- -- Kahlil Gibran
-~
-the other is a measure of the self. -- fred hamster
-~
-it is not who we are that defines us, but what we do.
-the actions we take are the real indication of where our minds
-and bodies are at, an expression of our being.
-when one does not act, one cannot harm,
-but by not acting when action could help another,
-there may be harm.
-~
-if what you are doing right now isn't broadening your mind
-or elevating your spirit through total awareness of the essence,
-then find that broadness! that elevation!
-if an activity doesn't wake you up and tickle you,
-then tickle yourself. that load which cannot be unburdened
-must be levitated.
-~
-the only people i don't like are those who don't want me to like them...
-and i try to like them when they're not paying attention.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-to george h. w. bush (on the occasion of our last meeting):
- "you're a suit where a person should be."
-~
-The numbah uh bits in a compyooter word should NOT bee ayut, nor
-sixuhteeen, nor thirty tooo, mah frayends. For vayrilee, it should
-bee fifty! Theeuss would gayruntee that the sanctitty of our
-great nayshun would be forevah preeserved! Theyuh would be just
-one bit for each an every good stayett in this heyuh fahnnn nasyshun,
-the YOOnited Stayetts of AhhMayReekah!
-~
-Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
- -- Lord Acton, Letter, 5 April 1887
-~
-No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean,
-for words are slippery and thought is viscous.
- -- Henry B. Adams, "The Education of Henry Adams", 1907
-~
-One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible.
- -- Henry B. Adams, "The Education of Henry Adams", 1907
-~
-It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
- -- Alfred Adler, 1939
-~
-Good art is not what it looks like, but what it does to us.
- -- Roy Adzak, quoted in "Contemporary Artists", 1977
-~
-A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety. -- Aesop
-~
-Be content with your lot; one cannot be first in everything. -- Aesop
-~
-We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified. -- Aesop
-~
-The paper burns, but the words fly away. -- Ben Joseph Akiba
-~
-Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never play cards with a man named Doc.
-And never lie down with a woman who's got more trouble than you.
- -- Nelson Algren, "What Every Young Man Should Know"
-~
-Most of us spend the first 6 days of each week sowing wild oats,
-then we go to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure.
- -- Fred Allen
-~
-Leisure time is that five or six hours when you sleep at night.
- -- George Allen
-~
-I don't want to achieve immortality through my work.
-I want to achieve it through not dying.
- -- Woody Allen
-~
-The lion and the calf shall lie down together
-but the calf won't get much sleep.
- -- Woody Allen
-~
-If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a
-large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.
- -- Woody Allen, "Without Feathers"
-~
-The difference between sex and death is that with death
-you can do it alone and no one is going to make fun of you.
- -- Woody Allen, quoted in "New York Tribune", 1975
-~
-It seemed the world was divided into good and bad people.
-The good ones slept better... while the bad ones seemed
-to enjoy the waking hours much more.
- -- Woody Allen, "Side Effects" 1981
-~
-Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.
- -- Muhammad Ali, in "Time", 1978
-~
-Doing easily what others find difficult is talent;
-doing what is impossible for talent is genius.
- -- Henri-Frederic Amiel, "Journal", 1883
-~
-In any country there must be people who have to die. They are the
-sacrifices any nation has to make to achieve law and order.
- -- Idi Amin Dada, 1976
-~
-God has been replaced, as he has all over the West,
-with respectability and air conditioning.
- -- Imamu Amiri Baraka, "Home", 1966
-~
-Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity
-of opportunity to be otherwise.
- -- Maya Angelou, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", 1969
-~
-Death is life's answer to the question 'Why?' -- Anonymous
-~
-God is not dead. He is alive and working on a less ambitious project.
- -- Anonymous, 1975
-~
-In March July, October, May,
-The Ides are on the fifteenth day,
-The Nones the seventh: all other months besides
-Have two days less for Nones and Ides.
- -- Anonymous
-~
-Never argue with a fool--people might not know the difference. -- Anonymous
-~
-Never go to sea with two chronometers; take one or three. -- Anonymous
-~
-The fewer clear facts you have in support of an opinion,
-the stronger your emotional attachment to that opinion.
- -- Anonymous
-~
-Vote early and vote often. -- Anonymous, on US election banners, 1850's
-~
-You're never alone with schizophrenia. -- Anonymous
-~
-Resolved, that the women of this nation in 1876, have greater cause
-for discontent, rebellion and revolution than the men of 1776.
- -- Susan B. Anthony
-~
-Women like silent men. They think they're listening. -- Marcel Archard
-~
-We make war that we may live in peace. -- Aristotle
-~
-What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. -- Aristotle
-~
-Wit is cultured insolence. -- Aristotle
-~
-That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. -- Neil Armstrong
-~
-What passes for optimism is most often the effect of an intellectual error.
- -- Raymond Aron, "The Opium of the Intellectuals", 1957
-~
-We are still speaking the same language,
-but neither of us is hearing the other.
- -- Hafez Assad, on Syrian relations with Egypt, in "Time", 3 April 1989
-~
-If Gary Hart had seen Fatal Attraction two years ago,
-he'd probably be President.
- -- Bruce Babbitt, 1988 Presidential Campaign
-~
-Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper. -- Francis Bacon, 1624
-~
-Rebellions of the belly are the worst. -- Francis Bacon
-~
-It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.
- -- Walter Bagehot, "Biographical Studies", 1863
-~
-Be careful what you set your heart upon--for it will surely be yours.
- -- James Baldwin, "Nobody Knows My Name" 1961
-~
-Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart;
-for his purity, by definition, is unassailable.
- -- James Baldwin, "Nobody Knows My Name" 1961
-~
-The future is like heaven--everyone exalts it,
-but no one wants to go there now.
- -- James Baldwin, "Nobody Knows My Name", 1961
-~
-It is easier to be a lover than a husband for the simple reason
-that it is more difficult to be witty every day
-than to say pretty things from time to time.
- -- Honore de Balzac, "The Physiology of Marriage", 1829
-~
-Marriage must incessantly contend with a monster
-that devours everything: familiarity.
- -- Honore de Balzac, "The Physiology of Marriage", 1829
-~
-The duration of passion is proportionate
-with the original resistance of the woman.
- -- Honore de Balzac, "The Physiology of Marriage", 1829
-~
-It's the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time.
- -- Tallulah Bankhead
-~
-Television is the first truly democratic culture--the first culture
-available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want.
-The most terrifying thing is what people do want.
- -- Clive Barnes, in "New York Times", 1969
-~
-What is an adult? A child blown up by age.
- -- Simone de Beauvoir, "La Femme rompue", 1967
-~
-Now comes the mystery.
- -- Henry Ward Beecher, last words, 8 March 1887
-~
-Critics are like eunuchs in a harem: they know how it's done,
-they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.
- -- Brendan Behan
-~
-The most important things to do in this world are to get something
-to eat, something to drink and somebody to love you.
- -- Brendan Behan, in "Weekend", 1968
-~
-Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.
- -- Hector Berlioz, "Almanach des lettres francaises"
-~
-So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
- -- Psalms 90:10
-~
-The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. -- Psalms 111:10
-~
-Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
- -- Proverbs 16:18
-~
-The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
-fools despise wisdom and instruction.
- -- Proverbs 1:7
-~
-The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.
- -- Ecclesiastes 9:11
-~
-No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate one and love the other,
-or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and riches.
- -- Matthew 6:24
-~
-And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span?
- -- Matthew 6:27
-~
-Greater love hath no man than this,
-that a man lay down his life for his friends.
- -- John 15:13
-~
-Spring beckons! All things to the call respond;
-the trees are leaving and cashiers abscond.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
-~
-Beauty, n: the power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
-~
-Belladonna, n. In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison.
-A striking example of the essential identity of the two tongues.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
-~
-Bore, n: a person who talks when you wish him to listen.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
-~
-Conservative, n: a statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, as
-distinguished from a Liberal who wishes to replace them with others.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
-~
-Cynic, n: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are,
-not as they ought to be.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
-~
-Marriage, n: the state or condition of a community
-consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves,
-making in all, two.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
-~
-Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
-~
-Politeness, n: The most acceptable hypocrisy.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
-~
-Yankee, n: In Europe, an American.
-In the Northern States of our Union, a New Englander.
-In the Southern States the word is unknown. (See DAMYANK.)
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
-~
-The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease.
- -- Josh Billings, "The Kicker"
-~
-People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.
- -- Otto von Bismarck
-~
-Universal suffrage is the government of a house by its nursery.
- -- Otto von Bismarck
-~
-The first sign of a nervous breakdown is when you start
-thinking your work is terribly important.
- -- Milo Bloom
-~
-An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes
-which can be made, in a narrow field.
- -- Niels Bohr
-~
-The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the
-opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
- -- Niels Bohr
-~
-If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. -- Derek Bok, 1978
-~
-The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
- -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
-~
-Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed.
-If I fail, no one will say, 'She doesn't have what it takes.'
-They will say, 'Women don't have what it takes.'
- -- Clare Boothe Luce
-~
-Censorship, like charity, should begin at home,
-but unlike charity, it should end there.
- -- Clare Boothe Luce
-~
-No good deed goes unpunished. -- Clare Boothe Luce
-~
-When in doubt, mumble; when in trouble, delegate; when in charge, ponder.
- -- James H. Boren
-~
-Laughter is the shortest distance between two people. -- Victor Borge
-~
-Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand,
-but we must build as if the sand were stone.
- -- Jorge Luis Borges, 1972
-~
-We never know whether we are victors or whether we are defeated.
- -- Jorge Luis Borges, "Borges On Writing", 1974
-~
-It is possible to store the mind with a million facts
-and still be entirely uneducated.
- -- Alec Bourne, "A Doctor's Creed"
-~
-Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. If we continue
-to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant
-may prove to be our executioner.
- -- General Omar Bradley
-~
-Grub first, then ethics. -- Bertolt Brecht
-~
-I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
-~
-Please don't ask me what the score is, I'm not even sure what the game is.
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
-~
-To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first,
-and call whatever you hit the target.
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
-~
-No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.
- -- Jacob Bronowski, in "Encounter", 1971
-~
-Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance.
- -- Sam Brown, in "Washington Post", 1977
-~
-Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow.
- -- Matthew Browne, "Lilliput Levee"
-~
-As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically
-reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children.
- -- Anita Bryant, 1977
-~
-Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.
- -- William F. Buckley
-~
-Before you kill something make sure you have something better
-to replace it with; something better than political opportunist
-slamming hate horsesh*t in the public park.
- -- Charles Bukowski, "Notes of a Dirty Old Man", 1969
-~
-We love your adherence to democratic principles.
- -- George HW Bush speaking to Ferdinand Marcos, June 1981
-~
-The final lesson of Viet Nam is that no great nation
-can long afford to be sundered by a memory.
- -- George HW Bush, 1989 Inaugural Address
-~
-The caribou love [the Alaska oil pipeline].
-They run up against it, and they have babies.
- -- George HW Bush, 1988 and again "New York Times", 3 April 1989
-~
-It would be inappropriate for the President of the United States
-to try to fine-tune for the people of Hungary how they ought to eat -
-how the cow ought to eat the cabbage, as we say in the United States.
- -- George HW Bush, quoted in "Philadelphia Inquirer", 13 July 1989
-~
-An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less.
- -- Nicholas Murray Butler
-~
-Friendship is like money, easier made than kept. -- Samuel Butler
-~
-The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.
- -- Samuel Butler, "The Fair Haven", 1873
-~
-Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense
-to know how to lie well.
- -- Samuel Butler, "Notebooks" 1912
-~
-Marriage is distinctly and repeatedly excluded from heaven.
-Is this because it is thought likely to mar the general felicity?
- -- Samuel Butler, "Notebooks" 1912
-~
-One was never married, and that's his hell; another is, and that's his plague.
- -- Robert Burton, 1651
-~
-For truth is always strange; stranger than fiction.
- -- Lord Byron, "Don Juan", 1818
-~
-The optimist proclaims we live in the best of all possible worlds;
-and the pessimist fears this is true.
- -- James B. Cabell, "The Silver Stallion" 1926
-~
-Men willingly believe what they wish. -- Julius Caesar
-~
-What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a story.
-And the greatest good is little enough:
-for all life is a dream, and dreams themselves are only dreams.
- -- Pedro Calderon de la Barca, "Life is a Dream"
-~
-It is better to be defeated on principle than to win on lies.
- -- Arthur Calwell, 1968
-~
-An honest politician is one who when he is bought will stay bought.
- -- Simon Cameron
-~
-Every revolutionary ends up either by becoming an oppressor or a heretic.
- -- Albert Camus, "The Rebel", 1951
-~
-When I sell liquor, its called bootlegging; when my patrons serve
-it on a silver tray on Lake Shore Drive, it's called hospitality.
- -- Al Capone
-~
-You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun
-than you can with a kind word alone.
- -- Al Capone
-~
-Anyone who can walk to the welfare office can walk to work.
- -- Al Capp, in "Esquire", 1970
-~
-It is long accepted by the missionaries that morality is inversely
-proportional to the amount of clothing people wore.
- -- Alex Carey
-~
-"Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be,
-and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic!"
- -- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass"
-~
-Because of the greatness of the Shah, Iran is an island of stability
-in the Middle East.
- -- Jimmy Carter, 31 December 1977
-~
-Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie!" till you can find a rock.
- -- Wynn Catlin
-~
-As long as people will accept crap,
-it will be financially profitable to dispense it.
- -- Dick Cavett, in "Playboy", 1971
-~
-Everything beautiful has its moment and then passes away.
- -- Luis Cernuda, "Las Ruinas"
-~
-A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.
- -- Miguel de Cervantes
-~
-I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women,
-French to men, and German to my horse.
- -- Charles V, King of France
-~
-In some cases non-violence requires more militancy than violence.
- -- Cesar Chavez
-~
-He who asks is a fool for five minutes,
-but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
- -- Chinese proverb
-~
-The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out.
- -- Chinese proverb
-~
-I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly,
-or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.
- -- Chuang Tzu
-~
-I like a man who grins when he fights. -- Winston Churchill
-~
-I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us.
-Pigs treat us as equals.
- -- Winston Churchil
-~
-It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-Man will occasionally stumble over the truth,
-but most times he will pick himself up and carry on.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings;
-the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.
- -- Winston Churchill, Speech, January 1952
-~
-Preparation, knowledge, and discipline can deal with any form of danger.
- -- Tom Clancy, "The Hunt for Red October", 1984
-~
-Who will protect the public when the police violate the law?
- -- Ramsey Clark
-~
-It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God,
-but to create him.
- -- Arthur C. Clarke
-~
-Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.
- -- Arthur C. Clarke
-~
-Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
- -- Arthur C. Clarke, "Profiles of the Future", 1962
-~
-You're either part of the solution or part of the problem.
- -- Eldridge Cleaver, 1968
-~
-The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.
- -- Eldridge Cleaver, "Soul on Ice", 1968
-~
-America is the only nation in history which miraculously
-has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without
-the usual interval of civilization.
- -- Georges Clemenceau, 1 December 1945
-~
-War is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military.
- -- Georges Clemenceau
-~
-When you have nothing to say, say nothing. -- Charles Caleb Colton
-~
-I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
- -- Confucius
-~
-If we don't know life, how can we know death? -- Confucius
-~
-Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.
- -- Confucius
-~
-Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. -- Confucius
-~
-What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others. -- Confucius
-~
-When we see persons of worth, we should think of equaling them;
-when we see persons of a contrary character,
-we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.
- -- Confucius
-~
-Imprisoned in every fat man a thin man is wildly signaling to be let out.
- -- Cyril Connolly, "The Unquiet Grave" 1945
-~
-Slums may well be breeding grounds of crime,
-but middle class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium.
- -- Cyril Connolly, "The Unquiet Grave" 1945
-~
-Truth is a river that is always splitting up into arms that reunite.
-Islanded between the arms the inhabitants argue for a lifetime
-as to which is the main river.
- -- Cyril Connolly, "The Unquiet Grave" 1945
-~
-Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones
-who will be writing about you.
- -- Cyril Connolly, "Journal and Memoir" 1983
-~
-Youth is a period of missed opportunities.
- -- Cyril Connolly, "Journal and Memoir" 1983
-~
-The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet.
- -- Cyril Connolly, "Journal and Memoir" 1983
-~
-You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends.
- -- Joseph Conrad, "Lord Jim", 1900
-~
-The horror! The horror!
- -- Joseph Conrad, "Heart of Darkness", 1902
-~
-I love Vermont because of her hills and valleys, her scenery and
-invigorating climate, but most of all because of her indomitable people.
- -- Calvin Coolidge, Speech, 21 September 1928
-~
-Don't talk unless you can improve the silence. -- Laurence Coughlin
-~
-A man feared that he might find an assassin;
-Another that he might find a victim.
-One was more wise than the other.
- -- Stephan Crane, "The Black Riders and Other Lines", 1895
-~
-I stood upon a high place, and saw, below, many devils,
-running, leaping, and carousing in sin.
-One looked up, grinning, and said, "Comrade! Brother!"
- -- Stephan Crane, "The Black Riders and Other Lines", 1895
-~
-I walked in a desert.
-And I cried,
-"Ah, God, take me from this place!"
-A voice said, "It is no desert."
-I cried, "Well, but---
-"The sand, the heat, the vacant horizon."
-A voice said, "It is no desert."
- -- Stephan Crane, "The Black Riders and Other Lines", 1895
-~
-I was in the darkness;
-I could not see my words
-Nor the wishes of my heart.
-Then suddenly there was a great light---
-"Let me into the darkness again."
- -- Stephan Crane, "The Black Riders and Other Lines", 1895
-~
-A man said to the universe, "Sir, I exist." "However," replied the universe,
-"the fact has not created in me a sense of obligation."
- -- Stephan Crane, "War is Kind", 1899
-~
-There is growing evidence that smoking has pharamacological ...
-effects that are of real value to smokers.
- -- Joseph F. Cullman III (Pres. of Phillip Morris)
- Annual Report to Stockholders, 1962
-~
-There are no atheists in the foxholes.
- -- William Thomas Cummings, 1942
-~
-Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days.
-An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to
-make it meaningful: a meaningful friend, or a meaningful day.
- -- the 14th Dalai Lama, interview in "TIME", 11 April 1988
-~
-The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time
-of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.
- -- Dante
-~
-The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents,
-and the second half by our children.
- -- Clarence Darrow
-~
-There is no such thing as justice--in or out of court.
- -- Clarence Darrow, Interview, April 1936
-~
-When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President;
-I'm beginning to believe it.
- -- Clarence Darrow
-~
-The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is,
-in fact, a return to the idealised past.
- -- Robertson Davies, "A Voice from the Attic", 1960
-~
-There is no such thing as a nonracial society
-in a multiracial country.
- -- F. W. de Klerk, President of South Africa,
- quoted in _Time_, 11 September 1989
-~
-There are a million ways to lose a work day,
-but not even a single way to get one back.
- -- Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister, _Peopleware_, 1987
-~
-People are always talking about tradition, but they forget we have
-a tradition of a few hundred years of nonsense and stupidity, that
-there is a tradition of idiocy, incompetence and crudity.
- -- Hugo Demartini, in "Contemporary Artists", 1977
-~
-Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly
-and safely insane every night of our lives.
- -- William Dement, in "Newsweek", 1959
-~
-We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them
-to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up.
- -- Phyllis Diller
-~
-I never deny, I never contradict. I sometimes forget.
- -- Benjamin Disraeli
-~
-There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
- -- Benjamin Disraeli
-~
-Youth is a blunder, manhood a struggle, old age a regret.
- -- Benjamin Disraeli, "Coningsby" 1844
-~
-The average Ph.D. thesis is nothing but a transference of bones
-from one graveyard to another.
- -- J. Frank Dobie, "A Texan in England", 1945
-~
-Love built on beauty, soon as beauty dies.
- -- John Donne, "Elegy II, The Anagram"
-~
-Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself,
-but talent instantly recognizes genius.
- -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Valley of Fear", 1914
-~
-One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do
-and always a clever thing to say.
- -- Will Durant, in "Reader's Digest", 1972
-~
-Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
- -- Will Durant, in "National Enquirer", 1980
-~
-A man's got to know his limitations.
- -- Clint Eastwood in "Magnum Force", 1973
-~
-History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely
-once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
- -- Abba Eban, 1970
-~
-Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.
- -- Thomas Alva Edison, "Life", 1932
-~
-There is no substitute for hard work.
- -- Thomas Alva Edison, "Life", 1932
-~
-To err is human but to really foul things up requires a computer.
- -- Paul Ehrlich, in "The Farmers Almanac, 1978"
-~
-Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present,
-but an equation is something for eternity.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it
-is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us
-any closer to the secret of the Old One. I, at any rate, am convinced that He
-does not throw dice.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-God may be subtle. But He is not malicious.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war
-fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people
-of the earth will be killed.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-I never think of the future--it comes soon enough.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-The important thing is not to stop questioning.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has
-merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his
-tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand
-this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signls here, they
-receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-Before God we are all equally wise--and equally foolish.
- -- Albert Einstein, "Cosmic Religion"
-~
-The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
- -- Albert Einstein, "Life", 1950
-~
-Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and
-the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.
- -- Albert Einstein, "Ideas and Opinions", 1954
-~
-A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.
- -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
-~
-I think that people want peace so much that one of these days
-government had better get out of their way and let them have it.
- -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
-~
-In the final choice a soldier's pack is not so heavy as a prisoner's chains.
- -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
-~
-We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.
- -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
-~
-What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight -
-it's the size of the fight in the dog.
- -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1958
-~
-This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.
- -- T. S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men", 1925
-~
-The greatest task before civilization at present is to make machines
-what they ought to be, the slaves, instead of the masters of men.
- -- Havelock Ellis, "Little Essays of Love and Virtue", 1922
-~
-The place where optimism most flourishes is the lunatic asylum.
- -- Havelock Ellis, "The Dance of Life", 1923
-~
-The sun and the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago...
-had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands.
- -- Havelock Ellis, "The Dance of Life", 1923
-~
-What we call "morals" is simply blind obedience to words of command.
- -- Havelock Ellis, "The Dance of Life", 1923
-~
-Always do what you are afraid to do. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters
-compared to what lies within us.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-When it is dark enough you can see the stars.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Journal", 20 December 1822
-~
-A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere.
-Before him, I may think aloud.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Essays", 1841
-~
-I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Essays", 1841
-~
-To be great is to be misunderstood.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Essays", 1841
-~
-I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Journal", May 1849
-~
-Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Conduct of Life", 1860
-~
-Hitch your wagon to a star.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Conduct of Life", 1860
-~
-A wise man first determines what is within his control;
-all else is then irrelevant.
- -- Epictetus
-~
-We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.
- -- Epictetus
-~
-War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it.
- -- Desiderius Erasmus
-~
-A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.
- -- Paul Erdos
-~
-A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way
-that everyone believes he has the biggest piece.
- -- Ludwig Erhard, in "The Observer", 1958
-~
-There's a difference between beauty and charm. A beautiful woman
-is one I notice. A charming woman is one who notices me.
- -- John Erskine
-~
-Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do
-with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
- -- Susan Ertz
-~
-Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.
- -- Euripides
-~
-The best of seers is he who guesses well.
- -- Euripides
-~
-The camera cannot lie. But it can be an accessory to untruth.
- -- Harold Evans, "Pictures on a Page", 1978
-~
-Passions are fashions.
- -- Clifton Fadiman
-~
-When you read a classic you do not see in the book more than you did before.
-You see more in you than there was before.
- -- Clifton Fadiman, "Any Number Can Play", 1957
-~
-The only accident [at Three Mile Island] is that this thing leaked out.
-You could have avoided this whole thing by not saying anything.
- -- Craig Faust (control-room operator at TMI), 1979,
- quoted from "Loose Talk"
-~
-If people really liked to work, we'd still be plowing the land with sticks
-and transporting goods on our backs.
- -- William Feather
-~
-A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes.
- -- James Feibleman, "Understanding Philosophy", 1973
-~
-The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.
- -- Fanny Fern, "Willis Parton"
-~
-Computer: a million morons working at the speed of light.
- -- David Ferrier
-~
-The first principle is that you must not fool yourself -
-and you are the easiest person to fool.
- -- Richard Feynman, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"
-~
-Anybody who hates children and dogs can't be all bad. -- W. C. Fields
-~
-I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally. -- W. C. Fields
-~
-It isn't what they say about you, it's what they whisper. -- Errol Flynn
-~
-Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
- -- Henry Ford
-~
-The Law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich, as well as the poor,
-to sleep under the bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
- -- Anatole France
-~
-I am responsible only to God and history.
- -- Francisco Franco
-~
-I still believe that people are really good at heart.
-I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation
-consisting of confusion, misery and death.
- -- Anne Frank
-~
-Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.
- -- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac
-~
-In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes.
- -- Benjamin Franklin, 1789
-~
-Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
- -- Sigmund Freud
-~
-Clothe an idea in words and it loses its freedom of movement.
- -- Egon Friedell
-~
-The news is the one thing the networks can point to with pride.
-Everything else they do is crap--and they know it.
- -- Fred Friendly, 1980
-~
-The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.
- -- Erich Fromm
-~
-A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather
-and ask for it back when it begins to rain.
- -- Robert Frost
-~
-A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday
-but never remembers her age.
- -- Robert Frost
-~
-A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.
- -- Robert Frost
-~
-A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.
- -- Robert Frost
-~
-The world is full of willing people;
-some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.
- -- Robert Frost
-~
-The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
-But I have promises to keep,
-And miles to go before I sleep,
-And miles to go before I sleep.
- -- Robert Frost, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", 1923
-~
-We compound our suffering by victimising each other.
- -- Athol Fugard, in "The Observer", 1971
-~
-The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun.
- -- R. Buckminster Fuller
-~
-The most important thing about Spaceship Earth -
-an instruction book didn't come with it.
- -- R. Buckminster Fuller, quoted in "Contemporary Architects", 1980
-~
-It's not your blue blood, your pedigree or your college degree.
-It's what you do with your life that counts.
- -- Millard Fuller, in "Time", 16 January 1989
-~
-Getting divorced just because you don't love a man is
-almost as silly as getting married just because you do.
- -- Zsa Zsa Gabor
-~
-If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
- -- John Kenneth Galbraith
-~
-Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.
- -- John Kenneth Galbraith
-~
-Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing
-between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
- -- John Kenneth Galbraith
-~
-The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises
-in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral
-justification for selfishness.
- -- John Kenneth Galbraith
-~
-In economics, the majority is always wrong.
- -- John Kenneth Galbraith, in "Saturday Evening Post", 1968
-~
-One of the greatest pieces of economic wisdom is to know what you do not know.
- -- John Kenneth Galbraith, in "Time", 1961
-~
-I could prove God statistically. -- George Gallup
-~
-He who awaits much can expect little.
- -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez,
- "El Coronel no Tiene quien le Escriba"
-~
-Si Dios no hubiera descansado el domingo
-habria tenido tiempo de terminar el mundo.
-(If God hadn't rested on Sunday,
-He would have had time to finish the world.)
- -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez,
- "Los Funerales de Mam Grande", 1974
-~
-No creo en Dios, pero le tengo miedo.
-(I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of Him.)
- -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "El Amor en los Tiempos de Calera", 1985
-~
-The true statesman is the one who is willing to take risks.
- -- Charles de Gaulle, 1967
-~
-A country can be judged by the quality of its proverbs. -- German Proverb
-~
-If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars.
- -- J. Paul Getty
-~
-I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant,
-and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.
- -- Kahlil Gibran
-~
-Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.
- -- Andre Gide
-~
-In hell there is no other punishment than to begin over
-and over again the tasks left unfinished in your lifetime.
- -- Andre Gide
-~
-The secret of success is sincerity.
-Once you can fake that you've got it made.
- -- Jean Giraudoux
-~
-Expecting something for nothing is the most popular form of hope.
- -- Arnold Glasow
-~
-All things are only transitory. -- Goethe
-~
-We are not abandoning our convictions, our philosophy or traditions,
-nor do we urge anyone to abandon theirs.
- -- Mikhail Gorbachev, UN address, 7 December 1988
-~
-The truest wild beasts live in the most populous places.
- -- Baltasar Gracian, "The Art of Worldly Wisdom" 1647
-~
-Thirty days hath November,
-April, June, and September,
-February hath twenty-eight alone,
-And all the rest have thirty-one.
- -- Richard Grafton, 1562
-~
-I think when a person has been found guilty of rape
-he should be castrated. That would stop him pretty quick.
- -- Billy Graham, 1974
-~
-The illusion that times that were are better than those that are,
-has probably pervaded all ages.
- -- Horace Greeley, "The American Conflict", 1864-1866
-~
-If you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.
- -- Motto of the Green Berets
-~
-Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought.
- -- Graham Greene, 1981
-~
-Figures won't lie, but liars will figure.
- -- Charles H. Grosvenor
-~
-It's round the world I've traveled; it's round the world I've roamed;
-but I've yet to see an outlaw drive a family from its home.
- -- Woody Guthrie, "Pretty Boy Floyd"
-~
-Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.
- -- Alex Hamilton, "The Listener", 1978
-~
-The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers.
- -- R. W. Hamming, "Numerical Methods for Scientists and Engineers", 1973
-~
-War will cease when men refuse to fight.
- -- Fridtjof Hansen
-~
-Licker talks mighty loud w'en it gets loose fum de jug.
- -- Joel C. Harris, "Uncle Remus: Plantation Proverbs"
-~
-Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has
-just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.
- -- Sydney Harris
-~
-In times like these, it is helpful to remember
-that there have always been times like these.
- -- Paul Harvey
-~
-The probability of anything happening is in inverse ratio to its desirability.
- -- John W. Hazard, "Changing Times" 1957
-~
-Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater. -- William Hazlitt
-~
-Opinions founded on prejudice are always sustained
-with the greatest violence.
- -- Hebrew Proverb
-~
-Some people are born mediocre, some people achieve mediocrity,
-and some people have mediocrity thrust upon them.
- -- Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
-~
-Plain women know more about men than beautiful ones do.
-But beautiful women don't need to know about men.
-It's the men who have to know about beautiful women.
- -- Katherine Hepburn
-~
-Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived
-and how he died that distinguish one man from another.
- -- Ernest Hemingway, quoted in "Sunday Times", 1966
-~
-Is life so dear, or peace so sweet as to be purchased
-at the price of chains and slavery?
- -- Patrick Henry
-~
-All is flux, nothing stays still. -- Heraclitus
-~
-Nothing endures but change. -- Heraclitus
-~
-Some actions have an end but no beginning; some begin but do not end.
-It all depends upon where the observer is standing.
- -- Frank Herbert
-~
-I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that
-brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass
-over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner
-eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
-Only I will remain.
- -- Frank Herbert, "Dune", 1965
-~
-Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks. -- Herodotus
-~
-If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of
-fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.
- -- Herodotus
-~
-There's nothing in the middle of the road
-but yellow stripes and dead armadillos.
- -- Jim Hightower, in "Time", 3 April 1989
-~
-To do nothing is also a good remedy. -- Hippocrates
-~
-Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.
- -- Alfred Hitchcock, in "The Observer", 1960
-~
-In films murders are always very clean. I show how difficult it is
-and what a messy thing it is to kill a man.
- -- Alfred Hitchcock, 1966
-~
-The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.
- -- Adolf Hitler
-~
-What luck for the rulers that men do not think.
- -- Adolf Hitler
-~
-Never tolerate the establishment of two continental powers in Europe.
- -- Adolf Hitler, "Mein Kampf", 1933
-~
-Strength lies not in defense but in attack.
- -- Adolf Hitler, "Mein Kampf", 1933
-~
-Success is the sole earthly judge of right and wrong.
- -- Adolf Hitler, "Mein Kampf", 1933
-~
-The great masses of the people... will more easily
-fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.
- -- Adolf Hitler, "Mein Kampf", 1933
-~
-You can discover what your enemy fears most
-by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
- -- Eric Hoffer, in "The Faber Book of Aphorisms", 1964
-~
-The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it. -- Abbie Hoffman
-~
-Justice is incidental to law and order. -- J. Edgar Hoover
-~
-Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero!
-(Seize the day, put no trust in the morrow!)
- -- Horace
-~
-Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
-(It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country.)
- -- Horace
-~
-He has half the deed done who has made a beginning. -- Horace
-~
-Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled. -- Horace
-~
-Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
- -- Elbert Hubbard
-~
-Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of middle-aged men. -- Kin Hubbard
-~
-When a fellow says it ain't the money but
-the principle of the thing, it's the money.
- -- Kin Hubbard
-~
-Now and then an innocent man is sent to the legislature.
- -- Kin Hubbard, "Abe Martin's Broadcast", 1930
-~
-Habit is the nursery of errors. -- Victor Hugo
-~
-We believe that to err is human. To blame it on someone else is politics.
- -- Hubert H. Humphrey
-~
-The right to be heard does not automatically
-include the right to be taken seriously.
- -- Hubert H. Humphrey, 1965
-~
-A woman has to be twice as good as a man to go half as far. -- Fannie Hurst
-~
-The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from
-ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference,
-and undernourishment.
- -- Robert Hutchins, "Great Books" 1954
-~
-Maybe this world is another planet's Hell. -- Aldous Huxley
-~
-The most distressing thing that can happen to a prophet
-is to be proved wrong. The next most distressing thing is
-to be proved right.
- -- Aldous Huxley, "Brave New World Revisited", 1956
-~
-Experience is not what happens to you.
-It is what you do with what happens to you.
- -- Aldous Huxley, in "Reader's Digest", 1956
-~
-Technological progress has merely provided us with more
-efficient means for going backwards.
- -- Aldous Huxley, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow", 1956
-~
-A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.
- -- Henrik Ibsen, "An Enemy of the People", 1882
-~
-The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.
- -- Henrik Ibsen, "An Enemy of the People", 1882
-~
-There is always something to upset the most careful of human calculations.
- -- Ihara Saikaku
-~
-Few rich men own their own property. The property owns them.
- -- Robert G. Ingersoll
-~
-To think contrary to one's era is heroism.
-But to speak against it is madness.
- -- Eugene Ionesco
-~
-The will to win is worthless if you don't get paid for it. -- Reggie Jackson
-~
-It is only when they go wrong that machines remind you how powerful they are.
- -- Clive James, in "The Observer", 1976
-~
-A great many people think they are thinking
-when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
- -- William James
-~
-The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.
- -- William James
-~
-El amor es un camino que de repente aparece y de tanto caminarlo se te pierde.
- -- Victor Jara, "El Amor es un Camino"
-~
-In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to Liberty.
- -- Thomas Jefferson
-~
-I think [a black]... could scarcely be found capable of
-tracing and comprehending the investigations of Euclid.
- -- Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on Virginia", 1787
-~
-It is always the best policy to tell the truth, unless,
-of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.
- -- Jerome K. Jerome
-~
-To seek permission is to seek denial. -- Steve Jobs
-~
-Men are like wine--some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.
- -- Pope John XXIII, 1978
-~
-I never trust a man unless I've got his pecker in my pocket.
- -- Lyndon B. Johnson
-~
-If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River,
-the headline that afternoon would read: PRESIDENT CAN'T SWIM.
- -- Lyndon B. Johnson
-~
-No member of our generation who wasn't a Communist
-or a dropout in the thirties is worth a damn.
- -- Lyndon B. Johnson, 1960
-~
-Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
- -- Samuel Johnson, 7 April 1775
-~
-The heart has its prisons that intelligence cannot unlock.
- -- Marcel Jouhandeau, "De la grandeur"
-~
-Do you not know, my son, with what little understanding the world is ruled?
- -- Pope Julius III
-~
-An ounce of emotion is equal to a ton of facts. -- John Junor
-~
-In the fight between you and the world, back the world. -- Franz Kafka
-~
-There are two cardinal sins from which all the others spring:
-impatience and laziness.
- -- Franz Kafka
-~
-The more things change, the more they remain the same.
- -- Alphonse Karr, "Les Guepes", January 1849
-~
-You do not destroy an idea by killing people; you replace it with a better one.
- -- Edward Keating
-~
-Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced.
- -- John Keats, Correspondence, 1819
-~
-College isn't the place to go for ideas. -- Hellen Keller
-~
-We have met the enemy and he is us. -- Walt Kelly in "POGO"
-~
-If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.
- -- Florynce Kennedy, 1976
-~
-Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.
- -- John F. Kennedy
-~
-Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.
- -- John F. Kennedy
-~
-We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind
-in the history of the world--or to make it the last.
- -- John F. Kennedy
-~
-And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you;
-ask what you can do for your country.
- -- John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, 20 January 1961
-~
-If a free society cannot help the many who are poor,
-it cannot save the few who are rich.
- -- John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, 20 January 1961
-~
-Those who make peaceful revolution impossible
-will make violent revolution inevitable.
- -- John F. Kennedy, 12 March 1962
-~
-Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
- -- Robert F. Kennedy
-~
-Some men see things as they are and say why?
-I dream things that never were and say 'Why not?'
- -- Robert F. Kennedy, quoted in "Esquire", 1969
-~
-Without feeling there's no reason to live.
- -- Andre Kertesz, photographer, 1894-1985
-~
-In the long run we are all dead.
- -- John Maynard Keynes, "The General Theory", 1936
-~
-In a fight you don't stop to choose your cudgels. -- Nikita Khruschev
-~
-Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build
-bridge even when there are no rivers.
- -- Nikita Khruschev
-~
-Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
- -- Soren Kierkegaard, "Life"
-~
-Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
-~
-It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me,
-but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
- -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
-~
-Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the
-the philanthropist to over-look the circumstances of
-economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.
- -- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Strength to Love", 1963
-~
-The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort,
-but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
- -- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Strength to Love", 1963
-~
-He travels the fastest who travels alone.
- -- Rudyard Kipling
-~
-Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.
- -- Rudyard Kipling
-~
-The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
- -- Henry Kissinger
-~
-Television--a medium. So called because it is neither rare nor well-done.
- -- Ernie Kovacs
-~
-Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.
- -- Jonathan Kozol
-~
-Credulity is the man's weakness, but the child's strength.
- -- Charles Lamb
-~
-People don't ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather
-have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts.
- -- Robert Keith Leavitt
-~
-It is well that war is so terrible, or we should get too fond of it.
- -- Robert E. Lee, December 1862
-~
-To light a candle is to cast a shadow.
- -- Ursula K. Le Guin, "A Wizard of Earthsea", 1975
-~
-When smashing monuments, save the pedestals--they always come in handy.
- -- Stanislaw Lec
-~
-It is true that liberty is precious--so precious that it must be rationed.
- -- Nikolai Lenin
-~
-The world began without man, and it will complete itself without him.
- -- Claude Levi-Strauss, "Tristes Tropiques", 1955
-~
-Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive,
-but what they conceal is vital.
- -- Aaron Levenstein
-~
-Ask a man which way he is going to vote, and he will probably tell you.
-Ask him, however, why, and vagueness is all.
- -- Bernard Levin, in "Daily Mail", 1964
-~
-A real diplomat is one who can cut his neighbor's throat
-without having his neighbor notice it.
- -- Trygve Lie
-~
-He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help. -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-Nearly all men can stand adversity,
-but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-The ballot is stronger than the bullet. -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong
-impulse to see it tried on him personally.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-You can fool all the people some of the time,
-and some of the people all the time,
-but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee,
-and just as hard to sleep after.
- -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh
-~
-Where all men think alike, no one thinks very much.
- -- Walter Lippmann
-~
-I have always thought the actions of men the best
-interpreters of their thoughts.
- -- John Locke
-~
-Winning is not everything. It's the only thing.
- -- Vince Lombardi, 1965
-~
-The ignorant man always adores what he cannot understand.
- -- Cesare Lombroso, "The Man of Genius"
-~
-Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.
- -- Joe Louis, 1965
-~
-In war there is no substitute for victory.
- -- General Douglas MacArthur, Speech, 19 April 1951
-~
-There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity.
- -- General Douglas MacArthur, 1955
-~
-Caminante, son tus huellas el camino, y nada m s;
-caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar.
- -- Antonio Machado, "Proverbios y cantares, VI"
-~
-It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.
- -- Niccolo Machiavelli
-~
-All our knowledge merely helps us to die a more painful death
-than the animals that know nothing.
- -- Maurice Maeterlinck
-~
-The atom bomb is a paper tiger...
-Terrible to look at but not so strong as it seems.
- -- Mao Zedong
-~
-Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
- -- Mao Zedong, "Quotations from Chairman Mao", 1966
-~
-Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.
- -- Mao Zedong, "Quotations from Chairman Mao", 1966
-~
-An optimist is a guy that has never had much experience.
- -- Donald R. Perry Marquis, "archy and mehitabel", 1927
-~
-Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.
- -- Groucho Marx
-~
-From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.
- -- Karl Marx
-~
-Religion... is the opium of the masses.
- -- Karl Marx, "Critique of the Hegelian Philosophy of Right", 1844
-~
-Unrecognized faults lead to wasted efforts
- -- Joanot Martorell, "Tirant lo Blanc", 1490
-~
-Impropriety is the soul of wit.
- -- Somerset Maugham
-~
-Love is only the dirty trick played on us
-to achieve continuation of the species.
- -- W. Somerset Maugham, "A Writer's Notebook" 1949
-~
-I feel like a fugitive from the law of averages.
- -- William H. Mauldin, "Up Front" 1944
-~
-Having two bathrooms ruined the capacity to co-operate.
- -- Margaret Mead
-~
-The people here [in Nicaragua] are amazingly friendly, when you
-figure we're here to overthrow their government.
- -- Richard Melton, US Ambassador to Nicaragua
-~
-A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence
-and yet keep both ears to the ground.
- -- H. L. Mencken
-~
-Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
- -- H. L. Mencken
-~
-No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
- -- H. L. Mencken
-~
-Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
- -- H. L. Mencken
-~
-The American public knows what it wants,
-and deserves to get it good and hard.
- -- H. L. Mencken
-~
-There's always an easy solution to every human problem -
-neat, plausible, and wrong.
- -- H. L. Mencken
-~
-Time is the great legalizer, even in the field of morals.
- -- H. L. Mencken, "A Book of Prefaces", 1917
-~
-Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life,
-there is actually no truth to be discovered;
-there is only error to be exposed.
- -- H. L. Mencken, "Prejudices, Third Series", 1922
-~
-The older I grow the more I distrust
-the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
- -- H. L. Mencken, "Prejudices, Third Series", 1922
-~
-Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.
- -- H. L. Mencken, "A Mencken Chrestomathy", 1949
-~
-Conservatives are not necessarily stupid,
-but most stupid people are conservatives.
- -- John Stuart Mill
-~
-He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.
- -- John Stuart Mill
-~
-A good listener is not only popular everywhere,
-but after a while he gets to know something.
- -- Wilson Mizner
-~
-Gambling: The sure way of getting nothing for something.
- -- Wilson Mizner
-~
-I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.
- -- Wilson Mizner
-~
-Some of the greatest love affairs I've known
-have involved one actor, unassisted.
- -- Wilson Mizner
-~
-When you take stuff from one writer it's plagiarism;
-but when you take it from many writers, it's research.
- -- Wilson Mizner
-~
-I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it.
- -- Marilyn Monroe
-~
-Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in,
-and those inside equally desperate to get out.
- -- Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
-~
-The value of life lies not in the length of days,
-but in the use we make of them...
-Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not
-on your tale of years, but on your will.
- -- Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, 1580
-~
-Obstacles are those frightful things you see
-when you take your eyes off the goal.
- -- Hannah More
-~
-Only the sinner has the right to preach.
- -- Christopher Morley
-~
-There is only one success, to be able to spend your life in your own way.
- -- Christopher Morley
-~
-You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.
- -- John Morley, "Rousseau", 1876
-~
-Any party which takes credit for the rain
-must not be surprised if its opponents blame it for the draught.
- -- Dwight Morrow
-~
-If the nation's economists were laid end to end,
-they would point in all directions.
- -- Arthur H. Motley
-~
-As a student I learned from wonderful teachers
-and ever since then I've thought everyone is a teacher.
- -- Bill Moyers, interviews on "Fresh Air", 1991
-~
-Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation.
- -- Edward R. Murrow
-~
-Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.
- -- Edward R. Murrow
-~
-The big majority of Americans, who are comparatively well off,
-have developed an ability to have enclaves of people living in the
-greatest misery without almost noticing them.
- -- Gunnar Myrdal
-~
-Life is a great surprise. I do not see why death
-should not be an even greater one.
- -- Vladimir Nabokov, quoted in "Time", 1981
-~
-The speed of exit of a civil servant is directly proportional
-to the quality of his service.
- -- Ralph Nader, "The Spoiled System"
-~
-Everybody is interesting for an hour, but few people can last more than two.
- -- V. S. Naipul, interview in "Time", 10 July 1989
-~
-If you wish to be a success in the world,
-promise everything, deliver nothing.
- -- Napoleon
-~
-In politics stupidity is not a handicap.
- -- Napoleon
-~
-Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.
- -- Napoleon
-~
-A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.
- -- Napoleon, "Maxims" 1804-1815
-~
-History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
- -- Napoleon, "Maxims" 1804-1815
-~
-Women are nothing but machines for producing children.
- -- Napolean, quoted in "The Book of Insults", 1978
-~
-Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker.
- -- Ogden Nash
-~
-Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.
- -- George Jean Nathan
-~
-Nobody believes the official spokesman ...
-but everybody trusts an unidentified source.
- -- Ron Nesen, 1977
-~
-Lack of will power has caused more failure than
-lack of intelligence or ability.
- -- Flower A. Newhouse
-~
-Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.
- -- Howard W. Newton
-~
-If I have seen far, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
- -- Sir Isaac Newton
-~
-O God, give us serenity to accept what cannot be changed,
-courage to change what should be changed,
-and wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
- -- Reinhold Niebuhr, sermon, 1934
-~
-Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.
- -- Reinhold Niebuhr
-~
- They [Nazis] came first for the Communists,
-and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
- Then they came for the Jews,
-and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
- Then they came for the Catholics,
-and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
- Then they came for me,
-and by that time there was no one left to speak up.
- -- Martin Niemueller
-~
-In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.
- -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly.
- -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-What does not destroy me, makes me strong.
- -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?
- -- Friedrich Nietzsche, "Beyond Good and Evil", 1885-1886
-~
-A ship is always referred to as "she"
-because it costs so much to keep one in paint and powder.
- -- Chester Nimitz, Speech, 13 February 1940
-~
-I have nothing to hide.
- -- Richard Nixon
-~
-I would have made a good pope.
- -- Richard Nixon
-~
-Voters quickly forget what a man says.
- -- Richard Nixon
-~
-Your President is no crook!
- -- Richard Nixon
-~
-Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth -
-to see it like it is, and tell it like it is -
-to find the truth, to speak the truth, and live the truth.
- -- Richard Nixon, accepting the Presidential Nomination, 1968
-~
-When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.
- -- Richard Nixon, in interview with David Frost, 19 May 1977
-~
-Laws were made to be broken.
- -- Christopher North
-~
-Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly upon our own point of view.
- -- Obi-Wan Kenobi in "Return of the Jedi"
-~
-There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.
- -- Kenneth H. Olson, President of DEC,
- Convention of the World Future Society, 1977
-~
-The optimist thinks that this is the best of all possible worlds,
-and the pessimist knows it.
- -- J. Robert Oppenheimer, "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" 1951
-~
-Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.
- -- George Orwell
-~
-Liberal--a power worshipper without power.
- -- George Orwell
-~
-On the whole human beings want to be good,
-but not too good and not quite all the time.
- -- George Orwell, collected essays
-~
-All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
- -- George Orwell, "Animal Farm" 1945
-~
-Big Brother Is Watching You
- -- George Orwell, "1984", 1948
-~
-Who controls the past controls the future.
-Who controls the present controls the past.
- -- George Orwell, "1984", 1948
-~
-At 50 everyone has the face he deserves.
- -- George Orwell, "Journals", 1949
-~
-Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives,
-but on balance life is suffering and only the very young
-or the very foolish imagine otherwise.
- -- George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant", 1950
-~
-It is convenient that there be gods,
-and, as it is convenient, let us believe there are.
- -- Ovid, "Ars Amatoria"
-~
-To be loved, be lovable.
- -- Ovid, "Ars Amatoria"
-~
-The chief product of an automated society
-is a widespread and deepening sense of boredom.
- -- Cyril Parkinson
-~
-It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as
-to fill the time available for its completion.
- -- C. Northcote Parkinson, in "The Economist", 1955
-~
-The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
- -- Ellen Parr
-~
-If all men knew what others say of them,
-there would not be four friends in the world.
- -- Blaise Pascal, 1656
-~
-Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed.
- -- Blaise Pascal, "Pensees", 1670
-~
-Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor
-of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply... For fear will
-rob him of all if he gives too much.
- -- Alan Paton, "Cry, The Beloved Country", 1948
-~
-God forgives us... Who am I not to forgive?
- -- Alan Paton, "Cry, The Beloved Country", 1948
-~
-I have one great fear in my heart, that one day
-when they [the whites of South Africa] have turned to loving,
-they will find we [the blacks] are turned to hating.
- -- Alan Paton, "Cry, The Beloved Country", 1948
-~
-Then what is it worth, this mining industry? And why should it
-be kept alive, if it is only our poverty that keeps it alive? ...
-Is it we that must be kept poor so that others may stay rich?
- -- Alan Paton, "Cry, The Beloved Country", 1948
-~
-What broke in a man when he could bring himself to kill another?
- -- Alan Paton, "Cry, The Beloved Country", 1948
-~
-Who knows for what we live, and struggle, and die? ...
-Wise men write many books, in words too hard to understand.
-But this, the purpose of our lives, the end of all our struggle,
-is beyond all human wisdom.
- -- Alan Paton, "Cry, The Beloved Country", 1948
-~
-Yet [white] men [of South Africa] were afraid,
-with a fear that was deep, deep in the heart,
-a fear so deep that they hid their kindness, ...
-They were afraid because they were so few.
-And fear could not be cast out, but by love.
- -- Alan Paton, "Cry, The Beloved Country", 1948
-~
-To give up the task of reforming society is to
-give up one's responsibility as a free man.
- -- Alan Paton, 1967
-~
-Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often
-discover what they lack.
- -- George S. Patton
-~
-Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do
-and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
- -- George S. Patton, "War As I Knew It", 1947
-~
-Assuming that either the left wing or the right wing gained
-control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles.
- -- Pat Paulsen
-~
-Public office is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
- -- Boies Penrose, 1931
-~
-An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow
-why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.
- -- Laurence J. Peter
-~
-Education is a method whereby one acquires a higher grade of prejudices.
- -- Laurence Peter
-~
-Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear
-but forgetting where you heard it.
- -- Laurence Peter
-~
-In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.
- -- Laurence Peter, "The Peter Principle" 1969
-~
-Democracy is a process by which the people are free
-to choose the man who will get the blame.
- -- Laurence Peter, "Peter's Quotations", 1977
-~
-Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear
-but forgetting where you heard it.
- -- Laurence Peter, "Peter's Quotations", 1977
-~
-A man who is always ready to believe what is told him will never do well.
- -- Gaius Petronius, "Satyricon"
-~
-Difference of religion breeds more quarrels than difference of politics.
- -- Wendell Phillips, Speech, 7 November 1860
-~
-Sometimes democracy must be bathed in blood.
- -- Augusto Pinochet
-~
-The measure of man is what he does with power.
- -- Pittacus
-~
-If everybody's behavior can be explained by simple stupidity and greed,
-there's no point in assuming a conspiracy.
- -- P. J. Plauger
-~
-I don't need a friend who changes when I change
-and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.
- -- Plutarch
-~
-Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater.
- -- Roman Polanski
-~
-Under capitalism man exploits man; under socialism the reverse is true.
- -- Polish proverb
-~
-Amusement is the happiness of those who cannot think.
- -- Alexander Pope
-~
-If you do not raise your eyes you will think you are the highest point.
- -- Antonio Porchia, "Voces", 1968
-~
-One lives in the hope of becoming a memory.
- -- Antonio Porchia, "Voces", 1968
-~
-They talk most who have the least to say.
- -- Matthew Prior
-~
-A city is a large community where people are lonesome together.
- -- Herbert Prochnow
-~
-A good workman is known by his tools.
- -- Proverb
-~
-Power always has to be kept in check; power exercised in secret,
-especially under the cloak of national security, is doubly dangerous.
- -- William Proxmire
-~
-Maxim 914: Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage.
- -- Publilius Syrus
-~
-Maxim 1070: I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
- -- Publilius Syrus
-~
-Practice is the best of all instructors.
- -- Publilius Syrus
-~
-If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.
- -- J. Danforth Quayle
-~
-There is nothing that a good defense cannot beat a better offense.
-In other words, a good offense wins.
- -- J. Danforth Quayle, on "Star Wars",
- quoted in "Time", 19 September 1988
-~
-Happy campers you have been, happy campers you are,
-and happy campers you will always be.
- -- J. Danforth Quayle, on arrival in American Samoa,
- quoted in "Time", 8 May 1989
-~
-I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and
-the only regret I have was that I didn't study
-Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people.
- -- J. Danforth Quayle, quoted in "Time", 8 May 1989
-~
-What a waste it is to lose one's mind or not to have a mind.
-How true it is.
- -- J. Danforth Quayle, addressing the United Negro
- College Fund, quoted in "Time", 26 June 1989
-~
-Mars is essentially in the same orbit [as the Earth]...
-We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water.
-If there is water, there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.
- -- J. Danforth Quayle, interviewed on Cable Network
- News, 11 August 1989
-~
-Religions tend to disappear with man's good fortune.
- -- Raymond Queneau, "A Model History"
-~
-I have been staying in Moscow for only 24 hours,
-but already I feel almost at home.
- -- Hashemi Rafsanjani, in "New York Times",
- 22 June 1989
-~
-A nuclear power plant is infinitely safer than eating,
-because 300 people choke to death on food every year.
- -- Dixy Lee Ray, 1977, quoted from "Loose Talk"
-~
-Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born.
- -- Ronald Reagan
-~
-Growing and decaying vegetation in this land are responsible
-for 93 percent of the oxides of nitrogen.
- -- Ronald Reagan
-~
-If you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all.
- -- Ronald Reagan
-~
-Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards,
-if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.
- -- Ronald Reagan
-~
-Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?
- -- Ronald Reagan
-~
-Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite
-at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
- -- Ronald Reagan, "Saturday Evening Post" 1965
-~
-I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964
-and it must be enforced at gunpoint if necessary.
- -- Ronald Reagan, 20 October 1965
-~
-I would have voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
- -- Ronald Reagan, 1968
-~
-All the wastes in a year from a nuclear power plant
-can be stored under a desk.
- -- Ronald Reagan, quoted in "Burlington Free Press", 15 February 1980
-~
-History shows that when the taxes of a nation approach about 20% of the
-people's income, there begins to be a lack of respect for government....
-When it reaches 25%, there comes an increase in lawlessness.
- -- Ronald Reagan, quoted in "Time", 14 April 1980
-~
-Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released
-by vegetation. So let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough
-emissions standards for man-made sources.
- -- Ronald Reagan, quoted in "Sierra", 10 September 1980
-~
-I have just signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever;
-we begin bombing in 5 minutes.
- -- Ronald Reagan, weekly radio address, 11 August 1984
-~
-Facts are stupid things.
- -- Ronald Reagan, 1988 Republican Convention
-~
-The scientists split the atom; now the atom is splitting us.
- -- Quentin Reynolds, in "Quote & Unquote", 1970
-~
-The streets are safe in Philadelphia,
-it's only the people who make them unsafe.
- -- Frank Rizzo
-~
-We need excellence in public education and if the teachers can't do it,
-we'll send in a couple of policemen.
- -- Frank Rizzo, Philadelphia Bulletin, Oct 19, 1973
-~
-One of the weaknesses of our age is our apparent inability
-to distinguish our needs from our greeds.
- -- Don Robinson, quoted in "Reader's Digest", 1963
-~
-If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind,
-give it more thought.
- -- Dennis Roch
-~
-We always love those who admire us,
-but we do not always love those whom we admire.
- -- Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld
-~
-Wit sometimes enables us to act rudely with impunity.
- -- Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld
-~
-Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches
-beyond their own understanding.
- -- Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, "Maxims" 1665
-~
-Old people like to give good advice,
-as solace for no longer being able to provide bad examples.
- -- Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, "Maxims" 1665
-~
-Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done
-as the fear of the consequences.
- -- Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, "Maxims" 1665
-~
-The reason that lovers never weary each other
-is because they are always talking about themselves.
- -- Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, "Maxims" 1665
-~
-Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are
-for finishing it.... You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing
-would fall flat in a week.
- -- Will Rogers
-~
-Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
- -- Will Rogers
-~
-Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.
- -- Will Rogers
-~
-There is nothing as stupid as an educated man
-if you get him off the thing he was educated in.
- -- Will Rogers
-~
-There's no trick to being a humorist when you have
-the whole government working for you.
- -- Will Rogers
-~
-This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session
-as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.
- -- Will Rogers
-~
-We can't all be heroes because someone has to sit on the curb
-and clap as they go by.
- -- Will Rogers
-~
-Everything is funny as long as it is happening to someone else.
- -- Will Rogers, "The Illiterate Digest", 1924
-~
-I never met a man I didn't like.
- -- Will Rogers, speech, June 1930
-~
-Half our life is spent trying to find something to do
-with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.
- -- Will Rogers, "The Autobiography of Will Rogers", 1949
-~
-The world is an enormous injustice.
- -- Jules Romains
-~
-We've sent a man to the moon, and that's 29,000 miles away. The center
-of the Earth is only 4,000 miles away. You could drive that in a week,
-but for some reason nobody's ever done it.
- -- Andy Rooney
-~
-No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
- -- Eleanor Roosevelt, "This is My Story", 1937
-~
-The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those
-who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.
- -- Franklin D. Roosevelt
-~
-It is common sense to take a method and try it.
-If it fails, admit it frankly and try another.
-But above all, try something.
- -- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Speech, 22 May 1932
-~
-The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
- -- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1st Inaugural Address, 1933
-~
-A technique is a trick that works.
- -- Gian-Carlo Rota
-~
-One half of the children born die before their eighth year.
-This is nature's law; why try to contradict it?
- -- Jean Jacques Rousseau, "Emile, ou de l'education", 1762
-~
-People who know little are usually great talkers,
-while men who know much say little.
- -- Jean Jacques Rousseau, "Emile, ou de l'education", 1762
-~
-Never trust anyone over thirty. -- Jerry Rubin, 1966
-~
-The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always
-so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
- -- Bertrand Russell
-~
-Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -
-more than ruin, more even than death.
- -- Bertrand Russell, "Selected Papers"
-~
-You can outdistance that which is running after you,
-but not what is running inside you.
- -- Rwandan proverb
-~
-A dress makes no sense unless it inspires men to want to take it off you.
- -- Francoise Sagan
-~
-Women and elephants never forget an injury.
- -- Saki, "Reginald", 1904
-~
-A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.
- -- Saki, "The Square Egg", 1924
-~
-Neither soldiers nor money can defend a king
-but only friends won by good deeds, merit, and honesty.
- -- Sallust, "De bello Iugurthino"
-~
-Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves,
-spits on its hands and goes to work.
- -- Carl Sandburg, in "New York Times", 1959
-~
-In these times you have to be an optimist to open your eyes
-when you awake in the morning.
- -- Carl Sandburg, in "New York Post", 1960
-~
-A man's feet should be planted in his country,
-but his eyes should survey the world.
- -- George Santayana
-~
-Skepticism, like chastity, should not be relinquished too readily.
- -- George Santayana
-~
-Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
- -- George Santayana
-~
-When the rich make war it's the poor that die.
- -- Jean-Paul Sartre, "Le Diable et le bon Dieu", 1951
-~
-Tolerance means excusing the mistakes others make.
-Tact means not noticing them.
- -- Arthur Schnitzler
-~
-Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision
-for the limits of the world.
- -- Arthur Schopenhauer, "Studies in Pessimism"
-~
-There's a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker.
- -- Charles M. Schulz
-~
-Comment is free, but facts are sacred.
- -- C. P. Scott, c.1900
-~
-They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist---
- -- General John B. Sedgwick, last words, 1864
-~
-They that govern the most make the least noise.
- -- John Seldon, 1689
-~
-People will swim through sh*t if you put a few bob in it.
- -- Peter Sellers
-~
-It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.
- -- Seneca, "Epistles"
-~
-There is no great genius without some touch of madness.
- -- Seneca, "On Tranquility of the Mind"
-~
-Every reign must submit to a greater reign. -- Seneca, "Thyestes"
-~
-Singing makes all the sad people happy because it is the voice of happiness.
- -- Joseph Shabalala
-~
-A government that robs Peter to pay Paul
-can always depend upon the support of Paul.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-Every person who has mastered a profession is a skeptic concerning it.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior
-to all others because you were born in it.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman, but believing what he read made him mad.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-We've already established what you are, ma'am.
-Now we're just haggling over the price.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.
- -- George Bernard Shaw, "The Rejected Statement"
-~
-He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.
- -- George Bernard Shaw, "Man and Superman", 1903
-~
-Lack of money is the root of all evil.
- -- George Bernard Shaw, "Man and Superman", 1903
-~
-Liars ought to have good memories.
- -- Algernon Sidney
-~
-All reformers, however strict their social conscience,
-live in houses just as big as they can pay for.
- -- Logan Pearsall Smith
-~
-I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
- -- Socrates
-~
-I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.
- -- Socrates
-~
-The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.
- -- Socrates
-~
-If God had meant there to be more than 2 factors of production,
-He would have made it easier for us to draw three-dimensional diagrams.
- -- Robert Solow
-~
-Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art.
- -- Susan Sontag
-~
-Care of the poor is incumbent on society as a whole.
- -- Spinoza, 1677
-~
-If you want a thing well done, do it yourself.
- -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon
-~
-A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.
- -- Joseph Stalin
-~
-The writer is the engineer of the human soul.
- -- Joseph Stalin
-~
-Print is the sharpest and the strongest weapon of our party.
- -- Joseph Stalin, Speech, 19 April 1923
-~
-Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union.
- -- Joseph Stalin, 1935
-~
-Must the hunger become anger and the anger fury before anything will be done?
- -- John Steinbeck
-~
-Time is the only critic without ambition.
- -- John Steinbeck, "Writers at Work', 1977
-~
-There are really not many jobs that actually require a penis or a
-vagina, and all other occupations should be open to everyone.
- -- Gloria Steinem
-~
-A hungry man is not a free man.
- -- Adlai Stevenson
-~
-In America, any boy may become president and I suppose
-that's just one of the risks he takes.
- -- Adlai Stevenson
-~
-Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact
-that sometimes he has to eat them.
- -- Adlai Stevenson
-~
-The time to stop a revolution is at the beginning, not the end.
- -- Adlai Stevenson, 9 September 1952
-~
-The cruelest lies are often told in silence.
- -- Robert Louis Stevenson, "Virginibus Puerisque", 1881
-~
-Success always necessitates a degree of ruthlessness.
-Given the choice of friendship or success, I'd probably choose success.
- -- Sting (Gordon Summer), 1980
-~
-If God, as some now say, is dead, He no doubt died of trying
-to find an equitable solution to the Arab-Jewish problem.
- -- I. F. Stone, 1967
-~
-Ninety per cent of everything is crap.
- -- Theodore Sturgeon
-~
-There is nothing in this world constant but inconstancy.
- -- Swift
-~
-Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and
-thinking what no one else has thought.
- -- Albert Szent-Gyorgi
-~
-And you may ask yourself "Am I right? Am I wrong?"
-And you may say to yourself "MY GOD! WHAT HAVE I DONE?"
- -- The Talking Heads
-~
-The nice thing about standards is that there are
-so many of them to choose from.
- -- Andrew S. Tanenbaum
-~
-A bore is a man who, when you ask him how he is, will tell you.
- -- Bert Taylor, "The So-Called Human Race", 1922
-~
-The hunger for love is much more difficult
-to remove than the hunger for bread.
- -- Mother Teresa, quoted in "Time", 4 December 1989
-~
-El infierno es el lugar donde no se ama.
-(Hell is the place where love is not found.)
- -- Santa Teresa
-~
-If you want anything said, ask a man.
-If you want anything done, ask a woman.
- -- Margaret Thatcher
-~
-You don't tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.
- -- Margaret Thatcher, 1976
-~
-Under a government which imprisons any unjustly,
-the true place for a just man is also a prison.
- -- Henry David Thoreau
-~
-That government is best which governs least.
- -- Henry David Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience" 1849
-~
-The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
- -- Henry David Thoreau, "Walden", 1854
-~
-If a man does not keep pace with his companions,
-perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
- -- Henry David Thoreau, "Walden", 1854
-~
-The savage in man is never quite eradicated.
- -- Henry David Thoreau, "Journal", 26 September 1859
-~
-I think that maybe if women and children
-were in charge we would get somewhere.
- -- James Thurber
-~
-It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.
- -- James Thurber
-~
-You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.
- -- James Thurber, "The Thurber Carnival", 1945
-~
-The Law of Raspberry Jam--The wider any culture is spread,
-the thinner it gets.
- -- Alvin Toffler, "The Culture Consumers", 1964
-~
-The trouble with the rat-race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.
- -- Lily Tomlin
-~
-The function of genius is not to give new answers,
-but to pose new questions--which time and mediocrity can solve.
- -- Hugh Trevor-Roper, "Men and Events"
-~
-The dictatorship of the Communist Party is maintained
-by recourse to every form of violence.
- -- Leon Trotsky, "Terrorism and Communism", 1924
-~
-If you can't convince them, confuse them.
- -- Harry S. Truman
-~
-If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
- -- Harry S. Truman
-~
-It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
- -- Harry S. Truman
-~
-Most of the problems a President has to face have their roots in the past.
- -- Harry S. Truman, "Memoirs, Vol. II", 1955
-~
-A President cannot always be popular.
- -- Harry S. Truman, "Memoirs, Vol. II", 1955
-~
-It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job;
-it's a depression when you lose yours.
- -- Harry S. Truman, 1958
-~
-Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.
- -- Harry S. Truman, 1959
-~
-A little more moderation would be good. Of course,
-my life hasn't exactly been one of moderation.
- -- Donald Trump, in "Time", 16 January 1989
-~
-I like thinking big. If you're going to be thinking
-anything, you might as well think big.
- -- Donald Trump, in "Time", 16 January 1989
-~
-The more laws and order are made prominent,
-the more thieves and robbers there will be.
- -- Lao Tsu
-~
-Words divide us, action unites us.
- -- Slogan of the Tupamaros
-~
-If I had any humility I would be perfect.
- -- Ted Turner
-~
-Man is the only animal that blushes--or needs to.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand
-to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished
-at how much he had learned in seven years.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority,
-it is time to reform.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority,
-it's time to pause and reflect.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear.
- -- Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson", 1894
-~
-Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy
-you must have somebody to divide it with.
- -- Mark Twain, "Following the Equator", 1897
-~
-Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.
- -- Mark Twain, Correspondence, 1908
-~
-Good politics are often inextricably intertwined.
- -- Morris Udall, "Too Funny to Be President", 1988
-~
-Lord, give us the wisdom to utter words that are gentle and tender,
-for tomorrow we may have to eat them.
- -- Morris Udall, quoted in "Sierra", May/June 1989
-~
-To fall into a habit is to begin to cease to be.
- -- Miguel de Unamuno, "The Tragic Sense of Life", 1913
-~
-Nada muere, todo baja del rio del tiempo al mar de la eternidad y alli queda.
- -- Miguel de Unamuno, "Ver con los Ojos y Otros Relatos Novelescos"
-~
-No es acaso todo esto un sueno de Dios o de quien sea,
-que se desvanecera en cuanto El despierte,
-y por eso le rezamos y elevamos a El canticos a himnos,
-para adormecerle, para cunar su sueno?
- -- Miguel de Unamuno, "Niebla", 1914
-~
-Nadie tiene mas imaginacion que la realidad.
- -- Miguel de Unamuno, "El Espejo de la Muerte", 1941
-~
-The Vice Presidency is sort of like the last cookie on the plate.
-Everybody insists he won't take it, but somebody always does.
- -- Bill Vaughan
-~
-Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.
-(And perhaps at some later date it will be pleasant to remember these things.)
- -- Virgil
-~
-Time is flying never to return.
- -- Virgil
-~
-It is not enough to succed. Others must fail.
- -- Gore Vidal
-~
-There's a lot to be said for being noveau riche,
-and the Reagans mean to say it all.
- -- Gore Vidal, in "The Observer", 1981
-~
-A witty saying proves nothing. -- Voltaire
-~
-If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. -- Voltaire
-~
-Man is the best computer we can put aboard a spacecraft...
-and the only one that can be mass-produced with unskilled labor.
- -- Wernher von Braun
-~
-We are what we pretend to be. -- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
-~
-One's company, two's a crowd and three's a party.
- -- Andy Warhol, in "Exposures", 1979
-~
-The sports page records people's accomplishments;
-The front page nothing but their failures.
- -- Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren
-~
-My responsibility is to follow the Scriptures which call upon us
-to occupy the land until Jesus returns.
- -- James Watt, in "The Washington Post", 24 May 1981
-~
-If you worry about your customers,
-you won't have to worry about money.
- -- Les Welch, in "Bicycle USA", March/April 1990
-~
-I passionately hate the idea of being with it,
-I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.
- -- Orson Welles, 1966
-~
-I never loved another person the way I loved myself. -- Mae West
-~
-Too much of a good thing is wonderful. -- Mae West
-~
-When choosing between two evils, I always like to take
-the one I've never tried before.
- -- Mae West, in "Klondike Annie" 1936
-~
-Do I contradict myself?
-Very well then I contradict myself,
-(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
- -- Walt Whitman, "Leaves of Grass", 1855
-~
-There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes.
- -- Dr. Who
-~
-No man is rich enough to buy back his past.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about,
-and that is not being talked about.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
- -- Oscar Wilde, "The Picture of Dorian Grey", 1891
-~
-Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them;
-sometimes they forgive them.
- -- Oscar Wilde, "The Picture of Dorian Grey", 1891
-~
-There is no sin except stupidity.
- -- Oscar Wilde, "The Critic as Artist", 1891
-~
-We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
- -- Oscar Wilde, "Lady Windermere's Fan", 1892
-~
-Relations are simply a tedious pack of people,
-who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live,
-nor the smallest instinct about when to die.
- -- Oscar Wilde, "The Importance of Being Earnest", 1895
-~
-Hindsight is always 20:20.
- -- Billy Wilder
-~
-Voters do not decide issues. They decide *who* will decide issues.
- -- George F. Will, in "Newsweek", 1976
-~
-Anyone can hate. It costs to love.
- -- John Williamson
-~
-Only the winners decide what were war crimes.
- -- Gary Wills, in "New York Times", 1975
-~
-Not-really-trying is just as much effort as trying-really-hard.
-The only difference... is that not-really-trying receives no reward.
- -- A. N. Wilson, "Incline Our Hearts", 1989
-~
-If you think nobody cares if you're alive,
-try missing a couple of car payments.
- -- Earl Wilson
-~
-You can't expect to hit the jackpot if you don't
-put a few nickels in the machine.
- -- Flip Wilson, 1971
-~
-Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others.
- -- Jonathan Winters in "The Twilight Zone"
-~
-The limits of my language means the limits of my world.
- -- Ludwig Wittgenstein
-~
-Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses
-possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting
-the figure of man at twice its natural size.
- -- Virginia Woolf, "A Room of One's Own", 1929
-~
-TV is chewing gum for the eyes.
- -- Frank Lloyd Wright
-~
-I believe that in the end the truth will conquer.
- -- John Wycliffe
-~
-Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
- -- William Butler Yeats
-~
-He who is conceived in a cage yearns for the cage.
- -- Yevgeny Yevtushenko, 1968
-~
-It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!
- -- Emiliano Zapata
-~
-Most people wouldn't know music if it came up and bit them on the ass.
- -- Frank Zappa
-~
-One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you
-only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds.
- -- Frank Zappa, 1979
-~
-Progress might be a circle, rather than a straight line.
- -- Eberhard Zeidler, in "Contemporary Architects", 1980
-~
-Once when I was in Hawaii, on the island of Kauai, I met a
-mysterious old stranger. He said he was about to die and
-wanted to tell someone about the treasure. I said, "Okay, as
-long as it's not a long story. Some of us have a plane to catch,
-you know." He started telling his story, about the treasure
-and his life and all, and I thought "This story isn't too long".
-But then, he kept going, and I started thinking, "Uh-oh, this
-story is getting long." But then the story was over, and I said
-to myself: "You know, that story wasn't too long after all".
-I forgot what the story was about, but there was a good movie
-on the plane. It was a little long though.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I believe in making the world safe for our children,
-but not for our children's children, because i don't
-believe children should be having sex.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-In weightlifting, I don't think that sudden uncontrolled urination should
-automatically disqualify you.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Blow ye winds, like the trumpet blows, but without that noise.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-When the age of the Vikings came to a close, they must have sensed it.
-Probably, they gathered together one evening, slapped each other on the
-back and said, "Hey, good job".
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I can still recall old Mister Barnslow getting out every morning and nailing
-a fresh load of tadpoles to that old board of his. Then he'd spin it round
-and round, like a wheel of fortune, and no matter where it stopped he'd yell
-out, "Tadpoles! Tadpoles is a winner!" We all thought he was crazy. But
-then, we had some growing up to do.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If I ever opened a trampoline store, I don't think I'd call it Trampo-Land,
-because you might think it was a store for tramps, which is not the
-impression we are trying to convey with our store. On the other hand, we
-would not prohibit tramps from browsing, or testing the trampolines, unless
-a tramp's gyrations seemed to be getting out of control.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep both Dracula
-_and_ Superman away.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Too bad you can't just grab a tree by the very tiptop and bend it clear to
-the ground and then let her fly, because I bet you'd be amazed at all the
-stuff that comes flying out.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
- I remember that fateful day when Coach took me aside. I knew
-what was coming.
- "You don't have to tell me," I said. "I am off the team, aren't I?"
- "Well," said the coach, "You never were really _on_ the team. You
-made that uniform you're wearing out of rags and towels, and your helmet
-is a toy space helmet. You show up at practice and then either steal the
-ball and make us chase you to get it back, or you try to tackle people at
-inappropriate times."
- It was all true what he was saying. And yet, I thought, something is
-brewing inside the head of the coach. He sees something inside of me,
-some kind of raw talent that he can mold. But that's when I felt the
-handcuffs go on.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-When I heard that trees grow a new "ring" for each year they live, I thought,
-we humans are kind of like that; we grow a new layer of skin each year; and
-after many years we are thick and unwieldy from all our skin layers.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If you're in a boxing match, try not to let the other guy's glove touch your
-lips, because you don't know where that glove has been.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-It's too bad that whole families have been torn apart by something as
-simple as wild dogs.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Marta says the interesting thing about fly fishing is that it's two lives
-connected by a thin strand. Come on, Marta. Grow up.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-The old pool shooter had many a game in his life. But now it was time to
-hang up the cue. When he did, all the other cues came crashing to the floor.
-"Sorry," he said with a smile.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If I ever do a book on the Amazon, I hope I am able to bring a certain
-lightheartedness to the subject, in a way that tells the reader we are going
-to have fun with this thing.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Even though he was an enemy of mine, I had to admit that what he had
-accomplished was a brillant piece of stratagy. First, he punched me, then
-he kicked me, then he punched me again.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-The sound of fresh rain run-off splashing from the roof reminded me of the
-sound of urine splashing into a filthy Texaco latrine.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I think somebody should come up with a way to breed a very
-large shrimp. That way, you could ride him, then, after you
-camped at night, you could eat him. How about it, science?
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I scrambled to the top of the precipice where Nick was waiting. "That was
-fun," I said. "You bet it was", said Nick. "Lets climb higher." "No," I
-said, "I think we should be heading back now." "We have time," Nick
-insisted. I said we didn't, and Nick said we did. We argued back and forth
-like that for about 20 minutes, then finally decided to head back. I didn't
-say it was an interesting story.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Some folks say it was a miracle. Saint Francis suddenly appeared and knocked
-the pitch clean over the fence. But I think it was just a lucky swing.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Too bad there's not such a thing as a _golden_ skunk, because you'd probably
-be _proud_ to be sprayed by one.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And, at the same
-time unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between, plus some things I
-can't remember, all rolled into one big "thing". This is truth, to me.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I bet a fun thing would be to go way back in time to where there was going to
-be an eclipse and tell the cave men, "If I have come to destroy you, may the
-sun be blotted out from the sky". Just then the eclipse would start, and
-they'd probably try to kill you or something, but then you could explain about
-the rotation of the moon and all, and everyone would get a good laugh.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I think in one of my previous lives I was a mighty king, because I like
-people that do what I say.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Today I accidentally stepped on a snail on the sidewalk in front of our
-house. And I thought, I too am like that snail. I build a defensive wall
-around myself, a "shell" if you will. But my shell isn't made out of a hard,
-protective substance. Mine is made out of tinfoil and paper bags.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-A man doesn't automatically get my respect. He has to get down in the dirt
-and beg for it.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If you're ever stuck in some thick undergrowth, in your underwear, don't
-stop and start thinking of what other words have "under" in them, because
-that's probably the first sign of jungle madness.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Sometimes the beauty of the world is so overwhelming, I just want to throw
-back my head and gargle. Just gargle and gargle, and I don't care who hears
-me, because I am beautiful.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Fear can sometimes be a useful emotion. For instance, let's say you're an
-astronaut on the moon and you fear that your partner has been turned into
-Dracula. The next time he goes out for the moon pieces, wham!!, you just
-slam the door behind him and blast off. He might call you on the radio and
-say he's not Dracula, but you just say, "Think again, bat man."
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I wish scientists would come up with a way to make a dogs a lot bigger, but
-with a smaller head. That way, they'd still be good as watchdogs, but they
-wouldn't eat so much.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I bet for an Indian, shooting an old fat pioneer woman in the back with an
-arrow, and she fires her shotgun into the ground as she falls over, is like
-the top thing you can do.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I think a good movie would be about a guy who's a brain scientist but he gets
-hit on the head and it damages the part of the brain that makes you want
-to study the brain.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I wouldn't be surprised if someday some fishermen caught a big shark and cut
-it open, and there inside was a whole person. Then they cut the person open,
-and in him is a little baby shark. And in the baby shark there isn't a
-person, because it would be too small. But there's a little doll or
-something, like a Johnny Combat little toy guy--something like that.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-It makes me mad when I go to all the trouble of having Marta cook up about
-a hundred drumsticks, then the guy at Marineland says, "You can't throw
-chicken to the dolphins. They eat fish." Sure they eat fish, if that is all
-you give them. Man, wise up.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If the Vikings were around today, they would probably be amazed at how much
-glow-in-the-dark stuff we have, and how we take so much of it for granted.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-It's not good to let any kid near a container that has a skull and
-crossbones on it, because there might be a skeleton costume inside and the
-kid could put it on and really scare you.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If you had a school for professional fireworks people, I don't think you
-could cover fuses in just one class. It's just too rich a subject.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they
-forget the negative side, which is the preening.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If I lived back in the Wild West days, instead of carrying a six-gun in my
-holster, I'd carry a soldering iron. That way, if some smart-aleck cowboy
-said something like "Hey, look. He's carrying a soldering iron!" and started
-laughing, and everybody else started laughing, I could just say, "That's
-right, it's a soldering iron. The soldering iron of justice." Then everybody
-would be real quiet and ashamed, because they made fun of the soldering iron
-of justice, and I could probably hit them up for a free drink.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-When I think back on all the blessings I have been given in my life, I can't
-think of a single one, unless you count that rattlesnake that granted me
-all those wishes.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I hope in the future Americans are thought of as a warlike, vicious people,
-because I bet a lot of high schools would pick "Americans" as their mascot.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Sometimes I think the world has gone completely mad. And then I think, "Aw,
-who cares?" And then I think "Hey, what's for supper?"
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If you ever discover that what you're seeing is a play within a play, just
-slow down, take a deep breath, and hold on for the ride of your life.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I can see why it would be prohibited to throw most things off the top of
-the Empire State Building, but what's wrong with little bits of cheese?
-They probably break down into their various gases before they even hit.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If you're a circus clown, and you have a dog that you use in your act, I
-don't think it's a good idea to to dress the dog up like a clown, because
-people see that and they think, "Forgive me, but that's just too much".
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Here's a good joke to do during an earthquake: straddle a big crack in the
-ground, and if it opens wider, go "Whoa! Whoa!" and flail your arms around,
-like you're going to fall in.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If you ever go temporarily insane, don't shoot somebody, like a lot of people
-do. Instead, try to get some weeding done, because you'd really be suprised.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-It makes me mad when people say I turned and ran like a scared rabbit. Maybe
-it was like an angry rabbit, who was running to go fight in another fight,
-away from the first fight.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I think a good way to get into a movie is to show up where they're making the
-movie, then stick a big cactus plant onto your buttocks and start yowling
-and running around. Everyone would think it was funny, and the head movie guy
-would say, "Hey, let's put him in the movie."
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Instead of having "answers" on a math test, they should just call them
-"impressions", and if you got a different "impression", so what, can't we
-all be brothers?
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If God dwells inside us, like some people say, I sure hope He likes
-enchiladas, because that's what He's getting!
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Probably to a shark, about the funniest thing there is a wounded seal,
-trying to swim to shore, because _where_does_he_think_he's_going_?!
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Perhaps, if I am very lucky, the feeble efforts of my lifetime will someday
-be noticed, and maybe, in some small way, they will be acknowledged as the
-greatest works of genius ever created by Man.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine,
-which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself:
-"Mankind." Basically, it's made up of two separate words--"mank" and "ind."
-What do these words mean? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I hope if dogs ever take over the world, and they choose a king, they don't
-just go by size, because I bet there are some Chihuahuas with some good
-ideas.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-It takes a big man to cry, but it takes an even bigger man to laugh at
-that man.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I guess we were all guilty, in a way. We all shot him, we all skinned him,
-and we all got a complimentary bumper sticker that said, "I helped skin
-Bob."
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I bet the main reason the police keep people away from a plane crash is
-they don't want anybody walking in and lying down in the crash stuff, then,
-when somebody comes up, act like they just woke up and go, "What was
-THAT?!"
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Ambition is like a frog sitting on a Venus Flytrap. The flytrap can bite
-and bite, but it won't bother the frog because it only has little tiny
-plant teeth. But some other stuff could happen and it could be like
-ambition.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I'd rather be rich than stupid.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If you were a poor Indian with no weapons, and a bunch of conquistadors
-came up to you and asked where the gold was, I don't think it would be a
-good idea to say, "I swallowed it. So sue me."
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If you define cowardice as running away at the first sign of danger,
-screaming and tripping and begging for mercy, then yes, Mr. Brave Man, I
-guess I'm a coward.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I bet one legend that keeps recurring throughout history, in every culture,
-is the story of Popeye.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-When you go in for a job interview, I think a good thing to ask is if they
-ever press charges.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography,
-and the dancers hit each other.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-What is it that makes a complete stranger dive into an icy river to save a
-solid gold baby? Maybe we'll never know.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-We tend to scoff at the beliefs of the ancients. But we can't scoff at
-them personally, to their faces, and this is what annoys me.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Probably the earliest flyswatters were nothing more than some sort of
-striking surface attached to the end of a long stick.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I think someone should have had the decency to tell me the luncheon was
-free. To make someone run out with potato salad in his hand, pretending
-he's throwing up, is not what I call hospitality.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-To me, clowns aren't funny. In fact, they're kind of scary. I've
-wondered where this started, and I think it goes back to the time I went to
-the circus, and a clown killed my dad.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-As I bit into the nectarine, it had a crisp juiciness about it that was
-very pleasurable-until I realized it wasn't a nectarine at all, but A HUMAN
-HEAD!!!
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Most people don't realize that large pieces of coral, which have been
-painted brown and attached to the skull by common wood screws, can make a
-child look like a deer.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We
-might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Better not take a dog on the space shuttle, because if he sticks his head
-out when you're coming home his face might burn up.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-You know what would make a good story? Something about a clown who makes
-people happy, but inside he's real sad. Also, he has severe diarrhea.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Sometimes when I feel like killing someone, I do a little trick to calm
-myself down. I'll go over to the persons house and ring the doorbell.
-When the person comes to the door, I'm gone, but you know what I've left on
-the porch? A jack-o-lantern with a knife stuck in the side of it's head with
-a note that says "You." After that I usually feel a lot better, and no
-harm done.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If you're a horse, and someone gets on you, and falls off, and then gets
-right back on you, I think you should buck him off right away.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If you ever teach a yodeling class, probably the hardest thing is to keep
-the students from just trying to yodel right off. You see, we build to
-that.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, just go real limp, because maybe
-you'll look like a dummy and people will try to catch you because, hey,
-free dummy.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I'd like to see a nude opera, because when they hit those high notes, I bet
-you can really see it in those genitals.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Anytime I see something screech across a room and latch onto someone's
-neck, and the guy screams and tries to get it off, I have to laugh, because
-what is that thing?
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-He was a cowboy, mister, and he loved the land. He loved it so much he
-made a woman out of dirt and married her. But when he kissed her, she
-disintegrated. Later, at the funeral, when the preacher said, "Dust to
-dust," some people laughed, and the cowboy shot them. At his hanging, he
-told the others, "I'll be waiting for you in heaven--with a gun."
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-The memories of my family outings are still a source of strength to me. I
-remember we'd all pile into the car-I forget what kind it was-and drive and
-drive. I'm not sure where we'd go, but I think there were some trees there.
-The smell of something was strong in the air as we played whatever sport we
-played. I remember a bigger, older guy we called "Dad." We'd eat some stuff,
-or not, and then I think we went home. I guess some things never leave you.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is
-"God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to
-tell him is "probably because of something you did."
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Contrary to what most people say, the most dangerous animal in the world is
-not the lion or the tiger or even the elephant. It's a shark riding on an
-elephant's back, just trampling and eating everything they see.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-As we were driving, we saw a sign that said "Watch for Rocks." Martha said
-it should read "Watch for Pretty Rocks." I told her she should write in
-her suggestion to the highway department, but she started saying it was a
-joke-- just to get out of writing a simple letter! And I thought I was lazy!
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my
-little nephew to Disneyland, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out
-warehouse. "Oh, no," I said, "Disneyland burned down." He cried and cried,
-but I think that deep down he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started
-to drive over to the the real Disneyland, but it was getting pretty late.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If you saw two guys named Hambone and Flipper, which one would you think
-liked dolphins the most? I'd say Flippy, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong,
-though. It's Hambone.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Laurie got offended because I used the word "puke."
-But to me, that's what her dinner tasted like.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-We used to laugh at Grandpa when he'd head off and go fishing. But we
-wouldn't be laughing that evening when he'd come back with a whore he
-picked up in town.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I wish a robot would get elected president. That way, when he came to
-town, we could all take a shot at him and not feel too bad.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-As the evening sky faded from a salmon color to a sort of flint gray, I
-thought back to the salmon I caught that morning, and how gray he was, and
-how I named him Flint.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If you're a young Mafia gangster out on your first date, I bet it's real
-embarrassing if someone tries to kill you.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Whenever I see an old lady slip and fall on a wet sidewalk, my first
-instinct is to laugh. But then I think, what if I was an ant, and she fell
-on me. Then it wouldn't seem quite so funny.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-If you go parachuting, and your parachute doesn't open, and your friends
-are all watching you fall, I think a funny gag would be to pretend you were
-swimming.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-When I was a kid, my favorite relative was Uncle Caveman. After school
-we'd all go play in his cave, and every once in a while he would eat one of
-us. It wasn't until later that I found out that Uncle Caveman was a bear.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I think people tend to forget that trees are living creatures. They're
-sort of like dogs. Huge, quiet, motionless dogs, with bark instead of fur.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Another major social development of the time was the Temperance
-Movement, led by Carrie Nation, who headed an organization called
-Scary Looking Women with Hatchets. They would swoop down upon saloons
-and smash all the whiskey bottles, then go back to their headquarters,
-fire up reefers as big as Roman candles, and laugh until dawn. This
-resulted in so much social turmoil that in 1918 Congress decided to
-have a total prohibition on alcohol, which was approved early on a
-Saturday morning by a vote of 9-2, with 416 members unable to attend
-because of severe headaches. Thus began the nation's "Noble
-Experiment," which was eventually judged to be a noble failure and
-replaced by the current sensible and coherent alcohol policy of
-showing public-service TV announcements wherein professional sports
-figures urge people not to drink, interspersed with TV commercials
-wherein professional sports figures urge people to drink.
- -- from "Dave Barry Slept Here", 1989
-~
-1. Tao
-
-The Tao that can be known is not Tao.
-The substance of the World is only a name for Tao.
-Tao is all that exists and may exist;
-The World is only a map of what exists and may exist.
-
-One experiences without Self to sense the World;
-One experiences with Self to understand the World.
-The two experiences are the same within Tao;
-They are distinct only within the World.
-Neither experience conveys Tao
-Which is infinitely greater and subtler than the World.
-~
-2. Qualities
-
-When Beauty is ascribed to the World
-Ugliness has been learned;
-When Good is ascribed to the World
-Evil has been learned.
-
-In this way:
-Alive and dead are abstracted from growth;
-Difficult and easy are abstracted from progress;
-Long and short are abstracted from contrast;
-High and low are abstracted from position;
-Song and speech are abstracted from harmony;
-After and before are abstracted from sequence.
-
-For this reason the sage controls without instruction,
-And teaches without words.
-He lets all things rise and fall,
-Nurtures, but does not interfere,
-Gives without demanding,
-And is content.
-~
-3. Control without Action
-
-Not praising the worthy prevents cheating
-Not esteeming the rare prevents theft
-Not flaunting beauty prevents lust
-
-So the sage controls people by:
-Emptying their hearts,
-Filling their bellies,
-Weakening their ambitions,
-And strengthening their bodies.
-
-If people lack knowledge and desire
-The crafty among them can not act;
-If no action is taken
-Then all live in peace.
-~
-4. Properties of Tao
-
-Tao is a depthless vessel;
-Used by the Self, it is not filled by the World;
-It cannot be cut, knotted, dimmed or stilled;
-Its depths are hidden, ubiquitous and eternal;
-I don't know where it came from,
-But it came before Nature.
-~
-5. Nature
-
-Nature is not kind;
-It treats all things impartially.
-The Sage is not kind,
-And treats all people impartially.
-
-Nature is like a bellows
-Empty, yet supplying all needs,
-The more it moves, the more it yields;
-The sage draws upon Tao in the same way
-And so can not be exhausted.
-~
-6. Heart
-
-Like a riverbed, the heart is never filled
-It is an ineffable female
-Whose entrance is the root of the World;
-Tao is ever present within it:
-Draw upon it and it will never fail.
-~
-7. Self
-
-Nature is everlasting
-Because it does not have a Self.
-
-In the same way the sage
-Serves his Self last and finds it served first,
-Regards his body as accidental and finds it endures;
-Because his Self does not require service
-He is content.
-~
-8. Intimacy
-
-The best of man is like water,
-Which benefits all things, and does not contend with them,
-Which flows in places that others disdain,
-Where it holds fast to Tao.
-
-So the sage:
-In dwelling holds fast to the land,
-In feeling holds fast to the heart,
-In dealing holds fast to men,
-In talking holds fast to truth,
-In governing holds fast to order,
-In crafting holds fast to competence,
-In acting holds fast to opportunity;
-So he does not contend, and is without blame.
-~
-9. Hubris
-
-Stretch a bow to its limit and it is soon broken;
-Temper a blade to its sharpest and it is soon blunted;
-Amass the greatest treasure and it is soon stolen;
-Claim credit and honour and you will soon fall;
-Retire once your purpose is achieved--this is the best way.
-~
-10. Love
-
-Embracing Tao, can you become embraced?
-Supple, breathing gently, can you become newborn?
-Clearing your vision, can you become clear?
-Nurturing your beloved, can you become impartial?
-Opening your heart, can you become female?
-Knowing the world, can you embrace Tao?
-
-Bearing and nurturing,
-Creating but not owning,
-Giving without demanding,
-Controlling without authority.
-This is love.
-~
-11. Wealth and Worth
-
-Thirty spokes meet at a nave;
-Because of the hole we may use the wheel.
-Clay is moulded into a vessel;
-Because of the hollow we may use the cup.
-Walls are built around a hearth
-Because of the doors we may use the house.
-Thus wealth comes from what is,
-But worth from what is not.
-~
-12. Distraction
-
-Too much color blinds the eye
-Too much tone deafens the ear
-Too much taste dulls the palate
-Too much play maddens the mind
-Too much desire tears the heart.
-
-The sage provides for the belly but not for the senses;
-He lets go of sensation and accepts substance.
-~
-13. Anxiety
-
-The mythic masters said: "Praise and blame cause anxiety;
-The objects of hope and fear are within your Self."
-
-"Praise and blame cause anxiety"
-For you must hope and fear to receive or to lose them.
-
-"The objects of hope and fear are within your Self"
-For, without Self, neither fortune nor disaster can befall.
-
-Therefore:
-He who regards the World as the Self is able to control the World;
-He who loves the World as the Self is able to nurture the World.
-~
-14. The Continuity of Tao
-
-Looked at but cannot be seen--it is beyond form;
-Listened to but cannot be heard--it is beyond sound;
-Grasped at but cannot be touched--it is beyond reach;
-Depthless things evade definition,
-And blend into a single mystery.
-
-In its rising there is no light,
-In its falling there is no darkness,
-A continuous thread beyond description,
-Lining what can not exist,
-Its form formless,
-Its image nothing,
-Its name mystery,
-Meet it, it has no face,
-Follow it, it has no back.
-
-Understand the past, but attend the present;
-In this way you know the continuity of Tao,
-Which is its essence.
-~
-15. The Mythic Masters
-
-The Mythic Masters of Tao had understanding
-So profound they can not be understood.
-
-Because they cannot be understood
-I can only describe their appearance:
-Cautious, like one crossing thin ice,
-Hesitant, like one who fears danger,
-Modest, like one who is a guest,
-Smooth, like melting ice,
-Genuine, like unshaped wood,
-Empty, like a riverbed,
-Opaque, like muddy water.
-
-He who can lie still while the mud settles,
-And remain still until the water flows
-Does not seek fulfillment
-And may transcend Nature.
-~
-16. Transcending Nature
-
-Empty the Self completely;
-Embrace perfect peace.
-The World will rise and move;
-Watch it return to rest.
-All the flourishing things
-Will return to their source.
-
-This return is peaceful;
-It is the way of Nature,
-An eternal decay and renewal.
-Understanding this brings enlightenment,
-Ignorance of this brings misery.
-
-Who understands Nature's way becomes all-cherishing;
-Being all-cherishing he becomes impartial;
-Being impartial he becomes magnanimous;
-Being magnanimous he becomes part of Nature;
-Being part of Nature he becomes one with Tao;
-Being one with Tao he becomes immortal:
-Though his body will decay, Tao will not.
-~
-17. Rulers
-
-The best rulers are scarcely known by their subjects;
-The next best are loved and praised;
-The next are feared;
-The next despised:
-They have no faith in their subjects,
-So their subjects become unfaithful to them.
-
-When the best kings achieve their purpose
-Their subjects claim the achievement as their own.
-~
-18. Loss of Tao
-
-When Tao is forgotten
-Duty and justice arise;
-Then wisdom and sagacity are born
-Along with hypocrisy.
-
-When family relationships dissolve
-Then respect and devotion arise;
-When a nation falls to chaos
-Then loyalty and patriotism are born.
-~
-19. Simplicity
-
-If we could discard wisdom and sagacity
-Then people would profit a hundredfold;
-If we could discard duty and justice
-Then loving relationships would form;
-If we could discard artifice and profit
-Then corruption and theft would disappear -
-Yet such remedies treat only symptoms
-And so are inadequate.
-
-People need personal remedies:
-Reveal your naked Self,
-Embrace your original nature,
-Bind your self-interest,
-Control your desire.
-~
-20. Loneliness
-
-I know nothing and nothing troubles me.
-I see no difference between yes and no.
-I see no difference between good and evil.
-I do not fear what the people fear in the night.
-
-The people are merry as if at a tremendous party
-Or playing in the park at springtime;
-But I am tranquil and wandering,
-Like a newborn before it learns to smile,
-Lonely, with no true home.
-
-The people have enough and to spare,
-But I have nothing,
-And my heart is foolish,
-Muddled and cloudy.
-
-The people are bright and certain,
-Where I am dim and confused;
-The people are clever and wise,
-Where I am dull and ignorant,
-Aimless as a wave drifting over the sea,
-Attached to nothing.
-
-The people are busy with purpose,
-Where I am impractical and uncouth.
-I am apart from all other people
-Yet I am sustained by Nature, their mother.
-~
-21. Expressions of Tao
-
-Love is expressed by following Tao.
-
-Tao is evasive and intangible
-But expresses all form and substance;
-Tao is dark and subtle
-But expresses Nature;
-Nature is unchanging,
-But expresses sensation.
-
-Since before knowledge
-Tao has expressed these things.
-How do I know?
-By faith in my senses.
-~
-22. Contention and Contentment
-
-Accept and you become whole,
-Bend and you straighten,
-Empty and you fill,
-Decay and you renew,
-Want and you acquire,
-Fulfill and you become confused.
-
-The sage embraces the one
-As the World embraces Tao;
-He does not display himself, so is clearly seen,
-Does not justify himself, so is famed,
-Does not boast, so is credited,
-Does not glory, so excels,
-Does not contend, and so no one contends against him.
-
-The mythic masters said, "Accept and you become whole",
-Once whole, the World is your home.
-~
-23. Talk and Trust
-
-Nature says only a few words:
-High wind does not last long,
-Nor does heavy rain.
-If Nature's words do not last
-Why should those of man?
-
-To follow Tao, become Tao; Tao will embrace you.
-To give love, become love; love will embrace you.
-To lose Tao, become lost; loss will embrace you.
-You must trust in order to be trusted.
-~
-24. Tumors
-
-If you stand on tiptoe you can not stand steady;
-If you stride too long you can not stride well;
-If you display yourself you can not be clearly seen;
-If you justify yourself you can not be respected;
-If you promote yourself you can not be believed;
-If you pride yourself you can not excel.
-These behaviours are dregs and tumors,
-Disgusting things avoided by love.
-~
-25. Four Infinities.
-
-Before the World exists
-There is mystery:
-Silent, depthless,
-Alone, unchanging,
-Ubiquitous and ever moving,
-The mother of the World.
-I can not know its name, so I call it Tao;
-I can not know its limit, so I call it infinite.
-
-Being infinite, it flows away forever
-Flowing away forever, it will return to the Self.
-
-For the Self follows the way of the World
-The World follows the way of Nature
-And Nature follows the way of Tao.
-Tao is its own way.
-
-Tao is infinite,
-Therefore Nature is infinite,
-Therefore the World is infinite,
-Therefore the Self is infinite.
-There are four infinities,
-And the Self is one of them.
-~
-26. Gravity and Calm
-
-Gravity is the root of Lightness,
-Calm, the master of Haste
-
-The commander of a great fleet should not act lightly or hastily.
-Acting lightly, he loses touch with the World,
-Acting hastily, he loses control of the Self.
-
-The sage will travel all day without losing his vehicles.
-Surrounded by desirable things,
-He remains calm and unattached.
-~
-27. Attention
-
-A good traveller leaves no trail to be followed
-A good speaker leaves no questions to be asked
-A good accountant leaves no workings to be checked
-A good container leaves no lock to be opened
-A good fastener leaves no knots to be unravelled
-
-So the sage nurtures all men
-And abandons no one.
-He accepts everything
-And rejects nothing.
-He attends to the smallest details.
-
-So the strong must guide the weak,
-For the weak are raw material to the strong.
-If the guide is not respected
-Or the material is not nurtured
-Confusion will result, no matter how clever one is.
-This is the essence of subtlety.
-~
-28. Being the Female
-
-Knowing the male, being the female,
-Being the course through which flows the World,
-One possesses unfailing Love
-And exists again as a newborn.
-
-Knowing the light, being the dark,
-Being the World,
-One becomes unerring Love
-And returns to Tao.
-
-Knowing honour, being humble,
-Being the valley of the World,
-Love suffices,
-And one becomes as unshaped wood.
-
-When wood is shaped it becomes tools.
-Used by the sage, tools become powerful;
-A good carpenter wastes little.
-~
-29. Blindness
-
-Those who wish to change the World
-According with their desire
-Cannot succeed.
-
-The World is shaped by Tao;
-It cannot be shaped by the Self.
-If one tries to shape it, one damages it;
-If one tries to possess it, one loses it.
-
-So:
-Sometimes things will flourish,
-And sometimes they will not.
-Sometimes life is hard
-And sometimes it is easy.
-Sometimes people are strong
-And sometimes they are weak.
-Sometimes you get where you are going
-And sometimes you fall by the way.
-
-The sage is never extreme, extravagant, or complacent.
-~
-30. Violence
-
-Powerful men are well advised not to use violence,
-For violence has a habit of returning;
-Thorns and weeds grow wherever an army goes,
-And lean years follow a great war.
-
-A general is well advised
-To achieve nothing more than his orders,
-No matter how strong his army;
-To carry out his orders
-But not glory, boast or be proud;
-To do what is dictated by necessity,
-But not by bloodlust;
-For even the fiercest force will weaken with time,
-And then its violence will return, and kill it.
-~
-31. Tools of Violence
-
-Soldiers are tools of violence, feared by all;
-The sage will not employ them.
-His purpose is creation;
-Their purpose is destruction.
-
-Weapons are tools of violence, not of the wise man;
-He uses them when there is no choice
-For he values peace and tact,
-And does not delight in conquest.
-
-For who delights in conquest
-Delights in the slaughter of men;
-Who delights in the slaughter of men
-Cannot control them.
-
-Slaughters should be mourned
-And conquest should be celebrated with a funeral.
-~
-32. Shape
-
-Tao has no true definition.
-Like unshaped wood, it has no use;
-If a ruler understands this
-His whole country flourishes and obeys
-In harmony with his Self,
-Just as sweet rain falls
-Needing no instruction
-To slake the thirst of all.
-
-When Tao is shaped by use,
-The shape gains a name in the World;
-One should not keep too many names
-Lest their shapes stop up the Self;
-Instead let Tao flow through the Self into the World
-As water courses down a riverbed into the sea.
-~
-33. Virtues
-
-He who understands the World is learned;
-He who understands the Self is enlightened.
-He who conquers the World has strength;
-He who conquers the Self has love.
-He who is contented has riches;
-He who is determined has purpose.
-He who maintains his home will long endure
-He who maintains his influence will live long after death.
-~
-34. Tao Favours Nothing
-
-Infinite Tao flows everywhere, creating and destroying,
-Implementing all the World, attending to the tiniest details,
-Claiming nothing in return.
-
-It nurtures all things,
-Though it does not control them;
-It has no intention
-So it seems inconsequential.
-
-It is the substance of all things;
-Though it does not control them;
-It has no exception
-So it seems all-important.
-
-Because it favours no finite thing,
-It is infinite.
-~
-35. Peace
-
-Tao lacks art and flavour;
-It can neither be seen nor heard,
-Yet its application cannot be exhausted.
-
-So, if you offer music and food
-Strangers may stop with you;
-But if you accord with the shape of Tao
-The people of the World will keep you
-In safety, health, community, and peace.
-~
-36. Playing Poker
-
-To reduce someone's influence, first cause it to expand;
-To reduce someone's force, first cause it to increase;
-To overthrow someone, first cause them to be exalted;
-To take something from someone, first give it to them.
-
-This is the subtlety by which the weak overcome the strong,
-For fish should not leave their depths;
-And soldiers should not leave their camouflage.
-~
-37. Quieting the Heart
-
-Tao does not act, yet leaves nothing undone.
-If the Self understands this
-All things of the World will naturally flourish;
-Flourishing, they will be restrained by Nature.
-
-Nature does not possess desire;
-Without desire, the heart becomes quiet,
-And so the whole World may be made tranquil.
-~
-38. Religion
-
-The kind act without self-interest;
-The just act to serve self-interest;
-The religious act to reproduce self-interest.
-
-When Tao is lost, there is love;
-When love is lost, there is kindness;
-When kindness is lost, there is justice;
-And when justice is lost, there is religion.
-
-Well established hierarchies are not easily uprooted;
-Closely held beliefs are not easily released;
-So religions enthrall generation after generation.
-
-Religion is the dissolution of love and trust,
-The beginning of confusion.
-Belief is a colourful hope or fear,
-The origin of folly.
-
-The sage goes by knowledge, not by hope;
-He dwells in the fruit, not the flower;
-He accepts the former, and rejects the latter.
-~
-39. Wholeness
-
-In mythic times things were whole:
-All the sky was clear,
-All the earth was stable,
-All the mountains were strong,
-All the riverbeds were full,
-All of nature was alive,
-All the rulers were supported.
-
-For without clarity the sky tears;
-Without stability the earth cracks;
-Without strength the mountain collapses;
-Without water the riverbed stagnates;
-Without life nature dies back;
-And without support rulers fall.
-
-So the ruler depends upon his subjects,
-The noble depend upon the humble;
-Rulers call themselves orphaned, lonely or disabled,
-To win the people's sympathy,
-For wholeness gains no support.
-
-So there is weakness in power,
-And power in weakness;
-Rather than tinkle like jade,
-One should clatter like stones.
-~
-40. Application of Tao
-
-The motion of Tao is to return;
-The use of Tao is to accept;
-All things are made of Tao,
-And Tao is made of nothing.
-~
-41. Taoism
-
-When the strong learn Tao, they practice it diligently;
-When the average learn Tao, they practice it sometimes;
-When the weak learn Tao, they laugh out loud;
-Those who do not laugh do not learn at all.
-
-Therefore is it said:
-Who understands Tao seems foolish;
-Who progresses in Tao seems to fail;
-Who follows Tao seems to wander.
-
-For the greatest force appears vulnerable;
-The brightest truth appears coloured;
-The richest character appears incomplete;
-The strongest heart appears meek;
-The most beautiful nature appears fickle;
-
-For the square, perfected, has no corner;
-Art, perfected, has no meaning;
-Sex, perfected, has no climax;
-Form, perfected, has no shape.
-
-So Tao can not be sensed or known:
-It transmits sensation and transcends knowledge.
-~
-42. Harmony
-
-Tao bears love;
-Love bears restraint;
-Restraint bears acceptance;
-Acceptance bears the World;
-All things begin with love and end with restraint,
-But it is acceptance that brings harmony.
-
-As others teach, I teach:
-"Those without harmony end with violence";
-This is my teacher.
-~
-43. Overcoming the Impossible
-
-The soft overcomes the hard;
-The formless penetrates the impenetrable;
-Therefore I value taking no action.
-
-Teaching without words,
-Work without action,
-Are understood by no one.
-~
-44. Contentment
-
-Fame or Self: which is dearer?
-Self or wealth: which is more valuable?
-Profit or loss: which is more torturous?
-
-Great love incurs great expense,
-And great wealth incurs great theft,
-But great contentment incurs no loss.
-
-Therefore:
-He who knows when to stop
-Does not continue into danger,
-And may long endure.
-~
-45. Quiet
-
-Great perfection seems imperfect,
-But does not decay;
-Great abundance seems empty,
-But does not fail.
-
-Great truth seems contradictory;
-Great cleverness seems stupid;
-Great eloquence seems awkward.
-
-Action overcomes contentment,
-But stillness overcomes desire;
-Therefore calm and quiet control the World.
-~
-46. Desire
-
-When the World is not in accord with Tao,
-Horses bear soldiers through the countryside;
-When the World is in accord with Tao,
-Horses bear horse-manure through the countryside.
-
-There is no greater curse than desire;
-There is no greater misery than discontent;
-There is no greater ailment than greed;
-He who is content to be content shall always be content.
-~
-47. Knowledge and Experience
-
-Without taking a step outdoors
-You know the whole World.
-Without taking a look out the window
-You see the colour of the sky.
-
-The more you experience,
-The less you know.
-The sage wanders without knowing,
-Looks without seeing,
-Accomplishes without acting.
-~
-48. Knowledge
-
-The follower of knowledge acquires as much as he can every day;
-The follower of Tao loses as much as he can every day.
-
-By attrition he reaches a state of inaction
-Wherein he does nothing, but leaves nothing undone.
-
-To conquer the world, do nothing;
-If you must do something,
-The world remains beyond conquest.
-~
-49. The Worlds of Others
-
-The sage does not distinguish between Self and World;
-Therefore the needs of people in the World are as his own.
-
-He is good to those who are good;
-He is also good to those who are not good;
-For love is goodness.
-He trusts those who are trustworthy;
-He also trusts those who are not trustworthy;
-For love is trust.
-
-He is in harmony with the World;
-Therefore he nurtures the Worlds of others
-As a mother does her children.
-~
-50. Life and Death
-
-Death enters life as man enters woman.
-
-The limits of man:
-Thirty years of growth;
-Thirty years of decay;
-Thirty years inbetween;
-So death and life reproduce themselves.
-
-He who would prolong his life
-Will not meet tigers or rhinoceri in the wilds,
-Nor soldiers in battle
-So the rhinoceros sees no place in him for its horn,
-The tiger no place for its claw,
-The soldier no place for a weapon;
-So death finds no place to enter his life.
-~
-51. Love
-
-Tao bears us,
-Love nurtures us,
-Nature shapes us,
-Circumstance completes us.
-
-We worship Tao and honour love;
-For worship of Tao and honour of love
-Are performed just by being alive.
-
-Tao bears us,
-Love nurtures, develops, cares for,
-Shelters, comforts and makes a home for us.
-
-Making without controlling,
-Giving without demanding,
-Guiding without interfering,
-Helping without profiting,
-This is love.
-~
-52. Restraint
-
-The origins of the World are its mother;
-Know the mother, and you understand the child;
-Know the child, and you embrace the mother,
-Who will not perish when you die.
-
-Reserve your judgments and words
-And you maintain your influence;
-Draw conclusions and speak your mind
-And your cause is lost.
-
-As seeing detail is clarity,
-So maintaining tact is strength;
-Keep your eyes and mind open
-So that you may not regret your actions;
-This is restraint.
-~
-53. Distractions
-
-With but a small understanding
-One may follow Tao like a main road,
-Fearing only to leave it;
-Following a main road is easy,
-But being sidetracked is also easy.
-
-For when palaces are kept up
-Fields are left to weeds
-And granaries empty.
-
-Wearing fine clothes,
-Bearing sharp swords,
-Glutting with food and drink,
-Hoarding wealth and possessions -
-These are the ways of theft
-And deviations from Tao.
-~
-54. Go by Love
-
-Love does not think of love
-For this reason is it strong;
-It does not act,
-Yet leaves nothing undone.
-Desire is intent upon love
-For this reason is it weak;
-It always acts,
-Yet gets nothing done.
-
-Nurture love in the Self, and love will be genuine;
-Nurture love in the family, and love will be abundant;
-Nurture love in the community, and love will multiply;
-Nurture love in the culture, and love will flourish;
-Nurture love in the World, and love will be ubiquitous.
-
-Therefore:
-Judge a person by their love;
-Judge a family by its love;
-Judge a community by its love;
-Judge a culture by its love;
-Judge the World by its love.
-How can I know the love of the World?
-By judging my Self.
-~
-55. Love and Nature
-
-Who is filled with love is like a newborn.
-Wasps will not sting him;
-Tigers will not eat him;
-Hawks will not tear out his eyes.
-
-His bones are soft, yet his sinews are supple,
-So his grip is strong;
-He has no wife, yet his manhood is healthy,
-So his vigour is unspoiled;
-He sings all day yet his voice remains sweet
-So his harmony is perfect.
-
-To approach Nature is to know harmony;
-To achieve Nature is to be enlightened;
-But to surpass Nature invites calamity
-For emotion will burst the lungs
-And exhaustion will age the heart:
-The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long.
-~
-56. Impartiality.
-
-He who knows does not speak;
-He who speaks does not know.
-
-Reserve your judgments and words;
-Dull your wit and simplify your purpose;
-Be humble as earth and a part of Nature.
-
-In this way
-Friendship and enmity,
-Profit and loss,
-Honour and disgrace,
-Will not affect you.
-The impartial Self is of most benefit to the World.
-~
-57. Government
-
-A nation is best governed by innocence;
-A war is best waged by treachery;
-The World is best controlled by inaction;
-How do I know?
-
-Because:
-The more property and taxes there are,
-The more poverty prevails;
-The more guns and knives there are,
-The more chaos prevails;
-The more arts and sciences there are,
-The more deceit prevails;
-The more rules and regulations there are,
-The more theft prevails.
-
-Therefore the sage says:
-I take no action, and the people become civilized;
-I wage no war, and the people become just;
-I transact no business, and the people become wealthy;
-I have no desire, and the people become innocent.
-~
-58. Be Forgiving
-
-When government is lazy and blunt
-The people are kind and honest;
-When government is efficient and severe
-The people are discontented and deceitful.
-
-Misery may yield happiness;
-Happiness may conceal misery.
-Who can say which will be for the best?
-Nothing is straightforward.
-Honesty is ever corrupted;
-Kindness is ever seduced;
-Men have been like this for a long time.
-
-So the sage is firm but not cutting,
-Pointed but not piercing,
-Straight but not inflexible,
-Brilliant but not blinding.
-~
-59. Restraint
-
-Manage a great nation
-As you would cook a delicate fish.
-
-When directing men to a purpose
-The sage is restrained;
-Restraint allows time to prepare and strengthen,
-To build loving relationships;
-With sufficient strength and love all resistance is overcome;
-When all resistance is overcome his purpose is achieved.
-
-Who can achieve his purpose is able to direct men
-And his influence upon them long endures.
-Deeply rooted and firmly established,
-His vision lives on even after death.
-~
-60. Emotions
-
-Because the sage follows Tao his emotions do no hurt;
-It is not that they lose their power;
-But that they do not hurt others;
-Because they do not hurt others,
-He does not hurt others:
-Because his emotions do no hurt,
-His relations with people are loving.
-~
-61. International Relations
-
-A nation acts as a hierarchy, a meeting place, and a female.
-A female seduces a male by being cool,
-Being cool is a means of submission.
-
-If a large country submits to a small country
-It will seduce the small country;
-If a small country submits to a large country
-It will seduce the large country;
-The large will submit in order to control
-And the small will submit in order to prosper.
-
-Therefore:
-It is in the interests of a large country to give shelter,
-And in the interests of a small country to give service;
-If both would achieve their purposes,
-Both must submit.
-~
-62. Sin
-
-Tao is the source of all things,
-The treasure of the saint,
-And the refuge of the sinner.
-
-Fine words win honour
-And fine acts win respect,
-But if a man sins, do not abandon him;
-And if a man wins power, do not bribe him;
-Just be still and present accordance with Tao.
-
-Why do saints treasure Tao?
-Because it is easily found by seeking,
-And absolves every sin.
-It is the most valuable gift.
-~
-63. Confront Difficulty
-
-Practise no-action;
-Attend to do-nothing;
-Taste the flavorless,
-Attend the small,
-Multiply the few,
-Return love for hate.
-
-Deal with difficulty while it is yet easy;
-Deal with the great while it is yet small;
-
-The difficult develops naturally from the easy
-And the great from the small;
-So the sage, by dealing with the small
-Achieves the great.
-
-He who finds it easy to promise finds it hard to deliver;
-He who takes things lightly makes things hard;
-The sage confronts difficulty, and so has none.
-~
-64. Care at Beginning and End
-
-What lies still is easy to grasp;
-What is far off is easy to plan for;
-What is cold is easy to shatter;
-What is small is easy to disperse.
-
-Yet
-A tree broader than a man can embrace is born of a tiny shoot;
-A dam taller than a river can overflow is born of a clod of earth;
-A journey of a thousand miles begins at the spot under one's feet.
-
-Therefore deal with things before they happen;
-Create order before there is confusion.
-
-Yet he who acts, spoils;
-He who grasps, loses.
-People often fail on the verge of success.
-Take care at the end as at the beginning,
-So that you may avoid failure.
-
-The sage desires no desire,
-Values no valuable,
-Knows no knowledge,
-But gives the people what they can not find
-And helps all things accord with Nature
-Without interfering.
-~
-65. Understanding History
-
-The mythic masters of Tao did not want to make people wise,
-But to keep them ignorant;
-For it is difficult to govern people who know too much.
-
-To govern a nation by imparting knowledge to its people
-Destroys the nation.
-To govern a nation by decreasing the knowledge of its people
-Serves the nation.
-
-Understanding these two paths is understanding history;
-Understanding history gives clarity of vision
-By which one may see through deceit.
-~
-66. Lead by Following
-
-How does the river carve out the valley?
-By flowing beneath it.
-Thereby the river is master of the valley.
-
-In order to master people
-One must speak as their servant;
-So when the sage is elevated to power
-People do not feel oppressed.
-
-In order to lead people
-One must follow them;
-So when the sage restrains people
-They do not feel hindered.
-
-Thus the popularity of the sage does not fail,
-He does not seem superior, so no one wishes to usurp him.
-~
-67. Three Treasures
-
-It may seem that my teaching means nothing;
-It describes the infinite, so of course it means nothing;
-If it meant something it would long since have been refuted.
-
-Yet I have three treasures, which I follow and commend to you:
-The first is love.
-By which one finds courage.
-The second is restraint.
-By which one finds strength.
-The third is not contending.
-By which one finds influence.
-
-Those who are fearless, but without love,
-Strong, but without restraint,
-Or influential, yet contentious,
-Are doomed.
-
-Only love conquers all and is defeated by none.
-It is Nature's finest tool and sharpest weapon.
-~
-68. Using Men
-
-A good soldier does not use violence;
-A good fighter does not use anger;
-A good conqueror does not use attack;
-A good ruler does not use authority;
-So not contending is the best way to use men.
-~
-69. Ambush
-
-There is a saying among soldiers:
-It is easier to lose a yard than take an inch.
-
-In this way one may deploy troops without marshalling them,
-Reveal weapons without exposing them,
-Assault the foe without charging them,
-And apply force without aggression.
-
-Conversely there is no disaster like underestimating your enemy;
-For false confidence will lose you your most valued assets.
-When two equally matched forces meet
-The general who conserves life will win.
-~
-70. Individuality
-
-My words are easy to understand
-And my actions are easy to perform
-Yet no man can understand or perform them.
-
-My words have logic; my actions have meaning;
-Yet these cannot be known and I cannot be known.
-
-We are each unique; no man understands another.
-Though the sage wears coarse clothes, his heart is jade.
-~
-71. Sickness
-
-Who knows what he knows is healthy;
-Who ignores what he ignores is sick;
-Who grows sick of sickness recovers;
-The sage is never sick, but always sick of sickness.
-~
-72. Friendship
-
-When people do not fear, they are easily conquered.
-
-Praise their goods and children
-And they will not dislike yours.
-Know your superiority,
-But do not tell it to them;
-Love your home,
-But do not let them know;
-Reject what is yours
-And accept what is theirs.
-~
-73. Fate
-
-Who is brave and bold may die;
-Who is brave and subtle may live.
-Which course best serves one's purpose?
-Fate favours some and destroys others.
-The sage does not know why.
-
-Fate does not contend, yet all things are conquered by it;
-It does not ask, yet all things answer to it;
-It does not call, yet all things come to it;
-It does not plan, yet all things are determined by it.
-
-Fate's hands are vast, its fingers spread wide,
-Yet none slip through its grasp.
-~
-74. Tyranny
-
-People do not fear death, so do not threaten them with death.
-
-If people feared death, and you executed all who did not love you
-There would be no people left but you and the executioner.
-You would then need to kill him.
-You would then need to chop off your own hand.
-~
-75. Extremis
-
-If rulers take too much grain
-People rapidly starve;
-If rulers take too much freedom
-People easily rebel;
-If rulers take too much happiness.
-People gladly die.
-
-By not interfering the sage improves the people's lives.
-~
-76. Flexibility
-
-Man is born soft and tender,
-But dies hard and stiff.
-Plants and animals, in life, are supple and juicy;
-In death, brittle and dry.
-So hardness and stiffness are attributes of death,
-And softness and tenderness attributes of life.
-
-Just as a sapless tree splits and decays
-A strong but inflexible force will meet defeat;
-So the hard and mighty lie beneath our feet
-While the tender and weak toss in the breeze above.
-~
-77. Balance
-
-Is the movement of Nature not unlike drawing a bow?
-What is higher descends and what is lower ascends;
-What is longer shortens and what is shorter lengthens;
-Nature's way decreases those who have more than they need
-So to increase those who need more than they have.
-
-It is not so with Man.
-Man decreases those who need more than they have
-So to increase those who have more than they need.
-
-The sage works regardless of personal reward or recognition;
-To benefit the World is to benefit the Self.
-~
-78. Accept Responsibility
-
-Nothing in the World is as yielding as water;
-Nor can anything better overcome the hardened.
-
-Just as the yielding overcomes the hardened,
-The weak may overcome the strong;
-Yet they do not.
-
-For the sage says:
-"Who accepts responsibility for his people rules the country;
-Who accepts responsibility for the World rules the World"
-Yet his words are not understood.
-~
-79. Reconciliation
-
-When conflict is reconciled, some hatred remains;
-How can this be put right?
-
-The sage accepts less than is due
-And does not blame or punish;
-Love seeks agreement
-Where justice seeks payment.
-
-The mythic masters said: "Nature is impartial;
-Therefore it serves those who serve all."
-~
-80. Utopia
-
-Imagine that there is a small country with few people;
-Who have a hundred times more than they need;
-Who love life and do not wander far;
-Who own ships but do no foreign trade;
-Who own weapons but do not threaten war;
-Who are literate but keep no histories;
-Who cook well, dress beautifully, dwell safely
-And delight in their own culture,
-But live within cock crow of their neighbours.
-
-People in such a place would never leave.
-~
-81. The Sage
-
-Truth is not rhetorical;
-Therefore rhetoric is not true;
-Lovers do not contend;
-Therefore competitors do not love;
-The enlightened keep no knowledge;
-Therefore the learned are not enlightened.
-
-The sage does not aim to increase himself;
-But the more he does for others the more he is satisfied;
-And the more he gives the more he gets.
-
-The best way is to benefit all and harm none;
-So the sage achieves his purpose without contention.
-~
-Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they're open.
- -- Sir Thomas Robert Dewar, aka Lord Dewar
-~
- /--------\
- /**********\
- /........****\
- /..........****\
- /.....*.....*****\
- |.........*******|
- |........********|
- |......**********|
- \.....*****.*****/
- \....**********/
- \....********/
- \ ........./
- \--------/
-~
- .-~~~-,
- ( )
- ( )
- -^x^- ( )
- /~ ~\ ( )
- | | ( )
- | | ( )
- | __ _, (~~~~-( )
- /\/\ (. ).) `_'_', ( )
- C __) (.( .)-( )
- | /~~~ \ (_ ( )
- / \ ~====' /_____/` D)
- /`-_ `---' \ |
- .__|~-/^\-~|_/_ |^^^^^^^|| |
- __. ||/.\ | |OooooO
- \ ---. \ | | \ _
- _- ,`_'_' .~\ \|__ __|-____ / )
- < -(. ).) > \ ( .\ (. ) \(_/ )
- ~- _) \_- ooo @ (_) @ \(_//.
- / /_C (-.____) /((O)/ \ ._/\~_.
-/ |_\ / / /\\\\`-----'' _|>o< |__
-| \ooooO ( \ \\ \\___/ \ `_'_', /
- \ \__-| \ `)\\-^\\ ^--. /_(.(.)- _\
- \ \ ) |-`--.`--=\-\ /-//_ ' ( c D\
- \_\_) |-___/ / \ V /.~ \/\\\ (@)___/ ~|
- / | / | |. /`\\_/\/ / /
- / | ( C`-'` / | \/ (/ /
-/_________- \ `C__-~ | / (/ /
- | | | \__________| \ (/
-~
- === ======
- === OO =====
- === OO =====
- === =====
- ===
- #################### ##
- #################### ##
- ### ##
- #### ##
- ### ### ##
- ###### ### ### ##
-# # ### ### ##
- # # ### ### ##
- ## ### ### ##
- ## ### ### ##
- ### ### #####
- ### ### ####
- ### #### ###
- ########## ##
-~
- /\
- __ /||\ __
- |\\ || //|
- \\ || //
- \\ || //
- \\ || //
- / \\||// \
- <=============**==============>
- \ //||\\ /
- // || \\
- // || \\
- // || \\
- |// || \\|
- `-- \||/ --'
- \/
-~
-[Reuters 8/16/92] SHANGHAI--A 24-year-old bus passenger, Dong Huibo, died
-in the street, after tangling with one of the city's dreaded woman bus
-conductors. His nightmare began inside the bus when the ticketpuncher
-snarled an insult about the shape of his backside. She swore at him,
-slapped his face and broke his glasses, made a grab for his testicles, then
-stood back and aimed a vicious kick at his private parts. As he scrambled
-out of a window, the driver--also a woman--slammed her foot on the
-accelerator pedal and sent him flying. (From: Di Bi Cao)
-~
------------------------------------------
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------------------------------------------
-~
- . /\
- . / \
- / /
- . / /
- . / /
- . / /
- _ / /
- \\ / /
- \\/---/
- \\ /
- / \\/
- / /
- \ /
- \/
-~
-Ronald Wilson Reagan can be rearranged into Insane Anglo Warlord
-and George Herbert Walker Bush into Huge Berserk Rebel Warthog, and of
-course H. Ross Perot can be rearranged into Sport Horse and Short Poser.
-~
-HSIN-HSIN-MING (AFFIRMING FAITH IN MIND)
-
-wong@rkna50.riken.go.jp (Wong Weng Fai) posted a version of this,
-and I thought I would send another, longer version. This is from
-(if my memory serves) Roshi Kapleau's "Zen--Dawn in the West",
-so I assume it is his translation.
-~
-The Great Way is not difficult
-For those who do not pick and choose.
-~
-When preferences are cast aside
-The Way stands clear and undisguised.
-~
-But even slight distinctions made
-Set Heaven and Earth far apart.
-~
-If you would clearly see the truth,
-Discard opinions pro and con.
-~
-To founder in like and dislike
-Is nothing but the mind's disease.
-~
-And not to see the Way's deep truth
-Disturbs the Mind's essential peace.
-~
-The Way is perfect like vast space,
-Where there's no lack and no excess.
-~
-Our choice to choose and to reject
-Prevents our seeing this simple truth.
-~
-Both striving for the outer world
-As well as for the inner void
-Condemns us to entangled lives.
-~
-Just calmly see that all is One
-And by themselves false views will go.
-~
-Attempts to stop activity
-Only fill you with activity.
-~
-Remaining in duality
-You'll never know of unity.
-~
-And not to know this unity
-Lets conflict lead you far astray.
-~
-When you assert that things are real,
-You miss their true reality.
-But to assert that things are void
-Also misses reality.
-~
-The more you talk and think on this,
-The further from the truth you'll be.
-~
-Cut off all useless thoughts and words
-And there's nowhere you cannot go.
-Returning to the root itself,
-You'll find the meaning of all things.
-~
-If you pursue appearances,
-You overlook the primal source.
-~
-Awakening is to go beyond
-Both emptiness as well as form.
-~
-All changes in this empty world
-Seem real because of ignorance.
-~
-Do not go searching for the truth,
-Just let those fond opinions go.
-~
-Abide not in duality;
-Refrain from all pursuit of it.
-~
-If there's a trace of right and wrong,
-True Mind is lost, confused, distraught.
-~
-From One-Mind comes duality,
-But cling not even to this one.
-~
-When this One-Mind rests undisturbed,
-Then nothing in the world offends.
-~
-And when nothing can give offense,
-Then all obstructions cease to be.
-~
-If all thought-objects disappear,
-The thinking subject drops away.
-~
-For things are things because of mind,
-As mind is mind because of things.
-~
-These two are merely relative,
-And both at source are emptiness.
-~
-In emptiness these are not two,
-Yet in each are contained all forms.
-~
-Once coarse and fine are seen no more,
-Then how can there be taking sides?
-~
-The Great Way is without limit,
-Beyond the easy and the hard.
-~
-But those who hold to narrow views
-Are fearful and irresolute;
-Their frantic haste just slows them down.
-~
-If you're attached to anything,
-You surely will go far astray.
-~
-Just let go now of clinging mind,
-And all things are just as they are.
-In essence nothing goes or stays.
-~
-See into the true self of things,
-And you're in step with the Great Way,
-Thus walking freely and undisturbed.
-~
-But live in bondage to your thoughts,
-And you will be confused, unclear.
-~
-This heavy burden weighs you down-
-O why keep judging good and bad?
-~
-If you would walk the highest way,
-Do not reject the sense domain.
-~
-For as it is, whole and complete,
-This sense world is enlightenment.
-~
-The wise do not strive after goals,
-But fools themselves in bondage put.
-~
-The One Way knows no differences;
-The foolish cling to this and that.
-To seek Great Mind with thinking mind
-Is certainly a grave mistake.
-~
-From small mind comes rest and unrest,
-But mind awakened transcends both.
-~
-Delusion spawns dualities-
-These dreams are naught but flowers of air-
-Why work so hard at grasping them?
-~
-Both gain and loss, and right and wrong-
-Once and for all get rid of them.
-~
-When you are no longer asleep,
-All dreams will vanish by themselves.
-~
-If mind does not discriminate,
-All things are as they are, as one.
-~
-To go to this mysterious source
-Frees us from all entanglements.
-~
-When all is seen with "equal mind",
-To our self-nature we return.
-~
-This single mind goes right beyond
-All reasons and comparisons.
-~
-Stop movement and there's no movement,
-Stop rest and no-rest comes instead.
-~
-When rest and no-rest cease to be,
-Then even Oneness disappears.
-This ultimate Finality's
-Beyond all laws; can't be described.
-~
-With single mind one with the Way,
-All ego-centered strivings cease.
-~
-Doubts and confusion disappear,
-And so true faith pervades our life.
-~
-There is no thing that clings to us,
-And nothing that is left behind.
-~
-All's self-revealing, void and clear,
-Without exerting power of mind.
-~
-Thought cannot reach this state of truth;
-Here feelings are of no avail.
-~
-In this true world of emptiness,
-Both self and other are no more.
-~
-To enter this true empty world,
-Immediately affirm "Not-Two".
-~
-In this "Not-Two" all is the same,
-With nothing separate or outside.
-~
-The wise in all times and places
-Awaken to this primal truth.
-~
-The Way's beyond all space, all time;
-One instant is ten thousand years.
-~
-Not only here, not only there,
-Truth's right before your very eyes.
-~
-Distinctions such as large and small
-Have relevance for you no more.
-~
-The largest is the smallest too;
-Here limitations have no place.
-~
-What is is not, what is not is;
-If this is not yet clear to you,
-You're still far from the inner truth.
-~
-One thing is all, all things are one.
-Know this and all's whole and complete.
-~
-When faith and mind are not separate,
-And not separate are mind and faith,
-This is beyond all words, all thought.
-~
-For here there is
- no yesterday,
- no tomorrow,
- no today.
-~
-You don't understand because you are a technocrat, an engineer.
-You work with your hands.
-I however am a visionary. I work with my mouth.
- -- Random HBO Movie
-~
-So we'll go to the top of the toppest blue space,
-The Official Katroo Birthday Sounding-Off Place!
-Come on! Open your mouth and sound off at the sky!
-Shout loud at the top of your voice,
- "I AM I!
- ME!
- I am I!
- And I may not know why
- But I know that I like it.
- _Three cheers_! I AM I!"
- -- Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss)
-~
-no!
-try not.
-do,
-or do not.
-there is no try.
- -- Yoda
-~
-Human conduct is ever unreliable
-until man is anchored in the Divine,
-Everything in future will improve
-if you are making a spiritual effort now.
- -- Swami Sri Yukteswar
-~
-A strange weed this be
-what's restoreth my vitality.
- -- Popeye
-~
-Q: Is an opinion true or false?
-A: Depends on whether it's mine or yours....
- -- egocentrist
-~
-Would anyone ever admit that an opinion was wrong?
-Wouldn't most people change the opinion instead,
-having then a new, well-considered, and more correct opinion?
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Through the dark of future past,
-The magician longs to see.
-One chants out between two worlds,
-"Fire, walk with me!"
-~
-It's really very simple... I found wearing women's clothes... relaxed me.
- -- Dennis Bryson
-~
-the first differentiation between reality as conceived and reality as it IS
-consists of an analogy: conceptions of reality (all ideas entertained by a
-knower) are maps, while reality is the territory being mapped.
-whether or not two individuals can be said to live in the same territory
-is unclear, because their conceptions may be different enough that their maps
-of reality are very different. it is also unclear whether there can be said
-to be two individuals at all--if the self and other are one, then all
-distinctions between selves ultimately disappear in the final analysis.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-This message partially funded by the Apathy Partnership of Earth (APE).
-~
-Styrofoam never dies for as long as you live.
- -- Deputy Andy Brennan, Twin Peaks
-~
-?
-!
- -- Aleister Crowley
-~
-Q:
- What's subtlety?
-A:
- A dog howling at the moon,
- not because he's a dog,
- but because he wants to.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-I want to share something with you, the three
-little sentences that will get you through life:
- #1. Cover for me,
- #2. Ooh, good idea boss!
- #3. It was like that when I got here...
- -- Homer Simpson to Bart
-~
-you wouldn't know the truth if it bit off your nose, stuck a gasoline
-nozzle into the gaping wound, filled you up with high octane, and
-lit a match.
-~
-In a world where children blow up children,
-everyone's a threat.
- -- psycho cop, on Star Trek: The Next Generation
-~
-world systems
-=============
-environments based in chaotic realms inevitably concern themselves less with
-conservation of mass or energy, ignore laws regarding increasing entropy,
-cease to be rational or defined. chaotic ones within orderly realms still
-recall this power and warp the space where they stand.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
- ____ . _ .
- /# /_\_ |\_|/__/|
- | |/o\o\ / / \/ \ \
- | \\_/_/ /__|O||O|__ \
- / |_ | "I do solemnly swear by the sacred |/_ \_/\_/ _\ |
-| ||\_ ~| bedpan to fix the patient, and | | (____) | ||
-| ||| \/ ease his wretched suffering, even \/\___/\__/ //
-| |||_ until all hope is lost." (_/ ||
- \// | | ||
- || | | ||\
- ||_ \ \ //_/
- \_| o| \______//
- /\___/ __ || __||
- / ||||__ (____(____)
- (___)_)
-~
-When they came for the Fourth Amendment I didn't say anything
- because I had nothing to hide.
-When they came for the Second Amendment I didn't say anything
- because I didn't own a gun.
-When they came for the Fifth and Sixth Amendments I didn't say anything
- because I had committed no crimes.
-When they came for the First Amendment I couldn't say anything.
-
-(taken from the Urine Nation News, spring/summer 1993, number 12, page 1)
-~
-The bother of doing
-something may be great,
-but the bother of not doing it
-while continuing to think about it
-is even greater.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Then we sat on the sand for some time and observed,
-how the oceans that covered the world were perturbed,
-by the tides from the orbiting moon overhead,
-"How relaxing the sound of the waves is," you said.
-I began to expound upon tidal effects,
-when you asked me to stop, looking somewhat perplexed,
-so I did not explain why the sunset turns red,
-and we watched the occurrence in silence instead.
- -- By Data
-~
- Ode to Spot
-Felis catus, Your visual, olfactory,
-is your taxonomic nomenclature, and auditory senses,
-an endothermic quadruped, contribute to your hunting skills,
-carnivorous by nature? and natural defenses.
-
-I find myself intrigued A tail is quite essential
-by your subvocal oscillations, for your acrobatic talents,
-a singular development you would not be so agile,
-of cat communications, if you lacked its counterbalance,
-that obviates your basic and when not being utilized,
-hedonistic predilection, to aid in locomotion,
-for a rhythmic stroking of your fur it often serves to illustrate,
-to demonstrate affection. the state of your emotion.
-
- Oh Spot, the complex levels of behavior you display,
- connote a fairly well developed cognitive array,
- and though you are not sentient, Spot,
- and do not comprehend, I nonetheless consider you
- a true and valued friend.
-
- -- By Data
-~
-There is no secret to excel in playing the shakuhachi.
-Blow not intensely, but from your heart.
-Although technique is secondary, it helps to express your true self.
-If we are natural, we make fine sound.
-If we have an open mind, our sound will be mellow.
-If we have right attitudes toward life,
-our music will be acceptable to everyone.
-Take care of your sound as you would care for yourself.
- -- Koga
-~
-You can't save money by spending it. Beware claims to the contrary.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place.
-This is true because the mind is the governing aspect of human life.
-If the river flows clearly and cleanly through the proper channel,
-all will be well along its banks.
-
-The Integral Way depends on decreasing, not increasing:
- To correct your mind, rely on not-doing.
-Decrease thinking and clinging to complications;
- keep your mind detached and whole.
-Eliminate mental muddiness and obscurity;
- keep your mind crystal clear.
-Avoid daydreaming and allow your pure original insight to emerge.
-Quiet your emotions and abide in serenity.
-Don't go crazy with the worship of idols, images, and ideas;
- this is like putting a new head on top of the head you already have.
-
-Remember: if you can cease all restless activity,
- your integral nature will appear.
-
- -- Hua Hu Ching -- 45
-~
-Dualistic thinking is a sickness.
-Religion is a distortion.
-Materialism is cruel.
-Blind spirituality is unreal.
-
-Chanting is no more holy than listening to the
- murmur of a stream, counting prayer beads no more
- sacred than simply breathing, religious robes no
- more spiritual than work clothes.
-
-If you wish to attain oneness with the Tao, don't get
- caught up in spiritual superficialities.
-Instead, live a quiet and simple life, free of ideas and
- concepts.
-Find contentment in the practice of undiscriminating
- virtue, the only true power.
-Giving to others selflessly and anonymously, radiating
- light throughout the world and illuminating your
- own darkness, your virtue becomes a sanctuary for
- yourself and all beings.
-
-This is what is meant by embodying the Tao.
-
- -- Hua Hu Ching -- 47
-~
- ________________ _______________
- / \ / / \ \
- / / \ \ \ | - - \
- | | | / - \ |
- / / \ \
- | ___\ \| | / / \____________ \ \
- | / | | \ |
- | | __ | | \ \
-/ | \ | | \ |
-| | \ | | ==== | |
-| | __ | | (o-) _ | |
-| __\ (_o) | / \ | |
-| | | Heh Heh Heh / ) ) | |
- \ || \ / Huh Huh Huh / ) / | |
- | |__ \ / \ |___ - | |
- | | (*___\ / \ *' | |
- | | _ | / \ |____ | |
- | | //_______| ####\ | |
- | / |_|_|_|___/\ ------ |_/
- \| \ - | | |
- | _----_______/ \_____ |
- | / \ |
- |_____/ \__________|
-
- "Beavis and Butthead are catching up in the poles."
- "Yeah, our poles are rising."
-~
-The chief cause of problems is solutions. -- Eric Severeid
-~
-[CND, 12/15/93] A women trafficking gang, consisting of 69 members, was
-rounded up by the Inner Mongolia police, the Inner Mongolian Daily said.
-The gang, operating in several nearby provinces, enticed a total of 200
-unemployed women to make the journey to Inner Mongolia with the promise
-of good jobs and shelter. The women, ranging from 15 to 41, then were sold
-as wives or servants to local peasants who had difficulties in finding
-a spouse.
- -- Daluo Jia
-~
- A genuine ASCII stereogram!
-Here's an ASCII single image random dot stereogram for your enjoyment. To
-get the 3d effect, you need to diverge (unfocus) your eyes such that two
-adjacent letters in the same row come together. To help you focus, try to
-make the two capital O's at the top look like three. Once you've done that,
-the rest of the image should jump out of the screen at you!
- O O
-n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n
-f f f f f f f f f f f f f f
-e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e
-a a a a a a a a a a a a a a
-a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a
-r r r r r r r r r r r r r r
-r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r
-~
-Try moving your head back from the screen and moving it about a bit
-once you have focused on the image to increase the stereo effect even
-more.
-
- O O
-. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- . . . . . . . . . . .
- . . . . . . . . .
- . . . . . . . . .
- . . . . . . .
- . . . . . . .
-. . . . . . .
-| | | | | | |
-| | | | | | |
-| | | | | | |
-| | | | | | |
-| | | | | | |
-| | | | | | |
- . . . . . . .
- . . . . . . .
- . . . . . . . . .
- . . . . . . . . .
- . . . . . . . . . . .
- . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-~
- The following a 3-d Maze (3x4) consisting of the following objects:
-circle, square, asterisk, hour-glass, triangle, and a square with two lines
-in it. The rules are as follows: You can 'warp' from one part of the maze to
-another by matching similar objects. Each 'warp' counts as one move. You
-can also travel along the lines, if there is a line. This also counts as one
-move. (I got the idea of this from a GAMES magazine I read a LONG time ago)
-Try to go from "START" to "END" in the least amount of moves. I would give
-out a prize to somebody, if I could think of one(that doesn't cost anything,
-of course!). (Take this as a first maze...I didn't plan it out, and it's not
-very difficult.) I would suggest that people that have worked with
-stereograms EXTENSIVELY try this, as it is hard to move your eyes around and
-still keep focused on the 3-D image. E-mail me the number of moves it took
-you and the path you followed (e.g. 6 Sqauare -warp- Asterisk Circle...etc.),
-I'll post the list of people that reply to it within the next week and got
-the lowest number of moves. Good luck!!
- X X
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-~
- #
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- ## # # # # ## #### #
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- ### # # # ## # ## #
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-~
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-~
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-~
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-=============================================
- ||||
- |-------------------------------------------
- |-___-----___-----___-----___-----___-----__
- / _ \===/ _ \ / _ \===/ _ \ / _ \===/ _
- ( (.\ oOo /.) ) ( (.\ oOo /.) ) ( (.\ oOo /.
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- ==========================================
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-
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- `$o$$$P" `"$""""
-~
-happiness is a state of mind
-more than anything else,
-but so is everything else.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.
- -- W. C. Fields
-~
-Famous last words:
- 1) "Don't worry, I can handle it."
- 2) "You and what army?"
- 3) "If you were as smart as you think you are, you wouldn't be a cop."
-~
-For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
- -- H. L. Mencken
-~
-I may not be totally perfect, but parts of me are excellent.
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
-~
-Pittsburgh Driver's Test
-No. 7:
- The car directly in front of you has a flashing right tail light but
- a steady left tail light. This means:
-
-(a) one of the tail lights is broken; you should blow your horn to call
- the problem to the driver's attention.
-(b) the driver is signaling a right turn.
-(c) the driver is signaling a left turn.
-(d) the driver is from out of town.
-
-
-(The correct answer is (d). Tail lights are used in some foreign
- countries to signal turns.)
-~
-Famous last words:
-
- 1. Don't unplug it, it will just take a moment to fix.
- 2. Let's take the shortcut, he can't see us from there.
- 3. What happens if you touch these two wires tog--
- 4. We won't need reservations.
- 5. It's always sunny there this time of the year.
- 6. Don't worry, it's not loaded.
- 7. They'd never (be stupid enough to) make him a manager.
-~
-Certainly there are things in life that money can't buy,
-but it's very funny--Did you ever try buying them without money?
- -- Ogden Nash
-~
-Lactomangulation, n.:
- Manhandling the "open here" spout on a milk carton so badly
- that one has to resort to using the "illegal" side.
- -- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
-~
-If the code and the comments disagree, then both are probably wrong.
- -- Norm Schryer
-~
-Experience is what causes a person to make new mistakes instead of old ones.
-~
-Every creature has within him the wild, uncontrollable urge to punt.
-~
-The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
-human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of
-ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that
-we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction,
-have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of
-dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and
-of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the
-revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a
-new dark age.
- -- H. P. Lovecraft
-~
- "Krusty non-toxic Cologne
- 'The smell of the big top'
- Warning: Use in a well ventilated area.
- May stain furniture.
- Prolonged use may cause chemical burns."
- -- The Simpsons
-~
-a girlfriend is a bottle of wine,
-a wife is a wine bottle.
-~
-The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common.
-Instead of altering their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts
-to fit their views... which can be very uncomfortable if you happen to
-be one of the facts that needs altering.
- -- Doctor Who, "Face of Evil"
-~
-In the beginning was The Plan
-And then came The Assumptions
-And the Assumptions were without form
-And The Plan was completely without substance
-And the darkness was upon the face of the workers.
-And they spoke amongst themselves, saying
- "It is a crock of sh*t, and it stinketh."
-And the workers went unto their Supervisors and sayeth,
- "It is a pail of dung and none may abide the odor thereof."
-And the Supervisors went unto their Managers and sayeth unto them,
- "It is a container of excrement and it is very stong
-Such that none may abide by it."
-And the Managers went unto the Directors and sayeth,
- "It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength."
-And the Directors spoke amongst themselves, saying one to another,
- "It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong."
-And the Directors went unto the Vice Presidents and sayeth unto them,
- "It promotes growth and is very powerful."
-And the Vice Presidents went unto the President and sayeth unto Him,
- "This new Plan will actively promote the growth and efficiency
- Of this Company, and these Areas in particular."
-And the President looked upon The Plan,
-And saw that it was good, and The Plan became Policy.
-This is how sh*t happens.
-~
-be unafraid to think fully on a small matter. -- fred t. hamster
-~
-The late Dudjom Rinpoche, head of the Nyingma sect of the Tibetan Buddhist
-tradition, wrote one book on the evils of tobacco. He detailed a number of
-problems, both physical and spiritual, which would derive from the use of
-tobacco. Interestingly, he claims the origin of the plant to be a demoness
-who vowed to take rebirth as a plant to afflict humankind.
- -- Neal J. King
-~
-be unafraid to walk across the water. -- fred t. hamster
-~
- _
- _ / \ o
- / \ | | o o o
- | | | | _ o o o o
- | \_| | / \ o o o
- \__ | | | o o
- | | | | ______ ~~~~ _____
- | |__/ | / ___--\\ ~~~ __/_____\__
- | ___/ / \--\\ \\ \ ___ <__ x x __\
- | | / /\\ \\ )) \ ( " )
- | | -------(---->>(@)--(@)-------\----------< >-----------
- | | // | | //__________ / \ ____) (___ \\
- | | // __|_| ( --------- ) //// ______ /////\ \\
- // | ( \ ______ / <<<< <>-----<<<<< / \\
- // ( ) / / \` \__ \\
- //-------------------------------------------------------------\\
-
-Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels
-start closing in, the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and
-then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas... with the
-music at top volume and at least a pint of ether.
- -- H. S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"
-~
-dude, i have your tickets
-for the grateful briquettes
-on saturday the 20th.
-they are 30 apiece
-so get out your wallets
-i need the rental lease
-or be hit with mallets
-for my friend has no peace
-and i have no ballots.
-without which you get no tickets
-for my friend has no spigots
-disgorging money in hiccups
-in the land of honey and pickups.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Some people imagine that only the person who physically carries out the
-killing is creating a negative karmic effect, and that the person who just
-gave the orders is not--or, if he is, then only a little. But you
-should know that the same karmic result comes to everyone involved,
-including even anyone who just felt pleased about it--and therefore how
-much more so the person who actually ordered that the killing be carried
-out. Each person gets the whole karmic result of killing one animal. It
-is not as if one act of killing could be divided up among many people.
-
- From the Nying-ma _kunzang lama'i shelung_ (The Words of My Perfect Teacher)
- written by Patrul Rinpoche (1808-1887), (Padmakara translation group,
- trans., New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994, 104.)
-~
-did you hear about the professor that got some human lips grafted onto his
-anus? then when his students were kissing butt, they could get some response.
-and he can also now wear a hat on his ass and sit on his head, and no one
-knows the difference...
-~
-Alpha:
-Software undergoes alpha testing as a first step in getting user
-feedback. Alpha is Latin for "doesn't work."
-~
-Beta:
-Software undergoes beta testing shortly before it's released. Beta is
-Latin for "still doesn't work."
-~
-Computer:
-Instrument of torture. The first computer was invented by Roger
-"Duffy" Billingsly, a British scientist. In a plot to overthrow Adolf
-Hitler, Duffy disguised himself as a German ally and offered his
-invention as a gift to the surly dictator. The plot worked. On April
-8, 1945, Adolf became so enraged at the "Incompatible File Format"
-error message that he shot himself. The war ended soon after Hitler's
-death, and Duffy began working for IBM.
-~
-CPU:
-Central propulsion unit. The CPU is the computer's engine. It
-consists of a hard drive, an interface card and a tiny spinning wheel
-that's powered by a running rodent--a gerbil if the machine is a 286,
-a ferret if it's a 386 and a ferret on speed if it's a 486.
-~
-Default Directory:
-Black hole. Default directory is where all files that you need
-disappear to.
-~
-Error message:
-Terse, baffling remark used by programmers to place blame on users for
-the program's shortcomings.
-~
-File:
-A document that has been saved with an unidentifiable name. It helps
-to think of a file as something stored in a file cabinet--except when
-you try to remove the file, the cabinet gives you an electric shock
-and tells you the file format is unknown.
-~
-Hardware:
-Collective term for any computer-related object that can be kicked or
-battered.
-~
-Help:
-The feature that assists in generating more questions. When the help
-feature is used correctly, users are able to navigate through a series
-of Help screens and end up where they started from without learning
-anything.
-~
-Input/Output:
-Information is input from the keyboard as intelligible data and output
-to the printer as unrecognizable junk.
-~
-Interim Release:
-A programmer's feeble attempt at repentance.
-~
-Memory:
-Of computer components, the most generous in terms of variety, and the
-skimpiest in terms of quantity.
-~
-Printer:
-A joke in poor taste. A printer consists of three main parts: the
-case, the jammed paper tray and the blinking red light.
-~
-Programmers:
-Computer avengers. Once members of that group of high school nerds
-who wore tape on their glasses, played Dungeons and Dragons, and
-memorized Star Trek episodes; now millionaires who create
-"user-friendly" software to get revenge on whoever gave them noogies.
-~
-Reference Manual:
-Object that raises the monitor to eye level. Also used to compensate
-for that short table leg.
-~
-Scheduled Release Date:
-A carefully calculated date determined by estimating the actual
-shipping date and subtracting six months from it.
-~
-User-Friendly:
-Of or pertaining to any feature, device or concept that makes perfect
-sense to a programmer.
-~
-Users:
-Collective term for those who stare vacantly at a monitor. Users are
-divided into three types: novice, intermediate and expert.
- - Novice Users--People who are afraid that simply pressing a key
- might break their computer.
- - Intermediate Users--People who don't know how to fix their computer
- after they've just pressed a key that broke it.
- - Expert Users--People who break other people's computers.
-~
- X X X X
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-JKH&HJKL|JKH&HJKL|JKH&HJKL|JKH&HJKL|JKH&HJKL|JKH&HJKL|JKH&HJKL|JKH&HJKL|JKH
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-UKJ+IO3GUKJ+IO3GUKJ+IO3GUKJ+IO3GUKJ+IO3GUKJ+IO3GUKJ+IO3GUKJ+IO3GUKJ+IO3GUKJ
-JKH//8JHJKH//8JHJKH//8JHJKH//8JHJKH//8JHJKH//8JHJKH//8JHJKH//8JHJKH//8JHJKH
-JKH&HJKL|JKH&HJKL|JKH&HJKL|JKH&HJKL|JKH&HJKL|JKH&HJKL|JKH&HJKL|JKH&HJKL|JKH
-&^JKjgzh~&^JKjgzh~&^JKjgzh~&^JKjgzh~&^JKjgzh~&^JKjgzh~&^JKjgzh~&^JKjgzh~&^J
-~
-;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;itIRXItIt=:;iVRIIII:;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
-;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;:+ItXRYtIIi;IIRXiII+=;;:::;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
-;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;::;==+ittYRViII+iiRRtIIiiti++=;;::;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
-;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;::;=+iitIIiitIXViII+tYRtIII=iIYIti++=;::;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
-;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;:;=+iitIi+=;;=+ttYYtIiiiYIII+==;;=+tItii+=::;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
-;;;;;;;;;;;;;;:;=+itIt+:;=+itt++=ttitt+tiiII+iti++=;;+IIii+=::;;;;;;;;;;;;+V=;;
-;;;;;;;;;;;;::=+itIt;;=+itt+;;=+iiii+i==tiII==;=iti++=:=IIii+;::;;;;;;;;;+YMRt;
-;;;;;;;;;;;::=+itY;:=+itt=;+itIYIt+;;+Iiiii+IIt+=;=tt++=:+Yti+=::;;;;;;;:WXXWt;
-;;;;;;;;;;,;+iiII;;=+iI=;+itYI+;;++tIItIYtiIiiYYti+;+Ii+=;=Yti+=::;;;;;;+RBRM;;
-;;;;;;;;;::=+iIY;;+itI;=itYY+;+=tXtIIIIWWIIIIt:+YIt+;=Ii+=;=Yti+=,;;;;;;YMBWY=+
-;;;;;;;;;,;+itY=;=+iI==itYI;=it=BMIIIiMB=;IIIt+=iVt+=;=t++=:iYii+;,;;;;=XXWWVMY
-;;;;;;;;::=iiII:;+iIt;+iIV;;+titV.:IIiMt.;YYVRBBBBBY++:Iti+;:YIi+=,;;;iXXRWWBi;
-;;;;;;;;,;+iYV+:=++t;;==tt,+YYIII;:ii+IVRBXRBRRRBBBX=+;+t++;:IIi+==+iIItYYVt;;;
-;;;;;;;;::+IWWIVXRYi++ii=i;RXXXXtiXXXMMV=;+iRMWWWMYti+;tti=;=titIIIIIti=;;;;;;;
-;;;;;;;;;,=XWWXMWXViItt+iYiYMWWWMY+MVBMW+;;MWWBViIYt+==tiiIIIIIIti+=;:;;;;;;;;;
-;;;;;;;;;,;tRY+ittt+tIVBIIVt:=tIYVVYVBRV==XWRt;;iIiitIIIIIItti++=::;;;;;;;;;;;;
-;;;;;;;;;;,+++iiiI+YRYi;+itYY+;=+ittiiIIYBBBiitIIIIIIIIii=:IIii+;,;;;;;;;;;;;;;
-;;;;;;;;;;:;;,;i+VBMX+tI+;+itIYt==ittVRWWWWIIIIItItti+++;;IIii+;,;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
-;;;;;;;;;;;;,,:tYYYYi=+itt+;=+iiIIIIYWWWWWWIIIII=itii+;:+Itii+:,;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
-;;;;;;;;;;;;::,==iIIIi=;=+iiiIIIIIItWWRMWWWVIII+ii+=;;+IIii+=::;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
-;;;;;;;;;;;::,,,:;+IIIIt+iIIIIItiiiMWWXWWWWMiII==;;+tItii+=::;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
-;;;;;;;;;;,:,,,,,,:;iIIIIIIti+;;;+IWWWXWWWWWYIi+tIYtii+=;::;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
-;;;;;;;;;;,,:::,,,::::=itiiiIII+itIWWWMWWWWWXI+tiii+=;:::;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
-;;;;;;;;;;;:,,:,,:;;;;;:IYIIItiIItMWWWWWWWWWXI;=;;:::;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
-~
- _
- _|_|_
- ^/ . ..\^
- ___[=========]___
- ___-==++""" . /. . . \ . """++==-___
- __-+"" __\ .. . . | .. . | . . . /__ ""+-__
- /\__+-"" `-----=====\_ <O> _/=====-----' ""-+__/\
- _/_/ ""="" \_\_
- /_/ \_\
- // | \\
-/") \ | / ("\
-\O\ \*/ /O/
- \_) ---**O**--- (_/
- /*\
- / | \
- |
-~
-WHY GOD NEVER RECEIVED TENURE AT ANY UNIVERSITY
-
-1. He had only one major publication.
-2. It had no references.
-3. It wasn't published in a refereed journal.
-4. Some even doubt he wrote it himself.
-5. It may be true that he created the world,
- but what has he done since then?
-6. His cooperative efforts have been quite limited.
-7. The scientific community has had a hard time
- replicating his results.
-8. He never applied to the Ethics Board
- for permission to use human subjects.
-9. When one experiment went awry he tried to cover it up
- by drowning the subjects.
-10. When subjects didn't behave as predicted,
- he deleted them from the sample.
-11. He rarely came to class, just told students
- to read the Book.
-12. Some say he had his son teach the class.
-13. He expelled his first two students for learning.
-14. Although there were only ten requirements,
- most students failed his tests.
-15. His office hours were infrequent and usually
- held on a mountaintop.
-~
-When we walk upon Mother Earth, we always plant our feet carefully
-because we know the faces of our future generations are looking up
-at us from beneath the ground. We never forget them.
- -- Oren Lyons, Onondaga Nation
-~
-When the shoe fits,
-the foot is forgotten...
- -- Chuang Tzu
-~
-Talent, will, and genius are natural phenomena, like volcanoes,
-lakes, mountains, winds, stars, clouds.
- -- George Sand -- 1874
-~
-Creeping Featurism is the desire to add every technologically possible
-feature to a product whether or not the market needs it or will pay
-for it.
- -- Leu Platt, CEO Hewlett Packard
-~
-everybody's equal, but nobody's the same. -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene.
- -- A. C. Benson
-~
-The successful mother sets her children free
-and becomes more free herself in the process.
- -- Robert J. Havinghurst
-~
-No amount of energy will take the place of thought.
-A strenuous life with its eyes shut is a kind of wild insanity.
- -- Henry Van Dyke
-~
-It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong.
- -- Longfellow
-~
-It's strange the way the imagination, having exhausted one field,
-turns for rest and reinvigoration to another.
- -- Ellen Glasgow
-~
-Men travel faster now, but I do not know if they go to better things.
- -- Willa Cather
-~
-People who do not understand themselves have a craving for understanding.
- -- Dr. Wilhem Stekel
-~
-Love is the greatest refreshment of life.
- -- Pablo Picasso
-~
-An idea isn't responsible for the people who believe it.
- -- Don Marquis
-~
-I want to find someone on the earth so intelligent
-that he welcomes opinions which he condemns.
- -- John Jay Chapman
-~
-You can exert no influence if you are not susceptible to influence.
- -- Carl G. Jung
-~
-The greater the difficulty
-the more glory in surmounting it.
- -- Epicurus
-~
-Society is always engaged in a vast conspiracy to preserve itself--at the
-expense of the new demands of each new generation.
- -- John Haynes Holmes
-~
-The only thing that is really difficult is to prove what one believes.
- -- Paul Cezanne
-~
-There is one word which may serve as a rule of practice for
-all one's life--reciprocity.
- -- Confucious
-~
-Each time we make a decision, it is determined by the good or evil forces,
-respectively, which are dominant.
- -- Erich Fromm
-~
-We taste and feel and see the truth.
-We do not reason ourselves into it.
- -- W. B. Yeats
-~
-You inside and the wind outside, tangled on the window blind, tell me why you
-treated me so unkind. Down where the sun don't shine I'm lonely and I call
-your name, no place to go ain't that a shame....
- -- Jerry Garcia
-~
-The point of living, and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough
-to believe the best is yet to come.
- -- Peter Ustinov
-~
-"Observing formations of pigs flying south for the winter is several orders
- of magnitude more likely than having two competing C[++] compilers deal
- with more than eight lines of source code the same way."
- -- Steve Rimmer -- windows columnist
-~
-If asses were rainbows, we'd all have a pot of gold.
- -- Walrus
-~
-the bird sings
-i laugh inside
-i have mined
-the branches.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Good judgment is a result of experience.
-Experience is a result of poor judgment.
- -- Anonymous
-~
-in programming, insanity is not a handicap.
- -- the walrus
-~
- you
- have
- the
- ideal
- job
-~
-you don't have to get mad every time you have the right to. -- fred t. hamster
-~
-It's actually quite straightforward, but first you must be familiar
-with the 9 Palaces and 24 Directions.
- -- Feng Shui
-~
-Every fairly intelligent person realizes that
-the price of respectability is a muffled soul
-bent on the trivial and mediocre.
- -- Walter Lippman
-~
-People will admit to anything on the Internet. -- fred t. hamster
-~
-If all the beasts were gone, men would die
-from great loneliness of spirit,
-for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the man.
-All things are connected.
-Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of earth.
- -- Chief Seathl (Seattle) of Suwamish tribe,
- State of Washington, 1855
-~
-keep doing good, but don't be a do-gooder. -- fred t. hamster
-~
-All systems of thought confine their thinkers within the accepted boundaries.
-To free the mind from this conceptual jail, step back from and outside of the
-system; detachment enables both sides of the system (that which is within
-and that which is not within) to be perceived and dealt with as an object
-of knowledge.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-That which exists requires no reaffirmation by the mind; it simply is.
-It is that which does not exist that needs constant renewing contact by
-the mind; else it would fade from its only sphere of influence, the internal
-stage upon which it dances and captures the imagination.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Everyone's entitled to their own opinions, no matter how stupid.
- -- Frank Zappa (paraphrase unfortunately... know the exact quote?)
-~
-i love to program.
-i live to program.
-i am the beaver who reincarnated as a carpenter.
-i am the squirrel who came back as jimmy carter.
-if there's anything more fun than programming (where i actually use my brain
-mainly and not my body), then i don't want to know what it is.
-algorithms are my bread.
-objects are my butter.
-state machines are my toaster.
-library hierarchies are my table.
-my house is composed of invisible data and my nation rides along cables.
-i really need a girlfriend.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-every religion constitutes a view of reality and a view of the world.
-each one might suit a particular person differently.
-for any religion to claim that it is the one true religion is ridiculous
-because it asserts that its one way of viewing reality is the only correct
-one. surely this is a bad case of religious egotism or selfishness.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-talking about dharma is like making a home movie. when you watch it later,
-you see it, you hear it, and yet it isn't really there and the vital
-experience of being there is missing. but when you are there... you know
-it and feel it in a way your brain can't accurately record for later
-playback.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Deja Fu: The feeling that somehow, somewhere, you've been kicked in the
-head like this before.
-~
-A day without sunshine is like night.
-~
-There is a CD out entitled "The Worst of Jefferson Airplane". If you buy
-this, take it home, play it, and enjoy it, should you take it back and
-demand a refund?
-~
-College is a fountain of knowledge... and the students are there to drink.
-~
-A polar bear is a rectangular bear after a coordinate transform.
-~
-Some people say that I must be a horrible person, but that's not true.
-I have the heart of a young boy--in a jar on my desk.
- -- Stephen King, 3/8/90
-~
-He who dies with the most toys, is, nonetheless, still dead.
-~
-Photons have mass? I didn't know they were catholic!
-~
-If you had everything, where would you keep it?
-~
-I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone
-has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top.
- -- Supposedly an English Professor, Ohio University
-~
-What was sliced bread the greatest thing since?
-~
-When aiming for the common denominator, be prepared
-for the occasional division by zero.
-~
-When you're swimmin' in the creek
-And an eel bites your cheek
-That's a moray!
- -- Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
-~
-Q: How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
-A: Two. One to hold the giraffe and the other to fill the bathtub with
-brightly colored machine tools.
-~
-"... one of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking
-zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs."
- -- Robert Firth
-~
-Grabel's Law: 2 is not equal to 3--not even for very large values of 2.
-~
-Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggy" until you can find a rock.
-~
-There are two major products to come out of Berkeley: LSD and BSD.
-We don't believe this to be a coincidence.
-~
-If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet,
-what happen if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-One night I walked home very late and fell asleep in somebody's satellite
-dish. My dreams were showing up on TV's all over the world.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-My dental hygienist is cute. Every time I visit, I eat a whole package of
-Oreo cookies while I'm in the waiting room. Sometimes she has to cancel
-the rest of the afternoon's appointments.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I've
-forgotten this before.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-Smoking cures weight problems... eventually.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-I have an inferiority complex. But it's not a very good one.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-I was in the supermarket the other day, and I met a lady in the aisle where
-they keep the generic brands. Her name was 'woman'.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-I had a friend who was a clown. When he died, all his friends went to the
-funeral in one car.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-I'd like to sing you a song now about my old girlfriend. It's
-called, 'They'll Find Her When the Leaves Blow Away 'Cause I'm
-Not Raking 'Til Spring.'
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-When I woke up this morning my girlfriend asked me, 'Did you sleep good?'
-I said, 'No, I made a few mistakes.'
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-The other day, I was walking my dog around my building... on the ledge.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-Some people are afraid of heights. Not me, I'm afraid of widths.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-I spilled spot remover on my dog. He's gone now.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-Referring to a glass of water: I mixed this myself. Two parts H, one
-part O. I don't trust anybody!
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-I went to the cinema, and the prices were: Adults $5.00, children $2.50.
-So I said, 'Give me two boys and a girl.'
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-I went to a restaurant that serves 'breakfast at any time.' So I ordered
-French Toast during the Renaissance.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-There's a pizza place near where I live that sells only slices. In the back
-you can see a guy tossing a triangle in the air.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-I went to a general store. They wouldn't let me buy anything specifically.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-I went down the street to the 24-hour grocery. When I got there, the guy
-was locking the front door. I said, 'Hey, the sign says you're open 24
-hours.' He said, 'Yes, but not in a row.'
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-There was a power outage at a department store yesterday. Twenty people
-were trapped on the escalators.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-I bought my brother some gift-wrap for Christmas. I took it to the Gift Wrap
-Department and told them to wrap it, but in a different print so he would
-know when to stop unwrapping.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-I was born by Cesarean section... But not so you'd notice. It's just that
-when I leave a house, I go out through the window.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-When I was little, my grandfather used to make me stand in a closet for five
-minutes without moving. He said it was elevator practice.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-I didn't get a toy train like the other kids. I got a toy subway instead.
-You couldn't see anything, but every now and then you'd hear this rumbling
-noise go by.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-Last week the candle factory burned down. Everyone just stood around and
-sang 'Happy Birthday'.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-A wino asked me for change... I gave him my shirt.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-I bought this thing for my car. You put it on your car, it sends out this
-little noise, so when you drive through the woods, deer won't run in front
-of your car. I installed it backwards by accident... Driving down the
-street with a herd of deer chasing me.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-The ice cream truck in my neighborhood plays 'Helter Skelter'.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-The sky already fell. Now what?
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-My girlfriend and I went on a picnic. I don't know how she did it, but she
-got poison ivy on the brain. When it itched, the only way she could scratch
-it was to think about sandpaper.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-Trees that grow in smoggy cities are needed to make carbon paper.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-What's another word for Thesaurus?
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-When I was crossing the border into Canada, they asked if I had any firearms
-with me. I said, 'Well, what do you need?'
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-Why doesn't the fattest man in the world become a hockey goalie?
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-You know how it is when you decide to lie and say the check is in the mail,
-and then you remember it really is?
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-I've been doing a lot of abstract painting lately, extremely abstract. No
-brush, no paint, no canvas, I just think about it.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-My watch is three hours fast, and I can't fix it. So I'm going to move to
-New York.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-When I die, I'm leaving my body to science fiction.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-One time I went to a museum where all the work on display had been done by
-children. They had all the paintings up on refrigerators.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-When I was a little kid we had a sand box. It was a quicksand box. I was
-an only child... Eventually.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-One day I got on the bus, and when I stepped in, I saw the most gorgeous
-blond Chinese girl. I sat beside her. I said, 'Hi', And she said, 'Hi',
-and then I said, 'Nice day, isn't it?' And she said, 'I saw my analyst
-today and he says I have a problem. So I asked, 'What's the problem?'
-She replied, 'I can't tell you. I don't even know you.' I said, 'Well,
-sometimes it's good to tell your problems to a perfect stranger on a bus.'
-So she said, 'Well, my analyst said I'm a nymphomaniac and I only like
-Jewish cowboys... By the way, my name is Denise.' I said, 'Hello, Denise.
-My name is Bucky Goldstein.'
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-Today I was arrested for scalping low numbers at the deli. I sold a #3 for
-28 bucks.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-Do you think that when they asked George Washington for ID that he just
-whipped out a quarter?
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-I'm writing an unauthorized autobiography.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-What happens if you put a slinky on an escalator?
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-If you tell a joke in the forest, but nobody laughs, was it a joke?
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-If you were going to shoot a mime, would you use a silencer?
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-In Vegas, I got into a long argument with the man at the roulette wheel over
-what I considered to be an odd number.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-Is "tired old cliche" one?
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-My aunt gave me a walkie-talkie for my birthday. She says if I'm good,
-she'll give me the other one next year.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-At an October re-trial in Leeds, England, jurors took about an
-hour to acquit police officer Andrew Whitfield, 30, of stealing a
-calculator worth about $4. The cost of the trial, plus the original
-mistrial, plus keeping Whitfield on paid suspension for 14 months
-as required by law, was about $158,000.
- -- News of the Weird -- Compiled by Chuck Shepard
-~
-Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world,
-I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that but not
-with those flies and death and stuff.
- -- Mariah Carey
-~
-Question:
- If you could live forever, would you and why?
-Answer:
- I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because
- if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we
- cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever.
- -- Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss Universe contest
-~
-Researchers have discovered that chocolate produces some of the same reactions
-in the brain as marijuana... The researchers also discovered other
-similarities between the two, but can't remember what they are.
- -- Matt Lauer on NBC's Today show, August 22
-~
-I haven't committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law.
- -- David Dinkins, New York City Mayor, answering accusations that he
- failed to pay his taxes.
-~
-Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your
-life.
- -- Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson
- for a federal anti-smoking campaign
-~
-I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body.
- -- Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward
-~
-Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates
-in the country.
- -- Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, D.C.
-~
-Beginning in February 1976 your assistance benefits will be discontinued...
-Reason:
- it has been reported to our office that you expired on January 1, 1976.
- -- Letter from the Illinois Department of Public Aid
-~
-The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history... This century's
-history... We all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century.
- -- Dan Quayle, then Indiana senator and Republican vice-presidential
- candidate during a news conference in which he was asked his opinion
- of the Holocaust.
-~
-I've always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly
-underpolluted.
- -- Lawrence Summers, chief economist of the World Bank, explaining why
- we should export toxic wastes to Third World countries
-~
-After finding no qualified candidates for the position of principal,
-the school board is extremely pleased to announce the appointment of
-David Steele to the post.
- -- Philip Streifer, Superintendent of Schools, Barrington, Rhode Island
-~
-The doctors X-rayed my head and found nothing.
- -- Dizzy Dean explaining how he felt after being hit on the head
- by a ball in the 1934 World Series
-~
- there are some who believe that intelligence can only be won at the cost of
-other's intelligence; that is, there is no way to be intelligent without being
-more intelligent than someone else. i hypothesize that talking to this kind
-of person is a very draining experience because all that they are interested
-in is proving how much smarter they are than you are.
- i believe that people who want to increase intelligence everywhere are easy
-to talk to; they want you to know what they know and vice-versa, not to prove
-that they are the most intelligent person in the room.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-You are 97% water; the other 3% keeps you from drowning.
- -- P. E. Morris
-~
-It got to the end of our show, so I was just wandering around. I had
-this maternity dress on and a white face and I was doing unattractive
-things, spitting on people, things like that.
- -- Iggy Pop, sept. 22, 1968, several minutes before he signed his first
- record contract.
-~
-The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena, who strive
-valiantly; who know the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and speed
-themselves in a worthy cause; who at the best, know the triumph of high
-achievement; and who, at the worst, if they fail, fail while daring
-greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid
-souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
- -- Theodore Roosevelt
-~
-I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian
-because I hate plants.
- -- A. Whitney Brown
-~
-My young brother asked me what happens after we die. I told him we get
-buried under a bunch of dirt and worms eat our bodies. I guess I should
-have told him the truth--that most of us go to Hell and burn eternally,
-but I didn't want to upset him.
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 10
-~
-When I go to heaven, I want to see my grandpa again. But he better have
-lost the nose hair and the old-man smell.
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 5
-~
-I once heard the voice of God. It said "Vrrrrmmmm." Unless it was just
-a lawn mower.
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 11
-~
-I don't know about you, but I enjoy watching paint dry. I imagine that
-the wet paint is a big freshwater lake that is the only source of water
-for some tiny cities by the lake. As the lake gets drier, the population
-gets more desperate, and sometimes there are water riots. Once there was
-a big fire and everyone died.
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 13
-~
-I like to go down to the dog pound and pretend that I've found my dog.
-Then I tell them to kill it anyway because I already gave away all of
-his stuff. Dog people sure don't have a sense of humor.
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 14
-~
-I believe you should live each day as if it is your last, which is why I
-don't have any clean laundry because, come on, who wants to wash clothes
-on the last day of their life?
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 15
-~
-It sure would be nice if we got a day off for the president's birthday,
-like they do for the queen. Of course, then we would have a lot of people
-voting for a candidate born on July 3 or December 26, just for the long
-weekends.
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 8
-~
-As you make your way through this hectic world of ours, set aside a few
-minutes each day. At the end of the year, you'll have a couple of days
-saved up.
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 7
-~
-Democracy is a beautiful thing, except for that part about letting just
-any old yokel vote.
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 10
-~
-Home is where the house is.
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 6
-~
-Often, when I am reading a good book, I stop and thank my teacher. That
-is, I used to, until she got an unlisted number.
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 15
-~
-It would be terrible if the Red Cross Bloodmobile got into an accident.
-No, wait. That would be good because if anyone needed it, the blood would be
-right there.
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 5
-~
-Give me the strength to change the things I can, the grace to accept the
-things I cannot, and a great big bag of money.
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 13
-~
-I bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween.
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 13
-~
-For centuries, people thought the moon was made of green cheese. Then
-the astronauts found that the moon is really a big hard rock. That's what
-happens to cheese when you leave it out.
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 6
-~
-Think of the biggest number you can. Now add five. Then, imagine if you
-had that many Twinkies. Wow, that's five more than the biggest number
-you could come up with!
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 6
-~
-The only stupid question is the one that is never asked, except maybe
-"Don't you think it is about time you audited my return?" or "Isn't it morally
-wrong to give me a warning when, in fact, I was speeding?"
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 15
-~
-Once, I wept for I had no shoes. Then I came upon a man who had no feet.
-So I took his shoes. I mean, it's not like he really needed them, right?
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 15
-~
-I often wonder how come John Tesh isn't as popular a singer as some
-people think he should be. Then, I remember it's because he sucks.
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 15
-~
-If we could just get everyone to close their eyes and visualize world
-peace for an hour, imagine how serene and quiet it would be until the
-looting started.
- -- Deep Thoughts Jr., Age 15
-~
-Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
-~
-Lobotomies for republicans? Why be redundant?
-~
-The last time we mixed politics and religion,
-people got burned at the stake.
-~
-Eschew Obfuscation.
-~
-Minimum wage for politicians.
-~
-inova,
-i dancing nude green
-proton, i
-(a haiku-style anagram for "inova engineering and production")
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
-~
-A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
-~
-Eagles may soar, but weasels aren't sucked into jet engines.
-~
-Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
-~
-A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
-~
-He who hesitates is probably right.
-~
-Never do card tricks for the group you play poker with.
-~
-The colder the X-ray table, the more of your body is required on it.
-~
-To succeed in politics, it is often necessary to rise above your principles.
-~
-Two wrongs are only the beginning.
-~
-You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive.
-~
-The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
-~
-Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7th of your life.
-~
-The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.
-~
-A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
-~
-Change is inevitable... except from vending machines.
-~
-Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow.
-~
-Half the people you know are above average.
-~
-99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
-~
-42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
-~
-If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
-~
-Oh, yeah, what are you gonna do? Release the dogs? Or
-the bees? Or the dogs with bees in their mouth and when
-they bark, they shoot bees at you?
- -- Homer Simpson
-~
-Son, when you participate in sporting events, it's not
-whether you win or lose... it's how drunk you get.
- -- Homer Simpson
-~
-Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably.
-The lesson is, never try.
- -- Homer Simpson
-~
-It's not easy to juggle a pregnant wife and a troubled child, but
-somehow I managed to fit in eight hours of TV a day.
- -- Homer Simpson
-~
-Homer: Are you saying you're never going to eat any animal again? What
- about bacon?
-Lisa: No.
-Homer: Ham?
-Lisa: No!
-Homer: Pork chops?
-Lisa: Dad, those all come from the same animal!
-Homer: Heh heh heh... ooh... yeah.... right, Lisa. A wonderful...
- magical animal.
-~
-Marge: Do you want your son to be Chief Justice of the
- Supreme Court, or a sleazy male stripper?
-Homer: Can't he be both, like the late Earl Warren?
-Marge: Earl Warren was never a stripper!
-Homer: Oh, now who's being naive?
-~
-Homer: But every time I learn something new, it pushes out
- something old! Remember that time I took a home
- wine-making course and forgot how to drive?
-Marge: That's because you were drunk!
-Homer: And how!
-~
-Oh, Lisa, you and your stories: Bart's a vampire, beer
-kills brain cells. Now let's go back to that...
-building...thingie... where our beds and TV... is.
- -- Homer Simpson
-~
-Operator! Give me the number for 911!
- -- Homer Simpson
-~
-Lenny: Hey, Homer? What do I tell the boss?
-Homer: Tell him I'm going to the back seat of my car with
- the woman I love, and I won't be back for ten minutes!
-~
-Big brother representative: Now, Mr. Simpson, may I ask why
- you're here?
-Homer's brain: Don't say revenge. Don't say revenge.
-Homer: Ummm... revenge?
-Homer's brain: Okay, that's it. I'm outta here.
-(step step step step step...slam)
-~
-Homer: Okay, brain. You don't like me, and I don't like
- you, but let's get through this thing and then I can
- continue killing you with beer.
-Homer's Brain: It's a deal!
-~
-Homer: But Marge! I was a political prisoner!
-Marge: How were you a political prisoner?
-Homer: I kicked a giant mouse in the butt! Do I have to
- draw you a picture?
-~
-Homer: Bart, a woman is like a beer. They look good, they
- smell good, and you'd step over your own mother just
- to get one! (chugs beer)
-~
-Old man: Take this doll, but beware; it carries a terrible curse.
-Homer: Ooo, that's bad.
-Old man: But it comes with a free serving of frozen yogurt!
-Homer: That's good!
-Old man: The frozen yogurt is also cursed.
-Homer: That's bad.
-Old man: But it comes with your choice of toppings!
-Homer: That's good!
-Old man: The toppings contain potassium benzoate...
-Homer: ...?
-Old man: That's bad.
-Homer: Can I go now?
-~
-Getting out of jury duty is easy. The trick is to say
-you're prejudiced against all races.
- -- Homer Simpson
-~
-Homer's brain: Use reverse psychology.
-Homer: Oh, that sounds too complicated.
-Homer's brain: Okay, don't use reverse psychology.
-Homer: Okay, I will!
-~
-Homer: When I first heard that Marge was joining the police academy, I thought
- it would be fun and zany, like that movie--Spaceballs. But instead it was
- dark and disturbing. Like that movie--Police Academy.
-~
-Marge: Homer, did you call the audience "Chicken"?
-Homer: No! I swear on this bible!
-Marge: That's not a bible. That's a book of carpet samples.
-Homer: Mmmm... fuzzy.
-~
-Lisa: Dad, we did something very bad!
-Homer: Did you wreck the car?
-Bart: No.
-Homer: Did you raise the dead?
-Lisa: Yes.
-Homer: But the car's okay?
-Bart & Lisa: Uh-huh.
-Homer: All right then.
-~
-Mmmmm... reprocessed pig fat... -- Homer Simpson
-~
-(praying): Dear Lord, the gods have been good to me. As
-an offering, I present these milk and cookies. If you
-wish me to eat them instead, please give me no sign
-whatsoever... thy will be done (munch munch munch).
- -- Homer Simpson
-~
-Homer: (On George HW Bush) I didn't vote for him!
-Marge: You didn't vote for anybody.
-Homer: I voted for Prell to go back to the old glass bottle.
- Then I became deeply cynical.
-~
-What's the point of going out? We're just going to
-wind up back here anyway.
- -- Homer Simpson
-~
-I would kill everyone in this room for a drop of sweet beer.
- -- Homer Simpson
-~
-All right, brain, I don't like you and you don't like me--so let's
-just do this and I'll get back to killing you with beer.
- -- Homer Simpson
-~
-You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline;
-it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear
-weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.
- -- Frank Zappa
-~
-Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to
-keep your mouth shut.
- -- Ernest Hemmingway
-~
-Always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has
-taken out of me.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-He was a wise man who invented beer.
- -- Plato
-~
-Time is never wasted when you're wasted all the time.
- -- Catherine Zandonella
-~
-A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her.
- -- W. C. Fields
-~
-"Sir, if I were your wife, I would put poison in your coffee."
- -- Lady Nancy Astor speaking to Winston Churchill
-"Madam, if I were your husband, I would drink it."
- -- Churchill's reply
-~
-If God had intended us to drink beer, He would have given us stomachs.
- -- David Daye
-~
-Work is the curse of the drinking class.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.
- -- Henny Youngman
-~
-Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
- -- Benjamin Franklin
-~
-If you ever reach total enlightenment while drinking beer, I bet it
-makes beer shoot out your nose.
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is
-beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but
-the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.
- -- Dave Barry
-~
-The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind.
- -- Humphrey Bogart
-~
-Why is American beer served cold? So you can tell it from urine.
- -- David Moulton
-~
-People who drink light "beer" don't like the taste of beer; they just
-like to pee a lot.
- -- Capital Brewery, Middleton, WI
-~
-Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the world.
- -- Kaiser Wilhelm
-~
-Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and
-oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital
-ingredient in beer.
- -- Dave Barry
-~
-I drink to make other people interesting.
- -- George Jean Nathan
-~
-They who drink beer will think beer.
- -- Washington Irving
-~
-An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with
-his fools.
- -- For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemmingway
-~
-You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.
- -- Dean Martin
-~
-I will not carve gods.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not spank others.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not aim for the head.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not barf unless I'm sick.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not expose the ignorance of the faculty.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I saw nothing unusual in the teacher's lounge.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not conduct my own fire drills.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-Funny noises are not funny.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not snap bras.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not fake seizures.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-This punishment is not boring and pointless.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-My name is not Dr. Death.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not defame New Orleans.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not prescribe medication.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not bury the new kid.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not teach others to fly.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not bring sheep to class.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-A burp is not an answer.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-Teacher is not a leper.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-Coffee is not for kids.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not eat things for money.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not yell "She's Dead" at roll call.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-The principal's toupee is not a Frisbee.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not call the principal "spud head".
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-Goldfish don't bounce.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-Mud is not one of the 4 food groups.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-No one is interested in my underpants.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not sell miracle cures.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will return the seeing-eye dog.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I do not have diplomatic immunity.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not charge admission to the bathroom.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-The cafeteria deep fryer is not a toy.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-All work and no play makes Bart a dull boy.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not say "Springfield" just to get applause.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I am not authorized to fire substitute teachers.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-My homework was not stolen by a one-armed man.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not go near the kindergarten turtle.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I am not deliciously saucy.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-Organ transplants are best left to professionals.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-The Pledge of Allegiance does not end with "Hail Satan".
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not celebrate meaningless milestones.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-There are plenty of businesses like show business.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-Five days is not too long to wait for a gun.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not waste chalk.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not skateboard in the halls.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-Underwear should be worn on the inside.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will never win an emmy.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-I will not torment the emotionally frail.
- -- Bart Simpson (at the blackboard)
-~
-Bitter, unsuccessful middle aged loser wallowing in an unending sea of inert,
-drooping loneliness looking for 24 year old needy leech-like hanger-on to
-abuse with dull stories, tired sex and Herb Alpert albums.
- -- from "A Collection of Personal Ads From Alternative Newspapers,"
- by Skippy Williams and Zohre Crumpton, 1996, Simon and Schuster.
-~
-Me--trying to sleep on the bus station bench, pleading with you to give me a
-cigarette; you--choking on my odor, tripping over your purse trying to get
-away; at the last moment, our eyes meeting. Yours were blue.
-Can I have a dollar?
- -- from "A Collection of Personal Ads From Alternative Newspapers,"
- by Skippy Williams and Zohre Crumpton, 1996, Simon and Schuster.
-~
-Imp and angel. Disembodied head in jar, 24, seeks pixie goddess to fiddle with
-while Rome burns. You bring marshmallows. No. I make joke. You like laugh?
-I like comebacks and confessions. Send photo of someone else.
- -- from "A Collection of Personal Ads From Alternative Newspapers,"
- by Skippy Williams and Zohre Crumpton, 1996, Simon and Schuster.
-~
-I am spitting kitty. Ftt Fttttttt. I am angry bear. Grrrrr. I am large
-watermelon seed stuck in your nose. Zermmmmmmmmmm. I am small biting spider
-in your underwear. Yub yub yub. No mimes.
- -- from "A Collection of Personal Ads From Alternative Newspapers,"
- by Skippy Williams and Zohre Crumpton, 1996, Simon and Schuster.
-~
-Three toed mango peeler searching for wicked lesbian infielder. Like screaming
-and marking territory with urine? Let's make banana enchiladas together in my
-bathtub. You bring the salsa.
- -- from "A Collection of Personal Ads From Alternative Newspapers,"
- by Skippy Williams and Zohre Crumpton, 1996, Simon and Schuster.
-~
-Mongoloid spastic underwear model with extra limb (you guess where?) in search
-of bottlenosed dolphin and extra prickly cactus juice. Soup is good food.
- -- from "A Collection of Personal Ads From Alternative Newspapers,"
- by Skippy Williams and Zohre Crumpton, 1996, Simon and Schuster.
-~
-I like eating mayonnaise and peanut butter sandwiches in the rain, watching
-Barney Miller reruns, peeing on birds in the park and licking strangers on the
-subway; you eat beets raw, have climbed Kilimanjaro, and sweat freely and
-often. Must wear size five shoes.
- -- from "A Collection of Personal Ads From Alternative Newspapers,"
- by Skippy Williams and Zohre Crumpton, 1996, Simon and Schuster.
-~
-Timber! Falling downward is the lumber of my love. You grind your axe of
-passion into my endangered headlands. Don't make me into a bureau. I want
-to be lots and lots of toothpicks.
- -- from "A Collection of Personal Ads From Alternative Newspapers,"
- by Skippy Williams and Zohre Crumpton, 1996, Simon and Schuster.
-~
-Small lumpy squid monkey seeks healthy woman with no identifying scars, any
-age. Must have all limbs. Recommend appreciation of high-pitched, screeching
-noises. Must like being bored and lonely. Must not touch the squids, EVER.
- -- from "A Collection of Personal Ads From Alternative Newspapers,"
- by Skippy Williams and Zohre Crumpton, 1996, Simon and Schuster.
-~
-There is a little place in the jumbled sock drawer of my heart where you
-match up all the pairs, throw out the ones with holes in them, and buy me
-some of those neat dressy ones with the weird black and red geometrical
-designs on them.
- -- from "A Collection of Personal Ads From Alternative Newspapers,"
- by Skippy Williams and Zohre Crumpton, 1996, Simon and Schuster.
-~
-Mmmm Pez! Rabid Wonder Woman fan looking for someone in satin tights,
-fighting for our rights and the old red, white 'n blue. You look like
-Linda Carter? Big plus. Know all words to theme song? Marry me.
- -- from "A Collection of Personal Ads From Alternative Newspapers,"
- by Skippy Williams and Zohre Crumpton, 1996, Simon and Schuster.
-~
-Sanctimonious mordacious raconteur seeking same for hijinks and hiballs.
-SJM 27 wants to look someone in the eye so don't be tall. Or, if you can't
-help it, enjoy laying down. Wanna swim upstream?
- -- from "A Collection of Personal Ads From Alternative Newspapers,"
- by Skippy Williams and Zohre Crumpton, 1996, Simon and Schuster.
-~
-Remember that summer you spent with your parents in Hawaii and how mad you
-were that they made you go? And how you were hopelessly bored until you saw
-the most gorgeous man you'd ever encountered strolling down the beach looking
-at you, skillfully removing your skimpy bikini with his piercing eyes? And
-how you spent the last month imagining him taking you in every possible way,
-masturbating feverishly day and night, wishing he would reappear, but he never
-did because you were 15 and he would have gone to jail? That was me, and
-you just turned 18.
- -- from "A Collection of Personal Ads From Alternative Newspapers,"
- by Skippy Williams and Zohre Crumpton, 1996, Simon and Schuster.
-~
-Angry, simple-minded, balding, partially blind ex-circus flipper boy with a
-passion for covering lovers in sour cream and gravy seeks exotic, heavily
-tattooed piercing fanatic, preferably hairy, either sex, for whippings,
-bizarre sex and fashion consulting. No freaks.
- -- from "A Collection of Personal Ads From Alternative Newspapers,"
- by Skippy Williams and Zohre Crumpton, 1996, Simon and Schuster.
-~
-A freshman at Eagle Rock Junior High won first prize at the Greater Idaho
-Falls Science Fair, April 26. He was attempting to show how conditioned
-we have become to the alarmists practicing junk science and spreading fear
-of everything in our environment. In his project he urged people to sign
-a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical
-"dihydrogen monoxide." And for plenty of good reasons, since
-
- 1. it can cause excessive sweating and vomiting;
- 2. it is a major component in acid rain;
- 3. it can cause severe burns in its gaseous state;
- 4. accidental inhalation can kill you;
- 5. it contributes to erosion;
- 6. it decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes;
- 7. it has been found in tumors of terminal cancer patients.
-
-He asked 50 people if they supported a ban of the chemical. Forty-three said
-yes, six were undecided, and only one knew that the chemical was water. The
-title of his prize winning project was, "How Gullible Are We?".
-The conclusion is obvious.
-~
-If you ever see me getting beaten by the police, put down the video camera
-and come help me.
- -- Bobcat Goldthwait
-~
-I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say because
-it's such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother is attractive,
-but I have photographs of her.
- -- Ellen DeGeneres
-~
-I have six locks on my door all in a row. When I go out, I lock every other
-one. I figure no matter how long somebody stands there picking the locks, they
-are always locking three.
- -- Elayne Boosler
-~
-Ever wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?
- -- John Mendoza
-~
-Relationships are hard. It's like a full-time job, and we should treat it like
-one. If your boyfriend or girlfriend wants to leave you, they should give you
-two weeks' notice. There should be severance pay and before they leave you,
-they should have to find you a temp.
- -- Bob Ettinger
-~
-I don't know what's wrong with my television set. I was getting C-Span and
-the Home Shopping Network on the same station. I actually bought a
-congressman.
- -- Bruce Baum
-~
-I had a linguistics professor who said that it's man's ability to use language
-that makes him the dominant species on the planet. That may may be. But I
-think there's one other thing that separates us from animals. We aren't
-afraid of vacuum cleaners.
- -- Jeff Stilson
-~
-Did you ever walk in a room and forget why you walked in? I think that's how
-dogs spend their lives.
- -- Sue Murphy
-~
-Maybe there is no actual place called hell. Maybe hell is just having to
-listen to our grandparents breathe through their noses when they're eating
-sandwiches.
- -- Jim Carrey
-~
-The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering
-from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they
-are okay, then it's you.
- -- Rita Mae Brown
-~
-Now they show you how detergents take out bloodstains, a pretty violent image
-there. I think if you've got a T-shirt with a bloodstain all over it, maybe
-laundry isn't your biggest problem. Maybe you should get rid of the body
-before you do the wash.
- -- Jerry Seinfeld
-~
-USA Today has come out with a new survey: Apparently three out of four people
-make up 75 percent of the population.
- -- David Letterman
-~
-A lady came up to me on the street and pointed at my suede jacket. 'You know
-a cow was murdered for that jacket?' she sneered. I replied in a psychotic
-tone, 'I didn't know there were any witnesses. Now I'll have to kill you too.'
- -- Jake Johansen
-~
-I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific.
- -- Lily Tomlin
-~
-The Swiss have an interesting army. Five hundred years without a war. Pretty
-impressive. Also pretty lucky for them. Ever see that little Swiss Army knife
-they have to fight with? Not much of a weapon there. Corkscrews. Bottle
-openers. "Come on, buddy, let's go. You get past me, the guy in back of me,
-he's got a spoon. Back off. I've got the toe clippers right here."
- -- Jerry Seinfeld
-~
-Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant? I'm halfway through my
-fishburger and I realize, Oh my God... I could be eating a slow learner.
- -- Lynda Montgomery
-~
-Sometimes I think war is God's way of teaching us geography.
- -- Paul Rodriguez
-~
-Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom
-and democracy--but that could change.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/22/89
-~
-One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that
-one word is 'to be prepared'.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 12/6/89
-~
-May our nation continue to be the beakon of hope to the world.
- -- The Quayles' 1989 Christmas card
-~
-Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-We don't want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the
-future.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-The future will be better tomorrow.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-We're going to have the best-educated American people in the world.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a
-tremendous impact on history.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-I stand by all the misstatements that I've made.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle to Sam Donaldson, 8/17/89
-~
-We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm
-commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-I love California, I practically grew up in Phoenix.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-When I have been asked during these last weeks who caused the riots and
-the killing in L.A., my answer has been direct and simple: Who is to blame
-for the riots? The rioters are to blame. Who is to blame for the killings?
-The killers are to blame.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/20/92 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
-~
-Murphy Brown is doing better than I am. At least she knows she still has a job
-next year.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 8/18/92
-~
-We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 9/22/90
-~
-For NASA, space is still a high priority.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 9/5/90
-~
-Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 9/18/90
-~
-The American people would not want to know of any misquotes that Dan Quayle
-may or may not make.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-We're all capable of mistakes, but I do not care to enlighten you on the
-mistakes we may or may not have made.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities
-in our air and water that are doing it.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-[It's] time for the human race to enter the solar system.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
-~
-Public speaking is very easy.
- -- Dan Quayle to reporters in 10/88
-~
-We have to believe in free will. We've got no choice.
- -- Isaac B. Singer
-~
-The president has kept all of the promises he intended to keep.
- -- Clinton aide George Stephanopolous speaking on "Larry King Live"
-~
-The police are not here to create disorder.
-They're here to preserve disorder.
- -- Former Chicago mayor Daley
- during the infamous 1968 convention
-~
-Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas.
- -- Former Australian cabinet minister Keppel Enderbery
-~
-It is wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago.
- -- Former U.S. Vice-President Dan Quayle
-~
-The internet is a great way to get on the net.
- -- Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole
-~
-It is bad luck to be superstitious.
- -- Andrew Mathis
-~
-It's like an Alcatraz around my neck.
- -- Boston mayor Menino on the shortage of city parking spaces
-~
-They're multipurpose. Not only do they put the clips on, but they take
-them off.
- -- Pratt & Whitney spokesperson explaining why the company charged the
- Air Force nearly $1,000 for an ordinary pair of pliers
-~
-We're going to turn this team around 360 degrees.
- -- Jason Kidd, upon his drafting to the Dallas Mavericks
-~
-I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers.
-We are the president.
- -- Hillary Clinton commenting on the release of subpoenaed documents
-~
-When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.
- -- Former U.S. President Calvin Coolidge
-~
-China is a big country, inhabited by many chinese.
- -- Former French President Charles de Gaulle
-~
-That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and
-i'm just the one to do it.
- -- A congressional candidate in Texas
-~
-Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.
- -- Former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower
-~
-Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.
- -- General William Westmoreland, during the war in Viet Nam
-~
-If you let that sort of thing go on, your bread and butter will be cut
-right out from under your feet.
- -- Former British foreign minister Ernest Bevin
-~
-Almonds and peaches are members of the Rosaceae family (roses) and are
-both in the subfamily Amygdaloideae, which also includes plums, cherries
-and apricots.
-~
-The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.
-~
-Charlie Brown's father was a barber.
-~
-Nutmeg is toxic and can cause fatal overdoses just from eating too much.
-~
-Of the six men who made up the Three Stooges, three of them were real
-brothers (Moe, Curly and Shemp).
-~
-In Mel Brooks' "Silent Movie," mime Marcel Marceau is the only person who
-has a speaking role.
-~
-Pulp Fiction cost $8 million to make--$5 million going to actor's salaries.
-~
-A full seven percent of the entire Irish barley crop goes to the
-production of Guinness beer.
-~
-Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los
-Angeles de Porciúncula" or "The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of Angels,
-of Porziuncola", although its official name is simply "El Pueblo de
-la Reina de Los Angeles".
-~
-A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
-~
-An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
-~
-Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
-~
-Deborah Winger did the voice of E.T.
-~
-In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed
-on an analog watch is 10:10.
-~
-Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy.
-~
-Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
-~
-The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint--no two lions have the same
-pattern of whiskers.
-~
-Bob Dylan's given name is Robert Allen Zimmerman.
-~
-Research by the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth in
-2003 demonstrated that goldfish have a memory-span of at least three
-months and can distinguish between different shapes, colours and sounds.
-~
-The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
-~
-It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog
-throws up it's stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of it's
-mouth. Then the frog uses it's forearms to dig out all of the stomach's
-contents and then swallows the stomach back down again.
-~
-Bingo is the name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box.
-~
-ABBA got their name by taking the first letter from each of their first
-names (Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, Anni-frid.)
-~
-The Beatles song "Dear Prudence" was written about Mia Farrow's sister,
-Prudence, when she wouldn't come out and play with Mia and the Beatles
-at a religious retreat in India.
-~
-The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
-~
-The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator,
-Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N and O-Z, hence "Oz."
-~
-Horses and rabbits cannot normally vomit, but have been observed in
-extreme cases appearing to vomit. For example, horses with severe colic
-can produce fermented stomach contents, and rabbits have been observed
-expelling stomach contents due to over-eating or health issues.
-~
-Virgina Woolf liked to write standing up.
-Mark Twain often wrote while lying down.
-~
-Testimonial from Col. George Harvey, Mark Twain's publisher:
- I think that perhaps the funniest thing about Mark Twain now is not
-his writing, but his bed. He lies in bed a good deal; he says he has
-formed the habit. His bed is the largest one I ever saw, and on it is
-the weirdest collection of objects you ever saw, enough to furnish a
-Harlem flat--books, writing materials, clothes, any and everything that
-could foregather in his vicinity.
- He looks quite happy rising out of the mass, and over all prowls a
-huge black cat of a very unhappy disposition. She snaps and snarls and
-claws and bites, and Mark Twain takes his turn with the rest; when she
-gets tired of tearing up manuscript she scratches him and he bears it
-with a patience wonderful to behold.
- -- interview subtitled "Mark Twain's Bed," Washington Post,
- March 26, 1905, p. F12
-~
-Testimonial from Katy Leary, Mark Twain's servant:
- Mr. Clemens borrowed a kitten one time, called Bambino, from Clara, who
-had him in the sanitarium, and had trained him to wash his own face in the
-bowl every morning--which shows that he was a very smart little cat. He
-used to have this kitten up in his room at the Fifth Avenue house and he
-taught it to put out a light, too. He had a tiny little lamp to light his
-cigars with at the head of the bed, and after he got all fixed and didn't
-want the light any more, he taught that cat to put his paw on the light
-and put it out. Bambino would jump on the bed, look at Mr. Clemens to see
-if he was through with the light, and when Mr. Clemens would bow twice to
-him, he'd jump over on to that table quick, and put his little paw right
-on the lamp! Mr. Clemens was always showing him off; he did that for a lot
-of people that come there to call.
- One night he got kind of gay, when he heard some cats calling from the
-back fence, so he found a window open and he stole out. We looked high
-and low but couldn't find him. Mr. Clemens felt so bad that he advertised
-in all the papers for him. He offered a reward for anybody that would
-bring the cat back. My goodness! the people that came bringing cats to
-that house! A perfect stream! They all wanted to see Mr. Clemens, of
-course.
- Two or three nights after, Katherine heard a cat meowing across the
-street in General Sickles' back yard, and there was Bambino--large as
-life! So she brought him right home. Mr. Clemens was delighted and then
-he advertised that his cat was found! But the people kept coming just
-the same with all kinds of cats for him--anything to get a glimpse of
-Mr. Clemens!
- -- A Lifetime with Mark Twain, by Mary Lawton
-~
-If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame it; blame yourself; admit to
-yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because
-for the creator there is no poverty and no poor, indifferent place.
- -- Rainer Maria Rilke
-~
-Compassion is the chief and perhaps the only law of human existence.
- -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
-~
-If we concede that human life can be governed by reason, the possibility of
-life is destroyed.
- -- Leo Tolstoy
-~
-What an abyss of uncertainty, whenever the mind feels overtaken by itself;
-when it, the seeker, is at the same time the dark region through which it
-must go seeking, and where all its equipment will avail nothing. Seek? More
-than that: create. It is face to face with something which does not yet exist,
-to which it alone can give reality and substance, which it alone can bring into
-the light of day.
- -- Marcel Proust
-~
-As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
- -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-~
-I believe that everything depends on attention. I only see you if I pay
-attention. I only exist, in my own eyes, if I pay attention to myself.
- -- Nadia Boulanger
-~
-The sex was so good that even the neighbors had a cigarette.
-~
-If you smoke after sex, you're doing it too fast.
-~
-I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
-~
-If ignorance is bliss, you must be orgasmic.
-~
-Good girls get fat, bad girls get eaten.
-~
-The more people I meet, the more I like my dog.
-~
-A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory.
-~
-I need someone really bad... are you really bad?
-~
-If, a two letter word for futility.
-~
-Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
-~
-To all you virgins, thanks for nothing.
-~
-The more you complain, the longer God lets you live.
-~
-My kid had sex with your honor student.
-~
-Don't hit me. My lawyer's in jail.
-~
-If something goes without saying, LET IT!
-~
-If at first you do succeed, try not to look astonished.
-~
-IRS: We've got what it takes to take what you've got.
-~
-Hard work has a future payoff, laziness pays off now.
-~
-Life's a buffet... so eat me!
-~
-Montana--At least our cows are sane!
-~
-Jesus died for my sins and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.
-~
-Mean people rule!
-~
-Guns don't kill people, postal workers do.
-~
-Born again pagan.
-~
-God must love stupid people, he made so many.
-~
-I said "no" to drugs, but they just wouldn't listen.
-~
-The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
-~
-There's too much youth, how about a fountain of smart.
-~
-Forget about World Peace... Visualize Using Your Turn Signal!
-~
-Warning: Dates in Calendar are closer than they appear.
-~
-I know what you're thinking, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
-~
-Don't drink and drive, you might hit a bump and spill your drink.
-~
-Elvis is dead, and I'm not feeling too good myself.
-~
-Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.
-~
-Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
-~
-Very funny, Scotty. Now beam down my clothes.
-~
-Always be nice to your children because they are
-the ones who will choose your rest home.
- -- Phyllis Diller
-~
-I like you, but I wouldn't want to see you working with subatomic particles.
-~
-Sex on television can't hurt you unless you fall off.
-~
-I'm not offended by all the dumb blond jokes because I know I'm not
-dumb... and I also know that I'm not blond.
- -- Dolly Parton
-~
-You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a
-smart woman with a dumb guy.
- -- Erica Jong
-~
-I never married because there was no need. I have three pets at home
-which answer the same purpose as a husband. I have a dog which growls
-every morning, a parrot which swears all afternoon and a cat that
-comes home late at night.
- -- Marie Corelli
-~
-I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man I keep his house.
- -- Zsa Zsa Gabor
-~
-I want to have children, but my friends scare me. One of my friends told
-me she was in labor for 36 hours. I don't even want to do anything that
-feels GOOD for 36 hours.
- -- Rita Rudner
-~
-I'm not going to vacuum 'til Sears makes one you can ride on.
- -- Roseanne
-~
-I think--therefore I'm single.
- -- Lizz Winstead
-~
-Behind every successful man is a surprised woman.
- -- Maryon Pearson
-~
-Our struggle today is not to have a female Einstein get appointed as
-assistant professor. It is for a woman schlemiel to get as quickly
-promoted as a male schlemiel.
- -- Bella Abzug
-~
-I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on
-how to combine marriage and a career.
- -- Gloria Steinem
-~
-Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they
-should live next door and just visit now and then.
- -- Katharine Hepburn
-~
-God is my favorite fictional character.
- -- Homer Simpson
-~
-Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.
- -- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
-~
-I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
- -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
-~
-I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the
-best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't
-last out the year.
- -- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
-~
-But what... is it good for?
- -- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968,
- commenting on the microchip
-~
-This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a
-means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.
- -- Western Union internal memo, 1876
-~
-The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for
-a message sent to nobody in particular?
- -- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment
- in the radio in the 1920s
-~
-The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than
-a 'C,' the idea must be feasible.
- -- A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's
- paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service
- (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)
-~
-Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?
- -- H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927
-~
-I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary
-Cooper.
- -- Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone
- With The Wind"
-~
-A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say
-America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make.
- -- Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies
-~
-We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.
- -- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962
-~
-If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The
-literature was full of examples that said you can't do this.
- -- Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M
- "Post-It" Notepads
-~
-So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built
-with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll
-give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for
-you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they
-said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'
- -- Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P
- interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer
-~
-Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and
-the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He
-seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.
- -- 1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary
- rocket work
-~
-You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your
-muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You just have to
-accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight
-training.
- -- Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by
- inventing Nautilus
-~
-Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're
-crazy.
- -- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill
- for oil in 1859
-~
-Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.
- -- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929
-~
-Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.
- -- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy,
- Ecole Superieure de Guerre
-~
-Everything that can be invented has been invented.
- -- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899, arguing
- that the office should be closed
-~
-Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.
- -- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872
-~
-The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion
-of the wise and humane surgeon.
- -- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary
- to Queen Victoria 1873
-~
-640K ought to be enough for anybody.
- -- Attributed to Bill Gates, 1981, but he asserts that he did not say this.
-~
-Three things are certain:
-Death, taxes, and lost data.
-Guess which has occurred.
-~
-Everything is gone;
-Your life's work has been destroyed.
-Squeeze trigger (yes/no)?
-~
-Windows NT crashed.
-I am the Blue Screen of Death.
-No one hears your screams.
-~
-Seeing my great fault
-Through darkening blue windows
-I begin again
-~
-The code was willing,
-It considered your request,
-But the chips were weak.
-~
-Printer not ready.
-Could be a fatal error.
-Have a pen handy?
-~
-A file that big?
-It might be very useful.
-But now it is gone.
-~
-Errors have occurred.
-We won't tell you where or why.
-Lazy programmers.
-~
-Server's poor response
-Not quick enough for browser.
-Timed out, plum blossom.
-~
-Chaos reigns within.
-Reflect, repent, and reboot.
-Order shall return.
-~
-Login incorrect.
-Only perfect spellers may
-enter this system.
-~
-This site has been moved.
-We'd tell you where, but then we'd
-have to delete you.
-~
-Wind catches lily
-scatt'ring petals to the wind:
-segmentation fault
-~
-ABORTED effort:
-Close all that you have.
-You ask way too much.
-~
-First snow, then silence.
-This thousand dollar screen dies
-so beautifully.
-~
-With searching comes loss
-and the presence of absence:
-"My Novel" not found.
-~
-The Tao that is seen
-Is not the true Tao, until
-You bring fresh toner.
-~
-The Web site you seek
-cannot be located but
-endless others exist
-~
-Stay the patient course
-Of little worth is your ire
-The network is down
-~
-A crash reduces
-your expensive computer
-to a simple stone.
-~
-There is a chasm
-of carbon and silicon
-the software can't bridge
-~
-Yesterday it worked
-Today it is not working
-Windows is like that
-~
-To have no errors
-Would be life without meaning
-No struggle, no joy
-~
-You step in the stream,
-but the water has moved on.
-This page is not here.
-~
-No keyboard present
-Hit F1 to continue
-Zen engineering?
-~
-Hal, open the file
-Hal, open the damn file, Hal
-open the, please Hal
-~
-Out of memory.
-We wish to hold the whole sky,
-But we never will.
-~
-Having been erased,
-The document you're seeking
-Must now be retyped.
-~
-The ten thousand things
-How long do any persist?
-Netscape, too, has gone.
-~
-Rather than a beep
-Or a rude error message,
-These words: "File not found."
-~
-Serious error.
-All shortcuts have disappeared.
-Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
-~
-Indecision may or may not be my problem.
- -- Jimmy Buffet
-~
-If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you.
-This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-If you want to know what God thinks about money, just look at the people He
-gives it to.
- -- Old Irish Saying
-~
-I think men who have a pierced ear are better prepared for marriage.
-They've experienced pain and bought jewelry.
- -- Rita Rudner
-~
-I would love to speak a foreign language but I can't.
-So I grew hair under my arms instead.
- -- Sue Kolinsky
-~
-The second day of a diet is always easier than the first.
-By the second day you're off it.
- -- Jackie Gleason
-~
-Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's
-life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if
-there is a man on base.
- -- Dave Barry
-~
-Somebody hits me, I'm going to hit him back. Even if it does look like he
-hasn't eaten in a while.
- -- Charles Barkley, after blatantly elbowing an Angolan basketball
- opponent in the Olympics.
-~
-I think that's how Chicago got started. A bunch of people in New York said,
-'Gee, I'm enjoying the crime and the poverty, but it just isn't cold enough.
-Let's go west.'
- -- Richard Jeni
-~
-The show business newspaper Daily Variety reported in December that John
-Kricfalusi, creator of TV's "The Ren & Stimpy Show," was threatening legal
-action against the producers of the Comedy Central show "South Park" for
-ripping off a cartoon character. According to Kricfalusi, his character
-"Nutty the Friendly Dump," an animated piece of excrement, must have been
-the basis for "South Park"'s "Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo," a holiday-
-dressed, singing, dancing piece of excrement.
-~
-If a man is standing in the middle of the forest speaking and there is
-no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?
-~
-If a deaf person swears, does his mother wash his hands with soap?
-~
-If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill himself, is
-it considered a hostage situation?
-~
-Is there another word for synonym?
-~
-Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do "practice?"
-~
-When sign makers go on strike, is anything written on their signs?
-~
-Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all?"
-~
-Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?
-~
-What do you do when you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant?
-~
-If a parsley farmer is sued, can they garnish his wages?
-~
-Would a fly without wings be called a walk?
-~
-Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid someone
-will clean them?
-~
-If a stealth bomber crashes in a forest, will it make a sound?
-~
-If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is he homeless or naked?
-~
-Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?
-~
-Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?
-~
-If the police arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to
-remain silent?
-~
-Why do they put Braille on the drive-through bank machines?
-~
-How do they get the deer to cross at that yellow road sign?
-~
-Why do they sterilize the needles for lethal injections?
-~
-Why did kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
-~
-Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?
-~
-Whoever said you can't buy happiness forgot about puppies.
- -- Gene Hill
-~
-In dog years, I'm dead.
- -- Unknown
-~
-Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in
-case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in
-your ear.
- -- Dave Barry
-~
-(of dogs)
-I wonder what goes through his mind when he sees us peeing in his water bowl.
- -- Penny Ward Moser
-~
-Outside of a dog, a book is probably man's best friend,
-and inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
- -- Groucho Marx
-~
-To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.
- -- Aldous Huxley
-~
-A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times
-before lying down.
- -- Robert Benchley
-~
-Did you ever walk into a room and forget why you walked in? I think that is
-how dogs spend their lives.
- -- Sue Murphy
-~
-Did you hear about the dyslexic agnostic insomniac who stays up all night
-wondering if there really is a Dog?
- -- Unknown
-~
-I think animal testing is a terrible idea; they get all nervous and give
-the wrong answers.
- -- Unknown
-~
-I loathe people who keep dogs. They are cowards who haven't got the guts
-to bite people themselves.
- -- August Strindberg
-~
-Ever consider what they [our pets] must think of us? I mean, here we come
-back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul--chicken, pork, half
-a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!
- -- Anne Tyler
-~
-My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to 99 cents a can.
-That's almost $7.00 in dog money.
- -- Joe Weinstein
-~
-If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known
-will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.
- -- James Thurber
-~
-You enter into a certain amount of madness when you marry a person with pets.
- -- Nora Ephron
-~
-Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are
-wonderful.
- -- Ann Landers
-~
-Women and cats will do as they please and men and dogs should relax and get
-used to the idea.
- -- Robert A. Heinlein
-~
-In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have
-a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him.
- -- Dereke Bruce, Taipei, Taiwan
-~
-When a man's best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem.
- -- Edward Abbey
-~
-Cat's Motto: No matter what you've done wrong, always try to
-make it look like the dog did it.
- -- Unknown
-~
-Money will buy you a pretty good dog, but it won't buy
-the wag of his tail... No one appreciates the very
-special genius of your conversation as the dog does.
- -- Christopher Morley
-~
-A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.
- -- Josh Billings
-~
-Man is a dog's idea of what God should be.
- -- Holbrook Jackson
-~
-The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.
- -- Andrew A. Rooney
-~
-He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life,
-his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat
-of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.
- -- Unknown
-~
-Heaven goes by favour. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog
-would go in.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.
- -- Unknown
-~
-Things that upset a terrier may pass virtually unnoticed by a Great Dane.
- -- Smiley Blanton
-~
-I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt,
-and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.
- -- John Steinbeck
-~
-There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.
- -- Ben Williams
-~
-One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men.
-No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.
- -- Elbert Hubbard
-~
-(AP) Tokyo: Tokyo commuter Katsuo Katugoru caused havoc on a crowded tube
-train when his inflatable underpants unexpectedly went off. The rubber
-underwear was made by Katsuo himself, and designed to inflate to 30 times
-their original size in the event of a tidal wave.
-"I am terrified of water, and death by drowning is my greatest fear" said
-Katsuo, 48. "Unfortunately I set them off accidently while looking for a
-boiled sweet on a rush hour train. They were crushing everybody in the
-carriage until a passenger stabbed them with a pencil."
-~
-Kindness cannot be taught by harshness--
-not by any amount of harshness.
- -- Raymond M. Smullyan / The Tao is Silent
-~
-Reno versus Gates:
-Full employment for lawyers
-Until end of time
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Inflate your tires by all means, but then hide your bicycle pump where it
-cannot tempt you.
- -- attributed to a spokesman for the Nakhon Ratchasima hospital
-~
-Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it
-holds the universe together....
- -- Carl Zwanzig
-~
-There is a theory which states that if ever anybody 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 theory which
-states that this has already happened.
- -- Douglas Adams
-~
-Only two things are infinite, the universe and
-human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-Astronomers say the universe is finite, which is a comforting thought for
-those people who can't remember where they leave things.
- -- Unknown
-~
-In answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that
-our Universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time.
- -- Edward P. Tryon
-~
-It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception,
-is composed of others.
- -- John Andrew Holmes
-~
-Technology is a way of organizing the universe so
-that man doesn't have to experience it.
- -- Max Frisch
-~
-The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest.
- -- Kilgore Trout (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.)
-~
-I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough
-to find your way around Chinatown.
- -- Woody Allen
-~
-In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people
-very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
- -- Douglas Adams
-~
-The crux... is that the vast majority of the
-mass of the universe seems to be missing.
- -- William J. Broad
-~
-Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build
-bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce
-bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.
- -- Rich Cook
-~
-There is a coherent plan in the universe,
-though I don't know what it's a plan for.
- -- Fred Hoyle
-~
-We are an impossibility in an impossible universe. -- Ray Bradbury
-~
-My theology, briefly, is that the universe was dictated but not signed.
- -- Christopher Morley
-~
-I'm worried that the universe will soon need replacing.
-It's not holding a charge.
- -- Edward Chilton
-~
-The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe
-is that it has never tried to contact us.
- -- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)
-~
-As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using
-individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday and
-employees will receive their cards in two weeks.
- -- pointy haired boss contest. (This was the winning quote from
- Fred Dales at Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Washington)
-~
-What I need is a list of specific unknown problems we will encounter.
- -- pointy haired boss contest. (Lykes Lines Shipping)
-~
-E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should be used
-only for company business.
- -- pointy haired boss contest. (Accounting manager, Electric Boat Company)
-~
-This project is so important, we can't let things that are more important
-interfere with it.
- -- pointy haired boss contest
- (Advertising/Marketing manager, United Parcel Service)
-~
-Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule. No one will believe
-you solved this problem in one day! We've been working on it for months. Now,
-go act busy for a few weeks and I'll let you know when it's time to tell them.
- -- pointy haired boss contest
- (R&D supervisor, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing / 3M Corp.)
-~
-My Boss spent the entire weekend retyping a 25-page proposal that only needed
-corrections. She claims the disk I gave her was damaged and she couldn't edit
-it. The disk I gave her was write-protected.
- -- pointy haired boss contest. (CIO of Dell Computers)
-~
-Quote from the Boss: "Teamwork is a lot of people doing what 'I' say."
- -- pointy haired boss contest. (Marketing executive, Citrix Corporation)
-~
-"How About Friday?" My sister passed away and her funeral was scheduled for
-Monday. When I told my Boss, he said she died so that I would have to miss
-work on the busiest day of the year. He then asked if we could change her
-burial to Friday. He said, "That would be better for me."
- -- pointy haired boss contest. (Shipping executive, FTD Florists)
-~
-"We know that communication is a problem, but the company is
-not going to discuss it with the employees."
- -- pointy haired boss contest
- (Switching supervisor, AT&T Long Lines Division)
-~
-We recently received a memo from senior management saying: "This is to inform
-you that a memo will be issued today regarding the subject mentioned above."
- -- pointy haired boss contest. (Microsoft, Legal Affairs Division)
-~
-One day my Boss asked me to submit a status report to him concerning a project
-I was working on. I asked him if tomorrow would be soon enough. He said "If
-I wanted it tomorrow, I would have waited until tomorrow to ask for it!"
- -- pointy haired boss contest
- (New business manager, Hallmark Greeting Cards)
-~
-Speaking the Same Language: As director of communications I was asked to
-prepare a memo reviewing our company's training programs and materials. In
-the body of the memo one of the sentences mentioned the "pedagogical approach"
-used by one of the training manuals. The day after I routed the memo to the
-executive committee, I was called into the HR director's office and told that
-the executive vice president wanted me out of the building by lunch. When I
-asked why, I was told that she wouldn't stand for "perverts" (pedophilia)?
-working in her company. Finally he showed me her copy of the memo, with her
-demand that I be fired--and the word "pedagogical" circled in red. The HR
-manager was fairly reasonable, and once he looked the word up in his
-dictionary, and made a copy of the definition to send back to her, he told me
-not to worry. He would take care of it. Two days later a memo to the entire
-staff came out--directing us that no words which could not be found in the
-local Sunday newspaper could be used in company memos. A month later, I
-resigned. In accordance with company policy, I created my resignation memo
-by pasting words together from the Sunday paper.
- -- pointy haired boss contest. (Taco Bell Corporation)
-~
-This gem is the closing paragraph of a nationally-circulated memo from a large
-communications company: "(Company name) is endeavorily determined to promote
-constant attention on current procedures of transacting business focusing
-emphasis on innovative ways to better, if not supersede, the expectations of
-quality!"
- -- pointy haired boss contest. (Lucent Technologies)
-~
-Marriage isn't a word, it's a sentence.
- -- unknown, seen on back of Charlottesville, VA cab
-~
-Have you ever noticed... Anybody going slower than you is an idiot,
-and anyone going faster than you is a f*cking maniac?
- -- George Carlin
-~
-You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five
-miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 today and we don't know where
-the hell she is.
- -- Ellen DeGeneres
-~
-I'm not into working out. My philosophy: No pain, no pain.
- -- Carol Leifer
-~
-I have a great diet. You're allowed to eat anything you want, but you
-must eat it with naked fat people.
- -- Ed Bluestone
-~
-I went into a McDonald's yesterday and said, "I'd like some fries."
-The girl at the counter said, "Would you like some fries with that?"
- -- Jay Leno
-~
-The reason most people play golf is to wear clothes they would not be
-caught dead in otherwise.
- -- Roger Simon
-~
-I'm desperately trying to figure out why kamikaze pilots wore helmets.
- -- Dave Edison
-~
-If it weren't for electricity we'd all be watching television by candlelight.
- -- George Gobel
-~
-Don't spend two dollars to dry clean a shirt. Donate it to the
-Salvation Army instead. They'll clean it and put it on a hanger.
-Next morning buy it back for seventy-five cents.
- -- Billiam Coronel
-~
-Suppose you were an idiot... And suppose you were a member of
-Congress... But I repeat myself.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-Our bombs are smarter than the average high school student. At least
-they can find Kuwait.
- -- A. Whitney Brown
-~
-My mom said she learned how to swim. Someone took her out in the lake
-and threw her off the boat. That's how she learned how to swim. I
-said, "Mom, they weren't trying to teach you how to swim."
- -- Paula Poundstone
-~
-I worry that the person who thought up Muzak may be thinking up
-something else.
- -- Lily Tomlin
-~
-What do people mean when they say the computer went down on me?
- -- Marilyn Pittman
-~
-Why is it that when we talk to God we're said to be praying, but when
-God talks to us we're schizophrenic?
- -- Lily Tomlin
-~
-When you look at Prince Charles, don't you think that someone in the
-Royal family knew someone in the Royal family?
- -- Robin Williams
-~
-Where lipstick is concerned, the important thing is not color, but to
-accept God's final word on where your lips end.
- -- Jerry Seinfeld
-~
-[Modern economists are] "used to measuring the 'standard of living' by
-the amount of annual consumption, assuming all the time that a man who
-consumes more is 'better off' than a man who consumes less. A Buddhist
-economist would consider this approach excessively irrational: since
-consumption is merely a means to human well-being, the aim should be to
-obtain the maximum of well-being with the minimum of consumption...
-The less toil there is, the more time and strength is left for artistic
-creativity. Modern economics, on the other hand, considers consumption
-to be the sole end and purpose of all economic activity."
- -- E. F. Schumacher (1911-1977), from "Small Is Beautiful:
- A Study of Economics As If People Mattered", 1973.
-~
-As a net is made up of a series of ties, so everything in this world
-is connected by a series of ties. If anyone thinks that the mesh of
-a net is an independent, isolated thing, he is mistaken. It is called
-a net because it is made up of a series of interconnected meshes, and
-each mesh has its place and responsibility in relation to other meshes.
- -- Shakyamuni Buddha
-~
-When debugging, suspect the more complicated code,
-but keep an eye on the simple code lest it get too cocky.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
- -- Douglas Adams
-~
-As I let go of my feelings of guilt, I am in touch
-with my inner sociopath.
-~
-I have the power to channel my imagination into ever-soaring
-levels of suspicion and paranoia.
-~
-I assume full responsibility for my actions, except the ones
-that are someone else's fault.
-~
-I no longer need to punish, deceive, or compromise myself,
-unless I want to stay employed.
-~
-In some cultures what I do would be considered normal.
-~
-I honor my personality flaws for without them
-I would have no personality at all.
-~
-Joan of Arc heard voices, too.
-~
-I am grateful that I am not as judgmental as all those
-censorious, self-righteous people around me.
-~
-I need not suffer in silence while I can still
-moan, whimper, and complain.
-~
-As I learn the innermost secrets of people around me, they
-reward me in many ways to keep me quiet.
-~
-When someone hurts me, I know that forgiveness is cheaper
-than a lawsuit, but not nearly as gratifying.
-~
-The first step is to say nice things about myself.
-The second is to do nice things for myself, the third,
-to find someone to buy me nice things.
-~
-As I learn to trust the universe,
-I no longer need to carry a gun.
-~
-I am at one with my duality.
-~
-Blessed are the flexible,
-for they can tie themselves into knots.
-~
-Only a lack of imagination saves me from
-immobilizing myself with imaginary fears.
-~
-I will strive to live each day as
-if it were my 50th birthday.
-~
-I honor and express all facets of my being,
-regardless of state and local laws.
-~
-Today I will gladly share my experience and advice, for there
-are no sweeter words than "I told you so."
-~
-False hope is better than no hope at all.
-~
-A good scapegoat is almost as good as a solution.
-~
-Just for today, I will not sit in my living room all day in my
-underwear in the Hollywood Cafe. Instead, I will move my
-computer into the bedroom.
-~
-Who can I blame for my problems?
-Just give me a minute.
-I'll find someone.
-~
-Why should I waste my time reliving the past when
-I can spend it worrying about the future?
-~
-The complete lack of evidence is the surest
-sign that the conspiracy is working.
-~
-I am learning that criticism is not nearly as
-effective as sabotage.
-~
-Becoming aware of my character defects leads me
-naturally to the next step of blaming my parents.
-~
-To have a successful relationship I must learn to
-make it look like I'm giving as much as I'm getting.
-~
-I am willing to make the mistakes if someone else
-is willing to learn from them.
-~
-Before I criticize a man, I walk a mile in
-his shoes. That way, if he gets angry, he's
-a mile away and barefoot.
-~
-Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.
-~
-Canadian = unarmed American with health care.
-~
-Mohandas K. Gandhi's list of "Seven Blunders Of The World That Lead
-To Violence":
- Wealth without work
- Science without humanity
- Pleasure without conscience
- Worship without sacrifice
- Knowledge without character
- Politics without principle
- Commerce without morality
-~
-`Tis the longest Purse Conquers the longest Sword.
- -- Daniel Defoe
-~
-A Man that will lie still, should never hope to rise;
-he that will lie in a Ditch and pray, may depend upon it he
-shall lie in the Ditch and die.
- -- Daniel Defoe
-~
-He that has Truth on his Side, is a fool, as well
-as a Coward, if he is afraid to own it because of
-the Currency or Multitude of other Men's Opinions.
- -- Daniel Defoe
-~
-Writers' earnings are the reward of industry and the prize of learning.
- -- Daniel Defoe
-~
-Absolute necessity forces many a poor distressed
-person to do things which his very soul abhors.
- -- Daniel Defoe
-~
-The rising greatness of the British nation
-is not owing to war and conquests,
-to enlarging its dominion by the sword,
-or subjecting the people of other countries to our power;
-but it is owing to trade.
-An estate is a pond, trade is a spring,
-conquest is a Thing attended with Difficulty, Hazard,
-Expense, and a Possibility of Miscarriage.
- -- Daniel Defoe
-~
-24 hours in a day. 24 beers in a case. coincidence?
- -- Stephen Wright
-~
-When Human Folk at Table Eat,
-A Kitten must not mew for meat,
-Or Jump to grab it from the Dish
-(Unless it happens to be fish).
- -- Oliver Herford
-~
-When I am at peace with myself, and in good spirits--for
-instance, on a journey, in a carriage, or after a good meal,
-or while taking a walk, or at night when I can't sleep--then
-thoughts flow into me most easily and at their best. Where
-they come from and how -- that I cannot say; nor can I do
-anything about it.
- -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
-~
-It is a mistake to think that the practice of my art has
-become easy to me. I assure you no one has given so much
-care to the study of composition as I. There is scarcely
-a famous master in music whose works I have not frequently
-and diligently studied.
- -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
-~
-If one has talent it pushes for utterance and torments
-one; it will out. And then one is out without questioning.
-And, look you, there is nothing in this thing of learning
-out of books. Here, here and here [the ear, the head, the
-heart] is your school. If everything is right there, then
-take your pen and down with it; afterwards ask the opinion
-of a man who knows his business.
- -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
-~
-It is no just function of government to prohibit what is not wrong.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better
-than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not
-your counsel or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you.
-May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you
-were our countrymen.
- -- Samuel Adams
-~
-You may call, you may call,
-But the little black cats won't hear you,
-The little black cats are maddened,
-By the green light of the moon.
- -- Elizabeth Coatsworth
-~
-on exception handling...
- the point is to create dependable systems. some languages are better than
-others for this. some languages provide no support for verification, although
-the semantics of most programming constructs are well established. exceptions
-predate much of the work done in formal verification of the last 30 years.
-many people have tried (with varying degrees of success) to fit exceptions into
-the grand scheme and make them verifiable. flaviu cristian has shown how
-exception handlers can be fitted with preconditions for their activation and
-postconditions for their completion.
- however, an attempt to postfit a system with hooks for verifiability will
-fail if the system is very large. and programming in this manner is simply a
-living hell. the programmer is not generally equipped to set up all of his
-handlers for this type of reasoning, even if he has a clear idea for when the
-handlers are to be invoked.
- what is needed is a general language structure that is capable of embodying
-the reasons and the services of the exception-like items in the system.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-why aren't programs published in better boxes?
-thicker cardboard, smaller profiles, thin like coffee table books,
-packaged with only essentials and fitting together well...
-you'd be proud to have a software library if the damn boxes weren't
-so flimsy and didn't take up so much room.
-~
-Here's a thought... The government should only be allowed to test urine for
-drugs if they collect the pee in their own mouths.
-~
-the drug war is a war on liberty that cannot possibly be won without the
-utter removal of all rights or at least the indefinite suspension thereof.
-urine testing is the best emblem of this horrible war; it makes the police
-look like a bunch of perverted urine sniffers. it is not cost effective
-for testing large numbers of people and it is insanely easy to fake if one
-wants to anyway. we need to stop the drug war and start the war on ignorance.
-this ignorance is an ignorance of the REAL scientifically determined results
-of using the drugs in question. studies show that marijuana, for example,
-DOES have therapeutic results and that it is almost completely HARMLESS.
-smoke inhalation is not harmless, but there are other ways to get stoned than
-by inhaling burning vapors. the root ignorance that MUST be warred upon is
-an ignorance of the fact that people should leave each other alone and not
-be such shrieking paranoid shrews about what their neighbors are doing.
-put down your goddamned binoculars, you nosy cretin, and get to the business
-of living your own life.
-~
-drug prices are caused to soar by the organized crime elements
-that are behind the drug war (and behind the republican party).
-organized crime at the same time causes the war to look just as
-ridiculous as the carrie nation hatchet smashing of beer kegs so
-that people will buy more drugs and think that governmental
-authority is a crock. who benefitted from the intense CAMP
-activity in california? the mafia, because prices on marijuana
-soared. who got screwed by CAMP? the people, who made their
-honest living off of growing marijuana, which at the time was
-our nation's largest commodity. it's time to toss the republican
-crooks out of office on their asses. american patriots smoke pot:
-george washington, thomas jefferson, benjamin franklin, and thou,
-if you like. unamerican creeps are against marijuana and against
-the right of the america people to control their own destiny.
-i think it really is that simple.
-~
-ode to a petty tyrant...
- what you don't seem to realize is that productivity is mood dependent.
-you seem to think that i need to be degraded repeatedly as some form of
-character builder, but what if someone came to this school as your student
-who had already been degraded enough in his life? what if every time you
-were cutting on them in some sly tricky sarcastic form you were in fact
-rubbing a sore spot and only inflaming their opinions as to your anus-nature?
- did you realize that one of your students comes back to the office
-and just swears and swears at the computer he's working at? this wasn't
-because the machine was bad, or his program was bad, or he was bad,
-but because he was mad at _you_.
- the solution, i think, is to respect people a whole lot more. we're
-not here for professors to deride us. this isn't some f*cking fraternity
-with you chumps as the chief hazing marshalls. we're here to learn and if
-our learning is colored with hues of condemnation and abuse, it diminishes
-you, it diminishes us, and it diminishes the whole search for truth and
-knowledge.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-i don't believe the druidic and grecian universities had this
-same kind of "cut him up, slice and dice!" attitude that prevails
-at our fine american universities in this day and age. that
-attitude is surely a holdover from roman times, when the
-patriarchal society demanded discipline and obedience from all
-of its members, especially those with license to think. this
-approach is impractical these days (because it doesn't work
-very well), except at the higher levels in education, where
-it is still fervently practiced. root it out, toss it away;
-we don't need authoritarian learning, we need to follow the truth
-back to all its origins and forward to the myriad potential fruits.
-your rule book stopped being effective a long time ago.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-on artistic and technical integrity...
-in the beginning, i had a totally egotistical attitude that the rest of the
-world was screwed and i was right. this is actually somewhat correct, because
-one must have his own voice and thoughts, except for the fact that i was not
-_that_ correct and the world was not _that_ wrong. but at least what i chose
-to say and what i chose to be were right for me. over the past few years i
-have sought to learn the phd game, but i have been doing it by suppressing
-my own voice and allowing others to tell me what i should say. this is
-fundamentally f*cked, because now i have become dependent on them as my voice
-instead of relying on the tao to guide the research and for my own voice to
-speak what needs to be said. is it any wonder that i have devolved to this
-state of being unable to say anything on my own? after years of thinking for
-myself, i have allowed myself to become placed in a situation where i was
-dependent on someone else as my source of "the scoop". numerous problems
-result when others' biases are not what i want to express, yet they have
-potency to affect my presentation. the fact that when the bogus guru doesn't
-understand something, he usually tells you that you are the one who does not
-understand, is no help. he has no subtlety and yet seeks the original
-thoughts, leading him to warp other people's original thoughts into his own
-mental framework, often losing the original spark and leading the ideas astray
-into his own personal interests. i need to cut loose and start thinking on my
-own again. if the ideas in my research here have any merit at all, they have
-to be proven using my own metrics, not others' metrics. and this no longer
-seems possible in this stringently bulletheaded "hard science" department
-which instead only enforces conventional viewpoints and does not reach out
-into the unknown where the really interesting concepts live....
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-niceness here is the ineffable.
-the only difference between you and the wolf is that you want to be nice,
-and fail. the wolf only wants to appear nice while remaining vile inside,
-and he succeeds. your demeanor to others is sometimes nice and sometimes
-not nice because of your failures in actually being the way you want to
-be. and the reason that you fail to be the way you want to be is that you
-lack the spiritual strength to keep it up. you can't synchronize your
-noble desires with your weak mind/body, and it is mainly because you reject
-spirituality itself that you fail in achieving spiritual strength.
-one cannot succeed in something one does not believe in except through
-dumb beginner's luck. and yet to fully believe in something is to be
-trapped in it, without the capacity to disbelieve and free oneself.
-you need a fluid belief that accepts what is true within the constraints
-of its validity. can this flow be strong enough to become who and what
-you want to be?
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-eek on the candidate from louis cypher... i notice with some lack of
-surprise that "ollie north" can be rearranged into the nice phrase
-"o, rot in hell". i think this needs to be made more public. perhaps
-we should publish an epigram regarding this particular correspondence
-between reality and republicanism.
-~
- 1. Commit to your business.
- 2. Share your profits with all your associates.
- 3. Motivate your partners.
- 4. Communicate everything you possibly can to your partners.
- 5. Appreciate everything your associates do for the business.
- 6. Celebrate your success.
- 7. Listen to everyone in your company.
- 8. Exceed your customers' expectations.
- 9. Control your expenses better than your competition.
-10. Swim upstream.
- -- "Sam's Rules For Building A Business", from "Made In
- America: My Story", by Sam Walton.
-~
-Find some humor in your failures. Don't take yourself so seriously.
-Loosen up, and everybody around you will loosen up. Have fun. Show
-enthusiasm--always. When all else fails, put on a costume and sing a
-silly song. Then make everybody else sing with you. Don't do a hula
-on Wall Street. It's been done. Think up your own stunt. All of
-this is more important, and more fun, than you think, and it really
-fools the competition. "Why should we take those cornballs at Wal-Mart
-seriously?"
- -- Sam Walton
-~
-If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the
-impersonators would be dead.
- -- Johnny Carson
-~
-In elementary school, in case of fire you have to line
-up quietly in a single file line from smallest to
-tallest. What is the logic? Do tall people burn slower?
- -- Warren Hutcherson
-~
-Every time a baseball player grabs his crotch, it makes
-him spit. That's why you should never date a baseball player.
- -- Marsha Warfield
-~
-Some women hold up dresses that are so ugly and they
-always say the same thing: 'This looks much better on.'
-On what? On fire?
- -- Marsha Warfield
-~
-The cat went here
- and there,
-The moon spun round
- like a top,
-And the nearest kin
- of the moon,
-The creeping cat, looked
- up.
- -- W. B. Yeats
-~
-The cat always leaves a mark on his friend.
- -- Spanish proverb
-~
- A herd of buffalo can move only as fast as the slowest buffalo.
-when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back
-that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a
-whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps
-improving by the regular culling of the weakest members.
- In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as
-the slowest brain cells. Intake of alcohol, we all know, kills brain
-cells, but naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells
-first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker
-brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine.
- That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers.
-~
-1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech
- which you are used to seeing in print.
-2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
-3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
-4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
-5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon
- word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
-6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything
- outright barbarous.
- -- George Orwell, "Politics And The English Language."
-~
-Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?
- -- Felix von Leitner (leitner@inf.fu-berlin.de)
-~
-linux: the choice of a GNU generation.
- -- ksh@cis.ufl.edu put this on t-shirts in 1993
-~
-There are two types of Linux developers--those who can
-spell, and those who can't. There is a constant pitched
-battle between the two.
-~
-> Other than the fact Linux has a cool name, could someone explain
-> why I should use Linux over BSD?
-
-No. That's it. The cool name, that is. We worked very hard on
-creating a name that would appeal to the majority of people, and
-it certainly paid off: thousands of people are using linux just
-to be able to say "OS/2? Hah. I've got Linux. What a cool name".
-386BSD made the mistake of putting a lot of numbers and weird
-abbreviations into the name, and is scaring away a lot of people
-just because it sounds too technical.
- -- Linus Torvalds' follow-up to a question about Linux
-~
-When you say "I wrote a program that crashed Windows", people
-just stare at you blankly and say, "Hey, I got those with the
-system, *for free*".
- -- Linus Torvalds
-~
-We come to bury DOS, not to praise it.
- -- Paul Vojta, regarding Linux
-~
-How should I know if it works? That's what beta testers
-are for. I only coded it.
- -- Attributed to Linus Torvalds
-~
-I develop for Linux for a living, I used to develop for DOS.
-Going from DOS to Linux is like trading a glider for an F117.
- -- Lawrence Foard
-~
-I'd crawl over an acre of 'Visual This++' and 'Integrated
-Development That' to get to gcc, Emacs, and gdb. Thank you.
- -- Vance Petree, Virginia Power
-~
-If you want to travel around the world and be invited to
-speak at a lot of different places, just write a Unix
-operating system.
- -- Linus Torvalds
-~
-All language designers are arrogant. Goes with the territory...
- -- Larry Wall
-~
-Unix, MS-DOS, and Windows NT (also known as
-the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly).
- -- Matt Welsh
-~
-I would rather spend 10 hours reading someone else's source
-code than 10 minutes listening to Muzak waiting for technical
-support which isn't.
- -- Dr. Greg Wettstein, Roger Maris Cancer Center
-~
-Your job is being a professor and researcher: That's one
-hell of a good excuse for some of the brain-damages of minix.
- -- Linus Torvalds to Andrew Tanenbaum
-~
-We use Linux for all our mission-critical applications.
-Having the source code means that we are not held hostage
-by anyone's support department.
- -- Russell Nelson, President of Crynwr Software
-~
-We are Pentium of Borg. Division is futile. You will be approximated.
-~
-The chat program is in public domain. This is not the GNU
-public license. If it breaks then you get to keep both pieces.
- -- Copyright notice for the chat program
-~
-DOS: n., A small annoying boot virus that causes random
- spontaneous system crashes, usually just before saving
- a massive project. Easily cured by UNIX. See also
- MS-DOS, IBM-DOS, DR-DOS.
- -- David Vicker
-~
-MSDOS didn't get as bad as it is overnight--it took over
-ten years of careful development.
- -- dmeggins@aix1.uottawa.ca
-~
-On the Internet, no one knows you're using Windows NT.
- -- Ramiro Estrugo
-~
-People disagree with me. I just ignore them.
- -- Linus Torvalds, regarding the use of C++ for the Linux kernel
-~
-Linux: The OS people choose without $200,000,000 of persuasion.
- -- Mike Coleman
-~
-The memory management on the PowerPC can be used to frighten small children.
- -- Linus Torvalds
-~
-Eh, that's it, I guess. No 300 million dollar unveiling event for this
-kernel, I'm afraid, but you're still supposed to think of this as the
-"happening of the century" (at least until the next kernel comes along).
-Oh, and this is another kernel in that great and venerable "BugFree(tm)"
-series of kernels. So be not afraid of bugs, but go out in the streets
-and deliver this message of joy to the masses.
- -- Linus Torvalds, in the announcement for Linux kernel version 1.3.27
-~
-> Linux is not user-friendly.
-
-It _is_ user-friendly. It is not ignorant-friendly
-and idiot-friendly.
-~
-I tried to get some documentation out of Digital on this, but
-as far as I can tell even _they_ don't have it ;-)
- -- Linus Torvalds
-~
-Excusing bad programming is a shooting offence,
-no matter _what_ the circumstances.
- -- Linus Torvalds
-~
-Some people have told me they don't think a fat penguin
-really embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me
-they have never seen a angry penguin charging at them in
-excess of 100mph. They'd be a lot more careful about what
-they say if they had.
- -- Linus Torvalds, announcing Linux v2.0
-~
-Ooohh... "FreeBSD is faster over loopback, when compared to Linux
-over the wire". Film at 11.
- -- Linus Torvalds
-~
-C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success.
- -- Dennis M. Ritchie
-~
-If Bill Gates is the Devil then Linus Torvalds must be the Messiah.
-~
-Let's put it this way:
-1. A 32-bit counter will expire in little over a year.
-2. A 64-bit counter will expire in little over 2^32 years,
- or roughly the time the sun (not the Sun) is expected to expire.
-3. The odds of your computer hardware surviving the
- aforementioned event without reboot are very slim.
-Any questions?
-~
-The only way tcsh "rocks" is when the rocks are attached
-to its feet in the deepest part of a very deep lake.
- -- Linus Torvalds
-~
-In accord to UNIX philosophy, PERL gives you enough rope
-to hang yourself.
- -- Larry Wall, Randal Schwartz: Programming Perl
- (aka the Camel Book).
-~
-Anyone can build a fast processor.
-The trick is to build a fast system.
- -- Seymour Cray
-~
-Hoping the problem magically goes away by ignoring
-it is the "Microsoft approach to programming" and
-should never be allowed.
- -- Linus Torvalds
-~
-One OS to rule them all,
-One OS to find them.
-One OS to call them all,
-And in salvation bind them.
-In the bright land of Linux,
-Where the hackers play.
- -- J. Scott Thayer, with apologies to J.R.R. Tolkien
-~
-I'm not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil.
-I simply suspect that if Microsoft ever met up with the
-devil, it wouldn't need an interpreter.
- -- From N. Petreley's column, "Down to the Wire",
- Sept. 1996 issue of Inforworld.
-~
-After all, how do you give Microsoft the benefit of the
-doubt when you know that if you throw it into a room with
-truth, you'd risk a matter/anti-matter explosion.
- -- From N. Petreley's column, "Down to the Wire",
- Sept. 1996 issue of Inforworld)
-~
-The local betaware broker was sitting in the bar, keeping an eye
-for potential customers. It was easy to spot him, once you knew
-the signs. A slightly paranoid look, but still eager to meet
-new people. Not unlike a drug dealer or prostitute. This guy,
-however, was carrying a laptop.
- I sat in the chair beside him. "Any new stuff for
-Linux configuration?", I said, looking at the opposite wall
-of bottles.
- The broker looked at me, startled, then quickly away. Then
-back at me. "What are you, a cop?" The traditional greeting of
-the underworld. It made me feel right at home.
- "Nope, I just want to install Deb..."
- "Shutup. I don't want to go to jail."
- I turned around, looked around, then turned back, and put my
-knife against his ribs. "Sing or die: where's software for
-managing a group of Debian boxes easily?"
- His face was pale, and he whispered through his teeth.
-"cfgtool. At Lasu's site. http://www.iki.fi/liw/programs/".
- I stood up, and walked quickly to the kitchen, and on
-out. As I was closing the kitchen door behind me, I heard the
-all too familiar sound of MessySoft Police Cars braking in the
-street. It would be a hectic night, but I was still one step
-ahead.
- -- Lars Wirzenius, advertising his cfgtool program
-~
-Microsoft seems to have gotten a lot of mileage out of the
-C2 rating for NT with no network connection. I wonder if a B3
-rating for Linux with no power cord might be of value.
- -- riordan@math.umn.edu
-~
-In the United States there is more space where nobody is
-than where anybody is. This is what makes America what it is.
- -- Gertrude Stein, explaining early 20th century America
-~
-Ah, yes, divorce, from the Latin word meaning
-"to rip out a man's genitals through his wallet".
- -- Robin Williams
-~
-Women complain about premenstrual syndrome, but I think of
-it as the only time of the month that I can be myself.
- -- Roseanne
-~
-Women need a reason to have sex. Men just need a place.
- -- Billy Crystal
-~
-I just broke up with someone and the last thing she said
-to me was, "You'll never find anyone like me again!"
-I'm thinking, "I should hope not! If I don't want you,
-why would I want someone like you?"
- -- Larry Miller
-~
-If you want to say it with flowers, a single rose says: "I'm cheap!"
- -- Delta Burke
-~
-According to a new survey, women say they feel more comfortable
-undressing in front of men than they do undressing in front of other
-women. They say that women are too judgemental, where, of course,
-men are just grateful.
- -- Jay Leno
-~
-I am not the boss of my house. I don't know when I lost it.
-I don't know if I ever had it. But I have seen the boss's job
-and I do not want it.
- -- Bill Cosby
-~
-In the last couple of weeks I have seen the ads for the Wonder Bra.
-Is that really a problem in this country? Men not paying enough
-attention to women's breasts?
- -- Jay Leno
-~
-My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care
-and vehicle maintenance.
- -- Tim Allen
-~
-We have women in the military, but they don't put us in the front lines.
-They don't know if we can fight, if we can kill. I think we can.
-All the general has to do is walk over to the women and say, "You see
-the enemy over there? They say you look fat in those uniforms."
- -- Elayne Boosler
-~
-There's a new medical crisis. Doctors are reporting that many men
-are having allergic reactions to latex condoms. They say they cause
-severe swelling. So what's the problem?
- -- Jay Leno
-~
-There's very little sexual advice in men's magazines,
-because men don't think there's a lot they don't know.
-Women do. Women want to learn. Men think, "I know what
-I'm doing, just show me somebody naked."
- -- Jerry Seinfield
-~
-Men are liars. We'll lie about lying if we have to.
-I'm an algebra liar. I figure two good lies make a positive.
- -- Tim Allen
-~
-Men do not like to admit to even momentary imperfection.
-My husband forgot the code to turn off the alarm. When
-the police came, he wouldn't admit he'd forgotten the
-code... he turned himself in.
- -- Rita Rudner
-~
-If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten.
- -- George Carlin
-~
-Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman
-I don't like and give her a house.
- -- Lewis Grizzard
-~
-One of the chief duties of the mathematician in acting
-as an advisor to scientists is to discourage them from
-expecting too much from mathematics.
- -- Norbert Wiener
-~
-I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be without sponges.
-~
-It is easy to guess why the rabble dislike cats.
-A cat is beautiful; it suggests ideas of luxury,
-cleanliness, voluptuous pleasures.
- -- Charles Baudelaire
-~
- An artist must regulate his life.
-
- Here is a time-table of my daily acts. I rise at 7.18; am inspired from
-10.23 to 11.47. I lunch at 12.11 and leave the table at 12.14. A healthy
-ride on horse-back round my domain follows from 1.19 pm to 2.53 pm. Another
-bout of inspiration from 3.12 to 4.7 pm. From 5 to 6.47 pm various
-occupations (fencing, reflection, immobility, visits, contemplation,
-dexterity, natation, etc.)
-
- Dinner is served at 7.16 and finished at 7.20 pm. From 8.9 to 9.59 pm
-symphonic readings (out loud). I go to bed regularly at 10.37 pm. Once a
-week (on Tuesdays) I awake with a start at 3.14 am.
-
- My only nourishment consists of food that is white: eggs, sugar, shredded
-bones, the fat of dead animals, veal, salt, coco-nuts, chicken cooked in
-white water, moldy fruit, rice, turnips, sausages in camphor, pastry, cheese
-(white varieties), cotton salad, and certain kinds of fish (without their
-skin). I boil my wine and drink it cold mixed with the juice of the
-Fuschia. I have a good appetite but never talk when eating for fear of
-strangling myself.
-
- I breathe carefully (a little at a time) and dance very rarely. When
-walking I hold my ribs and look steadily behind me.
-
- My expression is very serious; when I laugh it is unintentional, and I
-always apologize very politely.
-
- I sleep with only one eye closed, very profoundly. My bed is round with a
-hole in it for my head to go through. Every hour a servant takes my
-temperature and gives me another.
- -- Erik Satie's description of "A Day in the Life of a Musician"
-~
-Confront a child, a puppy and a kitten with sudden danger;
-the child will turn instinctively for assistance, the puppy
-will grovel in abject submission to the impending visitation,
-the kitten will brace its tiny body for a frantic resistance.
- -- H.H. Munro (Saki)
-~
- It is fair to say that, in general, no problems have been exhausted;
-instead, men have been exhausted by the problems. Fresh talent approaching
-the analysis of a problem without prejudice will always see new
-possibilities -- some aspect not considered by those who believe that a
-subject is fully understood. Our knowledge is so fragmentary that
-unexpected findings appear in even the most fully explored topics...
- In summary, there are no small problems. Problems that appear small
-are large problems that are not understood. Instead of tiny details
-unworthy of the intellectual, we have men whose tiny intellects cannot rise
-to penetrate the infinitesimal. Nature is a harmonious mechanism where all
-parts, including those appearing to play a secondary role, cooperate in a
-functional whole. In contemplating this mechanism, shallow men arbitrarily
-divide its parts into essential and secondary, whereas the insightful
-thinker is content with classifying them as understood and poorly
-understood, ignoring for the moment their size and immediately useful
-properties. No one can predict their importance in the future."
- -- Santiago Ramon y Cajal, "Advice for a Young Investigator," 1897
-~
-He who would do good to another must do it in Minute
-Particulars: General Good is the plea of the scoundrel,
-hypocrite and flatterer, for Art and Science cannot
-exist but in minutely organized particulars.
- -- William Blake
-~
-The Atoms of Democritus
-And Newton's Particles of Light
-Are sands upon the Red Sea shore
-Where Israel's tents do shine so bright.
- -- William Blake
-~
-To see a world in a grain of sand
-And a heaven in a wild flower, and:
-And did those feet in ancient time
-Walk upon England's mountains green? ...
-And was Jerusalem builded here
-Among these dark Satanic mills?
- -- William Blake
-~
-The harlot's cry from street to street,
-Shall weave Old England's winding sheet.
- -- William Blake
-~
-Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
-In the forests of the night,
-What immortal hand or eye
-Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
-..................
-Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
- -- William Blake
-~
-The cat, an aristocrat in type and origin, whom we
-have slandered, merits at least our esteem.
- -- Alexandre Dumas
-~
-society's crumbling, but at least we're getting it televised.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-I think maybe it's my purpose in life.
- -- The "Guiness Book of World Records" TV show's winner for the category
- of longest combined finger nails for ten fingers.
-~
- If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will
-leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic for
-the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain always
-uncertain. The English have developed their government in this direction, it
-is called 'muddling through,' and although a rather silly, stupid sounding
-thing, it is the most scientific way of progressing. To decide upon the
-answer is not scientific. In order to make progress, one must leave the door
-to the unknown ajar.
- We are only at the beginning of the development of the human race; of
-the development of the human mind, of intelligent life; we have years and
-years in the future. It is our responsibility not to give an answer today as
-to what it is all about, to drive everybody down in that direction and say:
-'This is the solution to it all.' Because we will be chained to the limit
-of our present imagination, we will only be able to do those things that we
-think are the things to do. Whereas, if we leave some room for discussion,
-and proceed in a way analogous to the sciences, then this difficulty will
-not arise. I believe, therefore, that although it is not the case today,
-there may some day come a time, or I should hope, that the power of
-government should be limited. That governments ought not to be empowered to
-decide the validity of scientific theories. That is a ridiculous thing for
-them to try to do. That they are not to decide the various descriptions of
-history or of economic theory or of philosophy.
- Only in this way can the real possibilities of the future human race be
-ultimately developed.
- -- Richard Feynman, from "The Beat Of A Different Drum: The Life And
- Science of Richard Feynman," by Jagdish Mehra. Published by Oxford
- University Press 1996.
-~
-hey, when you come to think of it, isn't it
-only the assholes in life who have zero tolerance
-about things? and now they're trying to promote
-that as a virtue. i just don't buy it.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-The spirit of the age cannot be compassed by the processes of human
-reason. It is an inclination, an emotional tendency that works upon weaker
-minds, through the unconscious, with an overwhelming force of suggestion
-that carries them along with it. To think otherwise than our contemporaries
-think is somehow illegitimate and disturbing; it is even indecent, morbid
-or blasphemous, and therefore socially dangerous for the individual. He is
-stupidly swimming against the social current. Just as formerly the
-assumption was unquestionable that everything that exists takes its rise
-from the creative will of a God who is spirit, so the nineteenth century
-discovered the equally unquestionable truth that everything arises from
-material causes. Today the psyche does not build itself a body, but on the
-contrary, matter, by chemical action, produces the psyche. This reversal of
-outlook would be ludicrous if it were not one of the outstanding features of
-the spirit of the age. It is the popular way of thinking, and therefore it
-is decent, reasonable, scientific and normal. Mind must be thought to be an
-epiphenomenon of matter. The same conclusion is reached even if we say not
-"mind" but "psyche," and in place of matter speak of brain, hormones,
-instincts or drives. To grant the substantiality of the soul or psyche is
-repugnant to the spirit of the age, for to do so would be heresy.
- -- Carl Jung, from his 1933 book, "Modern Man In Search Of A Soul"
-~
-There are many ways to explain an event, and some are better than
-others. Even if neuroscientists someday decode the entire wiring
-diagram of the brain, human behavior makes the most sense when it
-is explained in terms of beliefs and desires, not in terms of volts
-and grams. Physics provides no insights into the machinations of a
-crafty lawyer, and even fails to enlighten us about many simpler
-acts of living things. As Richard Dawkins observed, 'If you throw
-a dead bird into the air it will describe a graceful parabola,
-exactly as physics books say it should, then come to rest on the
-ground and stay there. It behaves as a solid body of a particular
-mass and wind resistance ought to behave. But if you throw a live
-bird in the air it will not describe a parabola and come to rest on
-the ground. It will fly away, and may not touch land this side of
-the county boundary.' We understand birds in terms of their innards.
-To know why they move and grow, we cut them open and put bits under
-a microscope. We need yet another kind of explanation for artifacts
-like a chair and a crowbar: a statement of the function the object is
-intended to perform. It would be silly to understand why chairs have
-a stable horizontal surface by cutting them open and putting bits of
-them under a microscope. The explanation is that someone designed
-the chair to hold up a human behind.
- -- Steven Pinker, from his book, "How The Mind Works,"
- Norton, 1997.
-~
- What wonder, then, that the world goes from bad to worse, and that
-its evils increase more and more, as boredom increases, and boredom is the
-root of all evil. The history of this can be traced from the very beginning
-of the world. The gods were bored, and so they created man. Adam was bored
-because he was alone, and so Eve was created. Thus boredom entered the
-world, and increased in proportion to the increase of population. Adam was
-bored alone; then Adam and Eve were bored together, then Adam and Eve and
-Cain and Abel were bored en famille; then the population of the world
-increased, and the peoples were bored en masse. To divert themselves they
-conceived the idea of constructing a tower high enough to reach the heavens.
-This idea is itself as boring as the tower was high, and constitutes a
-terrible proof of how boredom gained the upper hand.
- -- Soren Kierkegaard, from "Either/Or"
-~
- Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of War, where every man
-is Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein men live
-without other security, than what their own strength, and their own
-invention shall furnish them withall. In such condition, there is no place
-for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no
-Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be
-imported by Sea; no commodious building; no Instruments of moving, and
-removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the
-Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is
-worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of
-man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
- -- Thomas Hobbes
-~
-A house without a cat, and a well-fed, well-petted, and properly revered
-cat, may be a perfect house perhaps, but how can it prove its title?
- -- Mark Twain
-~
- The group cannot function if it has to maintain a large amount of
-individual preconceptions and personal experiences. The design group must,
-as a whole, have the ability and the opportunity to leave things behind,
-that is, select what to remember.
- If designers are to come up with novel ideas, they may have to forget
-what was 'named and framed' as a problem or solution earlier in the process.
-A group of designers needs to work its way through ideas, visions, and
-operative images without being held up by heavy demands for documentation of
-the process. In a creative design process one thing leads to another,
-analogies and metaphors influence the design thinking in new ways, and a
-certain amount of chaos is always present...
- The characteristics of oral cultures can be applied to group design...
-Group members need to repeat themselves, to be redundant and nonlinear in
-their arguments, to forget, to make references and analogies in a situated
-and intuitive ways.
- -- Tone Bratteteig & Erik Stolterman, "Design in Groups--And All That
- Jazz," in: M. Kyng & L. Mathiassen, "Computers and Design in Context,"
- MIT Press 1997.
-~
- Where science has progressed by searching for commonalities and
-patterns, the arts have celebrated diversity and have resisted attempts to
-encapsulate their activities in rules and formulae. They are the ultimate
-manifestations of the unpredictabilities and asymmetries of Nature. After
-all, what more chaotically unpredictable outcomes are there than some of
-those that issue from the human mind? So intractable has been the problem
-of finding pattern in creative activity, that few would even seek it. If
-one looks not at science and art, but at scientists and artists, one finds a
-reflection of this divide. Two populations that overlap only a little,
-convergent thinkers and divergent thinkers, specialists and generalists--
-these labels reflect the differences of which we speak...
- While science has enlarged its past horizons beyond order and symmetry
-to embrace diversity and unpredictability, the humanities have yet to
-appreciate the full force of commonality and pattern as a unifying factor in
-the interpretation of human creativity. Just as science has begun to
-appreciate the ways in which its view of Nature must reconcile the ways in
-which Nature is both simple and complex, so the arts and humanities must
-appreciate the lessons to be drawn from the regularities of Nature. It is
-not enough to collect examples of diversity: the coexistence of diversity
-with universal behavior is what requires exploration and reconciliation.
- -- John D. Barrow, from "The Artful Universe," Clarendon Press:
- Oxford, 1995.
-~
- I first became interested in Darwin in college when I read about
-Darwin's experience with John Gould. When Darwin returned to England after
-he visited the Galapagos, he distributed his finch specimens to professional
-zoologists to be properly identified. One of the most distinguished experts
-was John Gould. What was the most revealing was not what happened to Darwin,
-but what had not happened to Gould.
- Darwin's notes show Gould taking him through all the birds he had
-named. Gould kept flip-flopping back and forth about the number of
-different species of finches: The information was there, but he didn't quite
-know what to make of it. He assumed that since God made one set of birds
-when he created the world, the specimens from different locations would be
-identical. It didn't occur to him to look for differences by location. Gould
-thought that the birds were so different that they might be distinct species.
- What was remarkable to me about the encounter is the completely
-different impact it had on the two men. Gould thought the way he had been
-taught to think, like an expert taxonomist, and didn't see, in the finches,
-the textbook example of evolution unfolding right before him. Darwin didn't
-even know they were finches. So the guy who had the intelligence, knowledge,
-and the expertise didn't see the differences, and the guy with far less
-knowledge and expertise came up with an idea that shaped the way we think
-about the world.
- Darwin came up with the idea because he was a productive thinker. He
-generated a multiplicity of perspectives and theories. Gould would compare
-new ideas and theories with his existing patterns of experience. He thought
-reproductively. If the ideas didn't fit with what he had been taught, he
-rejected them as worthless. On the other hand, Darwin was willing to
-disregard what past thinkers thought and was willing to entertain different
-perspectives and different theories to see where they would lead.
- Most of us are educated to think like John Gould. We were all born
-to be spontaneous, creative thinkers. Yet a great deal of our education may
-be regarded as the inculcation of mind-sets. We were taught how to handle
-problems and new phenomena with fixed mental attitudes (based on what past
-thinkers thought) that predetermine our responses to problems or situations.
-In short, we were taught 'what' to think instead of 'how' to think. We
-entered school as a question mark and graduated a period.
- -- Michael Michalko, in "Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative
- Genius," Ten Speed Press, 1998.
-~
- The wisdom of the late industrial era was always to start with what
-the customer needed and backtrack to which products and services those needs
-called for. That fit when the customer already understood the need and the
-product, and innovation meant a different shaped bottle for liquid detergent.
-In BLUR, technical change is happening so fast, your product must educate the
-customer (beepers for kids on dates?) and the customer must educate you. You
-can't afford the time delay to put something new in front of the customer.
- Instead, start with what technology will make possible, co-develop it as
-fast as you can with the customer, and be flexible and adaptive enough to
-adjust it according to customer needs as you go. As in software, the first
-release is your take on things. The customer enters the feedback loop and
-starts to influence things with release 2.0 and beyond.
- -- Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer, "Blur: The Speed Of Change In The
- Connected Economy," Addison-Wesley 1998.
-~
- The traditional hidden curriculum of school demands that people of a
-certain age assemble in groups of about thirty under the authority of a
-professional teacher for from five hundred to a thousand times a year. It
-does not matter if the teacher is authoritarian so long as it is the
-teacher's authority that counts; it does not matter if all meetings occur
-in the same place so long as they are somehow understood as attendance. The
-hidden curriculum of school requires--whether by law or by fact--that a
-citizen accumulate a minimum quantum of school years in order to obtain his
-civil rights...
- The translation of the need for learning into the demand for schooling
-and the conversion of the quality of growing up into the price tag of a
-professional treatment changes the meaning of 'knowledge' from a term that
-designates intimacy, intercourse, and life experience into one that
-designates professionally packaged products, marketable entitlements, and
-abstract values.
- -- Ivan Illich, from "After Deschooling, What?"
-~
-I consider children to be very expensive and complicated pets.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
- History tells us that the most successful cures for poverty come from
-within. Foreign aid can help, but like windfall wealth, can also hurt. It
-can discourage effort and plant a crippling sense of incapacity. As the
-African saying has it, 'The hand that receives is always under the one that
-gives.' No, what counts is work, thrift, honesty, patience, and tenacity...
- To be sure, we are living in a dessert age. We want things to be
-sweet; too many of us work to live and live to be happy. Nothing wrong with
-that; it just does not promote high productivity. You want high productivity?
-Then you should live to work and get happiness as a by-product.
- Not easy. They who live to work are a small and fortunate elite. But
-it is an elite open to newcomers, self-selected, the kind of people who
-accentuate the positive. In this world, the optimists have it, not because
-they are always right, but because they are positive. Even when wrong, they
-are positive, and that is the way of achievement, correction, improvement,
-and success. Educated, eyes-open optimism pays; pessimism can only offer
-the empty consolation of being right.
- The one lesson that emerges is the need to keep trying. No miracles.
-No perfection. No millennium. No apocalypse. We must cultivate a
-skeptical faith, avoid dogma, listen and watch well, try to clarify and
-define ends, the better to choose means.
- -- David Landis, from "The Wealth And Poverty Of Nations: Why Some Are
- So Rich And Some So Poor," W. W. Norton & Co., 1998.
-~
- During my travels around the country, visiting inner-city neighborhoods
-and talking to young people I've met there, I have been struck again and
-again by the stark differences between their childhoods and my own. When I
-was growing up in the Bronx, I wasn't rich -- at least not in a material
-sense, but I had the matchless blessing of being reared by two devoted
-parents--backed up by a platoon of doting aunts and uncles--who gave me
-the love, discipline and motivation I needed to succeed.
- Too many of today's kids are not getting the same kind of nurturing
-environment that I -- and most Americans -- once took for granted. As many
-as 15 million youngsters are 'at risk' in today's America. They are in
-danger of being lost for good unless the more fortunate among us step
-forward and lend a hand... It is this glorious cycle of giving, receiving
-and giving back that we want to pass along to the next generation of
-Americans. We want them to believe in America, and we want them to know
-that America believes in them.
- -- Colin Powell's autobiography, "My American Journey" (Ballantine, 1996)
-~
- In the past fifteen years one big American company after another has
-done this [i.e., downsized itself]--among them IBM, Sears, and GM. Each
-first announced that laying off 10,000 or 20,000 or even 50,000 people would
-lead to an immediate turnaround. A year later there had, of course, been no
-turnaround, and the company laid off another 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000--
-again without results. In many if not most cases, downsizing has turned out
-to be something that surgeons have warned against: 'amputation before
-diagnosis.' The result is always a casualty.
- But there have been a few organizations--some large companies (GE,
-for instance) and a few hospitals (Beth Israel in Boston, for instance)--
-that quietly, and without fanfare, did turn themselves around, by rethinking
-themselves. They did not start out by downsizing. If fact, they knew that
-to start by reducing expenditures is not the way to get control of costs.
-The starting point is to identify the activities that are productive, that
-should be strengthened, promoted, and expanded. Every agency, every policy,
-every program, every activity should be confronted with these questions:
-'What is your mission?' 'Is it still the right mission?' 'Is it still
-worth doing?' 'If we were not already doing this, would we go into it now?'
-This questioning has been done often enough in all kinds of organizations--
-businesses, hospitals, churches, an even local governments--that we know
-it works.
- The overall answer is almost never 'This is fine as it stands; let's
-keep on.' But in some--indeed, a good many--areas, the answer to the
-last question is 'Yes, we should go into this again, but with some changes.
-We have learned a few things.'
- -- Peter F. Drucker, from "Managing in a Time of Great Change,"
- Truman-Talley Books/Dutton, 1995.
-~
- Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
-General recognition of this fact is shown in the proverbial phrase 'It is
-the busiest man who has time to spare.' Thus, an elderly lady of leisure
-can spend the entire day in writing and dispatching a postcard to her niece
-at Bognor Reis. An hour will be spent in finding the postcard, half an
-hour in a search for spectacles, half an hour in a search for the address,
-an hour and a quarter in composition, and twenty minutes in deciding
-whether or not to take an umbrella when going to the mailbox in the next
-street. The total effort that would occupy a busy man [or woman] for three
-minutes all told may in this fashion leave another person [man or woman]
-prostate after a day of doubt, anxiety, and toil.
- Granted that work (and especially paperwork) is thus elastic in its
-demands on time, it is manifest that there need be little or no
-relationship between the work to be done and the size of the staff to which
-it may be assigned. A lack of real activity does not, of necessity, result
-in leisure. A lack of occupation is not necessarily revealed by a manifest
-idleness. The thing to be done swells in importance and complexity in a
-direct ration with the time to be spent. This fact is widely recognized,
-but less attention has been paid to its wider implications, more especially
-in the field of publication administration. Politicians and taxpayers have
-assume (with occasional phases of doubt) that a rising total in the number
-of civil servants must reflect a growing volume of work to be done.
-Cynics, in questioning this belief, have imagined that the multiplication
-of officials must have left some of them idle or all of them able to work
-for shorter hours. But this is a matter in which faith and doubt seem
-equally misplaced. The fact is that the number of officials and the
-quantity of the work are not related to each other at all. The rise in the
-toil of those employed is governed by Parkinson's Law and would be much the
-same whether the volume of the work were to increase, diminish, or even
-disappear. The importance of Parkinson's Law lies in the fact that it is a
-law of growth based upon an analysis of the factors by which that growth is
-controlled.
- The validity of this recently discovered law must rest mainly on
-statistical proofs, which will follow. Of more interest to the general
-reader is the explanation of the factors underlying the general tendency to
-which this law gives definition. Omitting technicalities (which are
-numerous) we may distinguish at the outset two motive forces. They can be
-represented for the present purpose by two almost axiomatic statements,
-thus: (1) 'An official wants to multiply subordinates, not rivals' and (2)
-'Officials make work for each other.'
- -- C. Northcote Parkinson, from "Parkinson's Law & Other Studies
- in Administration," (1957; Buccaneer Books ed., 1996).
-~
-The smallest feline is a masterpiece.
- -- Leonardo Da Vinci
-~
- Though it may be discomforting to admit, throughout history children
-have always played violent games. Early in this century, young boys played
-'war' with lines of tin soldiers, knocking them down one by one, or in one
-fell swoop, in a simulated battle. The next generation played cowboys and
-Indians or cops and robbers, where the youngsters themselves fell down and
-played dead. When parents stopped buying soldier figures and fake guns,
-children created their own weapons and continued to play out good guy/bad
-guy plots. Children are attracted to violence and critical studies of
-older media forms, including the fairy tale, suggest it is not always in
-children's best interests to remove from their cultural experience all
-material that parents deem is too provocative or violent.
- This is not a simple issue.
- Clearly much of the concern about violence in video games and other
-media is misplaced--the main sources of violent behavior lies elsewhere.
-These include parental violence toward children and violence between
-nations which portray the use of force in the real world by important
-institutions--parents and government--as an acceptable way to solve
-problems or vent anger.
- Nevertheless, the impact of video games, television, film or other
-media violence (such as the gory details of murders in the print media)
-probably has a negative impact on violent behavior in society, as does the
-proliferation of weapons.
- The impact of media violence on an individual child's behavior is
-probably very specific to the child and his or her social context. There
-is no evidence, for example, that the use of "Beat-'em-up" video games
-leads to violent behavior of well-adjusted youth coming from loving
-families. The impact is also probably specific to age. Just as it makes
-sense to restrict a 10-year-old's access to movies with extreme violent
-content, so it makes sense to restrict age-inappropriate video games. Age
-ratings on video game packages do appear to be helpful and appropriate.
- Most violent games today are cartoon-like. This will change as games
-become more realistic and, 3D, and eventually realistic of virtual reality,
-ensuring that this issue will not disappear.
- It is inappropriate for children of any age to spend significant
-parts of life using violent video games, or any video games for that
-matter. Conversely, for most children it makes little sense to deny access
-to age-appropriate games simply for fear that these will lead to antisocial
-behavior. Successful parenting is a question of balance.
- -- Don Tapscott, "Growing Up Digital"
-~
- Literacy-based education, as all other literacy experiences, assumes
-that people are the same. It presumes that each human being can and must
-be literate. Just as the goal of industry was to turn out standardized
-products, education assumes the same task through the mold of literacy.
-Diplomas and certificates testify how like the mold the product is. To
-those who have problems with writing or reading, the labels legasthenic and
-dyslexic are applied. Dyscalculus is the name given to the inability to
-cope with numbers. The question of why we should expect uniform cognitive
-structures covering the literate use of language or numbers, but not the
-use of sounds, colors, shapes, and volume, is never raised. Tremendous
-effort is made to help individuals who simply cannot execute the
-sequentiality of writing or the meaning of successive numbers. Nothing
-similar is done to address cognitive characteristics of persons inclined to
-means different from literacy...
- Education needs to reconsider its expectation of a universal common
-denominator, based on the industrial model of standardization. Rather than
-taming and sanitizing the minds of students, education has not only to
-acknowledge differences in aptitudes and interests but also to stimulate
-them. Every known form of energy is the expression of difference and not
-the result of leveling.
- -- Mihai Nadin, "The Civilization of Illiteracy," (1997)
-~
- Anthropologists have identified a number of characteristics that seem
-common to most non-technological societies past and present. These
-societies tend to value practical rather than abstract knowledge, their
-'primitive' rituals are part of the regular day-to-day realities of life,
-the groups tend not to support specialists other than the shaman, every
-member of the group can to some extent do every task, and all share the
-responsibility for all others. Principally, the 'primitive' takes a holist
-view of life that examines all social decisions for their effect on the
-community and the environment.
- These social values may fit well in the webbed communities of the
-mid-twenty-first century because they are more appropriate to small,
-relatively simple social structures that up to now had seemed to be
-disappearing... For such communities, the most valuable skills would be
-generalist rather than specialist. They would prize the ability to
-connect, to think imaginatively, to understand how data are related, to see
-patterns in machine-generated innovation, and to assess its social effect
-before releasing it on society...
- Today, billions of human talents could be on the verge of
-self-expression if we are willing to take new views and see where they
-might lead us.
- -- James Burke & Robert Ornstein, "The Axemaker's Gift: A Double-Edged
- History of Human Culture," (Grosset/Putnam 1995).
-~
-(History is) indeed little more than the register of
-the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.
- -- Edward Gibbon
-~
-All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.
- -- Edward Gibbon
-~
-The beauty of the second amendment is that it will
-not be needed until they try to take it.
- -- Thomas Jefferson
-~
-No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
- -- Thomas Jefferson
-~
-Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are
-the people's liberty's teeth.
- -- George Washington
-~
-Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks
-and Romans, and must be that of every free state.
- -- Thomas Jefferson
-~
-Government is not reason, it is not eloquence. It is force.
-Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master.
- -- George Washington
-~
-I have found a certain type calls himself a liberal... Now I always
-thought I was a liberal. I came up terribly surprised one time when I
-found out that I was a right-wing, conservative extremist...
- -- John Wayne
-~
-Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come
-from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is the history
-of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of
-governmental power, not the increase of it.
- -- Woodrow Wilson
-~
-I believe there are more instances of abridgment of freedom of the
-people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by
-violent and sudden usurpations...
- -- James Madison
-~
-You vote for me and I'll give you family values... I promise you the
-most ethical administration in the history of our country.
- -- William Jefferson Clinton
-~
-Many give lip service, but few delegate authority in important
-matters. And that means all they delegate is dog-work. A real
-leader does as much dog-work for his people as he can: he can do
-it, or see a way to do without it, ten times as fast. And he
-delegates as many important matters as he can because that creates
-a climate in which people grow.
- -- Robert Townsend, founder of Avis Rent-a-Car
-~
-True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the
-enrichment of the leaders. In combat, officers eat last. Most
-people in big companies today are administered, not led. They are
-treated as personnel, not people.
- -- Robert Townsend, founder of Avis Rent-a-Car
-~
-How do you spot a leader? They come in all ages, shapes, sizes,
-and conditions. Some are poor administrators, some are not overly
-bright. One clue: since most people per se are mediocre, the true
-leader can be recognized because, somehow or other, his people
-consistently turn in superior performances.
- -- Robert Townsend, founder of Avis Rent-a-Car
-~
-Before you commit yourself to a new effort, it's worth asking
-yourself a couple of questions: "Are we really trying to do
-something worthwhile here? Or are we just building another
-monument to some diseased ego?"
- -- Robert Townsend, founder of Avis Rent-a-Car
-~
-Beware the boss who walks on water and never makes a mistake.
-Save yourself a lot of grief and seek employment elsewhere.
- -- Robert Townsend, founder of Avis Rent-a-Car
-~
- Every genius is a revolutionary who produces a good deal of commotion
-in the world. After he has abolished the old rules he writes his own, the
-new ones, which no one even half understands; and after he has stupefied
-and bewildered everybody, he leaves the world neither understood nor
-regretted. Not always does the next generation comprehend and appreciate
-him properly. Sometimes it may even take a whole century.
- -- Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)
-~
-To assume a cat's asleep
-Is a great mistake.
-He can close his eyes and keep
-Both his ears awake.
- -- Aileen Fisher
-~
- A most nerve-wracking confirmation of this came some time ago during
-an interview with the producer and the writer of the TV mini-series 'Peter
-the Great.' Defending the historical inaccuracies in the drama--which
-included a fabricated meeting between Peter and Sir Isaac Newton--the
-producer said that no one would watch a dry, historically faithful
-biography. The writer added that it is better for audiences to learn
-something that is untrue, if it is entertaining, than not to learn anything
-at all. And just to put some icing on the cake, the actor who played Peter,
-Maximilian Schell, remarked that he does not believe in historical truth and
-therefore sees no reason to pursue it.
- I do not mean to say that the trivialization of American public
-discourse is all accomplished on television. Rather, television is the
-paradigm for all our attempts at public communication. It conditions our
-minds to apprehend the world through fragmented pictures and forces other
-media to orient themselves in that direction...
- As a medium for conducting public business, language has receded in
-importance; it has been moved to the periphery of culture and has been
-replaced at the center by the entertaining visual image... When a culture
-becomes overloaded with pictures; when logic and rhetoric lose their
-binding authority; when historical truth becomes irrelevant; when the
-spoken or written word is distrusted or makes demands on our attention that
-we are incapable of giving; when our politics, history, education,
-religion, public information, and commerce are expressed largely in visual
-imagery rather than words, then a culture is in serious jeopardy.
- -- Neil Postman, from "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public
- Discourse in the Age of Show Business," (Viking Press 1986).
-~
- It is a perplexing and unpleasant truth that when men already have
-'something worth fighting for,' they do not feel like fighting. People who
-live full, worthwhile lives are not usually ready to die for their own
-interests nor for their country nor for a holy cause. Craving, not having,
-is the mother of a reckless giving of oneself.
- 'Things which are not' are indeed mightier than 'things that are.' In
-all ages men have fought most desperately for beautiful cities yet to be
-built and gardens yet to be planted...
- It is strange, indeed, that those who hug the present and hang on to
-it with all their might should be the least capable of defending it. And
-that, on the other hand, those who spurn the present and dust their hands of
-it should have all its gifts and treasures showered on them unasked.
- Dreams, vision and wild hopes are mighty weapons and realistic tools.
-The practical-mindedness of a true leader consists in recognizing the
-practical value of these tools. Yet this recognition usually stems from a
-contempt of the present which can be traced to a natural ineptitude in
-practical affairs. The successful businessman is often a failure as a
-communal leader because his mind is attuned to the 'things that are' and his
-heart set on that which can be accomplished in 'our time.' Failure in the
-management of practical affairs seems to be a qualification for success in
-the management of public affairs. And it is perhaps fortunate that some
-proud natures when suffering defeat in the practical world do not feel
-crushed but are suddenly fired with the apparently absurd conviction that
-they are eminently competent to direct the fortunes of the community and the
-nation.
- -- Eric Hoffer, "The True Believer", 1951
-~
-Bought me a cat, the cat pleased me,
-I fed my cat under yonder tree,
-Cat goes fiddle-i-fee, fiddle-i-fee.
- -- Traditional Folk Song
-~
- Love is one aspect of what I have called the productive orientation:
-the active and creative relatedness of man to his fellow man, to himself and
-to nature. In the realm of thought, this productive orientation is
-expressed in the proper grasp of the world by reason. In the realm of
-action, the productive orientation is expressed in productive work, the
-prototype of which is art and craftsmanship. In the realm of feeling, the
-productive orientation is expressed in love, which is the experience of
-union with another person, with all men, and with nature, under the
-condition of retaining one's sense of integrity and independence. In the
-experience of love the paradox happens that two people become one, and
-remain two at the same time. Love in this sense is never restricted to one
-person. If I can love only one person, and nobody else, if my love for one
-person makes me more alienated and distant from my fellow man, I may be
-attached to this person in any number of ways, yet I do not love. If I can
-say, 'I love you,' I say, 'I love you in you also myself.' Self-love, in
-this sense, is the opposite of selfishness. The latter is actually a greedy
-concern with oneself which springs from and compensates for the lack of
-genuine love for oneself. Love, paradoxically, makes me more independent
-because it makes me stronger and happier--yet it makes me one with the
-loved person to the extent that individuality seems to be extinguished for
-the moment. In loving I experience 'I am you,' you-the loved person,
-you-the stranger, you-everything alive. In the experience of love lies the
-only answer to being human, lies sanity.
- -- Erich Fromm, from "The Sane Society", 1955
-~
-# NO WARRANTY: THIS WORK IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS. THE AUTHOR
-# PROVIDES NO WARRANTY WHATSOEVER, EITHER EXPRESS OR
-# IMPLIED, REGARDING THE WORK, INCLUDING WARRANTIES WITH
-# RESPECT TO ITS MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY
-# PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
-#
-# Author contact: Peter Alexander Merel
-# Internet: pete@cssc-syd.tansu.oz.au
-# UUCP: {uunet,mcvax}!munnari!cssc-syd!pete
-# Snail: 1/18-20 Orion Road, Lane Cove NSW 2066 Australia
-# Phone: +61 2 911 3130
-#
-# Copyright: Copyright (C) 1992 Peter Alexander Merel
-# Permission to copy all or part of this work is granted,
-# provided that the copies are not made or distributed
-# for resale (except nominal copying fee may be charged),
-# and provided that the NO WARRANTY, author-contact, and
-# copyright notice are retained verbatim & are displayed
-# conspicuously. If anyone needs other permissions that
-# aren't covered by the above, please contact the author.
-#
-# Version: 1.0
-#
-# Tao Te Ching.
-# Peter Merel's Interpolation based upon the translations of:
-# Lin Yutang, Ch'u Ta-Kao, Gia-Fu Feng & Jane English,
-# Richard Wilhelm, and Aleister Crowley.
-~
- Seeing is of course indispensable to learning, particularly in
-science, which is of the eye. Visual aids therefore have a place in the
-laboratory. And most students, not being future scientists, will learn
-more from good films of important experiments than from their own fumbling
-attempts. But sometimes they must fumble too, and have a teacher who
-fumbles on occasion, and thinks all the time he is in class. One learns
-not by a photographic copying of things shown, but by an internal drama
-imitative of the action witnessed. When the instructor gropes for a word,
-corrects himself, interjects a comment or an analogy not directly called
-for, he gives a spectacle of man thinking which no slick film or televised
-show will provide.
- -- Jacques Barzun, from "Science: The Glorious Entertainment", 1964
-~
- Far from behaving (or should one say behavioring?) with the regular
-intelligibility of a clock, the bent of the living and of man in particular
-is to MISbehave, in all senses of the word--from developing allergies,
-which make poison out of delicacies, to committing crimes which, as in
-saints and statesman, can later seem the highest wisdom. It is even proved
-by research that man must have his ration of dreaming, that is, of
-irregular and inaccurate thinking. These facts of experience require that
-any science of the regularities of behavior be always qualified and
-admonished by another discipline, a learned lore of misbehavior.
- -- Jacques Barzun, from "Science: The Glorious Entertainment", 1964
-~
-Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather
-a new wearer of clothes.
- -- Henry David Thoreau
-~
-What men call social virtue, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue
-of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to keep each other warm.
- -- Henry David Thoreau
-~
-The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
-What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
- -- Henry David Thoreau
-~
-Some circumstantial evidence is very strong,
-as when you find a trout in the milk.
- -- Henry David Thoreau
-~
- I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front
-only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had
-to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did
-not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to
-practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep
-and suck out all of the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartanlike
-as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave
-close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and,
-if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of
-it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it
-by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
- -- Henry David Thoreau, from "Walden; or Life in the Woods"
-~
- The Mind has a different relish, as well as the Palate; and you will
-as fruitlessly endeavour to delight all Men with Riches or Glory, (which yet
-some Men place their Happiness in,) as you would to satisfie all Men's
-Hunger with Cheese or Lobsters; which though very agreeable and delicious
-fare to some, are to others extremely nauseous and offensive: And many
-People would with Reason prefer the griping of an hungry Belly, to those
-Dishes, which are a Feast to others. Hence it was, I think, that the
-Philosophers of old did in vain enquire, whether Summum bonum (the chief
-good) consisted in Riches, or bodily Delights, or Virtue, or Contemplation:
-And they might have as reasonably disputed, whether the best Relish were to
-be found in Apples, Plumbs, or Nuts; and have divided themselves into Sects
-upon it. For as pleasant Tastes depend not on the things themselves, but
-their agreeableness to this or that particulate Palate, wherein there is
-great variety: So the greatest Happiness consists, in the having those
-things which produce the greatest Pleasure, and the absence of those which
-cause any disturbance, any pain, which to different Men are very different
-things. If therefore Men in this Life only have hope; if in this Life they
-can only enjoy, 'tis not strange, nor unreasonable, they should seek their
-Happiness by avoiding all things that disease them here, and by preferring
-all that delight them; wherein it will be no wonder to find variety and
-difference. For if there be no Prospect beyond the Grave, the inference is
-certainly right, Let us eat and drink, let us enjoy what we delight in, for
-to morrow we shall die. This, I think, may serve to shew us the Reason,
-why, though all Men's desires tend to Happiness, yet they are not moved by
-the same Object. Men may chuse different things, and yet all chuse right,
-supposing them only like a Company of poor Insects, whereof some are Bees,
-delighted with Flowers, and their sweetness; others, Bettles, delighted with
-other kinds of Viands; which having enjoyed for a Season, they should cease
-to be, and exist no more for ever.
- -- John Locke, from "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding."
-~
-Businesses will not buy Linux because there is no one to sue.
- -- LinuxToday
-~
- Even if something new does not require a disruption of the old, there
-is no space. People, time and resources are fully stretched--in many
-cases there is actually a cutting-back in resources.
- The paradox is that as we advance into the future the need for change
-gets greater and greater (to cope with changes in population, pollution,
-etc., and to make full use of our new technologies) but the possibility of
-change gets less and less because everything is already committed.
- A wise general does not commit all his troops but keeps a strategic
-reserve which can be used as the need and opportunity arise. Society does
-not do this, because we believe that we have all the bases covered and that
-progress will come about through evolution, the clash of opinions and the
-occasional lone innovator.
- In addition to allocating funds to research, most successful
-corporations also allocate funds to new business divisions or venture
-groups. Like the strategic reserves of a general, these groups are outside
-the day-to-day combat and are looking for new opportunities.
- Democracy could not easily tolerate this principle of strategic
-reserve, for the unallocated resources would be the target of every
-department or issue that felt it was under-funded. Emergency funds do
-exist, but not space and resources for change.
- The same thing applies on the thinking level. A person who knows all
-the answers, has an opinion on everything, has a certainty backed up by
-rational argument, has very little possibility of further progress. Such a
-person is unlikely to walk away from a discussion with anything more than a
-reaffirmation of how right he or she has been all along.
- -- Edward deBono, from "I Am Right, You Are Wrong" (Penguin Books, 1990)
-~
- The pleasantest time of day here is at sunset. Then accompanied by
-some fifteen girls and little children I walk through the village to the end
-of Siufaga, where we stand on an iron bound point and watch the waves splash
-us in the face, while the sun goes down, over the sea and at the same time
-behind the cocoanut covered hills. Most of the adult population is going
-into the sea to bathe, clad in lavalavas with buckets for water borne along
-on shoulder poles. All the heads of families are seated in the fatele
-(village guesthouse) making kava. At one point a group of women are filling
-a small canoe with a solution of native starch (arrowroot). And perhaps,
-just as we reach the store, the curfew-angelus will stop us, a wooden bell
-will clang mellowly through the village. The children must all scurry to
-cover, if we're near the store, it's the store steps, and sit tight until
-the bell sounds again. Prayer is over. Sometimes we are all back safely in
-room when the bell sounds, and then the Lord's Prayer must be said in
-English, while flowers are all taken out of their hair and the siva song
-stopped in the middle. But once the bell sounds again, solemnity, never of
-a very reliable depth, is sloughed off, the flowers replaced in the girls'
-hair, the siva song replaces the hymn, and they begin to dance, by no means
-in a puritan fashion. Their supper comes about eight and sometimes I have a
-breathing spell, but usually the supper hours don't jibe well enough for
-that. They dance for me a great deal, they love it and it is an excellent
-index to temperament, as the dance is so individualistic, and the audience
-think it is its business to keep up incessant comment.
- -- Margaret Mead, from "Coming of Age in Samoa"
-~
-There aren't any embarassing questions--only embarassing answers.
- -- Carl Rowan
-~
- Recently one of us was leading a group of thirty Western
-businesspeople through Japan to learn about Japanese management techniques.
-We took the bullet train from Hiroshima to Osaka, and since the train
-stopped for only twenty seconds in Hiroshima, it would have been impossible
-to get all the executives and their luggage on the train at the same time.
-So we hired a trucking company and crew to transfer the luggage separately.
-The crew removed all luggage from each individual's room in Hiroshima and
-placed it in his pre-checked room in another chain's hotel in Osaka. Can
-you imagine doing that in the United States and ever seeing your luggage
-again?
- One of the executives, thinking his shoes were too worn, had discarded
-them in the wastepaper basket in his Hiroshima hotel room. Imagine his shock
-when he entered his room in Osaka and saw his old shoes carefully laid in
-the wastepaper basket there. Was the Japanese trucking company politely
-saying that these shoes still had life and should yet be thrown away, or was
-the company accommodating a crazy foreigner who liked to keep his shoes in
-the wastepaper basket? Either way, the company was organized for highly
-intelligent service at every level.
- -- Stan David and Jim Botkins, from "The Monster Under the Bed: How
- Business is Mastering the Opportunity of Knowledge for Profit",
- (Simon & Schuster, 1994).
-~
- The term 'information' appears to cover too much that seems
-distinctive: knowledge, data, information in a narrow sense that some treat
-as synonymous with data, news, intelligence, and numerous other colloquial
-and specialized denotations and connotations. However, the distinctions
-implied by oppositions such as observations/theories, data/knowledge, raw
-intelligence/finished intelligence, accounting details/management are
-secondary, not fundamental, in characterizing information resources. They
-reflect only relative judgments. For instance, one person's knowledge is
-often another's raw data. What a vice president for marketing, production,
-or finance thinks he knows is just data to the chief executive officer's
-staff. What a scientist thinks he knows about the merits of a flu vaccine
-or the safety of a nuclear reactor is just data for presidential policy and
-politics. Data or knowledge are just types of information content--of
-greater or lesser value, of greater or lesser cost.
- -- Anthony Oettinger, from "The Information Resources Policy Handbook"
-~
- Given the fact that there seems to be a fundamental willingness to
-accept the machine as almost human, the issue of what type of relationship
-is possible seems to center around what friendship-cues might be
-artificially generated. Appearance and voice quality could certainly be
-tailored so that the machine would look and sound attractive and friendly.
-The software could be written to suggest an interesting and unique
-personality, and the conversational style might appear as humorous and
-good-natured. The machine would not only impress us with its intelligence
-and knowledge of the world, but would also convey the impression that it
-was warm and understanding. Its ability to integrate our interests and
-attitudes into its own framework and its willingness to be influenced by
-our point of view would also enhance our respect for the machine. The fact
-that it appeared to take our opinions seriously might be regarded as a
-compliment, and it is clear that if we are prepared to accept compliments
-from a computer then we are implicitly accepting it as a social agent.
- Friendships are not made in a day, and the computer would be more
-acceptable as a friend if it simulated the gradual changes that occur when
-one person is getting to know another. At an appropriate time it might
-also express the endearment that stimulates attachment and intimacy. The
-whole process would be accomplished with subtlety to avoid giving an
-impression of overfamiliarity or ingratiation, which would be likely to
-produce irritation or animosity. After experiencing a wealth of powerful,
-well-timed indicators, the user would be likely to accept the computer as
-far more than a machine and might well come to regard it as a friend.
- -- Neil Frude, from "The Intimate Machine: Close Encounters with
- Computers and Robots," 1983.
-~
- By this time the stars were moving out of the Hollywood Hotel and
-beginning to live in their own private houses with servants, most of whom
-were their peers in everything but sex appeal--which pinpoints the reason for
-the film capital's mass misbehavior. To place in the limelight a great
-number of people who ordinarily would be chambermaids and chauffeurs, give
-them unlimited power and instant wealth, is bound to produce a lively and
-diverting result.
- -- Anita Loos
-~
- The four years passed at college were, for his purposes, wasted.
-Harvard College was a good school, but at bottom what the boy
-disliked most was any school at all. He did not want to be one in a
-hundred--one percent of an education. He regarded himself as the
-only person for whom his education had value, and he wanted the whole
-of it. He got barely half of an average.
- Long afterwards, when the devious path of life led him back to
-teach in his turn what no student naturally cared or needed to know
-[medieval history], he diverted some dreary hours of faculty meetings
-by looking up his record in the class-lists, and found himself graded
-precisely in the middle. In the one branch he most needed --
-mathematics--barring the few first scholars, failure was so nearly
-universal that no attempt at grading could have had value, and
-whether he stood fortieth or ninetieth must have been an accident or
-the personal favor of the professor. Here his education failed
-lamentably. At best he could never have been a mathematician; at
-worst he would never have cared to be one; but he needed to read
-mathematics, like any other universal language, and he never reached
-the alphabet.
- -- Henry Adams, from "The Education of Henry Adams"
-~
- The pedagogical method of observation has for its base the liberty of
-the child; and liberty is activity.
- Discipline must come through liberty. Here is a great principle which
-is difficult for followers of common-school methods to understand. How
-shall one obtain discipline in a class of free children? Certainly in our
-system, we have a concept of discipline very different from that commonly
-accepted. If discipline is founded upon liberty, consider an individual
-disciplined only when he has been rendered as artificially silent as a mute
-and as immovable as a paralytic. He is an individual annihilated, not
-disciplined.
- We call an individual disciplined when he is master of himself, and
-can, therefore, regulate his own conduct when it shall be necessary to
-follow some rule of life. Such a concept of active discipline is not easy
-either to comprehend or to apply. But certainly it contains a great
-educational principle, very different from the old-time absolute and
-undiscussed coercion to immobility.
- -- Maria Montessori, inventor of the "Montessori Method"
-~
- A company could conceivably have within it a monastery-style unit
-that writes software... a research team organized like an improvisational
-jazz combo... a compartmentalized spy-network, with need-to-know rules,
-operating within the law, to scout for merger or acquisition
-possibilities... and a sales force organized as a highly motivated 'tribe'
-complete with its own war songs and emotional membership rituals.
- ...(T)he units of a flex-firm may draw information, people, and money
-from one another and from outside organizations as needed. They may be next
-door to one another or continents apart. Their functions may partly
-overlap, like information in a hyper-media data base; for other purposes,
-the functions may be logically, geographically, or financially divided.
-Some may use many central services provided by headquarters; others may
-choose to use only a few.
- In turn this requires freer, faster flows of information. This will
-mean crisscrossing, up, down, and sideways conduits--neural pathways that
-bust through the boxes in the table of organization so that people can trade
-the ideas, data, formulae, hints, insights, facts, strategies, whispers,
-gesture, and smiles that turn out to be essential to efficiency.
- -- Alvin Toffler, from "Powershift"
-~
-Here in the newspaper business, we have definitely caught Internet Fever.
-In the old days, we used to -- get this! -- actually CHARGE MONEY for our
-newspapers. Ha! What an old-fashioned, low-tech, non-digital concept!
-Nowadays all of the modern newspapers spend millions of dollars operating
-Web sites where we give away the entire newspaper for free. Sometimes we
-run advertisements in the regular newspaper urging our paying customers to
-go to our Web sites instead. 'Stop giving us money!' is the shrewd marketing
-thrust of these ads. Why do we do this? Because all the other newspapers
-are doing it! This is called 'market penetration.'
- -- Dave Barry
-~
- A highly competitive person has a hard row to hoe. There is no
-satisfaction in winning a competition unless it is a stiff and fair one.
-Stiff is easy to define; it is stiff if one's own realistic assessment of
-one's abilities make the odds long--the longer the odds, the greater
-satisfaction on winning. Fair is harder to define, for if one wins a
-contest against long odds, there must be a reason. The odds weren't really
-long; they only appeared to be so. Isn't it unfair to appear to be an
-underdog when one really isn't? Let's start with some obvious distinctions:
-A professional gambler needs to win in order to earn his living. Fairness
-is not his concern. He tries to be unfair in various ways: Keeping cards up
-his sleeve is one way that the rest of us universally deplore; the morality
-of concealing his skill to attract dupes is hardly less questionable.
-Fairness means at least an honest deal (no hidden cards) and no intentional
-concealment of one's abilities.
- -- Herbert A. Simon, from "Models of My Life" (Basic Books, 1991)
-~
- The United States is trying to promote democracy around the
-world and holds itself up as a model. However, it is obvious that
-our democracy has been reduced to charisma and money.
- Surely intelligent and conscientious citizens can make wise and
-informed decisions? I for one cannot... I do not know anyone who
-spends more hours than I do in search of information and wisdom, yet
-it avails me little. Many people with power spend much of their time
-flying around the world, being wined and dined, but that means they
-have little time to do their homework.
- Is the idea of democracy based on an informed electorate just a dream?
-
- -- Ronald Hilton, founder of WAIS (World Association of
- International Studies).
-~
- When there is communication without need for communication,
-merely so that someone may earn the social and intellectual prestige
-of becoming a priest of communication, the quality and communicative
-value of the message drop like a plummet... In the arts, the desire
-to find new things to say and new ways of saying them is the source
-of all life and interest. Yet every day we meet with examples of
-painting where, for instance, the artist has bound himself from the
-new canons of the abstract, and has displayed no intention to use these
-canons to display an interesting and novel form of beauty, to pursue
-the uphill fight against the prevailing tendency toward the commonplace
-and the banal...
- I speak here with feeling which is more intense as far as concerns
-the scientific artist than the conventional artist, because it is in
-science that I have first chosen to say something. What sometimes
-enrages me and always disappoints and grieves me is the preference of
-great schools of learning for the derivative as opposed to the original,
-for the conventional and thin which can be duplicated in many copies
-rather than the new and powerful, and for arid correctness and
-limitation of scope and method rather than for universal newness and
-beauty, wherever it may be seen.
- -- Norbert Wiener, from "The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics
- and Society" (1950)
-~
- Please do not suppose that the only function of puzzles is to entertain.
-Puzzles are a way of teaching mathematics. Indeed, they are the best way to
-teach it. Fred Hoyle, the famous British astronomer who taught mathematics
-at Cambridge University for twenty years states in strong terms his belief
-that mathematics should never be 'taught' at all. Students must learn for
-themselves. How? By solving puzzles. The functions of the teacher should
-be, first, to select in a wise way the material on which the puzzles are
-based, second, to make sure the puzzles are well suited in difficulty to the
-sophistication of the student, third, to answer questions, and finally, if
-the teacher is capable of it, to give an occasional word of inspiration.
- -- Martin Gardner
-~
-A cat's idea of what is comfortable and what is not
-is incomprehensible to a human.
- -- Colette
-~
-In the sciences, hypothesis always precedes law, which is to say, there is
-always a lot of tall guessing before a new fact is established. The
-guessers are often quite as important as the fact-finders; in truth, it
-would not be difficult to argue that they are more important. New facts are
-seldom plucked from the clear sky; they have to be approached and smelled
-out by a process of trial and error, in which bold and shrewd guessing is an
-integral part. The Greeks were adept at such guessing, and the scientists
-of the world have been following the leads they opened for more than two
-thousand years.
- -- H. L. Mencken, "A Mencken Chrestomathy," 1982
-~
-I love a dog. He does nothing for political reasons.
- -- Will Rogers
-~
-If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face,
-you should go home and examine your conscience.
- -- Woodrow Wilson
-~
-I am called a dog because I fawn on those who give me anything,
-I yelp at those who refuse, and I set my teeth in rascals.
- -- Diogenes
-~
-Those sighs of a dog! They go to the heart so much more
-deeply than the sighs of our own kind because they are utterly
-unintended, regardless of effect, emerging from one who, heaving
-them, knows not that they have escaped him!
- -- John Galsworthy
-~
-(Of dogs) I marvel that such small ribs as these can
-cage such vast desire to please.
- -- Ogden Nash
-~
-'Tis sweet to hear the watch-dog's honest bark
-Bay deep-mouth'd welcome as we draw near home;
-'Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark
-Our coming, and look brighter when we come.
- -- Lord Byron
-~
-Near this spot are deposited the remains of one who possessed
-Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without
-Ferocity, and all the Virtues of Man without his Vices. This praise,
-which would be unmeaning Flattery, if inscribed over human ashes, is
-but a just Tribute to the Memory of BOATSWAIN, a Dog.
- -- Inscription on the monument raised for Lord Byron's dog, Boatswain
-~
-Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.
- -- Alexander Pope
-~
-A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.
- -- Ogden Nash
-~
-Living with a dog is easy--like living with an idealist.
- -- H. L. Mencken
-~
-The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool
-of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you,
-but he will make a fool of himself too.
- -- Samuel Butler (d. 1902), Note-Book
-~
-The dog has seldom been successful in pulling man up to his level
-of sagacity, but man has frequently dragged the dog down to his.
- -- James Thurber
-~
-I agree with Agassiz that dogs possess something very like a conscience.
- -- Charles Darwin
-~
-For the strength of the pack is the wolf,
-and the strength of the wolf is the pack.
- -- Rudyard Kipling
-~
-All of the animals except humans know that the
-principal business of life is to enjoy it.
- -- Samuel Butler
-~
-Cowardly dogs bark loudest. -- John Webster
-~
-Dogs like to obey. It gives them security. -- James Herriot
-~
-A dog's best friend is his illiteracy. -- Ogden Nash
-~
-Take a dog for a companion and a stick in your hand. -- English Proverb
-~
-A lean dog shames its master. -- Japanese Proverb
-~
-The dog was created specially for children.
-He is a god of frolic.
- -- Henry Ward Beecher, Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
-~
-Dogs have not the power of comparing. A dog will take a small piece
-of meat as readily as a large, when both are before him.
- -- Samuel Johnson
-~
-All knowledge, the totality of all questions and all answers,
-is contained in the dog.
- -- Franz Kafka
-~
-The dog has an enviable mind; it remembers the nice things in life
-and quickly blots out the nasty.
- -- Barbara Woodhouse
-~
-If dogs could talk, perhaps we would find it as hard to get along
-with them as we do with people.
- -- Karel Capek
-~
-Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.
- -- Colette
-~
-You become responsible forever for what you have tamed.
- -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
-~
-A dog has the soul of a philosopher. -- Plato
-~
-The more I see of men, the more I like dogs. -- Madame Anne Maria de Stael
-~
-The reason a dog has so many friends is that
-he wags his tail instead of his tongue.
- -- Anonymous
-~
-We see how he is at once in a world of smells of which
-we know nothing, which so occupy and absorb his attention
-as to make him practically blind to everything about him
-and deaf to all sounds, even his master's voice impatiently
-calling him.
- -- W. H. Hudson
-~
-A man may smile and bid you hail
-Yet wish you to the devil;
-But when a good dog wags his tail,
-You know he's on the level.
- -- Submitted to www.dog.com by TJ Brown
-~
-Old dogs, like old shoes, are comfortable.
-They might be a bit out of shape and a little
-worn around the edges, but they fit well.
- -- Bonnie Wilcox
-~
-In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely try to
-train him to be semi-human. The point of it is to open
-oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog.
- -- Edward Hoagland
-~
-I'd be happy to have my biography be the stories of my dogs.
-To me, to live without dogs would mean accepting a form of blindness.
- -- Thomas McGuane
-~
-Every dog should have a man of his own. There is nothing like a
-well-behaved person around the house to spread the blanket for him,
-or bring him his supper when he comes home man-tired at night.
- -- Corey Ford
-~
-Not Carnegie, Vanderbilt, and Astor
-together could have raised money enough
-to buy a quarter share in my little dog...
- -- Ernest Thompson Seton
-~
-I'd rather have an inch of dog than miles of pedigree. -- Dana Burnet
-~
-...in a healthy dog-owner relationship, praise is virtually
-an automatic reaction, an attitude toward the dog, a way of
-living with the dog. The most common mistake is to consider
-praise as simply a reward.
- -- The Monks of New Skete
-~
-Dogs need to sniff the ground; it's how they keep abreast of
-current events. The ground is a giant dog newspaper, containing
-all kinds of late-breaking dog news items, which, if they are
-especially urgent, are often continued in the next yard.
- -- Dave Barry
-~
-A dog is not "almost human" and I know of no greater insult to the
-canine race than to describe it as such. The dog can do many things
-which man cannot do, never could do, and never will do.
- -- John Holmes
-~
-imagine yourself lying in the tall purple grass with the sharp blades
-rubbing up against your flesh like rusty razors while the dark red
-moon drops drips of blood into the oozing green lake down the hill.
-tattered fish things leap and whirl in the lake while the tired orange
-sun flickers on the verge of going out. the clacking and biting
-insects that infest the grass crawl in and out of your body as you lie
-there trying to relax while large unseen animals rummage in the forest
-causing trees to crash down as they pass. dust blows in thick
-whirlwinds making the sooty air impossible to breathe as you hack
-chunks of meat up from within, but symbiotic parasites rush to repair
-the damage while tickling your insides ferociously.
-ah... tranquility.
- -- sparklecuss
-~
-It all comes from here, the stench and the peril. -- Frodo
-~
-I do not like... the omission of a bill of rights providing
-clearly and without the aid of sophisms for freedom of religion,
-freedom of the press, protection against standing armies,
-restriction against monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force
-of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of
-fact triable by the laws of the land and not by the law of
-nations.
- -- Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787
-~
-A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against
-every government on earth, general or particular; and what no
-just government should refuse, or rest on inferences.
- -- Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. Papers, 12:440
-~
-It astonishes me to find... [that so many] of our countrymen...
-should be contented to live under a system which leaves to their
-governors the power of taking from them the trial by jury in
-civil cases, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom
-of commerce, the habeas corpus laws, and of yoking them with a
-standing army. This is a degeneracy in the principles of
-liberty... which I [would not have expected for at least] four
-centuries.
- -- Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1788
-~
-A bill of rights [will] guard liberty against the legislative as
-well as the executive branches of the government.
- -- Thomas Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson, 1789
-~
-The declaration of rights is, like all other human blessings,
-alloyed with some inconveniences and not accomplishing fully its
-object. But the good in this instance vastly outweighs the evil.
- -- Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1789
-~
-By a declaration of rights, I mean one which shall stipulate
-freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce
-against monopolies, trial by juries in all cases, no suspensions
-of the habeas corpus, no standing armies. These are fetters
-against doing evil which no honest government should decline.
- -- Thomas Jefferson to Alexander Donald, 1788
-~
-(cat haiku)
-You must scratch me there!
-Yes, above my tail! Behold,
-Elevator butt.
-~
-(cat haiku)
-prickly herbal scent
-flips me inside out and back;
-catnip is my kind
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-(cat haiku)
-I need a new toy.
-Tail of black dog keeps good time.
-Pounce! good dog! good dog!
-~
-The best exercise for a cat is another cat.
- -- Jo and Paul Loeb
-~
-(cat haiku)
-In deep sleep hear sound
-Cat vomit hairball somewhere.
-Will find in morning.
-~
-[Of the Romans...]
-Is not a certain dullness their most visible characteristic?
-What is the history of their speculative mind? -- a blank.
-What their literature? -- a copy. They have left not a single
-discovery in any abstract science; not a single perfect or
-well-formed work of high imagination. The Greeks, the perfection
-of narrow and accomplished genius, bequeathed to mankind the ideal
-forms of self-idolizing art -- the Romans imitated and admired;
-the Greeks explained the laws of nature -- the Romans wondered and
-despised; the Greeks invented a system of numerals second only to
-that now in use -- the Romans counted to the end of their days
-with the clumsy apparatus which we still call by their name; the
-Greeks made a capital and scientific calendar -- the Romans began
-their month when the Pontifex Maximus happened to spy out the new
-moon. Throughout Latin literature, this is the perpetual puzzle
--- Why are we free and they slaves? we praetors and they barbers?
-Why do the stupid people always win, and the clever people always
-lose?
- -- Walter Baghehot
-~
-(cat haiku)
-The rule for today.
-Touch my tail, I shred your hand.
-New rule tomorrow.
-~
-'Well, then,' the Cheshire Cat went on, 'you see a dog growls
-when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now, I
-growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry.
-Therefore I'm mad.'
- -- Cheshire Cat (from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,
- by Lewis Carroll)
-~
-(cat haiku)
-stalk the birds with care--
-twitch my tail and they may scare;
-human gets a share.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-(cat haiku)
-i am not a rug,
-my flatness is intended,
-i have rubber bones.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-(cat haiku)
-fat human waddles
-close to my sensitive tail
-may be time to shriek.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-(cat haiku)
-fish in pond bigger
-than me; goldfish in bowl just
-the right size--kerchomp.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Yet gentle will the griffin be,
-Most decorous and fat,
-And walk up to the Milky Way
-And lap it like a cat.
- -- Vachel Lindsay
-~
-(cat haiku)
-Blur of motion, then--
-Silence, me, a paper bag
-What is so funny?
-~
-(cat haiku)
-The mighty hunter
-Returns with gifts of plump birds
-Your foot just squashed one.
-~
- Every good teacher has his own special art; with some, it is a genius
-for a clarity that sometimes is more lucid than the complexities of the
-subject justify. Sometimes it is a talent for apothegm or leading
-suggestion, a word that evokes a vista or an idea that opens a world. I
-cannot now quite remember what Professor Beard's special technique was. He
-was clear, he was suggestive, he was witty. But none of these things could
-quite account for the hold he had on the smug and the rebels alike, on both
-the pre-lawyers and pre-poets. I suspect it was a certain combination of
-poetry, philosophy, and honesty in the man himself, a sense he communicated
-that politics mattered far beyond the realm commonly called political, and
-an insight he conveyed into the life that forms of government furthered or
-betrayed. One morning he came into class as usual, stood against the wall,
-and half-closing his eyes, said:
- "Gentlemen, today we are to discuss the budget system in State
-government. I am sure that must seem to you a dull subject. But if you will
-tell me, gentlemen, how much per capita a nation spends on its Army, on its
-Navy, on education, on public works, I shall be able to tell you, I think,
-as much about that nation as if you gave me the works of its poets and
-philosophers."
- We listened with revised and revived attention to an exposition, full
-of figures and detail, of the State budget system. Charles A. Beard showed
-us what politics had to do with the life beyond it and which it made
-possible. And he taught us, too, the difference between the forms of
-government and the living substance of its operations... Nobody who has ever
-listened to Beard can disdain the study of politics in favor of the study of
-"higher things". He has been too well taught, as tragic world events have
-since shown, how government may nourish or destroy "higher things".
- -- Irwin Edman, speaking of the historian Charles A. Beard
-~
-There is no substitute for a lifetime.
- -- Ezra Pound
-~
- The technologies which have had the most profound effects on human life
-are usually simple. A good example of a simple technology with profound
-historical consequences is hay. Nobody knows who invented hay, the idea of
-cutting grass in the autumn and storing it in large enough quantities to
-keep horses and cows alive through the winter. All we know is that the
-technology of hay was unknown to the Roman Empire but was known to every
-village of medieval Europe. Like many other crucially important
-technologies, hay emerged anonymously during the so-called Dark Ages.
-According to the Hay Theory of History, the invention of hay was the
-decisive event which moved the center of gravity of urban civilization from
-the Mediterranean basin to Northern and Western Europe. The Roman Empire did
-not need hay because in a Mediterranean climate the grass grows well enough
-in winter for animals to graze. North of the Alps, great cities dependent on
-horses and oxen for motive power could not exist without hay. So it was hay
-that allowed populations to grow and civilization to flourish among the
-forests of Northern Europe. Hay moved the greatness of Rome to Paris and
-London, and later to Berlin and Moscow and New York.
- -- Freeman Dyson, from his 1985 Gifford Lectures
-~
-(cat haiku)
-Small brave carnivores
-Kill pine cones and mosquitoes,
-Fear vacuum cleaner
-~
-(cat haiku)
-Wanna go outside.
-Oh, no! Help! I got outside!
-Let me back inside!
-~
-If you're a geek at a circus
-and the only tool you have is a sledgehammer,
-then you'll use it everywhere.
-We're Microsoft and
-Windows is our sledgehammer.
- -- FTH
-~
-An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile--
-hoping it will eat him last.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-Being poor is a frame of mind. Being broke is only a temporary situation.
- -- Mike Todd
-~
-When a friend speaks to me, whatever he says is interesting.
- -- Jean Renoir
-~
-Up to his shoulders
-In grasses coarse as silk,
-The white cat with the yellow eyes
-Sits with his paws together,
-Tall as a quart of milk.
- -- James Kirkup
-~
-Life is a gamble, at terrible odds--if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.
- -- Tom Stoppard
-~
-What is the most innocent place in any country?
-Is it not the insane asylum?
-These people drift through life truly innocent,
-unable to see into themselves at all.
- -- Arthur Miller
-~
-We live by our genius for hope;
-we survive by our talent for dispensing with it.
- -- V. S. Pritchett
-~
-People change and forget to tell each other.
- -- Lillian Hellman
-~
-Professional work of any sort tends to narrow the mind, to limit the point
-of view, and to put a hallmark on a man of a most unmistakable kind. On the
-one hand are the intense, ardent natures, absorbed in their studies and
-quickly losing interest in everything but their profession, while other
-faculties and interest 'fust' unused. On the other hand are the bovine
-brethren, who think of nothing but the treadmill and the corn. From very
-different causes, the one from concentration, the other from apathy, both
-are apt to neglect those outside studies that widen the sympathies and help
-a man to get the best there is out of life... the medical man, perhaps more
-than any other man, needs that higher education of which Plato speaks,
-'that education in virtue from youth upwards, which enables a man to pursue
-the ideal perfection.' It is not for all, nor can all attain it, but there
-is comfort and help in the pursuit, even though the end is never reached.
- -- William Osler
-~
-We cherish our friends not for their ability to amuse us,
-but for ours to amuse them.
- -- Evelyn Waugh
-~
- Scientific research is solving puzzles. The pleasure to
-be got from it is the pleasure of the crossword or jig-saw addict.
-First the blank diagram, or the scatter of meaningless pieces; then
-an occasional tentative clue or the few pieces of the same colour
-that seem to fit together; next a period of frustration, going over
-and over the list of clues, or trying piece after piece in the most
-unlikely conjunctions; then--ah the sweet joy of the word that
-completes a doubtful acrostic, or the section that springs to life
-as a tree, or a house or a pot of flowers; finally, the completion
-of the pattern, with clue after clue solved in rapid succession, or
-the last few pieces tumbling into place. By accepting the challenge,
-the tension, the concentration, the frustration, we heighten the
-pleasure of the moment or revelation. The more difficult the puzzle,
-the greater the tension--and so much greater the delights of solution.
- -- John Ziman
-~
-The most certain way to succeed is to always try one more time.
- -- Thomas Edison
-~
-(cat haiku)
-hmmm... box is stinky.
-where are those boots that he has?
-they smell close enough.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-This one is from my dogs to my cats:
-
-I will sniff your butt
-I like your litter box gifts
-I call them ho-hos
- -- GP Hardley
-~
-You can drop humans anywhere and they'll thrive.
-Only the rat does as well.
- -- Jeannette Desor
-~
-(cat haiku)
-even kitty pure
-in heart may become a wolf
-when the catnip blooms
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-housecat haiku of realization:
-
- birds flicker past me,
-safely in their cage of glass.
- wait! who's in the cage?
-
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-At this point I reveal myself in my true colours, as a stick-in-the-mud.
-I hold a number of beliefs that have been repudiated by the liveliest
-intellects of our time. I believe that order is better than chaos,
-creation better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence,
-forgiveness to vendetta. On the whole I think that knowledge is
-preferable to ignorance, and I am sure that human sympathy is more
-valuable than ideology. I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs
-of science, men haven't changed much in the last two thousand years; and
-in consequence we must still try to learn from history. History is
-ourselves. I also hold one or two beliefs that are more difficult to put
-shortly. For example, I believe in courtesy, the ritual by which we
-avoid hurting other people's feelings by satisfying our own egos. And I
-think we should remember that we are part of a great whole, which for
-convenience we call nature. All living things are our brothers and
-sisters. Above all, I believe in the God-given genius of certain
-individuals, and I value a society that makes their existence possible.
- -- Kenneth Clark, from "Civilization"
-~
-If you want to feel proud of yourself, you need to do things of which
-to feel proud. Feelings follow actions.
- -- Oseola McCarty
-~
-To learn and from time to time to apply what
-one has learned--isn't that pleasure?
- -- Confucious, 500 B.C.
-~
-top 6 rejected ingredients in ben & jerry's "phish food" flavor:
-
-6. capers and whitefish
-5. caramel-covered seaweed nuggets
-4. bloodworms
-3. magic mushroom ripple
-2. oyster crackers
-
-and the number one rejected ingredient...
-
-1. barnacle crunch
-
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-top 6 reasons to own a house rabbit:
-
-6. learning to splice electrical wires
-5. free compost everywhere in the house
-4. having your ankles bitten and scratched during rutting season
-3. finding out what night feces are and that special feeling they give
- when between your toes
-2. having guests ask "what is that incredible stench?"
-
-and the number one reason to own a house rabbit...
-
-1. if all else fails, there's always hasenpfeffer.
-
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-My childhood was a period of waiting for the moment when I could send
-everyone and everything connected with it to hell.
- -- Igor Stravinsky
-~
-Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to
-time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-We will take almost any kind of criticism except the observation that
-we have no sense of humor. A man will admit to being a coward, a liar, a
-thief, an adulterer, a poor mechanic, or a bad swimmer, but tell him that
-he has a dreadful sense of humor and you might as well have slandered his
-mother. Even if he is civilized enough to pretend to make light of your
-statement, he will still secretly believe that he has, not only a good
-sense of humor, but one superior to most. This is all the more surprising
-when you consider that not one person in a million can give you any kind of
-intelligent answer as to what humor is or why he or she laughs.
- -- Steve Allen
-~
-To write weekly, to write daily, to write shortly, to write
-for busy people catching trains in the morning or for tired
-people coming home in the evening, is a heartbreaking task
-for men who know good writing from bad.
- -- Virginia Woolf
-~
-ugh. all thoughts scrambled. now eating them on toast. -- fred t. hamster
-~
-I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.
- -- Peter De Vries
-~
-Housework can kill you if done right.
- -- Erma Bombeck
-~
-All human evil comes from a single cause--
-man's inability to sit still in a room.
- -- Blaise Pascal
-~
-An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a
-cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
- -- H. L. Mencken
-~
- School curricula reinforce the impression that logical subjects like math
-and science require starting with basics and progressively adding more
-sophisticated conclusions and applications. But the very nature of logical
-laws make it equally feasible to work backward from conclusions, or
-observations, to hypotheses. Deduction and induction are entirely
-complementary.
- In reality, scientists and mathematicians do not do their crafts in the
-linear, progressive way their subjects are usually taught. Practitioners
-commonly start with a flash of insight (the stereotypical light bulb lighting),
-a hunch, a dream, a guess, an elaborate hypothesis or postulate, and then work
-backward, forward, and around it to try to make it fit with established
-knowledge. Physicists or engineers commonly try using complex mathematical
-gadgets to solve the problems that interest them without knowing or caring how
-the math was logically derived. Experimenters tinker in laboratories and make
-surprising discoveries that theoreticians then labor to try to explain
-logically. Alternatively, theorists like Einstein come up with wild new
-theories like relativity that experiments may have to struggle for decades to
-find a way to test and prove. Scientific knowledge does not grow incrementally
-down a predictable track. Rather it grows volcanolike, sometimes oozing in
-patient rivulets, sometimes erupting in fiery ferment, and occasionally
-exploding, blowing away the rock of established truth.
- Pedantic, linear teaching rarely conveys the true drama and mystery of the
-human quest for knowledge. School plods where human imagination naturally
-leaps.
- -- Lewis J. Perelman, from "School's Out"
-~
-the people who are the most in need of help are often the
-same ones who cannot receive it. for example, those who
-believe all human minds are isolated and who have built their
-lives on that principle can only rarely come to appreciate the
-connections between us. their loneliness and self-imposed
-isolation seems to be the normal state of affairs to these
-people; little do they realize that if they relaxed their
-armored ego barrier, then the thoughts and emotions of others
-would start to be perceptible. they desperately cling to the
-belief system that IS their problem in such a way that they
-cannot see the solution, nor can they even believe that the
-solution exists. should these people consciously strive to
-relax that barrier, it would dissolve quickly. many just
-cannot do that and never will. many can however, and can
-relax in the invisible web of human mentation that underlies
-all of our consciousnesses like a huge, comfortable and active
-safety net.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part
-of every organism to live beyond its income.
- -- Samuel Butler
-~
- Attempts to mimic the mind of man are as yet in their infancy.
-The road, however, is open, and it conjures up thoughts which are
-exciting but also in some ways frightening. What if man eventually
-were to produce a mechanical creature, with or without organic
-parts, equal or superior to himself in all respects, including
-intelligence and creativity? Would it replace man, as the superior
-organisms of the earth have replaced or subordinated the less well-
-adapted in the long history of evolution?
- It is a queasy thought: that we represent, for the first time
-in the history of life on the earth, a species capable of bringing
-about its own possible replacement. Of course, we have it in our
-power to prevent such a regrettable denouement by refusing to build
-machines that are too intelligent. But it is tempting to build them
-nevertheless. What achievement could be grander than the creation
-of an object that surpasses the creator? How could we consummate
-the victory of intelligence over nature more gloriously than by
-passing on our heritage, in triumph, to a greater intelligence--of
-our own making?
- -- Isaac Asimov, in "Asimov's Guide to Science"
-~
-Home is the place where,
-when you have to go there,
-they have to take you in.
- -- Robert Frost
-~
-The closer that journalism has approached the standing of an
-authentic profession, oddly enough, the less attractive its
-individual practitioners appear to have become in the public
-mind. This irony is traceable in large measure to the
-distinguished work of the press in its persistent recording
-of the futility and manifold injustices of the Vietnam War and
-its disclosures in the Watergate scandal. Those protracted
-traumas scarred the national psyche, which in turn found
-solace by blaming the press for battening on the troubles it
-apparently delighted in reporting. Reporters came to be seen
-as arrogant in the conduct of their duties, habitually
-adversarial in posture, often insensitive, and unapologetic
-about substituting their own right to demand the truth for the
-public's right not to be stalked ruthlessly like so much grist
-for the milling of tomorrow's headlines. This impression has
-been deepened by the coarseness of television news, which is
-essentially a headline service trading on its emotional graphic
-appeal and dealing so superficially with events and so rarely
-with the complex issues behind them that its effect is to
-divert rather than to inform; TV remains primarily an
-entertainment medium that has not challenged the role of
-newspapers as the prime recorders of the community's serious
-business. But because we see television correspondents
-questioning the President or putting it to the police chief,
-they become personalities in their own right, far more imposing
-than a faceless byline over a printed story.
- -- Richard Kluger, from "The Paper: The Life and Death of the New
- York Herald Tribune"
-~
-The fat cat on the mat may seem to dream
-Of nice mice that suffice for him, or cream.
- -- J. R. R. Tolkien
-~
-Baseball is almost the only orderly thing in a very
-unorderly world. If you get three strikes, even the
-best lawyer in the world can't get you off.
- -- Bill Veeck
-~
- A man will never become a philosopher by worrying forever
-about the writings of other men, without ever raising his own
-eyes to nature's works in the attempt to recognize there the
-truths already known and to investigate some of the infinite
-number that remain to be discovered.
- -- Galileo Galilei
-~
-A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.
- -- George Elliot
-~
-One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight
-of the shore for a very long time.
- -- Andre Gide
-~
-Today in America--the child of European imperialism--a new revolution
-is rising. It is the revolution of our time. It is the only revolution
-that involves radical, moral, and practical opposition to the spirit of
-nationalism. It is the only revolution that, to that opposition, joins
-culture, economic and technological power, and a total affirmation of
-liberty for all in the place of archaic prohibitions. It therefore
-offers the only escape for mankind today; the acceptance of technological
-civilization as a means and not as an end, and--since we cannot be saved
-either by the destruction of civilization or by its continuation--the
-development of the ability to reshape that civilization without
-annihilating it.
- -- Jean-Francois Revel
-~
-There is a great man who makes every man feel small.
-But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great.
- -- G. K. Chesterton
-~
-What usually happens in the educational process is that the faculties
-are dulled, overloaded, stuffed and paralyzed so that by the time most
-people are mature they have lost their innate capabilities.
- -- R. Buckminster Fuller
-~
-Our memories are card indexes--consulted, and then put back in
-disorder, by authorities whom we do not control.
- -- Cyril Connolly
-~
-More computing sins are committed in the name of efficiency
-(without necessarily achieving it) than for any other single
-reason--including blind stupidity.
- -- W. A. Wulf
-~
-We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of
-the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil.
- -- Donald Knuth
-~
-The best is the enemy of the good.
- -- Voltaire
-~
-The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts.
- -- Paul Ehrlich
-~
-A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking big money.
- -- Senator Everett M. Dirksen
-~
- During the last three decades, neuroscientists throughout the world
-have probed the nervous system in fascinating detail and have learned a
-great deal about the laws of mental life and about how these laws emerge
-from the brain. The pace of progress has been exhilarating, but--at the
-same time--the findings make many people uncomfortable. It seems somehow
-disconcerting to be told that your life, all your hopes, triumphs and
-aspirations simply arise from the activity of neurons in your brain. But
-far from being humiliating, this idea is ennobling, I think.
- Science--cosmology, evolution and especially the brain sciences--is
-telling us that we have no privileged position in the universe and that our
-sense of having a private nonmaterial soul "watching the world" is really an
-illusion (as has long been emphasized by Eastern mystical traditions like
-Hinduism and Zen Buddhism). Once you realize that far from being a
-spectator, you are in fact part of the eternal ebb and flow of events in the
-cosmos, this realization is very liberating. Ultimately this idea also
-allows you to cultivate a certain humility--the essence of all authentic
-religious experience.
- -- V. S. Ramachandran, in "Phantoms in the Brain"
-~
-A celebrity is one who is known to many persons
-he is glad he doesn't know.
- -- H. L. Mencken
-~
-Money is a singular thing. It ranks with love as man's greatest
-source of joy, and with death as his greatest source of anxiety.
- -- John Kenneth Galbraith
-~
-By his very success in inventing labor-saving devices, modern man
-has manufactured an abyss of boredom that only the privileged classes
-in earlier civilizations have ever fathomed.
- -- Lewis Mumford
-~
-Scientists, who nearly always speak extemporaneously in public
-presentations, note that humanists almost always read papers
-at professional meetings, and rarely show slides--except for
-art historians, who always use two screens simultaneously--even
-for the most visual subjects. Why, 'we' ask, do 'they' not
-realize that written and spoken English are different languages,
-and that very few people can read well in public--a particular
-irony since humanists supposedly hold language as their primary
-tool of professional competence. But 'they,' on the other hand,
-rightly ridicule 'our' tendencies to darken a lecture room even
-before we reach the podium and to rely almost entirely upon a
-string of pictures thereafter. A stale joke proclaims that if
-Galileo had first presented the revolutionary results of Siderius
-Nuncius as a modern scientific talk, his opening line could only
-have been: 'first slide please.'
- -- R. R. Shearer and S. J. Gould, in "Science," 5 Nov 99
-~
-Prowling his own quiet backyard or asleep by the fire,
-he is still only a whisker away from the wilds.
- -- Jean Burden
-~
- Futurology is a fashion. The approach of the end of the current
-millennium has stimulated it. But it looks like a fashion in decline. It
-seems to have peaked when public interest in the future was enlivened by
-debate between scientific perfectibilians and apocalyptic visionaries. The
-optimists predicted a world made easy by progress, lives prolonged by
-medical wizardry, wealth made universal by the alchemy of economic growth,
-society rectified by the egalitarianism of technologically prolonged
-leisure. The pessimists foresaw nuclear immolation or population explosion
-or a purgative world revolution -- a cosmic struggle reminiscent of the
-millennium of Christian prophetic tradition -- which would either save or
-enslave mankind.
- No one gets excited by such visions today. Scientific progress has
-been, at best, disappointing -- encumbering us with apparently insoluble
-social and moral problems, or else, at worst, alarming -- threatening us
-with the mastery of artificially intelligent machines or genetically
-engineered human mutants. Economic growth has become the bogey of the
-ecologically anxious. Meanwhile, world revolution and the nuclear holocaust
-have been postponed, and apocalyptic prophecy has resorted to forebodings --
-variously unconvincing or uncompelling -- about ecological cataclysms.
-Proliferation of nuclear weapons and the discovery that even peaceful
-nuclear installations can poison great parts of the world has, in some ways,
-made disaster impend more darkly; but lingering extinction and little local
-nuclear holocausts seem to lack, in public esteem the glamour of a sudden
-and comprehensive armageddon. The future has become depressing rather than
-dramatic, and futurology has lost allure.
- -- Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, in "Millennium: a History of the Last
- Thousand Years", 1995.
-~
-We all love to instruct, though we can teach only what is not worth knowing.
- -- Jane Austen, in "Pride and Prejudice"
-~
-(cat haiku)
-liquid ball of fur
-dances with a beam of light,
-never catches it.
-~
-Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.
- -- James M. Barrie
-~
-Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he is
-supposed to be doing at that moment.
- -- Robert Benchley
-~
-(cat haiku)
-He flies without wings,
-Fast as a shadow can go.
-Black slash on white snow.
-~
-(cat haiku)
-Once quick with rat life,
-Now just carnage: tail, head, fur.
-Two-scoop burial.
-~
-(cat haiku)
-Willy stalks field mice,
-Wild Bill to small buffalo.
-Kills them just for show.
-~
-(cat haiku)
-Cats are like haiku:
-Subtle, delicate, perfect
-Communicators.
-~
-Once fat with meat.
-Now just feet.
-Rat food and bat food
-Supplement cat food.
-~
-The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out.
- -- Voltaire
-~
-I would rather be governed by the first two thousand people in the
-Boston telephone directory than by the first two thousand people on the
-faculty of Harvard University.
- -- William F. Buckley
-~
- Civility will always have its critics. In 1997, when New York's
-chief judge proposed rules requiring lawyers on opposing sides to be civil
-to each other, the prominent divorce lawyer Raoul Felder wrote a caustic
-response in the New York Times. "If lawyers truly care about the causes
-they represent, they should, on occasion, get hot under the collar, raise
-their voices, become pugnacious," he wrote. Conflict, argued Felder, is
-what the legal profession is about. Civility, he concluded, "may not always
-be the right reaction in an adversarial courtroom."
- This argument reminds me of the commentary by Ed Rollins that it
-was his job to diminish the reputation of his client's opponent. Nastiness,
-in other words, is not merely the option but the responsibility of the
-political profession. The legal profession too: "I have never heard a
-client complain that his or her lawyer was rude," Felder tells us. In both
-cases, law and politics, rudeness is evidently justified on the ground that
-rudeness is what the client is paying for.
- As any student of civility would, I find this a fascinating notion:
-that there are professions for which incivility is a requirement. I suppose
-I disbelieve it; or, rather, if there are such professions, I am skeptical
-of their morality, because they fail to convey a message that we are, all of
-us, not lone drivers but fellow passengers. It may be that law and politics
-seem so dismally rude because their principal ethic is merely one of
-victory, an ethic materially enriching and emotionally satisfying, but
-morally unimportant. If lawyers are paid to be rude and political
-consultants to be nasty, and if their incivility is linked to the fact that
-they are also paid to win, we should scarcely be surprised that professional
-athletes find it comfortable to brawl with fans, spit on umpires, take bites
-out of ears, and, in one unfortunate case nicknamed "Assassin," specialize
-in injuring fellow football players. After all, the athletes want to win too.
- Some etiquette. Some democracy.
- -- Stephen L. Carter, in "Civility", 1998
-~
-A cat is a lion in a jungle of small bushes.
- -- Indian Proverb
-~
-A cat pours his body on the floor like water. It is restful just to see him.
- -- William Lyon Phelps
-~
-Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you have only one idea.
- -- "Alain" [Emile Chartier]
-~
- Newspapers have changed their character during my lifetime. They used
-to be the principal carriers of the world's news, but television holds that
-position now. Television, however, has serious limitations; it is a visual
-medium, and it is dominated by the principle that nothing is news unless you
-can take a picture of it. It is here that the newspapers still hold their
-own; so much of what goes on in the political world cannot be effectively
-photographed; statesmen, in their expensive but uninteresting clothes, make
-very poor TV and their prolonged deliberations are dull when we see them on
-the box. Politics must be interpreted, and newspapers have become their
-untiring interpreters... Intelligence, not perhaps on its highest level
-but far beyond the sheer emotionalism of TV, has found its refuge in the
-newspapers.
- -- Robertson Davies, from "The Merry Heart: Reflections on Reading,
- Writing, & The World of Books".
-~
-To improve communications, work not on the utterer but on the recipient.
- -- Peter Drucker
-~
- Despite the incorporated homicide or suicide called war, despite the
-crimes of individuals, the natural conflicts of domestic parties and
-national ambitions, I believe, after fifty years of studying history,
-that man is physically, mentally, and morally better, on the average,
-than at any time in the past; that our poverty, so disgraceful amid our
-unprecedented wealth, is not so shameless as the slavery that supported
-an enfranchised minority in Periclean Athens or Augustan Rome; that our
-marital chaos and moral laxity are no worse than in the England of
-Charles II or the France of Louis XV; that more good books are being
-published than ever before and more widely read; and that art will soon
-rise to a new level of self-discipline and social significance.
- I mourn the ugly slums of our cities and the distress of those who
-cannot find work for their hands to do; but I see realized around me,
-in an unparalleled proportion of our people, such a spread of home
-ownership, family income, physical comforts, educational opportunities,
-political freedom, and scientific powers as would amaze and gladden our
-Founding Fathers if they could return to see what their progeny and
-their institutions have done... This time, this moment, is as good as
-any that ever was, and is incomparably more wonderful.
- -- Will Durant
-~
-I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
-Imagination is more important than knowledge.
-Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-You do not lead by hitting people over the head.
-That's assault, not leadership.
- -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
-~
-When elephants fight, only the grass gets hurt. -- Swahili Saying
-~
-Men who know the same things are not long the best company for each other.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-The gingham dog and the calico cat
-Side by side on the table sat;
-'Twas half-past eight and (what do you think!)
-Nor one nor t'other had slept a wink!
- -- Eugene Field
-~
-bob1: I was going to just sublime into the roll
- and see what I could get....
-fred: slime, you mean? you're not going to evaporate, right?
-bob1: Whatever, formally declare I shall be in control
- and see if anyone listens...
-fred: that's the doctrine of the supine?
-bob1: By sublime I meant so slowly that you don't notice.
-fred: the lime doctor sublimes merging into the supine
- mesmerized accomplished cow-orking accomplices slimefully.
-bob1: mmm I see. Anyway I must rejoin the family and stuff.
- Perhaps I shall be back later. I must get into work early
- tomorrow if I want all this to work.
-fred: by the time i spline my spleen in the stream
- i will have strummed the strumpet's stoking stork.
-bob1: Holy f*ck batman.
-~
-There is nothing to be learned from history anymore.
-We're in science fiction now.
- -- Allen Ginsberg
-~
- One of the interesting features of communication is that, broadly
-speaking, to be perceived, information must reside in more than one context.
-We know what something is by contrast with what it is not. Silence makes
-musical notes perceivable; conversation is understood as a contrast of
-contexts, speaker and hearer; words, breaks and breaths. In turn, in order
-to be meaningful, these contexts of information must be relinked through
-some sort of judgment of equivalence or comparability. This occurs at all
-levels of scale, and we all do it routinely as part of everyday life.
- None of this is new in theories of information and communication: we
-have long had models of signals and targets, background, noise and filters,
-signals, and quality controls. We are moving this insight here to the level
-of social interaction. People often cannot see what they take for granted
-until they encounter someone who does not take it for granted.
- -- Geoffrey C. Bowker & Susan Leigh Star, from "Sorting Things Out:
- Classification and Its Consequences," (MIT Press).
-~
-If there is technological advance without social advance, there is,
-almost automatically, an increase in human misery.
- -- Michael Harrington
-~
-Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.
- -- Hegel
-~
-When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.
- -- Eric Hoffer
-~
-Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
- -- Aldous Huxley
-~
-He was a very valiant man who first adventured on eating of oysters.
- -- King James I
-~
-A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional, and are
-the portals of discovery.
- -- James Joyce
-~
-But this 'long run' is a misleading guide to current affairs.
-In the long run we are all dead.
- -- John Maynard Keynes
-~
-Education is a crutch with which the foolish attack the wise to prove
-that they are not idiots.
- -- Karl Kraus
-~
-Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human
-intelligence long enough to get money from it.
- -- Stephen Leacock
-~
-I don't like money actually, but it quiets my nerves.
- -- Joe Louis
-~
-(cat haiku)
-Black heart on white fur
-Green eyes ... last sight for poor rat,
-Plaything of a God.
-~
-(cat haiku)
-Black face, cold blue eyes
-fish pond, golden fish surprise.
-Wet paws ... not water!
-~
-spelling offers more
-room for controversy than
-the world's religions
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-cappuccino is
-caffeination in its most
-excellent format
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-buddha, dharma and
-sangha are the three jewels
-a buddhist cleaves to
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-millennium, yes!
-charging into the twenty-first
-century, for sure
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-fred barks, lily hides
-two dogs of the same breeding
-why so different?
-~
-haikus force structure
-on an otherwise very
-chaotic word world
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-kevin, kory, kyle;
-three celtic names held by three
-amazing nephews
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
- The most fruitful and natural exercise of the mind, in my opinion, is
-conversation. I find the use of it more sweet than of any other action of
-life; and for that reason it is that, if I were now compelled to choose, I
-should sooner, I think, consent to lose my sight, than my hearing and
-speech... The study of books is a languishing and feeble motion that heats
-not, whereas conversation teaches and exercises at once. If I converse with
-an understanding man, and a rough disputant, he presses hard upon me and
-pricks me on both sides; his imaginations raise up mine to more than
-ordinary pitch; jealousy, glory, and contention, stimulate and raise me up
-to something above my self...
- -- Michel Montaigne
-~
-(cat haiku)
-only the choicest
-of meats, kibbles and catnip
-will i deign to sniff.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-(cat haiku)
-fine fur flies from me
-filling all of your clean rooms
-i am super fluff!
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-(cat haiku)
-watery sky leads
-to quizzical expression:
-"fix outdoors for me!"
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-(cat haiku)
-inclement weather
-bores more cats even than own
-internal ennui.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-(cat haiku)
-Open the door, Man!
-I wish to go out ... what's this?
-Wet fur? I think not.
-~
-(cat haiku)
-Monsoon for felines.
-They ground when wet. No static.
-Rainy faced disgrace.
-~
-Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.
- -- H. D. Thoreau
-~
-Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-We are not sure that words can always save lives, but we know that
-silence can certainly kill.
- -- James Orbinski of "Doctors Without Borders", winners of the 1999 Nobel
- Peace Prize
-~
-The masses, by definition, neither should nor can direct their own
-personal existence, and still less rule society in general.
- -- Jose Ortega y Gasset
-~
-It is precisely because man's vital time is limited, precisely because
-he is mortal, that he needs to triumph over distance and delay. For an
-immortal being, the motor-car would have no meaning.
- -- Jose Ortega y Gasset
-~
-We live at a time when man believes himself fabulously capable of
-creation, but he does not know what to create. Lord of all things,
-he is not lord of himself... Hence the strange combination of a
-sense of power and a sense of insecurity.
- -- Jose Ortega y Gasset
-~
-The mass-man is he whose life lacks any purpose, and simply goes drifting
-along. Consequently, though his possibilities and his powers be enormous,
-he constructs nothing. And it is this type of man who decides in our time...
- -- Jose Ortega y Gasset
-~
-In the schools, which were such a source of pride to the last century, it
-has been impossible to do more than instruct the masses in the technique
-of modern life; it has been found impossible to educate them.
- -- Jose Ortega y Gasset
-~
- Like cars over the years, computers are getting easier to use, and in
-some respects the changes are analogous to the placement of gauges by idiot
-lights. And, like drivers who favor gauges, some computer users belittle the
-trend toward easy-to-use systems. These users appear to thrive on
-complexity. They are often experts who enjoy getting the most out of their
-computers; they view computing as an end rather than a means.
- Unlike cars, easy-to-use computers aren't called idiot-proof, they're
-called user-friendly. As a marketing achievement, this terminology ranks
-with 'Palmetto bugs,' which is a term used in Florida-at the instigation of
-some genius in the real estate industry, I'm told-for large, flying
-cockroaches."
- -- John Shore, from "The Sachertorte Algorithm: And Other Antidotes
- to Computer Anxiety".
-~
- Ads manipulate us into being dissatisfied... We are encouraged to feel
-anxious or sorry for ourselves. Advertising teaches us to live on the level
-of the pleasure principle. This leads to impulse-control problems and to
-feelings of entitlement. "I am the center of the universe and I want what I
-want now." This thinking creates citizens who are vulnerable to quick fixes.
-It leads to citizens filled with self-pity, which is the flip side of
-entitlement.
- Advertising teaches that people shouldn't have to suffer, that pain
-is unnatural and can be cured. They say that effort is bad and convenience
-is good and that products solve complex human problems. Over and over people
-hear that their needs for love, security and variety can be met with
-products. They may reject the message of any particular ad, but over time
-many buy the big message -- buying products is important.
- -- Mary Pipher, in "The Shelter of Each Other: Rebuilding Our Families"
-~
-I have no use for bodyguards, but I have a very special use for two
-highly trained certified public accountants.
- -- Elvis Presley
-~
-Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.
- -- Evelyn Waugh
-~
-Three o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do.
- -- Jean-Paul Sartre
-~
-Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful
-objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill
-gives us modern art.
- -- Tom Stoppard
-~
-What is this talk of "release?" We do not make software "releases."
-Our software "escapes" leaving a bloody trail of designers and quality
-assurance people in its wake.
- -- MoncriefJM@gvl.esys.com, as seen on the on the PerlTK mailing list
-~
-It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience. But a
-corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience.
- -- Henry David Thoreau
-~
-(cat haiku)
-Headfull of acid,
-Cat on the carpet, melting...
-Here pussy. Here God!
-~
-(cat haiku)
-vomit kitty, now!
-you don't eat all my buds, cat.
-i'll smoke you instead.
-~
-The future is made of the same stuff as the present. -- Simone Weil
-~
-he's such a tight ass that when he breaks wind all the dogs howl.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-See the kitten on the wall,
-Sporting with the leaves that fall,
-Withered leaves, one, two and three
-Falling from the elder tree,
-Through the calm and frosty air
-Of the morning bright and fair.
- -- William Wordsworth
-~
-But the Kitten, how she starts,
-Crouches, stretches, paws and darts!
- -- William Wordsworth
-~
- All those who succeed in America -- no matter what their circle of
-origin or their sphere of action -- are likely to become involved in the
-world of the celebrity... This world has not been built from below, as a
-slow and steady linking of local societies and metropolitan 400s. It has
-been created from above... With the incorporation of the economy, the
-ascendancy of the military establishment, and the centralization of the
-enlarged state, there have arisen the national elite, who, in occupying the
-command posts of the big hierarchies, have taken the spotlight of publicity
-and become subjects of the intensive build-up. At the same time, with the
-elaboration of the national means of mass communication, the professional
-celebrities of the entertainment world have come fully and continuously into
-the national view. As personalities of national glamour, they are at the
-focal point of all the means of entertainment and publicity. Both the
-metropolitan 400 and the institutional elite must now compete with and
-borrow prestige from these professionals in the world of the celebrity.
- But what are the celebrities? The celebrities are The Names that
-need no further identification. Those who know them so far exceed those of
-whom they know as to require no exact computation. Wherever the celebrities
-go, they are recognized, and moreover, recognized with some excitement and
-awe. Whatever they do has publicity value. More or less continuously, over a
-period of time, they are the material for the media of communication and
-entertainment. And, when that time ends -- as it must -- and the celebrity
-still lives -- as he may -- from time to time it may be asked, "Remember
-him?" That is what celebrity means.
- -- C. Wright Mills, from "The Power Elite," 1956
-~
-I'm not really very good at what I do, but I'm very
-popular, because I return my pages.
- -- Unidentified computer support technician
-~
-Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to
-recognize a mistake when you make it again.
- -- Franklin P. Jones
-~
-Nobody roots for Goliath. -- Wilt Chamberlain
-~
-(cat haiku)
-Gentle pussy, bit
-By a bat. Rabid, frothing...
-Animal control!
-~
-I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up
-and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold
-these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
-created equal."
- -- Martin Luther King Jr.
-~
- We generally think of music as a product of art rather than commerce
-or technology. It depends, in fact, on all three. Together, these great
-dynamic systems match individual creativity and individual desire. They
-thus generate change, variety and an endless array of critics--all
-determined that music, like the rest of society, should conform to
-"one best way".
- That would be a terrible deal. By tolerating music that pleases
-others but not ourselves, we preserve a system that has delivered a
-historical wonder... We can listen to perfectly performed music to suit
-any mood or taste at any time, music that moves us in ways particular to our
-individual senses and our individual souls.
- -- Virginia Postrel
-~
-There are three rules for writing the novel.
-Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
- -- W. Somerset Maugham
-~
-His lack of education is more than compensated for by his
-keenly developed moral bankruptcy.
- -- Woody Allen
-~
-How is it possible to find meaning in a finite world,
-given my waist and shirt size?
- -- Woody Allen
-~
-I can't listen to that much Wagner. I start getting
-the urge to conquer Poland.
- -- Woody Allen (Manhattan Murder Mystery)
-~
-two databases
-become unified as one
-much damage ensues
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-urgh, mutual friends have we few
-of whom hooktown still has purview.
-lest we examine too far
-i wonder regarding your car--
-could it survive a furious country drive?
-for to hamster freehold must you arrive.
-many entertainments have we here...
-movies, a rabbit and beer.
-perhaps what you were chasing,
-twain's fuzz is constantly abasing.
-to extend no further this diatribe,
-why don't you drop over, or "arribe"?
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-If no one ever took risks, Michelangelo would
-have painted on the Sistine floor.
- -- Neil Simon
-~
-It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble,
-it's what we know that ain't so.
- -- Will Rogers
-~
-I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure
-is trying to please everyone.
- -- Bill Cosby
-~
- Today, when man seems to have reached the beginning of a new,
-richer, happier human era, his existence and that of the generations to
-follow is more threatened than ever. How is this possible?
- Man had won his freedom from clerical and secular authorities, he
-stood alone with his reason and his conscience as his only judges, but he
-was afraid of the newly won freedom; he had achieved 'freedom from' --
-without yet having achieved 'freedom to' -- to be himself, to be productive,
-to be fully awake. Thus he tried to escape from freedom. His very
-achievement, the mastery over nature, opened up the avenue for his escape.
- In building the new industrial machine, men became so absorbed in
-the new task that it became the paramount goal of his life. His energies,
-which once were devoted to the search for God and salvation, were now
-directed toward the domination of nature and ever-increasing material
-comfort. He ceased to use production as a means for a better life, but
-hypostatized it instead to an end in itself, an end to which life was
-subordinated. In the process of an ever-increasing size of social
-agglomerations, man himself became a part of the machine, rather than its
-master. He experienced himself as a commodity, as an investment; his aim
-became to be a success, that is, to sell himself as profitably as possible
-on the market. His value as a person lies in his salability, not in his
-human qualities of love, reason or in his artistic capacities. Happiness
-becomes identical with consumption of newer and better commodities, the
-drinking in of music, screen plays, fun, sex, liquor and cigarettes. Not
-having a sense of self except the one which conformity with the majority can
-give, he is insecure, anxious, depending on approval. He is alienated from
-himself, worships the product of his own hands, the leaders of his own
-making, as if they were above him, rather than made by him. He is in a
-sense back where he was before the great human evolution began in the second
-millennium B.C.
- -- Erich Fromm, "The Sane Society"
-~
-If I could I would always work in silence and obscurity,
-and let my efforts be known by their results.
- -- Emily Bronte
-~
-The fox knows many things -- the hedgehog knows one big thing.
- -- Archilochus
-~
-I've learned not to put things in my mouth that are bad for me.
- -- Monica Lewinsky on CNN's Larry King Live discussing her
- miraculous Jenny Craig weight-loss.
-~
-Both the assembling and the distribution of knowledge in the world
-at present are extremely ineffective, and thinkers of the forward-
-looking type whose ideas we are now considering, are beginning to
-realize that the most hopeful line for the development of our racial
-intelligence lies rather in the direction of creating a new world
-organ for the collection, indexing, summarizing and release of
-knowledge, than in any further tinkering with the highly conservative
-and resistant university system, local, national, and traditional in
-texture, which already exists.
- -- H. G. Wells (1937)
-~
-a haiku for object bus overload...
-
-those data bursts have
-overturned my info cart--
-stranded on the net.
-
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex,
-and more violent. It takes a touch of genius--and a lot
-of courage--to move in the opposite direction.
- -- E. F. Schumacher
-~
-It is amazing how much one can learn from somebody
-who is not generally thought of as successful.
- -- Michael Korda
-~
-Half the world is composed of people who have
-something to say and can't, and the other have
-nothing to say and keep on saying it.
- -- Robert Frost
-~
-Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature...
-Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing.
- -- Helen Keller
-~
-His tongue is by turns a sponge, a brush, a comb.
-He cleans himself, he smoothes himself,
-he knows what is proper.
- -- Hippolyte Taine
-~
-To turn $100 into $110 is work.
-To turn $100 million into $110 million is inevitable.
- -- Edgar Bronfman
-~
-A problem well stated is a problem half solved.
- -- Charles F. Kettering
-~
-The spirit of the West, the modern spirit, is a Greek discovery
-and the place of the Greeks is in the modern world.
- -- Edith Hamilton (1867-1963)
-~
-fish flavored flappers
-squirm happily under tongue,
-cloak orgasmic clit.
-~
-There are no whole truths: all truths are half-truths. It is trying
-to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil.
- -- Alfred North Whitehead
-~
-Somewhere on this globe, every ten seconds, there is a woman
-giving birth to a child. She must be found and stopped.
- -- Sam Levenson
-~
-The cat has complete emotional honesty --
-an attribute not often found in humans.
- -- Ernest Hemingway
-~
-no morning coffee...
-gray matter is not present,
-dial tone in my head.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-choad /chohd/ /n./
- Synonym for 'penis' used in alt.tasteless and popularized by the denizens
-thereof. They say: "We think maybe it's from Middle English but we're all
-too damned lazy to check the OED." [I'm not. It isn't. --ESR]
- This term is alleged to have been inherited through 1960s underground
-comics, and to have been recently sighted in the Beavis and Butthead
-cartoons. Speakers of the Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati languages have
-confirmed that `choad' is in fact an Indian vernacular word equivalent
-to `f*ck'; it is therefore likely to have entered English slang via the
-British Raj.
-~
-The race may not be to the swift nor the victory
-to the strong, but that's how you bet.
- -- Damon Runyon
-~
-Basic research is when I'm doing what I don't know I'm doing.
- -- Wernher von Braun
-~
- For decades, people have warned that pervasive databanks and
-surveillance technology are leading inevitably to the death of privacy and
-democracy. But these days, many people who hear the word 'privacy' think
-about those kooks living off in the woods with their shotguns: these folks
-get their mail at post office boxes registered under assumed names, grow
-their own food, use cash to buy what they can't grow for themselves, and
-constantly worry about being attacked by the federal government-or by space
-aliens. If you are not one of these people, you may well ask, "Why should I
-worry about my privacy? I have nothing to hide."
- The problem with this word 'privacy' is that it falls short of
-conveying the really big picture. Privacy isn't just about hiding things.
-It's about self-possession, autonomy, and integrity. As we move into the
-computerized world of the twenty-first century, privacy will be one of our
-most important civil rights. But this right of privacy isn't the right of
-people to close their doors and pull down their window shades -- perhaps
-because they want to engage in some sort of illicit or illegal activity.
-It's the right of people to control what details about their lives stay
-inside their own houses and what leaks to the outside...
- Today, more than ever before, we are witnessing the daily erosion of
-personal privacy and freedom. We're victims of a war on privacy that's being
-waged by government eavesdroppers, business marketers, and nosy neighbors...
-We know our privacy is under attack. The problem is that we don't know how
-to fight back.
- -- Simson Garfinkel, in "Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in
- the 21st Century"
-~
-A gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage, married
-immediately after his wife died: Johnson said, it was the
-triumph of hope over experience.
- -- James Boswell's "Life of Johnson"
-~
-One evening while dozing in my armchair, I was roused
-by the sound of the harpsichord. My cat had started
-his musical stroll... I had a sheet of paper to hand,
-and transcribed his composition.
- -- Domenico Scarlatti
-~
-Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it
-everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying
-the wrong remedies.
- -- Groucho Marx
-~
-A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running.
- -- Groucho Marx
-~
-Please accept my resignation. I don't want to belong to
-any club that will accept me as a member.
- -- Groucho Marx
-~
-Let's find out what everyone is doing,
-and then stop everyone from doing it.
- -- A. P. Herbert
-~
-I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any
-new situation by reorganizing, and a wonderful method
-it can be for creating the illusion of progress while
-producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
- -- Petronius Arbiter, quoted in Robert Townsend's
- "Up the Organization"
-~
-With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in
-the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to
-finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care
-for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and
-his orphan -- to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and
-a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
- As we approach a new century and a changing international economic
-climate, we think that scientific and technological education should be our
-highest priority, and yet these fields, at least the way they are practiced
-today, only tangentially affect the heart and soul, where morality and
-values are rooted, while music goes right to the heart.
- Studying music, one learns about talent, thought, work, expression,
-beauty, technique, collaboration, aesthetic judgment, inspiration, taste,
-and a host of other elements that shape life in all its aspects. As we
-learn to control our fingers, lips, and breath in making music, subliminally
-music is shaping us, making us people of sensitivity and judgment.
- -- Thomas Moore, in "The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life"
-~
-How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would
-spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty.
- -- Eric Hoffer
-~
-A bad attitude is the worst thing that can happen to
-a group of people. It's infectious.
- -- Roger Allan Raby
-~
-All that is gold does not glitter; not all who wander are lost.
- -- J. R. R. Tolkien
-~
-What is originality? Undetected plagiarism.
- -- Dean William R. Inge (ed: what a psycho...)
-~
-True genius doesn't fulfill expectations, it shatters them.
- -- Arlene Croce
-~
-Let me listen to me and not to them.
- -- Gertrude Stein
-~
-If like truth, the lie had but one face, we would be on better terms.
-For we would accept as certain the opposite of what the liar would say.
-But the reverse of truth has a hundred thousand faces and an infinite field.
- -- Montaigne
-~
-The truth is multi-faceted; no one person can see all of it and no single
-viewpoint can capture all of it. This is why any attempt to record the
-nature of reality in one majestic work of science or religion or philosophy
-is doomed to fail; that grand catalog is a necessarily-flawed perspective
-upon the shimmering mind-blower that is the full totality of truth.
-Still, we must try to get our minds around it during our whole lives.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-I am a great believer, if you have a meeting, in knowing
-where you want to come out before you start the meeting.
-Excuse me if that doesn't sound very democratic.
- -- Nelson Rockefeller
-~
- Lawyers have, as Jonathan Swift observed, "a peculiar cant and
-jargon of their own, that no other mortal can understand". They take care
-to ensure that all legal business, including the drafting of legislation, is
-conducted in this language "so that it will take thirty years to decide
-whether the field left me by my ancestors for six generations belongs to me
-or to a stranger three hundred miles off". This language, condemned by
-Jeremy Bentham as "literary garbage", "lawyers' cant", and "flash language",
-serves various purposes, none of them in the public interest. It unites
-lawyers, distinguishing them from laymen. It makes the law mysterious and
-incomprehensible to those laymen, thus ensuring a steady supply of work for
-lawyers who are needed to interpret the language they have invented. The
-language of the law fosters the illusion that legal problems are remediable
-only by the application of the medicine of the specialist. Only a lawyer,
-can resolve the complexities of the problem: "Better see a lawyer; don't
-trust Whatsisname" (as the memorable Law Society advertisement warned
-consumers). Legal language also enshrouds the law, hiding it from the
-public it exists to serve. The idiom of the lawyer leads to public ignorance
-of the content of the law (which paradoxically refuses to recognize that
-ignorance of the law should be a defence), to uninformed criticism and to
-unmerited praise. It provokes the indifference of too many laymen towards
-the law and the contempt of so many litigants for a legal system they do not
-understand.
- -- David Pannick, barrister and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford
-~
-It usually takes me more than three weeks
-to prepare a good impromptu speech.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-Hollywood films, in general, either want to tell us a truth we
-already know or a falsehood we want to believe in.
- -- William Goldman
-~
-The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.
- -- Norman Mailer
-~
- Men of Athens, fellow citizens, this is not a trial of Socrates, but
-of ideas, and of Athens. You are not prosecuting me for any unlawful or
-impious act against our city or its altars. No evidence of any such sort
-has been brought against me. You are not prosecuting me for anything I did,
-but for what I have said and taught. You are threatening me with death
-because you do not like my views and my teaching. This is a prosecution of
-ideas and that is something new in our city's history. In this sense,
-Athens is in the dock, not Socrates. Each of you, as my judges, is a
-defendant.
- Let me be frank. I do not believe in your so-called freedom of
-speech, but you do. I believe the opinions of ordinary men are only beliefs
-without substance, pale shadows of reality, not to be taken seriously, and
-only likely to lead a city astray. I think it absurd to encourage the free
-utterance of unfounded or irrational opinions, or to base civic policy on a
-count of heads, like cabbages. Hence I do not believe in democracy. But
-you do. This is your test, not mine. How can you boast of your free speech
-if you suppress mine?
- The test of truly free speech is not whether what is said or taught
-conforms to any rule or ruler, few or many. Even under the worst dictator,
-it is not forbidden to agree with him. It is the freedom to disagree that
-is freedom of speech. This has been the Athenian rule until now, the pride
-of our city, the glory on which your orators dwell. Will you turn your back
-on it now? Ideas are not as fragile as men. They cannot be made to drink
-hemlock. My ideas--and my example--will survive me. But the good name of
-Athens will wear a stain forever, if you violate its traditions by
-convicting me. The shame will be yours, not mine.
- -- I. F. Stone, suggesting a defense for Socrates
-~
-I do not seek. I find.
- -- Pablo Picasso
-~
-The one thing that is certain is that anyone who uses the phrase
-"outside the box" is as deeply inside the box as a person can be.
- -- Michael Lewis
-~
-I can't understand why a person will take a year to write a novel
-when he can easily buy one for a few dollars.
- -- Fred Allen
-~
- Many of my friends are under the impression that I write these humorous
-nothings in idle moments, when the wearied brain is unable to perform the
-serious labors of the economist. My own experience is exactly the other way.
-The writing of solid, instructive stuff, fortified by facts and figures, is
-easy enough. There is no trouble in writing a scientific treatise on the
-folklore of Central China, or a statistical inquiry into the declining
-population of Prince Edward Island. But to write something out of one's own
-mind, worth reading for its own sake, is an arduous contrivance only to be
-achieved in fortunate moments, few and far between. Personally, I would sooner
-have written Alice in Wonderland than the whole Encyclopedia Britannica.
- -- Stephen Leacock
-~
-It's easier to find a travel companion than to get rid of one.
- -- Art Buchwald
-~
-God must love the rich or he wouldn't have divided
-so much among so few of them.
- -- H. L. Mencken
-~
-I have been more concerned with the obscure than with the famous.
-They are more often themselves. They have had no need to create a
-figure to protect themselves from the world or to impress it. Their
-idiosyncrasies have had more chance to develop in the limited circle
-of their activity, and since they have never been in the public eye
-it has never occurred to them that they have anything to conceal.
-They display their oddities because it has never struck them that
-they are odd. And after all it is with the common run of men that
-we writers have to deal; kings, dictators, commercial magnates are
-from our point of view very unsatisfactory. To write about them is
-a venture that has often tempted writers, but the failure that has
-attended their efforts shows that such beings are too exceptional to
-form a proper ground for a work of art. They cannot be made real.
-The ordinary is the writer's richer field. Its unexpectedness, its
-singularity, its infinite variety afford unending material. The
-great man is too often all of a piece; it is the little man that is
-a bundle of contradictory elements. He is inexhaustible. You never
-come to the end of the surprises he has in store for you. For my
-part I would much sooner spend a month on a desert island with a
-veterinary surgeon than with a prime minister.
- -- W. Somerset Maugham, from "The Summing Up"
-~
-Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts
-when you have forgotten your aim.
- -- George Santayana
-~
-The importance of people as creators and carriers of knowledge is forcing
-organizations to realize that knowledge lies less in its databases than in
-its people. It's been said, for example, that if NASA wanted to go to the
-moon again, it would have to start from scratch, having lost not the data,
-but the human expertise that took it there last time. Similarly, Tom
-Davenport and Larry Prusake argue that when Ford wanted to build on the
-success of the Taurus, the company found that the essence of that success
-had been lost with the loss of the people that created it. Their knowledge
-was not stored in information technologies. It left when they left.
- -- John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid, in "The Social Life of Information"
-~
-Either we live by accident and die by accident,
-or we live by plan and die by plan.
- -- Thornton Wilder
-~
-Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart.
- -- William Butler Yeats
-~
-...the act of producing a letter, even one which is never mailed,
-necessitates a form of creative concentration which can improve our
-lives. Copies of our own letters are useful for our records and
-memories. If their recipients think them worth saving, they can have
-value and effect far beyond that of the spoken word. In friendship,
-the letter is not only a message but a gift, a physical symbol of
-esteem and affection. In business or politics, the letter can not
-only express the concerns of the moment but remain as a document of
-such concerns, available for prolonged scrutiny by more than one
-reader. Moreover, while speakers and listeners in a debate are
-vulnerable to emotion and subject to fallacy, the well-written letter
-remains calm and crisp and is subject to nothing except superior reason.
-It can convince the open-minded, goad the weak-hearted, give our
-opponents an exact index of the level and intensity of our commitment,
-and be quoted by those who agree with us. But perhaps most importantly,
-our letters are the proof and body of our concern for life in its detail
-and our conviction that this concern should be shared with others.
- -- Robert Grudin, from "Time and the Art of Living"
-~
-Mass transportation is doomed to failure in North America because a
-person's car is the only place where he can be alone and think.
- -- Marshall McLuhan
-~
-You've got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch
-on to the affirmative, and don't mess with Mister In-Between.
- -- Johnny Mercer
-~
- Once, as promised, bots start interacting with one another,
-understanding bot behavior may become impossible. Anyone who has
-had to call a help line with a problem about the way an operating
-system from one vendor and program from another are working together--
-or failing to work--knows how hard it is to get anyone to take
-responsibility for software interactions. Support staff rapidly
-renounce all knowledge of (and usually interest in) problems that
-arise from interactions because there are just too many possibilities.
-So it's easy to imagine sophisticated programmers, let alone ordinary
-users, being unable to unravel how even a small group of bots reached
-a particular state autonomously. The challenge will be unfathomable
-if, as one research group has it, we can "anticipate a scenario in
-which billions of intelligent agents will roam the virtual world,
-handling all levels of simple to complex negotiations and transactions.
- If human agents are confused with digital ones, if human action is
-taken as mere information processing, and if the social complexities of
-negotiation, delegation, and representation are reduced to "when x, do y,"
-bots will end up with autonomy without accountability. Their owners, by
-contrast, may have accountability without control.
- -- John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid, in "The Social Life of Information"
-~
-Life does not consist mainly--or even largely--of facts and
-happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that
-is forever blowing through one's head.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side?
-And ain't that a big enough majority in any town?
- -- Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn
-~
- Every other country scorns American materialism while striving in
-every big and little way to match it. Envy obviously has something to do
-with it, but there is a true basis for this debate, and it is whether
-America is in its ascendance or its decline.
- I myself think I recognize here several of the symptoms that Edward
-Gibbons maintained were signs of the decline of Rome, and which arose not
-from external enemies but from inside the country itself. A mounting love
-of show and luxury. A widening gap between the very rich and the very poor.
-An obsession with sex. Freakishness in the arts masquerading as
-originality, and enthusiasm pretending to creativeness...
- There is, too, the general desire to live off the state, whether it
-is a junkie on welfare or an airline subsidized by the government: in a
-word, the notion that Washington -- Big Daddy -- will provide. And, most
-disturbing of all, a developing moral numbness to vulgarity, violence, and
-the assault on the simplest human decencies.
- Yet the original institutions of this country still have great
-vitality: the Republic can be kept, but only if we care to keep it. Much of
-the turmoil in America springs from the energy of people who are trying to
-apply those institutions to forgotten minorities who have awakened after a
-long sleep.
- As I see it, in this country -- a land of the most persistent
-idealism and the blandest cynicism -- the race is on between its decadence
-and its vitality. There are the woes, which we share with the world, that
-you can see from your window: overpopulation; the pollution of the
-atmosphere, the cities and the rivers; the destruction of nature. I find it
-impossible to believe that a nation that produced such dogged and ingenious
-humans as Jefferson and Eli Whitney, John Deere and Ford, Kettering and
-Oppenheimer and Edison and Franklin, is going to sit back and let the worst
-happen. There is now a possibility, at least, that nuclear energy can help
-us to cure incurable diseases, to preserve our food indefinitely, and
-through breeder reactors, which renew more power in the act of spending it,
-can actually clean the cities and, let us pray, the oceans. And that would
-take us over a historical watershed that none of us has ever conceived.
- -- Alistair Cooke
-~
-There are some enterprises in which a careful
-disorderliness is the true method.
- -- Herman Melville
-~
-The dollar bills the customer gets from the tellers in four banks
-are the same. What is different are the tellers.
- -- Stanley Marcus
-~
- I grew up in the last days of the British Empire. My childhood fell
-in that era when the words 'imperialism' and 'the West' had not yet acquired
-the connotations they have today -- they had not yet become, that is, mere
-synonyms for 'racism,' 'oppression,' and 'exploitation'.
- Or, at any rate, they had not yet become so among the intellectual,
-professional, and governing classes of Egypt. In Cairo it was entirely
-ordinary, among those classes, to grow up speaking English or French or
-both, and quite ordinary to attend an English or French school. It was taken
-for granted among the people who raised us that there was unquestionably
-much to admire in and learn from the civilization of Europe and the great
-strides that Europe had made in human advancement. No matter that the
-European powers were politically oppressive and indeed blatantly unjust; nor
-did it seem to matter that the very generation which raised us were
-themselves locked in struggle with the British for Egypt's political
-independence. There seemed to be no contradiction for them between pursuing
-independence from the European powers and deeply admiring European
-institutions, particularly democracy, and Europe's tremendous scientific
-breakthroughs.
- -- Leila Ahmed, from "A Border Passage: From Cairo to America--
- A Woman's Journey"
-~
-the only possible mental bases for racism must ultimately be ignorance
-or stupidity or both. it's only a little-minded weak person that has to
-feel superior to another person just because of their skin color or
-nationality. but i try not to in turn feel superior to racists; i find
-only sadness for them instead. by imagining them trapped inside such an
-awful and constraining mental prison, my compassion is evoked for these
-confused folks.
-~
-Things are in the saddle, and ride mankind.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat
-in a tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked. His response was
-a question: "Where do you want to go?" "I don't know," Alice
-answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
- -- Lewis Carroll
-~
-It's not true that life is one damn thing after another--
-it's one damn thing over and over.
- -- Edna St. Vincent Millay
-~
-Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood. If your stomach
-disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts. Keep
-the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move. Go
-very light on the vices, such as carrying on in society. The
-social life ain't restful. Avoid running at all times. Don't
-look back. Something may be gaining on you.
- -- Leroy "Satchel" Paige, from his autobiography,
- "How To Stay Young."
-~
-Facts are all accidents. They all might have been different.
-They all may become different. They all may collapse together.
- -- George Santayana
-~
-A word is dead
-When it is said,
-Some say.
-
-I say it just
-Begins to live that day.
- -- Emily Dickinson
-~
-Thinking about it the other day, I realized that some of my unhappiest moments
-have been in organizations. Somehow it seems to be quite respectable to do
-things in organizations that you would never do in private life. I have had
-people insult me to my face in front of colleagues. I have had my feelings
-rammed down my throat on the pretext that it would do me good and have been
-required to do things which I didn't agree with because the organization wished
-it... In my worst moments I have thought that organizations were places
-designed to be run by sadists and staffed by masochists....
- -- Charles Handy
-~
-The best organizations to be in, it seems, are the busiest ones as long
-as they are busy for someone else. The worst are those that are obsessed
-with their own innards... The healthiest are those which exist for others,
-not for themselves. Show me a business or a school or a church that is
-preoccupied with its customers or clients, determined to do its best for them
-and not just to survive for the sake of surviving, and I'll bet you that they
-don't have time for too many committees, for forms, for politicking or for
-nitpicking about mistakes. Those are the organizations which are fun to be
-in, which give you room to be yourself, to express yourself, to grow.
- -- Charles Handy
-~
-The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
- -- William James
-~
-Life is the process of finding out, too late, everything
-that should have been obvious at the time.
- -- John D. MacDonald
-~
-If work was a good thing the rich would have it all
-and not let you do it.
- -- Elmore Leonard
-~
-Any law that takes hold of a man's daily life cannot prevail
-in a community, unless the vast majority of the community are
-actively in favor of it. The laws that are the most operative
-are the laws which protect life.
- -- Henry Ward Beecher
-~
-The graveyard is full of indispensable men.
- -- Charles de Gaulle
-~
-I read about an Eskimo hunter who asked the local missionary
-priest, "If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?"
-"No," said the priest, "not if you did not know."
-"Then why," asked the Eskimo earnestly, "did you tell me?"
- -- Annie Dillard
-~
- The day came when Grandmother couldn't keep all her stuff in the two
-tiny rooms to which she was finally reduced. So she packed everything
-she didn't need into enormous shopping bags and took off for the bank
-in the center of the city where she kept her account, by then down to
-a few pennies. Her husband had started the bank and had been its
-chairman until he died, and she was still treated with the consideration
-due his widow. But when she appeared with her shopping bags and asked
-to have the contents put on her account, the manager balked. "We can't
-put things on an account," he said, "only money."
- "That's mean and ungrateful of you," said Grandmother, "you only do
-this to me because I am a stupid old woman."
- And she promptly closed her account and drew out the balance. Then
-she went down the street to the nearest branch of the same bank, reopened
-her account there, and never said a word about her shopping bags.
- "Grandmother," we'd say, "if you thought the bank was unfriendly why
-did you reopen your account at another branch?"
- "It's a good bank," she said; "after all, my late husband founded it."
- "Then why not demand that the manager at the new branch take your
-stuff?"
- "I never banked there before. He didn't owe me anything."
- -- Peter Drucker, "Adventures of a Bystander"
-~
-Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.
- -- unknown
-~
-Writing about music is like dancing about architecture--
-it's a really stupid thing to want to do.
- -- Elvis Costello, in an interview by Timothy White entitled
- "A Man out of Time Beats the Clock." Musician magazine
- No. 60 (October 1983), p. 52.
-~
-The pressures for upscale consumption, and the work schedules
-that go along with it, created millions of exhausted, stressed-
-out people who started wondering if the cycle of work and spend
-was really worth it. And some concluded that it wasn't. So
-they started downshifting, reducing their hours of work and, in
-the process, earning and spending less money. Downshifters are
-opting out of excessive consumerism, choosing to have more
-leisure and balance in their schedules, a slower pace of life,
-more time with their kids, more meaningful work, and daily lives
-that line up squarely with their deepest values. These are not
-just fast-track yuppies leaving $200,000 jobs in Manhattan to
-settle in Montana, although there are plenty of those.
-Downshifters can be found at all income levels, from the
-comfortable suburbanites whose homes are paid for, to those who
-are counting every penny, resigned to the fact that they'll never
-own a home. Their jobs were leaving them drained, depressed, or
-wondering what life is all about. Now they may not have as much
-money, but they are spending every day answering that all-
-important question.
- -- Juliet B. Schor
-~
-The right to be let alone--the most comprehensive of rights and
-the right most valued by civilized men.
- -- Louis D. Brandeis
-~
-The need to reach better mutual understanding through dialogue
-is strong in all sectors of society, but in none more than the
-business community. The growth of technology, the increase in
-the number of knowledge workers, and the blurring of boundaries
-of all kinds are transforming relationships at all levels of
-business. The traditional top-down style of leadership in a
-fortress-type company semi-isolated from others is increasingly
-out of vogue. It is being replaced by what I have come to
-think of as "relational leadership," where the defining task of
-leaders is developing webs of relationships with others rather
-than handing down visions, strategies, and plans as if they
-were commandments from the mountaintop.
- -- Daniel Yankelovich, "The Magic of Dialogue"
-~
-Life is one long process of getting tired.
- -- Samuel Butler
-~
-Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a split second when it can
-recalled and perhaps remedied.
- -- Pearl S. Buck
-~
- Fortunately, many teachers intuitively know that the best way to
-achieve their goals is to enlist students' interest on their side.
-They do this by being sensitive to students' goals and desires, and
-they are thus able to articulate the pedagogical goals as meaningful
-challenges. They empower students to take control of their learning;
-they provide clear feedback to the students' efforts without
-threatening their egos and without making them self-conscious. They
-help students concentrate and get immersed in the symbolic world of
-the subject matter. As a result, good teachers still turn out
-children who enjoy learning, and who will continue to face the world
-with curiosity and interest.
- It is to be hoped that with time the realization that children
-are not miniature computing machines will take root in educational
-circles, and more attention will be paid to motivational issues.
-Unless this comes to pass, the current problems we are having with
-education are not likely to go away.
- -- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, from "Creativity: Flow and Psychology
- of Discovery and Invention"
-~
-The more human beings proceed by plan the more effectively they may
-be hit by accident.
- -- Friedrich Duerrenmatt
-~
-We never see what's under our feet;
-we're too busy trying to see
-what's in the stars.
- -- Quintus Ennius
-~
-Paradoxes have played a dramatic role in intellectual history,
-often foreshadowing revolutionary developments in science,
-mathematics, and logic. Whenever, in any discipline, we discover
-a problem that cannot be solved within the conceptual framework
-that supposedly should apply, we experience shock. The shock may
-compel us to discard the old framework and adopt a new one. It
-is to this process of intellectual molting that we owe the birth
-of many of the major ideas in mathematics and science. Zeno's
-paradox of Achilles and the tortoise gave birth to the idea of
-convergent infinite series. 'Antinomies' (internal contradictions
-in mathematical logic) eventually blossomed into Godel's theorem.
-The paradoxical result of the Michelson-Morley experiment on the
-speed of light set the stage for the theory of relativity. The
-discovery of wave-particle duality of light forced a reexamination
-of deterministic causality, the very foundation of scientific
-philosophy, and led to quantum mechanics.
- -- Anatol Rapoport
-~
-Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the
-greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.
- -- Charles Caleb Colton
-~
-More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads.
-One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness.
-The other, to total extinction.
-Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
- -- Woody Allen
-~
-Some books are undeservedly forgotten;
-none are undeservedly remembered.
- -- W. H. Auden
-~
-Every age is fed on illusions, lest men should renounce
-life early and the human race come to an end.
- -- Joseph Conrad
-~
- Why is autobiography the most popular form of nonfiction
-for modern readers? Why are so many people moved to write their
-life stories today? And what is it about the genre that makes
-it appeal to readers not just in the Western world, but also in
-non-Western cultures, like those of Japan and India or the many
-cultures of Africa?...
- What makes the reading of autobiography so appealing is the
-chance it offers to see how this man or that woman whose public
-self interests us has negotiated the problem of self-awareness
-and has broken the internalized code a culture supplies about
-how life should be experienced. Most of us, unless faced with
-emotional illness, don't give our inner life scripts a fraction
-of the attention we give to the plots of movies or TV specials
-about some person of prominence. Yet the need to examine our
-inherited scripts is just beneath the surface of consciousness,
-so that while we think we are reading a gripping story, what
-really grips us is the inner reflection on our own lives the
-autobiographer sets in motion.
- -- Jill Ker Conway
-~
-Philosophy is a game with objectives and no rules.
-Mathematics is a game with rules and no objectives.
- -- Unknown
-~
-The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working
-the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop
-until you get into the office.
- -- Robert Frost
-~
-We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any
-in the world; and its efficiency is only marred by the
-difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don't know
-anything and can't read.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-If you start to think about your physical or moral condition,
-you usually find that you are sick.
- -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-~
-A modest man is usually admired--if people ever hear of him.
- -- Edgar Watson Howe
-~
- Modern housekeeping, despite its bad press, is among the most
-thoroughly pleasant, significant, and least alienated forms of work
-that many of us will encounter even if we are blessed with work
-outside the home that we like. Once, it was so physically onerous
-and arduous that it not infrequently contributed to a woman's total
-physical breakdown. Today, laundry, cleaning, and other household
-chores are by and large physically light or moderate work that doctors
-often recommend to people for their health, as evidence shows that
-housework is good for weight control and healthy hearts.
- Seen from the outside, housework can look like a Sisyphean task
-that gives you no sense of reward or completion. Yet housekeeping
-actually offers more opportunities for savoring achievement than
-almost any other work I can think of. Each of its regular routines
-brings satisfaction when it is completed. These routines echo the
-rhythm of life, and the housekeeping rhythm is the rhythm of the body.
-You get satisfaction not only from the sense of order, cleanliness,
-freshness, peace and plenty restored, but from the knowledge that you
-yourself and those you care about are going to enjoy these benefits.
- -- Cheryl Mendelson
-~
-I'll tell you what it's like to be No. 1. I compare it to climbing
-Mount Everest. It's very difficult. Lives are lost along the way.
-You struggle and struggle and finally you get up there. And guess
-what there is once you get up there? Snow and ice.
- -- David Merrick
-~
-Never ask a person what to do, always tell him or her.
-If it's the wrong thing to do, or if there is a better way,
-they'll come back and tell you. But if you don't tell them
-what to do, they won't do anything but make a study.
- -- Eugenia Schwartzwald
-~
- War, it seems to me, after a lifetime of reading about the subject,
-mingling with men of war, visiting the sites of war and observing its
-effects, may well be ceasing to commend itself to human beings as a
-desirable or productive, let alone rational, means of reconciling their
-discontents. This is not mere idealism. Mankind does have the capacity,
-over time, to correlate the costs and benefits of large and universal
-undertakings.
- Throughout much of the time for which we have a record of human
-behaviour, mankind can clearly be seen to have judged that war's benefits
-outweighed its costs, or appeared to do so when a putative balance was
-struck. Now the computation works in the opposite direction. Costs
-clearly exceed benefits. Some of these costs are material. The
-superinflationary expense of weapon procurement distorts the budgets even
-of the richest states, while poor states deny themselves the chance of
-economic emancipation when they seek to make themselves militarily
-formidable.
- The human costs of actually going to war are even higher. Rich
-states, as between themselves, recognize that they are not to be borne.
-Poor states which fall into war with rich states are overwhelmed and
-humiliated. Poor states which fight each other, or are drawn into civil
-war, destroy their own well being, and even the structures which make
-recovery from the experience of war possible. War truly has become a
-scourge, as was disease throughout most of human history. The scourge
-of disease has, almost within living memory, been very largely defeated
-and, though it is true that disease had no friends as war has had friends,
-war now demands a friendship which can only be paid in false coin.
- A world political economy which makes no room for war demands, it
-must be recognized, a new culture of human relations. As most cultures of
-which we have knowledge were transfused by the warrior spirit, such a
-cultural transformation demands a break with the past for which there are
-no precedents. There is no precedent, however, for the menace with which
-future war now confronts the world.
- -- John Keegan, "A History of Warfare"
-~
-Creditors are a superstitious sect,
-great observers of set days and times.
- -- Benjamin Franklin, "Poor Richard's Almanack"
-~
- Despite the abundant evidence that compassion is a basic
-human trait, the view has long prevailed that human beings are
-either heartless or brutal toward most of their fellows. Every
-compendium of familiar quotations has an abundance of statements
-like "The greatest enemy to man is man" (Robert Burton) but
-almost none like "Precious is man to man" (Thomas Carlyle).
-Altruism research attests that kindness is as integral to human
-nature as cruelty, yet in the news and in the historical record
-cruel acts vastly outnumber kind ones.
- Why are we keenly aware of the despicable in us but largely
-insensible of the admirable? Not, I suggest, because the
-despicable is common and the admirable rare but the very reverse.
-Prosocial behavior of all sorts, including altruism, is so normal
-and expected that we scarcely notice it but are struck by its
-absence or opposite. We see nothing unusual in a passerby's
-helping a fallen elderly person to his feet but are surprised and
-disturbed if the passerby ignores him. We expect people to be
-kind and helpful to a stranger in distress; we are startled and
-troubled when they look away and hurry past. Cruelty is
-attention-getting, kindness unremarkable, and so we agree with
-Seneca that "man delights to ruin man" and with William James that
-"of all the beasts of prey... [man is] the only one that preys
-systematically on its own species".
- -- Morton Hunt, "The Compassionate Beast"
-~
-Life is all memory, except for the one present moment
-that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going.
- -- Tennessee Williams
-~
- There are serious reasons members of my generation are feeling a high
-level of anxiety and unhappiness these days, but it is interesting to look
-at how we "know" this: the polls. I used to like polls because I like vox
-pop, and polls seemed a good way to get a broad sampling. But now I think
-the vox has popped--the voice has cracked from too many command performances.
-Polls are contributing to a strange new volatility in public opinion...
- The dramatic rises and drops are fueled in part by mass media and their
-famous steady drumbeat of what's not working, from an increase in reported
-child abuse to a fall in savings. When this tendency is not prompted by
-ideology it is legitimate: good news isn't news. But the volatility is also
-driven by the polls themselves. People think they have to have an answer
-when they are questioned by pollsters, and they think the answer has to be
-"intelligent" and "not naive". This has the effect of hardening opinions
-that haven't even been formed yet. Poll questions do not invite subtlety or
-response. This dispels ambiguity, when a lot of thoughts and opinions are
-ambiguous.
- And we are polled too often. We are constantly having our temperature
-taken, like a hypochondriac who is looking for the reassurance no man can
-have, i.e., that he will not die... Nations that use polls as daily
-temperature readings inevitably give inauthentic readings, and wind up not
-reassured but demoralized.
- -- Peggy Noonan
-~
-The chief object of education is
-not to learn things but to unlearn things.
- -- G. K. Chesterton
-~
-When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course.
- -- Peter Drucker
-~
-He will kill mice and he will be kind to babies...
-but when the moon gets up and the night comes, he is
-the Cat that Walks by Himself.
- -- Rudyard Kipling
-~
-Everyone is a prisoner of his own prejudices.
-No one can eliminate prejudices--just recognize them.
- -- Edward R. Murrow
-~
-I am the least difficult of men.
-All I want is boundless love.
- -- Frank O'Hara
-~
-If you can't say anything good about someone, sit right here by me.
- -- Alice Roosevelt Longworth
-~
-Let's face it, life is mainly wasted time.
- -- John Berryman
-~
-Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living!
- -- Mother Jones
-~
-Time spent with cats is never wasted.
- -- Colette
-~
- Most of us find ourselves at one time or another in a toy shop,
-looking for a gift for a child. Those of us who have not been in such
-stores since our youth can easily be bewildered, especially if we were
-born before the 1960s. Our favorite toys or games--fire engines,
-Tinkertoys, or baby dolls--have disappeared or are hidden in row after
-row of heroic fighters, fashion dolls, and exotic stuffed animals. The
-more practical of us enter the store with a list of items desired by
-the child--this season's action figure, the newest Barbie, or the
-latest video game. Veteran toy shoppers may enjoy the inevitable
-transformations as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles give way to Mighty
-Morphin Power Rangers and Locket Surprise Barbie to Tropic Splash
-Barbie. But equally we may be appalled to think about the dozens of
-Ninja Turtles that an older boy just had to have a year earlier but
-that were then shunned by a younger brother who just had to have Power
-Rangers. Why don't kids pass down their toys as we remember giving our
-building blocks and dollhouses to our younger brothers and sisters? It
-is easy to wonder whether each year's must-have toys are really for
-children's play or whether their ever-changing forms represent other
-forces at work.
- There have been disturbing changes in the making of playthings in
-the last few decades. Since the late 1960s many old toy companies,
-venerated for manufacturing toys passed from one generation to the
-next, have disappeared...
- A tradition of manufacturing boys' construction and science sets
-promised parents that their children would be preparing to join the
-adult world of engineering, industry, and science... The old kitchen
-play sets, dollhouses, and baby dolls that were to teach girls the arts
-of housekeeping and childcare are also less in evidence today. Toys
-that seem to prepare children for adult life have become harder to
-find.
- The ever-expanding toy industry reflects a general American
-commitment to unrestrained markets and to constant change, a commitment
-at least a century old. Americans have long admired the new and have
-enriched those who produce it. For decades American parents have
-enjoyed sharing the world of consumption with their offspring. At
-first they did so knowing that they ultimately mediated between toys
-and their children. When the floodgates were opened and torrents of
-toys were presented directly to kids, parents found themselves merely
-providers of funds to buy toys.
- -- Gary Cross, "Kids' Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American
- Childhood."
-~
-Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must
-do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets.
- -- Henry Ford
-~
-If you assign people duties without granting
-them any rights, you must pay them well.
- -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-~
-It is far easier to write ten passable effective sonnets,
-good enough to take in the not too inquiring critic,
-than one effective advertisement that will take in a few
-thousand of the uncritical buying public.
- -- Aldous Huxley
-~
-tail end of the day
-work escapes my fat fingers
-like greasy wieners
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent.
-Its sale is proof of utility and utility is success.
- -- Thomas Alva Edison
-~
-Our lives are suspended like our planet in gimbals of duality,
-half sunlight and half shadow. If we plead with nature, it is
-in vain; she is wonderfully indifferent to our fate, and it is
-her custom to try everything and to be ruthless with incompetence.
-Ninety-nine percent of all the species that have lived on Earth
-have died away, and no stars will wink out in tribute if we in
-our folly soon join them.
- -- Timothy Ferris
-~
-It is characteristic of the present time always to be conscious
-of the medium. It is almost bound to end in madness, like a man
-who whenever he looked at the sun and the stars was conscious of
-the world going round.
- -- Kierkegaard
-~
-The vanity of man revolts from the serene indifference of the cat.
- -- Agnes Repplier
-~
-There are two means of refuge from the
-miseries of life: music and cats.
- -- Albert Schweitzer
-~
-Open source should be about giving away things voluntarily.
-When you force someone to give you something, it's no longer
-giving, it's stealing. Persons of leisurely moral growth
-often confuse giving with taking.
- -- Larry Wall
-~
-Stripped of ethical rationalizations and philosophical
-pretensions, a crime is anything that a group in power
-chooses to prohibit.
- -- Freda Adler
-~
-People are more violently opposed to fur than
-leather because it's safer to harass rich women
-than motorcycle gangs.
- -- Anonymous
-~
-A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't
-change the subject.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-Do not criticize your government when out of the
-country. Never cease to do so when at home.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-Some civil servants are neither servants nor civil.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-Golf is a game whose sole aim is to hit a very small
-ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons
-singularly ill designed for that purpose.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-If it is a blessing, it is certainly very well disguised.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-Some people's idea of free speech is that they are free
-to say anything they like, but if anyone says anything
-back, that is an outrage.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is
-prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another
-matter.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-If you destroy a free market you create a black market.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy
-all respect for the law.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at
-without result.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-It is a socialist ideal that making profits is a vice.
-I consider the real vice is making losses.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.
- -- Benjamin Franklin
-~
-The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
- -- Gerard Manley Hopkins
-~
-The sounder your argument, the more satisfaction you get out of it.
- -- Edward W. Howe
-~
- Expertise, it may be argued, sacrifices the insight of common sense
-to intensity of experience. It breeds an inability to accept new views from
-the very depth of its preoccupation with its won conclusions. It too often
-fails to see round its subject. It sees its results out of perspective by
-making them the centre of relevance to which all other results must be
-related. Too often, also, it lacks humility; and this breeds in its
-possessors a failure in proportion which makes them fail to see the obvious
-which is before their very noses. It has, also, a certain caste-spirit about
-it, so that experts tend to neglect all evidence which does not come from
-those who belong to their own ranks.
- Above all, perhaps, and this most urgently when human problems are
-concerned, the expert fails to see that every judgment he makes not purely
-factual in nature brings with it a scheme of values which has no special
-validity about it. He tends to confuse the importance of his facts with the
-importance of what he proposes to do about them.
- -- Harold J. Laski, "The Limitations of the Expert"
-~
-If women are to do the same work as men,
-we must teach them the same things.
- -- Plato
-~
-Dogs may fawn on all and some
-As they come;
-You, a friend of loftier mind,
-Answer friends alone in kind;
-Just your foot upon my hand
-Softly bids it understand.
- -- Algernon Charles Swinburne
-~
-The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-The machine does not isolate man from the great problems
-of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.
- -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
-~
-Today in USA Today, experts were quoted as saying that the breakup of
-Microsoft would result in shoddy products and missed deadlines...
-
-And Microsoft is worrying about being able to do business as usual.
-~
-The justice department has released its recommendations on
-names for the two parts of Microsoft, post split:
-
-MICROS~1 and MICROS~2
-~
-I think we should partition Microsoft into an OS company
-(called "C:") and an apps company ("D:"). Then we should
-blow away both partitions....
- -- Doug Steinfeld
-~
-Microsoft has argued in court that the US government's plan
-to break up the company is "defective in numerous respects,
-making the document vague and ambiguous."
-
-In which respect it's much like Microsoft's documentation.
-~
-Immediately after the announcement by Judge Penfield of splitting
-the company in two, Microsoft sued Micro.Com Specialists, LLC, and
-Software Research, Inc. (owners of www.soft.com) for infringement
-of copyrights and cyber-squatting.
-~
-your brain will enlarge as necessary. just don't get angry or
-confused or scared or sad, if possible... you'll be amazed at
-what that blob of cells is capable of.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-If you like laws and sausage, you should
-never watch either being made.
- -- Otto von Bismarck
-~
-The most happy marriage I can picture or imagine to myself
-would be the union of a deaf man to a blind woman.
- -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
-~
-A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only
-advise his clients to plant vines.
- -- Frank Lloyd Wright
-~
-He taught me housekeeping; when I divorce I keep the house.
- -- Zsa Zsa Gabor, speaking of her ex-husband
-~
-There is really no such thing as bad weather,
-only different kinds of good weather.
- -- John Ruskin
-~
-She's not a babe. She's a sophisticated real-time computer system.
- -- Spokesman for Ananova, a virtual news anchor
-~
-The man who laughs has not yet been told the terrible news.
- -- Berthold Brecht
-~
-I am easily satisfied with the very best.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-Uncertainty and expectations are the joys of life.
-Security is an insipid thing, and the overtaking and
-possessing of a wish, discovers the folly of the chase.
- -- William Congreve
-~
- Sleep is simply not dispensable, regardless of the attempts in
-today's society to treat it as if it were simply unproductive 'downtime'.
-The desire to get more sleep is not a sign of laziness, nor does it
-represent a lack of ambition. The need for sleep is real...
- When we try to sleep less than the 8-hour minimum, things start to
-deteriorate. First of all, the effects of less than 8 hours of sleep a
-night seem to accumulate as a sleep debt. If you lose 2 hours today and 2
-hours tomorrow, on the third day your efficiency is as low as if you had
-lost 4 hours in one night. This is the way our sleep debt builds up.
-Eventually, if the sleep debt becomes large enough, we become slow, clumsy,
-stupid, and, possibly, dead. This is not an exaggeration. Remember, the
-national death rate by accidents jumps 6 percent as a result of simply
-losing 1 hour of sleep as we shift to daylight savings time in the spring...
- Perhaps someday society will act to do something about sleepiness.
-It may even come to pass that someday the person who drives or goes to work
-while sleepy will be viewed as being as reprehensible, dangerous, or even
-criminally negligent as the person who drives or goes to work while drunk.
-If so, perhaps the rest of us can all sleep a little bit more soundly.
- -- Stanley Coren
-~
-You haven't lived until you've lived with a cat.
- -- Doris Day
-~
-When you appeal to force, there's one thing you must never do--lose.
- -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
-~
-It is because the body is a machine that education is possible.
-Education is the formation of habits, a superinducing of an
-artificial organization upon the natural organization of the body.
- -- Thomas H. Huxley
-~
- If someone asks you, "Where do you live?" you are likely to answer
-with the name of a neighborhood, or a nearby geographic landmark. But if you
-give the question a sharper focus and ask yourself "And do I really live
-there?" then the answer becomes more vexing. Most of us can't claim to
-really live in the neighborhoods where we sleep. Few of us have the time to
-take part in the life of the community, and in many cases there is no
-community life to take part in. To varying degrees many of us can say of
-our neighborhoods what Gertrude Stein said of Oakland: "There is no _there_
-there."
- Bodenstandigkeit is German philosopher Martin Heidegger's term for
-the sense of being rooted in a place. It is this connection to a place that
-grounds us in Being, Heidegger claimed, and even if you don't buy into the
-existential mumbo-jumbo, it's not hard to understand the underlying insight:
-People who have no rootedness to a place are tumbleweeds, blown about on the
-currents of the zeitgeist. You have to be somebody, from somewhere, to know
-who you are.
- -- Jeremy Iggers
-~
-You don't understand anything until you learn it more than one way.
- -- Marvin Minsky
-~
-When you confer spiritual authority on another person, you
-must realize that you are allowing them to pick your pocket
-and sell you your own watch.
- -- Alan Watts
-~
-What then is the education to be? Perhaps we could hardly find a
-better answer than that which the experience of the past has already
-discovered--which consists, I believe, in gymnastic for the body and
-music for the mind.
- -- Plato
-~
-The word 'genius' isn't applicable in football.
-A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.
- -- Joe Theisman, NFL quarterback
-~
-Sometimes the only way you can feel good about yourself is by making
-someone else look bad. And I'm tired of making other people feel good
-about themselves.
- -- Homer Simpson
-~
-I was determined to know beans.
- -- Henry David Thoreau
-~
-Today, the notion of a star-spangled melting pot seems quaint,
-of another age. Increasingly, America is a fractured landscape,
-its people partitioned into dozens of cultural enclaves, its
-ideals reflected through differing prisms of experience. And
-this fracturing is likely to continue as the self-concept of
-America shifts from a majority white-minority black nation to
-a pluralistic society of many ethnic and racial groups. At the
-close of what's been called the American Century, during which
-the nation emerged as the dominant world power in commerce and
-politics, old myths are dying hard and new ones are just being
-forged. In this clustered world, the national identity is
-changing, and most of us don't even know it. Forget the melting
-pot. America today would be better characterized as a salad bar.
- -- Michael J. Weiss
-~
-Personally, I'm always ready to learn,
-although I do not always like being taught.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-The Constitution only gives people the right to
-pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.
- -- Ben Franklin
-~
-Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when
-you fall down an open manhole and die.
- -- Mel Brooks
-~
-As a general rule, the most successful man in
-life is the man who has the best information.
- -- Benjamin Disraeli
-~
-It is one of the blessings of old friends that
-you can afford to be stupid with them.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-A child of five would understand this.
-Send someone to fetch a child of five.
- -- Groucho Marx
-~
-Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped.
- -- Groucho Marx
-~
-I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns
-on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.
- -- Groucho Marx
-~
-I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.
- -- Groucho Marx
-~
-I've had a perfectly wonderful evening.
-But this wasn't it.
- -- Groucho Marx
-~
-Those are my principles, and if you don't like
-them... well, I have others.
- -- Groucho Marx
-~
-When I picked up your book I was so convulsed with laughter
-that I had to set it down, but one day I intend to read it.
- -- Groucho Marx
-~
-Some people claim that marriage interferes with romance.
-There's no doubt about it. Anytime you have a romance,
-your wife is bound to interfere.
- -- Groucho Marx
-~
-God has made the cat to give man the
-pleasure of caressing the tiger.
- -- Victor Hugo
-~
-We are not without accomplishment. We have
-managed to distribute poverty equally.
- -- Nguyen Co Thatch, Vietnamese Foreign
-~
-Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be
-always cast. In the pool where you least expect
-it, will be a fish.
- -- Ovid
-~
-If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is
-because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music
-which he hears, however measured or far away.
- -- Henry David Thoreau
-~
-The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can
-be true and untrue at the same time.
- -- Arthur Schopenhauer
-~
-God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-People often applaud an imitation and then sneer at the real thing.
- -- Aesop
-~
-A thought which does not result
-in an action is nothing much,
-and an action which does not proceed
-from a thought is nothing at all.
- -- Georges Bernanos
-~
-given that:
-
-Security holes are only software bugs when
-one of the software's requirements is security.
-
-we wonder:
-
-do outlook, internet explorer and, indeed, windows
-itself have 'bugs'? because that would indicate
-that microsoft has a requirement of security...
-it seems more likely that any security problems are just
-a by-product of the microsoft swiss cheese development
-methodology(tm)... if it doesn't stink and have a lot
-of holes, then it's not from microsoft.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-The biggest fool in the world is he who merely does his work
-supremely well, without attending to appearance.
- -- Michael Korda
-~
-Now and then there is a person born who is so unlucky that he runs
-into accidents which started out to happen to somebody else.
- -- Don Marquis
-~
-Daydreaming does not enjoy tremendous prestige in our culture,
-which tends to regard it as unproductive thought. Writers
-perhaps appreciate its importance better than most, since a
-fair amount of what they call work consists of little more
-than daydreaming edited. Yet anyone who reads for pleasure
-should prize it too, for what is reading a good book but a
-daydream at second hand? Unlike any other form of thought,
-daydreaming is its own reward. For regardless of the result
-(if any), the very process of daydreaming is pleasurable.
-And, I would guess, is probably a psychological necessity.
-For isn't it in our daydreams that we acquire some sense of
-what we are about? Where we try on futures and practice our
-voices before committing ourselves to words or deeds?
-Daydreaming is where we go to cultivate the self, or, more
-likely, selves, out of the view and earshot of other people.
-Without its daydreams, the self is apt to shrink down to the
-size and shape of the estimation of others.
- -- Michael Pollan
-~
-Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe,
-a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride,
-and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently
-regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are
-entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and
-vagaries of the crowd.
- -- Dame Edith Sitwell
-~
-There are times when I think that the ideal library is
-composed solely of reference books. They are like
-understanding friends--always ready to change the subject
-when you have had enough of this or that.
- -- J. Donald Adams
-~
-Mothers, fathers, aren't supposed to change, any more than
-they are supposed to leave, or die. They must not do that.
- -- Martin Amis
-~
-The greatest obstacle to discovery is not
-ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge.
- -- Daniel J. Boorstin
-~
-Congress is so strange. A man gets up to speak and says nothing.
-Nobody listens--and then everybody disagrees.
- -- Boris Marshalov
-~
-All music is folk music. I ain't never heard no horse sing a song.
- -- Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong
-~
-Creative minds have always been known
-to survive any kind of bad training.
- -- Anna Freud
-~
-Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake.
- -- Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower
-~
-I recently read that love is entirely a matter of chemistry.
-That must be why my wife treats me like toxic waste.
- -- David Bissonette
-~
-I married the first man I ever kissed.
-When I tell my children that they just about throw up.
- -- Barbara Bush
-~
-The trouble with some women is they get all excited
-about nothing--and then they marry him.
- -- Cher
-~
-Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people
-who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm.
-But the harm does not interest them.
- -- T. S. Eliot
-~
-When you're finished changing, you're finished.
- -- Benjamin Franklin
-~
-It is time we start searching for the fountain of age, time that
-we stop denying our growing older and look at the actuality of our
-own experience, and that of other women and men who have gone
-beyond denial to a new place in their sixties, seventies, eighties.
-It is time to look at age on its own terms, and put names on its
-values and strengths as they are actually experienced, breaking
-through the definition of age solely as deterioration or decline
-from youth. Only then will we see that the problem is not age
-itself, to be denied or warded off as long as possible, that the
-problem is not those increasing numbers of people living beyond
-sixty-five, to be segregated from the useful, valuable, pleasurable
-activities of society so that the rest of us can keep our illusion
-of staying forever young. Nor is the basic political problem the
-burden on society of those forced into deterioration, second
-childhood, even senility. The problem is not how we can stay young
-forever, personally--or avoid facing society's problems politically
-by shifting them onto age. The problem is, first of all, how to
-break through the cocoon of our illusory youth and risk a new stage
-in life, where there are not prescribed role models to follow, no
-guidepost, no rigid rules or visible rewards, to step out into the
-true existential unknown of these new years of life now open to us,
-and to find our own terms for living it.
- -- Betty Friedan
-~
-When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third
-of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and
-two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-Blessed are they who have nothing to say
-and who cannot be persuaded to say it.
- -- James Russell Lowell
-~
- Personal computers are less able to sense human presence
-than are modern toilets or outdoor floodlights that have simple
-motion sensors. Your inexpensive auto-focus camera has more
-intelligence about what is in front of it than any terminal or
-computer system.
- When you lift your hands from your computer keyboard, it
-does not know whether the pause is reflective, a nature break,
-or an interruption for lunch. It cannot tell the difference
-between talking to you alone or in front of six other people.
-It does not know if you are in your night-or party clothes or
-no clothes at all. For all it knows, you could have your back
-to it while it was showing you something important, or you
-could be out of earshot altogether while it was speaking to you.
- We think today solely from the perspective of what would
-make it easier for a person to use a computer. It may be time
-to ask what will make it easier for computers to deal with
-humans. For example, how can you possibly hold a conversation
-with people if you don't even know they are there? You can't
-see them, and you don't know how many there are. Are they
-smiling? Are they even paying attention? We talk longingly
-about human-computer interactions and conversational systems,
-and yet we are fully prepared to leave one participant in this
-dialogue totally in the dark. It is time to make computers see
-and hear.
- -- Nicholas Negroponte
-~
-The energy produced by the breaking down of the
-atom is a very poor kind of thing. Anyone who
-expects a source of power from the transformation
-of these atoms is talking moonshine.
- -- Ernest Rutherford
-~
-Finance is the art of passing currency from
-hand to hand until it finally disappears.
- -- Robert W. Sarnoff
-~
- The scientific community speaks about its work in a cool
-and disinterested manner. To present an exciting profile
-would be unprofessional. Any excess of emotion would suggest
-a lack of neutrality and therefore a tendency to read what
-they want in the facts rather than reporting what they see.
-Scientific objectivity must therefore appear to be boring.
- Scientists are well aware that their work is neither
-boring nor objective. If it were, very few discoveries would
-be made.
- Social science, being falsely empirical, is triply
-obsessed by the obligation to present itself as the objective
-interpretation of observed reality. Since the more or less
-hard edges of scientific inquiry are not involved, social
-scientists are free to be more categorical about truth,
-reality and what they call facts. They therefore seek to be
-more boring than scientists.
- -- John Ralston Saul
-~
-Despair is perfectly compatible with a good dinner, I promise you.
- -- William M. Thackeray
-~
-A genius is someone who can do anything except make a living.
- -- Joey Adams
-~
-If you like a man's laugh before you know anything of him,
-you may say with confidence that he is a good man.
- -- Fyodor Dostoevski
-~
-Fortune befriends the bold.
- -- John Dryden
-~
-Success in almost any field depends more on energy
-and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains
-why we have so many stupid leaders.
- -- Sloan Wilson
-~
-Socialism is Bolshevism with a shave.
- -- Detroit Journal
-~
-I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
- -- Noel Coward
-~
-Give a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day.
-Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
-~
-It is a myth, not a mandate, a fable not a logic,
-and symbol rather than a reason by which men are moved.
- -- Irwin Edman
-~
-Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you're on a dead horse, the best
-strategy is to dismount. Of course, there are other strategies. You
-can change riders. You can get a committee to study the dead horse.
-You can benchmark how other companies ride dead horses. You can
-declare that it's cheaper to feed a dead horse. You can harness
-several dead horses together. But after you've tried all these things,
-you're still going to have to dismount.
- -- Gary Hamel
-~
-You think it's a conspiracy by the networks to put bad shows on TV.
-But the shows are bad because that's what people want. It's not like
-Windows users don't have any power; I think they are happy with
-Windows, and that's an incredibly depressing thought.
- -- Steve Jobs
-~
-Coaches have to watch for what they don't want to see
-and listen to what they don't want to hear.
- -- John Madden
-~
-Never forget the power of silence, that massively disconcerting
-pause which goes on and on and may at last induce an opponent to
-babble and backtrack nervously.
- -- Lance Morrow
-~
-Florence Nightingale, on her kitten's reaction to an older cat:
-
-"The little one stands her ground, and when the old enemy comes near
-enough kisses his nose and makes the peace. That is the lesson of
-life: to kiss one's enemy's nose always standing one's ground."
-~
- In the game known as Broken Telephone (or Chinese Whispers) a child
-whispers a phrase into the ear of a second child, who whispers it into
-the ear of a third child, and so one. Distortions accumulate, and when
-the last child announces the phrase, it is comically different from the
-original. The game works because each child does not merely degrade the
-phrase, which would culminate in a mumble, but reanalyzes it, making a
-best guess about the words the preceding child had in mind.
- All languages change through the centuries. We do not speak like
-Shakespeare (1564-1616), who did not speak like Chaucer (1343-1400), who
-did not speak like the author of Beowulf (around 750-800). As the
-changes take place, people feel the ground eroding under their feet and
-in every era have predicted the imminent demise of the language. Yet
-the twelve hundred years of changes since Beowulf have not left us
-grunting like Tarzan, and that is because language change is a game of
-Broken Telephone.
- A generation of speakers uses their lexicon and grammar to produce
-sentences. The younger generation listens to the sentences and tries to
-infer the lexicon and grammar, the remarkable feat we call language
-acquisition. The transmission of a lexicon and grammar in language
-acquisition is fairly high in fidelity -- you probably can communicate
-well with your parents and your children -- but it is never perfect.
-Words rise and fall in popularity, as the needs of daily life change, and
-also as the hip try to sound different from the dweebs and graybeards.
-Speakers swallow or warp some sounds to save effort, and enunciate or
-shift others to make themselves understood. Immigrants or conquerors
-with regional or foreign accents may swamp the locals and change the pool
-of speech available to children.
- Children, for their part, do not mimic sentences like parrots but try
-to make sense of them in terms of underlying words and rules. They may
-hear a mumbled consonant as no consonant at all, or a drawn-out or
-mispronounced vowel as a different vowel. They may fail to discern the
-rationale for a rule and simply memorize its outputs as a list. Or they
-may latch on to some habitual way of ordering words and hypothesize a new
-rule to make sense of it. The language of their generation will have
-changed, though it need not have deteriorated. Then the process is
-repeated with their children. Each change may be small, but as changes
-accumulate over centuries they reshape the language just as erosion and
-sedimentation imperceptibly sculpt the earth.
- -- Steven Pinker
-~
-Ideas won't keep: something must be done about them.
- -- Alfred North Whitehead
-~
-Simple solutions seldom are. It takes a very unusual
-mind to undertake analysis of the obvious.
- -- Alfred North Whitehead
-~
-Ninety-Ninety Rule n.
- "The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the
-development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the
-other 90% of the development time." Attributed to Tom Cargill of
-Bell Labs, and popularized by Jon Bentley's September 1985
-"Bumper-Sticker Computer Science" column in "Communications of
-the ACM".
- It was there called the "Rule of Credibility", a name which
-seems not to have stuck. Other maxims in the same vein include
-the law attributed to the early British computer scientist Douglas
-Hartree: "The time from now until the completion of the project
-tends to become constant."
-~
-Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.
- -- Edward Abbey
-~
-No matter how bad things get
-you got to go on living,
-even if it kills you.
- -- Sholom Aleichem
-~
-A man's palate can, in time, become accustomed to anything.
- -- Napoleon Bonaparte
-~
-Because they did not see merit where they should have seen it,
-people, to express their regret, will go and leave a lot of
-money to the very people who will be the first to throw stones
-at the next person who has anything to say and finds a difficulty
-in getting a hearing.
- -- Samuel Butler
-~
-I praise loudly, I blame softly.
- -- Catherine II of Russia
-~
-Deny yourself! You must deny yourself!
-That is the song that never ends.
- -- Goethe
-~
-There are few more doleful sounds than the
-laughter of a man without humour.
- -- Michael Holroyd
-~
-Children are the first to lose their innocence,
-artists the second: idiots never.
- -- Augustus John
-~
-What is the good of being an island,
-if you are not a volcanic island?
- -- Wyndham Lewis
-~
-Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you
-have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.
- -- Emily Post
-~
- Most human beings have to spend their lives in utter vulnerability.
-All are murderable and torturable, and survive only through the restraint
-shown by more powerful neighbors. All are born unequal, in terms of
-capacity or strength. All are born to the inherent frailty of the human
-condition, naked and helpless, vulnerable all through life to the will of
-others, limited by ignorance, limited by physical weakness, limited by
-fear, limited by the phobias that fear engenders.
- For nearly three thousand years now, the political and social genius
-of what we can permissibly call 'Western man' has struggled with these
-brute facts of our unsatisfactory existence. Ever since the Hebrews
-discovered personal moral responsibility and the Greeks discovered the
-autonomy of the citizen, the effort has been made--with setbacks and
-defeats, with dark ages and interregnums and any number of irrelevant
-adventures on the side-to create a social order in which weak, fallible,
-obstinate, silly, magnificent man can maintain his dignity and exercise his
-free and responsible choice.
- -- Adlai Stevenson
-~
-Let us work without theorizing. It's the only way to
-make life endurable.
- -- Voltaire
-~
-At many human faults a cat
-Will never take offense:
-Two things though they cannot stand:
-The wretched Door, the horrid Fence.
- -- Brian Aldiss
-~
-I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-[Chess is] as elaborate a waste of human intelligence
-as you can find outside an advertising agency.
- -- Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) U.S. crime-fiction writer
-~
-Chess is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are
-doing something very clever when they are only wasting their time.
- -- George Bernard Shaw (1856-1960) Irish playwright, critic
-~
-Every moment in life is precious; that's why I play chess.
- -- Joseph Siroker, coffee house chess player and guru
-~
-I don't want any yes-men around me. I want everybody
-to tell me the truth even if it costs them their jobs.
- -- Samuel Goldwyn
-~
-A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can
-prove that you don't need it.
- -- Bob Hope
-~
-Giving money and power to government is like
-giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
- -- P. J. O'Rourke
-~
-The very moral person usually has quite good manners because good
-manners are usually some sort of basic consideration.
- -- Louis Auchincloss
-~
-It takes little talent to see clearly what lies under one's nose,
-a good deal of it to know in which direction to point that organ.
- -- W. H. Auden
-~
-On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], "Pray, Mr.
-Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers
-come out?" I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of
-ideas that could provoke such a question.
- -- Charles Babbage
-~
-Knowledge and human power are synonymous.
- -- Francis Bacon
-~
-The man who can drive himself further once the
-effort gets painful is the man who will win.
- -- Roger Bannister
-~
-You grow up on the day you have your first real laugh at yourself.
- -- Ethel Barrymore
-~
-I think one of the reasons I'm popular again is
-because I'm wearing a tie. You have to be different.
- -- Tony Bennett
-~
-When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
- -- Yogi Berra
-~
-With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half,
-and with a fraud I try to be a fraud and a half.
- -- Otto Von Bismarck
-~
-Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain.
- -- Edward De Bono
-~
-I have discovered that we may be in some degree whatever character
-we choose. Besides, practice forms a man to anything.
- -- James Boswell
-~
-There are no small parts, only small actors.
- -- Marlon Brando
-~
-Charm is a way of getting the answer 'yes'
-without having asked any clear question.
- -- Albert Camus
-~
-Instead of looking at life as a narrowing funnel, we can see it
-ever widening to choose the things we want to do, to take the
-wisdom we've learned and create something.
- -- Liz Carpenter
-~
-Life at university, with its intellectual and inconclusive discussions
-at a postgraduate level is on the whole a bad training for the real world.
-Only men of very strong character surmount this handicap.
- -- Paul Chambers
-~
- The First Daily Sin is imitation. How can the network evening
-news programs be so similar? We're in a commercial, highly competitive
-struggle for viewers, and yet our solution for standing out in the
-marketplace is--do just what the competition is doing. CBS research shows
-that half the viewers of any given evening news broadcast--on CBS, NBC, or
-ABC--only watch that particular program one night a week. The implication
-is obvious: To these viewers, it doesn't make much of a difference which
-one they watch--or whether they watch at all.
- The Second Daily Sin is predictability. How often are you surprised
-by something you see on the news?
- The Third Daily Sin is artificiality. If you stop and really
-listen to how a typical television reporter tells a story, you'll hear how
-artificial it sounds. Even words--'pontiff' comes quickly to mind--that you
-never hear in real life. Nobody talks that way--except for us.
- The Fourth Daily Sin is laziness. The people I work with put in
-long hours and are very devoted to their jobs. They're certainly not lazy
-in the conventional sense. But I think we've all become lazy in our
-thinking, in our reluctance to dig out original stories and come up with
-new ways to tell them.
- The Fifth Daily Sin is oversimplification. Our audience is smarter
-and more thoughtful than a lot of us think. The people out there in America
-know that life is not as simple as what they see on the news: a world of
-heroes and villains, winners and losers, exploiters and victims. Yet that's
-what we show them, night after night.
- The Sixth Daily Sin is hype. Can you remember the last 'story
-you'll never forget?' How about the one before that? I can't. Over the
-years we've exaggerated so much that we've eroded our own ability to convey
-what's truly significant.
- The Seventh Daily Sin is cynicism. I think we're cynical about the
-audience and cynical about our ability to make a difference in peoples'
-lives. Journalists today are held in low esteem, but that doesn't have to
-be. Our viewers and listeners are also hungry for honest information, for
-help in coping with a bewildering world. We have an enormous opportunity to
-win our good name back--and insure our own survival in the bargain.
- -- Andrew Heyward, President of CBS News
-~
-Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.
- -- Benjamin Disraeli
-~
-Dr. Laura eats the Bible, live
-------------------------------
- Laura Schlessinger is a radio personality who dispenses advice to
-people who call in to her radio show. Paramount Television Group is
-currently producing a "Dr. Laura" television show. She has become a
-convert to Judaism, and now she is Ba'al T'shuvah.
- Recently, she made some statements about homosexuals, based on
-biblical edicts. The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura that
-was posted on the internet.
-
---
-
-Dear Dr. Laura,
- Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law.
-I have learned a great deal from your show, and I try to share that
-knowledge with as many people as I can.
- When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example,
-I simply remind him that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an
-abomination. End of debate.
- Now I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the
-specific laws and how to best follow them.
- a) When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates
-a pleasing odour for the Lord (Lev.1:9). The problem is my neighbours.
-They claim the odour is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
- b) I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in
-Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair
-price for her?
- c) I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in
-her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev.15:19-24). The problem is, how
-do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offence.
- d) Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and
-female, provided they are purchased from neighbouring nations. A friend
-of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can
-you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?
- e) I have a neighbour who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus
-35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated
-to kill him myself?
- f) A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an
-Abomination (Lev. 11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality.
-I don't agree. Can you settle this?
- g) Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I
-have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses.
-Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?
- h) Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair
-around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.
-19:27. How should they die?
- i) I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes
-me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
- j) My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two
-different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments
-made of two different kinds of thread (cotton / polyester blend). He
-also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we
-go to the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them?
-(Lev. 24:10-16) Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family
-affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)
- I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident
-you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is
-eternal and unchanging.
-Your devoted disciple and adoring fan,
-Aaron
-~
-Logic, like whiskey, loses its beneficial effect
-when taken in too large quantities.
- -- Lord Dunsany
-~
-It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-It is theory that decides what can be observed.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
- It would be too pat, perhaps, to say that modern people, men and
-women, expect the unexpected. But they certainly expect, or are inured
-to, constant change... Unquestionably, people sense constant movement,
-change, alteration, and 'progress'. Even clothes are supposed to change
-from year to year: there is this year's fashion, and last year's fashion,
-and the fashions of the year before.
- Then there is the idea of 'news,' that is, of something novel
-happening every day, something worth reporting. Millions of people wake up
-in the morning and watch the news on television; they may also listen to
-radio news throughout the day and later catch the evening television news.
-It would be unthinkable to read in the newspapers or to hear on television
-that 'nothing much happened today.' There is always news, always something
-going on, always change. Some days bring major headlines; other days are
-quieter. But there is never no news: the message we get every day is that
-things are never exactly the same.
- -- Lawrence M. Friedman, from "The Horizontal Society"
-~
-Education makes us more stupid than the brutes. A thousand voices
-call to us on every hand, but our ears are stopped with wisdom.
- -- Jean Giraudoux
-~
-I think if you know what you believe, it makes it a lot easier
-to answer questions. I can't answer your question.
- -- Presidential candidate GW Bush, in response to a question about
- whether he wished he could take back any of his answers in the
- first debate. Reynoldsburg, Ohio, Oct. 4, 2000
-~
-Notice the difference between what happens when a man
-says to himself, "I have failed three times," and what
-happens when he says, "I am a failure."
- -- S. I. Hayakawa
-~
-If you always do what interests you,
-at least one person is pleased.
- -- Katharine Hepburn
-~
-I cannot imagine a pleasant retired life of peace
-and meditation without a cat in the house.
- -- Paul Von Hindenberg
-~
-Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of
-are our failures, discouragements, and doubts. We tend to forget the
-past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping.
- -- Eric Hoffer
-~
-It is cheering to see that the rats are
-still around--the ship is not sinking.
- -- Eric Hoffer
-~
-Always keep faith in the mind of clear light and be safe!
- -- Jeffrey Hopkins
-~
- Until now, in the Western world, leisure was the exclusive
-possession of a privileged class, which took upon itself the task of
-playing on behalf of the whole overworked society. For all the injustices
-which this entailed, it can be argued that this inequality in the
-distribution of leisure gave the minority that enjoyed it a certain
-responsibility for the quality of its amusements.
- Today our machines have turned leisure into an almost universal
-and obligatory state, one which many of us are finding enervating and even
-painful. To live free of the burden of grinding toil is the oldest of
-man's dreams. Yet no sooner has he rid himself of the accursed necessity
-of earning his living by the sweat of his brow, then he is confronted by a
-huge and alarming vacuum which -- if he is not to go mad -- must be quickly
-and entirely filled. With this new and abundant leisure come certain
-inescapable demands not to squander unimaginatively the resources that
-industrialization has opened for us. Many of us-consciously seldom, but
-unconsciously often-find this challenge so disturbing that we flee back to
-artificially strenuous work or even to war in order to escape the
-perplexities of choice presented to abundant leisure.
- This is a problem which you, as members of the Mass Audience, will
-be sharing with hundreds of millions of your fellow citizens the world over.
- -- John Houseman
-~
-If you want to write, keep cats.
- -- Aldous Huxley
-~
-It is because the body is a machine that education is possible.
-Education is the formation of habits, a superinducing of an artificial
-organization upon the natural organization of the body.
- -- Thomas H. Huxley
-~
-If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.
- -- William James
-~
-Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of
-a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.
- -- Samuel Johnson
-~
-The surest way to forfeit the esteem of a cat is to
-treat him as an inferior being.
- -- Michael Joseph
-~
-When you learn not to want things so badly, life comes to you.
- -- Jessica Lange
-~
-Don't tell me how hard you work.
-Tell me how much you get done.
- -- James Ling
-~
-The misfortunes hardest to bear are these which never came.
- -- James Russell Lowell
-~
-Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution.
- -- Mae West
-~
-A bachelor is a selfish, undeserving guy who has
-cheated some woman out of a divorce.
- -- Don Quinn
-~
-Serocki's Stricture: Marriage is always a bachelor's last option.
-~
-The gods gave man fire and he invented fire engines.
-They gave him love and he invented marriage.
-~
-When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane,
-most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear
-that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition
-continuously until death do them part.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-Marriage is nature's way of keeping people from fighting with strangers.
-~
-If you're upset and wonder what your wife does with
-all the grocery money, stand sideways and look at yourself.
-~
-I don't worry about terrorism;
-I was married for two years.
- -- Sam Kinison
-~
-Every man wants a wife who is beautiful, understanding,
-economical and a good cook. Unfortunately, the law allows
-only one wife.
-~
-Men are men before they are lawyers, or physicians, or merchants, or
-manufacturers; and if you make them capable and sensible men, they
-will make themselves capable and sensible lawyers or physicians.
- -- John Stuart Mill
-~
- Most of America's millionaires are first-generation rich. How is
-it possible for people from modest backgrounds to become millionaires in
-one generation? Why is it that so many people with similar socioeconomic
-backgrounds never accumulate even modest amounts of wealth?
- Most people who become millionaires have confidence in their own
-abilities. They do not spend time worrying about whether or not their
-parents were wealthy. They do not believe that one must be born wealthy.
-Conversely, people of modest backgrounds who believe that only the wealthy
-produce millionaires are predetermined to remain non-affluent. Have you
-always thought that most millionaires are born with silver spoons in their
-mouths? If so, consider the following facts that our research uncovered
-about American millionaires:
- * Only 19 percent receive any income or wealth of any kind from a
- trust fund or an estate.
- * Fewer than 20 percent inherited 10 percent or more of their wealth.
- * More than half never received as much as $1 in inheritance.
- * Fewer than 25 percent ever received "an act of kindness" of $10,000
- or more from their parents, grandparents, or other relatives.
- * Ninety-one percent never received, as a gift, as much as $1 of the
- ownership of a family business.
- * Nearly half never received any college tuition from their parents
- or other relatives.
- * Fewer than 10 percent believe they will ever receive an inheritance
- in the future.
- America continues to hold great prospects for those who wish to
-accumulate wealth in one generation. In fact, America has always been a
-land of opportunity for those who believe in the fluid nature of our
-nation's social system and economy.
- -- from the book "The Millionaire Next Door"
-~
- In Rome, Athens, and Sparta, honor alone was the reward for the
-greatest of services. A wreath of oak-leaves or laurel, a statue or public
-congratulations was an immense reward for winning a battle or capturing a town.
- In these cities, a man who had accomplished some great feat was
-sufficiently rewarded by the accomplishment itself. He could not meet any
-of his fellow-citizens without feeling the pleasure of having done
-something for them; he could calculate the extent of his services by the
-number of his countrymen. Everybody is capable of doing good to one man,
-but it is god-like to contribute to the happiness of an entire society."
- -- Montesquieu
-~
-I'll let you in on a secret. George Bush is not going to
-be the next president of the United States. Get over it,
-folks. It's not going to happen.
- -- Michael Moore, 9/21/2000, quoted by Eun-Kyung Kim (AP)
-~
- As I considered the premise put forth in the meeting room: that
-the shortest road to wisdom and peace with the world is the one that turns
-inward, away from direct sensory contact with other creatures. I will not
-assert that meditation, psychotherapy, and philosophical introspection are
-unproductive, but I simply can't accept that inward is the only or best way
-for everyone to turn. The more disciplined practitioners of contemplative
-traditions can turn inward and still get beyond the self, but many others
-simply become swamped by self-indulgence. There are far too many people
-living in our society who forget daily that other creatures--five kingdoms'
-worth of them--are cohabiting the planet with us.
- Over half a century ago, Robinson Jeffers suggested that it may be
-just as valid to turn outward: "The whole human race spends too much
-emotion on itself. The happiest and freest man is the scientist
-investigating nature or the artist admiring it, the person who is
-interested in things that are not human. Or if he is interested in human
-beings, let him regard them objectively as a small part of the great music."
- -- Gary Paul Nabhan
-~
-SWM 33, black belt kama sutra, seeking wonder woman. bring me your
-inhibitions and i will shatter them, you sweet thing. no violence.
-no caustics. sin is the word of restriction, so come pet my crowley.
-aleister can cook; aunt jemima treatment for all.
-~
-Chance favors only the prepared mind.
- -- Louis Pasteur
-~
-I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
-I lift my eyes and all is born again.
- -- Sylvia Plath
-~
-Books do furnish a room.
- -- Anthony Powell
-~
- For the benefit of the two or three other people in this society
-who don't know what 'Cats' is about, here's the answer: It's about a bunch
-of cats. The cats jump around in a postnuclear junkyard for some two and a
-half hours, bumping and grinding to that curiously Mesozoic pop music for
-which Andrew Lloyd Webber is famous--the kind of full-tilt truckin' that
-sounds like the theme from 'The Mod Squad.' There's an Elvis impersonator
-cat, and a cat that looks like Cyndi Lauper, and a cat that looks like
-Phyllis Diller. All the other cast members look like Jon Bon Jovi with two
-weeks of facial growth.
- Sure, 'Cats' is allegedly based upon the works of T. S. Eliot, but
-from what I could tell, the show had about as much to do with the author of
-'The Waste Land' as those old Steve Reeves movies had to do with Euripides.
-'Cats' is what 'Grease' would look like if all the cast members dressed up
-like KISS. To give you an idea of how bad 'Cats' is, think of a musical
-where you're actually glad to hear 'Memory' reprised a third time because
-all the other songs are so awful. Think of a musical where the songs are so
-bad that 'Memory' starts to sound like 'Ol' Man River' by comparison.
-That's how bad 'Cats' is.
- -- Joe Queenan
-~
-Originality consists in trying to be like everybody else--and failing.
- -- Raymond Radiguet
-~
-green sandwich glowing bright, thou droppest mushrooms
-on my tights, i slackly drool and whine and moan, for i
-will soon give you a better, more acidic home.
-~
-By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will become
-happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher.
- -- Socrates
-~
-The life of the creative man is lead, directed, and controlled by
-boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes.
- -- Saul Steinberg
-~
-The new generation of software must be designed from day one to be pirated.
- -- CinemaElectric CEO Jim Robinson
-~
-thought is the only antidote to stupidity,
-but stupid people don't realize they need it.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-i don't have to speak
-in haiku at all times since
-i am way too cool
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
- What is more interesting in this world than our fellow human
-beings and other living creatures? Why do we know so few of what must be
-out there? What kind of philistines are we? Yet we can make a more
-practical point than this. We need to interact with other species whether
-we want to or not. They are our food and our environment: homes, scenery,
-soil, even the oxygen in the air is provided by courtesy of plants and
-photosynthesizing bacteria. We need actively to exploit our fellow
-creatures to survive. This is not an option: we have to exploit them unless
-we prefer to die. Therefore purely for selfish reasons (as well as for
-reasons that we may hope are less selfish) we also need to conserve them.
-Besides, even if we learnt to do without our fellow creatures--perhaps
-found some inexhaustible supply of food on some distant planet--they would
-not necessarily ignore us. We are flesh, too, for all our conceit, and many
-are more than happy to feed upon us. To contain, exploit, or conserve our
-fellow creatures we need to keep tabs on them.
- -- Colin Tudge
-~
- Nature's technology occurs on the surface of the same planet as
-that of human culture, so it endures the same physical and chemical
-limitations and must use the same materials. But nature copes and invents
-in a way fundamentally different from what we do. At the very least, the
-rate at which she alters herself is glacial by our cultural standard.
- The very shapes of the two technologies differ dramatically. Just
-look around you. Right angles are everywhere: the edges of this page, desk
-corners, street corners, floor corners, shelves, doors, boxes, bricks, and
-on and on. Then look at field, park, or forest. Where are the right angles?
-Absent? No, but rare, which raises questions. Why so few right angles in
-nature? Why do civilizations find them so serviceable?
- Natural and human technologies differ extensively and pervasively.
-We build dry and stiff structures; nature mostly makes hers wet and
-flexible. We build of metals; nature never does. Our hinges mainly slide;
-hers mostly bend. We do wonders with wheels and rotary motion; nature makes
-fully competent boats, aircraft, and terrestrial vehicles that lack them
-entirely. Our engines expand or spin; hers contract or slide. We fabricate
-large devices directly; nature's large things are cunning proliferations of
-tiny components.
- -- Steven Vogel's, from "Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds
- of Nature and People"
-~
-If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-I will be brief. Not nearly so brief as Salvador Dali, who gave the
-world's shortest speech. He said I will be so brief I have already
-finished, and he sat down.
- -- Edward O. Wilson
-~
-yahoo throws a shoe;
-trouble in digital zone
-e-log drops out chute
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Take care not to step on the foot of a learned idiot.
-His bite is incurable.
- -- Paul Gaugin
-~
-A great sailor can sail even with a torn canvas. -- Seneca
-~
-What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists?
-In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.
- -- Woody Allen
-~
- Unlike the Industrial Revolution, the Biomimicry Revolution
-introduces an era based not on what we can extract from nature, but on what
-we can learn from her... 'doing it nature's way' has the potential to
-change the way we grow food, make materials, harness energy, heal
-ourselves, store information, and conduct business.
- In a biomimetic world, we would manufacture the way animals and
-plants do, using sun and simple compounds to produce totally biodegradable
-fibers, ceramics, plastics, and chemicals. Our farms, modeled on prairies,
-would be self-fertilizing and pest-resistant. To find new drugs or crops,
-we would consult animals and insects that have used plants for millions of
-years to keep themselves healthy and nourished. Even computing would take
-its cue from nature, with software that "evolves" solutions, and hardware
-that uses the lock-and-key paradigm to compute by touch.
- In each case, nature would provide the models: solar cells copied
-from leaves, steely fibers woven spider-style, shatterproof ceramics drawn
-from mother-of-pearl, cancer cures compliments of chimpanzees, perennial
-grains inspired by tallgrass, computers that signal like cells, and a
-closed-loop economy that takes its lessons from redwoods, coral reefs, and
-oak-hickory forests.
- The biomimics are discovering what works in the natural world, and
-more important, what lasts. After 3.8 billion years of research and
-development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to
-survival. The more our world looks and functions like this natural world,
-the more likely we are to be accepted on this home that is ours, but not
-ours alone.
- -- Janine M. Benyus
-~
-It is better to have a lion at the head of an army of sheep,
-than a sheep at the head of an army of lions.
- -- Daniel Defoe
-~
-stinky pinky in
-my eye, i must cry out at
-your nail gouge like lye.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-What one knows is, in youth, of little moment;
-they know enough who know how to learn.
- -- Henry Adams
-~
-One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.
- -- Walter Bagehot
-~
-A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation
-with the bricks that others throw at him or her.
- -- David Brinkley
-~
-Nobody who is not prepared to spoil cats will get
-from them the reward they are able to give.
- -- Compton MacKenzie
-~
- The other night when I went into a restaurant in Santa Monica,
-there was one president--Clinton. When I ordered a pizza there
-was another one--Gore. When I paid the bill there was a third
-president--Bush, and when I walked out onto Ocean Boulevard there
-was no president because Bill is now the husband of a senator from
-New York.
- Today I am witnessing the spectacle of a hyper-technological
-America which is sitting on the ruins of its electoral system
-waiting for absentee ballots in the mail.
- -- Bepe Severgnini, columnist for Milan's Corriere della Sera
-~
-do you think it would hurt very much to swallow a whole egg, in shell?
-would it be better to boil it first so it's hard or to leave it runny?
-i'm wondering which way would be most likely to keep the shell from
-breaking before it exits the body...
-~
-I will do everything in my power to restrict abortions.
- -- George W. Bush, Dallas Morning News, October 22, 1994
-~
-I saw the report that children in Texas are going hungry. Where?
-You'd think the governor would have heard if there are pockets of
-hunger in Texas.
- -- George W. Bush, whose state ranks 2nd in total number of children
- living in poverty, to Austin American Statesman, 12/18/99
-~
-"Please," Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, "don't kill me."
- -- Bush mocking what Karla Faye Tucker said on Larry King when asked,
- "What would you say to Governor Bush?" prior to her execution by
- lethal injection as reported by Talk magazine, September 1999
-~
-An atmosphere of adolescence, a lack of gravitas--a carelessness, even a
-recklessness, perhaps born of things having gone a bit too easily so far.
- -- George Will, August 11, 1999, referring to Talk magazine's
- interview with Bush
-~
-Sitting down and reading a 500-page book on
-public policy or philosophy or something.
- -- GW Bush was asked to name something he isn't
- good at by Talk magazine, September 1999 issue
-~
-Bush should not advertise any allergy to serious things. A critical
-mass of lightness in a candidate causes the public mind to snap closed,
-with the judgement, "Not ready for prime time."
- -- George Will, August 11, 1999
-~
-Bush is taking a political party on his ride. He and it will care if
-on Nov. 7, 2000, people think of Gore or Bradley as an unexciting but
-serious professor and of him as an amiable fraternity boy, but a boy.
- -- George Will, August 11, 1999
-~
-What I'm against is quotas. I'm against hard quotas, quotas that
-basically delineate based upon whatever. However they delineate,
-quotas, I think, vulcanize society.
- -- George W. Bush (Austin American-Statesman 3/23/99)
-~
-Son, I love your strategy: Don't let them get to know you.
- -- Barbara Bush
-~
-If George is elected President, it would destroy my faith
-in the office because he is such an ordinary guy.
- -- David Rosen, Midland geologist & former neighbor of GW Bush
-~
-He's this week's pet rock.
- -- unknown, regarding GW Bush
-~
-There ought to be limits to freedom. We're aware of the site,
-and this guy is just a garbage man.
- -- GW Bush, commenting on the website www.gwbush.com
-~
-The Bush network is the only genuine network in the
-Republican Party. It is the Establishment.
- -- Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard
-~
-"I will look at each piece of legislation when
-it makes it to my desk," and "I will review that
-when it makes it to my desk."
- -- GW Bush, refusing to comment on anything
- before it's absolutely unavoidable
-~
-Reporters noticed four Latino men sitting at the Plaza, looking bored,
-wearing matching shirts from Buena Vista Farms. Buena Vista, it turns
-out, is a horse ranch run by Gerald Parsky, Bush's California chairman.
-The four men said they were brought to the event and were being paid
-their regular wages for attending.
- -- Salon Magazine reporting on a Bush fundraiser in California
-~
-Asked how he would define "compassionate conservatism," Bush replied:
- "Making sure every child can read, making sure that we encourage
- faith-based organizations... when it comes to helping neighbors in
- need, making sure that our neighborhoods are safe, making sure that
- the state of Texas recognizes that people from all walks of life have
- got a shot at the Texas dream but, most importantly, making sure that
- government is not the answer to people's problems."
-This may be the only time a candidate promised not to solve any problems
-(with the possible exception of Utah Phillips, who ran on the "Sloth &
-Indolence" platform.)
- -- from georgebush2000.com
-~
-I'd demand a recount.
- -- William F. Buckley, in the early '60s, in response to a
- reporter's question asking him what he would do if he
- were to win in his race for the office of Mayor of New York
-~
-Half of the American people have never read a newspaper.
-Half never voted for President.
-One hopes it is the same half.
- -- Gore Vidal
-~
-Start every day off with a smile and get it over with. -- W. C. Fields
-~
-Every man wishes to be wise,
-and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.
- -- Samuel Johnson
-~
-Finally, in conclusion, let me say just this.
- -- Peter Sellers
-~
- When issues of public policy are discussed in the outward form
-of an argument, often the conclusions reached are predetermined by
-the assumptions and definitions inherent in a particular vision of
-social processes. Different visions, of course, have different
-assumptions, so it is not uncommon for people who follow different
-visions to find themselves in opposition to one another across a
-vast spectrum of unrelated issues, in such disparate fields as law,
-foreign policy, the environment, racial policy, military defense,
-education, and many others. To a remarkable extent, however,
-empirical evidence is neither sought beforehand nor consulted after
-a policy has been instituted. Facts may be marshaled for a position
-already taken, but that is very different from systematically
-testing opposing theories by evidence. Momentous questions are
-dealt with essentially as conflicts of vision.
- -- Thomas Sowell, from "The Vision of the Anointed"
-~
-An election is a moral horror, as bad as a battle except for the
-blood; a mud bath for every soul concerned in it.
- -- George Bernard Shaw, "Back to Methuselah," 1921
-~
-If a person is obviously mentally disabled, such as having Down's
-syndrome or Alzheimer's, decent people respond with sympathy and
-understanding; and so why, if people merely have low IQs, are they
-treated with ridicule and contempt?
- -- Geoff Kuenning
-~
-Always go to other people's funerals,
-otherwise they won't come to yours.
- -- Yogi Berra
-~
-Animals are such agreeable friends--
-they ask no questions,
-they pass no criticisms.
- -- George Eliot
-~
-All right everyone, line up alphabetically according to your height.
- -- Casey Stengel
-~
-Willy
-
-Willy flies without wings,
-Fast as a shadow can go.
-Black slash on white snow.
-
-Black face, cold blue eyes
-fish pond, golden fish surprise.
-Wet paws ... cold water!
-
-Black heart on white fur
-Green eyes ... last sight for poor mouse,
-Punctured by Willy.
-
-Willy stalks field mice.
-Wild Bill to small buffalo.
-Kills them just for show.
-
-Cat slays Two in Dawn
-Homicide. Gruesome Remains
-Left On Welcome Mat.
- -- Bill Magee
-~
-Petey
-
-Pete's eyes spit light;
-Blue diamond icicles,
-Red retinal fires.
-
-Sharp nose, fast heart, mouse
-Scrounges by the sewer. Pete
-Pounces, sharp claws out.
-
-Once quick with mouse life,
-Now just carnage: tail, fur, skull.
-Two-scoop burial.
-
-Nowhere a rabbit
-Or goldfish or cardinal
-who loves our Petey.
-
-They hate Pete there,
-Crouched on the mossy rocks,
-Prospecting for gold.
- -- Bill Magee
-~
-Louis
-
-Louis wants to play.
-Its asthma, Lou! My asthma
-Tears us apart, m'boy.
-
-Louis -- scared by deer --
-spent all July and August
-Inside our closet.
-
-We don't let Louis out.
-He is too dumb even for inside.
-Eyes blue oceans of space.
-
-Hot air fluffs Louis.
-Willy warms the newspapers.
-Pete? Purrs in her arms.
- -- Bill Magee
-~
-dharma farm glistens
-like an earthy gem; yaks romp
-on verdant old hills.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Noir comme le diable, [ Black as the devil,
-chaud comme l'enfer, [ hot as hell,
-pur comme un ange, [ pure as an angel,
-doux comme l'amour. [ sweet as love.
- -- Talleyrand, 18th century French diplomat, describing his concept
- of a good cup of coffee
-~
-Coffee has two virtues. It is wet and it is warm. -- Dutch proverb
-~
-Coffee is the common man's gold, and like gold, it brings
-to every person the feeling of luxury and nobility.
- -- Sheik Abd-al-Kadir, In Praise of Coffee, 1587
-~
-Another head--and a black alpaca jacket and a
-serviette this time--to tell us coffee is ready.
-Not before it is time, too.
- -- D. H. Lawrence, from "Sea and Sardinia"
-~
-Give a frontiersman coffee and tobacco,
-and he will endure any privation,
-suffer any hardship, but let him be without
-these two necessaries of the woods, and he
-becomes irresolute and murmuring.
- -- U.S. Army Lt. William Whiting, 1849
-~
-Coffee is real good when you drink it it gives you time to think.
-It's a lot more than just a drink; it's something happening.
-Not as in hip, but like an event, a place to be, but not like a
-location, but like somewhere within yourself. It gives you time,
-but not actual hours or minutes, but a chance to be, like be
-yourself, and have a second cup.
- -- Gertrude Stein
-~
-Last comes the beverage of the Orient shore,
-Mocha, far off, the fragrant berries bore.
-Taste the dark fluid with a dainty lip,
-Digestion waits on pleasure as you sip.
- -- Pope Leo XII
-~
-A very good drink they call Chaube that is almost as black as ink
-and very good in illness, especially of the stomach. This they
-drink in the morning early in the open places before everybody,
-without any fear or regard, out of clay or China cups, as hot as
-they can, sipping it a little at a time.
- -- German physician and botanist Leonhard Rauwolf in 1582
-~
-The little campfires, rapidly increasing to hundreds in number,
-would shoot up along the hills and plains, and as if by magic,
-acres of territory would be illuminous with them. Soon they
-would be surrounded by the soldiers, who made it an inevitable
-rule to cook their coffee first.
- -- John D. Bilings, a Union veteran, in his book, Hardtack and Coffee
-~
-Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass
-all four essential food groups:
-alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and fat.
- -- Alex Levine
-~
-Strong coffee, much strong coffee, is what awakens me.
-Coffee gives me warmth, waking, an unusual force and
-a pain that is not without very great pleasure.
- -- Napoleon Bonaparte
-~
-I would rather suffer with coffee than be senseless.
- -- Napoleon Bonaparte
-~
-The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity
-as sugar or coffee. And I pay more for that ability than for
-any other under the sun.
- -- John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
-~
-If you want to improve your understanding, drink coffee;
-it is the intelligent beverage.
- -- Sydney Smith
-~
-Wine is for aging, not coffee.
- -- Ken Hutchinson, Starsky and Hutch
-~
-I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.
- -- T. S. Elliot
-~
-After a few months' acquaintance with European "coffee" one's mind
-weakens, and his faith with it, and he begins to wonder if the rich
-beverage of home, with it's clotted layer of yellow cream on top of
-it, is not a mere dream after all, and a thing which never existed.
- -- Mark Twain, in "A Tramp Abroad"
-~
-The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the
-cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot
-be expected to reproduce.
- -- Oliver Wendall Holmes, Sr.
-~
-It's just like when you've got some coffee that's too black, which means
-it's too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make
-it weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won't even know you
-ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be
-strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it puts you to sleep.
- -- Malcolm X, 196, Message to the Grass Roots
-~
-Make my coffee like I like my men: hot, black, and strong.
- -- Willona Wood, Good Times
-~
-Never drink black coffee at lunch;
-it will keep you awake in the afternoon.
- -- Jilly Cooper, 1970, "How to Survive from Nine to Five"
-~
-Resolve to free yourselves from the slavery
-of the tea and coffee and other slop-kettle.
- -- William Cobbett, 1829, "Advise to Young Men"
-~
-Tobacco, coffee, alcohol, hashish, prussic acid,
-strichnine, are weak dilutions: the surest poison is time.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Society and Solitude: Old Age"
-~
-Coffee, according to the women of Denmark, is to the body
-what the Word of the Lord is to the soul.
- -- Isak Dinesen, 1934
-~
-Coffee: we can get it anywhere, and get as loaded
-as we like on it, until such teeth-chattering,
-eye-bulging, nonsense-gibbering time as we may be
-classified unable to operate heavy machinery.
- -- Joan Frank, 1991
-~
-Many people are like instant coffee:
-the minute they get in hot water they dissolve.
- -- Anonymous, from Toronto Globe and Mail; July 10, 1993
-~
-The discovery of coffee has enlarged the realm of illusion
-and given more promise to hope.
- -- Isidore Bourdon
-~
-The powers of a man's mind are directly proportional
-to the quantity of coffee he drank.
- -- Sir James MacKintosh, 18th century philosopher
-~
-If it wasn't for coffee, I'd have no discernible personality at all.
- -- David Letterman Esquire Interview Fall '94
-~
-Ah! How sweet coffee tastes!
-Lovelier than a thousand kisses,
-sweeter far than muscatel wine!
- -- From J. S. Bach's "Coffee Cantata," 1732
-~
-You make good coffee... You're a slob,
-but you make good coffee.
- -- Cher, in "Moonstruck"
-~
-See how special you are? I serve you coffee in the parlor.
- -- Anthony Quinn to Sophia Loren in "The Black Orchid"
-~
-The first cup is for the guest,
-the second for enjoyment,
-the third for the sword.
- -- Arabic proverb about coffee
-~
-The vacuum pot is truly the CD player of coffeemakers;
-all you taste is the coffee.
- -- Corby Kummer, food expert
-~
-People are kind of like zombies in Hong Kong nowadays.
-You don't see that glow anymore. In terms of colour
-Hong Kong looks a bit grey. To counter that, I think
-we should give out free espresso samples to give people
-more caffeine; triple espresso with Irish cream syrup,
-iced! People just need to get a bit more wired.
- -- David Wu, Actor and Channel V VJ, quoted in Post Magazine 29 August 99
-~
-a small fish is this
-with so many other big
-tasks still to complete
-~
-For myself I am an optimist--it does not seem
-to be much use being anything else.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one
-is constantly making exciting discoveries.
- -- A. A. Milne
-~
-Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
- -- Pablo Picasso
-~
-There are two means of refuge from the
-miseries of life: music and cats.
- -- Albert Schweitzer
-~
-Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator,
-but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.
- -- W. H. Auden
-~
-A clever man commits no minor blunders.
- -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-~
-my fingers have slipped;
-keyboard greasy from pizza
-sloppily consumed.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that,
-in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers
-and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of scientists are
-not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid.
- -- James Watson
-~
-Fine things books, but perhaps the moment has come to stop taking them
-so seriously. Who was it that said people who are always reading never
-discover anything? I'm not sure if that is true, but I do know that
-reading and thinking are not necessarily the same thing. Sometimes
-reading supplies the most cunning of all means of avoiding thought. It
-would be good once in awhile to try thinking without the stimulus of
-books, to become not an out of-the-box -- never, please, that -- but at
-least an out-of-the-book thinker. Books may furnish a room, but there
-surely are other things quite as suitable for furnishing a mind. Time,
-I think, for me to attempt to find out what these might be.
- -- Joseph Epstein
-~
-Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.
- -- John Kenneth Galbraith
-~
-You can observe a lot by just watching. -- Yogi Berra
-~
-No wonder Al Gore thinks he is president--this is a most confusing time.
-The leading rap singer is white, the world's best golfer is black, and
-Bill Clinton just got back from Vietnam.
- -- Paul Harvey, Early December 2000
-~
-The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
-discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I've found it!), but "That's funny...".
- -- Isaac Asimov
-~
-Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?
- -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-Dr. Seuss takes a look at election recounts:
-I cannot count them in a box.
-I cannot count them with a fox.
-I cannot count them by computer.
-I will not with a Roto-Rooter.
-I cannot count them card-by-card.
-I will not 'cause it's way too hard.
-I cannot count them on my fingers.
-I will not while suspicion lingers.
-I'll leave the country in a jam--
-I won't count ballots, Sam-I-Am.
-~
- For some years, we have been surprised and distressed by the
-intellectual trends in certain precincts of American academia.
-Vast sectors of the humanities and the social sciences seem to
-have adopted a philosophy that we shall call, for want of a better
-term, "postmodernism": an intellectual current characterized by
-the more-or-less explicit rejection of the rationalist tradition
-of the Enlightenment, by theoretical discourses disconnected from
-any empirical test, and by a cognitive and cultural relativism
-that regards science as nothing more than a 'narration,' a 'myth'
-or a social construction among many others.
- To respond to this phenomenon, one of us (Sokal) decided to try
-an unorthodox (and admittedly uncontrolled), experiment: submit to
-a fashionable American cultural-studies journal, "Social Text," a
-parody of the type of work that has proliferated in recent years,
-to see whether they would publish it. The article, entitled
-"Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics
-of Quantum Gravity", is chock-full of absurdities and blatant
-non-sequiturs. In addition, it asserts an extreme form of cognitive
-relativism: after mocking the old-fashioned "dogma" that "there
-exists an external world, whose properties are independent of any
-individual human being and indeed of humanity as a whole", it
-proclaims categorically that "physical `reality', no less than
-social `reality', is at bottom a social and linguistic construct".
-By a series of stunning leaps of logic, it arrives at the conclusion
-that "the [Pi] of Euclid and the G of Newton, formerly thought to be
-constant and universal, are now perceived in their ineluctable
-historicity; and the putative observer becomes fatally de-centered,
-disconnected from any epistemic link to a space-time point that can
-no longer be defined by geometry alone". The rest is in the same vein.
- And yet, the article was accepted and published. Worse, it was
-published in a special issue of 'Social Text' devoted to rebutting the
-criticisms leveled against postmodernism and social constructivism by
-several distinguished scientists. For the editors of 'Social Text,'
-it was hard to imagine a more radical way of shooting themselves in
-the foot.
- -- Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, "Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern
- Intellectuals' Abuse of Science."
-~
-May you live all the days of your life.
- -- Jonathan Swift
-~
- We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication
-below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its
-faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:
- 'I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa
-Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me
-the truth, is there a Santa Claus?' -- Virginia O'Hanlon
- Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by
-the skepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except they see.
-They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little
-minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are
-little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in
-his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured
-by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
- Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
- He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and
-you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.
-Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would
-be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike
-faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We
-should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light
-with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
- Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies.
-You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on
-Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus
-coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no
-sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are
-those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies
-dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not
-there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and
-unseeable in the world.
- You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside,
-but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man,
-nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could
-tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain
-and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real?
-Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
- No Santa Claus? Thank God he lives and lives forever. A thousand
-years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will
-continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
- Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!
- -- The editorial "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus," first printed
- in the New York Sun in 1897.
-~
-Most Internet appliances that I've seen are simply dumbed-down
-PCs, and some analysts call any damn thing that can access the
-Internet--other than a PC--an Internet appliance, even if it's
-your cell phone or a wireless PDA. That leads to some huge
-market projections, which are pretty much meaningless as a
-single figure. I think the idea of Internet appliances as a
-unique market is a pipe dream, with a lot of people sucking
-off that hookah.
- -- Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts, a market
- research firm
-~
-Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.
- -- Immanuel Kant
-~
-Ah but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?
- -- Robert Browning
-~
-She played with her cat, and it was a wonder to watch the white hand
-and the white paw frolic in the shade of night.
- -- Paul Verlaine
-~
-Just because something doesn't do what you planned
-it to do doesn't mean it's useless.
- -- Thomas Alva Edison
-~
-Spare no expense to make everything as economical as possible.
- -- Samuel Goldwyn
-~
-smirking idiot
-drools on oval office desk
-while country expires
- -- about the dubya years
-~
-brave new president
-laughs as he pulls death switch for
-the innocents too
- -- about the dubya years
-~
-they call me a shrub
-but i shrug and ask daddy
-for black ops killing
- -- about the dubya years
-~
-educatedest
-moron ever known on earth:
-gee dubya bee, dude.
- -- about the dubya years
-~
-bush bipartisan
-means "we do it my way" and
-bend over for me
- -- about the dubya years
-~
-smiling lies, dumb looks,
-idea-free, insults all,
-my prez--GWB!
- -- about the dubya years
-~
-my feeling is that humans are both divine and full of sh*t.
-most people are drowning in their own mental diarrhea.
-
-solution? a sewer pipe for the mind, perhaps. or at least to
-realize that the contagion is part of us and has to be purified
-from within. there is no external enemy to kill or persecute;
-all evil deeds and words and thoughts are our own property.
-no one else can take them away for you; you must "dispose of
-properly". clean these damaged mental constituents using your
-will to heal your consciousness.
-~
-If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will
-change a past or future event, then you are residing on another
-planet with a different reality system.
- -- William James
-~
-Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns;
-he should be drawn and quoted.
- -- Fred Allen
-~
-A day without rebooting is like a day without Microsoft. -- fred t. hamster
-~
-I've met many thinkers and many cats,
-but the wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.
- -- Hippolyte Taine
-~
- People living and working in a business system cannot change it.
-Their perspectives are foreshortened, their information gathering and
-measurement systems reinforce the past, and their incentives encourage
-continuity. Archimedes proclaimed, 'Give me where to stand, and I will move
-the earth.' But where should those who might change a business system be
-standing?
- The answer is that every organization needs two business systems.
-Borrowing a term from linguistics, we shall call them the 'surface system'
-and the 'deep system.' The surface system is comprised of the organized
-tasks of the business processes, with their attendant jobs, structures,
-systems, and values. But this surface system is in periodic need of major
-change. Accomplishing that change is the job of the deep system.
- The deep system creates no customer value; it makes no products and
-delivers no services. It doesn't process orders, develop new products, or
-create value for customers. Rather it monitors, governs, adjusts, and
-reforms the surface system that does create customer value. A company's
-deep system bears the responsibility for detecting external changes,
-determining what those changes mean, and intervening to modify or transform
-the surface system accordingly. The deep system, working beneath the
-surface, embodies the capacity to change.
- The deep system continually hurls challenges: Is this still the
-right way or the best way to do things? If not, what is? The deep system
-ensures that the appropriate internal change--moderate or radical--takes
-place, shaping and reshaping the organization to take account of, and
-whenever possible take advantage of, ongoing external change.
- -- Michael Hammer
-~
-There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to
-conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the
-introduction of a new order of things.
- -- Nicolas Machiavelli
-~
-Only those who take leisurely what the people of the world are busy
-about can be busy about what the people of the world take leisurely.
- -- Chang Ch'ao
-~
-I am opposed to millionaires, but it would
-be dangerous to offer me the position.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-Never eat more than you can lift. -- the muppet Miss Piggy
-~
-tired of knowing
-politics are poison, but
-it has to be said...
-
-dubya bush will lead
-to lower expectations
-at every level
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
- Distance changes utterly when you take the world on foot. A mile
-becomes a long way, two miles literally considerable, ten miles
-whopping, fifty miles at the very limits of conception. The world,
-you realize, is enormous in a way that only you and a small community
-of fellow hikers know. Planetary scale is your little secret.
- Life takes on a neat simplicity, too. Time ceases to have any
-meaning. When it is dark, you go to bed, and when it is light again
-you get up, and everything in between is just in between. It's quite
-wonderful, really.
- You have no engagements, commitments, obligations, or duties; no
-special ambitions and only the smallest, least complicated of wants;
-you exist in tranquil tedium, serenely beyond the reach of
-exasperation, 'far removed from the seats of strife,' as the early
-explorer and botanist William Bartram put it. All that is required
-of you is a willingness to trudge.
- There is no point in hurrying because you are not actually going
-anywhere. However far or long you plod, you are always in the same
-place: in the woods. It's where you were yesterday, where you will
-be tomorrow. The woods is one boundless singularity. Every bend in
-the path presents a prospect indistinguishable from every other, every
-glimpse into the trees the same tangled mass. For all you know, your
-route could describe a very large, pointless circle. In a way, it
-would hardly matter.
- -- Bill Bryson, "A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the
- Appalachian Trail."
-~
-You can't cheat an honest man. -- W. C. Fields
-~
-Most conversations are simply monologues
-delivered in the presence of a witness.
- -- Margaret Millar
-~
-There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down
-at a typewriter and open a vein.
- -- Red Smith
-~
-Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence
-should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary
-sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no
-unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.
- -- William Strunk Jr.
-~
- The small and elite group of scientists who create most of the
-flavor in most of the food now consumed in the United States are
-called 'flavorists.' They draw on a number of disciplines in their
-work: biology, psychology, physiology, and organic chemistry. A
-flavorist is a chemist with a trained nose and a poetic sensibility.
-Flavors are created by blending scores of different chemicals in
-tiny amounts--a process governed by scientific principles but
-demanding a fair amount of art. In an age when delicate aromas and
-microwave ovens do not easily co-exist, the job of the flavorist is
-to conjure illusions about processed food and, in the words of one
-flavor company's literature, to ensure 'consumer likeability.' The
-flavorists with whom I spoke were discreet, in keeping with the
-dictates of their trade. They were also charming, cosmopolitan, and
-ironic. They not only enjoyed fine wine but could identify the
-chemicals that give each grape its unique aroma. One flavorist
-compared his work to composing music. A well-made flavor compound
-will have a 'top note' that is often followed by a 'dry-down' and a
-'leveling-off,' with different chemicals responsible for each stage.
-The taste of a food can be radically altered by minute changes in the
-flavoring combination. 'A little odor goes a long way,' one
-flavorist told me.
- In order to give a processed food a taste that consumers will
-find appealing, a flavorist must always consider the food's
-'mouthfeel'--the unique combination of textures and chemical
-interactions that affect how the flavor is perceived. Mouthfeel can
-be adjusted through the use of various fats, gums, starches,
-emulsifiers, and stabilizers. The aroma chemicals in a food can be
-precisely analyzed, but the elements that make up mouthfeel are much
-harder to measure. How does one quantify a pretzel's hardness, a
-french fry's crispness? Food technologists are now conducting basic
-research in rheology, the branch of physics that examines the flow and
-deformation of materials. A number of companies sell sophisticated
-devices that attempt to measure mouthfeel. The TA.XT2i Texture
-Analyzer, produced by the Texture Technologies Corporation, of
-Scarsdale, New York, performs calculations based on data derived from
-as many as 250 separate probes. It is essentially a mechanical mouth.
-It gauges the most-important rheological properties of a food--bounce,
-creep, breaking point, density, crunchiness, chewiness, gumminess,
-lumpiness, rubberiness, springiness, slipperiness, smoothness,
-softness, wetness, juiciness, spreadability, springback, and tackiness.
- -- Eric Schlosser, from "Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good",
- Atlantic Monthly, 2001.
-~
-We haven't failed. We now know a thousand things that
-won't work, so we are much closer to finding what will.
- -- Thomas Edison
-~
-If you surveyed a hundred typical middle-aged Americans, I bet you'd find that
-only two of them could tell you their blood types, but every last one of them
-would know the them song from 'The Beverly Hillbillies'.
- -- Dave Barry
-~
-The first thing to learn in intercourse with others is
-non-interference with their own particular ways of being
-happy, provided those ways do not assume to interfere by
-violence with ours.
- -- William James
-~
-My dad was the town drunk. Usually that's not so bad, but New York City?
- -- Henny Youngman
-~
-Ninety percent of the politicians give the other
-ten percent a bad name.
- -- Henry Kissinger
-~
-You can imagine my embarrassment when I killed the wrong guy.
- -- Joe Valachi
-~
-We must abandon the prevalent belief in the
-superior wisdom of the ignorant.
- -- Daniel Boorstin
-~
- If the primary effect of the media in the late twentieth century was
-to turn nearly everything that passed across their screens into
-entertainment, the secondary and ultimately more significant effect was
-to force nearly everything to turn itself into entertainment in order to
-attract media attention. Daniel Boorstin had coined the term 'pseudo-
-event' to describe events that had been concocted by public relations
-practitioners to get attention from the press. Movie premieres,
-publishing parties, press conferences, balloon crossings, sponsored
-sporting contests, award ceremonies, demonstrations and hunger strikes,
-to name just a few examples, all were synthetic, manufactured pseudo-
-events that wouldn't have existed if someone hadn't been seeking
-publicity and if the media hadn't been seeking something to fill their
-pages and airwaves, preferably something entertaining.
- But the idea of pseudo-events almost seemed quaint by the late
-twentieth century. Most people realized that the object of virtually
-everyone in public life of any sort was to attract the media and that
-everyone from the top movie stars to the parents of septuplets now had
-to have a press agent to promote them. What most people were also coming
-to realize, if only by virtue of how much the media had grown, was that
-pseudo-events had proliferated to such an extent that one could hardly
-call them events anymore because there were no longer any seams between
-them and the rest of life, no way of separating the pseudo from the
-so-called authentic. Almost everything in life had appropriated the
-techniques of public relations to gain access to the media, so that it
-wasn't the pseudo-event one was talking about anymore when one cited the
-cleverness of PR men and women: it was pseudo-life.
- Yet not even pseudo-life did full justice to the modern condition.
-That's because the media were not just passively recording the public
-performances and manipulations of others, even when life was nothing but
-manipulations. Having invited these performances in the first place,
-the media justified covering them because they were receiving media
-attention, which is every bit as convoluted as it sounds. The result
-was to make of modern society one giant Heisenberg effect, in which the
-media were not really reporting what people did; they were reporting
-what people did to get media attention. In other words, as life was
-increasingly being lived for the media, so the media were increasingly
-covering themselves and their impact on life.
- -- Neal Gabler, in "Life, the Movie"
-~
-So little time, so little to do.
- -- Oscar Levant
-~
-Consistency requires you to be as ignorant
-today as you were a year ago.
- -- Bernard Berenson
-~
-Who becomes a CPO? Stephanie Perrin, the chief privacy officer of
-Montreal-based Zero-Knowledge Systems, explains: "Obviously, we're
-not going to just pick somebody from the legal department," because
-privacy is more than a matter of just following the law. "You have
-to have a fundamental commitment to--dare I say it?--morality.
-Privacy is not just good business. We are framing the information
-age, and it is important to take that job seriously. We really do
-look at privacy as a human right, and not just a luxury item for
-spoiled North Americans. We're talking about the global information
-infrastructure."
-~
-The sweetest joy, the wildest woe is love.
- -- Pearl Bailey
-~
-He's simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed.
- -- H.H. Munro
-~
-No easy problems ever come to the president of the United States.
-If they are easy to solve, someone else has solved them.
- -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
-~
-Your presence in the class is disruptive and affects the other students!
- -- A teacher's complaint to the teenage Albert Einstein
-~
- When you're in a world of experts and so-called professionals, the
-common sense of the people is marginalized.
- I'll give you an example. We're talking about building a building
-not too far from where I live, in this warehouse district. It's an old,
-totally undistinguished warehouse in what has been designated a historic
-district. So we're working up the Environmental Impact Report, and you hire
-a consultant. The consultant is this young lady who says, 'The developer
-wants to tear this whole warehouse down and build an eight-story building,
-and that would have a negative impact on the historic warehouse district.'
- I say, 'Wait a minute. Why? It's an eight-story building. What's
-different? Why do you say it's negative? Why isn't it positive? It will
-bring more people -- there are not enough people down here.'
- 'No,' she said, 'in my professional judgment...' And that is given
-weight by the courts. Her opinion could have more sway than the city
-council, the manager, the mayor, and all the people of Oakland put together.
- That's amazing. That's what I call 'expertise versus common sense.'
-What do they call those guys in Russia: the nomenklatura? The class of
-folks who run things. I think that's an important issue: reclaiming the
-power of ordinary people to control their lives. Every time we turn around,
-we've got some kind of a state or federal rule or regulation.
- 'In my professional judgment...' That whole academic discipline was
-probably created less than 25 years ago, and that lore -- I call it lore;
-these are like stories you tell around the campfire -- is then raised to
-the level of legal significance with greater authority than the vote of the
-people and the elected representatives. The people have lost their
-democratic right to make a decision over the shape of their lives, and you
-can find that happening on a lot of issues more controversial than historic
-preservation.
- -- Jerry Brown
-~
-Gardens are not made by sitting in the shade.
- -- Rudyard Kipling
-~
-Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
- -- Lilly Tomlin
-~
-Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps
-the greatest of God's gifts. It is the mother of civilizations, of
-arts and of sciences.
- -- Freeman Dyson
-~
-You make men love their government and their country by giving them the
-kind of government and the kind of country that inspire respect and love;
-a country that is free and unafraid, that lets the discontented talk in
-order to learn the causes of their discontent and end those causes, that
-refuses to impel men to spy on their neighbors, that protects its citizens
-vigorously from harmful acts while it leaves the remedies for objectionable
-ideas to counterargument and time.
- -- Zechariah Chafee, Jr.
-~
-Kites rise highest against the wind--not with it.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: every
-man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-A cucumber should be well-sliced, dressed with
-pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out.
- -- Samuel Johnson
-~
- Technology is often defined as the creation of tools to gain control
-over the environment. However, this definition is not entirely sufficient.
-Humans are not alone in their use or even creation of tools. Orangutans in
-Sumatra's Suaq Balimbing swamp make tools out of long sticks to break open
-termite nests. Crows fashion tools from sticks and leaves. The leaf-cutter
-ant mixes dry leaves with its saliva to create a paste. Crocodiles use tree
-roots to anchor dead prey.
- What is uniquely human is the application of knowledge--recorded
-knowledge--to the fashioning of tools. The knowledge base represents the
-genetic code for the evolving technology. And as technology has evolved,
-the means for recording this knowledge base has also evolved, from the oral
-traditions of antiquity to the written design logs of nineteenth-century
-craftsmen to the computer-assisted design databases of the 1990s.
- Technology also implies a transcendence of the materials used to
-comprise it. When the elements of an invention are assembled in just the
-right way, they produce an enchanting effect that goes beyond the mere
-parts. When Alexander Graham Bell accidentally wire-connected two moving
-drums and solenoids (metal cores wrapped in wire) in 1875, the result
-transcended the materials he was working with. For the first time, a human
-voice was transported, magically it seemed, to a remote location. Most
-assemblages are just that: random assemblies. But when materials--and in
-the case of modern technology, information--are assembled in just the
-right way, transcendence occurs. The assembled object becomes far greater
-than the sum of its parts.
- -- Ray Kurzweil
-~
-All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.
- -- Sean O'Casey
-~
-The foresight of the astronomer who predicts with complete precision
-the state of the solar system many years in advance is absolutely the
-same in kind as that of the savage who predicts the next sunrise.
-The only difference lies in the extent of their knowledge.
- -- Auguste Comte
-~
-Nothing strengthens the judgment and quickens
-the conscience like individual responsibility.
- -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton
-~
- The bug, that perverse and elusive malfunctioning of hardware and
-later of software, was born in the nineteenth century. It was already
-accepted shop slang as early as 1878, when Thomas Edison described his
-style of invention in a letter to a European representative: 'The first
-step is an intuition and it comes with a burst, then difficulties arise--
-this thing gives out and then that--"Bugs"--as such little faults and
-difficulties are called--show themselves, and months of intense watching,
-study and labor are requisite before commercial success--or failure--is
-certainly reached.'
- Edison implies that this use of 'bug' had not begun in his laboratory
-but was already standard jargon. The expression seems to have originated
-as telegrapher's slang. Western Union and other telegraph companies, with
-their associated branch offices, formed America's first high-technology
-system. About the time of Edison's letter, Western Union had over twelve
-thousand stations, and it was their condition that probably helped inspire
-the metaphor. City offices were filthy, and clerks exchanged verse about
-the gymnastics of insects cavorting in the cloakrooms. When, in 1945, a
-moth in a relay crashed the Mark II electromechanical calculator that the
-Navy was running at Harvard--it can still be seen taped in the original
-logbook--the bug metaphor had already been around for at least seventy-
-five years.
- -- Edward Tenner, from "Why Things Bite Back"
-~
-Look back, and smile on perils past.
- -- Sir Walter Scott
-~
-I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.
- -- Marie Curie
-~
-Cast a cold eye
-On life, on death.
-Horseman, pass by!
- -- William Butler Yeats' auto-epitath
-~
- The bug, that perverse and elusive malfunctioning of hardware and
-later of software, was born in the nineteenth century. It was already
-accepted shop slang as early as 1878, when Thomas Edison described his
-style of invention in a letter to a European representative: 'The first
-step is an intuition and it comes with a burst, then difficulties arise--
-this thing gives out and then that--"Bugs"--as such little faults and
-difficulties are called--show themselves, and months of intense watching,
-study and labor are requisite before commercial success--or failure--is
-certainly reached.'
- Edison implies that this use of 'bug' had not begun in his
-laboratory but was already standard jargon. The expression seems to have
-originated as telegrapher's slang. Western Union and other telegraph
-companies, with their associated branch offices, formed America's first
-high-technology system. About the time of Edison's letter, Western Union
-had over twelve thousand stations, and it was their condition that probably
-helped inspire the metaphor. City offices were filthy, and clerks exchanged
-verse about the gymnastics of insects cavorting in the cloakrooms. When, in
-1945, a moth in a relay crashed the Mark II electromechanical calculator
-that the Navy was running at Harvard--it can still be seen taped in the
-original logbook--the bug metaphor had already been around for at least
-seventy-five years.
- -- Edward Tenner, "Why Things Bite Back"
-~
-But the true threats to stability and peace are these nations that are not
-very transparent, that hide behind the--that don't let people in to take a
-look and see what they're up to. They're very kind of authoritarian regimes.
-The true threat is whether or not one of these people decide, peak of anger,
-try to hold us hostage, ourselves; the Israelis, for example, to whom we'll
-defend, offer our defenses; the South Koreans.
- -- George W. Bush, Media roundtable, Washington, D.C., March 13, 2001
-~
-The charity that is a trifle to us can be precious to others.
- -- Homer
-~
-It wasn't until late in life that I discovered
-how easy it is to say "I don't know".
- -- W. Somerset Maugham
-~
-It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a
-pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young.
- -- Konrad Lorenz
-~
-He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope.
- -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
-~
-Failure is not an option.
- -- Gene Kranz
-~
- The year 1950 was the last full cry of urban America, at least on
-the surface. It was the year many of the cities visited in this book
-reached their historic peaks in population. Everybody was working, in folk
-memory, and in fact. Armies clad in overalls poured out of plants at
-quitting time or watched as the next shift filed in. Houses cost a couple
-of thousand bucks, or in high-cost cities some fifteen thousand. The
-mortgage was often less than a hundred a month. The teeming ethnic ghettos
-of the early century had given way to a more comfortable life, with
-religion and ethnicity, race and class still used as organizing principles
-for the neighborhood. The rough edges of the immigrant 'greenhorns' were
-worn smooth, and a confident younger generation now entered a fuller,
-richer American life. Grandma and Grandpa had their accents and old ways
-intact, and still mumbled sayings in the language your parents used when
-they didn't want you to understand. You could still find Il Progresso,
-Freiheit, Norske Tidende, and Polish Daily Zgoda on the newsstands, but the
-neighborhoods themselves were no longer alien places. It was the ghetto,
-yes, but made benign by assimilation.
- It was this world that the first surge tide into the suburbs left
-behind. They were people for whom the city had done its work, making
-Americans out of families from Dublin to Donetsk. America had given the
-urban young educations, and expectations. For many, those expectations had
-been nurtured through world war and economic depression. Something better
-was needed for the baby boomers.
- Today we look back on it all in hurt and wonder. How did this
-happen? Where did that good life go? When an accidental detour or a missed
-expressway exit brings us into contact with the world we left behind, we
-can still place all the blame firmly and squarely elsewhere. The shuttered
-factories and collapsing row houses, the vacant storefronts and rutted
-streets are regarded with the same awe reserved for the scenes of natural
-disasters. We look out on a world that somehow, in the American collective
-memory, destroyed itself.
- -- Ray Suarez, PBS journalist
-~
-The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our
-enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.
- -- G. K. Chesterton
-~
-Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember.
- -- Oscar Levant
-~
-If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner.
- -- Tallulah Bankhead
-~
-Kids don't watch when they are stimulated and look away when
-they are bored. They watch when they understand and look away
-when they are confused.
- -- Malcolm Gladwell
-~
-We especially need imagination in science. It is not all
-mathematics, nor all logic, it is somewhat beauty and poetry.
- -- Maria Mitchell
-~
-The masons have a "temple of living stones".
-Well, I have a temple of stoned living.
-Except that the temple is my parents' basement.
-~
-Pain is just another form of information.
- -- Don DeLillo
-~
- The traditional image of Asian countries--and the one I held before
-we moved there--was of overwhelmingly poor societies: city dwellers
-starving in the streets and farmers slaving to raise barely enough rice
-to feed a family, while a tiny clique of well-connected magnates lived
-behind barbed-wire fences in ornate mansions. Today, those scenes can
-still be found in parts of East Asia. But for the most part, the Asian
-countries are building a huge middle class, in which most people have
-about as much as everybody else.
- Japan has been the model; when Japan became a rich country, it did
-so in ways that spread the wealth broadly and evenly. In opinion polls
-today, more than 90 percent of the Japanese people describe themselves
-as 'middle class.' In the other 'high-performing Asian economies' the
-economic boom has also been broadly distributed...
- You can legitimately question whether equal distribution of a
-nation's wealth is a sign of social success. The American dream, in
-economic terms, at least, has generally been the dream of enormous
-success--not of making as much money as everybody else but rather of
-getting really rich. And that dream has been one of the key reasons
-for the dynamism and resiliency of the United States over the decades.
-On the other hand, the egalitarian distribution of wealth, and the
-resulting sense that everybody is getting a relatively fair shake, is
-surely one of the reasons that Asian countries have civil and stable
-societies.
- -- T. R. Reid, "Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East
- Teaches Us About Living in the West"
-~
-Who will underrate the influence of loose popular
-literature in debauching the popular mind?
- -- Walt Whitman
-~
-There are so many ways of earning a living and most of them are failures.
- -- Gertrude Stein
-~
-Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist.
- -- Indiana Jones
-~
-Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.
- -- Charles Lamb
-~
-Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog.
-Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.
- -- E. B. White
-~
- This idea of breaking the world into pieces and then explaining
-the pieces in terms of smaller pieces is called reductionism. It
-would be perfectly justified to consider Murray Gell-Mann, the father
-of the quark, to be the century's arch-reductionist. But very early
-on, long before mushy notions of holism became trendy, Gell-Mann
-appreciated an important truth: While you can reduce downward, that
-doesn't automatically mean you can explain upward. People can be
-divided into cells, cells into molecules, molecules into atoms, atoms
-into electrons and nuclei, nuclei into subatomic particles, and those
-into still tinier things called quarks. But, true as that may be,
-there is nothing written in the laws of subatomic physics that can be
-used to explain higher-level phenomena like human behavior. There is
-no way that one can start with quarks and predict that cellular life
-would emerge and evolve over the eons to produce physicists. Reducing
-downward is vastly easier than explaining upward--a truth that bears
-repeating.
- -- George Johnson, "Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the
- Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics"
-~
-Perhaps no mightier conflict of mind occurs ever again in a lifetime
-than that first decision to unseat one's own tooth.
- -- Gene Fowler
-~
-The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping the
-old ones that ramify, for those brought up as most of us have
-been, into every corner of our minds.
- -- John Maynard Keynes
-~
- In the centuries preceding the introduction of the printing press,
-those who held power reinforced it by uses of language that mystified the
-powerless and kept them subservient. Even more so in today's world, power
-is inextricably tied to the use of language, and today's priesthood of
-professionals in many fields employs jargon-fueled mystification. That is a
-political use of language that deliberately excludes the 'powerless' lay
-audience from participation. The doctor whose technical terms confuse, no
-less than the politician whose equivocations obfuscate, the lawyer whose
-terms intimidate, and the accountant whose explanations obscure, is taking
-advantage of audiences through what are called 'gatekeeper' uses of
-language. They include euphemisms, jargon and other devices designed to
-prevent rather than augment the free flow of knowledge.
- Lawyers have been particularly egregious in this practice.
-Gatekeeper language also frequently masks what physicians do especially in
-circumstances that can be fraught with emotion. A relative of a cancer
-patient, seeking straight and hard informational answers to questions --
-how bad is the situation, how much time does she have left, is there any
-hope -- was informed by her doctor that his relative's cancer was
-'treatable' and her prognosis was 'guarded...'
- The philosopher Jrgen Habermas provides an insight into the
-political nature of gatekeeper uses of language through his identification
-of the 'scientization of the public sphere,' a process now occurring in
-many societies. In this trend, elites effectively disqualify members of the
-public from being able to participate in policy discussions by insisting
-that only specialists can really understand what is going on. When
-politicians come to believe that only they can understand what is going on
-in the high councils of government, and that their job is to translate it
-for us and to protect themselves in the process, the language they aim at
-the electorate takes on more and more aspects of purposeful deceit.
- -- Tom Shachtman, "The Inarticulate Society"
-~
-If you think you are too small to make a difference,
-try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.
- -- African proverb
-~
-It does not do to leave a dragon out of your calculations,
-if you live near him.
- -- J. R. R. Tolkien
-~
-Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers
-is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.
- -- Ben Hecht
-~
-Friendships, like marriages, are dependent on avoiding the unforgivable.
- -- John S. MacDonald
-~
-authority does not exist.
-we are all equally feeble when compared
-with the profundity of the universe.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Sports do not build character. They reveal it.
- -- Heywood Hale Broun
-~
-Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information
-about life to last him the rest of his days.
- -- Flannery O'Connor
-~
-Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food:
-frequently there must be a beverage.
- -- Woody Allen
-~
- We live with strangers. Those we love most, with whom we share
-a shelter, a table, a bed, remain mysterious. Wherever lives overlap
-and flow together, there are depths of unknowing. Parents and children,
-partners, siblings, and friends repeatedly surprise us, revealing the
-need to learn where we are most at home. We even surprise ourselves
-in our own becoming, moving through the cycles of our lives. There is
-strangeness hidden in the familiar.
- At the same time there is familiarity hidden in the strange. We can
-look with curiosity and respect at the faces of men and women we have
-never met. Learning to recognize these strangers with whom we share an
-increasingly crowded and interdependent world, we can imagine ourselves
-joined in a single family, perhaps by a marriage between adventurous
-grandchildren.
- Strangers marry strangers, whether they have been playmates for
-years or never meet before the wedding day. They continue to surprise
-each other through the evolutions of love and the growth of affection.
-Lovers, gay and straight, begin in strangeness and often, for the zest
-of it, find ways to increase their differences.
- Children arrive like aliens from outer space, their needs and
-feelings inaccessible, sharing no common language, yet for all their
-strangeness we greet them with love. Traditionally, the strangeness of
-infants has been understood as temporary, the strangeness of incomplete
-beings who are expected to become predictable and comprehensible. This
-expectation has eased the transition from generation to generation, the
-passing on of knowledge and responsibility, on which every human society
-depends. Yet the gap between parent and child, like the gap between
-partners, is not left behind with the passage of time. Today, in a
-world of rapid change, it is increasing, shifting into new rhythms still
-to be explored.
- -- Mary Catherine Bateson, in "Full Circles, Overlapping Lives:
- Culture and Generation in Transition"
-~
-Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think.
- -- Niels Bohr
-~
-At every crossroads on the path that leads to the future,
-tradition has placed 10,000 men to guard the past.
- -- Maurice Maeterlink
-~
-Before you run in double harness, look well to the other horse.
- -- Ovid
-~
-There is nothing in the dark that isn't there when the lights are on.
- -- Rod Serling
-~
-The overly sure belief that one knows the truth,
-but that this truth doesn't need to be tested or verified,
-is the root of all human errors.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Any fool can make a rule and every fool will mind it.
- -- Henry David Thoreau
-~
-How many cares one loses
-when one decides
-not to be something
-but to be someone.
- -- Coco Chanel
-~
-If someone says 'can't', that shows you what to do.
- -- John Cage
-~
-Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together.
- -- Eugene Ionesco
-~
-If a thing can not go on forever, it will come to an end.
- -- Herbert Stein
-~
-Nothing ever gets anywhere.
-The earth keeps turning round and round and gets nowhere.
-The moment is the only thing that counts.
- -- Jean Cocteau
-~
-Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow;
-don't walk behind me, I may not lead;
-walk beside me, and just be my friend.
- -- Albert Camus
-~
-Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought; our brightest
-blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.
- -- Samuel Johnson
-~
-The following is a poem made up entirely of quotations from George
-W. Bush. The quotes have been arranged, for aesthetic reasons only,
-by Washington Post writer Richard Thompson.
-
- MAKE THE PIE HIGHER
- by George W. Bush
-
- I think we all agree, the past is over.
- This is still a dangerous world.
- It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
- and potential mental losses.
-
- Rarely is the question asked
- Is our children learning?
- Will the highways of the internet
- become more few?
- How many hands have I shaked?
-
- They misunderestimate me.
- I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
-
- I know that the human being
- and the fish can coexist.
-
- Families is where our nation finds hope,
- where our wings take dream.
-
- Put food on your family!
- Knock down the tollbooth!
- Vulcanize Society!
-
- Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!
-
-~
-Those crazy kids!
-~
-When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard", I am always
-tempted to ask: "Compared to what?"
- -- Sydney Harris
-~
-What is laid down, ordered, factual is never enough
-to embrace the whole truth: life always spills over
-the rim of every cup.
- -- Boris Pasternak
-~
-Hard is the herte that loveth nought in May.
- -- Geoffrey Chaucer
-~
-Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.
- -- G. K. Chesterton
-~
-{{ your mental acuity sharpens, your self image improves, your breath
-becomes minty fresh, the problems in your life all seem simpler and you
-feel you can deal with them each separately and conquer them one by one,
-your hair grows back in all the right places and stops growing in your
-ears and other inappropriate places, when i snap my fingers, you will
-feel wholly refreshed and renewed... }}
-
-*SNAP*
-
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem.
-If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem.
- -- J. Paul Getty
-~
- The Hutterites (who came out of the same tradition as the Amish
-and the Mennonites) have a strict policy that every time a colony
-approaches 150, they split it in two and start a new one. "Keeping
-things under 150 just seems to be the best and most efficient way to
-manage a group of people," Bill Gross, one of the leaders of a
-Hutterite colony outside Spokane told me. "When things get larger
-than that, people become strangers to one another."
- The Hutterites, obviously, didn't get this idea from contemporary
-evolutionary psychology. They've been following the 150 rule for
-centuries... At 150, the Hutterites believe, something happens--
-something indefinable but very real--that somehow changes the nature
-of community overnight. "In smaller groups people are a lot closer.
-They're knit together, which is very important if you want to be
-effective and successful at community life," Gross said. "If you
-get too large, you don't have enough work in common. You don't have
-enough things in common, and then you start to become strangers and
-that close-knit fellowship starts to get lost."
- Gross spoke from experience. He had been in Hutterite colonies
-that had come near to that magic number and seen first-hand how
-things had changed. "What happens when you get that big is that the
-group starts, just on its own, to form a sort of clan." He made a
-gesture with his hands, as if to demonstrate division. "You get two
-or three groups within the larger group. That is something you
-really try to prevent, and when it happens it is a good time to
-branch out."
- -- Malcolm Gladwell, "The Tipping Point"
-~
-If men could regard the events of their own lives with more open
-minds, they would frequently discover that they did not really
-desire the things they failed to obtain.
- -- Andre Maurois
-~
-Middle age is when you're sitting at home on Saturday night
-and the telephone rings and you hope it isn't for you.
- -- Ogden Nash
-~
-The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
- -- Walter Bagehot
-~
- I think a power to do something is of value. Whether the result
-is a good thing or a bad thing depends on how it is used, but the
-power is a value. Once in Hawaii I was taken to see a Buddhist
-temple. In the temple a man said, "I am going to tell you something
-that you will never forget." And then he said, "To every man is
-given the key to the gates of heaven. The same key opens the gates
-of hell."
- And so it is with science. In a way it is a key to the gates of
-heaven, and the same key opens the gates of hell, and we do not have
-any instructions as to which is which gate. Shall we throw away the
-key and never have a way to enter the gates of heaven? Or shall we
-struggle with the problem of which is the best way to use the key?
-That is, of course, a very serious question, but I think that we
-cannot deny the value of the key to the gates of heaven.
- All the major problems of the relations between society and
-science lie in this same area. When the scientist is told that he
-must be more responsible for his effects on society, it is the
-applications of science that are referred to. If you work to develop
-nuclear energy you must realize also that it can be used harmfully.
-Therefore, you would expect that, in a discussion of this kind by a
-scientist, this would be the most important topic. But I will not
-talk about it further. I think that to say these are scientific
-problems is an exaggeration. They are far more humanitarian problems.
-The fact that how to work the power is clear, but how to control it is
-not, is something not so scientific and is not something that the
-scientist knows so much about.
- -- Richard P. Feynman, "The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen
- Scientist"
-~
-If once a man indulges himself in Murder, very soon he comes to think
-little of Robbing, and from Robbing he comes next to Drinking and
-Sabbath-breaking, and from that to Incivility and Procrastination.
- -- Thomas De Quincey
-~
-These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper,
-but minds alive on the shelves.
- -- Gilbert Highet
-~
-Let us not look back in anger,
-nor forward in fear,
-but around in awareness.
- -- James Thurber
-~
-Anyone can become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with
-the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for
-the right purpose, and in the right way--that is not easy.
- -- Aristotle
-~
-A nation in which grown men say things like "I am not a happy camper"
-at momentous junctures is manifestly not the Shining City on the Hill
-that our forefathers dreamed about.
- -- Joe Queenan
-~
- Among the devices that we use to impose order upon a complicated
-(but by no means unstructured) world, classification--or the division
-of items into categories based on perceived similarities--must rank
-as the most general and most pervasive of all. And no strategy of
-classification cuts deeper--while providing such an even balance of
-benefits and difficulties--than our propensity for division by two,
-or dichotomy.
- Some basic attributes of surrounding nature do exist as complem-
-entary pairings--two large lights in the sky representing day and
-night; two sexes that must couple their opposing parts to produce a
-continuity of generations--so we might argue that dichotomization
-amounts to little more than good observation of the external world.
-But far more often than not, dichotomization leads to misleading or
-even dangerous oversimplification. People and beliefs are not either
-good or evil (with the second category ripe for burning); and
-organisms are not either plant or animal, vertebrate or invertebrate,
-human or beast. We seem so driven to division by two, even in
-clearly inappropriate circumstances, that I must agree with several
-schools of thought (most notably Claude Levi-Strauss and the French
-structuralists) in viewing dichotomization more as an inherent
-mechanism of the brain's operation than as a valid perception of
-external reality.
- -- Stephen Jay Gould
-~
-Crude classifications and false generalizations
-are the curse of the organized life.
- -- H. G. Wells
-~
-Whosoever shall not fall by the sword or by famine,
-shall fall by pestilence, so why bother shaving?
- -- Woody Allen
-~
-Those who really deserve praise are the people who, while human
-enough to enjoy power, nevertheless pay more attention to justice
-than they are compelled to do by their situation.
- -- Thucydides
-~
-It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
- -- Grace Hopper
-~
-The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil
-is for good men to do nothing.
- -- Edmund Burke
-~
-If the aborigine drafted an IQ test, all of
-Western civilization would presumably flunk it.
- -- Stanley Garn
-~
-It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.
- -- Diogenes Laertes
-~
- The human race has reached a critical time in its social evolution
-when it has no choice but to make peace with its biological origins and
-to learn how to live once again as a member and partner of the natural
-community rather than as its dominator and destroyer. In other words,
-we must rediscover how to live as our savage ancestors once lived--in
-nature, rather apart from it, much less above it. We must, that is,
-invent the civilized analogue of the hunter-gatherer way of life, the
-only sustainable mode of human existence the planet has ever known.
-Suggesting that we live in a much simpler and more natural way does not
-imply a return to the Stone Age or anything like it: we have many
-possibilities open to us that were not available to our forebears, for
-we have been enormously enriched and enlightened by the long experience
-of civilization (or at least so one hopes). Nevertheless, how such a
-profound transformation of civilization toward a more experienced and
-wiser savagery can be achieved is obviously an immensely difficult
-question, because it will clearly entail radical changes in every aspect
-of our way of life.
- Just how radical is suggested by one of the most poignant and
-pointed critiques of modern civilization ever uttered. Breaking into
-a filmed interview on the destruction of the Amazon rain forest, an
-anonymous Kayapo Indian woman shouted, "We don't want your dams. Your
-mothers did not hold you enough. You are all orphans." It is perhaps
-too simple to say that the good society is one in which your mother--
-and by extension your father, your community, and indeed your entire way
-of life--holds you enough, so that you grow up feeling that the world is
-a good place and that life is intrinsically satisfying just as it is and
-that there is thus no need to make it more satisfying by accumulating
-endless wealth and power at others' expense. But this at least points
-in the right direction: to become more experienced and wiser savages, to
-meet the real political challenge of the twenty-first century, we shall
-have to create cultures so rich and nurturing that we would have no need
-to pursue happiness; we could simply enjoy it.
- -- William Ophuls, in "Requiem for Modern Politics: The Tragedy of
- the Enlightenment and the Challenge of the New Millennium."
-~
-The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more.
- -- Jonas Salk
-~
-In Washington, it's dog eat dog.
-In academia, it's exactly the opposite.
- -- Robert Reich
-~
-I have had many troubles in my life, but the worst of them never came.
- -- James A. Garfield
-~
-There comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget
-something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance,
-therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.
- -- Arthur Conan Doyle
-~
-The wind and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
- -- Edward Gibbon
-~
-I write when I'm inspired, and I see to it that I'm inspired
-at nine o'clock every morning.
- -- Peter de Vries
-~
-It is no secret that organized crime in America takes in over forty
-billion dollars a year. This is quite a profitable sum, especially
-when one considers that the Mafia spends very little for office supplies.
- -- Woody Allen
-~
-It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.
- -- W. Edwards Deming
-~
-A man is called a good fellow for doing things which, if done
-by a woman, would land her in a lunatic asylum.
- -- H. L. Mencken
-~
-Those who desire to give up Freedom
-in order to gain Security, will not have,
-nor do they deserve, either one.
- -- Thomas Jefferson
-~
-There's no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery.
-You can't do any business from there.
- -- Colonel (Harlan) Sanders
-~
-To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all.
- -- Anatole France
-~
-There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion.
-There are only intersecting monologues.
- -- Rebecca West
-~
-You can only be young once. But you can always be immature.
- -- Dave Barry
-~
- Memory's malfunctions can be divided into seven fundamental transgressions
-or 'sins.' Just like the ancient seven deadly sins, the memory sins occur
-frequently in everyday life and can have serious consequences for all of us.
-Transience, absent-mindedness, and blocking are sins of omission: we fail to
-bring to mind a desired fact, event, or idea. Transience refers to a weakening
-or loss of memory over time. It's probably not difficult for you to remember
-now what you have been doing for the past several hours. But if I ask you
-about the same activities six weeks, six months, or six years from now, chances
-are you'll remember less and less.
- Absent-mindedness involves a breakdown at the interface between attention
-and memory. Absent-minded memory errors--misplacing keys or eyeglasses, or
-forgetting a lunch appointment--typically occur because we are preoccupied with
-distracting issues or concerns, and don't focus attention on what we need to
-remember.
- The third sin, blocking, entails a thwarted search for information that we
-may be desperately trying to retrieve. We've all failed to produce a name to
-accompany a familiar face. This frustrating experience happens even though we
-are attending carefully to the task at hand, and even though the desired name
-has not faded from our minds--as we become acutely aware when we unexpectedly
-retrieve the blocked name hours or days later.
- In contrast to these three sins of omission, the next four sins of
-misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence are all sins of
-commission: some form of memory is present, but it is either incorrect or
-unwanted. The sin of misattribution involves assigning a memory to the wrong
-source: mistaking fantasy for reality, or incorrectly remembering that a friend
-told you a bit of trivia that you actually read about in a newspaper.
-Misattribution is far more common than most people realize, and has potentially
-profound implications in legal settings. The related sin of suggestibility
-refers to memories that are implanted as a result of leading questions,
-comments, or suggestions when a person is trying to call up a past experience.
- The sin of bias reflects the powerful influences of our current knowledge
-and beliefs on how we remember our pasts. We often edit or entirely rewrite
-our previous experiences--unknowingly and unconsciously--in light of what we
-now know or believe. The result can be a skewed rendering of a specific
-incident, or even of an extended period in our lives, which says more about how
-we feel now than about what happened then.
- The seventh sin -- persistence -- entails repeated recall of disturbing
-information or events that we would prefer to banish from our minds altogether:
-remembering what we cannot forget, even though we wish that we could. Recall
-the last time that you suddenly awoke at 3:00 a.m., unable to keep out of your
-mind a painful blunder on the job or a disappointing result on an important
-exam. In more extreme cases of serious depression or traumatic experience,
-persistence can be disabling and even life-threatening.
- -- Daniel Schacter, "The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets
- and Remembers."
-~
-When I was a young man I observed that nine out of ten things I did were
-failures. I didn't want to be a failure, so I did ten times more work.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-People demand freedom of speech as a compensation
-for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
- -- Soeren Kierkegaard
-~
-Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
-Live the life you have imagined.
- -- Henry David Thoreau
-~
-Brave men are all vertebrates; they have their softness
-on the surface and their toughness in the middle.
- -- G. K. Chesterton
-~
-Being willing to accept that the past--
-even the priceless, irreplaceable past--
-will be largely lost is a sign of mental health.
- -- Tim Cavanaugh
-~
-We are what we repeatedly do.
-Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
- -- Aristotle
-~
-Man is free at the moment he wishes to be. -- Voltaire
-~
-It requires wisdom to understand wisdom:
-the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.
- -- Walter Lippman
-~
-What difference does it make how much you have?
-What you do not have amounts to much more.
- -- Seneca
-~
- We now all live in a society marked by increasing, not decreasing,
-interconnection and mutual reliance. Each of our lives is affected by
-more people than ever before. We generally need the cooperation of
-more people than ever to accomplish even those goals we set for
-ourselves. This insight needs no elaborate demonstration; one is
-reminded of it with every smoggy breath we take, and every time we step
-on an airplane and ponder how our life depends on the competent,
-attentive behavior of dozens of strangers, from the pilot to the air
-traffic controller to the ground mechanic who was supposed to inspect
-the extent of the metal fatigue on the wings. Technology increases the
-links that tie people together, voluntarily or not, and the complexity
-of our economic system and the organizations we work for multiplies
-these linkages.
- To exercise control over what happens to you as an individual, you
-must be involved with others in a process that decides what happens to
-you and your fellow citizens collectively. We can no longer separate
-the quality of personal life from the quality of social life. To
-preserve private space, we must also preserve the commons.
- That is one reason why even in a society so seduced by and attached
-to autonomy, many people are now getting fed up with what can only be
-called acts of vandalism against the public space. Threatening,
-disrespectful, wanton, and manifestly selfish acts--from the warfare of
-crack dealers and gangs to the shameless greed of the S&L thieves and
-the destruction of our very environment by the industrial polluters--
-are poisonous to everyone, not just those directly harmed. Of course,
-we pay for such things as taxpayers and as consumers, but that is not
-the most important cost. All of us are morally impoverished by these
-assaults on the quality and integrity of our common life.
- -- Willard Gaylin and Bruce Jennings, "The Perversion of Autonomy:
- The Proper Uses of Coercion and Constraints in a Liberal Society"
-~
-Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common
-belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.
- -- W. Somerset Maugham
-~
-Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.
- -- B. F. Skinner
-~
-The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved--
-loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.
- -- Victor Hugo
-~
-If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.
- -- Seneca
-~
-Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world.
- -- Lily Tomlin
-~
-The wicked leader is one whom the people despise.
-The good leader is one whom the people revere.
-The great leader is one about whom the people say,
-"We did it ourselves."
- -- Lao Tzu
-~
-Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.
- -- Marcus Aurelius
-~
-Ideas pull the trigger, but instinct loads the gun.
- -- Don Marquis
-~
-No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one
-concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
- -- Niccolo Machiavelli
-~
-Every exit is an entry somewhere.
- -- Tom Stoppard
-~
-Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us
-nothing but the shape of the spoon.
- -- E. M. Forster
-~
-We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers
-connect us with our fellow men.
- -- Herman Melville
-~
-There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.
- -- Bertrand Russell
-~
-If this is coffee, please bring me some tea,
-but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-All men who have turned out worth anything have had
-the chief hand in their own education.
- -- Sir Walter Scott
-~
-Few things can help an individual more
-than to place responsibility on him,
-and to let him know that you trust him.
- -- Booker T. Washington
-~
-The last time somebody said, "I find I can write much
-better with a word processor," I replied, "They used to
-say the same thing about drugs."
- -- Roy Blount, Jr.
-~
-The world of knowledge takes a crazy turn
-When teachers themselves are taught to learn.
- -- Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), German playwright, poet
-~
-Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat.
- -- John Lehman
-~
-Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time.
-Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become
-ugly with time.
- -- Jean Cocteau
-~
-To become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to nirvana.
- -- Shakyamuni Buddha
-~
-the best part about killing software bugs is that
-there's no goo nor exoskeleton fragments left behind.
-~
-Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares
-about doing it right, or doing it better.
- -- John Updike
-~
-Great spirits have always encountered
-violent opposition from mediocre minds.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-There's a fine line between genius and
-insanity. I have erased this line.
- -- Oscar Levant
-~
-Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's
-original, you will have to ram it down their throats.
- -- Howard Aiken
-~
-Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves,
-or we know where we can find information upon it.
- -- Samuel Johnson
-~
- Historically, consumer acceptance of new technologies has been
-slow and cumbersome, delaying anticipated profits by decades.
-Indeed, consumer acceptance of any innovation is typically slow,
-despite extraordinary benefits and convenience.
- When cake mixes were first created, they required consumers to
-only add water--a major behavioral shift. Consumers felt a cake
-made with such a mix could not possibly be as good as a homemade
-cake. So cake mix formulas were revised to require the addition of
-an egg and milk. The new mixes met with great success, because the
-behavior shift required of consumers was minor. Eventually some
-consumers became comfortable adding only water (some never will).
- -- Kathy Biro
-~
-An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even
-how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what
-you know and what you don't.
- -- Anatole France
-~
-A man is a worker. If he is not that he is nothing.
- -- Joseph Conrad
-~
-All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely
-players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one
-man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
- -- Shakespeare, "As You Like It"
-~
-Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.
- -- James Bryant Conant
-~
- I say to the House as I said to ministers who have joined this
-government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.
-We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before
-us many, many months of struggle and suffering.
- You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea,
-and air. War with all our might and with all the strength God has given
-us, and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the
-dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.
- You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory.
-Victory at all costs--Victory in spite of all terrors--Victory, however
-long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.
- Let that be realized. No survival for the British Empire, no
-survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for
-the urge, the impulse of the ages, that mankind shall move forward
-toward his goal.
- I take up my task in buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause
-will not be suffered to fail among men. I feel entitled at this
-juncture, at this time, to claim the aid of all and to say, "Come then,
-let us go forward together with our united strength."
- -- Winston Churchill, first speech to Parliament, May 13, 1940
-~
-Be it religion, love under all its forms, literature, or art,
-there is not a single spiritual force that does not become an
-object of commercial exploitation.
- -- Etienne Gilson
-~
-History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.
- -- James Joyce from "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"
-~
-Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon,
-but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here!
- -- John Parker, leader of the "Minutemen", April 19, 1775
-~
-These are the times that try men's souls.
- -- Tom Paine
-~
- Yesterday, December 7, 1941--a day which will live in infamy--the
-United states of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by
-naval and air forces of the empire of Japan... The attack yesterday
-on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and
-military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives
-have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported
-torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu... Japan
-has therefore undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the
-Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves.
-The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and
-well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our
-nation.
- As Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all
-measures be taken for our defense, that always will our whole nation
-remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long
-it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American
-people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory.
- I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the
-people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the
-uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery
-shall never again endanger us. Hostilities exist. There is no
-blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests
-are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces, with the
-unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable
-triumph. So help us God.
- -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
-~
-Our strength grows out of our weakness.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
-I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.
-I shall use my time.
- -- Jack London
-~
-What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly;
-it is dearness only that gives everything its value.
- -- Tom Paine
-~
-it's hard not to blame microsoft for the new worm. they point at
-their feeble little patch (which actually doesn't stop all the
-types of attack nimda uses), but why aren't their operating systems
-automatically getting the patch if it's critical? also, why are
-there so many huge gaping holes in the first place? they'll never
-stop plugging them... it's like a dyke made out of sponges.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-after i got my millionth annoying spam today, i decided that there must
-be something to it after all. perhaps i can write spam all day while
-wearing only underpants and make money by magic too. clearly no one has
-shut off the spammers' internet connections yet, so they survive somehow.
-subsistence-level living based on a life of evil, here i come!
-i like to call this:
-"my frist spam"
-
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-Please to respond, urgent information overload impendimint.
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-~
-Courage is grace under pressure. -- Ernest Hemingway
-~
-To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years.
-To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that
-gentleness is to be expected only from the strong.
- -- Leo Rosten
-~
- The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are
-worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all
-attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy
-ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of
-treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence.
- It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation,
-enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by
-violence without a struggle, or be cheated out of them by the artifices of
-false and designing men.
- Of the latter we are in most danger at present; let us therefore be aware
-of it. Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity; and resolve to
-maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of the
-latter.
- Instead of sitting down satisfied with the efforts we have already made,
-which is the wish of our enemies, the necessity of the times, more than ever,
-calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance.
-Let us remember that 'if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty,
-we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.' It is a very serious
-consideration, which should deeply impress our minds, that millions yet unborn
-may be the miserable sharers in the event.
- -- Samuel Adams, tasty American Patriot
-~
-The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is
-before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out
-to meet it.
- -- Thucydides
-~
-I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself
-I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore,
-and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble
-or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of
-truth lay all undiscovered before me.
- -- Isaac Newton
-~
-As a rule, software systems do not work well until they have been
-used, and have failed repeatedly, in real applications.
- -- Dave Parnas
-~
-Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-When fanatics are on top, there is no limit to oppression.
- -- H. L. Mencken
-~
-Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
-Willing is not enough; we must do.
- -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-~
-tkelele ekki eekkle cthulhu hurf hurf hurf *plat*
- -- H. P. Lovecraft's "cat" ejecting a hairball
-~
-If we survive danger it steels our courage more than anything else.
- -- Reinhold Niebuhr
-~
-Computer Science is no more about computers
-than astronomy is about telescopes.
- -- Edsger W. Dijkstra
-~
-What we become depends on what we read after all of the
-professors have finished with us. The greatest university
-of all is a collection of books.
- -- Thomas Carlyle
-~
-The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in
-higher esteem those that think alike than those who think differently.
- -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.
- -- Tom Paine
-~
-clean underwear is
-crucial in these turbulent
-final days of earth...
-
-president shrub does
-wonders for sagging garment
-industry's profits.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-will afghanis have
-christian values? hate the bombs,
-but love the bombers?
-~
-Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues.
- -- John Locke
-~
-Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, "Certainly,
-I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it.
- -- Theodore Roosevelt
-~
-Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve
-greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
- -- William Shakespeare
-~
-fred had a job but
-then he frittered it away
-waxing poetic.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Half this game is ninety percent mental.
- -- Yogi Berra
-~
-Action may not always bring happiness;
-but there is no happiness without action.
- -- Benjamin Disraeli
-~
-The world is faced with a transcendent conflict between those who love life
-and those who love death both for themselves and their enemies.
- -- Charles Krauthammer
-~
-doomed bovines eat sand
-scrape on cactus in AZ
-then chowed on and gone
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-To find out what one is fitted to do,
-and to secure an opportunity to do it,
-is the key to happiness.
- -- John Dewey
-~
-I have never understood Brahms. I believe he was
-burning the midnight oil trying to be complicated.
- -- Albert Einstein, in a conversation with Peter G. Neumann
-~
-Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training.
- -- Anna Freud
-~
-It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to
-entertain a thought without accepting it.
- -- Aristotle
-~
-The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you're playing
-by somebody else's rules, while quietly playing by your own.
- -- Michael Korda
-~
-tie your future to
-a brick; microsoft sinking
-fast as cement shoes
-~
-Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction.
-Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another.
- -- G. K. Chesterton
-~
-We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
- -- Thomas Alva Edison
-~
-Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet
-of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.
- -- Gene Fowler
-~
-Any activity becomes creative when the doer
-cares about doing it right, or doing it better.
- -- John Updike
-~
-Experience with technology teaches us that once a technology makes
-something possible, it gets applied, whether for good or bad.
- -- Donald A. Norman
-~
-The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in
-other men the conviction and the will to carry on.
- -- Walter Lippman
-~
-Without education we are in a horrible and deadly
-danger of taking educated people seriously.
- -- G. K. Chesterton
-~
-When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.
- -- Henry J. Kaiser
-~
-Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only
-the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy.
- -- Nora Ephron
-~
-Humor is perhaps a sense of intellectual perspective: an awareness
-that some things are really important, others not; and that the two
-kinds are most oddly jumbled in everyday affairs.
- -- Christopher Morley
-~
-Nobody ever died of laughter.
- -- Max Beerbohm
-~
- Mein Herr looked so thoroughly bewildered that I thought it best
-to change the subject. "What a useful thing a pocket-map is!" I
-remarked.
- "That's another thing we've learned from your Nation," said Mein
-Herr, "map-making. But we've carried it much further than you. What
-do you consider the largest map that would be really useful?"
- "About six inches to the mile."
- "Only six inches!" exclaimed Mein Herr. "We very soon got to six
-yards to the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And
-then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the
-country, on the scale of a mile to the mile!"
- "Have you used it much?" I enquired.
- "It has never been spread out, yet," said Mein Herr: "the farmers
-objected; they said it would cover the whole country, and shut out
-the sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and
-I assure you it does nearly as well."
- -- Lewis Carroll, "Sylvie and Bruno Concluded"
-~
-The fly has an autonomous system that avoids being swatted. It has
-the ability to see and navigate and make decisions on millisecond time
-scales. We've never been able to make artificial vision systems that
-come within orders of magnitude of that, with all the computation we
-can throw at them.
- -- Carver Mead
-~
-The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending,
-we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours;
-We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
- -- William Wordsworth
-~
-You return and again take the proper course, guided by what?
-By the picture in mind of the place you are headed for.
- -- John McDonald
-~
-The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who
-are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-Xtianity the Easy Way
----------------------
-
-jesus heal my head,
-so i won't drop dead;
-god better get me real happy,
-'cause he's my celestial pappy.
-
-yo god, i'll just lie around here at home,
-you fill my pockets with money while i moan.
-it'll make me real religious,
-if you ain't fictitious...
-
-being a zealot is a lot of hassle,
-and with my faith i must wrassle.
-'til jesus gets my brain repaired,
-to humans my butt remains bared.
-
-surmounting one's lot is for others,
-who have energy unsmothered,
-by wacky notions of invisible spirits,
-that reward and punish holy twits.
-
-heaven better live up to my imagination,
-and to its oft repeated reputation;
-the next life better not suck, holy dad,
-'cause this one on earth you f*cked pretty bad.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so
-long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see
-the ones which open for us.
- -- Alexander Graham Bell
-~
-The mind is its own place and
-in itself can make a heaven
-of hell, a hell of heaven.
- -- John Milton
-~
-Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
-Willing is not enough; we must do.
- -- Johann von Goethe
-~
-I've developed a new philosophy... I only dread one day at a time.
- -- Charlie Brown, in Charles Schultz's cartoon "Peanuts"
-~
-It is hard to say exactly when the monumentalization of the trivial became
-a way of life in America. It may have been when the National Football League
-started according contests between large men in skintight pants the sort of
-solemn designations formerly reserved for armed global conflicts.
- -- Michael Kelly, in "The Atlantic Monthly"
-~
-When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second.
-When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour.
-That's relativity.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned,
-so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
- -- E. M. Forster
-~
-The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
- -- Alan Kay
-~
-Unless one's predictions are confirmed more often than a random
-guesser's, we should be suspicious of their quality, however
-cogent they may have seemed when made.
- -- Richard A. Posner
-~
-It is said an eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent a
-sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate
-in all times and situations. They presented him with the words,
-"And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening
-in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.
-Small people always do that, but the really great make you
-feel that you, too, can become great.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-The belief that microsoft has done it all right this time with Windows-XP
-is just like... the suspension of disbelief that allows people to think
-it's perfectly normal to see kids flying around on brooms in the Harry
-Potter movie while they're in the darkened movie theater. It's time to
-turn on the lights in your mental theater...
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love--
-first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.
- -- Albert Camus
-~
- The majority of important television commercials take the form of
-religious parables organized around a coherent theology. Like all religious
-parables, they put forward a concept of sin, intimations of the way to
-redemption, and a vision of Heaven. They also suggest what are the roots of
-evil and what are the obligations of the holy.
- Consider, for example, the Parable of the Ring Around the Collar. This
-is to television scripture what the Parable of the Prodigal Son is to the
-Bible, which is to say it is an archetype containing most of the elements of
-form and content that recur in the genre.
- The narrative structure of the Parable of the Ring Around the Collar is,
-indeed, comfortably traditional. The story has a beginning, a middle, and an
-end. A married couple is depicted in some relaxed setting--a restaurant, say--
-in which they are enjoying each other's company and generally having a
-wonderful time. But then a waitress approaches their table, notices that the
-man has a dirty collar, stares at it boldly, sneers with cold contempt, and
-announces to all within hearing the nature of his transgression. The man is
-humiliated and glares at his wife with scorn, for she is the source of his
-shame. She, in turn, assumes an expression of self-loathing mixed with a
-touch of self-pity...
- The parable continues by showing the wife at home using a detergent
-that never fails to eliminate dirt around the collars of men's shirts...
- In television-commercial parables, the root cause of evil is
-"Technological Innocence", a failure to know the particulars of the
-beneficent accomplishments of industrial progress...
- Technological innocence refers not only to ignorance of detergents,
-drugs, sanitary napkins, cars, salves, and foodstuffs, but also to
-ignorance of technical machinery such as savings banks and transportation
-systems.
- -- Neil Postman, "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age
- of Show Business"
-~
-Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some
-blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can.
-Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a
-spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-I don't know much about being a millionaire,
-but I'll bet I'd be darling at it.
- -- Dorothy Parker
-~
-term: Microflaccidity
-definition: An addiction to Microsoft products accompanied by a decrease in IQ.
-~
-Poetry is what gets lost in translation.
- -- Robert Frost
-~
-Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey "people". People
-say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war.... Each
-instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense
-of the rest....
- -- C. S. Lewis
-~
-[Hollywood is] a place where they shoot too many films and not enough actors.
- -- Walter Winchell
-~
-Money sometimes makes fools of important persons,
-but also makes important persons of fools.
- -- Walter Winchell
-~
-I made my money by selling too soon.
- -- Bernard Baruch
-~
-Tell me who admires you and loves you, and I will tell you who you are.
- -- Charles Augustin Sainte-Beauve
-~
-False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often
-endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm,
-for everyone takes a salutory pleasure in proving their falseness.
- -- Charles Darwin
-~
-I never hated a man enough to give him his diamonds back.
- -- Zsa-Zsa Gabor
-~
-I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from
-listening carefully. Most people never listen.
- -- Ernest Hemingway
-~
-Ten point list of lessons learned
-from the high-tech industry failures during 2001:
-
- 1) Prediction tools must improve.
- 2) It's hugely difficult to build chicken and egg simultaneously.
- 3) Venture capital firms' demands that startups generate $50 million
- in revenue within three years were unrealistic.
- 4) Companies used narrowcast to broadcast.
- 5) Free is folly.
- 6) We all, like sheep, will go astray (with enough pressure).
- 7) Many startups were fundamentally uncreative and "un-Internet."
- 8) Too early to market? Too bad.
- 9) New stuff doesn't replace old.
- 10) Nothing changes overnight.
-
- -- Webmergers.com
-~
-The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy.
- -- John Galsworthy
-~
-The ultimate result of shielding men from the
-effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
- -- Herbert Spencer
-~
-Sports is the toy department of human life. -- Howard Cosell
-~
-First keep the peace within yourself,
-then you can also bring peace to others.
- -- Thomas Kempis
-~
-What one has not experienced, one will never understand in print.
- -- Isadora Duncan
-~
-Newspapermen learn to call a murderer "an alleged murderer" and the
-King of England "the alleged King of England" to avoid libel suits.
- -- Stephen Leacock
-~
-I told the doctor I broke my leg in two places.
-He told me to quit going to those places.
- -- Henny Youngman
-~
-Never mistake motion for action. -- Ernest Hemingway
-~
-The first duty of a leader is to make himself
-be loved without courting love. To be loved
-without "playing up" to anyone--even to himself.
- -- Andre Malraux
-~
-All you need in this life is ignorance and
-confidence, and then success is sure.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-Creativity represents a miraculous coming together of the uninhibited
-energy of the child with its apparent opposite and enemy, the sense of
-order imposed on the disciplined adult intelligence.
- -- Norman Podhoretz
-~
-If only I could master the skill of telefecalkinesis, the act of
-sh*tting on someone from any distance. Another useful skill is
-evilknievelportation, the ability to jump out of the way right
-before some horrible accident occurs. This is useful to avoid
-the telefecalkinetics.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six,
-result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual
-expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.
- -- Charles Dickens, in "David Copperfield"
-~
-Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest
-way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless.
- -- Sinclair Lewis
-~
-It's the wonder of the world, it's a rocket to the moon, it gets you high,
-it gets you low, but once you get that glow... Love, love, hooray for love,
-who was ever too blase for love? Make this the night for love. If we have
-to fight, let's fight for love. Some sigh and cry for love--Ah, but in
-Pa-ree they die for love. Some waste away for love. Just the same--hooray
-for love!
- -- Harold Arlen
-~
-Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
- -- Philip K. Dick
-~
-Progress might have been all right once, but it has gone on too long.
- -- Ogden Nash
-~
-Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.
- -- Petrarch
-~
-The young have aspirations that never come to pass,
-the old have reminiscences of what never happened.
- -- H.H. Monroe (Saki)
-~
-An inventor is a person who makes an ingenious arrangement
-of wheels, levers and springs, and believes it civilization.
- -- Ambrose Bierce
-~
-There's nothing quite like doing nothing.
- -- John Ong
-~
-For a successful technology, reality must take precedence
-over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.
- -- Richard Feynmann
-~
-The mind commands the body and the body obeys.
-The mind commands itself and finds resistance.
- -- St. Augustine
-~
- The English word "way" is perhaps the nearest translation that we can
-make to the Chinese word tao. It is usually pronounced "dow." The Tao
-means many things. Primarily, it means the way of nature, the process of
-the universe. But it also means a way of life, a way of living in
-accordance with that process. We have lost the idea that our occupations
-are vocations. Our idea of an occupation is that it is a way of making
-money. We make a very, very destructive division between work and play.
-We spend eight hours, or whatever it may be, at work in order to earn the
-money to enjoy ourselves in the other eight hours. And that is a perfectly
-ridiculous way of living. It is much better to be very poor indeed than to
-do something so stupid as boring ourselves and wasting ourselves for eight
-hours in order to be able to enjoy ourselves the other eight hours. The
-result of this fantastic division between work and play is that work
-becomes drudgery, and play becomes empty. When we say that our occupation
-should also be our vocation, we are speaking of a conception of life within
-which work and play should be identical.
- It is interesting that Hindus, when they speak of the creation of the
-universe, do not call it the work of God, they call it the play of God,
-the Vishnu-lila, lila meaning "play." And they look upon the whole
-manifestation of all the universes as a play, as a sport, as a kind of
-dance--lila perhaps being somewhat related to our word lilt. We in the
-West have tended to lose the idea of our work, our profession, as being a
-way, a tao.
- Now, mind you, these ways I am talking about in Asia are not followed
-by an enormous number of people, except in a kind of nominal, superficial
-way. And I am not trying to make any vast comparisons between Asian society
-and Western society or to say that the total Asian way of life is superior
-to ours. I do not think it is, but I do not think it is necessarily
-inferior, either; it is just different. But the fact remains that there is
-an aspect of Asian religion and philosophy that is very subdued in Western
-religion and philosophy, so that you might say that the Way, in the sense of
-the Chinese Tao, does not quite exist in the West, in any recognizable form.
-It does exist, yes. It exists unofficially, it exists occasionally, but it
-is never clearly recognized.
- -- Alan Watts, "The Way of Zen"
-~
-It is not certain that everything is uncertain.
- -- Blaise Pascal
-~
-We used to think that
-if we knew one, we knew two,
-because one and one are two.
-We are finding that we must
-learn a great deal more about "and".
- -- Sir Arthur Eddington
-~
-The so-called Pythagoreans, who were the first to take up mathematics,
-not only advanced this subject, but, saturated with it, they fancied
-that the principles of mathematics were the principles of all things.
- -- Aristotle
-~
-Civilization advances by extending the number of important
-operations which we can perform without thinking of them.
- -- Alfred North Whitehead
-~
-Any solution to a problem changes the problem.
- -- R. W. Johnson
-~
-I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure,
-could walk on a cloud without coming through.
- -- Jules Verne
-~
-Pay no attention to what the critics say; there has
-never been set up a statue in honor of a critic.
- -- Jean Sibelius
-~
-Do not ask things to happen as you wish, but wish them to
-happen as they do happen, and your life will go smoothly.
- -- Epictetus
-~
-One of the things most beguiling to cat lovers is the
-intractability of a cat... its refusal to surrender
-the least part of its spiritual independence.
- -- Marguerite Steen
-~
-Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed.
-Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery
-and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they
-might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say
-to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams
-come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."
- -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
-~
-I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the
-morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day.
- -- Frank Sinatra
-~
-The problem with some people is that when they aren't drunk, they're sober.
- -- William Butler Yeats
-~
-Drinking provides a beautiful excuse to pursue the one activity that
-truly gives me pleasure, hooking up with fat, hairy girls.
- -- Ross Levy
-~
-What contemptible scoundrel has stolen the cork to my lunch?
- -- Tee Mans
-~
-Life is a waste of time, time is a waste of life, so get
-wasted all of the time and have the time of your life.
- -- Michelle Mastrolacasa
-~
-I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy.
- -- Tom Waits
-~
-Newscasters have gotten so repellant,
-talk shows so superficial,
-sitcoms so unfunny,
-dramas so mundane,
-movies so predictable,
-that the Food Network offers the best
-fare on TV in every sense of the word.
- -- Florence King
-~
-My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four.
-Unless there are three other people.
- -- Orson Welles
-~
-The people's good is the highest law. -- Cicero
-~
-In all recorded history there has not been one economist who
-has had to worry about where the next meal would come from.
- -- Peter Drucker
-~
-The great thing in this world
-is not so much where we stand,
-as in what direction we are moving.
- -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
-~
-Reality is the leading cause of stress
-amongst those in touch with it.
- -- Jane Wagner
-~
-If at first you don't succeed, find out if the loser gets anything.
- -- Bill Lyon
-~
-The nice thing about egotists is that
-they don't talk about other people.
- -- Lucille S. Harper
-~
-Wisdom outweighs any wealth. -- Sophocles
-~
-A problem is a chance for you to do your best. -- Duke Ellington
-~
-It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing.
-It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.
- -- Mother Teresa
-~
-The human mind is like an umbrella--it functions best when open.
- -- Walter Gropius
-~
-They always say that time changes things, but
-you actually have to change them yourself.
- -- Andy Warhol
-~
-If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the
-computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles
-per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.
- -- Robert X. Cringely
-~
-The man who says he is willing to meet you
-halfway usually is a poor judge of distance.
- -- Laurence J. Peter
-~
-To do two things at once is to do neither.
- -- Publilius Syrus
-~
-We live in an age when pizza gets to your home before the police.
- -- Jeff Marder
-~
-Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level.
- -- Quentin Crisp
-~
-Hell, there are no rules here, we're trying to accomplish something.
- -- Thomas Edison
-~
-The days of the digital watch are numbered. -- Tom Stoppard
-~
-A little drowsing cat is an image of perfect beatitude.
- -- Champfleury
-~
-World peace must develop from inner peace.
-Peace is not just mere absence of violence.
-Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion.
- -- His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
-~
-The human mind treats a new idea the same way
-the body treats a strange protein; it rejects it.
- -- P. B. Medawar
-~
-A hat should be taken off when you greet a
-lady and left off for the rest of your life.
-Nothing looks more stupid than a hat.
- -- P. J. O'Rourke
-~
-Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends.
- -- Woody Allen
-~
-It is a very sad thing that nowadays
-there is so little useless information.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-I was born not knowing and have had only a
-little time to change that here and there.
- -- Richard Feynman
-~
-I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the
-best of them, and I know how bad I am.
- -- Joseph Baretti
-~
-Delusions of grandeur make me feel a lot better about myself.
- -- Jane Wagner
-~
-It's a rare person who wants to hear what he doesn't want to hear.
- -- Dick Cavett
-~
-Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't
-mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.
- -- Edward R. Murrow
-~
-What can you say about a society that says that
-God is dead and Elvis is alive?
- -- Irv Kupcinet
-~
-Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.
- -- G. K. Chesterton
-~
-Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?
- -- Edgar Bergen, as "Charlie McCarthy"
-~
-A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can
-do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done.
- -- Fred Allen
-~
-Whatever you do will be insignificant,
-but it is very important that you do it.
- -- Mahatma Gandhi
-~
-Cats know how to obtain food without labor,
-shelter without confinement,
-and love without penalties.
- -- W. I. George
-~
-Most men are within a finger's breadth of being mad.
- -- Diogenes the Cynic
-~
-When it is not necessary to make a decision,
-it is necessary not to make a decision.
- -- Lord Falkland
-~
-Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew
-and for several days we had nothing to live on but food and water.
- -- W. C. Fields
-~
-Why isn't there a special name for the tops of your feet? -- Lily Tomlin
-~
-I took a speed reading course and read "War and
-Peace" in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.
- -- Woody Allen
-~
-Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.
- -- Michel de Montaigne
-~
-I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it.
- -- Groucho Marx
-~
-In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. -- Andy Warhol
-~
-Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
- -- Lewis Carroll
-~
-The reason grandparents and grandchildren get
-along so well is that they have a common enemy.
- -- Sam Levenson
-~
-A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.
- -- Herman Melville
-~
-The prayer of the scientist if he prayed, which is not likely:
-Lord, grant that my discovery may increase knowledge and help other men.
-Failing that, Lord, grant that it will not lead to man's destruction.
-Failing that, Lord, grant that my article in "Brain" be published before
-the destruction takes place.
- -- Walker Percy, in "Love in the Ruins"
-~
-Psychiatry enables us to correct our faults by
-confessing our parents' shortcomings.
- -- Laurence J. Peter
-~
-Cooperate on Standards, Compete on Implementation
- -- Sun Corporations's Founding Principle
-~
-If I could drop dead right now, I'd be the happiest man alive.
- -- Sam Goldwyn
-~
-Someday I want to be rich. Some people get so rich they lose
-all respect for humanity. That's how rich I want to be.
- -- Rita Rudner
-~
-Kids who have yet to master spelling or basic math are in no position to
-dogmatize about scientific questions like global warming or nuclear power.
- -- Thomas Sowell
-~
-If you can't ride two horses at the same time you shouldn't be in the circus.
- -- Dennis Healey
-~
- Whenever a person walks in on the middle of a film or a conversation, or
-starts a new friendship, opens a book, takes a new job, or moves to a new
-city, his first need is to orient himself. We all must know, in a general
-way, what to expect so that we can plan and respond intelligently and feel
-comfortable. And although all animals work with their senses and brains to
-orient themselves, human being do something unique. We live less simply and
-directly in the world than do other animals. We make a version of a world,
-an interpretation of it, and then we live in that. The degree of comfort
-and success that we achieve in our lives depends on how well that
-interpretation suits our circumstances.
- Another way to state this idea is that genetically built into people is
-a special organizing mode of perception. The philosopher Susanne Langer
-calls this mode transformational: we are co-creators of our own perceptions.
-In the very act of physically perceiving, we interpret; we transform the raw
-data gathered by our senses into complex symbolic meanings. We literally
-cannot function and survive without seeing in our world evidence of order
-and purpose. We take nothing at face value; we systematize, explain, weave
-a large network of connected meanings.
- While nonhuman animals toil for their lives, play, or lie in the sun--do
-whatever is suitable for the moment--only people fret and practice and
-struggle to achieve distant or abstract goals. We are the only animals who
-live partly removed from our immediate physical circumstances. This
-extravagance is the source of our language, art, science, music, religions,
-philosophies: those things we value most. Aside from such direct physical
-causes of death as hunger, exposure, old age, or disease, the one
-circumstance we truly cannot survive is living in a raw, uninterpreted
-place--in chaos. Each of us either finds a meaning in some traditional
-religion or philosophy or patches together one of his own, or else he
-panics, loses the will to live, and, in one way or another perishes.
- -- Shirley Park Lowery, "Familiar Mysteries: The Truth in Myth"
-~
-I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific
-problems is just as dumb as the next guy.
- -- Richard Feynman
-~
-The operating system for the *world* is too important a resource to be
-entrusted to just one proprietary company. No one company can handle
-the responsibility, nor can any one company be trusted to stay honest
-and fair when wielding such awesome power.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Middle age is when you've met so many people that every
-new person you meet reminds you of someone else.
- -- Ogden Nash
-~
-Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.
- -- A. H. Weiler
-~
-I was walking down the street wearing glasses when the prescription ran out.
- -- Steven Wright
-~
-Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not.
-In either case, the thought is staggering.
- -- R. Buckminster Fuller
-~
-Birds fly over the rainbow, why then oh why can't I?
- -- E. Y. Harburg
-~
-The software business is the worst
-of all possible business models,
-except for all the others.
- -- Marc Andreessen
-~
-Instant gratification takes too long.
- -- Carrie Fisher
-~
-Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.
- -- John Kenneth Galbraith
-~
-No one can have a higher opinion of him than I have,
-and I think he's a dirty little beast.
- -- W. S. Gilbert
-~
-Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but
-man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
- -- Reinhold Niebuhr
-~
-The great tragedy of Science--the slaying of a
-beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
- -- Thomas H. Huxley
-~
-Against logic there is no armor like ignorance. -- Laurence J. Peter
-~
-In mathematics you don't understand things.
-You just get used to them.
- -- John von Neumann
-~
-Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
- -- James Thurber
-~
-As for me, except for an occasional heart attack,
-I feel as young as I ever did.
- -- Robert Benchley
-~
-Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.
- -- Benjamin Franklin
-~
-When ideas fail, words come in very handy. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-~
-The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages,
-may be preserved by quotation.
- -- Benjamin Disraeli
-~
-Hi Mark,
-I am not familiar with the command RTFM.
-I tried giving it but got an warning that the command does not exist.
-Regards,
-Sodip
- -- A real user's response to advice
-~
-A happy childhood has spoiled many a promising life.
- -- Robertson Davies
-~
-The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two
-opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the
-ability to function.
- -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
-~
-Everything you've learned in school as "obvious" becomes less and
-less obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there
-are no solids in the universe. There's not even a suggestion of a
-solid. There are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces.
-There are no straight lines.
- -- R. Buckminster Fuller
-~
- Our happiness doesn't depend on somebody else's action or on anything
-else. It doesn't depend on our success, but rather on the effort we're
-willing to put into everything we do. Even if people disappoint or fail
-us left and right, even if people turn against us, hurt us, lie about us,
-don't understand us, even if they think they know everything about us and
-judge us unfairly, they can't infringe upon our happiness. True happiness
-means that we have a deep-seated peace and tranquility that transcends all
-the difficulties of life, that cannot be disturbed by the chaos and
-warfare that might touch our lives.
- Digging in the trenches of a Nazi concentration camp Victor Frankl once
-said to a fellow inmate: "This is where you've got to find your happiness--
-right here in this trench, in this camp." It is a simple matter of fact:
-you can be just as happy in a concentration camp, horrific and terrible as
-it surely is, as you can in any other circumstance in life.
- For this is where we're supposed to find our happiness--where we are
-now, wherever that might happen to be, in all that we do, in whatever
-circumstances we find ourselves. Being happy involves the intense
-struggle of entering intimately into all that we do.
- -- "The Monks of New Skete, In the Spirit of Happiness"
-~
-Upon this gifted age, in its dark hour,
-Rains from the sky a meteoric shower
-Of facts . . . they lie unquestioned, uncombined.
-Wisdom enough to leech us of our ill
-Is daily spun; but there exists no loom
-To weave it into fabric.
- -- Edna St. Vincent Millay, from "Upon This Age"
-~
-An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out.
- -- Will Rogers
-~
-Everybody gets so much information all day long
-that they lose their common sense.
- -- Gertrude Stein
-~
-Rationalists, wearing square hats,
-Think, in square rooms,
-Looking at the floor,
-Looking at the ceiling.
-They confine themselves
-To right-angled triangles.
-If they tried rhomboids,
-Cones, waving lines, ellipses--
-As, for example, the ellipse of the half-moon--
-Rationalists would wear sombreros.
- -- Wallace Stevens
-~
-I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean.
- -- G. K. Chesterton
-~
-fat in dee head / fat in dee mind / thin on dee love / absent dee kind
-yon falwell got dee big head / falwell got dee tiny brain
-falwell don' like what you be liken' / falwell hate what he don' understan'
-which be everyteen' for dis one / falwell dee bigot boy.
- -- love poem to jerry f.
-~
-The cat is, above all things, a dramatist.
- -- Margaret Benson
-~
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed
-us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
- -- Galileo Galilei
-~
-The human mind treats a new idea the same way
-the body treats a strange protein; it rejects it.
- -- P. B. Medawar
-~
-I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.
- -- Bertrand Russell
-~
-The key to being a good manager is keeping the people
-who hate me away from those who are still undecided.
- -- Casey Stengel
-~
-Reality is nothing but a collective hunch. -- Lily Tomlin
-~
-To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. -- Thomas Edison
-~
-If I knew I was going to live this long,
-I'd have taken better care of myself.
- -- Mickey Mantle
-~
-What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens.
- -- Benjamin Disraeli
-~
-The cat is the mirror of the human mind, personality and attitude,
-just as the dog mirrors his human's physical appearance.
- -- Winfred Carriere
-~
-Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy?
-I don't know and I don't care.
- -- William Safire
-~
-Historians are like deaf people who go on
-answering questions that no one has asked them.
- -- Leo Tolstoy
-~
-There are two moments worthwhile in writing, the one when you
-start and the other when you throw it in the waste-paper basket.
- -- Samuel Beckett
-~
-The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems
-to be vastly greater than that of any other animal.
- -- H. L. Mencken
-~
-I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you
-looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated.
- -- Poul Anderson
-~
-common sense is just the things your parents tell you that
-actually make it into your brain when you're a kid.
-
- don't touch hot things,
- look both ways when crossing the street,
- don't eat dirt.
-
-these ones work; thus they survive.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Men have become the tools of their tools. -- Henry David Thoreau
-~
-Lying increases the creative faculties, expands the
-ego, and lessens the frictions of social contacts.
- -- Clare Booth Luce
-~
-You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.
- -- Henry Ford
-~
-When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries
-disappear and life stands explained.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-Why was I born with such contemporaries? -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact. -- Edmund Burke
-~
-What's on your mind, if you will allow the overstatement? -- Fred Allen
-~
-The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof,
-a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an
-oracle, is inborn in us.
- -- Paul Valery
-~
-The mad mind does not halt. If it halts, it is enlightenment.
- -- Chinese Zen Saying
-~
-He who controls his mind and has cut off desire and anger realizes the Self.
- -- The Bhagavad Gita
-~
-A fly, when it exists, has as much being as God. -- Soren Kierkegaard
-~
-Our final experience, like our first, is conjectural.
-We move between two darknesses.
- -- E. M. Forster
-~
-If you have not lived through something, it is not true. -- Kabir
-~
-I like a view but I like to sit with my back to it. -- Gertrude Stein
-~
-Lightning flashes!
-So bright in the eyes of those
-clutching at the thought of death.
- -- Issa
-~
-The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you,
-the better you will hear what is sounding outside.
-And only she who listens can speak.
- -- Dag Hammarskjold
-~
-If knowledge does not liberate the self from the self,
-then ignorance is better than such knowledge.
- -- Sina'i
-~
-When the eye wakes up to see again,
-it suddenly stops taking anything for granted.
- -- Frederick Franck
-~
-Only when we know little things do we know
-anything; doubt grows with knowledge.
- -- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
-~
-Among corn stalks
-wind rippling
-just for the corn.
- -- Soen Nakagawa
-~
-He, O men, is the wisest, who, like Socrates,
-knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing.
- -- Plato
-~
-Words are just like a man carrying a lamp to look for
-his property, by which he can say: this is my property.
- -- The Lankavatara Sutra
-~
-That best portion
- of a good man's life,
-His little, nameless,
- unremembered acts
-Of kindness and love.
- -- William Wordsworth
-~
-I don't know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I'm
-some sort of Buddhist. But the essential thing is to put oneself
-in a frame of mind which is close to that of prayer.
- -- Henri Matisse
-~
-Life is like stepping onto a boat that is about to sail out to sea and sink.
- -- Shunryu Suzuki
-~
-Such stillness
-The cries of the cicadas
-Sink into the rocks.
- -- Basho
-~
-We live in a rainbow of chaos. -- Paul Cezanne
-~
-love's like a purple dinosaur because it can't outrun a truck,
-life's like a bowl of nixons sometimes you f*ck.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
- -- Napoleon Bonaparte
-~
-Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the
-imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.
- -- Samuel Johnson
-~
-We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not
-unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of
-thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what
-we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.
- -- Richard Feynman
-~
-The playful kitten, with its pretty little tigerish gambols, is infinitely
-more amusing than half the people one is obliged to live with in the world.
- -- Lady Sydney Morgan
-~
-The mystery of life is not a problem to be
-solved but a reality to be experienced.
- -- Aart Van Der Leeuw
-~
-Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. This has nothing
-whatever to do with sitting or lying down.
- -- Dogen
-~
-When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves,
-it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
- -- Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld
-~
-We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big
-difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which,
-over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.
- -- Marian Wright Edelman
-~
-Golf is a good walk spoiled.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-The day we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity. -- Seneca
-~
-Life is stressful enough without customer service. -- Thomas Oliver
-~
-To assume a cat's asleep is a grave mistake.
-He can close his eyes and keep both his ears awake.
- -- Aileen Fisher
-~
-Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged
-in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.
- -- Samuel Johnson
-~
-The tendency has always been strong to believe that whatever received
-a name must be an entity or being, having an independent existence of
-its own. And if no real entity answering to the name could be found,
-men did not for that reason suppose that none existed, but imagined
-that it was something peculiarly abstruse and mysterious.
- -- John Stuart Mill
-~
-You aren't a failure until you start blaming others for your mistakes.
- -- John Wooten
-~
- The master, Hseuh-feng, asked a newly arrived monk where
-he had come from. The monk answered: "From the Monastery of
-Spiritual Light."
- The master said, "In the daytime we have sunlight; in the
-evening, lamplight. What is spiritual light?"
- The monk had no answer.
- The Master said, "Sunlight. Lamplight."
- -- Zen mondo
-~
-There is no wealth but life. -- John Ruskin
-~
-Approach it and there is no beginning; follow it
-and there is no end. You can't know it, but you
-can be it, at ease in your own life.
- -- Lao-Tzu
-~
-And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where
-we started and know the place for the first time.
- -- T. S. Eliot
-~
-There's an old saying in Tennessee--I know it's in Texas, probably in
-Tennessee--that says: Fool me once, shame on [pause] shame on you.
-[Pause] Fool me [long, uncomfortable, agonizing pause] you can't get
-fooled again.
- -- Bush at East Literature Magnet School in Nashville yesterday.
-~
-Concentration is my motto--first honesty,
-then industry, then concentration.
- -- Andrew Carnegie
-~
-Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence. -- Charles de Gaulle
-~
-If you would make a man happy, do not add to his possessions but
-subtract from the sum of his desires.
- -- Seneca
-~
-Live life like your hair is on fire. -- Ashley Brilliant
-~
- City people have a hard time handling the silences when they first
-come out to the country. After a certain period of solitude, I myself
-experiencing an aloneness that is sometimes disturbing, but the country
-eventually cleanses my spirit and purges my body of the sounds, fumes and
-toxins of urban life. I think cities feed psychological stress and tension
-in many ways, including an overload of electrical forces and energy. When
-you go to a country cabin without electricity, you will be surprised at how
-tensions fall away.
- Some practitioners advocate that urban dwellers removed from the
-country find a space in the yard or the garden and dig a hole deep enough
-to enfold the body. Lie down in the hole. Make sure your body can lie just
-below the surface of the ground. Stay in this hollow of earth. You will be
-surprised how rested you will feel simply because you have escaped for a
-moment the man-made influences. You have retreated for a moment to Mother
-Earth's very simple electrical systems. For the chemical and electrical
-balance of the body to be calibrated, you have to stay close to the earth
-itself, align yourself with its polarity so that your body can find harmony
-between the interior world and the exterior universe.
- Once we become detached from nature, we begin to think we can do
-without it. The lights of the Great White Way overpower the stars. It is
-very hard to see the brightest constellation when you live in or near a
-city. The dark solitude of the country reunites you with the universe of
-the stars. The woods and hills restore in you something primal in yourself.
-The sea's pulse sets your own heartbeat.
- -- James Earl Jones, "Voices and Silences"
-~
-Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
- -- Jonathan Swift
-~
-i think i found my other leak now. and this was a frelling dumb one.
-somehow the deletion of the memory was commented out. wtf?
-arrrrrrrhhhh... i don't know what i'm doing....
-i hate the C and everything coded in it.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-When men are pure, laws are useless;
-when men are corrupt, laws are broken.
- -- Benjamin Disraeli
-~
-Only the mediocre are always at their best. -- Jean Giraudoux
-~
-If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome;
-if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent;
-if you believe the military, nothing is safe.
- -- Lord Salisbury
-~
-He is indebted to his memory for his jests
-and to his imagination for his facts.
- -- Richard Brinsley Sheridan
-~
-If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of
-arithmetic, we should not get very far in our understanding of the
-physical world. One might as well attempt to grasp the game of
-poker entirely by the use of the mathematics of probability.
- -- Vannevar Bush
-~
-As a public company, and as a CEO, you have to worry about the stock price
-to some extent. But you figure out after a while that there are very few
-things you can do in the short term that can positively impact stock price.
-If you build a great company, the value of the company goes up. That's very
-important for employees to realize coming out of this age of day trading,
-mass hysteria and "we're all going to be bazillionaires." You've got to get
-people saying: "Why are we really here?" Well, we're here to build a great
-company. That takes time. You may have a great day today and the stock goes
-down, and you may have a horrible day tomorrow and the stock goes up. Short
-term, they don't have a lot to do with each other. But over a long period of
-time you build a great company, and it's going to be worth a lot. Customers
-will reward it. Shareholders will reward it. Employees will want to be a
-part of it and beat our door down to want to work here.
- -- Michael Dell, Founder of Dell Computers
-~
-Cats have the gift of appearing at ease in any situation--high, low or
-anywhere in between.
- -- Dr. Morag Kerr
-~
-I am no more humble than my talents require. -- Oscar Levant
-~
-Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.
- -- Albert Schweitzer
-~
-It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there
-is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-The torch of doubt and chaos, this is what the sage steers by. -- Chuang-Tzu
-~
-I would patch them, but I have not a half-sheet of paper.
-Ah, well--at least torn windows don't need to be pushed open.
-The blowing wind puts out my lamp.
-Rain falling from the eaves wets my inkstone.
- -- Ikkyu
-~
-The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning.
-Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.
- -- Erich Fromm
-~
-I tell you: one must still have chaos in one,
-to give birth to a dancing star.
- -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-At that pond
- the frog is growing old now--
- among fallen leaves.
- -- Buson
-~
-Consciousness is a being,
-the nature of which
-is to be conscious of
-the nothingness of its being.
- -- Jean-Paul Sartre
-~
-Since it is all too clear,
-It takes time to grasp it.
-When you understand that it's foolish
-To look for fire with fire,
-The meal is already cooked.
- -- Wu-men
-~
-May you live all the days of your life. -- Jonathan Swift
-~
-How could there be any question of acquiring
-or possessing, when the one thing needful for
-a man is to /become/--to /be/ at last, and to die
-in the fullness of his being.
- -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
-~
-Death, the most dreaded of evils, is therefore of no concern to us;
-for while we exist death is not present,
-and when death is present we no longer exist.
- -- Epicurus
-~
-Singing and danching are the voice of dharma. -- Hakuin
-~
-All great truths begin as blasphemies. -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-Hope is not a strategy. -- Thomas McInerney
-~
-I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month,
-and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.
- -- Thomas Jefferson
-~
-As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now
-to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.
- -- Samuel Johnson
-~
-Sometimes the veil between human and animal intelligence wears
-very thin--then one experiences the supreme thrill of keeping
-a cat, or perhaps allowing oneself to be owned by a cat.
- -- Catherine Manley
-~
-I'm never going to be famous. My name will never be writ large on the
-roster of Those Who Do Things. I don't do any thing. Not one single
-thing. I used to bite my nails, but I don't even do that any more.
- -- Dorothy Parker
-~
-One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the
-belief that one's work is terribly important.
- -- Bertrand Russell
-~
-The universality of change, when completely understood, is the seeing
-into the heart of all things, and the Mind that thus understands is
-the Mind that truly seeks the way.
- -- Nagarjuna
-~
-The spirit down here in man and the spirit up there in the sun,
-in reality are only one spirit, and there is no other one.
- -- The Upanishads
-~
-To free oneself is nothing--the really arduous task is to
-know what to do with one's freedom.
- -- Andre Gide
-~
-I hate women because they always know where things are. -- James Thurber
-~
-I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting. -- Mark Twain
-~
-Be careful about reading health books.
-You may die of a misprint.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-Autumn, cloud blades on the horizon.
-The west wind blows from ten thousand miles.
-Dawn, in the clear morning air.
-Farmers busy after long rain.
-The desert trees shed their few green leaves.
-The mountain pears are tiny but ripe.
-A Tartar flute plays by the city gate.
-A single wild goose climbs into the void.
- -- Tu Fu
-~
-When you get there, there isn't any there there. -- Gertrude Stein
-~
-I want to sing like birds sing,
-not worrying who hears or what they think.
- -- Jelaluddin Rumi
-~
-The practice of zazen is not
-for gaining a mystical mind.
-Zazen is for allowing a clear mind--
-as clear as a bright autumn day.
- -- Shunryu Suzuki
-~
-... and he was almighty because he had wrenched
-from chaos the secret of its nothingness.
- -- Jean-Paul Sartre
-~
-Practice thirty more years. -- Zen proverb
-~
-Student: "Roshi, what are you doing here?"
-Suzuki-roshi: "Nothing special."
- -- Zen mondo
-~
-After the leaves fall in the village at the foot of Ogura Peak,
-one can see through the tree branches the moon shining in the clear.
- -- Saigyo
-~
-Chaos often breeds life, where order breeds habit.
- -- Henry Adams
-~
-You yourselves must make the exertion.
-The Buddhas are only teachers.
- -- Shakyamuni Buddha
-~
-Cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words,
-and following after speech, and learn the backward step that turns your
-light inward to illuminate your self. Body and mind of themselves will
-drop away, and your original face will be manifest.
- -- Dogen
-~
-Next time you have a bad day, imagine this: You are a Siamese twin.
-Your brother that is attached to you at the shoulder is gay.
-You are not. But you only have one ass.
-~
-From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition
-is something up with which I will not put.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-The meaning of life is to see. -- Hui-Neng
-~
-Fundamentally not one thing exists. -- Hui-Neng
-~
-In the blue heavens, cold geese calling.
-On the empty hills, leaves flying.
- -- Ryokan
-~
-When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-An intense love of solitude, distaste for involvement in worldly
-affairs, persistence in knowing the Self and awareness of the goal
-of knowing--all this is called true knowledge.
- -- The Bhagavad Gita
-~
-Some people are born to lift heavy weights.
-Some are born to juggle with golden balls.
- -- Max Beerbohm
-~
-Every man serves a useful purpose: A miser, for
-example, makes a wonderful ancestor.
- -- Lawrence J. Peter
-~
-Smokey the Bear Sutra
-
-Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago,
-the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite
-Void gave a Discourse to all the assembled elements
-and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings,
-the flying beings, and the sitting beings -- even grasses,
-to the number of thirteen billion, each one born from a
-seed, assembled there: a Discourse concerning
-Enlightenment on the planet Earth.
-
-"In some future time, there will be a continent called
-America. It will have great centers of power called
-such as Pyramid Lake, Walden Pond, Mt. Rainier, Big Sur,
-Everglades, and so forth; and powerful nerves and channels
-such as Columbia River, Mississippi River, and Grand Canyon
-The human race in that era will get into troubles all over
-its head, and practically wreck everything in spite of
-its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature."
-
-"The twisting strata of the great mountains and the pulsings
-of volcanoes are my love burning deep in the earth.
-My obstinate compassion is schist and basalt and
-granite, to be mountains, to bring down the rain. In that
-future American Era I shall enter a new form; to cure
-the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger:
-and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it."
-
-And he showed himself in his true form of
-
- SMOKEY THE BEAR
-
- a.. A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his hind legs,
-showing that he is aroused and
- watchful.
-
- b.. Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath
-appearances; cuts the roots of useless
- attach- ments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war;
-
- c.. His left paw in the Mudra of Comradely Display -- indicating that all
-creatures have the full right to live to
- their limits and that deer, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, dandelions, and
-lizards all grow in the realm of the
- Dharma;
-
- d.. Wearing the blue work overalls symbolic of slaves and laborers, the
-countless men oppressed by a
- civilization that claims to save but often destroys;
-
- e.. Wearing the broad-brimmed hat of the West, symbolic of the forces that
-guard the Wilderness, which is the
- Natural State of the Dharma and the True Path of man on earth: all true
-paths lead through mountains --
-
- f.. With a halo of smoke and flame behind, the forest fires of the
-kali-yuga, fires caused by the stupidity of
- those who think things can be gained and lost whereas in truth all is
-contained vast and free in the Blue Sky
- and Green Earth of One Mind;
-
- g.. Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great earth has
-food enough for everyone who loves her
- and trusts her;
-
- h.. Trampling underfoot wasteful freeways and needless suburbs; smashing
-the worms of capitalism and
- totalitarianism;
-
- i.. Indicating the Task: his followers, becoming free of cars, houses,
-canned foods, universities, and shoes;
- master the Three Mysteries of their own Body, Speech, and Mind; and
-fearlessly chop down the rotten
- trees and prune out the sick limbs of this country America and then burn
-the leftover trash.
-
-Wrathful but Calm. Austere but Comic. Smokey the Bear will
-Illuminate those who would help him; but for those who would hinder or
-slander him,
-
- HE WILL PUT THEM OUT.
-
-Thus his great Mantra:
-
- Namah samanta vajranam chanda maharoshana
- Sphataya hum traks ham nam
-
- "I DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE UNIVERSAL DIAMOND
- BE THIS RAGING FURY DESTROYED"
-
-And he will protect those who love woods and rivers,
-Gods and animals, hobos and madmen, prisoners and sick
-people, musicians, playful women, and hopeful children:
-
-And if anyone is threatened by advertising, air pollution, television,
-or the police, they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR'S WAR SPELL:
-
- DROWN THEIR BUTTS
- CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
- DROWN THEIR BUTTS
- CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
-
-And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out
-with his vajra-shovel.
-
- a.. Now those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice
-willl accumulate merit as countless as the
- sands of Arizona and Nevada.
-
- b.. Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick.
-
- c.. Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature.
-
- d.. Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and beasts.
-
- e.. Will always have ripe blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a
-pine tree to sit at.
-
- f.. AND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT.
-
- thus have we heard.
-~
-I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a
-nice letter saying that I approved of it.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-We are here to witness the creation and to abet it. -- Annie Dillard
-~
-Today is the eighth of the month, tomorrow is the thirteenth. -- Zen proverb
-~
-Often I am still listening when the song is over.
- -- Marquis de Saint-Lambert
-~
-Worldly acquisitions of wealth and the need of clinging to them, as well as
-the pursuit of the Eight Worldly Aims, I regard with as much loathing and
-disgust as a man who is suffering from biliousness regardeth the sight of
-rich food. Nay, I regard them as if they were the murderers of my father;
-therefore it is that I am assuming this beggarly and penurious mode of life.
- -- Milarepa
-~
-Vast solitude
-My thinning body
-Transparent autumn
- -- Soen Nakagawa
-~
-Maturity is only a short break in adolescence. -- Jules Feiffer
-~
-It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker
-that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.
- -- Adam Smith
-~
-Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable
-that we have to alter it every six months.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who
-can't talk for people who can't read.
- -- Frank Zappa
-~
- Bodhidharma sat facing the wall. The Second Patriarch, after standing
-outside in the snow for so long, cut off his arm. "My mind is not yet
-at peace. Please, Master, put my mind at peace."
- Bodhidharma said: "Bring me your mind and I will pacify it for you."
- The Second Patriarch replied: "Although I have searched for my mind,
-it is totally ungraspable."
- Bodhidharma said: "In that case I have pacified your mind for you."
-~
-Explanation of the unspeakable cannot be finished. -- Shakyamuni Buddha
-~
-We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness.
- -- Mother Teresa
-~
-Since it is the practice of enlightenment,
-that practice has no beginning and
-since it is enlightenment within the practice,
-that realization has no end.
- -- Dogen
-~
-The quieter you become, the more you can hear. -- Baba Ram Dass
-~
-As long as you seek for something, you will get
-the shadow of reality and not reality itself.
- -- Shunryu Suzuki
-~
-Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least
-triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to
-recollect how often we have told it to the same person?
- -- Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld
-~
-I love being married. It's so great to find that one
-special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.
- -- Rita Rudner
-~
-I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-A happy childhood has spoiled many a promising life. -- Robertson Davies
-~
-At this point in history genius has become
-a commodity, an ambition, even a lifestyle.
- -- Marjorie Garber
-~
-A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world. -- Jean le Carre
-~
-Martyrdom is the only way in which a
-man can become famous without ability.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.
-For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion.
- -- Christopher Smart
-~
-It's not autumn's cold that keeps me awake,
-but what I feel before the grasses and trees in my courtyard.
-My banana tree has lost its leaves; my parasol tree is old;
-and night after night--the sound of wind, the sound of rain.
- -- Chujo Joshin
-~
-I believe in an ultimate decency of things. -- Robert Louis Stevenson
-~
-Autumn light
-fills the room
-vacancy.
- -- Soen Nakagawa
-~
-We have two eyes to see two sides of things, but there must be a third eye
-which will see everything at the same time and yet not see anything.
-That is to understand Zen.
- -- D. T. Suzuki
-~
-Yes it is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth
-sometimes comes to the top.
- -- Virginia Woolf
-~
-Having precise ideas often leads to a man doing nothing. -- Paul Valery
-~
-The cat was a creature of absolute convictions,
-and his faith in his deductions never varied.
- -- Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
-~
-Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay
-any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose
-any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
- -- John F. Kennedy
-~
-With Henry Adams we see the moment when the pronouncements
-of philosophers ceased to be greeted with forehead slaps of
-recognition or shouts of "Heretic!" and began to be met
-with mumbles of "Oh, shut up."
- -- P. J. O'Rourke
-~
-The nature of mind, when understood, no human words can
-compass or disclose. Enlightenment is naught to be obtained,
-and he that gains it does not say he knows.
- -- Bodhidharma
-~
-As long as you haven't experienced this: to die and so to grow,
-you are only a troubled guest on the dark earth.
- -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-~
-Nirvana is right here, before our eyes. -- Hakuin
-~
-It is the stars not known to science that I would know,
-the stars which the lonely traveler knows.
- -- Henry David Thoreau
-~
-You've got to take the bitter with the sour. -- Sam Goldwyn
-~
-And a man shall be free, and as pure as the day prior to
-his conception in his mother's womb, when he has nothing,
-wants nothing and knows nothing.
- -- Meister Eckhart
-~
-Words, like eyeglasses, blur everything they do not make clear.
- -- Joseph Joubert
-~
-Outside mind there is no Buddha,
-Outside Buddha there is no mind.
- -- Ma-Tsu
-~
-They are ill discoverers that think there is no land,
-when they can see nothing but sea.
- -- Sir Francis Bacon
-~
-My father hated radio and could not wait for television to be
-invented so he could hate that too.
- -- Peter de Vries
-~
-Opportunity is missed by most people because
-it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
- -- Thomas Alva Edison
-~
-Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead. -- Benjamin Franklin
-~
-When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus,
-it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV
-has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained.
- -- Edward R. Murrow
-~
-In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.
- -- Andre Maurois
-~
-The art of medicine consists in amusing the
-patient while nature cures the disease.
- -- Voltaire
-~
-I am enlightened, and always have been, simultaneously
-with the beginning of the universe.
- -- The Buddha, first words after realizing the truth
-~
-A billion stars go spinning through the night,
-blazing high above your head.
-But in you is the presence that will be,
-when the stars are dead.
- -- Rainer Maria Rilke
-~
-The goal of Buddhism is to bring about right human life, not to have
-the teaching, or teacher, or sentient beings, or Buddhism, or Buddha.
-But if you think that without any training you can have that kind of
-life, that is a big mistake.
- -- Shunryu Suzuki
-~
-So much of what we call management consists
-in making it difficult for people to work.
- -- Peter Drucker
-~
-People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.
- -- Hermann Hesse
-~
-Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from
-acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
- -- W. Somerset Maugham
-~
-Everything you know is wrong. -- Firesign Theatre
-~
-One day Yuan-wu took the high seat, and said:
- A monk asked Yun-men: 'Where did all the buddhas come from?'
- Yun-men answered: 'The East Mountain walks over the water.'
- But if I were asked, I would not answer that way.
- I would say: 'A fragrant breeze comes of itself from the south,
- and in the palace a refreshing coolness stirs.'
- -- Zen mondo
-~
-I would believe only in a god who could dance. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-The moon floats above the pines, and the night veranda is cold as the
-ancient, clear sound comes from your finger tips. The old melody usually
-makes the listeners weep, but Zen music is beyond sentiment. Do not play
-again unless the Great Sound of Lao-tzu accompanies you.
- -- Hseuh-T'ou
-~
-Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow. -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-Logically considered, Zen may be full of contradictions and repetitions.
-But as it stands above all things, it goes serenely on its own way.
- -- D. T. Suzuki
-~
-Clouds come from time to time--and bring a chance
-to rest from looking at the moon.
- -- Basho
-~
-Listen. Make a way for yourself inside yourself.
-Stop looking in the other way of looking.
- -- Jelaluddin Rumi
-~
-Do not be an embodiment of fame; do not be a storehouse of schemes;
-do not be an undertaker of projects; do not be a proprietor of wisdom.
-Wander where there is no trail. Hold on to all that you have received
-from Heaven but do not think you have gotten anything. Be empty, that
-is all. The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror--going after nothing,
-welcoming nothing, responding but not storing.
- -- Chuang-Tzu
-~
-In the end, everything is a gag. -- Charlie Chaplin
-~
-One can not be certain of living
-even into the evening.
-In the dim first light
-I watch the waves
-from a departing boat.
- -- Shinkei
-~
-The truth dazzles gradually, or else the world would be blind.
- -- Emily Dickinson
-~
-All things in this world are impermanent.
-They have the nature to rise and pass away.
-To be in harmony with this truth brings true happiness.
- -- Buddhist Chant
-~
-True words always seem paradoxical but no other form
-of teaching can take their place.
- -- Lao-Tzu
-~
-Did you not know that at the edge of a deep valley there is an excellent
-pine tree growing up straight in spite of the many years of cold?
- -- Keizan Zenji
-~
-Death destroys a man, but the idea of death saves him.
- -- E. M. Forster
-~
-In a snowfall that covers the winter grass
-a white heron uses his own whiteness to disappear.
- -- Dogen
-~
-Settle the self on the self. -- Shunryu Suzuki
-~
-Finished, finished...
-when it is completely finished
-there is nothing to finish.
- -- Soen Nakagawa
-~
-I think age is a very high price to pay for maturity. -- Tom Stoppard
-~
-Which is the more beautiful, feline movement or feline stillness?
- -- Elizabeth Hamilton
-~
-We cannot speak without incurring some risk, at least in theory;
-the only way of being absolutely safe is to say nothing.
- -- Isaiah Berlin
-~
-Numerous studies demonstrate that people can be motivated to creativity
-simply with the addition of an instruction to "be creative."
- -- Richard Saul Wurman
-~
- Our obsessions with history and prophecy perhaps reflect an inability
-to comprehend the implications of geological time. The mind's traditional
-organization of duration into past, present, and future really has more
-relevance to the five-thousand-year-old earth of the seventeenth century
-than it does to the five-billion-year-old one of the twentieth. Past and
-future require certain limitations and symmetries to be meaningful--there
-must be a plot or at least a story. But time is really not much like a
-story. It is more like an ocean current that rises from imperfectly
-perceived depths and flows into unseen distances.
- This immensity might seem to diminish the present--the living moment--
-to utter insignificance, but actually the present looms much larger in
-geological time than in historical time. If time is a story, the present
-is merely a hiatus between the significant events that were and will be.
-If time is an ocean, however, the present is not less important than the
-other moments, which stretch away on all sides, any more than a single
-water molecule in an ocean is less important than the others. In a sense
-each living moment is the whole of time--an eternal present--because it
-can't be set apart from all the other moments.
- -- David Rains Wallace, from "Idle Weeds"
-~
-Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
- -- Henry David Thoreau
-~
-We are generally the better persuaded by the reasons we
-discover ourselves than by those given to us by others.
- -- Blaise Pascal
-~
-You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
- -- J. M. Barrie
-~
-Television has raised writing to a new low. -- Samuel Goldwyn
-~
-I detest life-insurance agents; they always argue
-that I shall some day die, which is not so.
- -- Stephen Leacock
-~
-People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news.
- -- A. J. Liebling
-~
-He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-If the voter cannot grasp the details of the problems of the day because he
-has not the time, the interest or the knowledge, he will not have a better
-public opinion because he is asked to express his opinion more often.
- -- Walter Lippmann
-~
-i have eliminated every fault,
-except for pride...
-doomed to walk the earth
-another time.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-In spite of the cost of living, it's still popular. -- Laurence J. Peter
-~
-Among the maxims on Lord Naoshige's wall there was this one: "Matters of
-great concern should be treated lightly." Master Ittei commented, "Matters
-of small concern should be treated seriously." Among one's affairs there
-should not be more than two or three matters of what one could call great
-concern. If these are deliberated upon during ordinary times, they can be
-understood. Thinking about things previously and then handling them lightly
-when the time comes is what this is all about. To face an event and solve
-it lightly is difficult if you are not resolved beforehand, and there will
-always be uncertainty in hitting your mark. However, if the foundation is
-laid previously, you can think of the saying, "Matters of great concern
-should be treated lightly," as your basis for action.
- -- Hagakure, book of the samurai
-~
-There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with
-a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road.
-But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still
-get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be
-perplexed, though you still get the same soaking. This understanding
-extends to everything.
- -- Hagakure, book of the samurai
-~
-I deserve good things.
-I am entitled to my share of happiness.
-I refuse to beat myself up.
-I am attractive person.
-I am fun to be with.
- -- Stuart Smalley
-~
-The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous,
-the sensible man hardly anything.
- -- Goethe
-~
-In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car.
- -- Lawrence Summers
-~
- I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the
-river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him.
-I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the
-starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and
-brotherhood can never become a reality.
- I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must
-spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear
-destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will
-have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is
-stronger than evil triumphant.
- I believe that even amid today's motor bursts and whining bullets,
-there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded
-justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can
-be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of
-men.
- I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three
-meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and
-dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what
-self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still
-believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be
-crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive
-goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.
- -- Martin Luther King, Jr
-~
-Every increased possession loads us with new weariness. -- John Ruskin
-~
-If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind,
-what is the significance of a clean desk?
- -- Lawrence J. Peter
-~
-I've been on a diet for two weeks and all I've lost is two weeks.
- -- Totie Fields
-~
-I am not young enough to know everything. -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-I had never held a position for more than four years,
-and did not so much plan my new jobs as flee my old ones.
- -- Joseph Epstein
-~
-It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward.
- -- The White Queen, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland
-~
-I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by
- the animosities he excites among his opponents.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-All things are difficult before they are easy. -- Thomas Fuller
-~
-There's no business like show business, but
-there are several businesses like accounting.
- -- David Letterman
-~
-All truth passes through three stages.
-First, it is ridiculed.
-Second, it is violently opposed.
-Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
- -- Arthur Schopenhauer
-~
-Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence
-but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to
-shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.
- -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
-~
-Talent is like the battery in a car. It'll get you started,
-but if the generator is bad, you don't go very far.
- -- Ellis Marsalis
-~
-No man ever listened himself out of a job. -- Calvin Coolidge
-~
-I was unable to devote myself to the learning of this algebra and the continued
-concentration upon it, because of obstacles in the vagaries of time which
-hindered me; for we have been deprived of all the people of knowledge save for
-a group, small in number, with many troubles, whose concern in life is to
-snatch the opportunity, when time is asleep, to devote themselves meanwhile to
-the investigation and perfection of a science; for the majority of people who
-imitate philosophers confuse the true with the false, and they do nothing but
-deceive and pretend knowledge, and they do not use what they know of the
-sciences except for base and material purposes; and if they see a certain
-person seeking for the right and preferring the truth, doing his best to refute
-the false and untrue and leaving aside hypocrisy and deceit, they make a fool
-of him and mock him.
- -- Omar Khayyam, "Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra"
-~
-It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish. -- Aeschylus
-~
-Imagine what it would be like if TV actually were good.
-It would be the end of everything we know.
- -- Marvin Minsky
-~
-Many engineering deadlocks have been broken by people who are not engineers
-at all. This is simply because perspective is more important than IQ.
- -- Nicholas Negroponte
-~
-We are doomed to choose, and every choice may entail an irreparable loss.
- -- Isaiah Berlin
-~
-California is a fine place to live--if you happen to be an orange.
- -- Fred Allen
-~
-Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first call promising.
- -- Cyril Connolly
-~
-It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both
-incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted
-by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.
- -- Rod Serling
-~
-All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They
-never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job is forced
-on them, they tackle it by denouncing someone or something else.
- -- H. L. Mencken
-~
-The corollary of constant change is ignorance. This is not often
-talked about: we computer experts barely know what we're doing.
- -- Ellen Ullman
-~
-The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.
- -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo. -- H. G. Wells
-~
-Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that,
-once it is competently programmed and working smoothly,
-it is completely honest.
- -- Isaac Asimov
-~
-Psychiatry enables us to correct our faults by
-confessing our parents' shortcomings.
- -- Laurence J. Peter
-~
-No opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing
-when they are feeling sensible.
- -- W. H. Auden
-~
-All truths are easy to understand once they are
-discovered; the point is to discover them.
- -- Galileo Galilei
-~
-We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential.
-Hence the fact that many inventions had their birth as toys.
- -- Eric Hoffer
-~
-Considering how dangerous everything is,
-nothing is really very frightening.
- -- Gertrude Stein
-~
-A bore is a man who deprives you of solitude
-without providing you with company.
- -- Gian Vincenzo Gravina
-~
-What the world needs is more geniuses with humility.
-There are so few of us left.
- -- Oscar Levant
-~
-In the end, we will remember not the words of
-our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
- -- Martin Luther King
-~
-Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the
-living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children,
-and by children to adults.
- -- Thomas Szasz
-~
-You must first have a lot of patience to learn to have patience.
- -- Stanislaw W. Lec
-~
-I know the answer! The answer lies within the heart of all mankind!
-The answer is 12? I think I'm in the wrong building.
- -- Charles M. Schulz in "Peanuts"
-~
-The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who
-hate me away from those who are still undecided.
- -- Casey Stengel
-~
-What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
- -- Samuel Johnson
-~
-People who've never fired a gun ("weapon", in Army-talk) explain "fire power"
-realities. Nobody--yet--would pretend to be an expert on brain surgery. But
-military tactics and modern warfare? What could be easier, right?
- -- Kenneth G. Robinson
-~
-When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.
- -- William Wrigley Jr.
-~
-Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an
-international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-Thought is only a flash between two long nights, but this flash is everything.
- -- Henri Poincare
-~
-A well-laid business plan is no guarantee against the
-disappearance of the industry on which it is based.
- -- Tim Cavanaugh
-~
-The way to protect human freedom is to make sure that your society is one
-in which the benefits of being a member of the society are so tempting and
-so great that people will take responsibility in order for it to happen.
- -- Daniel Dennett
-~
-Technology seems to always start out promising specialization and
-personalization. In the end, it delivers more homogenization instead.
- -- Lee Gomes
-~
-Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.
- -- Thomas H. Huxley
-~
-Art is making something out of nothing and selling it. -- Frank Zappa
-~
-Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence
-as you can find outside an advertising agency.
- -- Raymond Chandler
-~
-The only way to discover the limits of the possible
-is to go beyond them into the impossible.
- -- Ben Hecht
-~
-Life is full of misery, loneliness, and
-suffering--and it's all over much too soon.
- -- Woody Allen
-~
-An economist is a man who states the obvious in terms of the incomprehensible.
- -- Alfred A. Knopf
-~
-The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
- -- B. F. Skinner
-~
-In great affairs men show themselves as they wish to be seen;
-in small things they show themselves as they are.
- -- Nicholas Chamfort
-~
-Pain is no evil, unless it conquers us. -- Charles Kingsley
-~
-There's no reason to burn books if you don't read them. The education system
-in this country is just terrible, and we're not doing anything about it.
- -- Ray Bradbury
-~
-Each of us inevitable; each of us limitless--
-each of us with his or her right upon the earth.
- -- Walt Whitman
-~
-In science, the credit goes to the man who convinces the
-world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs.
- -- Sir William Osler
-~
-It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept
-anything but the best, you very often get it.
- -- W. Somerset Maugham
-~
-Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to,
-with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.
- -- Marcus Aurelius
-~
-We have a natural opportunity to investigate the connections
-of a problem when looking back at its solution.
- -- George Polya
-~
-Money teaches us to count, but science, inasmuch as it is
-not governed by money, might yet teach us to think.
- -- Christopher M. Kelty
-~
-Painting, like flipping burgers or shearing sheep, is physical labor. It is
-enough nowadays to declare yourself an artist and then to declare some artifact
-in the vast world of found objects to be *your* work of art.
- -- Thomas M. Disch
-~
-The art of creation is older than the art of killing. -- Ed Koch
-~
-In wisdom gathered over time I have found that
-every experience is a form of exploration.
- -- Ansel Adams
-~
-Anyone who in discussion relies upon authority
-uses not his understanding but his memory.
- -- Leonardo Da Vinci
-~
-We've had a taste of Siemens before in the past. -- Bonafide PHB
-~
-The awareness of the ambiguity of one's highest achievements (as well
-as one's deepest failures) is a definite symptom of maturity.
- -- Paul Tillich
-~
-A guilty conscience needs to confess.
-A work of art is a confession.
- -- Albert Camus
-~
-When I examine myself and my methods of thought,
-I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy
-has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing
-positive knowledge.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to.
- -- Laurence J. Peter
-~
-No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into
-account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.
- -- Isaac Asimov
-~
-We have profoundly forgotten everywhere that cash-payment is not
-the sole relation of human beings.
- -- Thomas Carlyle
-~
-No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone.
-His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his
-relation to the dead poets and artists.
- -- T. S. Eliot
-~
-There's a moment coming. It's not here yet. It's still on the way.
-It's in the future. It hasn't arrived. Here it comes.
-Here it is... It's gone.
- -- George Carlin
-~
-Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art;
-it is the part the schools cannot recognize.
- -- James Joyce
-~
-It is easy to spot an informed man--
-his opinions are just like your own.
- -- Miguel de Unamuno
-~
-If you see in any given situation only what everybody else
-can see, you can be said to be so much a representative of
-your culture that you are a victim of it.
- -- S. I. Hayakawa
-~
-If you are going through hell, keep going. -- Winston Churchill
-~
- The Founders of the American nation were one of the most creative
-groups in modern history. Some among them, especially in recent years,
-have been condemned for their failures and weaknesses--for their racism,
-sexism, compromises, and violations of principle. And indeed moral
-judgments are as necessary in assessing the lives of these people as of
-any others. But we are privileged to know and to benefit from the outcome
-of their efforts, which they could only hopefully imagine, and ignore their
-main concern: which was the possibility, indeed the probability, that their
-creative enterprise--not to recast the social order but to transform the
-political system--would fail: would collapse into chaos or autocracy.
-Again and again they were warned of the folly of defying the received
-traditions, the sheer unlikelihood that they, obscure people on the outer
-borderlands of European civilization, knew better than the established
-authorities that ruled them; that they could successfully create something
-freer, ultimately more enduring than what was then known in the centers of
-metropolitan life.
- Since we inherit and build on their achievements, we now know what the
-established world of the eighteenth century flatly denied but which they
-broke through convention to propose -- that absolute power need not be
-indivisible but can be shared among states within a state and among
-branches of government, and that the sharing of power and the balancing of
-forces can create not anarchy but freedom.
- We know for certain what they could only experimentally and prayerfully
-propose--that formal, written constitutions, upheld by judicial bodies, can
-effectively constrain the tyrannies of both executive force and populist
-majorities.
- We know, because they had the imagination to perceive it, that there
-is a sense, mysterious as it may be, in which human rights can be seen to
-exist independent of privileges, gifts, and donations of the powerful, and
-that these rights can somehow be defined and protected by the force of law.
- We casually assume, because they were somehow able to imagine, that
-the exercise of power is no natural birthright but must be a gift of those
-who are subject to it."
- -- Bernard Bailyn, from "To Begin The World Anew: The Genius and
- Ambiguities of the American Founders
-~
-Discretion in speech is more than eloquence. -- Francis Bacon
-~
-I fell asleep reading a dull book, and I dreamed that
-I was reading on, so I awoke from sheer boredom.
- -- Heinrich Heine
-~
-I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep
-contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could
-share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation.
-It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill
-of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping
-forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green.
- -- Nathaniel Hawthorne
-~
-Another cause of your sickness, and the most important:
-you have forgotten what you are.
- -- Boethius
-~
-All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of
-their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible,
-exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.
-One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on
-by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.
- -- George Orwell
-~
-When a man mistakes his thoughts for persons and things, he is mad.
- -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
-~
-Did you ever see dishonest calluses on a man's hands? Hardly.
-When a man's hands are callused and women's hands are worn,
-you may be sure honesty is there. That's more than you can
-say about many soft white hands.
- -- Henry Ford
-~
-The march of invention has clothed mankind with powers of which
-a century ago the boldest imagination could not have dreamt.
- -- Henry George
-~
-The American invents
-as the Greek chiseled,
-as the Venetian painted,
-as the modern Italian sings.
- -- Willis M. West
-~
-If it's mechanical, has tits, or wheels, it will give you trouble.
- -- dano
-~
-Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.
- -- Charles Chaplin
-~
-A small nose means a small penis. Small noses make for difficult breathing
-and small penises make for difficulty breeding.
- -- rando
-~
-Executives are like joggers. If you stop a jogger, he goes on running
-on the spot. If you drag an executive away from his business, he goes
-on running on the spot, pawing the ground, talking business. He never
-stops hurtling onwards, making decisions and executing them.
- -- Jean Baudrillard
-~
-Every man bears in himself the germs of every human quality;
-but sometimes one quality manifests itself, sometimes another,
-and the man often becomes unlike himself,
-while still remaining the same man.
- -- Leo Tolstoy
-~
-You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.
- -- Anton Checkov
-~
-If we don't change direction soon, we'll end up where we're going.
- -- Professor Irwin Corey
-~
-When you wish to instruct be brief--so that people's minds can
-quickly grasp what you have to say, understand your point, and
-retain it accurately. Unnecessary words just spill over the
-side of a mind already crammed to the full.
- -- Cicero
-~
-I just don't understand why anyone is unable to realize what a disaster
-a meeting is for a business. Never meet. If it can't be settled in a
-five minute conversation, it's probably insoluble no matter how many
-people talk about it for however long.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Writing comes more easily if you have something to say. -- Sholem Asch
-~
-We the unwilling,
-led by the unknowing,
-are doing the impossible
-for the ungrateful.
-We have done so much for so long with so little
-We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
- -- Blue Collar Lament
-~
-Endure, and save yourself for happier times. -- Virgil
-~
-I don't think being funny is anyone's first choice. -- Woody Allen
-~
-i thank You God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly
-spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
-which is natural which is infinite which is yes
- -- ee cummings
-~
-None but myself ever did me any harm. I was, I may say, the only enemy to
-myself: my own projects, that expedition to Moscow, and the accidents which
-happened there, were the causes of my fall. I must say, though, that those
-who failed to oppose me, who readily agreed with me, accepted all my views,
-and yielded easily to my opinions, were those who did me the most injury,
-and were my worst enemies, because, by surrendering to me so easily, they
-encouraged me to go too far... I was then too powerful for any man, except
-myself, to injure me.
- -- Napoleon Bonaparte
-~
-If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better
-mousetrap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the
-world will make a beaten path to his door.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, attributed by Sarah B. Yule, Borrowings, 1889
-~
-Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-All conservatives are such from personal defects.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-The reliance on Property, including the reliance on governments which
-protect it, is the want of self-reliance.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-We are symbols, and inhabit symbols.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-The louder he talked of his honour, the faster we counted our spoons.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-Fame is proof that people are gullible.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-What is the hardest task in the world? To think....
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-The greatest discovery of any generation is that a
-human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.
- -- William James
-~
-Were we perfectly acquainted with the object,
-we should never passionately desire it.
- -- Francois De La Rochefoucauld
-~
-The cat, having sat upon a hot stove lid, will not sit upon a hot
-stove lid again. But he won't sit upon a cold stove lid, either.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-There were two "Reigns of Terror", if we could but remember and consider it;
-the one wrought murder in hot passions, the other in heartless cold blood;
-the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one
-inflicted death upon a thousand persons, the other upon a hundred million;
-but our shudders are all for the horrors of the momentary Terror, so to
-speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe compared with
-lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty and heartbreak? A city
-cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief terror that we have
-all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France
-could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror--that
-unspeakable bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see
-in its vastness or pity as it deserves.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
- -- William Blake
-~
-To be wholly overlooked, and to know it, are intolerable. -- John Adams
-~
-In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
-In practice, there is.
- -- Yogi Berra
-~
-The charm, one might say the genius, of memory is that it is choosy,
-chancy and temperamental; it rejects the edifying cathedral and indelibly
-photographs the small boy outside, chewing a hunk of melon in the dust.
- -- Elizabeth Bowen
-~
-Literature is the art of writing something that will be
-read twice; journalism what will be read once.
- -- Cyril Connolly
-~
-It takes at least a couple of decades to realize that you were well taught.
-All true education is a delayed-action bomb assembled in the classroom for
-explosion at a later date. An educational fuse of 50 years long is by no
-means unusual.
- -- Kenneth D. Gangel
-~
-When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy,
-it ceases to be a subject of interest.
- -- William Hazlitt
-~
-Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the
-industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only difficult.
- -- Samuel Johnson
-~
-An author is a fool who, not content with boring those
-he lives with, insists on boring future generations.
- -- Charles de Montesquieu
-~
-Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you
-don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's
-a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.
- -- Charlie Parker
-~
-If knowledge can create problems, it is not through
-ignorance that we can solve them.
- -- Isaac Asimov
-~
-A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. -- Sir Francis Bacon
-~
-The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice.
-And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little
-we can do to change; until we notice how failing to notice shapes our
-thoughts and deeds.
- -- R. D. Laing
-~
-People who are unhappy with the way things are tend to remain unhappy
-even after they have changed them. The nature of their unhappiness
-is such that change does not slake it.
- -- Michael Lewis
-~
-The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of
-production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication,
-draws all nations into civilization.
- -- Karl Marx
-~
-I learned one really sad fact from my career as a columnist: nobody changes
-their mind about anything. Ever. Once we form the opinion, we become
-evidence processors and we just collect all the evidence that supports our
-opinion and reject all the evidence that disputes it.
- -- Bob Metcalfe
-~
-I keep the subject of my inquiry constantly before me, and wait till the first
-dawning opens gradually, by little and little, into a full and clear light.
- -- Isaac Newton
-~
-The end of the road map is a cliff that both sides will fall off.
- -- Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, on the Mideast peace effort, 2003.
-~
-Once we admit that there is room for newness--that there are vastly more
-conceivable possibilities than realized outcomes--we must confront the fact
-that there is no special logic behind the world we inhabit, no particular
-justification for why things are the way they are. Any number of arbitrary
-small perturbations along the way could have made the world as we know it
-turn out very differently.
- -- Paul Romer
-~
-Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be
-sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.
- -- Robert Louis Stevenson
-~
-All human beings should try to learn before they die
-what they are running from, and to, and why.
- -- James Thurber
-~
-The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the
-world; the humorist makes fun of himself.
- -- James Thurber
-~
-All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really
-happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all
-that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and
-the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places
-and how the weather was.
- -- Ernest Hemingway
-~
-The true conquests, the only ones that leave no regret,
-are those that have been wrested from ignorance.
- -- Napoleon Bonaparte
-~
-No love, no friendship can cross the path of our
-destiny without leaving some mark on it forever.
- -- Francois Mauriac
-~
-Better beware of notions like genius and inspiration; they are a sort of magic
-wand and should be used sparingly by anybody who wants to see things clearly.
- -- Jose Ortega y Gasset
-~
-A thick skin is a gift from God. -- Konrad Adenauer
-~
-Far from idleness being the root of all evil,
-it is rather the only true good.
- -- Soren Kierkegaard
-~
-It is the wretchedness of being rich that you have to live with rich people.
- -- Logan Pearsall Smith
-~
-The secret of joy is the mastery of pain. -- Anais Nin
-~
-Everything is practice. -- Pele
-~
-However much we guard ourselves against it, we tend to shape ourselves in
-the image others have of us. It is not so much the example of others we
-imitate, as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and the echo of
-ourselves in their words.
- -- Eric Hoffer
-~
-It is astonishing what you can do when you have
-a lot of energy, ambition and plenty of ignorance.
- -- Alfred P. Sloan Jr.
-~
-The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a discussion.
- -- G. K. Chesterton
-~
-If there is no God, who pops up the next Kleenex? -- Art Hoppe
-~
-For all these new and evolutionary facts, meanings, purposes,
-new poetic messages, new forms and expressions, are inevitable.
- -- Walt Whitman
-~
-A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king,
-and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
- -- Hamlet
-~
-Only he is an artist who can make a riddle out of a solution. -- Karl Kraus
-~
-Love demands infinitely less than friendship. -- George Jean Nathan
-~
-People only see what they are prepared to see. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one
-dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are
-relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past,
-present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in
-the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.
- -- Anais Nin
-~
-I hate house work! You make the beds, you do the dishes and six months
-later you have to start all over again.
- -- Joan Rivers
-~
-The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only
-a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and
-deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the
-man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.
- -- William Blake
-~
-If a man watches three football games in a row
-he should be declared legally dead.
- -- Erma Bombeck
-~
-To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at. -- Claude Monet
-~
-Perhaps a modern society can remain stable only by eliminating adolescence,
-by giving its young, from the age of ten, the skills, responsibilities, and
-rewards of grownups, and opportunities for action in all spheres of life.
-Adolescence should be a time of useful action, while book learning and
-scholarship should be a preoccupation of adults.
- -- Eric Hoffer
-~
-Being defeated appears to be an inexhaustible
-wellspring of intellectual progress.
- -- Reinhart Koselleck
-~
-Any genuine teaching will result, if successful, in someone's knowing
-how to bring about a better condition of things than existed earlier.
- -- John Dewey
-~
-George Orwell, on why someone might write a book...
-
- 1. Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered
-after death, to get your own back on grownups who snubbed you in childhood,
-etc., etc. It is humbug to pretend that this is not a motive, and a strong
-one. Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians,
-lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen-in short, with the whole top crust
-of humanity. The great mass of human beings are not acutely selfish. After
-the age of about thirty they abandon individual ambition and live chiefly for
-others or are simply smothered under drudgery. But there is also the minority
-of gifted, willful people who are determined to live their own lives to the
-end, and writers belong to this class. Serious writers, I should say, are on
-the whole more vain and self-centered than journalists, though less interested
-in money.
- 2. Esthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external world, or, on
-the other hand, in words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the impact
-of one sound on another, in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good
-story. Desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable and ought not
-to be missed. Above the level of a railway guide, no book is quite free from
-esthetic considerations.
- 3. Historical impulse. Desire to see things as they are, to find out true
-facts and store them up for the use of posterity.
- 4. Political purpose -- using the word "political" in the widest possible
-sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other
-people's idea of the kind of society that they should strive after. Once
-again, no book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art
-should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.
-~
-The only true exploration, the only real Fountain of Youth, will not be
-in visiting foreign lands, but in having other eyes, in looking at the
-universe through the eyes of others.
- -- Marcel Proust
-~
-They said it couldn't be done but sometimes it doesn't work out that way.
- -- Casey Stengel
-~
-To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it. -- Cicero
-~
-Nobody ever died of laughter. -- Max Beerbohm
-~
-A thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for. -- W. C. Fields
-~
-Women speak because they wish to speak, whereas a man speaks
-only when driven to speech by something outside himself--like,
-for instance, he can't find any clean socks.
- -- Jean Kerr
-~
-Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all-time thing. You don't win
-once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them
-right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
- -- Vince Lombardi
-~
-It is by logic that we prove but by intuition that we discover.
- -- Henri Poincare
-~
-Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win,
-by fearing to attempt.
- -- William Shakespeare, "Measure for Measure"
-~
-Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom
-of immaturity, the dread of doing what has been done before.
- -- Edith Wharton
-~
-Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go according to any rules.
-They're not like aches or wounds; they're more like splits in the skin
-that won't heal because there's not enough material.
- -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
-~
-One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with
-gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is
-so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for
-the growing plant and for the soul of the child.
- -- Carl Jung
-~
-Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute. -- Josh Billings
-~
-One can know a man from his laugh, and if you like a man's laugh before
-you know anything of him, you may confidently say that he is a good man.
- -- Fyodor Dostoevsky
-~
-When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision,
-then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.
- -- Aurdre Lorde
-~
-Fascism should more properly be called corporatism,
-since it is the merger of state and corporate power.
- -- Benito Mussolini
-~
-Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop. -- Ovid
-~
-There is hardly anything in the world that some men cannot make a little
-bit worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price
-only are this man's lawful prey.
- -- John Ruskin
-~
-The globe has been circumnavigated, but no man ever yet has; you may survey
-a kingdom and note the results in maps, but all the savants in the world
-could not produce a reliable map of the poorest human personality.
- -- Alexander Smith
-~
-Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death.
- -- Harold Wilson
-~
-Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
- -- John Wooden
-~
-One important key to success is self-confidence.
-An important key to self-confidence is preparation.
- -- Arthur Ashe
-~
-If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will
-change a past or future event, then you are residing on another
-planet with a different reality system.
- -- William James
-~
-As people grow up, they change brands. -- Al Ries
-~
-If there is just one beam of sunshine coming into a room,
-you can be sure that the cat is lazing in its heat.
- -- Stuart and Linda MacFarlane
-~
-If your parents never had children, chances are you won't, either.
- -- Dick Cavett
-~
-If the human race wishes to have prolonged and indefinite period
-of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful
-and helpful way toward one another.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-All charming people have something to conceal, usually
-their total dependence on the appreciation of others.
- -- Cyril Connolly
-~
-Part of the function of memory is to forget; the omni-retentive mind will break
-down and produce at best an idiot savant who can recite a telephone book, and
-at worst a person to whom every grudge and slight is as yesterday.
- -- Christopher Hitchens
-~
-Try to be one of the people on whom nothing gets lost. -- Henry James
-~
-If a man hasn't discovered something that
-he would die for, he isn't fit to live.
- -- Martin Luther King Jr.
-~
-The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of
-60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.
- -- C. S. Lewis
-~
-Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-I am happy to engage in discussion with those who accept that technology and
-affluence are a net plus, but who worry about their troubling side effects.
-Spare me, however, the sensitive souls who deplore technological advance and
-economic growth over their cell phones on their way to the airport.
- -- Charles Murray
-~
-There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish
-together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between.
- -- Sir Thomas Beecham
-~
-The incompetent with nothing to do can still make a mess of it.
- -- Laurence J. Peter
-~
-The universe is full of magical things patiently
-waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
- -- Eden Phillpotts
-~
-Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the
-usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and
-nobody thinks of complaining.
- -- Jef Raskin
-~
-My life needs editing. -- Mort Sahl
-~
-Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better. -- Emile Coue
-~
-Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My
-opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-
-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.
- -- Flannery O'Connor
-~
-There is nothing so wrong in this world that a sensible
-woman can't set it right in the course of an afternoon.
- -- Jean Giraudoux
-~
-There is no one, no matter how wise he is, who has not in his youth said
-things or done things that are so unpleasant to recall in later life that
-he would expunge them entirely from his memory if that were possible.
- -- Marcel Proust
-~
-Adults are obsolete children. -- Dr. Seuss
-~
-Barbie would also be tired of Microsoft's licensing bullsh*t.
- -- Maury Cesterino, Chief Software Architect, Mattel, Inc.
-~
-When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we
-fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven.
-Sooooo, let's all get drunk and go to heaven!
- -- Brian O'Rourke
-~
-A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.
- -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-~
-Allowing a schizophrenic in a cowboy costume to represent himself in a
-death penalty case gives new meaning to the term "frontier justice."
- -- Jim Marcus, executive director of the Texas Defender Service.
-~
-Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves
-you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot.
- -- D. H. Lawrence
-~
-Creativity is not merely the innocent spontaneity of our youth
-and childhood; it must also be married to the passion of the
-adult human being, which is a passion to live beyond one's death.
- -- Rollo May
-~
-Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
- -- Martin Luther King
-~
-Life Shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. -- Anais Nin
-~
-Freedom is the sure possession of those alone
-who have the courage to defend it.
- -- Pericles
-~
-Psychoanalysis is that spiritual disease of
-which it considers itself to be the cure.
- -- Karl Kraus
-~
-Teaching is arduous work, entailing much grinding detail and
-boring repetition--a teacher, it has been said, never says
-anything once--interrupted only occasionally by moments of
-always surprising exultation. And I should like to add that
-I don't think I learned a thing from my students, except that,
-as one student evaluation informed me, I tend to jingle the
-change in my pocket.
- -- Joseph Epstein
-~
-All humanity is passion; without passion, religion, history,
-novels, art would be ineffectual.
- -- Honore de Balzac
-~
-We do not sit in such-and-such a way because a carpenter has built
-a chair in such-and-such a way; rather, the carpenter makes the chair
-as he does because someone wants to sit that way.
- -- Adolf Loos
-~
-No brilliance is required in law, just common sense
-and relatively clean fingernails.
- -- John Mortimer
-~
-Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body. -- Seneca
-~
-True friends stab you in the front. -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-Chop your own wood, and it will warm you twice. -- Henry Ford
-~
-Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse. It's a bum's life.
-The principal benefit acting has afforded me is the money to pay for
-my psychoanalysis.
- -- Marlon Brando
-~
-Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.
- -- Theodore Levitt
-~
-Life need not be easy provided only that it is not empty. -- Lise Meitner
-~
-Some of us cannot be optimists, but all of us can be bigamists.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-No more frisking as of old,
-Or chasing his shadow over the lawn,
-But a dignified old person, tickling
-His nose against twig or flower in the border,
-Until evening falls and bed-time's in order...
-My cat and I grow old together.
- -- A. L. Rowse
-~
-Logic, like whiskey, loses its beneficial effect when taken
-in too large quantities.
- -- Lord Dunsany
-~
-The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and
-mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary.
- -- Thomas A. Edison
-~
-Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative
-pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little
-falls into lazy habits of thinking.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-Engineering can be seen as a family of paths crossing a solution space--in
-this case a space defined by all the possible arrangements and combinations
-of geometry, time, and material properties that might satisfy the particular
-specifications of a design. Filtering a good design out of these possibilities
-by simple, direct calculation is impossible both because of the enormous number
-of variables and because there are always elements in the specifications--like
-aesthetics or ergonomics or compatibility with the corporate image--that can't
-be reduced to a number or folded into a common denominator. What humans do in
-these cases is: think up a completely wrong (but sincerely felt) approach to
-the problem, jump in, fail, and then do an autopsy. Each failure contains
-encrypted somewhere on its body directions for the next jump: "strengthen this
-part," "tie this down next time," "buy a better battery." Good engineering is
-not a matter of creativity or centering or grounding or inspiration or lateral
-thinking, as useful as those might be, but of decoding the clever, even witty,
-messages solution space carves on the corpses of the ideas in which you
-believed with all your heart, and then building the road to the next message.
- -- Fred Hapgood, from "Up the Infinite Corridor: MIT and Technical
- Imagination"
-~
-The hardest part of gaining any new idea is
-sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche.
- -- Robert Heinlein
-~
-Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, "We've always done
-it this way." I try to fight that. That's why I have a clock on my
-wall that runs counter-clockwise.
- -- Grace Hopper
-~
-What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible.
- -- Theodore Roethke
-~
-A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;
-an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-I have always felt that everybody on earth goes about in disguise.
- -- Sean O'Faolain
-~
-At bottom, every man knows perfectly well that he is a unique being,
-only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a
-marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever
-be put together a second time.
- -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the
-lack of contradiction a sign of truth.
- -- Blaise Pascal
-~
-If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it.
-The more things you do, the more you can do.
- -- Lucille Ball
-~
-The car as we know it is on the way out. To a large extent, I deplore
-its passing, for as a basically old-fashioned machine, it enshrines a
-basically old-fashioned idea: freedom. In terms of pollution, noise and
-human life, the price of that freedom may be high, but perhaps the car,
-by the very muddle and confusion it causes, may be holding back the
-remorseless spread of the regimented, electronic society.
- -- J. G. Ballard
-~
-I live in company with a body, a silent companion, exacting and eternal.
- -- Eugene Delacroix
-~
-History never looks like history when you are living through it.
- -- John W. Gardner
-~
-In a cat's eyes round as golden bells,
-The mad Spring's flame glows.
-On a cat's gently closed lips,
-The soft Spring's drowsiness lies.
-On a cat's sharp whiskers,
-The green Spring's life dances.
- -- Jang-Hi Lee
-~
-People always talk to me about my drinking; they never ask me about my thirst.
- -- Oscar Levant
-~
-Algebraic symbols are used when you do not know what you are talking about.
- -- Philippe Shnoebelen
-~
-We don't stop playing because we grow old;
-we grow old because we stop playing.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-Competitions are for horse, not artist. -- Bela Bartok
-~
-I feel that if a person has problems communicating
-the very least he can do is to shut up.
- -- Tom Lehrer
-~
-It is, of course, totally pointless to call a cat when it is intent
-on the chase. They are deaf to the interruptive nonsense of humans.
-They are on cat business, totally serious and involved.
- -- John D. MacDonald
-~
-Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.
- -- Sir William Osler
-~
-The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
- -- Robertson Davies
-~
-Where do the words come from? The same mysterious place, I suspect,
-where notes of music go. They precede ideas, and are inseparable
-from them. For myself, I bow my head, touch wood, and utter a small
-prayer that the flow of them never cease.
- -- Joseph Epstein
-~
-The only thing that I'd rather own than Windows is English, because then I
-could charge you two hundred and forty-nine dollars for the right to speak it.
- -- Scott McNealy, quoted at BrainyQuotes
-~
-Only a monopolist could study a business and ruin it by giving away products.
- -- Scott McNealy, quoted at ThinkExist.com
-~
-Try moving off NT easily. You can move from Solaris to HP/UX to AIX or DEC
-easily relative to moving off of NT, which is like a Roach Motel. Once you
-check in, you never check out.
- -- Scott McNealy, quoted at World of Quotes
-~
-With Microsoft the first hit is always free--remember that all your life.
- -- Scott McNealy, quoted at CNet
-~
-I am convinced that if General Motors could eliminate [Microsoft] Office from
-their entire company, they could get the 1999 cars out next year at half price.
- -- Scott McNealy, quoted at Anti-Microsoft Association Web site
-~
-We've got bayonets fixed, and we'll go into any cave no matter how dark and
-dank it is. And in the air war [against Microsoft to win new developers],
-we'll go after any developer and not just let them turn over to the dark side.
- -- Scott McNealy, quoted at News.com
-~
-Microsoft is now talking about the digital nervous system.
-I guess I would be nervous if my system was built on their technology too.
- -- Scott McNealy, November 4, 1998, quoted at CNN.com
-~
-Every time you turn on your new car, you're turning on 20 microprocessors.
-Every time you use an ATM, you're using a computer. Every time I use a
-settop box or game machine, I'm using a computer. The only computer you
-don't know how to work is your Microsoft computer, right?
- -- Scott McNealy, quoted at Anti-Microsoft Association Web site
-~
-Slump? I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hittin'. -- Yogi Berra
-~
-"I've seen things like this before," he told the daily Il Messaggero.
-"Demons occupy a house and appear in electrical goods."
- -- Gabriele Amorth, one of the Catholic Church's exorcists, quoted
- in an article about Canneto di Caronia, a town where electronics
- catch on fire.
-~
-Nature is an unlimited broadcasting station,
-through which God speaks to us every hour,
-if we only will tune in.
- -- George Washington Carver
-~
-To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream;
-not only plan, but also believe.
- -- Anatole France
-~
-The first step to getting the things
-you want out of life is this:
-Decide what you want.
- -- Ben Stein
-~
-A scientist will never show any kindness for
-a theory which he did not start himself.
- -- Mark Twain, in "A Tramp Abroad"
-~
-Grief upon griefs!
-Disappointments upon disappointments.
-What then?
-This is a gay, merry world notwithstanding.
- -- John Adams
-~
-What is now proved was once imagined. -- William Blake
-~
-We haven't had any tea for a week.
-The bottom is out of the universe.
- -- Rudyard Kipling
-~
-If a man has no tea in him, he is incapable
-of understanding truth and beauty.
- -- Japanese Proverb
-~
-Dogs eat.
-Cats dine.
- -- Ann Taylor
-~
-Telephone, n.: An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the
-advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
-~
-I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers
-his enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over self.
- -- Aristotle
-~
-Discretion of speech is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him
-with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words or in good order.
- -- Francis Bacon
-~
-Magnetism, as you recall from physics class, is a powerful force
-that causes certain items to be attracted to refrigerators.
- -- Dave Barry
-~
-One sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak.
- -- G. K. Chesterton
-~
-Encountering sufferings will definitely contribute to the elevation
-of your spiritual practice, provided you are able to transform the
-calamity and misfortune into the path.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Path to Tranquility: Daily Wisdom",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-In Buddhism, both learning and practice are extremely important, and they must
-go hand in hand. Without knowledge, just to rely on faith, faith, and more
-faith is good but not sufficient. So the intellectual part must definitely be
-present. At the same time, strictly intellectual development without faith and
-practice, is also of no use. It is necessary to combine knowledge born from
-study with sincere practice in our daily lives. These two must go together.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Answers: Discussions with Western
- Buddhists", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The nature of beings is ever enlightened,
-yet not realizing this, they wander endlessly in samsara.
-May intense compassion arise within me
-for sentient beings, whose suffering knows no bounds.
-
-In the moment of love, when the vibrant power of intense compassion
-is uncontained, the empty essence shines forth nakedly.
-May I never step off this supreme path of unity that never goes awry,
-and practice it at all times, day and night.
- -- "The Eighth Situpa on the Third Karmapa's Mahamudra Prayer", translated
- by Lama Sherab Dorje, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice.
- -- Following the Equator
-~
-Love is metaphysical gravity. -- R. Buckminster Fuller
-~
-Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it.
-Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.
- -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-~
-In accordance with the conditioning of desire, fear, disgust, and so forth--
-the conditioning of habitual tendencies that one has been accustomed to since
-beginningless time--mind itself appears as body, enjoyments, abode, and so
-forth. Yet, childish ordinary individuals do not comprehend that these
-[appearances] are the identity of their own minds. Conceiving of mind as being
-"here" and objects "over there," they hold the separation, the vast divide
-between the apprehended and apprehender, to be established in actuality. This
-is entirely imputation, or a deluded misapprehension of the way things are, as
-when not knowing that the dream elephant is personal experience, but instead
-apprehending it as an actual elephant in the external world.
- -- "Speech of Delight: Mipham's Commentary on Shantarakshita's Ornament
- of the Middle Way", translated by Thomas H. Doctor.
-~
-Instead of prompting the appearance of delusions and/or hallucinations,
-many of the patients receiving Valium displayed a progressive development
-of dislikes and hates. The patients themselves deliberately used the term
-"hate". This hatefulness first involved non-significant figures in the
-patients' environment, progressed from there to the involvement of key
-figures such as aides, nurses and physicians, and went on to the involvement
-of important personal figures such as parents and spouses... This
-hatefulness was of a peculiar type. The patients were unhappy with it; they
-realized that it was unnatural and without basis, but were impotent to do
-anything about it. Many of them, exhibiting real distress, would inquire,
-"Why do I feel like this?"
- -- P.E. Feldman, Journal of Neuropsychiatry
-~
-The greatest book is not the one whose messages engraves itself on the brain,
-but the one whose vital impact opens up other viewpoints, and from writer to
-reader spreads the fire that is fed by various essences, until it becomes a
-great conflagration.
- -- Romain Rolland
-~
-The world is a looking glass and gives back
-to every man the reflection of his own face.
- -- William M. Thackeray
-~
-Travel is only glamorous in retrospect. -- Paul Theroux
-~
-Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which
-difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
- -- John Quincy Adams
-~
-Beware the fury of a patient man. -- John Dryden
-~
-I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works
-to have a light joyousness of springtime which never lets
-anyone suspect the labors it has cost me.
- -- Henri Matisse
-~
-You might find this discussion of attitudes threatening or insulting. No one
-wants to be told they're practicing incorrectly. We don't want to hear that
-we are uptight or repressed, that we are unskillful in dealing with our pain.
-We just want to continue doing what we are doing. But there's a Tibetan saying
-that the highest teaching is the one that reveals practice and any mistake you
-might be making, it will only result in what you most truly desire--progress in
-your spiritual development. Remember, I know of these mistakes because I've
-made them all myself. Practice involves a radical transformation of our being,
-and we have to learn to face and eventually to dissolve all the attitudes we
-have about everything, not only meditation. So check yourself out.
- -- Bruce Newman, in "A Beginner's Guide to Tibetan Buddhism: Notes from a
- Practitioner's Journey"
-~
-Nothing is better than the unintended humor of reality. -- Steve Allen
-~
-At this point, a vote for Bush is a character flaw. -- Janeane Garofalo
-~
-It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make
-their experiments on journalists and politicians.
- -- Henrik Ibsen
-~
-Heredity is what sets the parents of a teenager wondering about each other.
- -- Laurence J. Peter
-~
-Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. -- Theodore Roosevelt
-~
-I have taken all knowledge to be my province. -- Sir Francis Bacon
-~
-Genius is childhood recaptured at will. -- Charles Baudelaire
-~
-Generally speaking, whenever we perceive things, our perception is deluded, in
-that we project onto things a status of existence and a mode of being which is
-simply not there. We exaggerate things, and the way they then appear falsely
-to our minds gives rise to afflictive emotions. When we see our friends or
-enemies, for instance, we superimpose on them a quality of desirability or
-undesirability that is beyond the actual facts of the situation, and this
-superimposition or exaggeration sparks off fluctuating states of emotion in
-our mind. Towards our friends we feel strong attachment and desire, and
-towards our enemies powerful anger and hatred. So if we are serious about
-trying to purify our minds of these afflictive emotions, an understanding of
-emptiness becomes crucial.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great
- Perfection", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-If you examine the nature of your own mind, you will realize that the
-pollutants, such as afflictive emotions and thoughts rooted in a distorted
-way of relating to the world, are actually unstable. No matter how powerful
-an affliction, when you cultivate the antidote of true insight into the nature
-of reality, it will vanish because of the power of the antidote, which
-undermines its continuity. However, there is nothing that can undermine the
-basic mind itself; nothing that can actually interrupt the continuity of
-consciousness. The existence of the world of subjective experience and
-consciousness is a natural fact. There is consciousness. There is mind.
-There is no force that can bring about a cessation of your mental continuum.
- -- His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, in "Illuminating the Path to
- Enlightenment", published by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
-~
-When we habituate our minds to being fearless, to being brave and open towards
-our emotions, fearlessness will also arise naturally. In order for this to
-happen we must train in applying antidotes to our thought patterns that are
-caught up in fear. In this way, we transcend fear first through a conceptual
-process, which later becomes nonconceptual, a natural fearlessness. In order
-to become fearless in this way, we need determination and the willingness to
-face our emotions. With that strong determination and courage, fearlessness
-will arise effortlessly.
- -- from Trainings in Compassion: Manuals on the Meditation of
- Avalokiteshvara, trans. by Tyler Dewar under the guidance of The
- Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The strongest element of growth lies in the human choice. -- George Eliot
-~
-But again, I warn you my son: If you want to continue to be a devoted yogi,
-generally you should never cling to dreams. If you do, you will eventually
-expose yourself to the influence of the four maras. If your dreams are
-positive, do not have any expectations. If we are filled with hopes and
-expectations, even positive things can turn negative. If your dreams are
-negative, don't take them too seriously. Learn to see negative dreams as
-illusion, not real. Then, although a dream seems negative, because we realize
-that it isn't real, it becomes a positive thing that prepares us for further
-development and realization in the spiritual path. This is the practice of
-a yogi.
- -- "The Life of Gampopa", by Jampa Mackenzie Stewart, Snow Lion Publications
-~
-In our time it is broadly true that political writing is bad writing. Where
-it is not true, it will generally be found that the writer is some kind of
- rebel, expressing his private opinions and not a "party line." Orthodoxy,
-of whatever color, seems to demand a lifeless, imitative style. The political
-dialects to be found in pamphlets, leading articles, manifestos, White Papers
-and the speeches of under-secretaries do, of course, vary from party to party,
-but they are all alike in that one almost never finds in them a fresh, vivid,
-home-made turn of speech. When one watches some tired hack on the platform
-mechanically repeating the familiar phrases--bestial atrocities, iron heel,
-bloodstained tyranny, free peoples of the world, stand shoulder to shoulder--
-one often has a curious feeling that one is not watching a live human being
-but some kind of dummy: a feeling which suddenly becomes stronger at moments
-when the light catches the speaker's spectacles and turns them into blank
-discs which seem to have no eyes behind them. And this is not altogether
-fanciful. A speaker who uses that kind of phraseology has gone some distance
-towards turning himself into a machine. The appropriate noises are coming out
-of his larynx, but his brain is not involved, as it would be if he were
-choosing his words for himself. If the speech he is making is one that he
-is accustomed to make over and over again, he may be almost unconscious of
-what he is saying, as one is when one utters the responses in church. And
-this reduced state of consciousness, if not indispensable, is at any rate
-favorable to political conformity.
- -- George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language"
-~
-An autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful.
-A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life
-when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.
- -- George Orwell
-~
-Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart. -- Seneca
-~
-I am a devilish fellow, who has mastered many arts. -- August Strindberg
-~
-Every real thought on every real subject
-knocks the wind out of somebody or other.
- -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
-~
-Come, lovely cat, and rest upon my heart,
-And let my gaze dive in the cold
-Live pools of thine enchanted eyes that dart
-Metallic rays of green and gold.
- -- Charles Baudelaire
-~
-A cat is a puzzle for which there is no solution. -- Hazel Nicholson
-~
-As every cat owner knows,
-nobody owns a cat.
- -- Ellen Perry Berkeley
-~
-One of the most important practices is that of tolerance, patience. Tolerance
-can be learned only from an enemy; it cannot be learned from your guru. At
-these lectures, for instance, you cannot learn tolerance, except perhaps when
-you are bored! However, when you meet your enemy who is really going to hurt
-you, then, at that moment you can learn tolerance. Shantideva makes a
-beautiful argument; he says that one's enemy is actually a good spiritual
-guide because in dependence upon an enemy one can cultivate patience, and in
-dependence upon patience one accumulates great power of merit. Therefore, it
-is as if an enemy were purposefully getting angry in order to help you
-accumulate merit.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Dalai Lama at Harvard: Lectures on the
- Buddhist Path to Peace", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-In the intermediate stages of practice, you must be like a farmer during the
-harvest. Once he has determined that it is time to reap his crop, he works
-at it continuously, no matter what anyone tells him. Just as a farmer works
-to make the most of the crop he has grown, we who now have opportunities and
-conditions which are so valuable to our practice, should use them
-immediately, understanding that there is no time to be wasted.
- -- "The Life of Gampopa", by Jampa Mackenzie Stewart, Snow Lion Publications
-~
-I'm growing old, I delight in the past. -- Henri Matisse
-~
-Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation
-with us--that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
- -- Tom Paine
-~
-Things equal out pretty well.
-Our dreams seldom come true,
-but then neither do our nightmares.
- -- Charles Kennedy
-~
-Inner development comes step by step. You may think "Today my inner calmness,
-my mental peace is very small," but still, if you compare, if you look five,
-ten, or fifteen years back, and think, "What was my way of thinking then? How
-much inner peace did I have then and what is it today?", comparing it with what
-it was then, you can realize that there is some progress, there is some value.
-This is how you should compare--not with today's feeling and yesterday's
-feeling, or last week or last month, even not last year, but five years ago.
-Then you can realize what improvement has occurred internally. Progress comes
-by maintaining constant effort in daily practice.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Kindness, Clarity, and Insight", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have lies in this; when
-I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before
-me. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort that I have made is
-what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor
-and thought.
- -- Alexander Hamilton
-~
-Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the
-young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that
-it cares for its helpless members.
- -- Pearl S. Buck
-~
-It is important for us to have a stable and peaceful mind, for it is mostly
-through our mind that we experience suffering and problems. With diligence,
-we can establish our minds in peace by abandoning the afflictions that create
-obstacles. Meditation makes this possible because it establishes a steady
-mind. Among the many types of meditation, calm abiding (shamatha) and deep
-insight (vipashyana) are central to this process. In calm abiding, our mind
-is focused inwardly, which allows us to suppress the afflictions so that they
-do not actually manifest. There is a sense of distance between us and the
-afflictions. It is not possible, however, to eradicate them with calm abiding
-alone; deep insight is necessary to remove them at the root.
- -- "Music in the Sky: The Life, Art & Teachings of the 17th Karmapa
- Ogyen Trinley Dorje", by Michele Martin, Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Learning from experience is a faculty almost never practiced.
- -- Barbara Tuchman
-~
- If you persevere in this practice of recognizing the state of natural
-light, it will progressively become easier to repeat the lucid recognition
-that you are dreaming. There will arise a steady awareness within the dream,
-and you will know that you are dreaming. When you look in a mirror, you see
-a reflection. Regardless of whether it is beautiful or ugly, you know that
-it is a reflection. This is similar to knowing that a dream is a dream, to
-being lucid. Whether the dream is tragic or ecstatic, you are aware that it
-is merely a dream.
- Awareness within the Dream State becomes a way to develop oneself and to
-break one's heavy conditioning. With this awareness, one can manipulate the
-dream material. For example, one can dream whatever one wishes, or one can
-pick up a desired theme. One can continue dreaming from where one left off
-on a previous occasion.
- -- Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, in "Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light"
-~
-Responsibility educates. -- Wendell Phillips
-~
-What is the first business of one who practices philosophy? To get rid
-of self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that
-which he thinks he already knows.
- -- Epictetus
-~
-There are two kinds of food--food for mental hunger and food for physical
-hunger. Thus a combination of these two--material progress and spiritual
-development is the most practical thing. I think that many Americans,
-particularly young Americans, realize that material progress alone is not
-the full answer for human life. Right now all of the Eastern nations are
-trying to copy Western technology. We Easterners such as Tibetans, like
-myself, look to Western technology feeling that once we develop material
-progress, our people can reach some sort of permanent happiness. But when
-I come to Europe or North America, I see that underneath the beautiful
-surface there is still unhappiness, mental unrest, and restlessness. This
-shows that material progress alone is not the full answer for human beings.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Dalai Lama: A Policy of Kindness", Snow Lion
-~
-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
-~
-The eighth root downfall is to regard our physical bodies, or the skandhas or
-aggregates of our psycho-physical makeup, as impure and base. The reason why
-this is a root downfall is because Vajrayana sees everything as sacred. All
-appearances is a form of divinity, all sound is the sound of mantra, and all
-thought and awareness is the divine play of the transcending awareness, the
-Mahamudra experience. The potential for that sacredness exists within our
-present framework, so to speak, of the five skandhas. Acknowledging psycho-
-physical aggregates of an individual as the potential of the Buddhas of the
-five families, or the five elements, or the five feminine aspects, and so
-forth, is to recognize that, in tantra, the potential for the transformation
-exists within our present situation. To disparage that potential as something
-useless or impure or unwholesome is a root downfall, a basic contradiction,
-from the point of view of tantric practice.
- -- H.E. Kalu Rinpoche, in "Foundations of Tibetan Buddhism", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Terrorists and totalitarians have always been two sides of one coin;
-a totalitarian out of office is a terrorist.
- -- David Gelernter
-~
-Now that as humans we have met with spiritual teachings and have met a teacher,
-we should not be like a beggar doing nothing meaningful year after year, ending
-up empty-handed at death. I, an ordinary monk in the lineage of Buddha
-Shakyamuni, humbly urge you to make efforts in spiritual practice. Examine the
-nature of your mind and cultivate its development. Take into account your
-welfare in this and future existences, and develop competence in the methods
-that produce happiness here and hereafter. Our lives are impermanent and so
-are the holy teachings. We should cultivate our practice carefully.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Path to Enlightenment", Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-Time makes more converts than reason. -- Tom Paine
-~
-We operate under a jury system in this country, and as much as
-we complain about it, we have to admit that we know of no better
-system, except possibly flipping a coin.
- -- Dave Barry
-~
-To be dead is to stop believing in
-The masterpieces we will begin tomorrow.
- -- Patrick Kavanagh, Irish poet
-~
-The obvious is always least understood. -- Klemens von Metternich
-~
-We are decent 99 percent of the time, when we could easily be vile.
- -- R. W. Riis
-~
-The whole world loves a maverick, but the whole world wants
-the maverick to achieve something nobler than simple rebellion.
- -- Kevin Patterson
-~
- Insofar as the destructive effects of anger and hateful thoughts are
-concerned, one cannot get protection from wealth; even if one is a
-millionaire, one is subject to these destructive effects of anger and
-hatred. Nor can education guarantee that one will be protected from
-these effects. Similarly, the law cannot guarantee protection. Even
-nuclear weapons, no matter how sophisticated the defense system may be,
-cannot give one protection or defend one from these effects.
- The only factor that can give refuge or protection from the destructive
-effects of anger and hatred is the practice of tolerance and patience.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a
- Buddhist Perspective", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Theoretically it may be comfortable to have compassion for "all sentient
-beings," but through our practice we realize that "all sentient beings" is
-a collection of individuals. When we actually try to generate compassion
-for each and every individual, it becomes much more challenging. But if we
-cannot work with one individual, then how can we work with all sentient
-beings? Therefore it is important for us to reflect more practically, to
-work with compassion for individuals and then extend that compassion further.
- -- "Trainings in Compassion: Manuals on the Meditation of Avalokiteshvara",
- translated by Tyler Dewar under the guidance of The Dzogchen Ponlop
- Rinpoche, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating
-the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
- -- Bertrand Russell
-~
-I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.
- -- Jonathan Swift
-~
-The worst, the hardest, the most disagreeable thing that you may have
-to do may be the thing that counts most, because it is the hard discipline,
-and it alone, that makes possible the highest efficiency.
- -- Elihu Root
-~
-I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
-I learn by going where I have to go.
- -- Theodore Roethke
-~
-Don't let yesterday use up too much of today. -- Cherokee proverb
-~
-Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world. -- T'ien Yiheng
-~
-Women are like tea bags. They don't know how strong
-they are until they get into hot water.
- -- Eleanor Roosevelt
-~
-There are two appropriate methods of mahamudra meditation to give rise to
-the primordial awareness of the dharmadhatu: looking while the mind is
-resting and looking while the mind is moving. The approach to the first
-method is the meditation of calm abiding. One lets one's mind rest until
-it abides calmly, and then with precision one looks at it. One looks for
-how it rests, for where it abides, and whoever or whatever it is that
-abides there. This is looking at the true nature of the mind while the
-mind is resting.
- -- Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, from "Everyday Consciousness and
- Buddha-awakening", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-It is better to debate a question without settling it
-than to settle a question without debating it.
- -- Joseph Joubert
-~
-What is the purpose of the Dharma? Just like other spiritual traditions,
-Buddhadharma is an instrument for training the mind--something we use to try
-to work out the problems that we all experience; problems that originate
-mainly at the mental level. Negative emotional forces create mental unrest,
-such as unhappiness, fear, doubt, frustration and so forth; these negative
-mental states then cause us to engage in negative activities, which in turn
-bring us more problems and more suffering. Practicing Dharma is a way of
-working out these problems, be they long-term or immediate. In other words,
-Dharma protects us from unwanted suffering.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment", Snow Lion.
-~
-Your true traveler finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the
-symbol of his liberty--his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when
-it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure.
- -- Aldous Huxley
-~
-Everything in the world has a hidden meaning... Men, animals, trees, stars,
-they are all hieroglyphics. When you see them you do not understand them.
-You think they are really men, animals, trees, stars. It is only years
-later that you understand.
- -- Nikos Kazantzakis, from "Zorba the Greek"
-~
-One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things
-like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.
- -- George Orwell
-~
-A thing long expected takes the form of the unexpected when at last it comes.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
- -- John Lennon
-~
- For a romantic relationship to survive, more than romantic love is needed.
-We need to love the other person as a human being and as a friend. The sexual
-attraction that feeds romantic love is an insufficient basis on which to
-establish a long-term relationship. Deeper care and affection, as well as
-responsibility and trust, must be cultivated.
- In addition, we do not fully understand ourselves and are a mystery to
-ourselves. Needless to say, other people are even more of a mystery to us.
-Therefore, we should never presuppose, with a bored attitude that craves
-excitement, that we know everything about our partner because we have been
-together so long. If we have the awareness of the other person being a
-mystery, we will continue to pay attention and be interested in him or her.
-Such interest is one key to a long-lasting relationship.
- -- Thubten Chodron, from "Buddhism for Beginners", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Two cats can live as cheaply as one, and their owner has twice as much fun.
- -- Lloyd Alexander
-~
-Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the
-same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least
-twice as fast as that!
- -- Lewis Carroll
-~
-Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its
-instrument. To perform this difficult office it is sometimes necessary
-for him to sacrifice happiness and everything that makes life worth living
-for the ordinary human being.
- -- Carl Jung
-~
-Vision without action is a daydream;
-action without vision is a nightmare.
- -- Japanese proverb
-~
-To satisfy a cat, a new state of being needs to be
-created--halfway between in and out.
- -- Stuart and Linda MacFarlane
-~
-The Perfection of Zeal
- 1. Thus, one who has patience should cultivate zeal, because Awakening is
-established with zeal, and there is no merit without zeal, just as there is no
-movement without wind.
- 2. What is zeal? It is enthusiasm for virtue. What is said to be its
-antithesis? It is spiritual sloth, clinging to the reprehensible, apathy, and
-self-contempt.
- 3. Spiritual sloth arises from indolence, indulging in pleasures, sleep,
-and craving for lounging around due to one's apathy toward the miseries of the
-cycle of existence.
- 4. Scented out by the hunters, the mental afflictions, you have entered the
-snare of rebirth. Why do you not recognize even now that you are in the mouth
-of death?
- -- Shantideva, in "A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life", trans. from the
- Sanskrit and Tibetan by Vesna A. Wallace and B. Alan Wallace, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-I have a perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds.
- -- Theodore Roosevelt
-~
-Sufferings arise from specific causes and conditions, which are collected by
-individual sentient beings. That being so, it is extremely important that
-individual sentient beings know what is to be practiced and what is to be
-given up--what brings suffering and what brings long-lasting happiness. We
-must show sentient beings the right path, which brings happiness and the wrong
-path, which brings suffering. Therefore, when we talk about benefiting other
-sentient beings, it is through showing them the path and helping them
-understand what is to be given up and what is to be practiced. This is how
-we can help other sentient beings.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama in "Stages of Meditation", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-We make our lives miserable by being miserable, so why not do exactly the
-opposite, and make our lives happy, joyful, and harmonious, by being happy,
-joyful, and harmonious? We create our own lives and yet we think that
-something else is doing it. All we have to do is change our mental
-reactions towards the opposite direction. And the way to do that is to
-meditate, otherwise we won't have the strength of mind to do it. A mind
-that can meditate is a mind that is one-pointed. And a mind that is one-
-pointed, the Buddha said, is like an ax that has been sharpened. It has a
-sharp edge that can cut through everything. If we want to remove stress
-and strain, and have a different quality of life, we have every opportunity.
-We need to strengthen our mind to the point where it will not suffer from
-the things which exist in the world.
- -- from "Buddhism Through American Women's Eyes", edited by Karma Lekshe
- Tsomo, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study
-mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and
-philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation,
-commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study
-painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.
- -- John Adams
-~
-There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more
-easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.
- -- Benjamin Franklin
-~
-Thank God I have the seeing eye, that is to say, as I lie in bed I can walk
-step by step on the fells and rough land seeing every stone and flower and
-patch of bog and cotton pass where my old legs will never take me again.
- -- Beatrix Potter
-~
-Umpire's heaven is a place where he works third base every game.
-Home is where the heartache is.
- -- Ron Luciano
-~
-There exist no phenomena other than what arises from the mind.
-Other than the meditation that occurs, where is the one who is meditating?
-There exist no phenomena other than what arises from the mind.
-Other than the behavior that occurs, where is the one who is behaving?
-There exist no phenomena other than what arises from the mind.
-Other than the samaya vow that occurs, where is the one who is guarding it?
-There exist no phenomena other than what arises from the mind.
-Other than the fruition that occurs, where is the one who is realizing it?
-You should look at your own mind, observing it again and again.
- -- from "Self-Liberation Through Seeing with Naked Awareness", translation
- and commentary by John Myrdhin Reynolds, published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-You must understand that I'm just as interested in someone I've
-known for ten minutes as in someone I've known for ten years.
- -- Alberto Giacometti
-~
-Now in our day-to-day lives we know that the more stable, calm and contented
-our mind is, the more feelings and experiences of happiness we will derive
-from it. The more undisciplined, untrained, and negative our mind is, the
-more we suffer mentally, and physically as well. So we can see only too well
-that a disciplined and contented mind is the source of our happiness.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, from "Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great
- Perfection", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-If we do not wish merely to know intellectually about the view of emptiness,
-but rather wish to experience it ourselves in our own continuum, we should
-build a firm foundation for this. Then, according to our mental ability we
-should hear and consider both the sutras and treatises which teach the profound
-view of emptiness as well as the good explanations of them by the experienced
-Tibetan scholars in their commentaries. Together with this, we should learn
-to make our own ways of generating experience of emptiness accord with the
-precepts of an experienced wise man.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama in "Buddhism of Tibet", published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-A great deal of our suffering comes from having too many thoughts. And, at
-the same time, the way we think is not sane. We are only concerned by our
-immediate satisfaction and forget to measure its long-term advantages and
-disadvantages, either for ourselves or for others. But such an attitude
-always goes against us in the end. There is no doubt that by changing our
-way of seeing things we could reduce our current difficulties and avoid
-creating new ones.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
-If, motivated by the attainment of fame and gain for this life and hoping to
-look good in the eyes of others, one's behavior appears to be temporarily
-beautiful and one appears to be diligent in moral conduct, hearing, and
-contemplation, then one should think, "What is the use of appearing good in the
-eyes of others when my practice does not counteract the afflictions? When my
-practice does counteract the afflictions then even if it is not beautiful,
-what have I got to lose?
- -- Ngorchen Konchog Lhundrub, from "Three Visions: Fundamental Teachings of
- the Sakya Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism", published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you,
-well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best
-preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-If you can't describe what you are doing as a process,
-you don't know what you're doing.
- -- W. Edwards Deming
-~
-Our Dharma practice is the best offering to make to our teachers. If we have
-material possessions, talents, and time, we can offer those. However, we don't
-neglect our practice, for that is what our teacher cares about most. When we
-follow the Dharma instructions we've received and keep whatever precepts we've
-taken, that pleases our teacher more than anything else.
- -- Thubten Chodron, in "Taming the Mind", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-If organized religion is the opium of the masses, then
-disorganized religion is the marijuana of the lunatic fringe.
- -- Principia Discordia
-~
-When you are proclaiming peace with your lips,
-be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.
- -- St. Francis of Assisi
-~
-Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.
- -- Albert Einstein, "The World as I See It", 1934.
-~
-It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie
-which is being systematically repeated. If something is in me which can be
-called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the
-world so far as our science can reveal it.
- -- Albert Einstein, in "Albert Einstein : The Human Side", from a 1954
- letter to an atheist.
-~
-This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of the herd nature, the military
-system, which I abhor. That a man can take pleasure in marching in formation
-to the strains of a band is enough to make me despise him. He has only been
-given his big brain by mistake; a spinal cord was all he needed.
- -- Albert Einstein, "The World as I See It", 1934.
-~
-I'm not a teacher, but an awakener. -- Robert Frost
-~
-It is very important to understand the context of the Buddhist emphasis on
-recognizing that we are all in a state of suffering, otherwise there is a
-danger we could misunderstand the Buddhist outlook, and think that it involves
-rather morbid thinking, a basic pessimism and almost an obsessiveness about the
-reality of suffering. The reason why Buddha laid so much emphasis on
-developing insight into the nature of suffering is because there is an
-alternative--there is a way out, it is actually possible to free oneself from
-it. This is why it is so crucial to realize the nature of suffering, because
-the stronger and deeper your insight into suffering is, the stronger your
-aspiration to gain freedom from it becomes. So the Buddhist emphasis on the
-nature of suffering should be seen within this wider perspective, where there
-is an appreciation of the possibility of complete freedom from suffering. If
-we had no concept of liberation, then to spend so much time reflecting on
-suffering would be utterly pointless.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Dalai Lama's Book of Awakening", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-A cat is a demure animal; it will not come into the living room
-wagging its tail and knocking over lamps and tables.
- -- H. Monger Burdock
-~
-There is no need for a piece of sculpture in a home that has a cat.
- -- Wesley Bates
-~
-Lack of understanding of the true nature of happiness, it seems to me, is the
-principal reason why people inflict sufferings on others. They think either
-that the other's pain may somehow be a cause of happiness for themselves or
-that their own happiness is more important, regardless of what pain it may
-cause. But this is shortsighted, no one truly benefits from causing harm to
-another sentient being. Whatever immediate advantage is gained at the expense
-of someone else is short-lived. In the long run causing others misery and
-infringing their rights to peace and happiness result in anxiety, fear and
-suspicion within one-self. Such feelings undermine the peace of mind and
-contentment which are the marks of happiness.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama in "The Dalai Lama: A Policy of Kindness", Snow Lion
-~
-When we're told that things are mere deceptive appearances, we shouldn't
-misinterpret it as license to act in any way we please. Of course, none of
-us would be so silly! Appearances are extremely powerful. You dream your
-house is on fire and you're surrounded by flames. You can't escape and feel
-terrified. You wake up soaked in sweat and screaming. What a relief! It was
-just a nightmare and none of it actually happened, but while it all seemed to
-be happening, you were in anguish.
- -- Geshe Sonam Rinchen, in "The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-A man is not old until his regrets take the place of dreams.
- -- John Barrymore
-~
-I am independent! I can live alone and I love to work. -- Mary Cassatt
-~
-If one ever wishes to retain one's fantasies about the good sense
-of the people in the realm of literary taste, one does best never
-to consult the bestseller lists.
- -- Joseph Epstein
-~
-The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere. -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh
-~
-Speaking of others' faults can also be a way to distract ourselves from
-acknowledging our own painful emotions. For example, if we feel hurt or
-rejected because a dear one hasn't called us in a long time, rather than
-feel the suffering nature of our attachment, we criticize our loved one
-for being unreliable and inconsiderate.
- -- Thubten Chodron, in "Taming the Mind", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-A consistent man believes in destiny, a capricious man in chance.
- -- Benjamin Disraeli
-~
-The things that we love tell us what we are. -- St. Thomas Aquinas
-~
-Everything on this planet functions according to the law of nature. Particles
-come together, and on the basis of their co-operation everything around us, our
-whole environment, can develop and be sustained. Our own body too has the same
-structure. Different cells come together and work together in co-operation,
-and as a result, human life is sustained. In a human community the same law
-and principle of co-operation applies. Even for an aeroplane to fly or for a
-single machine to work, it can only do so by depending on many other factors,
-and with their co-operation. Without them it is impossible. Just so, to
-sustain everyday life in human society we need co-operation.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama in "Dzogchen: Heart Essence of the Great Pefection"
-~
-We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the byways and
-untrodden depths of the wilderness, and travel and explore
-and tell the world the glories of our journey.
- -- John Hope Franklin
-~
-Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.
- -- Samuel Johnson
-~
-Be happy. Talk happiness. Happiness calls out responsive gladness in
-others. There is enough sadness in the world without yours.
- -- Helen Keller
-~
-There are two ways to slide easily through life:
-to believe everything or to doubt everything;
-both ways save us from thinking.
- -- Alfred Korzybski
-~
-We shall not cease from exploration. And at the end of our exploring will be
-to arrive where we started and to know the place for the first time.
- -- T.S. Eliot
-~
-I conceive that pleasures are to be avoided if greater pains
-be the consequence, and pains to be coveted that will terminate
-in greater pleasures.
- -- Michel de Montaigne
-~
-A plot, if there is to be one, must be a secret. A secret that, if we only
-knew it, would dispel our frustration, lead us to salvation; or else the
-knowing of it in itself would be salvation. Does such a luminous secret
-exist? Yes, provided it is never known. Known, it will only disappoint us.
- -- Umberto Eco
-~
-The subjects that were dearest to the examiners were almost invariably those I
-fancied least... I should have liked to be asked to say what I knew. They
-always tried to ask what I did not know. When I would have willingly displayed
-my knowledge, they sought to expose my ignorance. This sort of treatment had
-only one result: I did not too well in examinations.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-One of the great movements in my lifetime among educated people is the need to
-commit themselves to action. Most people are not satisfied with giving money;
-we also feel we need to work.
- -- Peter Drucker
-~
-One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind.
- -- Dorothea Lange
-~
-The universe is made of stories, not of atoms. -- Muriel Rukeyser
-~
-Chemists are a strange class of mortals, impelled by an almost maniacal impulse
-to seek their pleasures amongst smoke and vapour, soot and flames, poisons and
-poverty, yet amongst all these evils I seem to live so sweetly that I would
-rather die than change places with the King of Persia.
- -- Johann Joachim Becher
-~
-Cherishing children is the mark of a civilized society. -- Joan Ganz Cooney
-~
-Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end. -- Igor Stravinsky
-~
-Purifying the unwholesome: In the past we have engaged in unwholesome physical,
-verbal, and mental actions. All these actions are of the past and cannot be
-touched; we cannot reach back and wipe them away. They have left detrimental
-imprints on our mind-stream that obstruct our spiritual practice and manifest
-as suffering when they come to full maturation, giving rise to misfortune and
-grief. However, these imprints can be affected, and even purified, by our
-present behavior. They are like seeds carried along in the current of our
-mind-stream. We cannot annihilate them without a trace, but we can burn them
-so that they have little or no potency to cause damaging results.
- -- B. Alan Wallace, in "The Seven-Point Mind Training", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-First it is important to recognize the human form as rare and precious. It is
-not enough just to obtain this precious human form which has great potential;
-rather, you should use that potential to its fullest extent by taking its
-essence. For example, if a person's ascent to high office is not followed by
-good work for the community and people, it is not very beneficial and
-worthwhile. If, on the basis of full use of the potential, one is able to
-accomplish great feats, that would truly be a great success. Therefore, it is
-important initially to recognize all the significance and great potential of
-this human existence.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama in "The Path to Bliss", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-We haven't had any tea for a week.
-The bottom is out of the universe.
- -- Rudyard Kipling
-~
-Does one's integrity ever lie in what he is not able to do? I think that
-usually it does, for free will does not mean one will, but many wills
-conflicting in one man, Freedom cannot be conceived simply.
- -- Flannery O'Connor, in "Wise Blood", 1952
-~
-We may seek a fortune for no greater reason than to secure the respect
-and attention of people who would otherwise look straight through us.
- -- Alain de Botton
-~
-Only in the most unusual cases is it useful to determine whether
-a book is good or bad; for it is just as rare for it to be one or
-the other. It is usually both.
- -- Robert Musil
-~
-A lie gets halfway around the world before
-the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-Like yourself, everyone else from their own side equally does not want
-suffering and equally wants happiness. For example, among ten ill people,
-each of them just wants happiness; from their side they are all ill, and
-they all want to be freed from their illness. Hence there is no possible
-reason for making a biased exception, treating a certain one better and
-neglecting the others. It is impossible to select one out for better
-treatment. Moreover, from your own viewpoint, all sentient beings, in
-terms of their connection with you over the course of lifetimes, have in
-the past helped you and in the future will help again. Thus, you also
-cannot find any reason from your own side to treat some better and others
-worse.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Dalai Lama at Harvard: Lectures on the
- Buddhist Path to Peace", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption.
- -- Raymond Chandler
-~
-Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament. -- George Santayana
-~
-Mediocre men often have the most acquired knowledge. -- Claude Bernard
-~
-When we practice, initially, as a basis we control ourselves, stopping the
-bad actions which hurt others as much as we can. This is defensive. After
-that, when we develop certain qualifications, then as an active goal we
-should help others. In the first stage, sometimes we need isolation while
-pursuing our own inner development; however, after you have some confidence,
-some strength, you must remain with, contact, and serve society in any
-field--health, education, politics, or whatever.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama in "Kindness, Clarity and Insight", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Other paths that are aimed at "sudden awakening" lead one on an unmapped
-journey that may offer no clear indications of progress. In contrast, in this
-practice we have definite sign-posts along the way. Look at your mental
-distortions and see how they are doing. After practicing for a month, a year,
-six years, are the mental distortions somewhat diminished? Do wholesome
-qualities arise more readily, more frequently, more deeply? At the very root
-of the mental distortions, is the self-grasping attenuated? Is there less
-self-centeredness and greater humility? Is there more loving concern for the
-welfare of others? All of these are causes that lead either to well-being or
-to misery.
- -- B. Alan Wallace, in "The Seven-Point Mind Training", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-In the jungle of samsara arisings are ceaseless, there is never any let up in
-the interplay between past, present and future and in the turbulent interchange
-between inner thoughts and outer events. 'I', 'me' and 'mine' are tossed about
-like corks in the waves. There is no exit from this on the level of 'I'.
-There is no way to think yourself out of samsara. Even the thoughts that
-everything is empty, or is Padmasambhava, or pure from the very beginning do
-not help for no thought can unlock the door to awakening. The key is not
-shaped like a thing; it is not a thought, a feeling or a sensation. It's not
-something outer or inner. The key is your own nature, how you have been from
-the very beginning, simple, raw, naked, uncontrived, free of all constructs.
- -- Nuden Dorje, in "Being Right Here: A Dzogchen Treasure Text", Snow Lion
-~
-Great ideas originate in the muscles. -- Thomas A. Edison
-~
-If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. -- Mark Twain
-~
-Mathematics is a game played according to certain
-simple rules with meaningless marks on paper.
- -- David Hilbert
-~
-When you are poor enough, everything has some value. -- Barbara Ann Porte
-~
-I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have
-been only a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and
-then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst
-the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
- -- Isaac Newton
-~
-In ancient times, a candidate for initiation into the Mysteries was led through
-a series of dark chambers, virtually a labyrinth, beset by terrifying sounds
-and ominous presences. And then in the adytum, the final chamber, there was a
-sudden illumination. The enthroned hierophant tells the candidate, "Behold the
-light, my child! It is your own being and nature." Just this epopteia, or
-sudden illumination, is the introduction to the Clear Light that is one's own
-original nature. The course of the initiation in the ancient Mystery Religions
-simulates the experience of death and rebirth and leads the candidate into what
-lies beyond, so that one no longer need fear death. This initiatory process
-may be compared to the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
- -- John Myrdhin Reynolds, in "The Golden Letters", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-If only I had the theorems! Then I should find the proofs easily enough.
- -- Bernhard Riemann
-~
-Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent,
-literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.
- -- Barbara Tuchman
-~
-But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot
-hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here,
-have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-A memory is more atmospheric than accurate, more an evolving fiction than a
-sacred text. And thank heavens. If rude, shameful, or brutal memories
-can't be expunged, they can at least be diluted. So is nothing permanent
-and fixed in life? By definition life is a fickle noun, an event in
-progress. Still, we cling to philosophical railings, religious icons,
-pillars of belief. We forget on purpose that Earth is rolling at 1,000
-miles an hour, and, at the same time, falling elliptically around our sun,
-while the sun is swinging through the Milky Way, and the Milky Way migrating
-along with countless other galaxies in a universe about 13.7 billion years
-old. An event is such a little piece of time and space, leaving only a
-mindglow behind like the tail of a shooting star. For lack of a better
-word, we call that scintillation memory.
- -- Diane Ackerman, in "An Alchemy Of Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of
- the Brain"
-~
-Many people who approach the practice of Buddhism are willing to sacrifice one
-or two hours of their day in order to perform some ritual practice or engage in
-meditation. Time is relatively easy to give up, even though their life may be
-very busy. But, they are not willing to change anything of their personality--
-they are not willing to forgo anything of their negative character. With this
-type of approach to Buddhism, it hardly matters how much meditation we do, our
-practice remains merely a hobby or a sport. It does not touch our lives. In
-order actually to overcome our problems, we have to be willing to change--
-namely to change our personality. We need to renounce and rid ourselves of
-those negative aspects of it that are causing us so much trouble.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama & Alexander Berzin in "The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of
- Mahamudra"
-~
-Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into
-you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into
-you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
- -- John Muir
-~
-Whoso does not see that genuine life is a battle
-and a march has poorly read his origin and his destiny.
- -- Lydia Child
-~
-The more intelligent one is, the more men of originality
-one finds. Ordinary people find no difference between men.
- -- Blaise Pascal
-~
-The last proceeding of reason, is to recognize that
-there is an infinity of things beyond it.
- -- Blaise Pascal
-~
-Argument is the worst sort of conversation. -- Jonathan Swift
-~
-No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days.
- -- Max Planck
-~
-Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-I decline utterly to be impartial between the fire brigade and the fire.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-The self that is grasped by ignorance should be refuted, but we should not
-refute the conventionally existent self. If we refute the self that is merely
-conventionally existent, that is like a seeing a person and saying, "Oh, I
-didn't see the person." Or we might look at another person and say, "All I
-see is the basis of designation of the person or the visual form of the body."
-This is no way to speak. It would be impossible to maintain any valid or
-justifiable use of language in this way. We would be negating the existence
-of a merely designated self, but we would not negate the self that is refuted
-by means of the wisdom that investigates the nature of emptiness. Once again,
-the self to be negated is the self which is grasped by ignorance.
- -- Gen. Lamrimpa, in "Realizing Emptiness: Madhyamaka Insight Meditation",
- translated by B. Alan Wallace, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-In general, the countries of the East have had less material progress and thus
-have great suffering from poverty. In the West, though poverty is not severe,
-there is the suffering of worry and not knowing satisfaction. In both East and
-West, many persons spend their lives in jealousy and competition; some think
-only of money, and when they meet with conditions unfavourable to their wish
-develop a dislike or enmity for these unfavourable circumstances from the very
-orb of their heart. Within and between countries people are disturbed, not
-trusting and believing each other, having to spend their lives in continual
-lies and deceit. Since the most we can live is a hundred years, what point is
-there in spending our lives in jealousy, deceit, and competition?
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Deity Yoga", translated and edited by Jeffrey
- Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-She was fascinated by baths. I suppose total immersion in water
-must have seemed to her a peculiar method of cleansing oneself.
- -- Elizabeth Peters
-~
-The uncompromising self-examination of a Rembrandt self-portrait remains,
-almost four centuries on, far more 'shocking' than a museum installation
-of cow carcasses.
- -- Ralph Peters
-~
-Complaint is the largest tribute Heaven receives. -- Jonathan Swift
-~
-Mere belief in a source of refuge is not firm; unless there is valid cognition,
-you are going only on the assertion that Buddhism is good. Refuge is not an
-act of partisanship but is based on analysing what scriptures are reasonable
-and what scriptures are not. In order for the mind to engage one-pointedly in
-practice, there must be reasoned conviction that only the Buddhist path is
-non-mistaken and capable of leading to the state of complete freedom from
-defects and possession of all auspicious attainments. One should engage in
-honest investigation, avoiding desire and hatred and seeking the teaching that
-sets forth the means for fulfilling the aims of trainees.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Tantra in Tibet", trans. & ed. by Jeffrey Hopkins
-~
-A bad peace is even worse than war. -- Tacitus
-~
-The way of fortune is like the milky way in the sky; which is a number of
-smaller stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together; so it is a number
-of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that
-make men fortunate.
- -- Francis Bacon
-~
-Ability will never catch up with the demand for it. -- Confucius
-~
-There is more to life than increasing its speed. -- Mahatma Gandhi
-~
-If cats could talk, they wouldn't. -- Nan Porter
-~
-I read the newspaper avidly. It is my one form of continuous fiction.
- -- Aneurin Bevan
-~
- The teeth, hair and nails are not I, nor am I bone, blood, mucus, phlegm,
-pus or lymph.
- Bodily oil is not I, nor is sweat, fat or the entrails either. The cavity
-of the entrails is not I, nor is excrement or urine.
- Flesh is not I, nor are the sinews, warmth nor air. The bodily cavities are
-not I, nor is any one of the six types of consciousness.
- If the self truly exists in the manner in which it appears, then it should be
-identifiable as one inspects the components of a person one by one. Following
-the above verses, no part of the body, including the four elements and space,
-nor the six types of consciousness can be identified as the self. This implies
-that the self that experiences joy and sorrow and that appears to the mind as
-if it existed independently does not exist at all. This is ascertained by
-engaging in such analysis.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Transcendent Wisdom", Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Once, on behalf of his mother, Kyogom produced a thangka of the five buddha
-families. He asked the guru, Gampopa, to bless it quickly.
- Gampopa agreed, saying, "Burn this stick of incense and make a mandala
-offering."
- He then transformed himself into the Buddha, and from his ushnisha there
-radiated a glorious light that dissolved into the thangka. The air resounded
-with the tinkling of bells and the drumbeat of the damaru, and the sky was
-filled with parasols, auspicious banners, and canopies. The sound of cymbals
-was heard, and a rain of flowers fell from the sky.
- When Kyogom saw this, the lama said, "This is the way to do a rapid
-consecration."
- -- Jampa Mackenzie Stewart, in "The Life of Gampopa", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-The absolute nature of the prohibition of torture and other forms of ill
-treatment means that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a
-state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any
-other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for torture.
- -- Theo van Boven, UN official charged with monitoring incidents of torture
-~
-No executive, legislative, administrative, or judicial measure authorizing
-recourse to torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
-can be considered as lawful under international law.
- -- Theo van Boven, UN official charged with monitoring incidents of torture
-~
-In a few hundred years, when the history of our time will be written from a
-long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event historians
-will see is not technology, not the Internet, not e-commerce. It is an
-unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time--literally
---substantial and rapidly growing numbers of people have choices. For the
-first time, they will have to manage themselves. And society is totally
-unprepared for it.
- -- Peter F. Drucker
-~
-Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food. -- Hippocrates
-~
-One of the lessons of the Web is that if people have access to information,
-they will consume it, whether they are hungry or not.
- -- Lee Gomes
-~
-If cats seem distant and aloof, it is because this is not their native
-planet--they are here just to visit and dominate.
- -- Hank Roll
-~
-History is the only laboratory we have in which to test
-the consequences of thought.
- -- Etienne Gilson
-~
-In journalism it is simpler to sound off than it is to find out.
-It is more elegant to pontificate than it is to sweat.
- -- Harold Evans
-~
-If we have only cultivated undistracted meditative concentration and lack the
-supreme knowledge that realizes how things actually are, it is impossible to
-see ultimate reality. On the other hand, if we have the correct view of
-understanding identitylessness but no meditative concentration in which the
-mind rests one-pointedly, our mind will be distracted by other objects, not be
-under control, and thus not be workable. Consequently, it will be impossible
-for the light of wisdom to shine clearly and realize ultimate reality. Another
-analogy for the need to combine calm abiding and superior insight as an
-inseparable unity is a sharp scalpel in the steady hand of an experienced
-surgeon. If the scalpel is blunt or the surgeon's hand shaky, the operation
-cannot be performed properly. In the same way, when the mind rests in a state
-that involves both stillness and a crisp wakefulness or awareness, it is like
-a steady hand that deftly operates on our objects of investigation with the
-sharp blade of superior insight.
- -- Karl Brunnhoelzl, in "The Center of the Sunlit Sky: Madyhamaka in the
- Kagyu Tradition, Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Golf is the only sport where the ball doesn't move until you hit it.
- -- Ted William
-~
-... when a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men
-of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact
-that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending
-any save the most elemental--men whose whole thinking is done in terms of
-emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand.
-So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost.
-
-... all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and
-mediocre--the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is
-a virtual vacuum.
-
-The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is
-perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of
-the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the
-plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the
-White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
- -- H. L. Mencken (July 26, 1920, in the Baltimore Sun):
-~
-The mastery of the turn is the story of how aviation became practical as a
-means of transportation. It is the story of how the world became small.
- -- William Langewiesche
-~
-Flight's greatest gift is to let us look around. I mean a simple form of
-looking around, and one that requires little instruction--just gazing down at
-the ordinary scenery sliding by below. The best views are views of familiar
-things, like cities and farms and bottlenecked freeways. So set aside the
-beauty of sunsets, the majesty of mountains, the imprint of winds on golden
-prairies. The world beneath our wings has become a human artifact, our most
-spontaneous and complex creation. Tourists may not like to contemplate the
-evidence, with its hints of greed and self-destruction, but the fact remains
-that the old sterilized landscapes--like designated outlooks and pretty parks
-and sculpted gardens--have become obsolete, and that it is largely the airplane
-that has made them so. The aerial view is something entirely new. We need to
-admit that it flattens the world and mutes it in a rush of air and engines, and
-that it suppresses beauty. But it also strips the facades from our
-constructions, and by raising us above the constraints of the treeline and the
-highway it imposes a brutal honesty on our perceptions. It lets us see
-ourselves in context, as creatures struggling through life on the face of a
-planet, not separate from nature, but its most expressive agents. It lets us
-see that our struggles form patterns on the land, that these patterns repeat to
-an extent which before we had not known, and that there is a sense to them.
- -- William Langewiesche, "Inside The Sky: Meditation on Flight"
-~
-A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool
-who knows what he is talking about.
- -- Miguel de Unamuno
-~
-Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real. -- Jules Verne
-~
-We have the bias of considering some people to be enemies and others to be
-friends. If this really were true such that an enemy always remained an enemy
-and a friend always remained a friend, then there might be a reason to hate
-certain people and love others. But, again, this is not the case. There is
-no certainty in relationships.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Dalai Lama at Harvard: Lectures on the
- Buddhist Path to Peace", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are. -- George Santayana
-~
-It is said that the awareness of a buddha is completely even, like the ocean,
-taking in equally the joys and sorrows of all people, friends, loved ones,
-relatives, and those never met. This is the meaning of a statement made by so
-many of the world's great spiritual teachers, "Love your enemy." It doesn't
-mean love the person you hate. You can't do that. Love those who hate you.
- -- B. Alan Wallace, in "Buddhism with an Attitude: The Tibetan Seven-Point
- Mind-Training", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal
-does this--no dog exchanges bones with another.
- -- Adam Smith
-~
-Art is not about thinking something up.
-It is the opposite--getting something down.
- -- Julia Cameron
-~
-Although we regard the realization of the selflessness of persons as something
-particularly exalted and therefore difficult to achieve, in fact, if you look
-directly at your mind and see its nature, you will realize this selflessness.
-This is not a matter of trying to convince yourself that there is no self in
-the mind. It is simply a matter of looking. And when you look, you will see
-that there is no mind, and that therefore there is no self that could be
-imputed on the basis of the mind.
- -- Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, in "Pointing out the Dharmakaya", Snow Lion
-~
-Cold! If the thermometer had been an inch longer we'd have frozen to death.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea. -- Henry Fielding
-~
-Material progress is for the sake of achieving that happiness and relieving
-that suffering which depends upon the body. But it is indeed difficult to
-remove all suffering by these external means and thereby achieve complete
-satisfaction. Hence there comes to be a great difference between seeking
-happiness in dependence upon external things and seeking it in dependence
-upon one's own internal spiritual development. Furthermore, even if the
-basic suffering is the same, there is a great difference in the way we
-experience it and in the mental discomfort that it creates, depending upon
-our attitude towards it. Hence our mental attitude is very important in
-how we spend our lives.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Kindness, Clarity and Insight", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Love is a condition in which the happiness of another
-person is essential to your own.
- -- Robert Heinlein
-~
-Looking at a cat, like looking at clouds or stars or the ocean, makes
-it difficult to believe there is nothing miraculous in this world.
- -- Leonard Michaels
-~
-Waking in the night
-the lamp is low
-the oil freezing.
- -- Matsuo Basho
-~
-Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of man you are.
- -- Thomas Carlyle
-~
- If you have love, deities and humans will love you and will naturally
-gravitate toward you. Moreover, the Conqueror defeated Mara's armies with the
-power of love, so love is the supreme protector, and so forth. Thus, although
-love is difficult to develop, you must strive to do so.
- The way to cultivate love is as follows. Just as you can develop compassion
-once you have repeatedly thought about how living beings are made miserable by
-suffering, develop love by thinking repeatedly about how living beings lack all
-happiness, both contaminated and uncontaminated. When you become familiar with
-this, you will naturally wish for beings to be happy. In addition, bring to
-mind various forms of happiness and then offer them to living beings.
- -- from "The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment",
- Volume 2, Snow Lion Publications
-~
-There is no less invention in aptly applying a thought found
-in a book, than in being the first author of the thought.
- -- Pierre Bayle
-~
-You'll never need a lawn ornament if you have a cat in the yard.
- -- Katherine Palmer Peterson
-~
-Karma has four main characteristics. The first is its increasing effect:
-goodness heralds further goodness and evil heralds further evil. Secondly,
-karma is definite: in the long run, goodness always produces joy and negativity
-always produces suffering. Thirdly, one never experiences a joy or sorrow that
-does not have an according karmic cause. And lastly, the karmic seeds that are
-placed on the mind at the time of an action will never lose their potency even
-in a hundred million lifetimes, but will lie dormant within the mind until one
-day the conditions that activate them appear.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Path to Enlightenment", Snow Lion
-~
-The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat. -- Jules Reynard
-~
- There are generally two kinds of buddhist meditation: stabilizing meditation
-and analytical meditation. The stabilizing type of meditation gets the brain
-very mellow. It is a soothing of the mind to a clear state of calm, like a
-still lake. Stabilization allows all thoughts to flow through the mind without
-attachment to any of them. But the analytical type of meditation uses the
-power of logic to examine what is bothering one. Through meditative analysis,
-problems are conquered by finding their root causes and by developing
-techniques for mitigating the effects of those causes on the mind. Analysis
-can focus on topics such as impermanence, suffering, the need for patience,
-and other topics.
- These two phases of meditation are not practiced at different times of the
-day, but from instant to instant. At first, when one is a beginner, one must
-actively work to stabilize the mind and release all the distractions. But
-just when one starts to doze off because this process is so relaxing, one
-switches over to analytical meditation to keep the brain moving and to balance
-out the bliss.
- One has to pay careful attention to the state of one's mind to determine
-what is needed at a particular time. But this wakeful refocusing of the
-attention helps to develop mindfulness, which in turn helps develop
-understanding and concentration. Later on, the switch between analytical
-and stabilizing meditations will happen somewhat more automatically; if
-thoughts start swirling too fast, the meditative mind seeks stabilization. If
-things get too calm or placid, then analysis can bring the balance back to
-thinking and improving.
- Analysis is insufficient by itself, because it might be all about what's
-currently "wrong" or it might produce a billion approaches to improving the
-mind which cannot all be followed, but it would miss out on just enjoying our
-somewhat short existence. Complete realization of the enjoyability of
-sentience and sapience seems to come from stabilization, not analysis. And
-stabilization is not enough by itself either, because one sees the result
-of too much placidity in a person asleep in bed: they have a cow-like calm
-without any thoughts breaking the surface to cause future progress. The
-impetus behind the push towards enlightenment seems to come from analysis,
-because one cannot see why one would want to fully awake and aware unless
-one can logically compare that state with the current one. Thus analytical
-and stabilizing meditations are the dynamic duo of meditation, the laurel
-and the hardy, the R and the D, the anion and the cation, for without both
-the ultimate mental state is unattainable.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-The bad news: there is no key to the universe.
-The good news: it was never locked.
- -- Swami Beyondananda
-~
-What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of
-frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly. That is the
-first law of nature.
- -- Voltaire
-~
-A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.
- -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-~
-If I wished to punish a province, I would have it governed by philosophers.
- -- Frederick the Great
-~
-I know that many people have difficulty thinking of spirits in the way I
-describe them. There are many spirits described in Tibetan texts related to
-specific places in Tibet. I'm not sure, if we live in New York or Tokyo, that
-it's very helpful to try to connect to those spirits. When we are in Western
-cities, rather than thinking of spirits living in mountain passes or caves, we
-might find it easier to think that spirits travel the streets, creating anger
-and agitation in the drivers. When we experience aggressive driving, it is a
-good idea to breathe evenly and relax. Otherwise, we may find ourselves
-connected to traffic demons!
- -- "Healing with Form, Energy and Light: The Five Elements in Tibetan
- Shamanism, Tantra and Dzogchen", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools.
-Let's start with typewriters.
- -- Frank Lloyd Wright
-~
-As long as algebra is taught in school, there will be prayer in school.
- -- Cokie Roberts
-~
-In Tantra the term bodhicitta assumes a more specific connotation. The essence
-of enlightenment or "Buddha-nature," revealed in the sutras of the third
-turning of the wheel of Dharma, is equated to the subtle essence (thig le) of
-the human body, the coarse aspect of which is present in the seminal fluid and
-in the ovum. Thus in Tantra, bodhicitta is recognized as the seed of the
-manifestation of the infinite mandalas and deities who are all already
-contained in potentiality in the energy structure of the physical body itself,
-what is known as the "vajra body." However in spite of this underlying
-recognition as its base, tantric practice entails visualization and commitments
-of body voice, and mind to achieve the transformation of the energies of impure
-vision into the pure dimension of the mandala and of the deities.
- -- Chogyal Namkhai Norbu and Adriano Clemente, in "The Supreme Source: The
- Fundamental Tantra of the Dzogchen Semde Kunjed Gyalpo", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books
-I have in my library are books that other folks have lent me.
- -- Anatole France
-~
-It is impossible to keep a straight face in
-the presence of one or more kittens.
- -- Cynthia E. Varnardo
-~
-I always explain that violence is not the human way. I believe that,
-fundamentally, human nature is positive, gentle; therefore, the non-violent way
-is the human way. Also, whatever result we achieve through non-violence has no
-negative side effect. Through violence, even though we may get some kind of
-satisfaction, negative side effects are also incurred. Then, most importantly,
-whether we like it or not, we have to live side by side with the Chinese; thus,
-in the long future, generation to generation, in order to live happily,
-peacefully, it is extremely important, while we are carrying on the struggle,
-to accord with the principle of non-violence.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Art of Peace: Nobel Peace Laureates discuss
- Human Rights, Conflict and Reconciliation", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Mencken's Creed
-
- I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind--
-that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have
-been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.
- I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless
-to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent,
-can be anything but vicious.
- I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must
-necessarily make war upon liberty...
- I believe that the evidence for immortality is no better than the evidence
-of witches, and deserves no more respect.
- I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech...
- I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what
-it is made of, and how it is run.
- I believe in the reality of progress.
- I--But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it
-is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be
-free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be
-ignorant.
- -- H. L. Mencken
-~
- The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small
-electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying
-even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is
-nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and
-the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds
-are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre--the man
-who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual
-vacuum.
- The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is
-perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the
-people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the
-plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White
-House will be adorned by a downright moron.
- -- Henry Louis Mencken, "Bayard vs. Lionheart", Baltimore Evening Sun,
- 26 July 1920.
-~
-The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of
-wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.
- -- Anais Nin
-~
-There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
- -- Sir Francis Bacon
-~
-I say that the art of sculpture is eight times as great as any other art based
-on drawing, because a statue has eight views and they must all be equally good.
- -- Benvenuto Cellini
-~
- When we talk about patience or tolerance, we should understand that there are
-many degrees, starting from a simple tolerance, such as being able to bear a
-certain amount of heat and cold, progressing toward the highest level of
-patience, which is the type of patience and tolerance found in the great
-practitioners, the Bodhisattvas on the high levels of the Buddhist path.
-Since patience or tolerance comes from a certain ability to remain firm and
-steadfast, to not be overwhelmed by the adverse situations or conditions that
-one faces, one should not see tolerance or patience as a sign of weakness, but
-rather as a sign of strength coming from a deep ability to remain steadfast and
-firm. We can generally define patience or tolerance in these terms. We find
-that even in being able to tolerate a certain degree of physical hardship, like
-a hot or cold climate, our attitude makes a big difference.
- If we have the realization that tolerating immediate hardship can have long-
-term beneficial consequences, we are more likely to be able to tolerate
-everyday hardships. Similarly, in the case of those on the Bodhisattva levels
-of the path practicing high levels of tolerance and patience, intelligence also
-plays a very important role as a complementary factor.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a
- Buddhist Perspective", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-One difference between poetry and lyrics is that lyrics sort of fade into the
-background. They fade on the page and live on the stage when set to music.
- -- Stephen Sondheim
-~
-All the good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.
- -- Grant Wood
-~
-Completely pure desirous attachment expresses itself through Buddha Amitabha.
-A person guided by desire, attachment, or grasping becomes diffused and loses
-power over phenomena. Through completely purified desirous attachment,
-however, one is able to gain control over, and to independently coordinate,
-everything. This is because the entourage, possessions, merit, and so forth
-are controlled by the power of this Buddha. In this way Amitabha grants us the
-empowering enlightened activity and the empowering extraordinary achievements.
- -- Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, in "Everyday Consciousness and
- Buddha-awakening", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-No harm's done to history by making it something someone would want to read.
- -- David McCollough
-~
-If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and
-only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement
-would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the
-atomic hypothesis (or the atomic fact, if you wish to call it that) that all
-things are made of atoms--little particles that move around in perpetual
-motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but
-repelling upon being squeezed into one another.
- -- Richard P. Feynman
-~
-The third aspect of the practice of generosity is giving the gift of the
-Dharma by making the teachings available. Through the Dharma, we can bring
-understanding into the lives of others and help them remove their patterns of
-ignorance. We do not have to be great scholars to practice generosity through
-the Dharma. We may know just one line of the Dharma, but if we know that one
-line clearly and correctly, we can genuinely express it to others and help
-them. If we know four lines of the teachings, through those four lines we can
-help to clear up someone's ignorance or lessen someone's problems and
-sufferings. What counts is not how much we know but how correctly we know it
-and how sincerely we use it to help others. We should not wear the mask of the
-Dharma, pretending we know a great deal and are doing great things, while
-hiding ugliness inside us.
- -- Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, in "Dharma Paths", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-One difference between the destructive, negative emotions on the one side and
-constructive, positive emotions on the other is that constructive, positive
-emotions have a strong grounding in valid experience and reasoning. In fact,
-the more we analyze these positive emotions, the more they are enhanced.
-Negative, afflictive emotions, by contrast, are usually quite superficial.
-They have no grounding in reason and often arise out of habit rather than
-reasoned thought processes.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment",
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Whenever you travel on an airplane, the flight attendants demonstrate what to
-do in an emergency. They tell you to put the oxygen mask over your own nose
-before putting it over your child's nose. That's not because you should be
-selfish, but because if you pass out, you won't be able to help anyone at all.
-So you see, the essential point is that we must first subdue our own minds
-before we can effectively serve others.
-
-If you have failed to subdue your own mind, even if a thousand Buddhas surround
-you, they will be of no benefit. If you want to subdue your enemies, you must
-subdue your own mind. If you want to bring about world peace, subdue your
-mind. A subdued mind is the Lama. A subdued mind is the Dakini, the chosen
-deity, and the Buddha. A subdued mind is the pure land. You are already
-imbued with the Buddha-nature. This is your inherent nature. What actual
-benefit have you gotten from the essential nature of your mind?
- -- Karma Chagme, in "A Spacious Path to Freedom: Practical Instructions on
- the Union of Mahamudra and Atiyoga", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-From: non-verbal sys-admin
-To: support technician
-Subject: harriet crash
-
- harriet crashed this afternoon
- it is back online now
- looks like a bad drive in the array
- i have an ibm ticket opened
- hope to have it serviced sometime tomorrow
-
- the current state or the repair
- should not affect core team work in build
-
----
-
-From: support technician
-To: non-verbal sys-admin
-Subject: Re: harriet crash
-
- capital letters
- complete sentences, grammar
- needless in haiku
-~
-I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little,
-they become its visible soul.
- -- Jean Cocteau
-~
-I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death; but an infinite
-ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness.
- -- George Fox
-~
-Besides the first degree of eminence in science, a professor with us must be
-of sober and correct morals and habits, having the talent of communicating his
-knowledge with facility, and of an accommodating and peaceable temper. The
-latter is all important for the harmony of the institution.
- -- Thomas Jefferson
-~
-Like all the best families, we have our share of eccentricities,
-of impetuous and wayward youngsters and of family disagreements.
- -- Queen Elizabeth II
-~
-We do not see, or we forget, that the birds that are idly singing around us
-mostly live on insects or seeds, and are thus constantly destroying life.
- -- Charles Darwin
-~
-Obstacles to our practice may be external, internal or secret. The external
-ones consist of natural disasters, harm inflicted by human and nonhuman
-beings, sicknesses and so forth. Internal obstacles are our own disturbed
-states of mind and emotions and all the obstructions to liberation and full
-knowledge of all phenomena. Secret obstacles are seemingly good
-circumstances, which distract the practitioner and make him or her forget
-about practice. For instance, one might gain a good reputation as a sincere
-practitioner and thereby attract followers and wealth, which in the end make
-one neglect one's practice.
- -- Geshe Sonam Rinchen, in "Eight Verses for Training the Mind",
- Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-From Linus Benedict Torvalds Oct 5 1991, 8:53 am
-Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
-From: torva...@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
-Date: 5 Oct 91 05:41:06 GMT
-Local: Fri, Oct 4 1991 10:41 pm
-Subject: Free minix-like kernel sources for 386-AT
-
-Do you pine for the nice days of minix-1.1, when men were men and wrote
-their own device drivers? Are you without a nice project and just dying
-to cut your teeth on a OS you can try to modify for your needs? Are you
-finding it frustrating when everything works on minix? No more all-
-nighters to get a nifty program working? Then this post might be just
-for you :-)
-
-As I mentioned a month(?) ago, I'm working on a free version of a
-minix-lookalike for AT-386 computers. It has finally reached the stage
-where it's even usable (though may not be depending on what you want),
-and I am willing to put out the sources for wider distribution. It is
-just version 0.02 (+1 (very small) patch already), but I've successfully
-run bash/gcc/gnu-make/gnu-sed/compress etc under it.
-
-Sources for this pet project of mine can be found at nic.funet.fi
-(128.214.6.100) in the directory /pub/OS/Linux. The directory also
-contains some README-file and a couple of binaries to work under linux
-(bash, update and gcc, what more can you ask for :-). Full kernel
-source is provided, as no minix code has been used. Library sources are
-only partially free, so that cannot be distributed currently. The
-system is able to compile "as-is" and has been known to work. Heh.
-Sources to the binaries (bash and gcc) can be found at the same place in
-/pub/gnu.
-
-ALERT! WARNING! NOTE! These sources still need minix-386 to be compiled
-
-(and gcc-1.40, possibly 1.37.1, haven't tested), and you need minix to
-set it up if you want to run it, so it is not yet a standalone system
-for those of you without minix. I'm working on it. You also need to be
-something of a hacker to set it up (?), so for those hoping for an
-alternative to minix-386, please ignore me. It is currently meant for
-hackers interested in operating systems and 386's with access to minix.
-
-The system needs an AT-compatible harddisk (IDE is fine) and EGA/VGA. If
-you are still interested, please ftp the README/RELNOTES, and/or mail me
-for additional info.
-
-I can (well, almost) hear you asking yourselves "why?". Hurd will be
-out in a year (or two, or next month, who knows), and I've already got
-minix. This is a program for hackers by a hacker. I've enjouyed doing
-it, and somebody might enjoy looking at it and even modifying it for
-their own needs. It is still small enough to understand, use and
-modify, and I'm looking forward to any comments you might have.
-
-I'm also interested in hearing from anybody who has written any of the
-utilities/library functions for minix. If your efforts are freely
-distributable (under copyright or even public domain), I'd like to hear
-from you, so I can add them to the system. I'm using Earl Chews estdio
-right now (thanks for a nice and working system Earl), and similar works
-will be very wellcome. Your (C)'s will of course be left intact. Drop me
-a line if you are willing to let me use your code.
-
- Linus
-
-PS. to PHIL NELSON! I'm unable to get through to you, and keep getting
-"forward error - strawberry unknown domain" or something.
-~
-Question: How do things exist if they are empty of inherent existence?
-
-His Holiness: The doctrines of emptiness and selflessness do not imply the non-
-existence of things. Things do exist. When we say that all phenomena are void
-of self-existence, it does not mean that we are advocating non-existence, that
-we are repudiating that things exist. Then what is it we are negating? We are
-negating, or denying, that anything exists from its own side without depending
-on other things. Hence, it is because things depend for their existence upon
-other causes and conditions that they are said to lack independent self-
-existence.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Answers: Discussions with Western Buddhists",
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will,
-But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.
- -- Thomas Moore
-~
-Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things,
-in which smiles, and kindnesses, and small obligations, given habitually,
-are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort.
- -- Sir Humphrey Davy
-~
-It is only when I am doing my work that I feel truly alive.
- -- Federico Fellini
-~
-When you engage in a project or an activity that helps other sentient beings,
-there is no question of a time limit. You must do it continuously. This is
-how you should train your mind. If you think you will achieve enlightenment or
-bodhichitta within a few days or months, and if you think that you will get
-enlightened after entering into a retreat for three years and three months, you
-are mistaken. When I hear the suggestion that you will attain Buddhahood if
-you go into retreat for three years and three months, sometimes I jokingly say
-that this is just like communist propaganda. I tell my Western friends that
-wanting to practice the most profound and the quickest path is a clear sign
-that you will achieve no result. How can you achieve the most profound and the
-vast in the shortest way? The story of the Buddha says that he achieved
-Buddhahood after three countless aeons. So harboring an expectation to achieve
-Buddhahood within a short time-like three years and three months-is a clear
-indication that you will make no real progress. We have to be practical.
-There is no use in fooling others with your incomplete knowledge.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Stages of Meditation", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Buddhist moral philosophy is strikingly pragmatic. Something is valuable
-insofar as it is relevant to people's lives and useful for achieving their
-happiness. If it will bring happiness for oneself and others, pursue it; if it
-will bring suffering, better to avoid it. There are no absolute dictates;
-ethical personal behavior is seen as simply the most practical way to cope with
-the difficulties of the human condition. Although guidelines and copious
-illustrations are given, nothing is absolute or definitive. The power and
-freedom to make decisions rests with the individual. There is no arbitrary or
-mysterious force controlling our lives; there is simply the law of cause and
-effect. Of course, decisions are dependent upon many factors. The choices we
-make are conditioned by circumstances, both outer and inner, but ultimately
-human beings have free will to decide. Individuals make decisions and
-experience the consequences of their decisions.
- -- from "Buddhism Through American Women's Eyes", edited by Karma Lekshe
- Tsomo, Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Chemistry stands at the pivot of science. On the one hand it deals with biology
-and provides explanations for the processes of life. On the other hand it
-mingles with physics and finds explanations for chemical phenomena in the
-fundamental processes and particles of the universe. Chemistry links the
-familiar with the fundamental.
- -- P. W. Atkins
-~
-In a cat's eyes, all things belong to cats. -- English Proverb
-~
-A university is what a college becomes when the faculty
-loses interest in students.
- -- John Ciardi
-~
-Ye can lead a man up to the university, but ye can't make him think.
- -- Finley Peter Dunne
-~
-The new electronic interdependence recreates the
-world in the image of a global village.
- -- Marshall McLuhan
-~
-One of the ways in which cats show happiness is by sleeping.
- -- Cleveland Amory
-~
-For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life. -- William Blake
-~
-Love is a kind of warfare. -- Ovid
-~
-Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what
-is excellent in others belong to us as well.
- -- Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire, 1694
-~
- From a Buddhist point of view, one might be able to distinguish different
-states of dreaming. Generally speaking, a dream is a dream, something you
-can't control. But for the highly advanced meditator, there could be
-possibilities for gaining certain insights through dreams.
- I know some Tibetans who lived in Tibet prior to the 1959 uprising. Before
-their escape from Tibet, they did not know about the natural trails and passes
-by which to get over the Himalayas into India. Some of these people I met had
-very clear dreams of these tracks and, years later, when they actually had to
-follow the actual trails, they found that they were already familiar with them
-because of the very clear dreams they had had previously.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama in "Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations
- with the Dalai Lama on Brain Science and Buddhism", ed. by Zara Houshmand,
- Robert B. Livingston and B. Alan Wallace, Snow Lion Publications
-~
-I think, for the rest of my life, I shall refrain from looking up things.
-It is the most ravenous time-snatcher I know. You pull one book from the
-shelf, which carries a hint or a reference that sends you posthaste to
-another book, and that to successive others.
- -- Carolyn Wells (1862-1942), Mystery Writer
-~
-It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life
-that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that
-goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
- -- Arnold Toynbee
-~
-Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity,
-we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second
-time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.
- -- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
-~
- One method for disciples to develop bodhichitta entails recognizing all
-beings as having been their mothers in some previous life and focusing on
-their mothers' kindness. Similarly, guru-meditation requires focusing on
-their mentors' kindness.
- Many Westerners, however, have difficulty focusing on the kindness of their
-mothers. Unable to find the goodness and kindness in their mothers, most
-cannot find any goodness in themselves either. Although they may be desperate
-for love and kindness, their mental blocks often prevent them from recognizing
-and appreciating the kindness of others, for instance their spiritual mentors.
-No matter how much kindness they receive, it is never enough.
- One of the reasons for being unable to acknowledge our mothers' kindness
-may be that they fail to live up to our models of ideal parents. Similarly,
-when our spiritual mentors have shortcomings and do not live up to our models
-of ideal teachers, we may also have difficulty recognizing their kindness.
-Like children yearning for ideal love, we feel cheated if our mentors fail
-to meet our expectations.
- -- Alexander Berzin, in "Relating to a Spiritual Teacher: Building a Healthy
- Relationship", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.
- -- Edward Abbey
-~
-I don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis
-and I don't deserve that either.
- -- Jack Benny
-~
-I have come to believe over and over again that what is most
-important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at
-the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.
- -- Audre Geraldine Lorde
-~
-The word dharma in Sanskrit means "that which holds". All existents are
-dharmas, phenomena, in the sense that they hold or bear their own entity or
-character. Also, a religion is a dharma in the sense that it holds persons
-back or protects them from disasters. Here the term dharma refers to the
-latter definition. In rough terms, any elevated action of body, speech or
-mind is regarded as a dharma because through doing such an action one is
-protected or held back from all sorts of disasters. Practice of such
-actions is practice of dharma.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama in "Buddhism of Tibet", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-What will survive of us is love. -- Philip Larkin
-~
-Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.
- -- Elbert Hubbard
-~
-Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.
- -- Erica Jong
-~
-Optimism can make you look stupid but cynicism always makes you look cynical.
- -- Calum Fisher
-~
-An architect proves his skill by turning the defects of a site into advantages.
- -- Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini
-~
-Physicists and astronomers see their own implications in the world
-being round, but to me it means that only one-third of the world is
-asleep at any given time and the other two-thirds is up to something.
- -- Dean Rusk
-~
-What is my purpose in life, what is my responsibility? Whether I like it or
-not, I am on this planet, and it is far better to do something for humanity.
-So you see that compassion is the seed or basis. If we take care to foster
-compassion, we will see that it brings the other good human qualities. The
-topic of compassion is not at all religious business; it is very important to
-know that it is human business, that it is a question of human survival, that
-is not a question of human luxury. I might say that religion is a kind of
-luxury. If you have religion, that is good. But it is clear that even without
-religion we can manage. However, without these basic human qualities we cannot
-survive. It is a question of our own peace and mental stability.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Dalai Lama, A Policy of Kindness: An
- Anthology of Writings By and About the Dalai Lama", compiled and edited
- by Sidney Piburn, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.
- -- Benjamin Disraeli
-~
- We often get angry when something we consider undesirable happens. But what
-use is this anger? If we can change the situation, then let's go ahead and do
-it. There's no need to be angry. It's very useful to think like this when
-confronted with social problems and injustice. They can be changed, so rather
-than be angry, it's wiser to work calmly to improve the society.
- On the other hand, if the situation can't be changed, anger is equally
-useless. Once our leg is broken, we can't unbreak it. All of the corruption
-in the world can't be solved in a year. Getting angry at something we can't
-alter makes us miserable. Worrying about or fearing something that hasn't
-happened immobilizes us. Shantideva said in A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way
-of Life:
- Why be unhappy about something If it can be remedied? And what is the
- use of being unhappy about something If it cannot be remedied?
- -- Thubten Chodron, in "Open Heart, Clear Mind", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-From the Hacker's Lexicon:
-
-Heisenbug /hi:'zen-buhg/ from Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle in
-quantum physics n. A bug that disappears or alters its behavior when one
-attempts to probe or isolate it. Antonym of Bohr bug; see also mandelbug,
-schroedinbug. In C, nine out of ten heisenbugs result from either
-fandango on core phenomena (esp. lossage related to corruption of the
-malloc arena) or errors that smash the stack.
-
-Schroedinbug MIT: from the Schroedinger's Cat thought-experiment in
-quantum physics n. A design or implementation bug in a program which
-doesn't manifest until someone reading source or using the program in an
-unusual way notices that it never should have worked, at which point the
-program promptly stops working for everybody until fixed. Though this
-sounds impossible, it happens; some programs have harbored latent
-schroedinbugs for years. Compare heisenbug, Bohr bug, mandelbug.
-
-Bohr bug /bohr buhg/ from quantum physics n. A repeatable bug; one that
-manifests reliably under a possibly unknown but well-defined set of
-conditions. Antonym of heisenbug; see also mandelbug, schroedinbug.
-
-Mandelbug /mon'del-buhg/ from the Mandelbrot set n. A bug whose
-underlying causes are so complex and obscure as to make its behavior
-appear chaotic or even non-deterministic. This term implies that the
-speaker thinks it is a Bohr bug, rather than a heisenbug. See also
-schroedinbug.
-~
-If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in
-music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-Nothing's impossible I have found,
-For when my chin is on the ground,
-I pick myself up, Dust myself off,
-Start all over again.
- -- Dorothy Fields
-~
-You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats.
- -- Colonial American Proverb
-~
-The essence of dharma practice is to bring about a discipline within the mind,
-a state of mind free of hatred, lust and harmful intentions. Hence the entire
-message of the buddhadharma could be summed up in two succinct statements:
-"Help others," and "If you cannot help them, at least do not harm others."
-It is a grave error to think that apart from such a disciplining of the
-physical and mental faculties there is something else called "the practice of
-dharma." Various, and in some cases divergent, methods to achieve such an
-inner discipline have been taught in the scriptures by the Buddha.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Bliss", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-It is not the strongest of the species that survive,
-nor the most intelligent,
-but the one most responsive to change.
- -- Charles Darwin
-~
-As progress is made in dream practice, dreams become clearer and more detailed,
-and a larger part of each dream is remembered. This is a result of bringing
-greater awareness into the dream state. Beyond this increased awareness in
-ordinary dreams is a second kind of dream called the dream of clarity, which
-arises when the mind and the prana are balanced and the dreamer has developed
-the capacity to remain in non-personal presence. Unlike the samsaric dream, in
-which the mind is swept here and there by karmic prana, in the dream of clarity
-the dreamer is stable. Though images and information arise, they are based
-less on personal karmic traces and instead present knowledge available directly
-from consciousness below the level of the conventional self.
- -- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, in "The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn than to contemplate.
- -- Rene Descartes
-~
-Be careful when reading health books--you might die of a misprint.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-The practice of pure perception is effective when it is practiced a lot. In
-pure perception, look beyond the surface and imagine that other people are none
-other than expressions of buddha-mind. We can choose to focus on positive
-attributes. What we attend to becomes our reality and if we attend to the
-buddhas in situations, in things, in other people it is the buddhas we engage
-with and the reality of the buddhas that becomes our reality.
- -- B. Alan Wallace, in "Buddhism with an Attitude: Tibetan Seven-Point
- Mind-Training", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Correctness is clearly the prime quality. If a system does not do what it
-is supposed to do, then everything else about it matters little.
- -- Bertrand Meyer
-~
-The path to genuine co-operation is again through sincere compassion and love.
-Sometimes we misunderstand compassion as being nothing more than a feeling of
-pity. Compassion is much, much more. It embraces not only a feeling of
-closeness, but also a sense of responsibility. When you develop compassion, it
-will help you enormously to generate inner strength and self-confidence, and to
-reduce your feelings of fear and insecurity. So compassion and love, embodied
-in an attitude of altruism, are qualities that are of tremendous importance for
-the individual, as well as for society and the community at large.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great
- Perfection", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The value of transmission is not only that of introducing the state of
-knowledge, but lies also in its function of bringing about the maturing of the
-transmission, right up until one reaches realization. For this reason the
-relationship that links master and disciple is a very close one. The master,
-in Dzogchen, is not just like a friend who helps and collaborates with the
-disciple; rather the master is himself or herself the path. This is because
-the practice of contemplation develops through the unification of the state of
-the disciple with that of the master. The master is extremely important, too,
-at the Sutra and the Tantra levels of teaching, in the former because he or she
-is the holder of Buddha's teachings, and in the latter because he or she is the
-source of all the manifestations of transformation.
- -- Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, in "Dzogchen: The Self-perfected State",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Setting the Appropriate Motivation
- It is very important before receiving any Dharma teaching to set a proper
-motivation, or reaffirm and enhance that motivation if we already basically
-have it. This is important not only for those who are listening to a spiritual
-discourse, but also for the person delivering it. If a discourse or
-explanation is given with an attitude of pride, competitiveness or jealousy, it
-will not do as a Dharma teaching. A Buddhist teaching must be given with the
-sincere wish to benefit all beings by means of it.
- Likewise, the listeners to a Buddhist teaching must have a proper
-motivation, always thinking, "What new point can I learn from this that will
-help me be of more benefit to others?" If we sit here with the notion to learn
-something about mahamudra so that we can make a display of ourselves and
-proudly talk to others about mahamudra so that they will consider us an
-erudite, spiritual person, we have a completely wrong motivation.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, from "The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-There is one simple Divinity found in all things, everything has Divinity
-latent within itself. For she enfolds and imparts herself even unto the
-smallest beings. Without her presence nothing would have being, because she
-is the essence of the existence of the first unto the last being.
- -- Giordano Bruno, "The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast", (1582)
-~
-Even to have come forth is something, since I see that being able to conquer
-is placed in the hands of fate. However, there was in me, whatever I was able
-to do, that which no future century will deny to be mine, that which a victor
-could have for his own: Not to have feared to die, not to have yielded to any
-equal in firmness of nature, and to have preferred a courageous death to a
-noncombatant life.
- -- Giordano Bruno, "De Monade"
-~
-Thus is the excellence of God magnified and the greatness of his kingdom made
-manifest; He is glorified not in one, but in countless suns; not in a single
-earth, a single world, but in a thousand thousand, I say in an infinity of
-worlds!
- -- Giordano Bruno
-~
-The real story of our times is seldom told in the horse-puckey-filled memoirs
-of dopey, self-serving presidents or generals, but in the outrageous, demented
-lives of guys like Lenny Bruce, Giordano Bruno, Scott Fitzgerald--and Paul
-Krassner. The burrs under society's saddle. The pains in the ass.
- -- Harlan Ellison
-~
-The Tibetan word that is usually translated as "blessing" or "inspiration" can
-more literally be translated as "to transform into magnificence." We are
-asking the Buddhas to transform our minds into magnificence. How that happens
-isn't by the Buddha going in and pulling some switches inside our mind.
-Because our mind is conditioned and changing, the mental energy of the Buddha's
-realizations can affect our energy, so to speak. Conditioned phenomena affect
-each other, so the force of Tara's realizations can positively affect our mind.
- -- Thubten Chodron, in "How to Free Your Mind", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-A botnet is comparable to compulsory military service for windows boxes.
- -- Stromberg
-~
-The greatest strength is gentleness. -- Iroquois proverb
-~
-Whether or not we actually achieve the realisation of bodhicitta and to what
-level or depth we gain such a realisation depends upon the force of our
-experience of great compassion. This great compassion, which aspires to free
-all sentient beings from suffering, is not confined to the level of mere
-aspiration. It has a dimension of far greater power, which is the sense of
-commitment or responsibility to personally bring about this objective of
-fulfilling others' welfare. In order to cultivate this powerful great
-compassion, we need to train our mind separately in two other factors. One is
-to cultivate a sense of empathy with or closeness to all sentient beings, for
-whose sake we wish to work so that they become free from suffering. The other
-factor is to cultivate a deeper insight into the nature of the suffering from
-which we wish others to be relieved.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, from "Lighting the Way", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Religion does not mean just precepts, a temple, monastery, or other external
-signs, for these as well as hearing and thinking are subsidiary factors in
-taming the mind. When the mind becomes the practices, one is a practitioner
-of religion, and when the mind does not become the practices one is not.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Deity Yoga", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Hamlet's Cat's Soliloquy
-
-To go outside, and there perchance to stay
-Or to remain within: that is the question:
-Whether 'tis better for a cat to suffer
-The cuffs and buffets of inclement weather
-That Nature rains on those who roam abroad,
-Or take a nap upon a scrap of carpet,
-And so by dozing melt the solid hours
-That clog the clock's bright gears with sullen time
-And stall the dinner bell.
-To sit, to stare Outdoors, and by a stare to seem to state
-A wish to venture forth without delay,
-Then when the portal's opened up, to stand
-As if transfixed by doubt.
-To prowl; to sleep;
-To choose not knowing when we may once more
-Our readmittance gain: aye, there's the hairball;
-For if a paw were shaped to turn a knob,
-Or work a lock or slip a window-catch,
-And going out and coming in were made
-As simple as the breaking of a bowl,
-What cat would bear the household's petty plagues,
-The cook's well-practiced kicks, the butler's broom,
-The infant's careless pokes, the tickled ears,
-The trampled tail, and all the daily shocks
-That fur is heir to, when, of his own free will,
-He might his exodus or entrance make
-With a mere mitten?
-Who would spaniels fear,
-Or strays trespassing from a neighbor's yard,
-But that the dread of our unheeded cries
-And scratches at a barricaded door
-No claw can open up, dispels our nerve
-And makes us rather bear our humans' faults
-Than run away to unguessed miseries?
-Thus caution doth make house cats of us all;
-And thus the bristling hair of resolution
-Is softened up with the pale brush of thought,
-And since our choices hinge on weighty things,
-We pause upon the threshold of decision.
- -- shakespaw
-~
-It is not good to begin many different works, saying "This looks good; that
-looks good", touching this, touching that, and not succeeding in any of them.
-If you do not generate great desires but aim at what is fitting, you can
-actualise the corresponding potencies and become an expert in that. With
-success, the power or imprint of that practice is generated.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Tantra in Tibet", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Through the skillful methods of tantra, meditators are able to cultivate
-pleasure in a way that actually aids in spiritual progress. Afflicted
-grasping and desires based on mistaken ideas are the problem, not happiness
-and pleasure. If the pursuit of happiness and pleasure can be separated
-from afflictive emotions, then it can be incorporated into the path and
-will even become a powerful aid to the attainment of enlightenment.
- -- John Powers, in "Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-REFUGE
-What kind of refuge does Buddhism offer? How are Buddhists and non-Buddhists
-differentiated? From the viewpoint of refuge, a Buddhist is someone who
-accepts Buddha, his doctrine, and the spiritual community as the final refuge.
-From the viewpoint of philosophy, a Buddhist is someone who asserts the four
-views that guarantee a doctrine as being Buddhist. With respect to the three
-refuges, called the Three Jewels, it is said that the Buddha is the teacher of
-refuge but that the actual refuge is the Dharma, the doctrine. Buddha himself
-said, "I teach the path of liberation. Liberation itself depends upon you."
-From the same perspective, Buddha said, "You are your own master." The
-spiritual community are those who assist one in achieving refuge.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Dalai Lama at Harvard", Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-Bodhisattvas are motivated by universal compassion, and they seek the ultimate
-goal of buddhahood in order to be of service to others. They embark on this
-path with the generation of the mind of enlightenment, which Geshe Rabten
-states is "the wish for Supreme Enlightenment for the sake of others. The sign
-of the true Bodhicitta is the constant readiness to undergo any sacrifice for
-the happines of all beings." Unlike ordinary beings, who think of their own
-advantage, bodhisattvas consider how best to benefit others.
- -- John Powers, in "Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Why are there fierce protectors? Peaceful deities such as Tara have a certain
-energy that calms and gladdens our mind. But sometimes our mind is so
-belligerent and stuck that we need the kind of energy that goes "Pow!" to wake
-us up or to pull us out of unproductive behavior. For this reason, the
-Buddhas' wisdom and compassion appear in the form of these wrathful deities to
-demonstrate clean-clear wisdom and compassion that act directly. This active
-wisdom doesn't vacillate and pamper us. This wisdom doesn't say, "Well,
-maybe," or, "Poor you. You deserve to be treated well, not like that horrible
-person treated you." Instead, it's forceful: "Cut it out! Stop those false
-expectations and preconceptions right now!" Sometimes we need that strong,
-wise energy to be in our face to wake us up to the fact that our afflictions
-and old patterns of thought and behavior are making us miserable.
- -- Thubten Chodron, in "How to Free Your Mind: Tara the Liberator"
-~
-I never joined the army because at ease was never that easy to me. Seemed
-rather uptight still. I don't relax by parting my legs slightly and putting
-my hands behind my back. That does not equal ease. At ease was not being
-in the military. I am at ease, bro, because I am not in the military.
- -- Mitch Hedberg
-~
-The human essence of good sense finds no room with anger. Anger, jealousy,
-impatience, and hatred are the real troublemakers; with them problems cannot
-be solved. Though one may have temporary success, ultimately one's hatred or
-anger will create further difficulties. With anger, all actions are swift.
-When we face problems with compassion, sincerely and with good motivation, it
-may take longer, but ultimately the solution is better, for there is far less
-chance of creating a new problem through the temporary "solution" of the
-present one.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama in "Kindness, Clarity and Insight", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Killing and eating meat are interrelated, so do we have to give up eating
-animal products? I myself once tried to give it up, but health problems arose
-and two years later my doctors advised me to again use meat in my diet. If
-there are people who can give up eating meat, we can only rejoice in their
-noble efforts. In any case, at least we should try to lessen our intake of
-meat and not eat it anywhere where it is in scarce supply and our consumption
-of it would cause added slaughter.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama in "The Path to Enlightenment", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The mind is beyond expression, thought and conceptualization, because it is
-empty. Yet, there is phenomena and appearance. The objects that you cling to
-in this waking reality are dreamlike, but if you do not inquire into the nature
-of this dream, you remain attracted as though there were really something here.
-Upon examination, you find that these objects have no true existence at all and
-are just like space. A practitioner who understands that phenomena lack
-inherent existence and resemble space should then examine himself or herself to
-discover whether he or she possesses an individual self. Then it will be
-discovered that there is no truly existing examiner either.
- -- Gyatrul Rinpoche, from "The Generation Stage in Buddhist Tantra",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
- -- Isaac Asimov
-~
-In discursive meditations it is imperative that one's growing disenchantment
-with mundane existence is complemented with growing confidence in the real
-possibility of true freedom and lasting joy that transcends the vicissitudes
-of conditioned existence. Without this faith and the yearning for such
-liberation, the meditations may easily result in profound depression, in which
-everything seems hollow, unreal, and futile. Thus instead of polarizing one's
-desires towards the single-pointed pursuit of nirvana, one is reduced to a
-debilitating kind of spiritual sloth.
- -- B. Alan Wallace, in "Balancing the Mind: A Tibetan Buddhist Approach
- to Refining Attention", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-I believe that in human actions, the prime mover is motivation. On the spot,
-it is important to tackle the symptoms of problems, but in the long run, it is
-necessary to look at the motivation and whether there is possibility to change
-it. For the long run, this is crucial. As long as the negative motivation is
-not changed, then although there might be certain rules and methods to stop
-counterproductive actions, human beings have the ability through various ways
-to express their negative feeling. Thus, for the long run, we need to look at
-our motivation and try to change it. This means that we must try to cultivate
-the right kind of motivation and try to reduce the negative motivation.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Art of Peace: Nobel Peace Laureates Discuss
- Human Rights, Conflict and Reconciliation", edited by Jeffrey Hopkins,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-When we talk of karma or action, it entails action committed by an agent, in
-this case, oneself, in the past. So what type of future will come about, to a
-large extent, lies within one's own hands and can be determined by the kind of
-initiatives that one takes now. Not only that, but karma should not be
-understood in terms of passive, static kind of force, but rather in terms of
-active process. This indicates that there is an important role for the
-individual agent to play in determining the course of the karmic process.
-Consider, for instance, a simple act like fulfilling our need for food. In
-order to achieve that simple goal one must take action on one's own behalf: one
-needs to look for food, to prepare it, to eat it. This shows that even a
-simple act, even a simple goal is achieved through action.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a
- Buddhist Perspective", Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Nothing is easier than to bring others down to our level, particularly in
-cultures where it is taken as a sign of keen intelligence to view every person
-and situation as a challenge to "name the ten things wrong with this picture."
-The presence of Guru Rinpoche in so many forms in our world makes us question
-life in a way pre-1959 persons rarely had to. Life isn't the same after
-meeting the Dalai Lama or Kyentse Rinpoche and others. We can't erase them
-from our minds, as inconvenient as these open doors to enlightenment might be.
-We had other plans; we didn't ask to see so vividly another totally different
-horizon.
- The question, "How can I integrate this into my daily life?" doesn't plumb
-the depth of the inquiry. I have translated for lamas in North America,
-Europe, and Asia, and have found this to be the typical North American
-question. I think the best answer is, "You can't; don't even try." But I
-have to wonder about the question itself. What do you do when an event or an
-encounter changes your life? If you won a 10,000,000 dollar jackpot, if a
-dear friend dies, or if you fall deeply in love, do you ask, "How can I
-integrate this into my daily life?" Some events change us, are earth-
-shattering, and are not meant to be integrated into what can sometimes feel
-like a rat race existence. Meeting Guru Rinpoche is one such event.
- -- Ngawang Zangpo, in "Guru Rinpoche: His Life and Times", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Now in terms of the actual practice, when one is immersed in the contemplation
-of the clear light, since all dualistic appearances vanish, it becomes
-impossible to distinguish the object from the consciousness perceiving it.
-They seem to become as if they were one, like water mixed with water. Of
-course, strictly speaking, there are two entities, subject and object, but
-within the experience of the clear light this duality is lost.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Answers: Discussions with Western Buddhists",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Guardians of the teachings
- There are eight principal classes of Guardians each with many subdivisions.
-Some are highly realized beings, others not realized at all. Every place--
-every continent, country, city, mountain, river, lake or forest--has its
-particular dominant energy, or Guardian, as have every year, hour and even
-minute: these are not highly evolved energies. The various teachings all have
-energies which have special relationships with them: these are more realized
-Guardians. These energies are iconographically portrayed as they were
-perceived when they manifested to masters who had contact with them, and their
-awesome power is represented by their terrifyingly ferocious forms, their many
-arms and heads, and their ornaments of the charnel ground. As with all the
-figures in tantric iconography, it is not correct to interpret the figures of
-the guardians as merely symbolic, as some Western writers have been tempted to
-do. Though the iconographic forms have been shaped by the perceptions and
-culture of those who saw the original manifestation and by the development of
-tradition, actual beings are represented.
- -- Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, "The Crystal and the Way of Light: Sutra, Tantra
- and Dzogchen, Teachings of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu", compiled and edited by
- John Shane, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-5. When others out of jealousy treat me unreasonably, with abuse, slander, and
-so on, I will learn to take all loss and offer the victory to them. When any
-type of deserved or undeserved slander, prompted by jealousy, and so forth,
-and unpleasant verbal abuse [comes to one], do not lose patience. Keep a
-peaceful mind. Further, when problems arise, do not say "It is his fault,
-not mine!" Accept the blame, as did Geshe Lang ri thang pa. [Reflect:]
- "Whoever created this mess, it includes me! I have [a hand in it] also."
-The reason for this is that we must endeavor toward generosity and the various
-modes of ethical behavior, for the sake of purifying our many misdeeds and
-completing the accumulations [of merit and wisdom].
- Therefore, when one shows kindness to slanderers, even if one does not
-deserve the abuse and slander, it is said to be necessary for purifying our
-misdeeds when problems arise. Taking all blame on ourselves prevents our evil
-karma from arising.
- Geshe Lang ri thang pa speaks of a person from the Valley of Phan who
-sometimes gave a little butter cake to the Lamas, and at other times slandered
-them for no reason. The Lamas regarded him with great kindness. This
-cleansed their misdeeds and helped their accumulation of the two collections.
-They claimed that his slanderous talk was great. Shantideva's
-bodhisattvacaryavatara says:
- Therefore, since patience can be generated
- In dependence upon a very hate filled mind
- And because it is the cause of patience,
- Make offerings to it as if it was the most excellent doctrine!
-More correct even than this statement is that ethics and patience lead to
-great merit, and to the end of misdeeds such as anger. Therefore it is said
-that the hardest practice is patience. [Learn] the patience that is keeping
-still no matter what happens.
- -- Lo Jong
-~
-I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.
- -- Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)
-~
-All sentient beings are exactly the same in that every one desires happiness
-and seeks to avoid misery. We are not isolated entities disconnected from
-each other. The happiness and suffering of other beings affect us. This
-mutual relation is obvious. Sentient beings have been kind and have benefited
-us directly and indirectly throughout beginningless time. These beings are
-intrinsically the same as us in their pursuit of happiness and effort to avoid
-suffering. Thus, it is essentially logical for us to train in cultivating an
-impartial attitude wishing for the happiness of all beings.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Stages of Meditation", Snow Lion Pub.
-~
- Our exaggerated sense of self and our compulsion to find happiness for this
-larger-than-life self we have fabricated cause us to ignore, neglect and harm
-others. Of course, it is our right to love and take care of ourselves, but
-not at the expense of others. While "As long as I'm alright" is our motto,
-we have no hesitation in acting with total disregard for others.
- We may find this description of self-concern altogether too crass to apply
-to us. "I'm not like that," we object, but though we may not consciously
-think in this way, when self-concern is operating, our behavior shows a cold
-indifference to others. Conflicts between partners, parents and children and
-with other family members, conflicts between students and teachers and on a
-larger scale within and between countries have their source in personal and
-collective self-concern.
- Buddhas and Bodhisattvas see clearly that our neglect of others, our self-
-preoccupation and our disregard for the connection between actions and their
-effects are responsible for all our miseries.
- -- Geshe Sonam Rinchen, in "The Three Principal Aspects of the Path: An
- Oral Teaching", translated and edited by Ruth Sonam, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Ordinarily, it is difficult to remember one's past life. Such recollections
-seem to be more vivid when the child is very young, such as two or three, and
-in some cases even younger. ...When the present body is fully formed, the
-ability to recall past life seems to diminish.
- The mental associations with this life become increasingly dominant. There
-is a close relationship during the first few years of one's life with the
-continuum of consciousness from the previous life. But as experiences of this
-life become more developed and elaborate, they dominate.
- It is also possible within this lifetime to enhance the power of the mind,
-enabling one to reaccess memories from previous lives. Such recollection
-tends to be more accessible during meditative experiences in the dream state.
-Once one has accessed memories of previous lives in the dream state, one
-gradually recalls them in the waking state.
- -- H.H Dalai Lama, in "Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations with
- The Dalai Lama on Brain Science and Buddhism", Edited by Zara Houshmand,
- Robert B. Livingston and B. Alan Wallace, Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Relaxation involves a kind of awareness which reverses the normal tendency
-that we have. Because, as we have seen, this ordinary sense of self that we
-have lacks inherent self existence, it has to keep constructing itself and
-that requires a particular kind of effort. The ego's root feeling is that if
-I do not hold myself together there will be a falling apart into something
-chaotic and difficult. So there is anxiety, an energetic anxiety which is
-located in the body, in the whole energetic system of the body and
-interpersonal turbulence reminds us again and again "If I don't keep it
-together, I will get in trouble." The belief in reincarnation indicates that
-for many lifetimes we have been caught up in this anxiety, this nervous
-contraction which is holding our ordinary grasping sense of self in place.
- -- from "Being Right Here: A Dzogchen Treasure Text of Nuden Dorje entitled
- 'The Mirror of Clear Meaning,'" commentary by James Low, Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Buddhas are always striving for the welfare of beings migrating in cyclic
-existence. In every hour and minute they create limitless forms of welfare
-for beings throughout billions of emanations of their body, speech and mind.
-For instance, in this aeon--an aeon being a period of an extremely great
-number of years--they will appear in the aspect of one thousand supreme
-Emanation Bodies (Nirmanakaya) as Buddhas, and each will have his own new
-teaching.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Buddhism of Tibet", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Spiritual Mentors
- The Buddhist teachings differentiate between flash insights (nyam, nyams),
-and stable realizations (togpa, rtogs-pa). A flash insight does not make a
-significant change in one's life, but may lead in that direction. A stable
-realization, on the other hand, whether it be partial or complete, actually
-produces a noticeable improvement that lasts. The distinction we are drawing
-here between Dharma instructors and spiritual mentors derives from this
-difference. Dharma instructors may have either insight or realization,
-whereas spiritual mentors need to have some level of stable realization.
- -- Alexander Berzin, in "Relating to a Spiritual Teacher: Building a
- Healthy Relationship, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Not even computers will replace committees, because committees buy computers.
- -- Edward Shepherd Mead
-~
-If you can't do what you want, do what you can. -- Lois McMaster Bujold
-~
-Human history is work history. The heroes of the people are work heroes.
- -- Meridel le Sueur
-~
-It is not the man who has too little,
-but the man who craves more, that is poor.
- -- Seneca
-~
-Drive-in banks were established so most of the
-cars today could see their real owners.
- -- E. Joseph Crossman
-~
-I base my fashion taste on what doesn't itch. -- Gilda Radner
-~
-It's a job that's never started that takes the longest to finish.
- -- J.R.R. Tolkien
-~
-You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that
-make you want to live to be a hundred.
- -- Woody Allen
-~
-No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.
- -- Elbert Hubbard
-~
-Do not look where you fell but where you slipped.
-~
-There is nothing more demoralizing than a small but adequate income.
- -- Edmund Wilson
-~
-Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor done.
- -- Elizabeth Barret Browning
-~
-Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.
- -- Robert Louis Stevenson
-~
-We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from
-artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons.
- -- Alfred E. Newman, Mad Magazine
-~
-The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.
- -- Richard Bach
-~
-You are what you are--and not what people think you are. -- O.W. Polen
-~
-Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
- -- Aristotle
-~
-From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.
- -- Arthur Ashe
-~
-I touch the future. I teach. -- Christa McAuliffe
-~
-Curiosity is one of the permanent and
-certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.
- -- Samuel Johnson
-~
-People ask for criticism, but they only want praise. -- W. Somerset Maugham
-~
-Money is like muck, not good except it be spread. -- Sir Francis Bacon
-~
-The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting
-otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.
- -- Theodore Rubin
-~
-We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.
- -- Wernher von Braun
-~
-The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and
-write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.
- -- Alvin Toffler
-~
-Wealth is the possession of whatever gives us happiness,
-contentment or a sense of significance.
- -- Ernest Wilson
-~
-To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance. -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-I bought some batteries, but they weren't included. -- Steven Wright
-~
-The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool.
- -- Jane Wagner
-~
-People who work sitting down get paid
-more than people who work standing up.
- -- Ogden Nash
-~
-It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves. -- Sir Edmund Hillary
-~
-What we should ask of ourselves is growth, not perfection. -- Pat Boone
-~
-Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand. -- Unknown
-~
-The purpose of life is to fight maturity. -- Dick Wertheimer
-~
-Your true value depends entirely on what you are compared with. -- Bob Wells
-~
-A good mind possesses a kingdom. -- Lucius Anaaeus Seneca
-~
-I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the
-position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles he has
-overcome while trying to succeed.
- -- Booker T. Washington
-~
-An intelligence test sometimes shows a man how smart
-he would have been not to have taken it.
- -- Laurence J. Peter
-~
-I have not lost my mind--it's backed up on disk somewhere. -- Unknown
-~
-Wise men talk because they have something to say;
-fools, because they have to say something.
- -- Plato
-~
-Don't waste a thousand dollars' worth of emotion over a 5-cent triviality.
- -- Anonymous
-~
-Fortune does not change men, it unmasks them. -- Suzanne Necker
-~
-Some people are born on third base and go
-through life thinking they have hit a triple.
- -- Barry Switzer
-~
-I can't understand why people are scared of new ideas.
-I'm frightened of the old ones.
- -- John Cage
-~
-It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on. -- Samuel Goldwyn
-~
-When we practice, initially, as a basis we control ourselves, stopping the bad
-actions which hurt others as much as we can. This is defensive. After that,
-when we develop certain qualifications, then as an active goal we should help
-others. In the first stage, sometimes we need isolation while pursuing our
-own inner development; however, after you have some confidence, some strength,
-you must remain with, contact, and serve society in any field--health,
-education, politics, or whatever.
-
-There are people who call themselves religious-minded, trying to show this by
-dressing in a peculiar manner, maintaining a peculiar way of life, and
-isolating themselves from the rest of society. That is wrong. A scripture of
-mind-purification (mind-training) says, "Transform your inner viewpoint, but
-leave your external appearance as it is." This is important. Because the
-very purpose of practicing the Great Vehicle is service for others, you should
-not isolate yourselves from society. In order to serve, in order to help, you
-must remain in society.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Dalai Lama, A Policy of Kindness",
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The indivisible nature of mind is said to possess a "mobile quality." This
-mobile quality is described as currents of energy which flow through the
-channels of various parts of the body, presiding over physical as well as
-mental functions, and pass through the nostrils as breathing. Such currents
-of energy, called "winds" (rlung, vayu), serve as the bridge between body and
-mind.
- The winds are a blend of two types of energy, one associated with
-emotionality, called karmic or conditioned wind (las kyi rlung), and the other
-related to the original state of the individual, called pristine awareness
-wind (ye shes kyi rlung). Distinguished in terms of the three principles,
-darkness (tamas), mobility (rajas), and buoyancy (sattva), winds are of three
-types: wind of Rahu, solar wind, and lunar wind. Moreover, the winds are
-differentiated as the five root winds (rtsa ba'i rlung), the natures of the
-five elements, and five branch winds (yan lag gi rlung), produced through the
-five elemental transformations. The winds of the five elements, or five
-mandalas, flow back and forth through the right and left nostrils in the order
-of generation of the elements and of birth (first space, then wind, fire,
-water, earth) and in the order of dissolution of the elements and of death
-(first earth, then water, and so on), respectively. In one day, they are
-exhaled and inhaled 21,600 times, divided between the two nostrils, a time
-corresponding to eight periods or watches (thun). The outward movement of
-these energy currents as the breath diminishes the strength of the wind
-associated with pristine awareness. Therefore, when outward movement
-increases, there occur signs of death. If the winds are held inside,
-pristine awareness wind is strengthened. Hence, many extraordinary powers
-such as longevity are gained through breath control techniques for "holding
-the winds" in the central channel.
- -- Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, in "The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Six,
- Part Four: Systems of Buddhist Tantra, The Indestructible Way of
- Secret Mantra"
-~
-When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
- -- Jimi Hendrix
-~
- ...you should have the deep conviction that cessation of the sufferings and
-the delusions is possible, and also that it is possible within your mind.
-True cessation is a state where you have destroyed the delusions at their root
-so that there remains no potential for their re-emergence. Such a cessation
-can be realized only through the true paths that penetrate into the nature of
-reality.
- When you develop this conviction, you will also be able to develop faith in
-a being who has really mastered cessation, who is the Buddha--a person who has
-fully accomplished the realization of the dharma. If you contemplate along
-such lines, you will be able to develop a very deep faith and conviction in
-Buddha Shakyamuni and see him as an incomparable master.
- What distinguishes Buddhist practitioners from others is the factor of
-taking refuge. But merely seeking a refuge out of the fear of suffering is
-not unique to Buddhists; non-Buddhists could also have such a motivation. The
-unique practice of refuge that Buddhists should have is that of taking refuge
-in the Buddha out of a deep conviction in his exceptional qualities and
-realizations. If you think in such terms you will be able to understand Lama
-Tsongkhapa's profound praise of Buddha Shakyamuni: "Those who are far from his
-doctrine always reinforce the illusion of self-existence that they have within
-themselves, whereas those who follow his guidance will be able to free
-themselves from such confusions."
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Path to Bliss", Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...they say that the initial realization of the nature of the mind is the
-first breakthrough. It's a very important point in all Buddhist schools. At
-that moment, you cease to be an ordinary person. You become in Buddhist
-parlance an arya, a noble one. It doesn't mean you are finished. It doesn't
-mean you are a high level bodhisattva. We can fall back from this. But
-still, this is a big breakthrough. We now understand what is true and what is
-not true. We don't have to take it all on faith any more. It is a direct
-non-dual experience. The point is that it is very easy. It's not difficult,
-and it's not something that can only be attained after years and years of
-practice.
- Our main obstacle is the fact that we don't know how to relax our minds
-enough to be open to this experience. In the back of our minds we keep
-thinking this is something so difficult and so advanced. For this reason we
-don't recognize what is in front of our face. This is why a teacher can be
-extraordinarily helpful. A teacher living within that realization is able--
-if the mind of the disciple is completely open--to transmit his or her
-experience. The problem here is that we have too many hopes and fears; it
-creates a barrier. It is very hard to be open. You can't just will it.
- -- Ani Tenzin Palmo, in "Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings on
- Practical Buddhism"
-~
-The Level of Initial Capacity
-
-All the essential spiritual practices related primarily to the achievement of
-rebirth in the higher realms belong to what Atisha calls the 'small capacity'.
-
-Verse 3
- Know that those who by whatever means
- Seek for themselves no more
- Than the pleasures of cyclic existence
- Are persons of the least capacity.
- [Atisha's Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment]
-
-...the principal means for attaining birth in the higher realms is the ethical
-discipline of refraining from the ten negative actions of body, speech and
-mind. These comprise three actions of the body--killing, stealing and sexual
-misconduct; four verbal actions--lying, divisive speech, harsh speech and
-frivolous speech; and three mental actions--covetousness, ill-will and
-harbouring wrong views. To live an ethically sound life, it helps to remind
-ourselves of what are known as the four reflections, namely the preciousness
-of human life; the inevitability of our death and the uncertainty of the time
-of death; the infallibility of the law of cause and effect and the workings of
-karma; and understanding the nature of suffering. Concerning the first
-reflection, some Tibetan masters have said that when we contemplate the
-preciousness of this human existence, we should literally cultivate the
-determination to make our human life something precious in itself, rather than
-allowing it to be wasted or to become a cause of future suffering.
-
-Contemplating these four reflections gives us the courage to engage earnestly
-in the practice of the Dharma in order to free ourselves from the possibility
-of rebirth in the lower realms. This involves a process of training our mind,
-not just at the mental level but also at the level of our emotions and
-actions. Living an ethical life is not a case of adhering to a set of
-regulations imposed on us from outside, such as the laws of a country. Rather
-it involves voluntarily embracing a discipline on the basis of a clear
-recognition of its value. In essence, living a true ethical life is living a
-life of self-discipline. When the Buddha said that 'we are our own master, we
-are our own enemy', he was telling us that our destiny lies in our own hands.
-
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Lighting the Way", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-In his autobiography Freedom in Exile, His Holiness the Dalai Lama speaks of
-his attachment as a child to the monastery's Master of the Kitchen,
-commenting, "I sometimes think that the act of bringing food is one of the
-basic roots of all relationships." And the connection between giving food and
-understanding the interrelationship of all life is recognized also in stories
-about the belated discovery of an enlightened master who lived humbly as a
-monastery cook; or the stories of a great lama who gathers his disciples to
-test their progress, only to discover that the most highly realized of all is
-the cook, who has neither meditated nor studied, but who simply served the
-others.
- May you have long life,
- may the house be filled with grain,
- and may you have the luck
- to make use of this abundance.
- -- Tibetan drinking song
-
- -- Tsering Wangmo and Zara Houshmand, in "The Lhasa Moon Tibetan Cookbook"
-~
-The Level of Middling Capacity
-
-In the following verse Atisha describes the characteristics of spiritual
-trainees of the middling capacity.
-
-Verse 4
- Those who seek peace for themselves alone,
- Turning away from worldly pleasures
- And avoiding destructive actions
- Are said to be of middling capacity.
- -- Atisha's Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment
-
-The phrase "destructive actions" refers to the afflictions that, together with
-karma, constitute the origin of suffering. This is why practitioners at the
-level of middling capacity concentrate on the spiritual practices that are
-primarily aimed at the elimination of the afflictions. Broadly speaking,
-these practices fall into two categories. One is training the mind to
-cultivate the genuine desire to gain freedom from cyclic existence, which is
-often referred to as the cultivation of renunciation. The other is
-cultivating the path to bring about the fulfillment of that wish for
-renunciation. In order to train one's mind in this way, one needs to reflect
-upon the defects of cyclic existence and to develop an understanding of the
-causation chain of karma and the afflictions. Through these reflections one
-cultivates the wish to gain freedom and then embarks upon the path to bring
-about that freedom.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Lighting the Way", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Number of Recitations
- The sixth section of the yoga of speech concerns measuring the accumulation
-of mantra recitations. How do you know when you have recited enough of a
-particular mantra? Generally speaking, you should count a mantra until you
-achieve some common spiritual power and ideally until you achieve the supreme
-spiritual attainment. Wouldn't that be the best way?
- After all, if you are really hungry, don't you eat until you are satisfied?
-Similarly, if you plan a trip to San Francisco, you want to travel until you
-arrive at your destination. You would not travel halfway and be satisfied
-with that, would you? In the same way, when you recite a mantra, you have a
-specific goal in mind: to gain the supreme spiritual attainment--buddhahood.
-Wouldn't it be wise to keep on reciting the mantra until you have achieved
-your goal, or at least until you achieve some perceptible improvement?
- -- Gyatrul Rinpoche, in "The Generation Stage in Buddhist Tantra", published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The Level of Great Capacity
-
-Atisha continues his discussion on the three capacities by turning his
-attention to spiritual trainees at the highest level.
-
-Verse 5
- Those who, through their personal suffering,
- Truly want to end completely
- All the suffering of others
- Are persons of supreme capacity.
- -- Atisha's Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment
-
-Practitioners at this level use their deep understanding of the nature of
-suffering, derived from reflection on their personal experience, to recognise
-the fundamental equality of oneself and others insofar as the desire to
-overcome suffering is concerned. This then leads to the arising of a
-spontaneous wish to free all sentient beings from their suffering, a wish
-which becomes the powerful impetus for engaging in spiritual practices aimed
-at bringing about this altruistic objective.
-
-The most important practice in relation to this altruistic goal is the
-generation of bodhicitta, the altruistic aspiration to attain buddhahood for
-the benefit of all beings.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in Lighting the Way, Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The Meaning of Empowerment
- As for empowerment in general, what does the term wang, or empowerment,
-signify? To begin with, our fundamental nature--what we term "the buddha
-nature", or tathagatagarbha, the very nature of our mind, is inherently
-present within us as a natural attribute. This mind of ours, the subject at
-hand, has been going on throughout beginningless time, and so has the more
-subtle nature of that mind. On the basis of the continuity of that subtle
-nature of our mind rests the capacity we have to attain enlightenment. This
-potential is what we call "the seed of buddhahood", "buddha nature", "the
-fundamental nature", or tathagatagarbha. We all have this buddha nature, each
-and every one of us. For example, this beautiful statue of Lord Buddha here,
-in the presence of which we are now sitting, is a representation that honours
-someone who attained buddhahood. He awakened into that state of enlightenment
-because his nature was the buddha nature. Ours is as well, and just as the
-Buddha attained enlightenment in the past, so in the future we can become
-buddhas too.
- In any case, there dwells within us all this potential which allows us to
-awaken into buddhahood and attain omniscience. The empowerment process draws
-that potential out, and allows it to express itself more fully. When an
-empowerment is conferred on you, it is the nature of your mind--the buddha
-nature--that provides a basis upon which the empowerment can ripen you.
-Through the empowerment, you are empowered into the essence of the buddhas of
-the five families. In particular, you are "ripened" within that particular
-family through which it is your personal predisposition to attain buddhahood.
- So, with these auspicious circumstances established in your mindstream,
-and when you reflect on what is taking place and maintain the various
-visualizations, the conditions are right for the essence of the empowerment to
-awaken within you, as a state of wisdom which is blissful yet empty--a very
-special state that is the inseparability of basic space and awareness. As you
-focus your devotion in this way, it allows this special quality of mind, this
-new capability, as it were, to awaken.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great
- Perfection", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Value Our Good Circumstances
- We often focus on a few circumstances in our life that aren't going well
-instead of all those that are. Although we all have problems, when we over-
-emphasize their importance, we easily begin thinking that we are incapable and
-worthless. Such self-hatred immobilizes us and prevents us from developing
-our good qualities and sharing them with others.
- When we look at the broad picture, however, we can see many positive things
-in our life. We can rejoice that we are alive and appreciate whatever degree
-of good health we have. We also have food (often too much!), shelter,
-clothing, medicine, friends, relatives, and a myriad of good circumstances.
-Many of the people reading this book live in peaceful places, not in war-torn
-areas. Many have jobs they like, and family and friends they appreciate. We
-shouldn't take these for granted. Most importantly, from a spiritual
-viewpoint, we have access to an authentic path, qualified teachers to guide
-us, and kind companions who encourage us. We have genuine spiritual
-aspirations and the time to cultivate these. Thinking about these good
-conditions one by one, we will be filled with joy, and any sense of being
-incapable and hopeless will vanish.
- -- Thubten Chodron, in "Working with Anger", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-15. This fresh state of present awareness, unspoiled
-
- This fresh state of present awareness (da lta'i shes pa)
- Unspoiled by dualistic thoughts,
- Effortlessly sustained in the natural state,
- Is Buddha Kuntu Zangpo's wisdom mind.
-
- Do not hope or fear for good or bad outcomes.
- Regardless of what formulation of thought occurs,
- they arise and are liberated simultaneously;
- Their essential nature is empty awareness.
- Reach that unmoving, unassailable state.
-
-I, Jnana, spoke these words immediately In response to
-Zangmo's supplication. May this be virtuous!
- -- from "Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoche's Heart Advice" translated and
- introduced by Ron Garry, published by Snow Lion
-~
- Concern for others to be happy and compassion wishing them to be free from
-suffering are needed not only as the basis for a bodhichitta motivation for
-mahamudra* practice, but also for keeping that practice on course to its
-intended goal. When we have changed our focus in life from the contents of
-our experience to the process of experience, there is great danger of becoming
-fixated on mind itself. This is because the direct experience of mind itself
-is totally blissful--in a calm and serene sense--and entails extraordinary
-clarity and starkness. Concern for others is one of the strongest forces that
-brings us back down to earth after having been up in the clouds. Although all
-appearances exist as a function of mind, other beings do not exist merely in
-our head. Their suffering is real and it hurts them just as much as ours
-hurts us.
- Furthermore, to be concerned about someone does not mean to be frantically
-worried about this person. If we are fixated on our child's problems at
-school, for example, we lose sight that whatever appearance of the problems
-our mind gives rise to is a function of mind. Believing the appearance to be
-the solid reality "out there," we again feel hopeless to do anything and thus
-become extremely anxious and tense. We worry to the point of becoming sick
-and we over-react toward our child, which does not help. If we focus instead
-on the process of mind that gives rise to our perception of the problem as if
-it existed as some horrible monster "out there," we do not eliminate our
-concern for our child, only our worry. This allows us to take whatever clear
-and calm action is necessary to alleviate the problem. Thus not only is
-compassion necessary for successful practice of mahamudra, but mahamudra
-realization is necessary for successful practice of compassion.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
- * "Mahamudra" is a Sanskrit word meaning "great seal" and refers to the
- nature of all phenomena. Mahamudra also refers to sophisticated Buddhist
- systems of meditation and practice to realize this great sealing nature.
-~
-Better to be deprived of food for three days, than tea for one.
- -- Chinese Proverb
-~
-45. This fresh present knowing, unbound
-
-This fresh present knowing,
-Unbound by the intellect that clings to meditation,
-Is naked unobstructed non-meditation.
-Relax at ease
-And settle in the state of naturalness.
-This is the meaning of realization of meditation.
-
-When thoughts move, let them.
-Movement arises and is liberated without a trace.
-When there is no movement, don't search for it.
-This is empty luminosity, naked empty awareness.
-Tantric practice without suppression or
- cultivation of thoughts
-Brings the accomplishment of the destruction
- of hope and fear.
-
-There is nothing more to add to this.
-Madman Dudjom said this:
-Let it remain like this in your heart.
- -- from "Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoche's Heart Advice", translated and
- introduced by Ron Garry, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...karma refers not only to our actions but, more importantly, to the
-motivation or intention behind them. The acts themselves are not the primary
-cause of our suffering; rather, it arises from the world of our intentions or,
-in other words, from our thoughts and emotions. These afflictive states of
-mind underlie our negative karma and are therefore the source of our
-suffering.
-
- Obviously, these afflictions won't go away simply by saying prayers or
-wishing them away; they can only be eliminated by cultivating their
-corresponding remedies or antidotes. To understand how this process of
-applying the antidote works we can observe our physical world. For instance,
-we can contrast heat and cold: if we are suffering from the effects of too
-cold a temperature, then we increase the thermometer on our heater or air-
-conditioning unit and adjust it to our comfort. Thus, even in the physical
-world we can see instances where opposing forces counter each other.
-
- ...From our own personal experience we recognise that anger and hostility
-disturb our peace of mind and, more importantly, that they have the potential
-to harm others. Conversely, we recognise that positive emotions like
-compassion and loving kindness can engender in us a deep sense of peace and
-serenity, beneficial results that we can extend to others as well. This
-appreciation of their great value naturally leads to a desire to cultivate
-these positive emotions. It is through this gradual process that the
-antidotes work in decreasing and eventually eliminating their opposing forces
-in the mental realm, the realm of our thoughts and emotions.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Lighting the Way", published by Snow Lion
-~
-Starting Dzogchen Practice
- When we start to practice, in order to grasp the normal mind, our first
-practice consists in engaging our mind. For example, if we have a problem of
-some kind, we may go to a movie to distract ourselves from our problem.
-Likewise when we start to practice, we try to calm down our problem-creating
-mind in order to be able to observe the nature of thought. The observation of
-the arising, abiding, and dissolving of thought in the empty state of the mind
-is an essential practice in Dzogchen in order to discover that moving thoughts
-are of the same nature as the thoughtless state of the mind. Since we are not
-accustomed to meditation, it seems very difficult, and every slight sound or
-movement, outside or inside the mind itself, becomes a major distraction
-interfering with our ability to continue to practice. In order to overcome
-this problem, we engage the mind in a practice so that it is not so easily
-distracted, by focusing attention so that the movement of the mind caused by
-thought or sense perception does not have the power to divert our
-concentration. This first stage, of grasping the mind, is concentration
-practice, described in detail in the Bonpo 'Ati' system.
- -- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, in "Wonders of the Natural Mind: The Essence of
- Dzogchen in the Native Bon Tradition of Tibet", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic
-religion for the future: it transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and
-theology; it covers both the natural & spiritual, and it is based on a
-religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and
-spiritual, as a meaningful unity
- -- Albert Einstein in "Albert Einstein: The Human Side", edited by Helen
- Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, Princeton University Press, 1954
-~
-Techniques for Improvement
- All of us have attained a human life; we are, in a sense, incomparable among
-the various types of sentient beings, as we are able to think about many
-topics with a subtler mind and are endowed with vaster capabilities. Dogs,
-birds, and so forth do communicate, but only humans can settle and ascertain
-deep topics on the basis of words; it is obvious that there are no other
-sentient beings capable of as many thoughts and techniques. Nowadays, humans
-are engaging in many activities that were not even objects of thought a
-century or two ago. The metaphors of the poets of the past, such as "the
-wonderful house of the moon", are becoming actualities.
- ...People have made great effort right up to this century, thinking to
-become free from suffering, but we cannot point to even one person in the
-world, no matter how rich he or she is, who has no worry--except for those
-who have the inner happiness of renouncing the material way of life. Without
-internal renunciation it is difficult to achieve happiness and comfort.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa and Jeffrey Hopkins from "Deity Yoga",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. -- Confucius
-~
-Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake,
-zucchini bread and pumpkin pie.
- -- Jim Davis (Garfield)
-~
-A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions
-than anything else in the world.
- -- Edmond de Concourt
-~
-Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens. -- Jimi Hendrix
-~
-There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
- -- Hamlet (by William Shakespeare)
-~
-People who have what they want are fond of telling people
-who haven't what they want that they really don't want it.
- -- Ogden Nash
-~
-There are only two ways of telling the complete
-truth--anonymously and posthumously.
- -- Thomas Sowell
-~
-The easiest way for your children to learn
-about money is for you not to have any.
- -- Katharine Whitehorn
-~
-If you look good and dress well, you don't need a purpose in life.
- -- Robert Pante
-~
-Do not go where the path may lead, go instead
-where there is no path and leave a trail.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-I have a simple philosophy.
-Fill what's empty.
-Empty what's full.
-Scratch where it itches.
- -- Alice Roosevelt Longworth
-~
-Time is what prevents everything from happening at once.
- -- John Archibald Wheeler
-~
-You know that children are growing up when they start
-asking questions that have answers.
- -- John J. Plomp
-~
-The average man, who does not know what to do with his life,
-wants another one which will last forever.
- -- Anatole France
-~
-Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is
-a broken winged bird that canot fly.
- -- Langston Hughes
-~
-Spare no expense to save money on this one. -- Samuel Goldwyn
-~
-It is absurd to divide people into good and bad.
-People are either charming or tedious.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute
-powerlessness make you pure?
- -- Harry Shearer
-~
-Parents were invented to make children happy
-by giving them something to ignore.
- -- Ofden Nash
-~
-Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.
- -- Jules de Gaultier
-~
-I'm a kind of paranoiac in reverse.
-I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.
- -- J. D. Salinger
-~
-If you find it in your heart to care for
-somebody else, you will have succeeded.
- -- Maya Angelou
-~
-Time is an illusion.
-Lunchtime doubly so.
- -- Douglas Adams
-~
-Acquaintance, n.:
-A person whom we know well enough to borrow from,
-but not well enough to lend to.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
-~
-The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
- -- Eleanor Roosevelt
-~
-Eighty percent of success is showing up. -- Woody Allen
-~
-Pity the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. -- Don Marquis
-~
-The only reason some people get lost in thought
-is because it's unfamiliar territory.
- -- Paul Fix
-~
-A child becomes an adult when he realizes that he has
-a right not only to be right but also to be wrong.
- -- Thomas Szasz
-~
-Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time. -- Steven Wright
-~
-Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast. -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
- -- William Shakespeare
-~
-If you can find something everyone agrees on, it's wrong. -- Mo Udall
-~
-I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money. -- Pablo Picasso
-~
-The shortest distance between two points is under construction.
- -- Noelie Altito
-~
-Lack of money is no obstacle.
-Lack of an idea is an obstacle.
- -- Ken Hakua
-~
-Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.
- -- Marcus Valerias Martialis
-~
-Great minds discuss ideas;
-average minds discuss events;
-small minds discuss people.
- -- Eleanor Roosevelt
-~
-I tend to live in the past because most of my life is there. -- Herb Caen
-~
-When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: "Whose?"
- -- Don Marquis
-~
-Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress. -- Mahatma Gandhi
-~
-I'm living so far beyond my income that we may
-almost be said to be living apart.
- -- ee cummings
-~
-I try to avoid looking forward or backward,
-and try to keep looking upward.
- -- Charlotte Bronte
-~
-My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me. -- Henry Ford
-~
-Without democracy, religion becomes extreme.
-With religion, democracy becomes more spiritual.
- -- Mohammad Khatami, president of Iran
-~
-For fast acting relief, try slowing down. -- Lily Tomlin
-~
-A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.
- -- Jonathan Swift
-~
-Poor people have more fun than rich people, they say; and
-I notice it's the rich people who keep saying it.
- -- Jack Parr
-~
-Whatever you are, be a good one. -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
- -- Malcolm Forbes
-~
-Never spend your money before you have it. -- Thomas Jefferson
-~
-Confusion is always the most honest response. -- Marty Indik
-~
-Doing nothing is very hard to do... you never know when you're finished.
- -- Leslie Nielsen
-~
-Free advice is worth the price. -- Robert Half
-~
-A person who trusts no one can't be trusted. -- Jerome Blattner
-~
-There is nobody so irritating as somebody with
-less intelligence and more sense than we have.
- -- Don Herold
-~
-He that plants trees loves others besides himself. -- Dr. Thomas Fuller
-~
-To find something you can enjoy is far better
-than finding something you can possess.
- -- Glenn Holm
-~
-An intellectual is a man who takes more words than
-necessary to tell more than he knows.
- -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
-~
-Not everything that can be counted counts, and not
-everything that counts can be counted.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-Brain, n.: an apparatus with which we think we think.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
-~
-There is always some madness in love.
-But there is always some reason in madness.
- -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
- -- Martin Luther King Jr.
-~
-Good resolutions are simply checks that men
-draw on a bank where they have no account.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-The murals in restaurants are on par with the food in mueseums.
- -- Peter De Vries
-~
-Money can't buy friends, but it can get you a better class of enemy.
- -- Spike Milligan
-~
-Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate. -- Thomas Jones
-~
-It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis.
- -- Margaret Bonnano
-~
-Yesterday is history.
-Tomorrow is a mystery.
-Today is a gift.
-That's why it's called the present.
- -- Anonymous
-~
-Money is in abundance, where are you? -- Reverend Ike
-~
-Santa Claus had the right idea. Visit everyone once a year.
- -- Victor Borge
-~
-Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.
- -- Jules Renard
-~
-You cannot fix what you will not face. -- James Baldwin
-~
-There are too many people, and too few human beings. -- Robert Zend
-~
-Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today.
- -- Herman Wouk
-~
-A good listener is usually thinking about something else. -- Kin Hubbard
-~
-If it weren't for baseball, many kids wouldn't
-know what a millionaire looked like.
- -- Phyllis Diller
-~
-Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-Everybody likes a kidder, but nobody lends him money. -- Arthur Miller
-~
-Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off
-their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-If only we'd stop trying to be happy we'd have a pretty good time.
- -- Edith Wharton
-~
-If computers get too organized, we can organize
-them into a committee--that will do them in.
- -- Bradley's Bromide
-~
-It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.
- -- Rene Descartes
-~
-If we stand tall it is because we stand
-on the backs of those who came before us.
- -- Yoruba Proverb
-~
-The trouble with jogging is that, by the time you realize
-you're not in shape for it, it's too far to walk back.
- -- Franklin P. Jones
-~
-I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult.
- -- Rita Rudner
-~
-By the time we've made it, we've had it. -- Malcolm Forbes
-~
-It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.
- -- W. Somerset Maugham
-~
-It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
- -- Henry David Thoreau
-~
-Accomplishing the impossible means only that
-the boss will add it to your regular duties.
- -- Doug Larson
-~
-Government big enough to supply everything you need
-is big enough to take everything you have...
-The course of history shows that as a government grows,
-liberty decreases.
- -- Thomas Jefferson
-~
-Computers can figure out all kinds of problems, except
-the things in the world that just don't add up.
- -- James Magary
-~
-Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from happening.
- -- Barbara Tober
-~
-The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.
- -- Flora Whittemore
-~
-When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.
- -- Marquis de la Grange
-~
-If more of us valued food and cheer and song
-above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
- -- J.R.R. Tolkien
-~
-While I was in Malaysia, I saw a T-shirt depicting a surfboard aloft huge
-waves. Sitting on the surfboard was a figure meditating cross-legged. The
-slogan read, "Riding the waves of life, be mindful, be happy." That's it.
-Awareness. Being present. Knowing thoughts as thoughts, emotions as
-emotions. It's just like riding a surfboard. You gradually develop the
-poise to cruise along on the roughest seas until, no longer immersed in
-the waves, you are riding on top of them. Of course you have to start
-with small waves until you get your balance. Then the higher the wave, the
-better! Likewise, when we begin to train in awareness, it is better if we
-have an atmosphere which is nonthreatening and peaceful. That's why people
-go on retreat. That's also a reason why people set aside regular sitting
-periods. But once we learn how to be balanced, we become like a surfer who
-finds that the bigger the wave, the greater the fun.
- -- Ani Tenzin Palmo, in "Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings on
- Practical Buddhism", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The word "mantra" means "mind-protection". It protects the mind from ordinary
-appearances and conceptions. "Mind" here refers to all six consciousnesses--
-eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mental consciousnesses--which are to be
-freed, or protected, from the ordinary world. There are two factors in mantra
-training, pride in oneself as a deity and vivid appearance of that deity.
-Divine pride protects one from the pride of being ordinary, and divine vivid
-appearance protects one from ordinary appearances. Whatever appears to the
-senses is viewed as the sport of a deity; for instance, whatever forms are
-seen are viewed as the emanations of a deity and whatever sounds are heard are
-viewed as the mantras of a deity. One is thereby protected from ordinary
-appearances, and through this transformation of attitude, the pride of being a
-deity emerges. Such protection of mind together with its attendant pledges
-and vows is called the practice of mantra.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa and Jeffrey Hopkins in "Tantra in Tibet",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-There is nothing new under the sun, but there are
-lots of old things we don't know.
- -- Ambrose Bierce
-~
-Win hearts, and you have all men's hands and purses. -- William Cecil Burleigh
-~
-Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world.
-Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
- -- Margaret Mead
-~
-He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder. -- M. C. Escher
-~
-Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn,
-whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.
- -- Helen Keller
-~
-Training in compassion has the capacity to be both profound and vast--both
-absolute and relative. Compassion has the quality of being approachable and
-at the same time ungraspable. It manifests both the quality of shunyata,
-emptiness, or egolessness, as well as the qualities of kindness and joyfulness.
-Therefore, from the Mahayana point of view, compassion is the most important
-practice we could ever engage in. It can lead us to the full realization of
-enlightenment without any need for other practices.
- -- from "Trainings in Compassion: Manuals on the Meditation of
- Avalokiteshvara", translated by Tyler Dewar under the guidance of The
- Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Question: If the root of all suffering is attachment, are the desire to have a
-family and the desire for liberation from suffering contradictory?
-
-Answer: I think that a distinction should be made between desires that are due
-to ignorance and desires that are reasoned. In Tibetan, a difference can be
-made between "wish" and "desire"; for instance a Bodhisattva is reborn through
-his or her own wishes, not out of desire. Similarly, it is suitable to aspire
-toward liberation. Also, persons, such as Foe Destroyers, who have completely
-overcome all of the afflictive emotions, have thoughts such as, "Such and such
-is good; I need it." Merely such thoughts are not afflictive consciousnesses.
-Similarly, if we consider the desire for a family, there are persons practicing
-the Bodhisattva path who have families; also, in the scriptures of discipline,
-Buddha himself set forth vows for lay persons and vows for monks. Hence, there
-is no general prohibition of the wish to have a family.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Dalai Lama at Harvard: Lectures on the
- Buddhist Path to Peace", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins,
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-In general, most non-Buddhist religions meditate on the deity as being outside
-the physical body. In these cases the deity takes the form of a refuge, or of
-a protector or messenger. Thus do they meditate, and of course this is fine.
-In the Buddhist tradition, however, the deity is not meditated on as being
-outside of the physical body. One meditates on the deity as being one's own
-essence expressing itself through oneself arising as the deity. One therefore
-thinks, "I am the deity," and with this conviction one meditates. Why is it
-justifiable to meditate in this manner? ...our own mind is in essence exactly
-the same as the mind of a Buddha. In the philosophical treatises this is
-sometimes referred to as "sugatagarbha" or "buddha-nature".
- -- Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, in "Everyday Consciousness and Buddha-
- Awakening", translated and edited by Susanne Schefczyk, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- If things did in fact exist the way they appear--if things did exist so
-concretely--then when one looked into and investigated them, this inherent
-existence should become even clearer, more obvious. However, when you seek
-for the object designated, you cannot find it under analysis.
- ...[That] which gives rise to the appearance of I is mind and body, but when
-you divide this into mind and body and look for the I, you cannot find it.
-Also the whole, body, is designated in dependence upon the collection of parts
-of the body; if you divide this into its parts and look for the body, you
-cannot find it either. Even the most subtle particles in the body have sides
-and hence parts. Were there something partless, it might be independent, but
-there is nothing that is partless. Rather, everything exists in dependence on
-its parts... There is no whole which is separate from its parts.
- ...No matter what the phenomenon is, internal or external, whether it be
-one's own body or any other type of phenomenon, when we search to discover
-what this phenomenon is that is designated, we cannot find anything that is it.
- ...However, these things appear to us as if they do exist objectively and in
-their own right, and thus there is a difference between the way things appear
-to our minds and the way they actually exist... Since phenomena appear to us
-in a way that is different from what we discover when analysing, this proves
-that their concrete appearance is due to a fault of our minds.
- -- The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, translated and
- edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, co-edited by Elizabeth Napper, from "Kindness,
- Clarity, and Insight" published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The Buddhist notion of diligence is to delight in positive deeds. Its
-opposite, called "le lo" in Tibetan, has three aspects. Le lo is usually
-translated as "laziness," though only its first aspect refers to laziness as
-we usually understand it. The first aspect is not doing something because of
-indolence, even though we know that it is good and ought to be done. The
-second aspect is faintheartedness. This comes about when we underestimate our
-qualities and abilities, thinking, "I'm so incompetent and weak. It would be
-good to do that, but I could never accomplish it." Not having the confidence
-of thinking, "I can do it," we end up doing nothing. The third aspect refers
-to being very busy and seeming diligent, but wasting time and energy on
-meaningless activities that will not accomplish anything in the long run.
-When we do many things for no real purpose, we fail to focus on what is truly
-worthwhile and our path has no clear direction. When we refrain from these
-three aspects of laziness, we are diligent.
- -- Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, in "Daring Steps Toward Fearlessness: The Three
- Vehicles of Buddhism", edited and translated by Rosemarie Fuchs,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- All events and incidents in life are so intimately linked with the fate of
-others that a single person on his or her own cannot even begin to act. Many
-ordinary human activities, both positive and negative, cannot even be
-conceived of apart from the existence of other people. Even the committing of
-harmful actions depends on the existence of others. Because of others, we
-have the opportunity to earn money if that is what we desire in life.
-Similarly, in reliance upon the existence of others it becomes possible for
-the media to create fame or disrepute for someone. On your own you cannot
-create any fame or disrepute no matter how loud you might shout. The closest
-you can get is to create an echo of your own voice.
- Thus interdependence is a fundamental law of nature. Not only higher forms
-of life but also many of the smallest insects are social beings who, without
-any religion, law, or education, survive by mutual cooperation based on an
-innate recognition of their interconnectedness. The most subtle level of
-material phenomena is also governed by interdependence. All phenomena, from
-the planet we inhabit to the oceans, clouds, forests, and flowers that
-surround us, arise in dependence upon subtle patterns of energy. Without
-their proper interaction, they dissolve and decay.
- -- Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, in "The Compassionate Life"
-~
-Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels
- ...a buddha is someone who has attained full enlightenment through the
-cultivation of compassion and the wisdom of no-self, the absence of self-
-existence. From our discussion we also saw how the Dharma jewel is to be
-understood as the path by which we can gradually accomplish the same result as
-the fully awakened Buddha. Likewise, the Sangha jewel is the community of
-sincere practitioners who have directly realised emptiness, the ultimate
-nature of reality.
- For those of us who consider ourselves to be practising Buddhists, it is
-crucial to have this kind of deeper understanding of the Three Jewels when we
-go for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Lighting the Way", published by Snow Lion
-~
-Being Mindful of Impermanence
-
- Loved ones who have long kept company will part.
- Wealth created with difficulty will be left behind.
- Consciousness, the guest, will leave the guest house of the body.
- Let go of this life--
- This is the practice of Bodhisattvas.
-
-Although we have this human life with freedom and richness, which is so
-valuable and difficult to get, it cannot last forever. This is because it is
-not permanent and is subject to decay moment by moment. This life will
-eventually become non-existent because our body and mind will separate.
-Although death meditation involves reflecting on the moment by moment changing
-nature of our life, it principally entails recognizing that one day it will
-come to a complete stop and our mind will leave our body behind. Therefore,
-we must take the essence from this life each day and try to fulfill a great
-Dharma purpose because we will not have this opportunity for long.
- -- from "Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage: An Explanation of
- 'The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas' ", by Geshe Jampa Tegchok,
- edited by Thubten Chodron, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-What do we mean when we speak of a truly compassionate kindness? Compassion
-is essentially concern for others' welfare--their happiness and their
-suffering. Others wish to avoid misery as much as we do. So a compassionate
-person feels concerned when others are miserable and develops a positive
-intention to free them from it. As ordinary beings, our feeling of closeness
-to our friends and relatives is little more than an expression of clinging
-desire. It needs to be tempered, not enhanced. It is important not to
-confuse attachment and compassion.... A compassionate thought is motivated by
-a wish to help release beings from their misery.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Stages of Meditation", translated by Venerable
- Geshe Lobsang Jordhen, Losang Choephel Ganchenpa, and Jeremy Russell,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Tantric yogis succeed in their cultivation of wisdom more quickly than do
-practitioners of the Perfection Vehicle because the tantric yogi, employing
-deity yoga, can achieve a mind that is a union of calm abiding and special
-insight--a mind of alert one-pointedness that realizes emptiness--in far
-less time than the period of countless great aeons required for those who
-practice sutra paths alone. Tantric yogis use deity yoga to enhance
-meditation on emptiness; their use of deity yoga brings them more quickly to
-an initial direct cognition of emptiness by enhancing their ability to combine
-meditative stability with analysis.... Also, in Highest Yoga Tantra,
-powerful, subtle consciousnesses that realize emptiness are manifested,
-whereby the obstructions to liberation and omniscience are quickly overcome.
- -- Daniel Cozort, in "Highest Yoga Tantra", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Howard C. Cutler, MD:
- Is happiness a reasonable goal for most of us? Is it really possible?
-
-HH the Dalai Lama:
- Yes. I believe that happiness can be achieved through training the mind.
-When I say "training the mind," in this context I'm not referring to "mind"
-merely as one's cognitive ability or intellect. Rather, I'm using the term
-in the sense of the Tibetan word Sem, which has a much broader meaning,
-closer to "psyche" or "spirit"; it includes intellect and feeling, heart
-and mind. By bringing about a certain inner discipline, we can undergo a
-transformation of our attitude, our entire outlook and approach to living.
- When we speak of this inner discipline, it can of course involve many things,
-many methods. But generally speaking, one begins by identifying those factors
-which lead to happiness and those factors which lead to suffering. Having
-done this, one then sets about gradually eliminating those factors which lead
-to suffering and cultivating those which lead to happiness. That is the way.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, MD, in "The Art of Happiness:
- A Handbook for Living", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-It can be difficult to accept others and to accept ourselves. "I should be
-better. I should be something different. I should have more." All of this
-is conception; it's all mental fabrication. It's just the mind churning up
-"shoulds," "ought tos," and "supposed tos." All this is conceptual rubbish,
-and yet we believe it. Part of the solution is to recognize that these
-thoughts are conceptual rubbish and not reality; this gives us the mental
-space not to believe them. When we stop believing them, it becomes much
-easier to accept what we are at any given moment, knowing we will change in
-the next moment. We'll be able to accept what others are in one moment,
-knowing that they will be different in the next moment. This is good stuff
-for everyday practice; it's very practical.
- -- Thubten Chodron, in "How to Free Your Mind: Tara the Liberator",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The nature of samsaric evolution is not such that death is followed by
-nothingness, nor that humans are always reborn as humans and insects as
-insects. On the contrary, we all carry within us the karmic potencies of all
-realms of cyclic existence. Many beings transmigrate from higher to lower
-realms, others from lower to higher. The selection of a place of rebirth is
-not directly in our own hands but is conditioned by our karma and delusions.
-They who possess spiritual understanding can control their destiny at the time
-of death, but for ordinary beings the process is very much an automatic chain
-reaction of karmic seeds and habitual psychic response patterns....
- Our repeated experience of frustration, dissatisfaction and misery does not
-have external conditions as its root cause. The problem is mainly our lack of
-spiritual development. As a result of this handicap, the mind is controlled
-principally by afflicted emotions and illusions. Attachment, aversion and
-ignorance rather than a free spirit, love and wisdom are the guiding forces.
-Recognizing this simple truth is the beginning of the spiritual path.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, edited and translated by Glenn H. Mullin, in
- "The Path to Enlightenment", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-If persons who have attained calm abiding keep their minds in calm abiding,
-not only does the force of their meditative stabilization remain but their
-other good qualities increase and do not degenerate. Similarly, persons who
-have achieved special insight have clear perception not only with respect to
-the object of observation on which they have been meditating but also with
-respect to any other object to which they turn their minds. Persons who
-cultivate calm abiding but not special insight will gain the factor of
-stability but not that of an intense clarity; they will not be able to
-manifest any antidote to the afflictive emotions. One must achieve an
-intensity of clarity in order for anything to serve as an antidote to
-ignorance, and to achieve that clarity one must cultivate special insight.
- -- Geshe Gedun Lodro, in "Calm Abiding and Special Insight: Achieving
- Spiritual Transformation through Meditation", translated and edited
- by Jeffrey Hopkins, co-edited by Anne C. Klein and Leah Zahler,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-If you haven't found something strange during the day,
-it hasn't been much of a day.
- -- John A. Wheeler
-~
-Don't try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night.
- -- Philip K. Dick
-~
- It is hypocrisy to say that all religions are the same. Different religions
-have different views and fundamental differences. But it does not matter, as
-all religions are meant to help in bringing about a better world with better
-and happier human beings. On this level, I think that through different
-philosophical explanations and approaches, all religions have the same goal
-and the same potential. Take the concept[s] of the creator and self-creation
-for instance. There are big differences between the two, but I feel they have
-the same purpose. To some people, the concept of the creator is very powerful
-in inspiring the development of self-discipline, becoming a good person with a
-sense of love, forgiveness and devotion to the ultimate truth--the Creator or
-God.
- The other concept is self-creation: if one wants to be good, then it is one's
-own responsibility to be so. Without one's own efforts one cannot expect
-something good to come about. One's future is entirely dependent on oneself:
-it is self-created. This concept is very powerful in encouraging an
-individual to be a good and honest person. So you see, the two are different
-approaches but have the same goal.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Live in a Better Way: Reflections on Truth, Love
- and Happiness", compiled and edited by Renuka Singh, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- The wise perceive that all things--persons and phenomena--arise in reliance
-upon their own causes and conditions, and that based on this process we impute
-mental labels upon things. The phenomena themselves have no true or inherent
-existence from their own side. They have no self-nature whatsoever.
- Were persons or phenomena to have a self-presence, there would be no need
-for them to rely upon causes and conditions. Therefore one can be certain
-that even the smallest speck of matter has no true, inherent existence from
-its own side.
- Although all things lack even the smallest speck of true existence,
-nonetheless conventionally the laws of causes and conditions operate through
-them, and conventionally all the phenomena in samsara and nirvana seem to
-exist, arising in the same manner as do illusions, dreams and a reflected
-image.
- -- Glenn H. Mullin, in "The Six Yogas of Naropa: Tsongkhapa's commentary
- entitled 'A Book of Three Inspirations: A Treatise on the Stages of
- Training in the Profound Path of Naro's Six Dharmas' commonly referred
- to as 'The Three Inspirations' ", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-| George of the Bungle |
-
- And finally, new rule: America must recall the president. That's what this
-country needs. A good old-fashioned, California-style, recall election!
-Complete with Gary Coleman, porno actresses and action film stars. And just
-like Schwarzenegger's predecessor here in California, George Bush is now so
-unpopular he must defend his job against... Russell Crowe. Because at this
-point I want a leader who will throw a phone at somebody. In fact, let's have
-only phone throwers--Naomi Campbell can be the vice-president!
-
- Now I kid, but seriously Mr. President, this job can't be fun for you
-anymore. There's no more money to spend--you used up all of that. You can't
-start another war because you also used up the army. And now, darn the luck,
-the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor
-people. Yeah, listen to your Mom. The cupboard's bare, the credit card's
-maxed out, and no one's speaking to you: mission accomplished. Now it's time
-to do what you've always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did
-with your military service. And the oil company. And the baseball team.
-It's time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy
-or space man?
-
- Now I know what you're saying; you're saying that there's so many other
-things that you as President could involve yourself in... Please don't. I
-know, I know. There's a lot left to do. There's a war with Venezuela... and
-eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the
-church... and Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote.
-
- But, Sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern
-like Billy Joel drives. You've performed so poorly I'm surprised you haven't
-given yourself a medal. You're a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert
-Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire metropolis
-to rising water and snakes. On your watch, we've lost almost all of our
-allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the
-Pentagon, and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you're just not lucky!
-
- I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much
-worse it could be if you were on the other side. So, yes, God does speak to
-you... and what he is saying is: "Take a hint."
-
- -- Bill Maher on Real Time, October 2005
-~
- We have the ability and the responsibility to choose to direct our actions
-on a virtuous path.
- When we weigh a particular act, to determine whether it is moral or
-spiritual, our criterion should be the quality of our motivation. When someone
-deliberately makes a resolution not to steal, if he or she is simply motivated
-by the fear of getting caught and being punished by the law, it is doubtful
-whether engaging in that resolution is a moral act, since moral considerations
-have not dictated his or her choice.
- In another instance, the resolution not to steal may be motivated by fear of
-public opinion: "What would my friends and neighbors think? All would scorn
-me. I would become an outcast." Though the act of making a resolution may be
-positive, whether it is a moral act is again doubtful.
- Now, the same resolution may be taken with the thought "If I steal, I am
-acting against the divine law of God." Someone else may think, "Stealing is
-nonvirtuous; it causes others to suffer." When such considerations motivate
-one, the resolution is moral or ethical; it is also spiritual. In the
-practice of Buddha's doctrine, if your underlying consideration in avoiding a
-nonvirtuous act is that it would thwart your attainment of a state
-transcending sorrow, such restraint is a moral act.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday
- Life", edited by Nicholas Vreeland
-~
- A conventional enemy may harm us, but patience and a refusal to retaliate
-can bring us benefit both in this life and in the future. However, tolerance
-towards [our own] hostile disturbing emotions and attempts at peaceful
-coexistence with them will never bring us any reward. They will do us nothing
-but harm if we don't take steps to drive them out. No conventional enemy can
-do us such harm. The most an ordinary enemy can do is to defeat us for a
-short space of time or destroy us in this life, but the disturbing emotions
-will insure our misery for many lifetimes to come.
- Shantideva says:
- All other foes that I appease and wait upon
- Will show me favors, give me every aid,
- But should I serve my dark defiled emotions,
- They will only harm me, draw me down to grief.
- -- Geshe Sonam Rinchen, in "Eight Verses for Training the Mind: An Oral
- Teaching", translated and edited by Ruth Sonam, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- There is a story about a princess who had a small eye problem that she felt
-was really bad. Being the king's daughter, she was rather spoiled and kept
-crying all the time. When the doctors wanted to apply medicine, she would
-invariably refuse any medical treatment and kept touching the sore spot on her
-eye. In this way it became worse and worse, until finally the king proclaimed
-a large reward for whoever could cure his daughter. After some time, a man
-arrived who claimed to be a famous physician, but actually was not even a
-doctor.
- He declared that he could definitely cure the princess and was admitted to
-her chamber. After he had examined her, he exclaimed, "Oh, I'm so sorry!"
-"What is it?" the princess inquired. The doctor said, "There is nothing much
-wrong with your eye, but there is something else that is really serious." The
-princess was alarmed and asked, "What on earth is so serious?" He hesitated
-and said, "It is really bad. I shouldn't tell you about it." No matter how
-much she insisted, he refused to tell her, saying that he could not speak
-without the king's permission.
- When the king arrived, the doctor was still reluctant to reveal his findings.
-Finally the king commanded, "Tell us what is wrong. Whatever it is, you have
-to tell us!" At last the doctor said, "Well, the eye will get better within a
-few days--that is no problem. The big problem is that the princess will grow
-a tail, which will become at least nine fathoms long. It may start growing
-very soon. If she can detect the first moment it appears, I might be able to
-prevent it from growing." At this news everyone was deeply concerned. And the
-princess, what did she do? She stayed in bed, day and night, directing all
-her attention to detecting when the tail might appear. Thus, after a few
-days, her eye got well.
- This shows how we usually react. We focus on our little problem and it
-becomes the center around which everything else revolves. So far, we have
-done this repeatedly, life after life. We think, "My wishes, my interests, my
-likes and dislikes come first!" As long as we function on this basis, we will
-remain unchanged. Driven by impulses of desire and rejection, we will travel
-the roads of samsara without finding a way out. As long as attachment and
-aversion are our sources of living and drive us onward, we cannot rest.
- -- Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, in "Daring Steps toward Fearlessness: The Three
- Vehicles of Buddhism", edited and translated by Rosemarie Fuchs, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-buddha mind listens
-sound waves crashing over head
-immutable calm
-~
-time god shits in hand
-catapults distraction dung
-unstained mind abides
-~
-Dr. Cutler: "... one of the reasons I brought up the topic of challenge at
-work," I said to the Dalai Lama, "is because it relates to a concept that
-seems to come up frequently these days in psychological literature, the
-concept of flow.* This concept is increasingly mentioned in articles on human
-happiness, and this state can commonly occur at work... while engaged in
-activity, there's a feeling of effortlessness, a sense of total control over
-what one is doing.... Although flow can occur in any activity, some
-investigators have found that Americans experience more flow at work than they
-do in their leisure time."
-
-The Dalai Lama: "You really like this flow, Howard!" the Dalai Lama exclaimed
-with an amused chuckle. "... no matter how nice that state may be, I don't
-think it is the most important source of satisfaction, fulfillment, or
-happiness.... For one thing, you can't be in that state at all times.... So
-through this flow, even if you get some temporary kind of happiness, it will
-not be an ongoing thing. I think this flow state is not reliable or
-sustainable, and I think it's much more important to develop other sources of
-satisfaction through one's work that are brought about by training one's mind,
-shaping one's outlook and attitude, integrating basic human values in the
-workplace. For example, dealing with one's destructive emotions while at
-work, reducing anger, jealousy, greed, and so on, and practicing relating to
-others with kindness, compassion, tolerance, these are much more important and
-stable sources of satisfaction than simply trying to create flow as much as
-possible."
-
-Dr. Cutler: "...To the Dalai Lama, true happiness is associated with a sense
-of meaning, and arises on the basis of deliberately cultivating certain
-attitudes and outlooks. True happiness may take longer to generate, and
-requires some effort, but it is this lasting happiness that can sustain us
-even under the most trying conditions of everyday life."
-
-* flow is defined here as [people] being so completely absorbed in their work
- that they lose track of time.
-
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D., in "The Art of
- Happiness at Work"
-~
-Dzogchen could be defined as a way to relax completely. This can be clearly
-understood from the terms used to denote the state of contemplation, such as
-"leave it just as it is" (cog bzhag), "cutting loose one's tension" (khregs
-chod), "beyond effort" (rtsol bral), and so on. Some scholars have classified
-Dzogchen as a "direct path," comparing it to teachings such as Zen, where this
-expression is often used. In Dzogchen texts, however, the phrases "direct
-path" and "nongradual path" (cig car) are never used, because the concept of a
-"direct path" implies necessarily that there must be, on the one hand, a place
-from which one departs, and on the other, a place where one arrives. But in
-Dzogchen there is a single principle of the state of knowledge, and if one
-possesses this state one discovers that right from the beginning one is
-already there where one wants to arrive. For this reason the state is said to
-be "self-perfected" (lhun grub).
- -- Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, in "Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State", edited by
- Adriano Clemente, translated from the Italian by John Shane, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Since the situation in which we live is much changed but the attitude of
-people who are in that situation is at variance with the times, this is one of
-the causes of unnecessary pain, unnecessary problems. Therefore, education is
-needed to communicate that the concept of violence is counterproductive, that
-it is not a realistic way to solve problems, and that compromise is the only
-realistic way to solve problems. Right from the beginning, we have to make
-this reality clear to a child's mind--the new generation. In this way, the
-whole attitude towards oneself, towards the world, towards others, can become
-more healthy. I usually call this "inner disarmament." Without inner
-disarmament, it is very difficult to achieve genuine, lasting world peace.
- ...Through inner disarmament we can develop a healthy mental attitude, which
-also is very beneficial for physical health. With peace of mind, a calm mind,
-your body elements become more balanced. Constant worry, constant fear,
-agitation of mind, are very bad for health. Therefore, peace of mind not only
-brings tranquility in our mind but also has good effects on our body.
- With inner disarmament, now we need external disarmament. As I mentioned
-earlier, according to today's reality, there no longer is room for war, for
-destruction. From a compassionate viewpoint, destruction, killing others, and
-discriminating even against one's enemy are counterproductive. Today's enemy,
-if you treat them well, may become a good friend even the next day.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama in "The Art of Peace: Nobel Peace Laureates Discuss
- Human Rights, Conflict and Reconciliation", edited by Jeffrey Hopkins,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-What we do for ourselves dies with us.
-What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.
- -- Albert Pine
-~
-Q: Where does hatred come from?
-
-A: That is a question which requires long hours of discussion. From the
-Buddhist viewpoint, the simple answer is that it is beginningless. As a
-further explanation, Buddhists believe that there are many different levels of
-consciousness. The most subtle consciousness is what we consider the basis of
-the previous life, this life and future lives. This subtle consciousness is
-a transient phenomenon which comes about as a consequence of causes and
-conditions. Buddhists have concluded that consciousness itself cannot be
-produced by matter. Therefore, the only alternative is to accept the
-continuation of consciousness. So that is the basis of the theory of rebirth.
-
-Where there is consciousness, ignorance and hatred also arise naturally.
-These negative emotions, as well as the positive emotions, occur right from
-beginningless time. All these are a part of our mind. However, these
-negative emotions actually are based on ignorance, which has no valid
-foundation. None of the negative emotions, no matter how powerful, have a
-solid foundation. On the other hand, the positive emotions, such as
-compassion or wisdom, have a solid basis: there is a kind of grounding and
-rootedness in reason and understanding, which is not the case with afflictive
-emotions like anger and hatred.
-
-The basic nature of the subtle consciousness itself is something neutral. So
-it is possible to purify or eliminate all of these negative emotions. That
-basic nature we call Buddha-nature. Hatred and negative emotions are
-beginningless; they have no beginning, but there is an end. Consciousness
-itself has no beginning and no end; of this we are certain.
-
- -- H.H. 14th Dalai Lama, in "Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a
- Buddhist Perspective", translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- When the sun is freed from clouds, the sun becomes clear and bright.
-Similarly, when obstructions to omniscience are abandoned, wisdom becomes
-clear light.
- How does wisdom that is like the sun in a sky free from clouds dawn? It
-is described as yogic direct perception. Between ordinary beings--those born
-in dependence upon their individual karma--and yogins, here we are considering
-yogins. Their wisdom is not speculation from an inferential point of view, as
-is the case with ordinary beings. Neither is it pensive and lacking in
-clarity. Rather, it sees directly, for which reason it is called yogic direct
-perception. When we ordinary beings think about a thing, there is something
-in the way, obstruction, due to which we do not see clearly and directly.
-When those obstructions--the afflictive obstructions and the obstructions to
-omniscience--have been dispelled, then knowledge arises as yogic direct
-perception.
- When yogic direct perception arises, how does it see? It sees phenomena
-in a conventional context and it also sees reality in an ultimate context. In
-the conventional context, wisdom sees the shapes, colors, and defining
-characteristics of whatever things exist in worldly realms, individually and
-without mixing them, just as they are. This wisdom knows the varieties of
-phenomena. Similarly, in the context of reality, wisdom sees the meaning of
-emptiness directly; this wisdom knows the mode of all phenomena. In
-dependence upon release from the afflictive obstruction and the obstruction to
-omniscience, the wisdoms knowing the modes and the varieties actually arise.
- Someone in whom those two wisdoms are present is a buddha.
-
- -- Kenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, in "Essential Practice: Lectures on
- Kamalashila's 'Stages of Meditation in the Middle Way School' ",
- translated by Jules B. Levinson, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Sometimes people mistakenly look on vows and pledges as if these were a
-type of punishment, but this is not at all the case. For example, just as
-we follow certain methods of eating and drinking to improve our health and
-certainly not to punish ourselves, so the rules the Shakymuni Buddha
-formulated are for controlling counter-productive ill-deeds and ultimately for
-overcoming afflictive emotions, because these are self-ruinous. Thus, to
-relieve oneself from suffering, one controls the motivations and deeds
-producing suffering for one's own sake. Realizing from his own experience
-that suffering stems from one's own afflictive emotions as well as actions
-contaminated with them, he sets forth styles of behavior to reduce the problem
-for our own profit, certainly not to give us a hard time. Hence, these rules
-are for the sake of controlling sources of harm.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Dzong-ka-ba, and Jeffrey Hopkins, in "Yoga Tantra:
- Paths to Magical Feats, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Giving with an open heart brings us joy and directly benefits others. Goods
-are then shared more equitably within our society and among nations, soothing
-the ill-feeling of social inequity and promoting world peace. Sharing is a
-source of our continued existence as a species. As His Holiness the Dalai
-Lama says, it is not survival of the fittest, but survival of those who
-cooperate the most, that makes a species prosper. None of us exists
-independently; we have to depend on others simply to stay alive. Thus,
-helping others and sharing wealth benefits both self and others. Generosity
-makes us happy now, enables our species to continue to prosper, and creates
-positive karma that brings us prosperity in the future. In addition, it is an
-essential trait of an enlightened being. Who ever heard of a stingy Buddha?
- -- Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, in "How to Free Your Mind: Tara the Liberator",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- I have made the point in the past that it is not necessary to consider
-someone one's guru from the very outset simply because one has heard the
-explanation of the Buddha's teachings from that person. At first, it is much
-better if one does not have that kind of attitude toward them, simply
-regarding them as a Dharma-friend. One gets teachings, and time goes by.
-Then, when one feels that one knows that person quite well, and can take them
-as one's guru without any danger of transgressing the commitments that
-accompany such a relationship, when one has that kind of confidence, then one
-can go ahead and take him or her as one's guru. The Lord Buddha himself made
-it quite clear in both the Vinaya sutras and in the Mahayana scriptures, and
-even in the Tantrayana, in a very detailed fashion, what the qualities of a
-teacher should be. This is why I often criticize the Tibetan attitude of
-seeing whatever the guru does as good, of respecting everything that the guru
-does right from the start without the initial period of examination. Of
-course, if the guru is really qualified, then to have such an attitude is
-very worthwhile.
- Take the cases of Naropa and Marpa, for example. Sometimes it appears as
-though some of the things Tilopa asked of Naropa, or Naropa of Marpa, were
-unreasonable. Deep down, however, these requests had great meaning. Because
-of their great faith in their gurus, Naropa and Marpa did as instructed.
-Despite the fact that they appeared to be unreasonable, because the teachers
-were qualified, their actions had some meaning. In such situations, it is
-necessary that from the disciple's side all of the actions of the teacher be
-respected. But this cannot be compared to the case of ordinary people.
-Broadly speaking, I feel that the Buddha gave us complete freedom of choice to
-thoroughly examine the person who is to be our guru. This is very important.
-Unless one is definite, one should not take them as a guru. This preliminary
-examination is a kind of precautionary measure.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Answers: Discussions with Western Buddhists", edited
- by Jose Ignacio Cabezon, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-13. Transforming suffering into the path
- Even if someone tries to cut off your head
- When you haven't done the slightest thing wrong,
- Out of compassion take all his misdeeds
- Upon yourself--
- This is the practice of Bodhisattvas.
- -- from "The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas"
- by Gyelsay Togme Sangpo
- Although we have done nothing to deserve it, someone may attack us, beat
-us, or perpetrate other forms of violence on us. Certainly it is tempting to
-get angry in such a situation, but our anger will do no good. In fact, this
-person is creating the cause for his own unfortunate rebirth by attacking us,
-and the karma he creates is even heavier if we hold any of the three sets of
-vows: pratimoksha, Bodhisattva, or tantric. Thus, we cultivate compassion,
-and wish to take the person's karma and resultant suffering on ourselves. For
-example, if a crazy person attacks a person who is sane, the latter will not
-only not fight back but try to help, by giving him medicine and wanting him to
-get well. The sane person sees that the crazy person does not know what he is
-doing. He is out of control.
- Similarly, when someone harms us, we should recognize that he too is out
-of control and is being led by his three poisonous attitudes. Similarly, we
-can remember that we are experiencing the ripening result of harmful actions
-we did in past lives, so why blame the other person? In addition, that person
-is causing our negative karma to be exhausted now, rather than later when the
-result could be much more difficult to bear. In this way, we will not be
-angry or retaliate, but will pray for and try to help the other. In "The
-Eight Verses of Thought Transformation," it says, "Whenever I meet a person of
-bad nature who is overwhelmed by negative energy and intense suffering, I will
-hold such a rare one dear, as if I had found a precious treasure." People like
-this suffer greatly because they think only of themselves, not of others, and
-thus they are worthy of compassion, the wish that they be free from suffering
-and its causes.
- Being patient when harmed by others does not mean that we take no action
-to prevent harm from occurring. Rather, patience frees our mind from the fog
-of anger and gives us the clarity and kindness to respond to a situation in a
-helpful way. Free of anger, we look for ways to resolve conflict other than
-seeking revenge.
- -- Geshe Jampa Tegchok, in "Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage:
- An Explanation of 'The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas' ", edited
- by Thubten Chodron, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Some people run a race to see who is the fastest.
-I run a race to see who has the most guts.
- -- Steve Prefontaine
-~
- Shantideva expresses tremendous courage, which transcends all boundaries
-of space and time, in a verse of his "Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life"
-(Bodhicaryavatara). He writes:
- As long as space endures,
- As long as sentient beings remain,
- Until then, may I too remain
- And dispel the miseries of the world.
- When the altruistic intention is supported by insight into emptiness, and
-particularly by the direct realization of emptiness, one is said to have
-attained the two dimensions of bodhichitta which are known as conventional and
-ultimate bodhichitta. With both these practices of compassion and wisdom, the
-practitioner has within his or her hands the complete method for attaining the
-highest spiritual goal. Such a person is truly great and worthy of
-admiration.
- If one is able to cultivate these spiritual qualities within oneself then,
-as Chandrakirti writes very poetically in his Entry to the Middle Way
-(Madhyamakavatara), with one wing of altruistic intention and another wing of
-insight into emptiness, one can traverse the whole of space and soar beyond
-the state of existence to the shores of fully enlightened buddhahood.
- ...make an effort to contemplate, study and meditate, but without any
-shortsighted expectations. You should have the same attitude as Shantideva --
-that as long as space exists you will remain to dispel suffering in the world.
-When you have that kind of determination and courage to develop your capacity,
-then a hundred years, an aeon, a million years are nothing to you.
-Furthermore, you will not consider that the different human problems we have
-here and there are in any way insurmountable. Such an attitude and vision
-bring some kind of real inner strength.
- -- H.H. the XIV Dalai Lama, in "Transforming the Mind: Teachings on
- Generating Compassion", translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, edited by
- Dominique Side and Geshe Thupten Jinpa.
-~
-The Tantric Way of Purifying One's Views
- The second important attitude is the Tantric way of purifying one's views,
-which means to transform one's ordinary and dualistic views and conceptions
-into a higher spiritual vision.
- For instance, you transform the place where teachings are received from an
-ordinary classroom into a complete and perfected mandala of the deities. You
-view the teacher as a pure form of Shen Lha Okar, the Buddha of Compassion, by
-mentally transforming him from an ordinary person into an enlightened one who
-has manifested in a human body to guide all sentient beings. You transform
-your companions and classmates from ordinary beings into deities and
-goddesses, and believe that they all have love, compassion, and care for all
-sentient beings.
- The purpose of transforming your views into pure visions toward these
-objects is to realize the extraordinary nature of this experience. This gives
-you a special reason to receive blessings and powers from the teacher (lama),
-the enlightened ones (Sangye), the deities (yidam), and the female
-manifestations of the enlightened ones (khadro), in order to develop your
-wisdom and stability. This is the essence of the practice of purifying one's
-view according to the Tantric ways.
- -- Latri Khenpo and Geshe Nyima Dakpa Rinpoche, in "Opening the Door to
- Bon", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-MENSA: My Ego Never Stops Aching
-~
-...more people are driven insane through religious hysteria
-than by drinking alcohol.
- -- W. C. Fields
-~
-Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will
-satisfy your hunger, but it won't taste good.
- -- Joe Paterno
-~
-Desire is the source of endless problems. The more desires we have, the more
-we have to plan and work hard to realize them. Some time ago a businessman
-told me that the more he developed his company, the more he felt like making
-it even bigger. And the more he tried to make it bigger, the more he found he
-had to lie and fight mercilessly against his competitors. He had come to
-realize that wanting more and more made no sense, and that he only had to
-reduce the size of his business for competition to become less fierce so he
-would be able to carry out his work honestly. I found his testimony very
-true.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "365 Dalai Lama: Daily Advice from the Heart",
- edited by Matthieu Ricard, translated by Christian Bruyat and Dominique
- Messent
-~
-I--What Is a Treasure?
- According to the Nyingma School, the Treasures are most often comprised of
-spiritual instructions concealed by enlightened beings for the purpose of
-discovery at a later predestined time when their message will invigorate the
-Buddhist teaching and deepen spiritual understanding. Central to this process
-is the figure of the Treasure revealer (gter ston)--the person who acts as a
-medium for the re-emergence of this inspired material into the human world.
-Accordingly, beginning in the eleventh century and continuing into the
-present, the Nyingma School identifies a large number of Treasure revealers
-and grants authoritative status to their discoveries.
- The idea that religious truth lies concealed within the world of phenomena
-awaiting discovery by spiritually gifted people is by no means a concept
-exclusive to the Nyingma School or Tibetan Buddhism as a whole. Throughout
-Buddhist literature there are numerous descriptions of teachings being
-inherently present in the phenomenal world ready to be perceived by
-individuals possessing inspired levels of consciousness and, accordingly,
-spiritual revelations have surfaced on numerous occasions throughout the
-course of Buddhist history.
- -- Andreas Doctor, in "Tibetan Treasure Literature: Revelation, Tradition,
- and Accomplishment in Visionary Buddhism", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Patricia Churchland: But do you think that there is something, I am not sure
-what to call it--a kind of awareness that can exist independently of the
-brain? For example, something that survives death?
-
-Dalai Lama: Generally speaking, awareness, in the sense of our familiar, day-
-to-day mental processes, does not exist apart from or independent of the
-brain, according to the Buddhist view. But Buddhism holds that the cause of
-this awareness is to be found in a preceding continuum of awareness, and that
-is why one speaks of a stream of awareness from one life to another. Whence
-does this awareness arise initially? It must arise fundamentally not from a
-physical base but from a preceding continuum of awareness.
-
-The continuum of awareness that conjoins with the fetus does not depend upon
-the brain. There are some documented cases of advanced practitioners whose
-bodies, after death, escape what happens to everyone else and do not decompose
-for some time--for two or three weeks or even longer. The awareness that
-finally leaves their body is a primordial awareness that is not dependent upon
-the body. There have been many accounts in the past of advanced practitioners
-remaining in meditation in this subtle state of consciousness when they died,
-and decomposition of their body was postponed although the body remained at
-room temperature.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations
- with the Dalai Lama on Brain Science and Buddhism", edited by Zara
- Houshmand, Robert B. Livingston and B. Alan Wallace, Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-The real source of my suffering is self-centeredness: my car, my possession,
-my well-being. Without the self-centeredness, the suffering would not arise.
-What would happen instead? It is important to imagine this fully and to focus
-on examples of your own. Think of some misfortune that makes you want to lash
-out, that gives rise to anger or misery. Then imagine how you might respond
-without suffering. Recognize that we need not experience the misery, let
-alone the anger, resentment, and hostility. The choice is ours.
-
-Let's continue with the previous example. You see that there is a dent in the
-car. What needs to be done? Get the other driver's license number, notify
-the police, contact the insurance agency, deal with all the details. Simply
-do it and accept it. Accept it gladly as a way to strengthen your mind
-further, to develop patience and the armor of forbearance. There is no way to
-become a Buddha and remain a vulnerable wimp. Patience does not suddenly
-appear as a bonus after full enlightenment. Part of the whole process of
-awakening is to develop greater forbearance and equanimity in adversity.
-Santideva, in the sixth chapter of his Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life,
-eloquently points out that there is no way to develop patience without
-encountering adversity, and patience is indispensable for our own growth on
-the path to awakening.
- -- B. Alan Wallace, in "The Seven-Point Mind Training", edited by Zara
- Houshmand, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous. -- Aristotle
-~
-Now the kilt was only for day-to-day wear. In battle, we donned a full-length
-ball gown covered in sequins. The idea was to blind your opponent with luxury.
- -- Groundskeeper Willie
-~
-Dayata (Om) Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Swaha.
-
-A mantra is that which protects the mind. Through this mantra, which is the
-perfection of wisdom itself, we can overcome the demon of ignorance that
-possesses us and find unsurpassable happiness. It protects the minds of those
-who practice it from all fears and describes how to make the transition from
-worldly existence to the supreme state beyond sorrow. It is a mantra of great
-knowledge because it saves us from the poison of ignorance and its imprints.
-It is an unsurpassable mantra because it frees us from suffering and its
-causes as no other path of insight can. The incomparable is the state beyond
-suffering. Since it helps us to attain that state, it is comparable to the
-incomparable. It totally pacifies suffering because it rids us of all the
-troubles of the world and their causes. The world here refers to ordinary
-beings like us. Our troubles are many but foremost are birth, aging,
-sickness, and death. This mantra does not deceive us and it is true because
-wisdom sees things as they actually are without any error or deception. It is
-therefore transcendent.
- -- from "The Heart Sutra: An Oral Teaching by Geshe Sonam Rinchen",
- translated and edited by Ruth Sonam, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-I am interested not in converting other people to Buddhism but in how we
-Buddhists can contribute to human society, according to our own ideas. I
-believe that other religious faiths also think in a similar way, seeking to
-contribute to the common aim....
-
-Just as Buddha showed an example of contentment, tolerance, and serving others
-without selfish motivation, so did Jesus Christ. Almost all of the great
-teachers lived a saintly life--not luxuriously like kings or emperors but as
-simple human beings. Their inner strength was tremendous, limitless, but the
-external appearance was of contentment with a simple way of life.
-
-...the motivation of all religious practice is similar--love, sincerity,
-honesty. The way of life of practically all religious persons is contentment.
-The teachings of tolerance, love, and compassion are the same. A basic goal
-is the benefit of humankind--each type of system seeking in its own unique
-ways to improve human beings. If we put too much emphasis on our own
-philosophy, religion, or theory, are too attached to it, and try to impose it
-on other people, it makes trouble. Basically all the great teachers, such as
-Gautama Buddha, Jesus Christ, or Mohammed, founded their new teachings with a
-motivation of helping their fellow humans. They did not mean to gain anything
-for themselves nor to create more trouble or unrest in the world.
-
-Most important is that we respect each other and learn from each other those
-things that will enrich our own practice. Ever if all the systems are
-separate, since they each have the same goal, the study of each other is
-helpful.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Dalai Lama: A Policy of Kindness", compiled
- and edited by Sidney Piburn, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Our teacher, Sakyamuni Buddha, is one among the thousand Buddhas of this
-aeon. These Buddhas were not Buddhas from the beginning, but were once
-sentient beings like ourselves. How they came to be Buddhas is this.
- Of body and mind, mind is predominant, for body and speech are under the
-influence of the mind. Afflictions such as desire do not contaminate the
-nature of the mind, for the nature of the mind is pure, uncontaminated by any
-taint. Afflictions are peripheral factors of a mind, and through gradually
-transforming all types of defects, such as these afflictions, the adventitious
-taints can be completely removed. This state of complete purification is
-Buddhahood; therefore, Buddhists do not assert that there is any Buddha who
-has been enlightened from the beginning.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Buddhism of Tibet: The Dalai Lama",
- translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- ...everbody thinks that compassion is important, and everyone has
-compassion. True enough, but the Buddha gave uncommon quintessential
-instructions when he taught the methods for cultivating compassion, and the
-differences are extraordinarily important.
- Generally, everyone feels compassion, but the compassion is flawed. In
-what way? We measure it out. For instance, some feel compassion for human
-beings but not for animals and other types of sentient beings. Others feel
-compassion for animals and some other types of sentient beings but not for
-humans. Others, who feel compassion for human beings, feel compassion for the
-human beings of their own country but not for the human beings of other
-countries. Then, some feel compassion for their friends but not for anyone
-else. Thus, it seems that we draw a line somewhere. We feel compassion for
-those on one side of the line but not for those on the other side of the line.
-We feel compassion for one group but not for another. That is where our
-compassion is flawed. What did the Buddha say about that? It is not
-necessary to draw that line. Nor is it suitable. Everyone wants compassion,
-and we can extend our compassion to everyone.
- -- Kenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, in "Lectures on Kamalashila's 'Stages of
- Meditation in the Middle Way School' ", translated by Jules B. Levinson,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-4. Seven-Limbed Practice
-
- The seven parts of the practice are encompassed by two practices--the
-purification of negativities and the enhancing of the store of merit. When
-you engage in the practice, it is very important to understand that each and
-every one of the seven limbs has its individual purpose and significance, and
-only with such knowledge can you engage properly in the practice. The seven
-limbs are: prostration, offering, confession, rejoicing, requesting to turn
-the wheel of the dharma, entreating not to enter into nirvana, and dedication
-of merit.
- ...For the practice of confession, which is the third of the seven limbs,
-it is very important to have the factor of regret; without this factor there
-is no possibility of purifying the negativities.... The great yogi Milarepa
-said: "When I examined whether or not confession could purify the
-negativities, I found that it is regret that cleanses them." In order to
-generate regret, it is important to see the destructive nature of negative
-actions and also to understand the law of causality.
- Based on a disciplined mind, we experience happiness; based on an
-undisciplined, untamed mind, we undergo suffering. We should think that if we
-are not able to make any progress from our present state of mind, which always
-indulges in negative thoughts, there is not much hope for us. So, if we are
-able to think in such terms, we will be able to really see the destructive
-nature of negative actions, and also that the store of negative actions that
-we have is inexhaustible, like a rich person's bank balance. Without the
-recognition of the destructive nature of the negative forces, we will never be
-able to develop the deep factor of regret from the depth of our hearts.
- If we do not engage in a proper practice of dharma, it seems that we may
-expend all our store of merit in mundane pleasures. It is very important to
-have this faculty of regret in our practice of purification and confession.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso), in "The Path to Bliss: A Practical
- Guide to Stages of Meditation", translated by Geshe Thubten Jinpa,
- edited by Christine Cox, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-9. Glorious Lama (excerpt)
-
-...Those with faith have a refuge.
-Those with compassion have an altruistic attitude.
-Those with incisive knowledge have realization.
-Those with respect and devotion have blessings.
-
-Those with shame avoid carelessness.
-Those who avoid carelessness have a guarded mind.
-Those who have a guarded mind have vows and samaya.
-Those who have vows and samaya have spiritual attainments.
-
-Calm and self-control are signs of listening to the Dharma;
-Few passions, signs of meditation;
-Harmony with everyone is the sign of a practitioner;
-Your mind at ease, the sign of accomplishment.
-
-The root of phenomena is your own mind.
-If you tame your mind, you are a practitioner.
-If you are a practitioner, your mind is tamed.
-When your mind is tamed, that is liberation.
- -- Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, in "Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoche's Heart
- Advice", translated by Ron Garry, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The Special Features of Dzogchen
-
- In the early translation school of the Nyingma, a system of nine yanas is
-taught. Three of these--the paths of the Sravaka, pratyekabuddha, and
-bodhisattva--constitute the sutra tradition, while the tantric tradition
-consists of six levels--the three outer tantras and the three inner tantras.
-The tradition of Dzogchen, or Atiyoga, is considered to be the pinnacle of
-these nine yanas. The other, lower, yanas are said to be philosophical
-systems that depend on ordinary consciousness, and so the path is based on
-that ordinary consciousness. Here the distinction being made is between
-ordinary mind--sem--and pure awareness--rigpa. The ninth yana, the most
-majestic, is beyond ordinary consciousness, for its path is based on rigpa,
-not on the ordinary mind.
- Throughout beginningless time, there has always been present, within us
-all, a pure awareness--that in-dwelling rigpa which in Atiyoga is evoked in
-all its nakedness, and which constitutes the practice.
- ...The ground for all the phenomena of samsara and nirvana is the
-fundamental innate mind of clear light, and these phenomena are its radiance
-or display. While we are following the path, in order for all the impure
-aspects of our experience to be purified on the basis of that rigpa--or, you
-can say, that fundamental innate mind of clear light--there is no other means
-apart from that fundamental and innate state itself, which is therefore the
-very essence of the path. Finally, when the fruition is made fully evident,
-it is just this fundamental innate mind of clear light itself, free from
-obscuration, that constitutes the attainment of fruition.
- ...Any given state of consciousness is permeated by the clear light of
-rigpa's pure awareness. However solid ice may be, it never loses its true
-nature, which is water. In the same way, even very obvious concepts... arise
-within the expanse of rigpa and that is where they dissolve. On this point,
-Dodrupchen Jikme Tenpe Nyima says that all objects of knowledge are permeated
-by clear light, just as a sesame seed is permeated by its oil. Therefore,
-even while the coarser states of the six consciousnesses are functioning,
-their subtle aspect--that of clear light--can be directly introduced by means
-of those states themselves, through blessings and through pith instructions.
- Here lies the extraordinary and profound implication of the Dzogchen
-teachings. When you are basing your path on the fundamental innate mind of
-clear light, you will employ skilful means to block the coarse and subtle
-states of energy and mind, as a result of which the state of clear light
-becomes evident, and on this you base your path. But in Dzogchen, even while
-the six consciousnesses are fully functioning, by means of those very states
-you can be directly introduced to their subtle aspect of clear light in your
-immediate experience, and you then meditate by focusing one-pointedly on that
-aspect. As you meditate in this way, resting in this non-conceptual state,
-gradually your experience of clear light becomes increasingly profound, while
-coarser thoughts and concepts dwindle away.
- The most difficult task is to differentiate between ordinary mind and
-rigpa. It is easy enough to talk about it. You can say, for example, that
-rigpa has never been confused, while ordinary mind has fallen under the
-influence of concepts and is mired in confusion. But to be introduced to the
-direct experience of the essence of rigpa is far from being easy. And so
-Dodrupchen says that although your arrogance might be such that you assume you
-are meditating on the ultimate meaning of rigpa, there is a danger that "you
-could end up meditating on the clear, empty qualities of your ordinary mind,
-which even non-Buddhist practitioners are capable of doing." He is warning us
-to be careful.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great
- Perfection", translated by Geshe Thubten Jinpa and Richard Barron
- (Chokyi Nyima), edited by Patrick Gaffney, pub. by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Patience is like a beautiful ornament. When you become a person with
-great patience, it brings a certain element of charm to your life. You are
-loved by others, and you give no problems to your friends. You bring an
-element of joy, happiness, and calmness to other people's lives--your friends,
-your family, and the community. You do not have to ask to be accepted;
-everyone longs for your presence. Everyone looks up to you and respects you,
-not because you have worked for that or expected it, not because you were
-competing for their favor, but simply because of the nature of patience. You
-are respected and trusted, and you acquire dignity with the practice of
-patience. When you are honored, it is with sincerity, and it is something you
-can live up to.
- ...Just hearing about patience does not mean you are experiencing it now
-or will easily develop it. To lay the ground for training the mind, you must
-first tame the mind. To tame the mind, it is extremely important to do the
-basic shamata [tranquility meditation, calm abiding] practice, which develops
-calmness and tranquility. Then you can add the practice of patience,
-understanding the benefits of patience and reminding yourself to take
-advantage of the available antidotes.
- -- Ven. Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, in "Dharma Paths", translated by Ngodup
- Burkhar and Chojor Radha, edited by Laura M. Roth, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of
-policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets.
- -- Edward Abbey
-~
-We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
- -- Winston Churchill
-~
-If the government would make up its mind to require for every child a good
-education, it might save itself the trouble of providing one. It might leave
-to parents to obtain the education where and how they pleased, and content
-itself with helping to pay the school fees of the poorer classes of children,
-and defraying the entire school expenses of those who have no one else to pay
-for them.
- -- J. S. Mill
-~
-First, God created idiots.
-That was just for practice.
-Then He created school boards.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-Whence it comes to pass, that for not having chosen the right course,
-we often take very great pains, and consume a good part of our time in
-training up children to things, for which, by their natural constitution,
-they are totally unfit.
- -- Montaigne
-~
-There are two types of education...
-One should teach us how to make a living,
-And the other how to live.
- -- John Adams
-~
-We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or
-fifteen years, and come out at last with a belly full of words and
-do not know a thing.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
- The Sanskrit word for compassion, karuna, has the implication of "that
-which blocks or prevents bliss." In general, when we develop compassion, we
-develop very strongly the attitude that cannot bear the suffering of other
-beings. We wish for it to end and for them to become free. Although we do
-not actually experience others' suffering at that time, the strength of the
-attitude that cannot bear their suffering causes our mind also to become
-unhappy. This is the general sense in which compassion blocks bliss....
- Only the power of a union of method and wisdom--namely the union of
-compassion, as a greatly blissful awareness, and the discriminating awareness
-of voidness--allows us to attain the total release of supreme nirvana, namely
-enlightenment.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra", with
- Alexander Berzin, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- There is a tradition of reciting prayers of request to the spiritual
-teachers of the lineage at the beginning of each study session, starting with
-the Buddha Shakyamuni and ending with our own personal teachers. What do we
-request? As we chant each verse, we take to mind the inspiring qualities of
-the great masters mentioned in it and ask them to bless us to develop
-compassion, wisdom and power similar to their own. Blessings are experienced
-in the form of a transformation which affects our body, speech and mind. Our
-mind becomes more serviceable and flexible, our way of speaking and acting
-more constructive. We become more open to the message of how to bring about
-inner transformation that has been handed down through this long line of
-spiritual teachers.
- Our teachers pass on the instructions they have received from their own
-teachers, the knowledge they have culled from their reading and everything
-they have understood and experienced as a result of their personal practice,
-without holding anything back. They are motivated by compassion and their
-deep wish to help us. To communicate it to us they choose whatever means are
-most effective--sometimes stern, sometimes gentle. This process must take
-place in an atmosphere of mutual trust, something very rare in relationships
-today. In the past the relationship between students and teachers was even
-closer and more trusting than that between siblings--and in Tibet brothers and
-sisters generally enjoyed a close and loving bond. Today this is a dying
-tradition, yet a good relationship between student and teacher is vital even
-for the communication of secular knowledge, let alone where spiritual wisdom
-is concerned.
- -- Geshe Sonam Rinchen, in "Atisha's Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment: An
- Oral Teaching", translated and edited by Ruth Sonam, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- We have happiness of mind and freedom from anxiety to just the degree that
-our minds are tamed.... Once we want happiness and do not want suffering, we
-should engage in the means to achieve happiness and eliminate suffering.
-Practice is based on reasoning, not force; it is up to oneself.
- The time for engaging in these techniques is now. Some feel, "I did not
-succeed in this lifetime; I will ask a lama for help in my future life." To
-think that we will practise in the future is only a hope. It is foolish to
-feel that the next life will be as suitable as this. No matter how bad our
-condition is now, since we have a human brain, we can think; since we have a
-mouth, we can recite mantra. No matter how old one may be, there is time for
-practice. However, when we die and are reborn, we are unable even to recite
-om mani padme hum. Thus, it is important to make all effort possible at this
-time when we have obtained the precious physical life-support of a human.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama and Jeffrey Hopkins, in "Deity Yoga: In Action and
- Performance Tantra by Tsong-ka-pa", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-How would we feel if one of our children was overpowered by a serious disease
-and did some terrible things without knowing what he or she was doing? We
-should try to view someone dear who suddenly hurts us in the same light. If
-we can see that person is out of control and sick with negative emotions, we
-will not feel so much hatred and disgust. There may be resentment, and we may
-not be able to love that person more than before, but almost automatically
-there will be a certain sympathy that will lessen or end our hatred and allow
-us to forgive.
- -- Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, in "Daring Steps Toward Fearlessness: The Three
- Vehicles of Buddhism", edited and translated by Rosemarie Fuchs, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Compassion is a theme the Dalai Lama returns to over and over again. I
-also know he has meditated on compassion every morning without fail for the
-past half century. In an interview, I asked the Dalai Lama to give me his
-take on compassion. Lhakdor [his translator], as usual, was by his side.
- "Compassion is something like a sense of caring, a sense of concern for
-others' difficulties and pain," the Dalai Lama said. "Not only family and
-friends, but all other people. Enemies also. Now, if we really analyze our
-feelings, one thing becomes clear. If we think only of ourselves, forget
-about other people, then our minds occupy a very small area. Inside that
-small area, even a tiny problem appears very big. But the moment you develop
-a sense of concern for others, you realize that, just like ourselves, they
-also want happiness; they also want satisfaction. When you have this sense of
-concern, your mind automatically widens. At this point, your own problems,
-even big problems, will not be so significant. The result? Big increase in
-peace of mind. So, if you think only of yourself, only your own happiness,
-the result is actually less happiness. You get more anxiety, more fear."
- "I was thirty-two years old when I developed a strong experience of
-compassion," he told me.... "Often when I reflect on the meaning and benefits
-of altruistic mind, tears came." Lhakdor translated: "...When he meditated on
-compassion, he would sometimes be filled with joy and appreciation. And there
-is a strong sense of concern for others accompanied by a feeling of
-sadness.... And when His Holiness reflected on certain profound explanations
-on emptiness, this would also trigger a strong emotion."
- "I think that strong conviction or strong emotions actually give more
-inner strength," the Dalai Lama explained. "So when I face some problems or
-criticism, for example, criticism from the Chinese, of course, little
-irritation sometimes..." "But then he'll have this feeling of compassion for
-them," Lhakdor translated. "He'll regret they're not making positive
-connection with him. But his sentiment is, although there is this negativity,
-may it also give positive fruit."
- "Now, the understanding of emptiness helps a lot toward developing
-compassion. There's no doubt it reinforces compassion," the Dalai Lama said.
-Lhakdor elaborated: "Emptiness allows us to have an understanding about
-ultimate reality. It helps us to appreciate the wisdom of interdependence--a
-fundamental law of nature. We gain an appreciation that we are all basically
-related. It is because of this interrelatedness that we are able to empathize
-with the suffering of others. With empathy, compassion flows naturally. We
-develop genuine sympathy for others' suffering and the will to help remove
-their pain. Emptiness thus strengthens positive emotions like compassion."
- Emptiness and compassion. Wisdom and method. These are the twin pillars
-of the Dalai Lama's practice--everything we need to know about spiritual
-practice. Both qualities are needed; they strengthen each other. Once we
-realize we are all interconnected, it is difficut not to feel some of
-compassion for the problems of our fellow human beings. And once we come by
-a feeling of compassion, we start to get a glimpse of the timeless truth of
-interdependence, of emptiness.
- The Dalai Lama looked thoughtful. After some time, he turned to me, "I
-think one thing I'm quite sure," he said. "I can tell you, the twin practice
-of emptiness and compassion is... effective." Then he lapsed into Tibetan
-again. Lhakdor translated. "His Holiness can say with conviction: if you
-meditate on emptiness and compassion, so long as you make the effort, then His
-Holiness is sure that, day in and day out, you will get tangible benefit.
-Your whole attitude will change." "....These things about compassion are
-something living--according to my own experience," the Dalai Lama went on. "I
-tell some of my experiences to other people, share some of my feelings, then
-other people understand: there is something real, something living."
- -- from "The Wisdom of Forgiveness: Intimate Conversations and Journeys by"
- His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Victor Chan, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- ...it is difficult to recognize an authentic teacher, because these
-qualities are internal. We can not depend upon external factors, but external
-factors are what we see. It is very difficult to see the inner qualities of
-another person. A businessman might be friendlier to us than our best friend,
-while his unseen motivation is merely to make a sale. Likewise, if a
-"teacher" acts in a very kind and loving manner towards us it does not
-necessarily mean that he is compassionate and selfless, because we cannot see
-his motivation. We also cannot determine a teacher's qualifications based
-upon her fame, or whether she has thousands of students. So the seeker is
-left with this paradox.
- There is no simple solution, but there are things we can do. First, it is
-important that we familiarize ourselves with the characteristics* discussed by
-Kongtrul Rinpoche. Second, we must maintain awareness of our own motivation
-during the process of finding a teacher. Am I seeking a teacher in order to
-attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, or am I seeking
-to fulfill my need to acquire the prestige associated with a famous teacher,
-or am I merely attracted to a lama's beautiful retreat land or the social
-scene of a hip sangha, and so on.
- These motivations need to be acknowledged if we are to recognize an
-authentic wisdom teacher, because the teacher you find is related to your
-karma, and your karma is intimately connected to your motivation.
-Fortunately, there are methods that help us purify our motivation and create
-the proper conditions for finding a wisdom teacher, such as bringing our
-awareness to our motivations as much as possible, doing daily meditation
-practice, and praying to the Triple Gem [Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha] that we
-will meet and recognize an authentic wisdom teacher.
- -- Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye, in "The Teacher-Student Relationship: A
- Translation of 'The Explanation of the Master and Student Relationship,
- How to Follow the Master, and How to Teach and Listen to the Dharma' ",
- translated and introduced by Ron Garry, published by Snow Lion Pub.
-
-* "Whatever lama is followed must definitely have these qualities: He holds a
-pure lineage since he has not contradicted the commitments and prohibitions of
-the three vows.... He should be very learned... clear about the sutras,
-tantras, and shastras. His mind-stream should be so saturated with compassion
-that he loves all the limitless sentient beings as his only child. He should
-be expert in the outer tripitakas and on the inner level he should be expert
-in the ritual of the four classes of tantras of the secret mantra. He should
-have manifested the outstanding noble qualities of abandomnent and realization
-in his mind-stream by having relied upon practicing the meaning of this. He
-gathers fortunate disciples by the four ways of attracting: generosity,
-pleasant speech, his conduct should benefit others, and he should act in
-accord with the dharma."
- -- Patrul Rinpoche
-~
-...when we talk about the notion of self in Buddhism, it is important to bear
-in mind that there are different degrees or types. There are some types of
-sense of self which are not only to be cultivated but also to be reinforced
-and enhanced. For instance, in order to have a strong determination to seek
-Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings, one needs a very strong
-sense of confidence, which is based upon a sense of commitment and courage.
-This requires a strong sense of self. Unless one has that identity or sense
-of self, one will not be able to develop the confidence and courage to
-strongly seek this aim. In addition, the doctrine of Buddha-nature gives us a
-lot of encouragement and confidence because we realize that there is this
-potential within us which will allow us to attain the perfection that we are
-seeking. However, there are different types of sense of self which are rooted
-in a belief in a permanent, solid, indivisible entity called "self" or "I."
-There is the belief that there is something very concrete or objective about
-this entity. This is a false notion of self which must be overcome.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in "Healing Anger: The Power of Patience
- from a Buddhist Perspective", translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-...by respecting and serving your teachers you exhaust karma whose effects you
-would otherwise experience in the miserable realms. Your action of serving
-the teacher expends these miserable effects and replaces them with only slight
-harm to your body and mind in this lifetime, either in actuality or in dreams.
-In addition, the benefits of respecting and serving your teachers are
-tremendous, such as a collection of virtue which surpasses even the roots of
-virtue that you derive from making offerings to limitless buddhas, and so
-forth. As the Sutra of Ksitigarbha says:
- "Those whom the teachers care for will purify the karma that would
-otherwise cause them to wander through the miserable realms for ten million
-limitless eons. They purify this karma with harm to their bodies and minds in
-this lifetime. This harm includes sickness such as an infectious disease with
-fever and calamities such as famine. They may purify their karma by merely
-undergoing something as little as a dream or a scolding. They produce more
-roots of virtue in one morning than those who give gifts to, worship, or
-observe precepts from limitless tens of millions of buddhas. Those who
-respect and serve their gurus are endowed with unimaginable good qualities."
- -- Tsong-kha-pa, in "The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to
- Enlightenment: Lam Rim Chen Mo", translated by the Lamrim Chenmo
- Translation Committee under editorial guidance of Joshua Cutler and Guy
- Newland, foreword by Robert A.F. Thurman, Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...if we remain clinging to this life even for one day, we are misusing
-our time. In this way, we can waste months and years on end. Because we
-don't know when our lives will finish, we should remain mindful and well
-prepared. Then, even if we die tonight, we will do so without regret. If we
-die tonight, the purpose of being well prepared is borne out; if we don't die
-tonight, there is no harm in being well prepared, because it will still
-benefit us.
- But when we leave the world of humans, we do so without a protector or
-supporter and the total responsibility falls on us. We only have our own
-intelligence to rely on at that time, so we must expend our own effort in
-order to protect ourselves. As the Buddha said, "I have shown you the path to
-liberation; know that liberation depends on you." We must put strenuous effort
-into gaining freedom from the lower migrations, liberation from samsara,
-freedom from conventional existence and solitary salvation.
- The body is compared to a guest house; it is a place to stay for just a
-short time and not permanently. At present, the guest of consciousness is
-staying in the guest house of the body, like renting a place to stay. When
-the day comes for consciousness to leave, the guest house of the body must be
-left behind. Not being attached to friends, the body, wealth and possessions
-is the practice of the Bodhisattvas.
- -- His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, in "The Heart of Compassion: A Practical
- Approach to a Meaningful Life"
-~
- ...the Transcendent Conqueror presented the two truths with respect to all
-inner and outer things, like sprouts and everything else. Genuine truth is
-described as being simply the authentic object of the noble ones' original
-wisdom that sees what is authentic and true; there is no identity actually
-established there for conceptual mind to find. Relative truth is the false
-object seen from the perspective of the conceptual mind whose eye of wisdom is
-completely covered by the cataract of ignorance, as is the case with ordinary
-beings. It is therefore posited as being this conceptual mind. The object
-perceived does not exist in the way that this mind perceives it to be.
- Thus, the Teacher explained that every thing found holds two natures
-within: a genuine nature and a relative one. From among these two, the object
-of the noble ones' authentic vision is the precise nature of reality, genuine
-truth, and the object of false seeing is relative truth.
- -- Chandrakirti, in "The Moon of Wisdom: Chapter Six of Chandrakirti's
- 'Entering the Middle Way' with Commentary from the Eighth Karmapa Mikyo
- Dorje's 'Chariot of the Dagpo Kagyu Siddhas', translated by Ari Goldfield,
- Jules Levinson, Jim Scott and Birgit Scott under guidance of Khenpo
- Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...we find Agastya, born to a family of Brahmans so illustrious as to be
-called "an ornament of the earth," living as an ascetic on the island of Kara
-in the Indian Ocean.... "On what accomplishment have you set your hopes?"
-Indra asked Agastya the Bodhisattva. "What is the object of your wishes that
-has led you to leave your sorrowful friends and relatives, desert a household
-and possessions that had been your happiness, and enter this way of life that
-destroys all pleasures?"
- The Bodhisattva replied according to the Dharma, in a way that immediately
-laid Indra's anxiety to rest. "Repeated births tend to great sorrow," he
-said. "So do the calamities of old age, sickness and death. All are just a
-disturbance to the mind. My vow is to save all sentient beings from these
-evils."
- Relieved, Indra immediately offered, in return for such candid truth, the
-fulfillment of any desire Agastya might name. "May the fire of covetousness
-that burns insatiably even after obtaining a beloved wife, children, power and
-riches never enter my heart," Agastya said. "Excellent, excellent," applauded
-Indra and urged Agastya to request the fulfillment of still another desire.
- "May the fire of hatred burn far from me," Agastya said. Pleased by this
-game, in which Agastya so ingeniously taught the Dharma while appearing to
-request the fulfillment of his desires, Indra urged him to go on. But this
-time he was startled to hear Agastya's words. "May I never hear, see, speak
-to, nor endure the annoyance and pain of staying with a fool," Agastya said.
-"What do you mean?" Indra asked. "Those in distress deserve sympathy; the
-root of distress is foolishness. How can you claim to be compassionate when
-you abhor the very presence of those most due sympathy?"
- Then Agastya reasoned in this way, to prove to Indra that one should
-associate not with the foolish but with men of wisdom. "A fool cannot be
-cured even by medical treatment," he said. "Habituated to wrong conduct
-because of a deficiency in moral education, he urges his neighbors to follow
-his impetuous way, inflamed by self-conceit and the affectation of wisdom.
-When reprimanded, he becomes angry. There is no help for him." "How true,"
-Indra said. "Let me hear more jewellike, well spoken sentences."
- "May I see, hear, live with and converse with a wise man," Agastya said,
-"for these reasons: because the wise man, walking the path of virtue, draws
-others along with him, and is never roused to impatience by harsh words spoken
-for his own good." Again Indra was delighted.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Generous Wisdom: Commentaries by His Holiness the
- Dalai Lama XIV on the Jatakamala Garland of Birth Stories", translated by
- Tenzin Dorjee
-~
-(2) What one has to abandon: how to get rid of arrogance by means of an
-antidote--
- "I'm not beyond my karma, the deeds I've done;
- I'll still fall ill, age, die, and leave my friends."
- Think like this again and yet again
- And with this remedy avoid all arrogance.
-"I will be sick, I will grow old, I will die, I will be separated from those
-I love, my relations and so forth. In such manner, the fully ripened effect
-of my actions will come to me and to no one else, and I am therefore not above
-depending on what I did in former lives." To think like this again and again
-is the antidote to such things as arrogance: make every effort not to become
-arrogant by meditating on this antidote.
- -- "Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend: with Commentary by Kangyur Rinpoche
- by Nagarjuna", translated by the Padmakara Translation Group, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-For every minute you are angry, you lose 60 seconds of happiness.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-Inwardly, we defend against death by the very structure of our ego. Our ego
-claims to have the ability to provide us with happiness based on its belief in
-its own permanent existence. On the one hand, to believe in ego results in
-denying death. On the other, to accept death is to question the very nature
-of ego as a permanent, on-going structure and to confront very strong defense
-mechanisms. As a result, we have strong resistance to contemplating death.
-This resistance is also the same resistance that comes up when we meditate.
-Please recognize it for what it is and move on.
- -- Bruce Newman, in "A Beginner's Guide to Tibetan Buddhism: Notes from a
- Practitioner's Journey", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Question: Could you please say something on the three kinds of suffering?
-
-His Holiness: One kind of suffering is like a headache or like yesterday's
-flu: discomfort in the nose, watery eyes, and so forth. In short, it includes
-all of those kinds of gross physical and mental sufferings that in ordinary
-parlance we usually call "suffering." This is the first category.
-
-Then the second category is as follows. When we feel hungry and begin to take
-food, at first we feel very happy. We take one mouthful, then two, three,
-four, five... eventually, though it is the same person, the same food, and
-the same time period, we begin to find the food objectionable and reject it.
-This is what is meant by the "suffering of change." Practically every worldly
-happiness and pleasure is in this second category. Compared to other forms of
-suffering, at the beginning these more subtle forms of suffering seem
-pleasurable; they seem to afford us some happiness, but this is not true or
-lasting happiness, for the more we become acquainted with them, the more
-involved we become with them, the more suffering and trouble they bring us.
-That is the second category.
-
-Now as for the third category, I think it is fair to say that it is one's own
-body. Roughly speaking, this is what it is. It is the body which is the
-fruit of afflictions, a body originally created by afflictions. Because the
-body is created by such causes, it is of the very nature of suffering. It
-comes to act as the basis of suffering. This, then, is the third category.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Answers: Discussions with Western Buddhists",
- edited by Jose Ignacio Cabezon, published by Snow Lion Publications.
-~
- One point I should make here is that some people, especially those who see
-themselves as very realistic and practical, are sometimes too realistic and
-obsessed with practicality. They may think, "The idea of wishing for the
-happiness of all beings, of wanting what is best for every single one, is
-unrealistic and too idealistic. Such an unrealistic idea cannot contribute in
-any way to transforming the mind or to attaining some kind of mental
-discipline, because it is completely unachievable."
- ...They feel there is simply no point in thinking about all beings since
-there is an infinite number of them. They may conceivably be able to feel
-some kind of connection with some fellow human beings on this planet, but they
-feel that the infinite number of beings throughout the universe has nothing to
-do with their own experience as individuals.
- ...What is important here, however, is to grasp the impact of cultivating
-such altruistic sentiments. The point is to try to develop the scope of our
-empathy in such a way that we can extend it to any form of life with the
-capacity to feel pain and experience happiness. It is a matter of recognizing
-living organisms as sentient, and therefore subject to pain and capable of
-happiness.
- ...Such a universal sentiment of compassion is very powerful, and there is
-no need to be able to identify, in specific terms, with every single living
-being in order for it to be effective.
- ...Given patience and time, it is within our power to develop this kind of
-universal compassion.
- -- Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, in "The Compassionate Life",
- edited by David Kittelstrom, sponsored by Richard Gere and the Gere
- Foundation
-~
-Position
- Different body postures open or compress particular energetic channels and
-influence the flow of subtle energy. We use this understanding to aid
-specific processes in the practice. The Tibetan tradition considers the
-negative emotions to be more closely associated with the primary channel on
-the right side of the body in men and on the left in women. When a man sleeps
-on his right side, the channel that carries mostly negative prana is forced a
-little closed and the left channel opens. Also the lung, the physical organ,
-on that side is a bit compressed so the opposite lung is a little more
-responsible for the breath. You are probably already familiar with effects
-from lying on your side: when you lie on your right side you find it easier to
-breathe through your left nostril. For men, we consider this position
-beneficial to the movement of the positive wisdom prana through the left
-channel. Women benefit from the reverse, opening the wisdom channel that is
-on their right side by sleeping on their left. This affects dreams in a
-positive fashion and makes the dream practice easier. Opening the flow of the
-wisdom prana is a provisional expedient, as ultimately we want the balanced
-prana to move into the central channel.
- Furthermore, by paying attention to posture, awareness is kept more stable
-during sleep. Where I come from, most people sleep on a three-foot by six-
-foot Tibetan carpet. If one moves too much, one falls out of bed. But that
-does not usually happen, because when one sleeps on something small, the
-position of the body is held in the sleeping mind throughout the night....
-Here, in the big beds of the West, the sleeper can rotate like the hands of a
-clock and not fall, but holding the position anyway will help maintain
-awareness.
- -- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, in "The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep",
- edited by Mark Dahlby, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The term emptiness does not carry here any connotation of void or of absolute
-nothingness. It should be understood as the naturally open and serene state
-of the mind. Thus, to affirm the emptiness of phenomena does not in any way
-mean that they do not exist in the way that the horn of a hare or skyflowers
-do not exist. Instead, emptiness refers to the insight that, at the ultimate
-level, both interior phenomena--sensations, perceptions and the "I"--and
-exterior phenomena--all the appearances of the phenomenal world--have no real
-existence, although they do appear in different forms. The Heart Sutra
-summarizes this as follows:
- Form is emptiness, emptiness is form,
- Emptiness is not other than form,
- Form is not other than emptiness.
- -- Jerome Edou in "Machig Labdron and the Foundations of Chod", published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Nonviolence does not mean that we remain indifferent to a problem. On the
-contrary, it is important to be fully engaged. However, we must behave in a
-way that does not benefit us alone. We must not harm the interests of others.
-Nonviolence therefore is not merely the absence of violence. It involves a
-sense of compassion and caring. It is almost a manifestation of compassion.
-I strongly believe that we must promote such a concept of nonviolence at the
-level of the family as well as at the national and international levels. Each
-individual has the ability to contribute to such compassionate nonviolence.
- How should we go about this? We can start with ourselves. We must try to
-develop greater perspective, looking at situations from all angles. Usually
-when we face problems, we look at them from our own point of view. We even
-sometimes deliberately ignore other aspects of a situation. This often leads
-to negative consequences. However, it is very important for us to have a
-broader perspective.
- We must come to realize that others are also part of our society. We can
-think of our society as a body, with arms and legs as parts of it. Of course,
-the arm is different from the leg; however, if something happens to the foot,
-the hand should reach down to help. Similarly, when something is wrong within
-our society, we must help.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday
- Life", edited by Nicholas Vreeland, afterword by Khyongla Rato and
- Richard Gere
-~
- According to Highest Yoga Tantra, some persons attain Buddhahood in one
-lifetime, and because these persons are not born with a body adorned with the
-major and minor marks they must achieve such a body through the practice of
-deity yoga.
- Meditation on oneself as undifferentiable from a deity is the special
-cause... for attaining Buddhahood. If one meditated only on emptiness and
-did not cultivate any method--either that of the Perfection or that of the
-Mantra Vehicle--one would fall to the fruit of a Hinayana Foe Destroyer. In
-order to attain the definite goodness of the highest achievement, Buddhahood,
-deity yoga is needed. Also, ...one must view one's body clearly as a divine
-body and train in the pride of being a deity. Without deity yoga the Mantra
-path is impossible; deity yoga is the essence of Mantra.
- -- H.H. Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa and Jeffrey Hopkins, in "Tantra in Tibet",
- translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Often we see other sentient beings as hassles: "This mosquito is
-disturbing me. Those politicians are corrupt. Why can't my colleagues do
-their work correctly?" and so on. But when we see sentient beings as being
-more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel, our perspective completely
-changes. For example, when we look at a fly buzzing around, we train
-ourselves to think, "My enlightenment depends on that fly." This isn't
-fanciful thinking because, in fact, our enlightenment does depend on that fly.
-If that fly isn't included in our bodhicitta, then we don't have bodhicitta,
-and we won't receive the wonderful results of generating bodhicitta--the
-tremendous purification and creation of positive potential.
- Imagine training your mind so that when you look at every single living
-being, you think, "My enlightenment depends on that being. The drunk who just
-got on the bus--my enlightenment depends on him. The soldier in Iraq--my
-enlightenment depends on him. My brothers and sisters, the teller at the
-bank, the janitor at my workplace, the president of the United States, the
-suicide bombers in the Middle East, the slug in my garden, my eighth-grade
-boyfriend, the babysitter when I was a kid--my enlightenment depends on each
-of them." All sentient beings are actually that precious to us.
- -- Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, in "Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The
- Yoga Method of Chenrezig", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- We think of ourselves as being the child of specific parents, as belonging
-to a certain gender and race, as a citizen of a specific nation, and as a
-member of a caste, class and community within that country, etc. Our
-identification with these transient reference points, be they racial,
-linguistic, cultural, conceptual, or gender-specific, can become lifelong love
-affairs, hate affairs, or guilt affairs. What Guru Rinpoche's birth
-symbolizes for me is the fact that, from the first moment, he recognized the
-unborn and undying nature of his mind, primordially pure awareness. He
-identified with that, rather than with his body, wherever it may have come
-from, be it a womb, a lotus, a stork, or a cabbage patch. Whatever physical,
-linguistic, or conceptual worlds he adopted, he wore as ephemeral ornaments on
-the infinite expanse of timeless awareness.
- ...Guru Rinpoche was not an individual who followed a spiritual path until
-illumination. He was an enlightened being who appeared in different guises
-entirely as a manifestation to help others, including the guise of an
-individual who followed the spiritual path.
- -- Ngawang Zangpo, in "Guru Rinpoche: His Life and Times", published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...if a person is experiencing some kind of mental dysfunction, it is
-frequently understood that the mind itself has become too withdrawn in upon
-itself, and that there is a corresponding physiological process involving the
-energies themselves, which are closely associated with consciousness, also
-entering into a dysfunctional state.
- So, in the Buddhist view, it can happen, for example, that one's mind will
-become depressed because of some environmental event. As a result of the mind
-becoming depressed, there is a chemical, maybe an electrochemical,
-transformation in the brain that has now occurred. The mental dysfunction
-will then be aggravated. When that happens, there is a further chemical
-response, which then avalanches upon itself.
- ...on occasion, without any special external event taking place, there can
-simply be a dysfunction or disruption in the balance of the elements within
-the body. In that event, the internal circumstances are the dominant,
-principal cause.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, from "Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations
- with the Dalai Lama on Brain Science and Buddhism," edited by Zara
- Houshmand, Robert B. Livingston and B. Alan Wallace, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.
- -- Ben Sweetland
-~
-You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi
-~
- Enlightenment is not only... devoid of various types of contaminations,
-pollutions, suffering, and afflictive emotions... but is also free from
-various dualistic appearances. When you achieve such a state, you are
-unfettered from all elaborations in the form of subject-object duality and
-appearances of conventionality.
- You are free not because the subject-object duality or conventional
-appearances are objects of elimination in the sense that they are negative
-emotions. Rather, you are free because these elaborations cease to exist when
-you reach the state of enlightenment. In such a state, the mind of
-enlightenment or omniscience is such that it is totally merged with emptiness.
-To such a mind, no elaborations exist.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Many Ways to Nirvana: Reflections and
- Advice on Right Living", edited by Renuka Singh
-~
-Guilt and Shame
- When we meditate, things from the past come up, and we have to work with
-them. We may remember times when we treated others horribly--hurting their
-feelings, deceiving them, repaying their kindness with spite, manipulating
-them, cheating them. While regret for these actions is appropriate and
-necessary to purify these karmas, we often fall into guilt and shame instead.
-Guilt and shame are obstacles to overcome on the path, because they keep us
-trapped in our self-centered melodrama entitled "How Bad I Am." Regret, on the
-other hand, realizes that we erred, leads us to purify, and motivates us to
-refrain from acting like that in the future.
- How do we counteract guilt and shame? One way is to recognize that the
-person who did that action no longer exists. You are different now. Is the
-person who did that action five years ago the same person you are now? If she
-were exactly the same person, you would still be doing the same action. The
-present "you" exists in a continuum from that person, but is not exactly the
-same as her. Look back at the person you were with compassion. You can
-understand the suffering and confusion she was experiencing that made her act
-in that way.
- -- Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, "Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga
- Method of Chenrezig", foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted,
-the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the
-voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil
-to triumph.
- -- Haile Selassie
-~
-If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever
-that search may lead us. The free mind is no barking dog to be tethered
-on a ten-foot chain.
- -- Adlai E. Stevenson
-~
-Our relationship with our practice must be based on reason and common sense.
-The principal subject to be learned is the nature of the two levels of reality
-[conventional and ultimate], the stages of which can be approached through a
-combination of hearing, contemplation and meditation. It is very important
-always to remember contemplation, which is the analysis and investigation of
-the teachings through the use of reason. The two truths are speaking about
-reality, not some intellectual fabrication. To investigate the teaching
-critically is fully encouraged in the same way that medical students are
-encouraged to apply their theories to real life and thus to witness their
-validity.... Time may flow on, but the essential nature of the deeper
-problems and mysteries that human beings encounter in the course of their
-lives remains the same. Contemplation of the teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni
-is merely contemplation of certain facets of reality, and it will cause to
-unfold within us a deeper understanding of ourselves, our minds, and the
-nature of our sense of being. As the teachings are merely pointing out key
-facts of life, facts that, if realized, cause one to evolve in wholesome
-directions, a critical investigation of them will only inspire trainees with
-confidence. Reason well from the beginning and then there will never be any
-need to look back with confusion and doubt.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "The Path to Enlightenment", published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-b. Keeping bounteousness in mind
-
- Possessions are ephemeral and essenceless
- Know this and give them generously to monks,
- To brahmins, to the poor, and to your friends:
- Beyond there is no greater friend than gift.
-
-Having realized that possessions such as food are inconstant and fluctuate,
-that in changing and transforming they are devoid of essence, in order to make
-them meaningful try to use them properly, giving to those with good qualities
-(monks and brahmins), to those who suffer (the poor, the sick, and so forth),
-to those who help you (friends) and to those you venerate (spiritual teachers
-and parents). Even beyond the world there is no friend more sublime, more
-beneficial, than giving, because it gives rise directly and indirectly to
-ripened effects that are inexhaustible.
-
- -- Nagarjuna, "Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend: with Commentary by Kangyur
- Rinpoche", translated by the Padmakara Translation Group, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- A goloptious full-up pot, too,
- And I don't know where it's got to,
- No, I don't know where it's gone--
- Well, its funny.
- -- A.A. Milne, "In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump"
-~
-With a determination to accomplish
-The highest welfare for all sentient beings
-Who surpass even a wish-granting jewel
-I will learn to hold them supremely dear.
-
- Never mind neglecting other sentient beings, you should take them as a
-treasure through which temporary and final aims can be achieved and should
-cherish them one-pointedly. Others should be considered more dear, more
-important than yourself. Initially, it is in dependence upon sentient
-beings--others--that you generate the altruistic aspiration to highest
-enlightenment. In the middle, it is in relation to sentient beings that you
-increase this good mind higher and higher and practice the deeds of the path
-in order to achieve enlightenment. Finally, in the end, it is for the sake of
-sentient beings that you achieve Buddhahood. Since sentient beings are the
-aim and basis of all of this marvelous development, they are more important
-than even a wish-granting jewel, and should always be treated with respect,
-kindness, and love.
-
- You might think, "My mind is so full of the afflictive emotions. How
-could I possibly do this?" However, the mind does what it is used to. What
-we are not used to, we find difficult, but with familiarity, previously
-difficult things become easy. Thus Shantideva's Engaging in the Bodhisattva
-Deeds says,
-
- "There is nothing which, with time, you cannot get used to."
-
- -- The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, "Kindness,
- Clarity, and Insight," edited and translated by Jeffrey Hopkins,
- co-edited by Elizabeth Napper, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Eventually, through the power of stabilizing meditation in which the
-mind is set one-pointedly on its object of observation, an initial mental
-pliancy--a serviceability of mind--is generated. As a sign that mental
-pliancy is about to be generated, a tingly sensation is felt at the top of the
-head. This pleasant feeling is compared to that of a warm hand placed on top
-of the head after it has been shaved. When mental pliancy has been generated,
-a favorable wind, or energy, circulates in the body, engendering physical
-pliancy. Through this wind, or air, pervading the entire body, the
-unserviceability of the body such that it cannot be directed to virtuous
-activities in accordance with your wishes is removed. The generation of
-physical pliancy, in turn, engenders a bliss of physical pliancy, a sense of
-comfort throughout the body due to the power of meditative stabilization.
- The bliss of physical pliancy induces a bliss of mental pliancy, making
-the mind blissful. At first, this joyous mental bliss is a little too
-buoyant, but then gradually it becomes more steady; at this point, one attains
-an unfluctuating pliancy. This marks attainment of a fully qualified
-meditative stabilization of calm abiding.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Dzong-ka-ba and Jeffrey Hopkins, in "Yoga
- Tantra: Paths to Magical Feats", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The more we generate an attitude of contentment in our lives, the happier
-we will be and the more open we will be to engage in genuine Dharma practice.
-Letting go of the eight worldly concerns brings mental peace right now.
- The defining characteristic of a thought or action being Dharma is whether
-or not we're attached to the happiness of this life. The eight worldly
-concerns are completely involved with attachment to the happiness of this
-life. How can we practice genuine Dharma when our self-centered mind is
-fixated on getting our own way and making everyone and everything around us
-suit our preferences and needs?
- That doesn't mean the happiness of this life is bad or wrong. The Buddha
-did not say that we should suffer in this life so that we'll get our reward in
-heaven. The objects we're attached to and have aversion for aren't the
-problem; there's nothing wrong with experiencing pleasure and happiness.
-Those aren't the issue. Rather, attachment to pleasant feelings and to the
-people, objects, and situations that cause them, and aversion to unpleasant
-ones--it is these emotions that create trouble. They make us unhappy and
-propel us to harm others in order to get what we want. The troublemakers of
-attachment and hostility are what we want to abandon, not people and things.
-There is nothing wrong with being happy. But when we're attached to it, we
-actually create more unhappiness for ourselves.
- -- Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, "How to Free Your Mind: Tara the Liberator",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-When engaging in hearing, it is important to mix the mind, to familiarize the
-mind, with what is being heard. The study of religion is not like learning
-about history. It must be mixed with your mental continuum; your mind should
-be suffused with it. A sutra says that the practices are like a mirror; your
-actions of body, speech, and mind are like a face to be seen in the mirror;
-and through the practices you should recognize faults and gradually get rid of
-them. As it is said in the oral transmission, "If there is enough space
-between yourself and the practices for someone else to walk through, then you
-are not implementing them properly."
- -- The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, in "Kindness,
- Clarity, and Insight", edited and translated by Jeffrey Hopkins,
- co-edited by Elizabeth Napper, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Question: What is the relationship of the mind and afflictive emotions?
-
-DL: The very entity of the mind, its nature of mere luminosity and knowing, is
-not polluted by defilements; they do not abide in the entity of the mind.
-Even when we generate afflictive emotions, the very entity or nature of the
-mind is still mere luminosity and knowing, and because of this we are able to
-remove the afflictive emotions. If you agitate the water in a pond, it
-becomes cloudy with mud; yet the very nature of the water itself is not dirty.
-When you allow it to become still again, the mud will settle, leaving the
-water pure. How are defilements removed? They are not removed by outside
-action, nor by leaving them as they are; they are removed by the power of
-antidotes, meditative antidotes.
- -- The Dalai Lama, "A Policy of Kindness: An Anthology of Writings By and
- About the Dalai Lama", compiled and edited by Sidney Piburn, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Every single sentient being wishes to be happy and free of suffering. By
-no means does Buddhism say this is wrong; rather, this is where we start from.
- The very root of this yearning for happiness, this yearning to be free of
-suffering, is the fundamental expression of the buddha-nature. If for the
-time being we turn our gaze away from the myriad ways that we can stray from
-the agenda--trying to find happiness by buying a more luxurious car, or a
-bigger house, or getting a better job--and just come back to the primary
-desire of wishing to be happy, we find at the very source of our yearning for
-happiness the buddha-nature wanting to realize itself. It's like a seed that
-wants to spring into the sunlight. Sometimes it gets terribly contorted, when
-we want to injure somebody else for the sake of our own happiness, but the
-fundamental yearning is something to be embraced.
- -- B. Alan Wallace, in "The Four Immeasurables: Cultivating a Boundless
- Heart", edited by Zara Houshmand, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it
-by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.
- -- George S. Patton
-~
- When you meditate with concentration, there are three particular
-experiences that arise: bliss, clarity, and nonthought. Sometimes you feel
-great joy, sometimes your mind is very clear, and sometimes there is complete
-equanimity. To experience these you do not need to meditate for a long time,
-although for a beginner these experiences will not last long because of the
-limited ability of a beginner's meditation.
- The experience of meditative bliss is greater than ordinary worldly
-happiness. Sometimes when you are meditating, a feeling of blissfulness
-suddenly arises from the subtle state of your mind and pervades your entire
-body. This bliss is healthy and brings out your inner qualities. Some people
-use drugs to induce blissfulness and visions, but drugs are external supports
-that cannot bring lasting happiness. The bliss experienced in meditation can
-last for many days, according to your ability to meditate. When you
-experience this kind of bliss, on the outside you might look very poor, but
-inside you remain very joyful.
- The second main experience in meditation is clarity. Sometimes while
-meditating you can suddenly feel that your mind is very clear and bright.
-Even if you are meditating in the dark, you do not feel heavy or tired.
-Sometimes your body feels very light and your mind is very clear, and many
-kinds of reflections appear. Clarity brings great wisdom and the ability to
-read other people's minds, as well as to see your own past and future lives.
- The third main experience is nonthought, or a state of equanimity without
-distractions. Beginners can also experience this. Nonthought is more settled
-than the experiences of bliss and clarity. If you have thoughts, they
-suddenly dissolve and you can remain continuously in meditation. As your
-ability to meditate develops, your mind becomes more and more settled, so that
-you can meditate for one hour or one week or one month without being
-distracted by thoughts. You simply remain in the natural state for as long as
-you want.
- -- Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal, in "Opening to Our
- Primordial Nature", edited by Ann Helm and Michael White, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...when you probe deeply you will find that no matter how high an
-existence a realm may be, even though it may be the highest state of
-existence, as long as it is in this cycle of existence the beings there are in
-the nature of sufferings, because they have the sufferings of pervasive
-conditioning and are therefore under the influence or command of contaminated
-actions and delusions. As long as one is not able to be free from such an
-influence, there is no place for permanent peace or happiness.
- Generally, the experiences that you normally regard as pleasurable and
-happy, such as having the physical comfort of good facilities and so forth, if
-they are examined at a deeper level, will be revealed to be changeable and
-therefore in the nature of suffering. They provide you with temporary
-satisfaction; because of that temporary satisfaction you regard them as
-experiences of happiness. But if you keep on pursuing them, they will again
-lead to the experience of suffering. Most of these pleasurable experiences
-are not really happiness in the true sense of the word, but only appear as
-pleasure and happiness in comparison to the obvious sufferings that you have.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, in "Path to Bliss: A Practical Guide
- to Stages of Meditation", translated by Geshe Thubten Jinpa, edited by
- Christine Cox, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Once the conventional nature of the mind has been identified, then,
-through analysing its nature, finally we will gradually be able to identify
-the ultimate nature of the mind. If that is done, there is great progress
-unlike anything else.
- At the beginning we should meditate for half an hour. When we rise from
-the session and various good and bad objects appear, benefit and harm are
-manifestly experienced. Therefore, we should develop as much as we can the
-realisation that these phenomena do not exist objectively and are mere
-dependent-arisings of appearances, like illusions [in that they only seem to
-be inherently existent]. We should meditate in this way in four formal
-sessions: at sunrise, in the morning, afternoon, and evening.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Buddhism of Tibet", translated and edited by
- Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Bodhichitta is the one practice we cannot do without. Even if we have been
-given the precious oral instructions on realizing the nature of mind, they
-will not be the sufficient cause for realization if we have not learned to
-generate Bodhichitta. The great Dzogchen yogi Patrul Rinpoche said,
- If we have only one thing, the precious Bodhichitta is enough.
- If we have nothing else, we must have the method of the precious
- Bodhichitta.
- We should learn to develop Bodhichitta in a twofold way: through our
-aspirations and through our actions. Aspiration Bodhichitta is our initial
-wish that all sentient beings be liberated from the vast ocean of samsara's
-suffering. Action Bodhichitta requires that we first generate aspiration
-Bodhichitta, and practice the Six Paramitas as the method to establish the two
-benefits of 1) attaining Buddhahood oneself to 2) be of ultimate benefit to
-others. The way to practice aspiration and action Bodhichitta was taught by
-the omniscient Patrul Rinpoche, who said,
- The instructions for aspiration [Bodhichitta] are to practice the
- Four Immeasurables;
- The instructions for action [Bodhichitta] are to practice the Paramitas.
- -- Anyen Rinpoche, "The Union of Dzogchen and Bodhichitta", translated by
- Allison Graboski, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- What are the techniques for heightening or lowering the mind? To heighten
-the mind, you think about something that enlivens it, but not an object that
-would generate desire. For instance, you could reflect on the value of
-developing the meditative stabilization of calm abiding or on the value of
-having attained a life as a human or on the value of having human
-intelligence. Through such reflection, your mind will gain courage, thereby
-causing its mode of apprehension to become heightened.
- If, despite such a technique, laxity is not cleared away, it is better to
-end the session and go to a place that is bright or that is high with a vast
-view where you can see a great distance. Or, expose yourself to fresh air, or
-throw cold water on your face. Then, return to the session.
- When the mind becomes too heightened and thus scattered, what will lower
-its mode of apprehension? As a technique to withdraw the mind inside, you
-should reflect on a topic that sobers the mind, such as the suffering of
-cyclic existence, or think "In the past I have been ruined by distraction, and
-again now I will be ruined by distraction. If I do not take care now, it will
-not be good." This will lower the mode of apprehension of the mind.
- Since this is the case, a person who is cultivating calm abiding needs to
-be in a state where such reflections will move the mind immediately.
-Therefore, prior to working at achieving calm abiding, it is necessary to have
-become convinced about many topics--such as those involved in the four
-establishments in mindfulness--through a considerable amount of analysis. In
-an actual session of cultivating calm abiding one is performing stabilizing
-meditation, not analytical meditation, but if one has engaged in considerable
-analysis of these topics previously, the force of the previous reflection
-remains with the mind and can be recalled. Thus, when you switch to such
-topics in order either to elevate or lower the mind, the mind will be
-immediately affected. In this way, if ascertainment has been generated
-previously, then reflecting on the value of meditative stabilization or the
-value of a human lifetime will immediately heighten the mind, and reflection
-on sobering topics such as the nature of the body or the ugliness of objects
-of desire will immediately lower its mode of apprehension.
- ...recognize when laxity and excitement arise and know the techniques for
-overcoming them.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Dalai Lama at Harvard: Lectures on the
- Buddhist Path to Peace", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- How is it that mistaken mind overwhelms the unmistaken mind, unmistaken
-reality? To give an example, during the day when the sun is shining one does
-not see any stars and thus one would think that there are no stars at all,
-that they just plain do not exist. Just so, afflictive emotions shine so
-brightly and are so powerful that it is as if unmistaken reality, unmistaken
-mind, does not exist at all. When you seek out this unmistaken mind from
-within, you come to understand that there is an unmistaken mind--a reality of
-the mind--that does not die, that does not scurry after pleasure and pain.
-This mind that does not follow after pleasure and pain has a mode of being
-that is emptiness--but not an emptiness in the sense of an empty house or an
-empty vessel; rather, it is endowed with the inconceivable self-effulgence of
-unmistaken reality, of pristine wisdom.
- When you search for this that is beyond mistaken mind, mistaken mind just
-stops; gradually like dawn there comes to be a time when pristine wisdom
-manifests a little. With the beginning of dawn there is not just darkness but
-some light, and so it is when the self-effulgence, the self-color, the self-
-nature of the pristine wisdom shows itself a little; one generates a suspicion
-that there is wisdom beyond mistaken mind. As Aryadeva says, "When you
-generate doubt thinking that there might be such a reality, cyclic existence
-is torn to tatters." How does cyclic existence come to be torn to tatters, or
-wrecked, made into a mess by doubt? For instance, if a table is wrecked,
-broken up, it cannot perform the function of a table; just so, when the self-
-effulgence of unmistaken pristine wisdom begins to dawn with this state of
-doubt, cyclic existence is wrecked and torn to tatters.
- -- Mi-pam-gya-tso, in "Fundamental Mind: The Nyingma View of the Great
- Completeness", practical commentary by Khetsun Sangpo Rinbochay,
- translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- The Jewel in the Crown Sutra states, "Donning the armor of loving-
- kindness, while abiding in the state of great compassion, practice
- meditative stabilization that actualizes the emptiness possessing
- the best of all qualities. What is the emptiness possessing the
- best of all qualities? It is that which is not divorced from
- generosity, ethics, patience, effort, meditative stabilization,
- wisdom, or skillful means." Bodhisattvas must rely on virtuous
- practices like generosity as means to thoroughly ripen all sentient
- beings and in order to perfect the place, body, and manifold retinue.
- -- from "Stages of Meditation" by Kamalashila
-
-...Note that practice of generosity and the other perfections is essential.
-This is because the fully enlightened state of Buddhahood is produced by the
-realization of favorable causes and conditions. There is no causeless
-production and nothing is produced by contrary causes. A Bodhisattva has many
-wonderful advantages to help enhance the welfare of sentient beings; every
-virtue performed by such a noble being is very powerful and effective.
-Therefore, Bodhisattvas earnestly engage in the practice of the method aspects
-of the path, including the six perfections, in order to swiftly actualize the
-state of Buddhahood.
- -- The Dalai Lama, "Stages of Meditation", translated by Venerable Geshe
- Lobsang Jordhen, Losang Choephel Ganchenpa, and Jeremy Russell,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Of the three kayas, the Dharmakaya is linked to our mind, Sambhogakaya to
-our speech, or communicative principle, and the Nirmanakaya to our ordinary
-body.
- The process of the three blendings in brief is as follows.
- We experience the clear light of the waking state naturally during cIimax,
-and it can also be induced with yogic methods. Moreover, we naturally
-experience it at the moment of going to sleep, and at the moment of death.
-The principle here is that this clear light mind as experienced in each of the
-three occasions (waking, sleep and death) is the highest experience of our
-consciousness, and in it we dwell in a mental state of blissful, formless non-
-duality similar to that of the Dharmakaya wisdom of a buddha. Thus when we
-experience the clear light mind in any of these three occasions we should
-blend it with the Dharmakaya.
- The first movement from this clear light mind is likened to the
-Sambhogakaya experience. In the waking state this occurs in our meditation
-when we fall out of the clear light that is induced with yogic techniques and
-the conceptual mind is aroused. In sleep it occurs after the clear light of
-the moment of entering sleep passes and we begin to dream. At death it occurs
-when the clear light flash at the moment of death passes and we leave our body
-and enter the bardo realm.
- A buddha's Sambhogakaya is only visible to an arya, or saint, and not to
-an ordinary being; in the same way our thoughts, dreams, and bardo visions are
-not visible to ordinary beings but nonetheless are experiences of form. These
-subtle form experiences are to be linked to the natural realization of the
-illusory, blissful, and perfect nature of being; they are to be seen as an
-illusory theater made manifest for the benefit of the world. In other words,
-they are to be blended with the Sambhogakaya. This is the second set of three
-blendings.
- The third blending is that of blending rebirth with the Nirmanakaya.
-Rebirth from the bardo of the waking state occurs every time that we arise
-from a meditation session and once more go about our ordinary life; rebirth
-from the bardo of the sleep / dream state occurs when we wake up and once more
-enter the work-a-day world; and rebirth from the bardo of becoming, or death
-bardo, occurs when we complete the unwinding process of the afterlife state
-and once again are ready to enter into a new body.
- The basic principle underlying these three blendings is that what occurs
-to us at the time of death also occurs to us in miniature form at the time of
-going to sleep and can be induced in the waking state by means of the inner
-heat yogas.
- -- "Readings on the Six Yogas of Naropa," translated, edited and introduced
- by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-If you want to tell people the truth,
-make them laugh,
-otherwise they'll kill you.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-In the beginning there was nothing.
-God said, "Let there be light!"
-And there was light.
-There was still nothing,
-but you could see it a whole lot better.
- -- Ellen DeGeneres
-~
- Now, as [in the past], the concept of a transcendent god as creator has a
-powerful and inspiring impact on the lives of those who believe in it. The
-sense that their entire destiny lies in the hands of an all-powerful,
-omniscient and compassionate being leads them to try to understand the
-workings and key message of this transcendent being. Then, when they come to
-realise that this transcendent being embodies love and infinite compassion,
-they try to cultivate love and compassion towards their fellow beings as the
-qualities through which to express love for their creator. They also gain
-confidence and inspiration through a sense of intimacy or connectedness to
-this loving, transcendent being.
- Although, metaphysically speaking, Buddhists reject any notion of a
-transcendent creator or god, some individual Buddhists do relate to certain
-higher beings, such as the goddess Tara, as an independent and real being with
-power over their destiny. For these practitioners Tara is their sole refuge,
-their greatest object of veneration and their trusted guardian and protector.
-What this suggests is that the inclination to seek refuge in an external
-source is something deeply natural for us as human beings.
- But it is also clear that for other people the metaphysical concept of a
-transcendent being is unacceptable. Questions form in their minds, such as:
-who created the creator--in other words--where does the transcendent being
-come from? And how can we posit a true beginning? People with this type of
-mental disposition look elsewhere for explanations.
- -- The Dalai Lama, in "Lighting the Way", translated by Geshe Thupten
- Jinpa, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Due to misunderstanding each other's needs and concerns, miscommunication
-occurs on the international level as well [as the personal level]. In all
-these situations--personal and international--freeing ourselves from our
-narrow understanding of a situation by seeing it from the other's viewpoint is
-an effective remedy for anger. We can ask ourselves, "If I had grown up in
-that person's family, society, time in history, and cultural conditions, what
-would my needs and concerns be in this situation?"
- When we look at the situation from the other person's viewpoint, sometimes
-we see that she perceives it differently than we thought she did. Other
-times, we realize that we have little idea of how a situation appears to
-another person or what her needs and concerns are. Therefore, we need to ask
-her; and when she responds, we need to listen, without interrupting. It is
-all too easy, when someone explains her view to us, to correct her or tell her
-that she should not feel the way she does. This only inflames the other
-person, and convinces her, with good reason, that we don't understand.
-Rather, we need to listen from our heart to what she says. After she has
-fully expressed herself, we can share our perspectives, and generally, a
-productive discussion will ensue.
- -- Thubten Chodron, in "Working with Anger", published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- ...it is extremely important to look inward and try to promote the right
-kind of attitude, which is based on awareness of reality. A sense of caring
-for others is crucial. And it is actually the best way of caring for oneself.
-...the moment you think of others, this automatically opens our inner door--
-you can communicate with other people easily, without any difficulties. The
-moment you think just of yourself and disregard others, then because of your
-own attitude, you also get the feeling that other people also have a similar
-attitude toward you. That brings suspicion, fear. Result? You yourself lose
-inner calmness. Therefore, I usually say that although a certain kind of
-selfishness is basically right--self and the happiness of that self are our
-original right, and we have every right to overcome suffering--but selfishness
-that leads to no hesitation to harm another, to exploit another, that kind of
-selfishness is blind. Therefore, I sometimes jokingly describe it this way:
-if we are going to be selfish, we should be wisely selfish rather than
-foolishly selfish.
- I feel that the moment you adopt a sense of caring for others, that brings
-inner strength. Inner strength brings us inner tranquility, more self-
-confidence. Through these attitudes, even though your surroundings may not be
-friendly or may not be positive, still you can sustain peace of mind.
- -- "The Art of Peace: Nobel Peace Laureates Discuss Human Rights,
- Conflict and Reconciliation", by the Dalai Lama and other Nobel
- Laureates, edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion
-~
- If we do not uncover [our] problems--and I saw this in myself--we risk
-placing a veneer of spirituality over deeply buried emotional wounds from
-childhood that do not simply go away.
- ...When this happens there is greater potential for our spirituality to
-become simply another expression of our personal pathology. We can falsify
-the qualities valued in the path without realizing it. Renunciation can
-become another level of denial and avoidance; compassion can become a sickly
-sentimentality that has no substance to it. Our desire to help others can
-come from "compulsive caring," or a compulsion to sacrifice ourselves because
-we feel worthless. The Buddhist idea of emptiness can likewise be falsified
-by the desire to disappear psychologically and merge or lose ego boundaries.
-Lack of identity, formless vagueness, and absence of boundaries do not
-exemplify the Buddhist idea of emptiness. My own version of this
-misconception was to try to live an ideal of the pure and pious only to find
-it was a form of repression I could not ultimately sustain.
- At the heart of Buddhist practice is the search for a solution to our
-fundamental wounds. Healing the emotional damage we often carry within is
-truly the object of this practice. If we wish to resolve these problems, we
-need to be open and honest about their reality within us. Only when we do
-will any spiritual practice address what we need. The aim of Buddhist
-practice is not a spiritual transcendence that dissociates from our suffering.
-Nor is it the search for salvation in some form of external divine being that
-we hope will save us in our distress. As one of my teachers, Lama Thubten
-Yeshe, once said, "Buddhism is very practical; you just have to recognize that
-your mind is the cause of suffering. If you change your mind, you can find
-liberation." This message is very simple but by no means easy to follow. In
-order to do so, however, we must begin to recognize where we are
-psychologically wounded.
- -- Rob Preece, in "The Wisdom of Imperfection: The Challenge of
- Individuation in Buddhist Life", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Direct Experience
- In the Dzogchen teachings, a teacher explains methods that you can apply
-for discovering that state. When you say that you are practicing or following
-Dzogchen teachings, it doesn't mean that you are reciting some prayers or
-mantras, or doing some visualization. It means that, following a teacher and
-using methods, you discover that state. When you have discovered that state,
-then you still need many kinds of methods for realizing it. Discovering the
-state of your real nature and realizing it are completely different things.
- Many people have the idea that when they have had some experience or
-discovery, they are enlightened; however, this discovery does not mean they
-are enlightened. The state of enlightenment means you have direct knowledge
-of what the state of rigpa is, and you are not just learning through
-intellectual study. When you follow a teaching in an intellectual way, you
-have many ideas at first--thinking, judging, and making analysis. You can
-follow or reject these ideas; but when you have many problems, you discover
-that perhaps this is not real knowledge. It is like following something
-blindly because you haven't had any direct experience. Direct introduction
-and discovering our real nature mean we have direct experience through our
-senses, and that through these experiences we discover our real nature.
- For example, if I show you an object, you can look at it and know its form
-and color. Now if I ask you to forget about it, you can't. If I ask you to
-change your idea about that object, you can't. Why? Because seeing that
-object is your direct experience. Discovering your real nature is similar to
-that.
- When you are studying in an intellectual way, you are following another
-person's idea. For example, you can believe your teacher today, but maybe
-what your teacher says will not be true for you tomorrow. You can always
-change your ideas. You have this problem because you have not discovered your
-state. This is the weak point of intellectual study.
- -- Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, "Dzogchen Teachings", edited by Jim Valby and
- Adriano Clemente, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Howard Cutler: "Have there been situations in your life that you've
-regretted?"
- Dalai Lama: "Oh, yes. Now for instance there was one older monk who lived
-as a hermit. He used to come to see me to receive teachings, although I think
-he was actually more accomplished than I and came to me as a sort of
-formality. Anyway, he came to me one day and asked me about doing a certain
-high-level esoteric practice. I remarked in a casual way that this would be a
-difficult practice and perhaps would be better undertaken by someone who was
-younger, that traditionally it was a practice that should be started in one's
-midteens. I later found out that the monk had killed himself in order to be
-reborn in a younger body to more effectively undertake the practice..."
- Surprised by this story, I remarked, "Oh, that's terrible! That must have
-been hard on you when you heard..." The Dalai Lama nodded sadly. "How did
-you deal with that feeling of regret? How did you eventually get rid of it?"
- The Dalai Lama silently considered for quite a while before replying, "I
-didn't get rid of it. It's still there. But even though that feeling of
-regret is still there, it isn't associated with a feeling of heaviness or a
-quality of pulling me back. It would not be helpful to anyone if I let that
-feeling of regret weigh me down, be simply a source of discouragement and
-depression with no purpose, or interfere with going on with my life to the
-best of my ability."
- At that moment, in a very visceral way, I was struck once again by the
-very real possibility of a human being's fully facing life's tragedies and
-responding emotionally, even with deep regret, but without indulging in
-excessive guilt or self-contempt. The possibility of a human being's wholly
-accepting herself or himself, complete with limitations, foibles, and lapses
-of judgment. The possibility of recognizing a bad situation for what it is
-and responding emotionally, but without overresponding. The Dalai Lama
-sincerely felt regret over the incident he described but carried his regret
-with dignity and grace. And while carrying this regret, he has not allowed it
-to weigh him down, choosing instead to move ahead and focus on helping others
-to the best of his ability.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D., in "The Art of
- Happiness: A Handbook for Living"
-~
-Train yourself in three hard disciplines.
- These are the difficult practices of mindfulness, of expulsion and of
-'interrupting the flow.'
- As for the first of these, the difficult practice of mindfulness, it is
-necessary to recognize afflictive emotions as soon as they arise and it is
-hard, at first, to remain sufficiently aware to be able to do this. However,
-when negative emotions arise, we should identify them as anger, desire or
-stupidity. Even when emotions have been recognized, it is not easy to drive
-them out with the antidote. If, for instance, an uncontrollably strong
-emotion comes over us, so that we feel helplessly in its power, we should
-nevertheless confront it and question it. Where are its weapons? Where are
-its muscles? Where is its great army and its political strength? We will see
-that emotions are just insubstantial thoughts, by nature empty: they come from
-nowhere, they go nowhere, they remain nowhere. When we are able to repel our
-defiled emotions, there comes the difficult practice of 'interrupting the
-flow.' This means that, on the basis of the antidote described, defiled
-emotions are eliminated just like a bird flying through the air: no trace is
-left behind. These are practices in which we should really strive.
- -- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, in "Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of the
- Seven-Point Mind Training", translated by The Padmakara Translation
- Group, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Howard Cutler: "...am I right in assuming that you would consider solitary
-meditation to be a productive activity? Would you consider to be productive
-our example of a monk who is a hermit, who has little contact with anybody
-else and spends his or her life just in meditation, trying to achieve
-liberation?"
- Dalai Lama: "Not necessarily. From my viewpoint, there can be both
-productive meditation and unproductive meditation."
- HC: "What's the difference?"
- DL: "[Some] practitioners and other kinds of meditators practice different
-techniques, some with closed eyes, sometimes open eyes, but the very nature of
-that meditation is to become thoughtless, in a state free of thoughts. But in
-a way, this is a kind of retreat, like they are running away from trouble.
-When they actually face trouble, carry on their daily life and face some real
-life problems, nothing has changed. Their attitudes and reactions remain the
-same. So that kind of meditation is just avoiding the problem, like going on
-a picnic, or taking a painkiller. It's not actually solving the problem.
-Some people may spend many years doing these practices, but their actual
-progress is zero. That's not productive meditation. Genuine progress occurs
-when the individual not only sees some results in achieving higher levels of
-meditative states but also when their meditation has at least some influence
-on how they interact with others, some impact from that meditation in their
-daily life--more patience, less irritation, more compassion. That's
-productive meditation. Something that can bring benefit to others in some
-way."
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D., "The Art of
- Happiness at Work
-~
- As human beings, we are all the same. So there is no need to build some
-kind of artificial barrier between us. At least my own experience is that if
-you have this kind of attitude, there is no barrier. Whatever I feel, I can
-express; I can call you "my old friend". There is nothing to hide, and no
-need to say things in a way that is not straightforward. So this gives me a
-kind of space in my mind, with the result that I do not have to be suspicious
-of others all the time. And this really gives me inner satisfaction, and
-inner peace.
- So I call this feeling a "genuine realization of the oneness of the whole
-of humanity". We are all members of one human family. I think that this
-understanding is very important, especially now that the world is becoming
-smaller and smaller. In ancient times, even in a small village, people were
-able to exist more or less independently. There was not so much need for
-others' co-operation. These days, the economic structure has completely
-changed.... We are heavily dependent on one another, and also as a result of
-mass communication, the barriers of the past are greatly reduced. Today,
-because of the complexity of interdependence, every crisis on this planet is
-essentially related with every other, like a chain reaction. Consequently it
-is worthwhile taking every crisis as a global one. Here barriers such as
-"this nation" or "that nation", "this continent", or "that continent" are
-simply obstacles. Therefore today, for the future of the human race, it is
-more important than ever before that we develop a genuine sense of brotherhood
-and sisterhood. I usually call this a sense of "universal responsibility".
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, from "Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the
- Great Perfection", translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa and Richard Barron
- (Chokyi Nyima), edited by Patrick Gaffney, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- ...several great Kagyu and Sakya masters... have expressed the stages [of
-sutra and tantra paths] in terms of the tradition known as "parting ourselves
-from the four forms of clinging."
- First we part from clinging to this life. Instead of total involvement
-with affairs of this life, we involve ourselves with future lives. We
-accomplish this by thinking about our precious human life with all its
-freedoms and endowments for spiritual growth, how we lose it because of death
-and impermanence, and then the karmic laws of behavioral cause and effect that
-shape our future lives. Next we part from clinging to future lives and
-involve ourselves, instead, in the quest for liberation. By thinking about
-all the suffering of uncontrollably recurring rebirth, or samsara, we generate
-sincere renunciation of it--the strong determination to be free and attain the
-total liberation that is nirvana.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Alexander Berzin, in "The Gelug/Kagyu
- Tradition of Mahamudra", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Being the Mirror
- When we say that we have knowledge, or that we have discovered our real
-nature and we are in this nature, that means that we are "being the mirror."
-You see, "being the mirror" or "looking in the mirror" are two completely
-different things. If we "are the mirror," then we have no concept of
-dualistic vision.
- If a reflection manifests in the mirror, why is it manifesting? There are
-two reasons. One is because the mirror has the capacity to manifest infinite
-reflections. This is the mirror's quality. If there is an object in front of
-the mirror, whose capacity it is to reflect, naturally a reflection will
-appear in the mirror. Furthermore, the mirror has no idea of checking or
-accepting the object it is reflecting. The mirror doesn't need any program
-for that. This is what is called its qualification, or infinite potentiality.
- In the same way, when we have infinite potentiality, but we are ignorant
-of our real nature, then we always conceive that "I am here" and "the object
-is there," "I am looking and seeing an object," and so on. We do not discover
-that we are like a mirror, and if we never discover this, then of course there
-is no way that we can function like the mirror. When you discover that you
-are like the mirror, then there is a possibility that you will be the mirror.
- When you are the mirror, then you have no problems with reflections--they
-can be big, small, nice, ugly, any kind. For you, the reflections are only a
-manifestation of your quality, which is like that of a mirror. When you have
-no problems with reflections, then you understand self-liberation. You are
-not changing or transforming something. You are only being in your real
-nature.
- -- Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, from "Dzogchen Teachings", edited by Jim Valby
- and Adriano Clemente, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- It is important to recognize the difference between an enlightened
-experience and the state of enlightenment. To penetrate the veil is to see
-the nature of reality for the first time. This enlightened experience in the
-Zen tradition might be called a satori. This is a powerful shift of insight
-that shakes our reality. No longer can we live with the delusion we may have
-once held. Our solidly held concepts about reality begin to crumble. Samsara
-shakes, as Lama Yeshe once put it. This experience may not be comfortable.
-To come so close to this existential threshold challenges our secure sense of
-identity and can be frightening. Indeed, as a Tibetan lama once said, this
-fear is a sign that we are close to the edge. We are beginning to recognize
-the lack of substance of our ego-identity. Our "wisdom eye" has opened to a
-new truth--an ultimate truth, as opposed to relative truth.
- When we penetrate the veil, however, the work is not yet done. We may
-have had an enlightened experience, but there is further to travel. As Gen
-Jhampa Wangdu once said while I was in retreat, it is not difficult to
-experience emptiness; the problem is holding it. For this insight to have its
-full effect, the mind needs to be able to sustain awareness for prolonged
-periods of time. Tibetan teachers will sometimes say we may hit the nail, but
-only with a quality of focused attention can we repeatedly do so. With the
-development of tranquil abiding, the veil can be cleared completely in the way
-the red ring of fire created by the incense burn[ing] slowly expands and
-consumes the entire film of tissue paper. The mind is gradually cleansed of
-the emotional turmoil and confusion that is generated by the misconceptions we
-have about reality.
- -- Rob Preece, in "The Wisdom of Imperfection: The Challenge of
- Individuation in Buddhist Life", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...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", translated by the Padmakara Translation
- Group, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Q: ...what is the nature of the mindstream that reincarnates from lifetime to
-lifetime?
-
-A: ...If one understands the term "soul" as a continuum of individuality from
-moment to moment, from lifetime to lifetime, then one can say that Buddhism
-also accepts a concept of soul; there is a kind of continuum of consciousness.
-From that point of view, the debate on whether or not there is a soul becomes
-strictly semantic. However, in the Buddhist doctrine of selflessness, or "no
-soul" theory, the understanding is that there is no eternal, unchanging,
-abiding, permanent self called "soul." That is what is being denied in
-Buddhism.
-
-Buddhism does not deny the continuum of consciousness. Because of this, we
-find some Tibetan scholars, such as the Sakya master Rendawa, who accept that
-there is such a thing as self or soul, the "kangsak ki dak" (Tib. gang zag gi
-bdag). However, the same word, the "kangsak ki dak," the self, or person, or
-personal self, or identity, is at the same time denied by many other scholars.
-
-We find diverse opinions, even among Buddhist scholars, as to what exactly the
-nature of self is, what exactly that thing or entity is that continues from
-one moment to the next moment, from one lifetime to the next lifetime. Some
-try to locate it within the aggregates, the composite of body and mind. Some
-explain it in terms of a designation based on the body and mind composite, and
-so on.... One of the divisions of [the "Mind-Only"] school maintains there is
-a special continuum of consciousness called alayavijnana which is the
-fundamental consciousness.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a Buddhist
- Perspective", translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- In the Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path Je Tsongkhapa says that
-when we are training ourselves in any of the perfections, for instance in
-generosity, we should make sure that we practice all the other five
-perfections--in this case ethical discipline, patience, enthusiastic effort,
-concentration, and wisdom--and the six excellent factors. When we perform a
-generous action, ethical discipline will be included if we take care to
-refrain from doing anything unethical at the same time. In certain
-situations, for instance, we may be tempted to speak harshly or
-condescendingly as we give.
- Generosity gives rise to abundance, and by insuring that our practice is
-complete, we create the right environment to use these resources
-constructively. Sometimes when we give, people respond ungratefully. If we
-can resist getting upset, we are practicing patience. Giving not out of a
-sense of obligation or reluctantly nor with a wish to outdo others but with
-joy is the practice of enthusiastic effort. Directing our full attention to
-an act of generosity is concentration. Discerning and understanding what is
-appropriate to give and what is not, and remembering that the giver, the act
-of generosity, and the recipient are all interdependent and empty of inherent
-existence are the practice of wisdom. Including these different factors in
-our actions will bring many excellent results such as a good body and mind,
-the resources we need, a pleasant appearance, supportive companions, the
-ability to complete what we undertake, and the focus not to be distracted by
-the disturbing emotions and so forth. This is how to insure that we will
-enjoy many conducive conditions in a future human life. On the other hand,
-our miserliness or impatience now could make us face many difficult
-circumstances in the future.
- -- Geshe Sonam Rinchen, "How Karma Works: The Twelve Links of Dependent
- Arising", translated by Ruth Sonam, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Shakyamuni Buddha, even when he was a trainee on the path, was solely
-concerned in both thought and action with others' welfare. Whenever he found
-an opportunity to work for others, no matter what difficulties he faced, he
-was never discouraged. He never hated obstacles and hardships encountered on
-the way. Instead, the difficult situations facilitated his being more
-courageous and determined to accomplish others' welfare. Just because he was
-so determined to work for others in the past, even as a trainee on the path,
-it is needless to say how much more it is so with him now as a completely
-enlightened person.
- As the saying goes, "A past life story of a teacher is an enlightening
-practice for posterity."
- -- "Generous Wisdom: Commentaries of His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV on
- the Jatakamala Garland of Birth Stories," translated by Tenzin Dorjee,
- edited by Dexter Roberts
-~
-When you get tired, it is appropriate to repeat mantra. However, for a
-beginner the main part of the meditation revolves around the six deities*,
-which should be cultivated carefully and leisurely. This is because clear
-appearance of oneself as a deity must be achieved for the sake of amassing the
-two collections of merit and wisdom, achieving firm meditative stabilisation,
-and transforming all physical and verbal actions into powerful aids for
-others' welfare. Hence, before repeating mantra, the yoga of non-dual
-profundity (realisation of emptiness) and manifestation (appearance as a
-deity) should be sustained, developing clarity in observing the divine form
-and in ascertaining its lack of inherent existence. When, having done this
-one-pointedly, you become tired, then for the sake of resting begin repeating
-mantra. ...Tsong-ka-pa also says that in the approximation phase meditation
-is chief, mantra repetition is secondary.
- * ultimate, sound, letter, form, seal, and sign
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Deity Yoga In
- Action and Performance Tantra", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-There isn't a single one of us who has never felt hostile and angry, so we
-know about the effects of anger. Does it make us feel better or worse? It
-stirs us up, makes us miserable and destroys our tranquillity. It is quite
-easy to recognize anger as a foe and to see how it harms us because its
-destructiveness is apparent. But we find it much harder and are also
-reluctant to acknowledge the harm done by attachment because it is a foe
-masquerading as a friend. When desire or attachment first arises, it feels
-quite pleasurable but eventually it lands us in trouble. It wants to possess
-what it has fabricated and we reach out for something which, in fact, does not
-exist. Failure to get what we want frustrates us and anger quickly follows.
-The third of the poisons, confusion or ignorance, simply stimulates desire and
-anger and lies at the root of all the disturbing emotions.
- -- Geshe Sonam Rinchen, "Eight Verses for Training the Mind", translated
- and edited by Ruth Sonam, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The Sevenfold Cause-and-Effect Method
- If we have been reborn time after time, it is evident that we have needed
-many mothers to give birth to us. ...the first cause bringing about
-bodhicitta is the recognition that all beings have been our mother.
- The love and kindness shown us by our mother in this life would be
-difficult to repay. She endured many sleepless nights to care for us when we
-were helpless infants. She fed us and would have willingly sacrificed
-everything, including her own life, to spare ours. As we contemplate her
-example of devoted love, we should consider that each and every being
-throughout existence has treated us this way. Each dog, cat, fish, fly, and
-human being has at some point in the beginningless past been our mother and
-shown us overwhelming love and kindness. Such a thought should bring about
-our appreciation. This is the second cause of bodhicitta.
- As we envision the present condition of all these beings, we begin to
-develop the desire to help them change their lot. This is the third cause,
-and out of it comes the fourth, a feeling of love cherishing all beings. This
-is an attraction toward all beings, similar to what a child feels upon seeing
-his or her mother. This leads us to compassion, which is the fifth cause of
-bodhicitta. Compassion is a wish to separate these suffering beings, our
-mothers of the past, from their miserable situation. At this point we also
-experience loving-kindness, a wish that all beings find happiness. As we
-progress through these stages of responsibility, we go from wishing that all
-sentient beings find happiness and freedom from suffering to personally
-assuming responsibility for helping them enter this state beyond misery. This
-is the final cause. As we scrutinize how best to help others, we are drawn to
-achieving the fully enlightened and omniscient state of Buddhahood.
- -- The Dalai Lama, "An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life",
- edited by Nicholas Vreeland
-~
-Among the seven branches [qualities of Buddhahood]--complete enjoyment,
-union, great bliss, non-inherent existence, compassion, uninterrupted
-continuity, and non-cessation--three are found only in tantra--complete
-enjoyment, union, and great bliss--and the other four are common to both
-sutra and tantra, although non-inherent existence can also be put in the group
-specific to tantra when it is considered as the object ascertained by a bliss
-consciousness.... In Yoga Tantras the bliss arising from holding hands or
-embracing is used in the path; in Performance Tantras, from laughing; and in
-Action Tantras, from looking. The four tantras are similar in that they all
-use desire for the attributes of the desire realm on the path.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa, and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Tantra in Tibet",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- How then does the mistaken idea, that things exist from their own side,
-operate? Whatever appears to the mind appears as if it existed truly from its
-own side. ...Now if the object existed as it appears to you, then, when you
-searched for it, you could actually find a real [object]. So, we must ask
-ourselves whether or not this object, when searched for, is to be found or
-not. If the object is not found when it is searched for, we must conclude
-that it does not exist from its own side, that when the label is applied to
-its basis, it is not so labeled because the basis somehow bears within it
-something which is the object. At this point, one must conclude that the
-object does not exist as it appears to, but then, one may wonder whether it
-exists at all.
- Things, however, are not utterly non-existent. They do exist nominally.
-So things do exist, but they do not exist from the side of the basis of the
-label. And hence, though they do exist, because they do not exist within the
-object itself, they must exist only as they are labeled by the subject (the
-conceptual mind, for example). There is no other way for the object to exist
-apart from the way it is posited by conceptual thought. This is then what we
-mean when we say that all phenomena are merely labeled by conceptual thought.
-However, things do not appear to us as if they were mere conceptually labeled
-entities. Instead, they appear as if they existed from their own side.
-Therefore, it is a mistake to think that things exist as they appear.
- -- The Dalai Lama, "Answers: Discussions with Western Buddhists", edited
- by Jose Ignacio Cabezon, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Meditation is hard work, but it is also the most rewarding thing we can do
-with our time. As we begin to see the mechanisms we previously took for
-granted and start to understand them, the knots inside our minds begin to
-loosen. We feel a tremendous sense of freedom, space and release inside us.
-As we begin to understand our warped thinking patterns and our neuroses, we
-see them directly. We begin to develop compassion for ourselves, for our pain
-and confusion. Now that we start to look with clarity, we can see the pain
-and confusion in the eyes of other people, and we naturally develop compassion
-for them. It doesn't matter how outwardly successful people may appear, we
-can see their pain when we look into their eyes. It is very rare to come
-across people whose eyes are truly sparkling with joy.
- -- Tenzin Palmo, "Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings on Practical
- Buddhism", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...recognizing that we have certain obligations, and recognizing at the
-same time that spiritual practice is the core of a meaningful life, what do we
-do? There really is an answer. It is not easy, but it is tremendously
-fruitful, and it keeps on opening and opening further: transform those actions
-that are already obligations by applying Dharma to them.
- Take eating, for instance. We have to do it two or three times a day, but
-we don't have to wolf down the food. There is no one who cannot sit and pause
-first for thirty seconds. Even fast-food is worth the thirty seconds it takes
-to recognize the immense number of beings who have provided us with this food.
-Pausing like this ties us into the community of life, at least on planet
-earth, as we recognize that we are indebted to others. We have received, and
-as we take the food, let us do it with the aspiration, "May this be returned.
-May I use my abilities to the fullest to serve those who have served me." And
-that includes everyone, directly or indirectly. The service may occur on a
-very mundane level, but insofar as we mature spiritually, our responsibility
-increases according to our abilities. Not because someone tells us, "Now you
-have to do this," but simply as we gain insight into the nature and sources of
-suffering and of contentment, then we have something all the more valuable to
-offer others.
- -- B. Alan Wallace, "The Seven-Point Mind Training", edited by Zara
- Houshmand, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The Paramita of Meditative Concentration
- It is said in the Teachings that without taking up the Paramita of
-Meditative Concentration, it would be impossible to realize the nature of
-mind. We should think of meditative concentration as the practice that brings
-stability to our minds, and creates the good conditions to practice unfocused
-meditation--in other words, resting in the uncontrived natural state.
- If we make a quick examination of our own mind, we can see the reason this
-kind of stability is so crucial. Although physics has observed light to be
-the fastest traveling phenomenon known to man, actually the speed at which our
-minds travel is even faster. We can circle the globe in a matter of seconds,
-and our minds generate doubts, emotions, and conceptual thoughts at a speed
-that defies that of all other phenomena. Because we lack basic mental
-stability, conceptual thoughts arise endlessly. So, if our goal is to realize
-the nature of mind, we first have to learn to still our minds, and free
-ourselves from distraction. The method for quieting the mind is called
-"meditative concentration." Once we have gained some initial mind stability,
-it is even more important that we continue our training so that this stability
-will increase. Without such stability, it is impossible for us to
-successfully learn to abide in the uncontrived view.
- -- Anyen Rinpoche, "The Union of Dzogchen and Bodhichitta", translated
- by Allison Graboski, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-5. Your present naked awareness
-
-How amazing!
-
-Your present, naked awareness--
-Unspoiled by thoughts of past, present, or future,
-Not fettered by mind grasping to so-called "meditation"
-Nor falling into a pervasive blankness of so-called "non-meditation"--
-The natural state nakedly sustained,
-Is the practice of Great Perfection.
-
-Regardless of what thoughts arise during that practice,
-To reject negative ones or foster positive ones is unnecessary.
-Mere recognition liberates them in their own ground.
-Take this liberation upon arising as the path's key point.
-
-Destroy whatever meditative experiences arise, and relax.
-A tantric practitioner without fixation is deeply content.
-You've reached your goal of contentment right now.
-What is the use of numerous enumerations of Buddha's teachings
-When you discover Buddha Kuntu Zangpo within yourself?
-Keep the meaning of these words close to your heart.
- -- Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, "Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoche's Heart
- Advice", translated by Ron Garry, a Tsadra Foundation Series book
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The Buddhist view is that in the external world there are some elements
-that are material, and some that are nonmaterial. And the fundamental
-substance, the stuff from which the material universe arises, is known as
-space particles. A portion of space is quantized, to use a modern term; it is
-particulate, not continuous. Before the formation of the physical universe as
-we know it, there was only space, but it was quantized. And it was from the
-quanta, or particles, in space that the other elements arose. This accounts
-for the physical universe.
- But what brought about that process? How did it happen? It is believed
-that there existed other conditions, or other influences, which were
-nonmaterial, and these were of the nature of awareness. The actions of
-sentient beings in the preceding universe somehow modify, or influence, the
-formation of the natural universe.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations
- with the Dalai Lama on Brain Science and Buddhism", edited by Zara
- Houshmand, Robert B. Livingston, and B. Alan Wallace, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...meditation on emptiness begins with gaining a sense of the inherent
-existence of which phenomena are empty, for without understanding what is
-negated, you cannot understand its absence, emptiness.
- ...Through carefully watching how you conceive your self, or "I," to be
-inherently established, you will determine that the "I" appears to be self-
-instituting without depending on the collection of the mental and physical
-aggregates, which are its basis of designation, or without depending on any of
-them individually, even though the "I" appears with those aggregates. Proper
-identification of this appearance is the first essential toward realizing
-selflessness--ascertaining the object of negation.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Dzong-ka-ba, and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Yoga Tantra:
- Paths to Magical Feats", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- At the moment the world's spiritual traditions have greatly degenerated.
-It is very important in such times that the practitioners themselves make
-especially strong efforts to gain realization. To permit the lineages of
-transmission to disappear is to allow the world to plunge into darkness. The
-great Vasubandhu wrote, "Buddha, who is like the eye of the world, is no
-longer to be seen. His great successors, who realized the most profound
-teachings, also have passed away. Who equals them?" It might be asked, who
-is there today to equal the master Vasubandhu? Who practices as well as did
-Milarepa? Such people are rare. We should remember that everything but
-Dharma is useless at death, and instead of wasting our lives on meaningless
-activities, we should blend our mindstreams with the teachings and with
-practice. Doing so benefits us as individuals and benefits the world by
-strengthening its spiritual basis.
- Each of us has to be able to feel the pride that we ourselves can reach
-perfection, we ourselves can attain enlightenment. When even one person
-indulges in spiritual practice, it gives encouragement to the guardian spirits
-of the land, and to the celestial deities who have sworn to uphold goodness.
-These forces then have the ability to release waves of beneficial effects upon
-humanity. Thus our practice has many direct and indirect benefits. ...If we
-practice the teachings and live the ways of Dharma, all the natural forces of
-goodness will be behind us.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Enlightenment", edited and translated
- by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Karmic potentials give rise to a broad array of impulses that affect our
-lives. Collective karmic potentials from previous actions of a huge number of
-beings--including ourselves--give rise, for example, to the impulse for a
-universe to evolve with specific environments and life forms into which we and
-these beings subsequently take rebirth. These collective potentials also give
-rise to the impulses that drive the physical and biological laws that govern
-that universe--ranging from the weather patterns of its planets to the life-
-cycle habits of each species on them. They also account for the impulses
-behind the instinctive daily behavior characteristic of each life form.
- -- Alexander Berzin, "Taking the Kalachakra Initiation", published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- Once the body, channels, and wind are balanced, the next step is to keep
-your mind in the natural state through meditation. By simply maintaining the
-mind as it is, without adding or subtracting anything, one will reach the
-inner nature, which is unchanging and indestructible.
- The instructions for this type of meditation are very simple. One begins
-by sitting with good posture on a cushion, because it is important to stay
-straight. Then, one simply maintains the natural clarity of the mind, without
-analyzing one's experiences or being disturbed by thoughts. In the dzogchen
-style of meditation, there is actually nothing to do except relax in the
-mind's nature of clarity and emptiness. Inner awareness is different than
-external awareness; it is called clear-light emptiness. It is helpful to use
-the sky as an analogy for the true nature of the mind--when you let your mind
-mingle with the open space of the sky, you do not need any particular focus.
-Simply maintain the mind naturally, without discrimination or judgments, and
-experience its nature as being spacious as the sky.
- -- Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche,
- "Opening the Door to Our Primordial Nature", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Three things in human life are important.
-The first is to be kind.
-The second is to be kind.
-And the third is to be kind.
- -- Henry James
-~
- Question: A person, particularly in the West, must have the foundation of
-humility, honesty and an ethical way of life. Once one has this foundation,
-what else does Your Holiness suggest that one cultivate in one's life, if
-there is the foundation of virtue, ethics and humility?
- DL: The next thing to be cultivated is mental stabilization. Ethics is a
-method to control oneself--it is a defensive action. Our actual enemy, you
-see, is within ourselves. The afflicted emotions (pride, anger, jealousy) are
-our real enemies. These are the real trouble makers, and they are to be found
-within ourselves. The actual practice of religion consists of fighting
-against these inner enemies.
- As in any war, first we must have a defensive action, and in our spiritual
-fight against the negative emotions, ethics is our defense. Knowing that at
-first one is not fully prepared for offensive action, we first resort to
-defensive action and that means ethics. But once one has prepared one's
-defenses, and has become somewhat accustomed to ethics, then one must launch
-one's offensive. Here our main weapon is wisdom. This weapon of wisdom is
-like a bullet, or maybe even a rocket, and the rocket launcher is mental
-stabilization or calm abiding. In brief, once you have a basis in morality or
-ethics, the next step is to train in mental stabilization and eventually in
-wisdom.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Dalai Lama, A Policy of Kindness: An Anthology
- of Writings", compiled and edited by Sidney Piburn, Forword by Sen.
- Claiborne Pell, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- 4. The power of abandonment. In this practice what is being abandoned is
-self-grasping. We are reminded again that since beginningless time beyond all
-imagination, self-grasping has lain at the very core of all mental distortions
-and afflictions. It has brought us to unfavorable rebirths and is responsible
-for all the undesirable circumstances that we encounter. It is self-
-centeredness that obstructs realization and prevents us from deriving the full
-benefit from our spiritual practice. Recognize when self-grasping manifests
-in daily life. It is important to notice it especially at times of passion,
-when we are aroused or irritated, and try not to succumb to it for even a
-moment.
- To be free of self-centeredness continuously for a whole year may be
-difficult, but [rejecting it for] a moment is easy. ...the more of these
-moments we can saturate with the cherishing of others, the more we are molding
-ourselves into the bodhisattvas that we will become.
- -- B. Alan Wallace, "The Seven-Point Mind Training", edited by Zara
- Houshmand, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- As a friend, my request and wish is that... you try to promote a sense of
-brotherhood and sisterhood. We must promote compassion and love; this is our
-real duty. Government has too much business to have time for these things.
-As private persons we have more time to think along these lines--how to make a
-contribution to human society by promoting the development of compassion and a
-real sense of community.
- ...If someone who easily gets angry tries to control his or her anger, in
-time it can be controlled. The same is true for a selfish person; first that
-person must realize the faults of a selfish motivation and the benefit in
-being less selfish. Having realized this, one trains in it, trying to control
-the bad side and develop the good. As time goes by, such practice can be
-effective. This is the only alternative.
- Without love, human society is in a very difficult state; without love,
-in the future we will face tremendous problems. Love is the center of human
-life.
- -- His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, "Kindness, Clarity & Insight", published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Love and Attachment
-
-People often wonder how to reconcile the Buddha's teachings on non-attachment
-with those on love. How can we love others without being attached to them?
-Non-attachment is a balanced state of mind in which we cease overestimating
-others' qualities. By having a more accurate view of others, our unrealistic
-expectations fall away, as does our clinging. This leaves us open to loving
-others for who they are, instead of for what they do for us. Our hearts can
-open to care for everyone impartially, wishing everyone to be happy simply
-because he or she is a living being. The feeling of warmth that was
-previously reserved for a select few can now be expanded to a great number
-of people.
- -- Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, "Taming the Mind", published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-According to some scientists, emotion is not necessarily negative. Emotion
-is a very strong feeling. While some emotions are destructive, others are
-constructive. In a meeting with scientists, we concluded that there are
-emotions even in the Buddha's mind. There is a strong sense of caring and
-compassion and also the realization of emptiness. In the beginning, there is
-just a vague feeling of emptiness. At that level, there is no emotion, but
-once you become more familiar with it, then that feeling increases. At a
-certain level, the realization of emptiness also becomes a kind of emotion.
-Therefore, in the practice of developing wisdom and loving-kindness
-/ compassion, you strengthen these inner qualities and then reach a state
-where you have an upsurge of feeling called emotion. We can clearly see
-this link between intellect and emotions. Thus, the brain and heart can go
-side by side. I think this is the Buddhist approach.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Many Ways to Nirvana: Reflections and
- Advice on Right Living", edited by Renuka Singh
-~
-Both mindfulness and discriminative alertness are needed in responding to
-sensory input of the three types--attractive, unattractive and neutral.
-Once again, in this tradition mindfulness does not mean simply to witness.
-It is a more discriminative kind of thing. You are asking yourself, "What
-is my response?" and then actively responding by applying the antidotes to
-attachment and hostility. The word mindfulness is a little bit different in
-different contexts. Here, Mindfulness refers to the mental faculty of being
-able to maintain continuity of awareness of an object. Vigilance is concerned
-with the quality of mind, watching to see, for example, if the mind is veering
-off to other objects.
- -- Gen Lamrimpa (Ven. Jampal Tenzin, "Calming the Mind: Tibetan Buddhist
- Teachings on Cultivating Meditative Quiescence", translated by B. Alan
- Wallace, edited by Hart Sprager, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- When we say that the ignorant mind is perverse or wrong, we are talking
-about the way it misconceives reality. Now the pertinent questions are: What
-is reality? How is this mind mistaken about reality? And in what way does
-the mind wrongly apprehend reality? Reality or emptiness of true existence is
-something that can be established logically. There are sound, or perfect,
-reasons to prove the emptiness of inherent existence, and we can gain
-conviction in these reasons. On the other hand, there is no logical way to
-prove true existence. True existence is what appears to an ordinary,
-untrained consciousness. But when it comes under logical scrutiny, true
-existence cannot be found. Even in our everyday life we often find
-contradictions between the way certain things appear and their actual mode of
-existence; that is, the way things actually exist is different from the way
-they appear to exist.
- ...Our perception of impermanent things like mountain ranges and houses
-does not conform to their actual mode of existence. Some of these things have
-existed for many centuries, even thousands of years. And our minds perceive
-them in just that way--as lasting and permanent, impervious to momentary
-change. Yet when we examine these objects on an atomic level, they
-disintegrate every moment; they undergo momentary change. Science also
-describes a similar pattern of change. These objects appear solid, stable,
-and lasting, but in their true nature, they constantly change, not keeping
-still even for a moment.
- -- The Dalai Lama, "Stages of Meditation", translated by Geshe Lobsang
- Jordhen, Losang Choephel Ganchenpa, and Jeremy Russell, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-If there is someone who always harms us, and we discover that this person
-lives in our own house, we think, "This is too much!" Once we figure out
-that he is causing all our hardships, we kick him out; we do not see it as a
-laughing matter at all. Here, it is worse: we have been wandering in the six
-realms of cyclic existence since beginningless time, undergoing great pain and
-confusion. What is the main cause of all this? Self-centeredness and its
-basis, self-grasping ignorance. These two are right inside us, in our own
-mindstream. How can we continue to tolerate that? It is just too much! We
-definitely must evict these sources of harm. When we know the antidotes to
-them, we will use them, just as we would go to any length to evict a
-troublemaker from our home. With strong determination, we will find out what
-harms self-centeredness and self-grasping and then go ahead and destroy them.
- -- Geshe Jampa Tegchok, "Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage: An
- Explanation of the Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas", edited by
- Thubten Chodron, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of
-policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets.
- -- Edward Abbey
-~
-There are many types of meditative stabilisation, but let us explain calm
-abiding (samatha) here. The nature of calm abiding is the one-pointed abiding
-on any object without distraction of a mind conjoined with a bliss of physical
-and mental pliancy. If it is supplemented with taking refuge, it is a
-Buddhist practice; and if it is supplemented with an aspiration to highest
-enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, it is a Mahayana practice.
-Its merits are that, if one has achieved calm abiding, one's mind and body are
-pervaded by joy and bliss; one can--through the power of its mental and
-physical pliancy--set the mind on any virtuous object one chooses; and many
-special qualities such as clairvoyance and emanations are attained.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Buddhism of Tibet", translated and edited by
- Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-45
- Apart from the perfection of wisdom,
- All virtuous practices such as
- The perfection of giving are described
- As skillful means by the Victorious Ones.
-
-The first five perfections--giving, ethical discipline, patience, enthusiastic
-effort and concentration--as well as meditation on impermanence, on the
-connection between actions and their effects and the cultivation of
-compassion, love and the altruistic intention are all skillful means. In fact
-all positive practices which do not constitute the cultivation of wisdom fall
-into the category of skillful means.
-
-46
- Whoever, under the influence of familiarity
- With skillful means, cultivates wisdom
- Will quickly attain enlightenment--
- Not just by meditating on selflessness.
-
-When stability in practices which develop skillful means has been gained, the
-Bodhisattva meditates on the selflessness of persons and other phenomena and
-thereby overcomes clinging to their true existence. This leads swiftly to
-enlightenment. If we confine our efforts only to understanding reality, our
-understanding lacks the power to destroy all the obstructions that prevent
-omniscience and we may remain locked in a state of solitary peace.
-Cultivation of skillful means prevents this and adds such power to our
-understanding of reality that, like a blazing fire, it consumes all
-obstructions.
-
- -- "Atisha's Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment", commentary by Geshe Sonam
- Rinchen, translated and edited by Ruth Sonam, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-As I grow to understand life less and less,
-I learn to love it more and more.
- -- Jules Renard
-~
-The environment where you are doing the meditation should be properly cleaned.
-While cleaning, you should cultivate the motivation that since you are engaged
-in the task of accumulating great stores of merit by inviting the hosts of
-buddhas and bodhisattvas to this environment, it is important to have a clean
-place. You should see that all the external dirt and dust around you is
-basically a manifestation of the faults and stains within your own mind. You
-should see that the most important aim is to purge these stains and faults
-from within your mind. Therefore, as you cleanse the environment, think that
-you are also purifying your mind. Develop the very strong thought that by
-cleaning this place you are inviting the host of buddhas and bodhisattvas who
-are the most supreme merit field, and that you will subsequently engage in a
-path that will enable you to purge your mind of the stains of delusions.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, "Path to Bliss: A Practical Guide to
- Stages of Meditation", translated by Geshe Thubten Jinpa, edited by
- Christine Cox, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The entire environment we perceive around us arises, in part, in
-dependence upon our sense faculties. The environment we experience does not
-truly exist "out there." Sight is dependent upon visual faculties, hearing
-is dependent upon auditory faculties, and tactile sensations depend on nerve
-endings. Psychologically, all that we experience is dependent upon ourselves.
-We do not experience anything purely objectively. The arising and perceiving
-of experience is co-emergent between ourselves and the world around us. Yet,
-the deep belief persists that the world really exists "out there" now and eons
-before we were born.
- The Buddhist hypothesis extends beyond the psychological. The Buddhist
-hypothesis is this: that which is perceived arises in dependence upon the
-perception of it. Things are empty of independent, inherent existence. What
-appears to exist "out there" is empty of objective existence from its own
-side. This does not mean that nothing exists apart from our perceptions.
-Rather, it means that by probing the nature of existence of anything we
-experience perceptually or conceptually, we find that nothing exists by its
-own independent nature. Another way of phrasing this is that appearance
-extends all the way down to the root and there is nothing beyond the
-appearances. Appearances extend down to quarks; nothing is there purely
-objectively and nothing is there purely subjectively. This is the Buddhist
-hypothesis.
- -- B. Alan Wallace, "Buddhism with an Attitude: The Seven-Point Mind-
- Training" , edited by Lynn Quirolo, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- I consider it very important for religion to have an influence on
-politicians. Politicians need religion much more than pious people who have
-withdrawn from the world need it. There is a constant increase in the
-scandals in politics and business that can be traced back to the lack of self-
-discipline on the part of the responsible parties. In India, the minister-
-president of West Bengal once said to me with what he considered a humble
-attitude that he was a politician and not a religious person. I responded to
-him: politicians need religion more than anyone else.
- When hermits in solitude are bad persons, the result is that they harm
-themselves alone and no one else. But when such influential people as
-politicians are full of bad intentions, they can bring misfortune to many.
-This is why religion, as continuous work on our inner maturity, is important
-for political rulers.
- A politician must have moral principles. I am convinced of this. Seen in
-this light, politics and religion belong together. In the United States,
-church and state may be separate, but when the president takes office, he
-makes a vow in the name of God with his hand on the Bible. This means that
-God should be the witness that the president will conscientiously fulfill his
-official duties.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Felizitas Von Schonborn, "Path of Wisdom,
- Path of Peace: A Personal Conversation", Foreword by Wei Jingsheng
-~
-...many people, critical of Dzogchen, question why we need to practice at all
-if, as according to Dzogchen, the primordial state is already the enlightened
-state. If our true nature is already Buddhahood, what is the need to
-cultivate enlightenment? We cannot side-step these criticisms since,
-according to Dzogchen, Buddhahood is indeed our natural state; we do not
-create it, but simply discover it through our meditation. But if we simply
-agree with our critics, this would mean there is no need to practice. These
-are important things to think about. We must answer that although the natural
-state of the mind is primordially pure, there are two ways of being pure.
-Defilements, or obscurations, are not in the nature of the mind (sems nyid)
-but in the moving mind (sems), so they can be purified. It is as in the
-Tibetan story of the old beggar woman who slept on a pillow of gold every
-night: she was rich, but since she did not appreciate the value of gold, she
-thought she was poor. In the same way, the primordial purity of our mind is
-of no use to us if we are not aware of it and do not integrate it with our
-moving mind. If we realize our innate purity but only integrate with it from
-time to time, we are not totally realized. Being in total integration all the
-time is final realization. But many people prefer thinking and speaking about
-integration to actualizing it.
- -- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, "Wonders of the Natural Mind: The Essence of
- Dzogchen in the Native Bon Tradition of Tibet", Foreword by H.H. the
- Dalai Lama, edited by Andrew Lukianowicz, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-External disarmament is very, very important. Already, there is some
-movement. My dream is that one day the whole world will be demilitarized, but
-we cannot achieve this overnight. Also, we cannot achieve it without a
-proper, systematic plan; however, it is important to make the target clear.
-Even though it may take one hundred years, or fifty years, that doesn't
-matter. Establish a clear idea or clear target; then try to achieve it step
-by step. As a first step, we have already started with the elimination of
-antipersonnel mines and biological weapons. Also, we are already reducing
-nuclear weapons; eventually, there should be a total ban on nuclear weapons.
-This is now foreseeable; the idea of its possibility is approaching. These
-are great, hopeful signs.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "The Art of Peace: Nobel Peace Laureates
- Discuss Human Rights, Conflict and Reconciliation", edited by Jeffrey
- Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Bare awareness is not easy to develop and maintain because of the mind's
-disposition to be constantly preoccupied by thoughts. We easily lose
-attention because our mind is so busy. When we do, our emotional life can
-creep up on us and take us over. Without mindfulness, the capacity to
-maintain attention, disidentification is very difficult, and bare awareness
-even more so. Through meditation it is possible to cultivate a quiet,
-unintrusive awareness that greatly strengthens our capacity to remain with our
-feelings. We simply allow their presence without judging them, or needing to
-make them different.
- The early stage of meditation focuses attention and cultivates
-mindfulness. Mindfulness is our capacity to watch and remain conscious as
-emotions, feelings, and thoughts arise. We may begin in meditation by
-observing the breath and gradually quietening the mind from the constant
-discursive chatter that interrupts our attention. In time a quality of bare
-awareness is established free from the conceptual confusion that discriminates
-and evaluates what arises and parcels it up in conceptual boxes of good or
-bad. Furthermore, this quiet awareness does not become pulled into the
-contents of mental activity and drown in their confusion.
- -- Rob Preece, "The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra", Foreword by Stephen
- Batchelor, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- In the realm of matter, one and the same object can serve as a cause of
-happiness for some living beings, and a cause of suffering for others.
-Certain plants, for example, function as medicine for some creatures, but for
-other species they can be poisonous. From the point of view of the object
-itself there is no difference, but because of the physical constitution and
-the material state of the particular living being, that single self-same
-object can affect them in different ways. Then, in the sphere of our own
-experiences, the same holds true. A certain individual may appear to some as
-very friendly, kind and gentle, and so gives them feelings of happiness and
-pleasure. Yet to others that same person can appear harmful and wicked, and
-so cause them discomfort and unhappiness.
- What this kind of example points to is that, although external matter
-may act as a cause for our experience of pain and pleasure, the principal
-cause that determines whether we experience happiness or suffering lies
-within. This is the reason why, when Buddha identified the origin of
-suffering, he pointed within and not outside, because he knew that the
-principal causes of our suffering are our own negative emotions and the
-actions they drive us to do.
- -- H.H. The Dalai Lama, "Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great
- Perfection", translated by Thupten Jinpa and Richard Barron,
- Foreword by Sogyal Rinpoche, edited by Patrick Gaffney, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-When you have many excuses not to do your work, ask yourself what guarantee
-you have of another chance to do what needs to be done. Time lost is lost for
-good. No matter how much you promise to improve, no matter what good
-intentions you have for making it up, the time is gone for good. Feeling
-sorry about the situation will not bring it back. You can never buy back that
-precious piece of time. You may think, "Well, that piece of time has passed,
-but I still have a long stretch of time left." No, you do not! What guarantee
-is there that you will have another piece of time like this one? Wake up and
-stop the excuses; they never made sense before and do not make sense now.
-Laziness and procrastination have never worked in a sound and helpful way. It
-is only sound and helpful to get things moving.
- -- Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, "Dharma Paths", translated by Ngodup Burkhar
- and Chojor Radha, edited by Laura M. Roth, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- Any sense of conceit or self-importance gets in the way of cultivating the
-genuine altruistic intention, and the most effective remedy against this is
-the cultivation of humility.
- I can tell you a more recent story to illustrate this point. The great
-nineteenth-century Tibetan Dzokchen meditator Dza Patrul Rinpoche always
-maintained a demeanour of true humility. At one time, when he was giving a
-series of teachings to a large crowd of students, he experienced a forceful
-yearning for solitude. So one day he quietly left his residence and
-disappeared, dressed like an ordinary pilgrim and carrying a walking staff and
-very little else. When he reached a nomadic camp he sought shelter for a few
-days with one of the families. While he was staying with them, his hostess
-asked him to read some texts and, since he looked just like an ordinary
-pilgrim, in return for his food and lodging she asked him to help with the
-household chores, which included the disposal of the contents of her chamber
-pot.
- One day, while he was away from the camp attending to this task, some of
-his well-dressed monk students came looking for him. When his hostess heard
-their description of him, she suddenly realised this was the same person she
-had asked to throw away the contents of her chamber pot. (It is said she was
-so embarrassed that she just ran away!) Such was the humility of this great
-teacher, who had many thousands of students.
- ...great practitioners of the altruistic intention also possess a
-tremendous courage grounded in real inner strength.... This combination of a
-total lack of conceit yet possessing great depth of courage is what is
-required in a true practitioner of bodhicitta, the altruistic mind of
-awakening.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Lighting the Way", translated by Geshe Thupten
- Jinpa, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Rejoicing in the actions of others is the major antidote to jealousy. When
-we admire the virtuous deeds of ourselves and of others, a great increase of
-merit is created. Jealousy is very harmful, and must be destroyed by
-rejoicing. If we rejoice in the virtue of someone whose understanding is less
-than our own, we gain greater merit than that person. If we rejoice in the
-merit of someone with understanding equal to ours, we gain equal merit. If we
-rejoice in the realization or virtue of someone more highly realized than we
-are, we accumulate some fraction of the merit that they do. We must rejoice
-in virtue because we have taken bodhisattva vows. If other beings practice
-well it helps us; therefore we should rejoice in their positive actions. This
-is the easiest way to accumulate merit with little hardship. With consistent
-effort the practice of rejoicing becomes very powerful and is greatly praised
-by many masters.
- -- Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, "Chod on the Ganden Tradition: the Oral
- Instructions of Kyabje Zong Rinpoche", edited by David Molk, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint,"
-then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.
- -- Vincent Van Gogh
-~
- ...there are various factors that contribute to attaining that level of
-joy and happiness which we conventionally also recognize as sources of
-happiness, such as good physical health, ...the wealth that we accumulate,
-...and a circle of friends we trust and with whom we can relate emotionally.
- Now all of these are, in reality, sources of happiness, but in order for
-one to be able to fully utilize them with the goal of enjoying a happy and
-fulfilled life, one's state of mind is crucial. If one harbors hateful
-thoughts within, or strong or intense anger somewhere deep down, then it ruins
-one's health, so it destroys one of the factors. Even if one has wonderful
-possessions, when one is in an intense moment of anger or hatred, one feels
-like throwing them--breaking them or throwing them away. So there is no
-guarantee that wealth alone can give one the joy or fulfillment that one
-seeks. Similarly, when one is in an intense state of anger or hatred, even
-a very close friend appears somehow "frosty," cold and distant, or quite
-annoying.
- What this indicates is that our state of mind is crucial in determining
-whether or not we gain joy and happiness. So leaving aside the perspective of
-Dharma practice, even in worldly terms, in terms of our enjoying a happy day-
-to-day existence, the greater the level of calmness of our mind, the greater
-our peace of mind, and the greater our ability to enjoy a happy and joyful
-life.
- -- The Dalai Lama, "Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a Buddhist
- Perspective", translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
-Question: Is there a buildup of awareness that happens by the practice of
- recognizing or looking for your own basic nature so that, over time, it
- dispels the fear of these emotions?
-
-Rinpoche: Yes, awareness is developed through the discipline of meditation.
- Beginning with shamatha meditation, we develop lots of awareness and
- mindfulness on the path. Then, in Mahamudra and Dzogchen, we emphasize a
- different aspect of mindfulness and awareness. Mindfulness and awareness
- come from the discipline of meditation, which continues in our everyday
- life. Therefore, formal sitting practice is very important for us. For
- that reason, many teachers tell us to sit at least 10-15 minutes every day.
- That helps us to generate this continuity of awareness in our everyday life.
- There is no easy solution for manifesting awareness or mindfulness in our
- everyday life without some discipline in practice. The only problem is
- that when a student hears a teacher say that they must sit every day,
- that's the time students usually begin to change their guru!
-
- -- Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, "Penetrating Wisdom: The Aspiration of
- Samantabhadra", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-We ordinary individuals share the characteristic of having our attempts to
-gain happiness thwarted by our own destructive self-centeredness. It is
-unsuitable to keep holding onto the self-centered attitude while ignoring
-others. If two friends find themselves floundering in a muddy swamp they
-should not ridicule each other, but combine their energies to get out. Both
-ourselves and others are in the same position of wanting happiness and not
-wanting suffering, but we are entangled in a web of ignorance that prevents us
-from achieving those goals. Far from regarding it as an "every man for
-himself" situation, we should meditate upon the equality of self and others
-and the need to be helpful to other beings.
- -- Ven. Lobsang Gyatso, "Bodhicitta: Cultivating the Compassionate Mind of
- Enlightenment", translated by Ven. Sherab Gyatso, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-Dalai Lama: "In the traditional [Tibetan] society, most people automatically
-did the types of work their families did--nomads, farmers, merchants, and so
-on. But some people still engaged in work that was not in keeping with the
-principle of nonharm, because there are butchers, metal smiths who make
-swords, and so on. But these kinds of work were also generally hereditary."
-
-Howard Cutler: "Speaking of work and the implementation of the concept of
-nonharm, ...you mentioned that there was a rule in Tibet that any new
-invention had to guarantee that it was beneficial or at least not harmful for
-at least seven generations."
-
-DL: "...there do seem to be certain practices and policies that successive
-Tibetan governments adopted in Tibet that reflect putting into practice
-certain Buddhist ideals, such as the Buddhist principle of respecting the
-natural world, particularly the animal world. For example, all the
-communities living near the Yamdrok Lake used to rely heavily on fishing in
-the past. Recently I heard about a policy that was adopted during the Fifth
-Dalai Lama's time where they were discouraged from fishing, and in order to
-compensate them, some other communities would band together and provide them
-an equivalent value in grain, so that they would be compensated against their
-loss. Similarly, in the area near Mount Kailash, around Lake Manasarovar
-during a particular season, a lot of waterfowl migrate there. They lay their
-eggs on the shores and apparently there was a government policy that during
-the egg-laying season, they would appoint people to watch over the eggs to
-make sure they were safe. Of course, there might be individuals who in
-addition to taking the salary probably ate some of the eggs as well. These
-things happen. But overall there is this kind of attitude of nonharm. "So,
-even though in Tibet, people didn't always follow the principle of nonharm in
-their work ...this principle was still deeply ingrained in the people. "In
-general, I think this could be applied in the West. Although not everybody
-has options about the work that they do, at least I think it is good to give
-serious thought to the kind of work one does, and the impact it has on others.
-I think it is best to choose work that does not cause harm to others, that
-does not exploit or deceive others, either directly or indirectly. I think
-that's the best way."
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Dr. Howard C. Cutler, M.D., "The Art
- of Happiness at Work"
-~
- If we are feeling very nervous all the time, the first step toward doing
-something to remedy the situation is to take ourselves and the quality of our
-life seriously. Suppose we are walking down the street and we step on a bug
-and partially crush but have not actually killed it. If we continue walking
-and ignore the bug's experience of its leg being crushed or severed, we do so
-because we do not take the insect and its life seriously. We have no respect
-for it. If we treat ourselves no better than we do a bug and ignore our
-innermost pains and anguish, that is most unfortunate.
- Taking ourselves seriously means actually looking at how we are
-experiencing our life and, if there is something unsatisfactory about it,
-admitting it to ourselves. Our tension and stress do not go away by denying
-them or avoiding taking an honest look. And admitting that something is amiss
-is not the same as complaining about it and feeling sorry for ourselves. Nor
-does it imply that something is fundamentally wrong with us and we are guilty
-of being a bad person because we are nervous. Being objective, not
-melodramatic, and remaining non-judgmental are essential for any healing,
-spiritual process.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, with Alexander Berzin, "The Gelug/Kagyu
- Tradition of Mahamudra", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Wouldn't life be boring without attachment?
-
- No. In fact it's attachment that makes us restless and prevents us from
-enjoying things. For example, suppose we're attached to chocolate cake. Even
-while we're eating it, we're not tasting it and enjoying it completely. We're
-usually either criticizing ourselves for eating something fattening, comparing
-the taste of this chocolate cake to other cakes we've eaten in the past, or
-planning how to get another piece. In any case, we're not really experiencing
-the chocolate cake in the present.
- On the other hand, without attachment, we can think clearly about whether
-we want to eat the cake, and if we decide to, we can eat it peacefully,
-tasting and enjoying every bite without craving for more or being dissatisfied
-because it isn't as good as we expected. As we diminish our attachment, life
-becomes more interesting because we're able to open up to what's happening in
-each moment.
- -- Thubten Chodron, "Buddhism for Beginners", published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-My Grandmother is over eighty and still doesn't need glasses.
-Drinks right out of the bottle.
- -- Henny Youngman
-~
-We are bits of stellar matter that got cold by accident,
-bits of a star gone wrong.
- -- Sir Arthur Eddington
-~
-Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned. -- Milton Friedman
-~
-I have the worst memory ever so no matter who comes up to me--
-they're just, like, "I can't believe you don't remember me!"
-I'm like, "Oh Dad I'm sorry!"
- -- Ellen DeGeneres
-~
-Question: When a practitioner of the Great Vehicle vows not to enter into
-nirvana until all beings are liberated, how is it possible to fulfill this
-vow?
-
-Answer: Three modes of generating an altruistic intention to become
-enlightened are described--like a king, like a boatman, and like a shepherd.
-In the first, that like a king, one first seeks to attain a high state after
-which help can be given to others. In the second, like a boatman, one seeks
-to cross the river of suffering together with others. In the third, like a
-shepherd, one seeks to relieve the flock of suffering beings from pain first,
-oneself following afterward. These are indications of the style of the
-altruistic motivation for becoming enlightened; in actual fact, there is no
-way that a Bodhisattva either would want to or could delay achieving full
-enlightenment. As much as the motivation to help others increases, so much
-closer does one approach Buddhahood.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet, "The Dalai Lama at Harvard",
- translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- A bodhisattva is someone who says from the depth of his or her heart, "I
-want to be liberated and find ways to overcome all the problems of the world.
-I want to help all my fellow beings to do likewise. I long to attain the
-highest state of everlasting peace and happiness, in which all suffering has
-ceased, and I want to do so for myself and for all sentient beings."
-According to the Buddha's teaching, anyone who makes this firm and heartfelt
-commitment is a bodhisattva. We become bodhisattvas from the moment we have
-this vast and open heart, called bodhichitta, the mind bent on bringing
-lasting happiness to all sentient beings.
- Buddhist literature defines three types of bodhisattvas: the kinglike
-bodhisattva, the captainlike bodhisattva, and the shepherdlike bodhisattva. A
-kinglike bodhisattva is like a good king who first wants everything luxurious
-for himself, like a big palace, a large entourage, a beautiful queen, and so
-on. But once his happiness has been achieved, he also wants to help and
-support his subjects as much as possible. Accordingly, a kinglike bodhisattva
-has the motivation, "First, I want to free myself from samsara and attain
-perfect enlightenment. As soon as I have reached buddhahood, I will help all
-other sentient beings to become buddhas as well."
- A captainlike bodhisattva would say, "I would like to become a buddha, and
-I will take all other sentient beings along with me so that we reach
-enlightenment together." This is just as the captain of a ship crosses the
-sea, he takes his passengers with him, and they reach the far shore
-simultaneously.
- A shepherdlike bodhisattva is inspired by thinking, "I want to help all
-sentient beings to reach enlightenment and see the truth. Only when this is
-achieved and samsara is emptied will I become a buddha myself." In actual
-fact it may not happen this way, but anyone who has this motivation is called
-a "shepherdlike bodhisattva." In the old days, sheep were not kept in fenced
-pastures, and the shepherds had to bring them down from the mountains to
-protect them from wolves. They would follow behind the sheep, guiding them
-into their pen and lock them in. A shepherd would take care of his sheep
-first, and only then would he go home and eat.
- The bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara developed this shepherdlike motivation and
-is therefore considered to be the most courageous and compassionate of beings.
-He vowed, "I will not attain complete enlightenment until I have led all
-sentient beings to liberation without leaving a single one behind."
- -- Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, "Daring Steps Toward Fearlessness: The Three
- Vehicles of Buddhism", edited and translated by Rosemarie Fuchs,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The practice of compassion begins at home. We have our parents, our
-children, and our brothers and sisters, who perhaps irritate us the most, and
-we begin our practice of loving-kindness and compassion with them. Then
-gradually we extend our compassion out into our greater community, our
-country, neighbouring countries, the world, and finally to all sentient beings
-equally without exception.
- Extending compassion in this way makes it evident that it is not very easy
-to instantly have compassion for "all sentient beings." Theoretically it may
-be comfortable to have compassion for "all sentient beings," but through our
-practice we realize that "all sentient beings" is a collection of individuals.
-When we actually try to generate compassion for each and every individual, it
-becomes much more challenging. But if we cannot work with one individual,
-then how can we work with all sentient beings? Therefore it is important for
-us to reflect more practically, to work with compassion for individuals and
-then extend that compassion further.
- -- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, "Trainings in Compassion", translated by the
- Padmakara Translation Group, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-It wouldn't be bad if you didn't have statues, but it has become indispensable
-to have Buddhist texts which deal with the structured path to train our mind.
-If you have Buddhist texts, read them for yourselves and to friends who visit.
-That way you can help others to understand Buddhist ideas. For instance, it
-is interesting to read Milarepa's life story and songs. We find in them many
-enlightening lessons. Buddha's image alone will not purify us of karmic
-obscuration.... It is very important to study the scriptures. They are not
-to be just stacked up on the altar. They must be cultivated in our mind.
-...[we] take great interest in having the symbolic representations of Buddha's
-body, speech and mind. I feel it is more important to acquire and read
-scriptures, the symbolic representations of his speech. You can pay homage to
-them, you can make offerings to them; above all, you should study them.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Generous Wisdom: Commentaries by H.H. the Dalai
- Lama XIV on the Jatakamala", translated by Tenzin Dorjee, edited by
- Dexter Roberts, Snow Lion Publications
-~
-From the Buddhist point of view, being in a depressed state, in a state of
-discouragement, is seen as a kind of extreme that can clearly be an obstacle
-to taking the steps necessary to accomplish one's goals. A state of self-
-hatred is even far more extreme than simply being discouraged, and this can be
-very, very dangerous. For those engaged in Buddhist practice, the antidote to
-self-hatred would be to reflect upon the fact that all beings, including
-oneself, have Buddha Nature--the seed or potential for perfection, full
-Enlightenment--no matter how weak or poor or deprived one's present situation
-may be. So those people involved in Buddhist practice who suffer from self-
-hatred or self-loathing should avoid contemplating the suffering nature of
-existence or the underlying unsatisfactory nature of existence, and instead
-they should concentrate more on the positive aspects of one's existence, such
-as appreciating the tremendous potential that lies within oneself as a human
-being. And by reflecting upon these opportunities and potentials, they will
-be able to increase their sense of worth and confidence in themselves.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D., "The Art of
- Happiness: A Handbook for Living"
-~
-An instruction that matches examples and their meanings to show how the
-absolute nature permeates everything. (*SG)
-
-These various examples give a general idea of the absolute nature. (*DK)
-
-...there are four examples and their meanings. Take the example of a
-Sugata's body: whichever way one looks at it, it is beautiful. (*Z)
-
-Similarly, everything a realized being does, since it is permeated with the
-realization of the unborn nature, is bliss, for he does not have ordinary
-attachment and aversion. (*Z & SG)
-
-Whether one looks at a Sugata's face or any other part of his body, one never
-feels one has looked enough. It is an example of ultimate beauty. Similarly,
-those for whom everything is backed by the realization of the unborn nature no
-longer have ordinary attachment and aversion, and such persons can therefore
-act like enlightened beings: whatever they do is bliss. Since they have fully
-realized the absolute nature, there is no question of telling them, "This is
-the right thing to do; that is something you should not do." They have no
-concepts or limits, so they can act as they wish. Everything they do will be
-nothing but bliss. (DK)
-
-* Note:
- Z: Zurchungpa's root text
- DK: Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche's commentary
- SG: Shechen Gyaltsap's notes
-
- -- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, "Zurchungpa's Testament: A Commentary on
- Zurchung Sherab Trakpa's Eighty Chapters of Personal Advice", translated
- by the Padmakara Translation Group, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Unless someone like you cares a whole lot,
-nothing is going to get better. It's not.
- -- The Lorax, Doctor Seuss
-~
-We do what we must, and call it by the best names. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-These days an income is something you can't live without--or within.
- -- Tom Wilson
-~
-Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize
-until you have tried to make it precise.
- -- Bertrand Russell
-~
-The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.
- -- Flannery O'Connor
-~
-The initial period of deity yoga is called prior approximation because one is
-accustoming to a deity through becoming closer and closer to its state,
-whereupon the deity grants the feat, either directly or in the sense of
-bestowing a capacity to the mind. Actually effecting the achievement of feats
-is done by way of carrying out prescribed burnt offerings or repetition of
-mantra, etc., after the approximation has been completed. These feats are
-then used for the welfare of others in the third stage, which involves
-activities of (1) pacification such as overcoming plague or relieving others
-of demons, (2) increase of lifespan, intelligence, wealth, and so forth, (3)
-control of resources, persons harmful to others' welfare, etc., and (4)
-ferocity, such as expelling or confusing harmful beings.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa, and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Deity Yoga
- in Action and Performance Tantra", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The bodhisattva, as the personification of individuation, discovers a unique
-capacity to awaken his or her potential to work for the welfare of others in
-whichever way most suits his or her individual disposition. When I consider
-my own teachers, one thing I particularly value is their capacity to be
-authentically themselves. They each have their unique personality and quality
-that is a genuine expression of their individuality. There is no
-contradiction between our Western need to be individuals and the Buddhist
-path. Buddhism does not demand that we become clones of some ideal. Rather,
-it asks us to respond to who we are and awaken our full potential, expressing
-it within our particular individual capacity. My Tibetan teachers have
-supremely individualistic personalities, something I love and value deeply.
-They respond to me as an individual with my own personality, which they would
-never ask me to relinquish. The fact that they were each on their own unique
-journey within the Buddhist path was, for me, a sublime example of the
-bodhisattva as an individuated person who has truly responded to the inner
-call to awaken.
- -- Rob Preece, "The Wisdom of Imperfection: The Challenge of Individuation
- in Buddhist Life", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The view is to believe in and understand the buddha nature, the essence of all
-the buddhas. If one knows the buddha nature, then that is to know the
-unchanging essence which is free from any limitation, the original primordial
-nature of the mind as it is. This is not like a light bulb that suddenly
-comes on or something that is newly acquired. It is the nature as it has
-always been and always will be: primordially perfect. To recognize the buddha
-nature is the view. To fail to recognize the buddha nature is to deviate into
-confusion. If you recognize your buddha nature, this is the same as having an
-audience with all the buddhas. You will meet face to face with all your root
-teachers.
- -- Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche, "Meditation, Transformation, and Dream Yoga",
- translated by B. Alan Wallace and Sangye Khandro, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- ...when we ask, what is the substantial cause of the material universe way
-back in the early history of the universe, we trace it back to the space
-particles which transform into the elements of this manifest universe. And
-then we can ask whether those space particles have an ultimate beginning. The
-answer is no. They are beginningless. Where other philosophical systems
-maintain that the original cause was God, Buddha suggested the alternative
-that there aren't any ultimate causes. The world is beginningless. Then the
-question would be: Why is it beginningless? And the answer is, it is just
-nature. There is no reason. Matter is just matter.
- Now we have a problem: What accounts for the evolution of the universe as
-we know it? What accounts for the loose particles in space forming into the
-universe that is apparent to us? Why did it go through orderly processes of
-change? Buddhists would say there is a condition which makes it possible, and
-we speak of that condition as the awareness of sentient beings.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations with
- the Dalai Lama on Brain Science and Buddhism", edited by Zara Houshmand,
- Robert B. Livingston, and B. Alan Wallace, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-Q: Certain associates can say things to me that spark an aggressive reaction.
-Why is it so easy to spark this feeling of negativity if there is not an
-accumulation of energy behind it?
-
-A: This is because of your pattern of clinging to the idea that you should
-have all the good things, and nothing that bothers you should ever happen, as
-I explained earlier. This is wishful thinking, because the nature of the
-world is not like that at all. The ego game you have planned is itself the
-explanation for how easily your anger is sparked. Because you have planned
-such a delicate, impossible game, and there are many things that can happen,
-anything that jeopardizes the plan of your ego upsets you. It is not an
-accumulation of energy but the pattern of clinging that is at fault.
-
- -- Venerable Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, "Dharma Paths", translated by Ngodup
- Burkhar and Chojor Radha, edited by Laura M. Roth, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- Suppose... you try to convert someone from another religion to the
-Buddhist religion, and you argue with them trying to convince them of the
-inferiority of their position. And suppose you do not succeed, suppose they
-do not become Buddhist. On the one hand, you have failed in your task, and on
-the other hand, you may have weakened the trust they have in their own
-religion, so that they may come to doubt their own faith. What have you
-accomplished by all this? It is of no use. When we come into contact with
-the followers of different religions, we should not argue. Instead, we should
-advise them to follow their own beliefs as sincerely and as truthfully as
-possible. For if they do so, they will no doubt reap certain benefits. Of
-this there is no doubt. Even in the immediate future, they will be able to
-achieve more happiness and more satisfaction.
- ...When I meet the followers of different religions, I always praise them,
-for it is enough, it is sufficient, that they are following the moral
-teachings that are emphasized in every religion. It is enough, as I mentioned
-earlier, that they are trying to become better human beings. This in itself
-is very good and worthy of praise.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Answers: Discussions with Western Buddhists",
- edited by Jose Ignacio Cabezon, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Only a Buddha has extinguished all faults and gained all attainments.
-Therefore, one should mentally go for refuge to a Buddha, praise him with
-speech, and respect him physically. One should enter the teaching of such a
-being.
- A Buddha's abandonment of defects is of three types: good, complete, and
-irreversible. Good abandonment involves overcoming obstructions through their
-antidotes, not just through withdrawing from those activities. Complete
-abandonment is not trifling, forsaking only some afflictions or just the
-manifest afflictions, but forsaking all obstructions. Irreversible
-abandonment overcomes the seeds of afflictions and other obstructions in such
-a way that defects will never arise again, even when conditions favourable to
-them are present.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Tantra in Tibet",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-In commenting on the first instruction spoken by Manjushri, we considered the
-question of attachment to this lifetime and the faults that come from this
-attachment. However, the question of attachment goes deeper. It is not just
-a matter of giving up attachment to this life's rewards but of losing our
-taste and affinity for the whole of worldly existence. This is why it is
-necessary to contemplate and meditate upon the faults of conditioned
-existence. Otherwise, we may imagine that samsara possesses any manner of
-attractive qualities. Pondering the shortcomings of samsara should bring
-forth in us a tangible sense of disgust, as we are confronted with our own
-misguided pursuit of worldly ends.
- -- Chogye Trichen Rinpoche, "Parting from the Four Attachments: Jetsun
- Drakpa Gyaltsen's Song of Experience on Mind Training and the View",
- commentary translated by Thubten Choedak, Root Text and Lineage Prayer
- translated by H.H. Sakya Trizin and Jay Goldberg, compiled and edited
- by John Deweese, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Another problem we face today is the gap between rich and poor. In this
-great country of America, your forefathers established the concepts of
-democracy, freedom, liberty, equality, and equal opportunity for every
-citizen. These are provided for by your wonderful Constitution. However, the
-number of billionaires in this country is increasing while the poor remain
-poor, in some cases getting even poorer. This is very unfortunate. On the
-global level as well, we see rich nations and poor ones. This is also very
-unfortunate. It is not just morally wrong, but practically it is a source of
-unrest and trouble that will eventually find its way to our door.
- ...one of my elder brothers, who is no longer alive, would tell me of his
-experiences living in America. He lived a humble life and told me of the
-troubles, the fears, the killings, theft, and rape that people endured. These
-are, I think, the result of economic inequality in society. It is only
-natural that difficulties arise if we must fight day by day in order to
-survive while another human being, equal to us, is effortlessly living a
-luxurious life. This is an unhealthy situation; as a result, even the
-wealthy--the billionaires and millionaires--remain in constant anxiety. I
-therefore think that this huge gap between rich and poor is very unfortunate.
- ...So, for those of you who are poor, those who come from difficult
-situations, I strongly urge you to work hard, with self-confidence, to make
-use of your opportunities. The richer people should be more caring toward the
-poorer ones, and the poor should make every effort, with self-confidence.
- -- The Dalai Lama, "An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life",
- edited by Nicholas Vreeland, afterword by Khyongla Rato and Richard Gere
-~
-Not to be busy
- Tibetans say that once upon a time all the yaks that live in Tibet were
-living in India as water buffalo. It was very, very hot in India so some of
-them decided if they were to keep walking to the north they would get to a
-place that would be nice and cool. So they climbed up in the mountains, and
-as they were climbing their hair started to grow. Because of this the water
-buffalo in India often turn their head and look out expectantly and they are
-waiting for their brothers who have wandered off. In a similar way at one
-time all the buffalo of samsara and nirvana were living together and one day
-some of them wandered off and came into samsara. They keep looking around to
-see who else is there and where the other half is, because the basic quality
-of our ordinary sense of self is that it is very lonely. Something is missing
-in our lives and we don't quite know what it is, but we keep looking and
-looking to find this missing part. We can look for it in terms of
-possessions, we can look for it in terms of the form of our body, trying to
-change it through dieting or hair style or whatever. You can look in terms of
-friends. Anything. And this keeps us very, very busy. Sometimes the
-busyness can be very exhausting, but when we stop then we feel lonely. So we
-get busy again. Dharma is very helpful here if you want distraction because
-there are many kinds of ways to be busy in the dharma. You can focus on
-having lots of dharma possessions. You can focus on learning the text by
-heart, on the mantras and mudras, on serving the tsog, on doing meditations.
-There is always something to be busy with.
- In Tibet many, many people practiced dharma but not so many seem to get
-enlightened. There are many kinds of dharma and if we practice in a way that
-doesn't focus on the essential point but on secondary and tertiary levels it
-is easy to get lost. It is really important, given that we have limited time,
-to focus on what is essential. Many people when they get a plate of food will
-eat the things they don't like so much first and leave the special thing to
-the end. But when when we apply this to life we can make a big mistake. The
-time for deep practice is now. You can learn all about Padmasambhava and what
-his clothes mean and what his hair style means but if you don't know the
-nature of your own mind then knowledge about Padmasambhava is just some more
-concepts.
- -- "Being Right Here: A Dzogchen Treasure Text of Nuden Dorje entitled
- 'The Mirror of Clear Meaning' ", with commentary by James Low, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Linguistics is arguably the most hotly contested property in the academic
-realm. It is soaked with the blood of poets, theologians, philosophers,
-philologists, psychologists, biologists, anthropologists, and neurologists,
-along with whatever blood can be got out of grammarians.
- -- Russ Rymer
-~
-What is undistracted calm abiding? It is meditative absorption free of the
-six types of distraction. What are these six?
-
- (1) Inherent distraction refers to the eye consciousness and the other
-four collections of consciousness. Because they are naturally directed
-outward, they [cause one to] emerge from meditative absorption.
- (2) External distraction refers to a mental consciousness that reaches out
-towards or engages objects.
- (3) Internal distraction concerns dullness and agitation, as well as
-savoring one's meditative absorption.
- (4) The distraction of marks occurs when, trusting in meditative
-absorption, one apprehends marks of it and becomes attached.
- (5) Distraction brought about by negative tendencies is when directing the
-mind involves the apprehending of an ego. This is said to refer to the mental
-act of pridefully believing oneself to be superior to others, or [simply any
-mental act] that involves apprehending an "I".
- (6) The distraction of directing the mind occurs when one is caught up in
-the mindset of, and directs the mind in the style of, the Lesser Vehicle.
-
-The undistracted calm abiding that is determined by the elimination of
-those six is the unique calm abiding of the Great Vehicle. This is a state of
-one-pointed inner rest, a flawless calm abiding. In it, there is no
-apprehension of marks, as is the case when inner absorption alone is believed
-to bring liberation. Neither does it involve the ego apprehension that occurs
-in the concentrations of non-Buddhists. Further, one does not direct the mind
-as one would when cultivating the supports for the inferior paths [to
-liberation]. This is how the wise should understand the calm abiding of the
-Great Vehicle.
- -- "Middle Beyond Extremes: Maitreya's 'Madhyantavibhaga' with commentaries
- by Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham", translated by the Dharmachakra
- Translation Committee, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Calm abiding is predominantly stabilizing meditation, in which the mind is
-kept on a single object, rather than analytical meditation, in which a topic
-such as impermanence or emptiness is analyzed with reasoning. The purpose of
-developing calm abiding is that, since a mind that is scattered to external
-objects is relatively powerless, the mind needs to be concentrated in order to
-become powerful. If you do not have concentration in which the mind is
-unfluctuatingly stable and clear, the faculty of wisdom cannot know its
-object, just as it is, in all its subtleties. Therefore, it is necessary to
-have a highly focused mind.
- ...In order to set the mind steadily on an object of observation, it is
-necessary initially to use an object of observation suited to counteracting
-your own predominant afflictive emotion, since its force remains with your
-mind now and can easily interrupt any attempt to concentrate the mind.
-Therefore, Buddha described many types of objects for purifying behavior:
- + For someone whose predominant afflictive emotion is desire, ugliness is
-a helpful object of meditation. Here, "ugliness" does not necessarily refer
-to distorted forms; the very nature of our body--composed of blood, flesh,
-bone, and so forth--might seem superficially to be very beautiful with a good
-color, solid and yet soft to touch, but when it is investigated, you see that
-its essence is quite different--substances like bone, blood, urine, feces,
-and so forth.
- + For someone who has predominantly engaged in hatred, the object of
-meditation is love.
- + For someone who was predominantly sunk in obscuration, the meditation is
-on the twelve links of the dependent-arising of cyclic existence because
-contemplating its complexity promotes intelligence.
- + For someone whose predominant afflictive emotion is pride, the
-meditation could be on the divisions of the constituents because, when
-meditating on the many divisions, you get to the point where you realize that
-there are many things you do not know, thereby lessening an inflated sense of
-yourself.
- + Those dominated by conceptuality can observe the exhalation and
-inhalation of the breath because, by tying the mind to the breath,
-discursiveness diminishes.
- A particularly helpful object for all personality types is a Buddha body,
-since concentration on a Buddha's body causes your mind to mix with virtuous
-qualities. No matter what the object is, this is not a case of meditating
-within, looking at an external object with your eyes, but of causing an image
-of it to appear to the mental consciousness.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Dzong-ka-ba and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Yoga Tantra: Paths
- to Magical Feats", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-...an understanding of the doctrine of emptiness is fundamental to tantric
-practice. Every sadhana begins with, is structured around, and ends with
-meditation upon emptiness. To practice Vajrayana without the wisdom of
-emptiness can be very dangerous. For example, a main tantric technique is the
-cultivation of a subtle divine pride, a confidence that one is an enlightened
-tantric deity, the Lord of the Mandala. One's mind is the Wisdom Body of a
-Buddha, one's speech is the Beatific Body, one's form is the Perfect Emanation
-Body, and the world and its inhabitants are seen as a mandala inhabited by the
-various forms of tantric deities. Thus we have to utterly change our sense of
-"I." To do so involves the subject of emptiness. To practice the yoga of
-divine pride without an understanding of emptiness will not only be useless,
-but could lead to identity problems and other undesirable psychological
-effects. Therefore it is said that although the Vajrayana is a quick path
-when correctly practiced on the proper spiritual basis, it is dangerous for
-the spiritually immature. This type of danger area is one of the reasons why
-the Vajrayana must be practiced under the supervision of a qualified vajra
-acharya.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Enlightenment", edited and translated
- by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Self-discipline brings us into relationship with one of the six
-perfections of the bodhisattva, that of enthusiastic perseverance, which
-implies the willingness to engage in a process with effort and enthusiasm over
-a prolonged period. No material or spiritual qualities are gained without
-some degree of effort. Perseverance enables the practitioner to carry on and
-trust in the process, even when it feels hopeless. It makes it possible to
-face difficulties and obstacles in the path with confidence and courage,
-rather than giving up because it feels too hard. Self-discipline helps us
-remain in the vessel and not run away.
- My Tibetan retreat guide described the maintenance of self-discipline over
-time like keeping a pot heating on a stove. If we continually remove it from
-the heat the pot never boils. Similarly he felt that when someone enters into
-the discipline of retreat, it should be maintained as rigorously as possible.
-In doing so the alchemical vessel will be maintained, and the "cooking" can
-take place. Transformation only occurs when the vessel is maintained in this
-way.
- -- Rob Preece, "The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra", foreword by Stephen
- Batchelor, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Installation programs are where programming
-and the IT department meet... and fight.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Compassion without attachment is possible. Therefore, we need to clarify the
-distinctions between compassion and attachment. True compassion is not just
-an emotional response but a firm commitment founded on reason. Because of
-this firm foundation, a truly compassionate attitude toward others does not
-change even if they behave negatively. Genuine compassion is based not on our
-own projections and expectations, but rather on the needs of the other:
-irrespective of whether another person is a close friend or an enemy, as long
-as that person wishes for peace and happiness and wishes to overcome
-suffering, then on that basis we develop genuine concern for their problem.
-This is genuine compassion. For a Buddhist practitioner, the goal is to
-develop this genuine compassion, this genuine wish for the well-being of
-another, in fact for every living being throughout the universe.
- -- Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, "The Compassionate Life"
-~
- Buddha traveled and taught widely for some forty-five years after his
-enlightenment, and his audiences were diverse. Even though India at the time
-was a highly literate society, nothing of what he said was written down during
-his lifetime. Instead, various individuals were entrusted with memorizing the
-gist of each discourse. The work of transcribing his words took place only
-with the passage of generations.
- Tibetans believe that this reluctance on the part of the Buddha and his
-immediate followers to commit the enlightenment teachings to paper, and
-instead to preserve them as oral traditions, was a purposeful strategy gauged
-to maintain the maximum fluidity and living power of the enlightenment
-experience. It only became necessary to write things down when the darkness
-of the changing times threatened the very survival of the legacy. An oral
-tradition becomes lost to history should its holders pass away without first
-passing on their lineages.
- This intended fluidity, and the according safeguard against the
-establishment of an "enlightenment dogma" is perhaps best demonstrated by a
-verse that the Buddha himself said shortly before his death:
- Do not accept any of my words on faith,
- Believing them just because I said them.
- Be like an analyst buying gold, who cuts, burns,
- And critically examines his product for authenticity.
- Only accept what passes the test
- By proving useful and beneficial in your life.
- This simple statement empowered future generations of Buddhist teachers to
-accept and reject at will anything said by Buddha himself as well by his early
-disciples. If something that was said by them did not pass the test of
-personal analysis, one could simply discard it as being limited in application
-to particular times, people, or situations, and therefore as only contextually
-valid.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Dalai Lamas on Tantra", translated, edited and
- introduced by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Many places have been totally changed through the use of police force and
-the power of guns--the Soviet Union, China, Burma, the Philippines, many
-communist countries, countries in Africa and South America. But eventually,
-you see, the power of guns and the power of the will of ordinary human beings
-will change places. I am always telling people that our century is very
-important historically for the planet. There is a big competition between
-world peace and world war, between the force of mind and the force of
-materialism, between democracy and totalitarianism. And now within this
-century, the force of peace is gaining the upper hand. Still, of course, the
-material force is very strong, but there is a kind of dissatisfaction about
-materialism and a realization or feeling that something is missing.
- ...entering the twenty-first century, I think the basic concerns are human
-values and the value of truth. These things have more value, more weight now.
- -- "The Dalai Lama, A Policy of Kindness: An Anthology of Writings By and
- About the Dalai Lama", compiled and edited by Sidney Piburn, Foreword by
- Sen. Claiborne Pell, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-An inexpressible, self-arisen expanse
-Without the names "samsara" and "nirvana."
-
- Here, "self-arisen" means the primordial state. It is not something we
-can fully express with words or concepts. It's beyond words or concepts. The
-nature of all is not biased; it is not restricted to one or another. The
-nature of all exists in one identical state. That ground, that nature, does
-not have any name such as samsara or nirvana. That is the foundation, that is
-the ground. It is beyond samsara and nirvana. Not knowing the ground means
-wandering in samsara. If you recognize this ground, if you truly experience
-this ground, buddhahood is attained. That is the fruition. That is the
-result of our practice and our path.
- ...The ground, that fundamental state of simplicity, is the origin of all
-elaborations. This pure basic state is like a simple artist's canvas. We
-paint different images on this canvas. We can paint the image of a buddha,
-and it becomes very pure, beautiful, and inspiring to look at. We can also
-paint a devil on the same canvas, which can create our fundamental suffering,
-our basic pain. However, the basis of both is the same simple state of canvas
-that is completely pure and totally free from the images we project on it. It
-is totally free, whether that image is a buddha or a devil. That is the
-origin.
- -- The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, "Penetrating Wisdom: The Aspiration of
- Samantabhadra", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.
- -- Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh
-~
-Setting a Specific Intention for Our Practice
- We should think about how we can make the best use of our practice so that
-we get the most out of it in the short time we have in this life. We do not
-have the leisure of wasting our time here by delaying the benefits of our
-practice. We have to use these situations as effectively as we can.
- Before you begin any practice, first think very carefully about your
-motivation. When we are engaged in the threefold process of study,
-contemplation and meditation, we should be very specific, very clear about why
-we are doing it. We should remind ourselves, "I am doing this to transcend my
-negative emotions and my ego-clinging." This is a general example of a
-specific intention. However, to be more precise, we need to consider the
-unique make-up of our own individual kleshas [intense states of suffering, and
-ignorance]. Once we have identified our strongest emotion, then we can focus
-on the practices that will alleviate it. We begin with whichever emotion is
-strongest for us and then we move on to the next strongest, followed by the
-next, and so on.
- It is important for us to prioritize our practice in this way. We have
-to keep our intention very clear in all three phases--in our study, in our
-contemplation and in our meditation. During shamatha or other practices, when
-thoughts come up, we recall that our purpose is to overcome our disturbing
-emotions and kleshas. We have to have a sense of willpower or determination
-in our minds. In order for the remedy to work, we must tell ourselves, "Yes,
-I am going to transcend this anger. I am going to work with it." Otherwise,
-if we do not have a clear idea, if we simply sit there with an indefinite or
-vague intention, then the effect also will be vague. We may have sat for one
-hour and although that time will not have been wasted, because it was not
-directed in an intentional way, the experience will not be so sharp, to the
-point or effective.
- -- Dzogchen Ponlop, "Mind Beyond Death", published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- ...particularly in Buddhism while we practice we must use the brain as
-well as the heart. On the ethical side, we must practice the quality of a
-good and warm heart; also, since Buddhism is very much involved in reasoning
-and logic--the wisdom side--intelligence is important. Thus, a combination of
-mind and heart is needed. Without knowledge, without fully utilized
-intelligence, you cannot reach the depths of the Buddhist doctrine; it is
-difficult to achieve concrete or fully qualified wisdom. There may be
-exceptions, but this is the general rule.
- It is necessary to have a combination of hearing, thinking, and
-meditating. The Kadampa teacher Dromton ('brom ston pa, 1004-1064) said,
-"When I engage in hearing, I also make effort at thinking and meditating.
-When I engage in thinking, I also search out more hearing and engage in
-meditation. And when I meditate, I don't give up hearing and don't give up
-thinking." He said, "I am a balanced Kadampa," meaning that he maintained a
-balance of hearing, thinking, and meditating.
- -- The Fourteenth Dalai Lama His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, "Kindness, Clarity,
- and Insight", edited and translated by Jeffrey Hopkins, co-edited by
- Elizabeth Napper, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-If through listening to this explanation of the Seven Point Mind Training we
-come to recognise how important Bodhichitta is, this will be an infallible
-cause of our enlightenment. Of all the eighty four thousand different
-sections of the doctrine, the precious Bodhichitta is the very essence. By
-hearing the words of such a teaching, it is impossible even for demons, whose
-nature it is to kill and to do harm, not to have positive thoughts! Kham, a
-region in East Tibet, was haunted in the past by many ghosts and evil spirits,
-and this was one of the reasons why Patrul Rinpoche used to explain the
-Bodhicharyavatara continually to his disciples. Before long, there were no
-more ghosts--or at least, no one came to any more harm. Such is the hidden
-power of Bodhichitta!
- --Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, "Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of the Seven
- Point Mind Training", translated by the Padmakara Translation Group,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Sometimes we face certain situations where, although we have done
-something good for others, we may not be able to reap the consequences within
-this lifetime. When we are talking about the law of causality, we are not
-limiting its operation to the confines of this life alone, but rather are
-taking into account both this lifetime and the future. Occasionally people
-who do not have a proper knowledge of karmic law say that such and such a
-person is very kind and religious and so forth, but he always has problems,
-whereas so and so is very deceptive and negative, frequently indulging in
-negative actions, but always seems very successful. Such people may think
-that there is no karmic law at all. There are others who go to the other
-extreme and become superstitious, thinking that when someone experiences
-illness, it is all due to harmful spirits.... It is also possible for very
-negative people to experience their positive karma ripening immaturely due to
-the very strong force of negative actions, and thus to exhaust the potentials
-of their virtuous actions. They experience a relative success in this life,
-while others who are very serious practitioners, as a result of the force of
-their practices, bring upon this lifetime the consequences of karmic actions
-which might have otherwise thrown them into rebirth in lower realms of
-existence in the future. As a result, they experience more problems and
-illnesses in this life.
- Just resolving not to indulge in a negative action is not enough. It
-should be accompanied by the understanding that it is for your own benefit and
-sake that you must live with awareness of the law of karma: if you have
-accumulated the causes, you will have to face the consequences; if you desire
-a particular effect, you can work to produce its causes; and if you do not
-desire a certain consequence, you can avoid engaging in actions that will
-bring it about. You should reflect upon the law of causality as follows: that
-there is a definite relation between causes and effects; that actions not
-committed will never produce an effect; and that once committed, actions will
-never lose their potentiality simply through the passage of time. So, if you
-wish to enjoy desirable fruits, you should work for the accumulation of the
-appropriate causes, and if you want to avoid undesirable consequences, you
-should not accumulate their causes.... [Karma] is a natural law like any
-other natural law.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, "Path to Bliss: A Practical Guide to
- Stages of Meditation", translated by Geshe Thubten Jinpa, edited by
- Christine Cox, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Generally speaking, there are two forms of meditation on emptiness. One
-is the space-like meditation on emptiness, which is characterised by the total
-absence or negation of inherent existence. The other is called the illusion-
-like meditation on emptiness. The space-like meditation must come first,
-because without the realisation of the total absence of inherent existence,
-the illusion-like perception or understanding will not occur.
- For the illusion-like understanding of all phenomena to occur, there needs
-to be a composite of both the perception or appearance and the negation, so
-that when we perceive the world and engage with it we can view all things and
-events as resembling illusions. We will recognise that although things appear
-to us, they are devoid of objective, independent, intrinsic existence. This
-is how the illusion-like understanding arises. The author of the "Eight
-Verses for Training the Mind" indicates the experiential result when he
-writes: "May I, recognising all things as illusion, devoid of clinging, be
-released from bondage."
- When we speak of cultivating the illusion-like understanding of the nature
-of reality, we need to bear in mind the different interpretations of the term
-'illusion-like'.... For example, the Buddhist realist schools explain the
-nature of reality to be illusion-like in the sense that, although we tend to
-perceive things as having permanence, in reality they are changing moment by
-moment and it is this that gives them an illusion-like character.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Lighting the Way", translated by Geshe Thupten
- Jinpa, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Actually, we are all part of the community of humanity. If humanity is
-happy, has a successful life, a happy future, automatically, I will benefit.
-If humanity suffers, I too will suffer. Humanity is like one body, and we are
-part of that body. Once you realize this, once you cultivate this kind of
-attitude, you can bring about a change in your way of thinking. A sense of
-caring, commitment, discipline, oneness with humanity--these are very relevant
-in today's world. I call this secular ethics, and this is the first level to
-counter negative emotions.
- The second level in this connection is taught by all major religious
-traditions, whether Christian or Muslim or Jewish or Hindu. They all carry
-the message of love, compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment, and
-discipline. These are countermeasures for negative emotions. When anger is
-about to surface, when hatred is about to flare up, think of tolerance. It is
-important to stop any mental dissatisfaction when we feel it because it leads
-to anger and hatred.
- Patience is the countermeasure for mental dissatisfaction. Greed and its
-self-centeredness bring unhappiness, and also destruction of the environment,
-exploitation of others, and increases the gap between the rich and the poor.
-The countermeasure is contentment. So practicing contentment is useful in our
-daily lives.
- ...All religious traditions talk about methods of compassion and
-forgiveness. If we accept religion, we should take the religious methods
-seriously and sincerely and use them in our daily lives. Then, a meaningful
-life can develop.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Many Ways to Nirvana: Reflections and
- Advice on Right Living", edited by Renuka Singh
-~
- Actually, if we look around, people whom we don't like and people who harm
-us are in the minority. Let's say we're at work, at a social gathering, or at
-a Dharma center with thirty people. How many of them do we really dislike?
-We may have problems with a few people here and there, but we manage to stay
-in a room together, don't we? It's not like we despise them and they hate us.
-The number of people we can't stand in this world is actually very small.
-These people are rare. To practice patience we need the people that we don't
-like. We can't practice patience with our friends or with people who are kind
-to us. Finding people that we don't like or who threaten us is not so easy.
-So, when we finally find them, they are a precious treasure! They are rare to
-find. When we meet them, we can think, "Fantastic, I get to practice patience
-now."
- They say that high-level bodhisattvas pray to meet disgusting,
-uncooperative people because they want to practice patience. Of course, when
-you really want to meet obnoxious people, they don't show up! Why don't they
-turn up for high-level bodhisattvas? Because high-level bodhisattvas don't
-have any anger. We could be sitting in a room with many people whom we
-consider unbearable, but high-level bodhisattvas don't see them that way at
-all. To them, these people appear lovable. Bodhisattvas have such a hard
-time finding detestable people, whereas we come across them so easily! So,
-when we find people whom we don't like, feel threatened by, or find
-despicable, we should recognize that there aren't so many of them around.
-Therefore, we should cherish them and take the opportunity to practice
-patience with them.
- -- Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, "Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga
- Method of Chenrezig", foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.
- -- Henry Ford
-~
-...to have greater self-awareness or understanding means to have a better
-grasp of reality. Now, the opposite of reality is to project onto yourself
-qualities that are not there, ascribe to yourself characteristics in contrast
-to what is actually the case. For example, when you have a distorted view of
-yourself, such as through excessive pride or arrogance, because of these
-states of mind, you have an exaggerated sense of your qualities and personal
-abilities. Your view of your own abilities goes far beyond your actual
-abilities. On the other hand, when you have low self-esteem, then you
-underestimate your actual qualities and abilities. You belittle yourself, you
-put yourself down. This leads to a complete loss of faith in yourself. So
-excess--both in terms of exaggeration and devaluation--are equally
-destructive. lt is by addressing these obstacles and by constantly examining
-your personal character, qualities, and abilities, that you can learn to have
-greater self-understanding. This is the way to become more self-aware.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D., "The Art of
- Happiness at Work"
-~
-Phowa is a practice which should be done repeatedly, all through our lives so
-that we can do it naturally and purposefully at the time of death. I have
-heard a story about a Tibetan who was dying and his family called the lama to
-be with him. The lama sat beside him and told him to think only of his root
-guru and forget everything else. He said, "I can't recall my guru, I can only
-think of a sizzling sausage being warmed in the ashes of a fire." The lama was
-very skillful: "That is excellent!" he said. "Dewachen, the paradise of the
-Amitaba Buddha, is full of sausages; they grow on every tree. You only have
-to open your mouth and you will have all the sausages you want. The color of
-Amitaba is like the embers of a fire, so think of him and you will go to his
-realm." It is said that the man went straight to the pure land of Dewachen.
- -- Ringu Tulku, "Mind Training", edited by B.M. Shaughnessy, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-"Yogis should at all times avoid fish, meat, and so forth,
-should eat with moderation, and avoid foods that are not
-conducive to health." --Kamalashila
-
- Meditators need to be physically healthy. Therefore, proper diet is
-essential. On the other hand, their minds should be clear and strong and this
-will also contribute to physical health. For these reasons, it is recommended
-that they give up eating fish, meat, garlic, onions, etc. Appropriate food
-should be eaten in moderation, for indigestion can cause havoc with
-meditation. What's more, those who overeat can hardly stay awake.
- ...If a vegetarian diet does not result in protein deficiency, it is a
-wholesome way of living. Even if you cannot be a strict vegetarian, at least
-moderating the amount of meat you eat is beneficial. Within the southern
-schools of Buddhism eating meat is not strictly prohibited, but the meat of
-certain animals, such as those that are not cloven-hoofed or those that have
-been slaughtered specifically for your consumption, is forbidden. This means
-that meat bought casually in the market is acceptable.... However, certain
-scriptures... strictly prohibit eating meat at all times, whereas other
-scriptures... seem to permit it.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Stages of Meditation", root text by Kamalashila,
- translated by Geshe Lobsang Jordhen, Losang Choephel Ganchenpa, and
- Jeremy Russell, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-It would be wrong to say, as some do, that if we don't recite prayers while
-being aware of their meaning and merely repeat the words mindlessly, it has no
-benefit whatsoever--like prayer flags flapping in the wind. However, there
-are indeed differences in the level of benefits and blessings derived from
-prayers according to the way we recite them. Therefore, keeping this in mind,
-at the beginning of the practice, generate bodhicitta. During the main
-practice, some will use an object of concentration and some will practice
-without an object of concentration; each person should do what is best
-according to their level. At the end, one should dedicate the merit in a way
-that is pure from the three conceptual spheres to the best of one's ability.
-The most important and essential thing in making [prayer] meaningful is to
-depend on those three stages of practice--generation of bodhicitta, the main
-practice and dedication of merit. All must do the complete three stages of
-practice.
- -- Chatral Rinpoche, "Compassionate Action", edited, introduced, and
- annotated by Zach Larson, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- "When the thought of the internal
- And the external as 'I' and 'mine'
- Has perished, grasping ceases
- And through that cessation birth ceases.
-
- When actions and afflictions cease, there is liberation;
- They arise from false conceptions, these arise
- From the elaborations [of false views on inherent
- Existence]; elaborations cease in emptiness."
- -- Nagarjuna
-
-Inherent existence has never been validly known to exist; therefore, it is
-impossible for there to be any phenomenon that exists through its own power.
-Since it is experienced that mere dependent-arisings, which are in fact empty
-of inherent existence, do cause all forms of help and harm, these are
-established as existent. Thus, mere dependent-arisings do exist. Therefore,
-all phenomena exist in the manner of appearing as varieties of dependent-
-arisings. They appear this way without passing beyond the sphere or condition
-of having just this nature of being utterly non-inherently existent.
-Therefore, all phenomena have two entities: one entity that is its superficial
-mode of appearance and one entity that is its deep mode of being. These two
-are called respectively conventional truths and ultimate truths.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Buddhism of Tibet", translated and edited by
- Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The cloistered environment stands in stark contrast to the uncontrolled
-environment of everyday active life in the modern world. When I was a
-graduate student living in a family housing unit at Stanford University, I
-meditated early in the morning. At about 7:00 outside our window, a group of
-little girls would begin shrieking and driving their plastic tractors and
-tricycles across the bricks. I was meditating and these girls were disturbing
-my peace. I got to feeling pretty sorry for myself so I phoned my lama,
-Gyatrul Rinpoche, and asked for advice. He gave me a one-liner, "Just view
-it." This was not just Rinpoche's way of telling me to quit whining, but a
-reminder of the more encompassing teaching to embrace obstacles in practice.
-And carry on. We can't always control our environment, but we can embrace it,
-the good, the bad, and the loud, and integrate it into Dharma practice.
- -- B. Alan Wallace, "Buddhism with an Attitude: The Tibetan Seven-Point
- Mind-Training", edited by Lynn Quirolo, published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-He who throws mud only loses ground. -- Fat Albert (Bill Cosby)
-~
-Grow old along with me!
-The best is yet to be.
- -- Robert Browning
-~
-It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out;
-it's the grain of sand in your shoe.
- -- Anonymous
-~
-If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic,
-we should not get very far in our understanding of the physical world. One
-might as well attempt to grasp the game of poker entirely by the use of the
-mathematics of probability.
- -- Vannevar Bush
-~
-I have a rock garden. Last week three of them died. --Richard Diran
-~
-Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history
-that man can never learn anything from history.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-America believes in education: the average professor earns more
-money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
- -- Evan Esar
-~
-We are more ready to try the untried
-when what we do is inconsequential.
-Hence the fact that many inventions
-had their birth as toys.
- -- Eric Hoffer
-~
-Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion,
-for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
- -- Bertrand Russell
-~
-Man is most nearly himself when he achieves
-the seriousness of a child at play.
- -- Heraclitus
-~
- If we have been reborn time after time, it is evident that we have needed
-many mothers to give birth to us.... the first cause bringing about
-bodhicitta is the recognition that all beings have been our mother.
- The love and kindness shown us by our mother in this life would be
-difficult to repay. She endured many sleepless nights to care for us when we
-were helpless infants. She fed us and would have willingly sacrificed
-everything, including her own life, to spare ours. As we contemplate her
-example of devoted love, we should consider that each and every being
-throughout existence has treated us this way. Each dog, cat, fish, fly, and
-human being has at some point in the beginningless past been our mother and
-shown us overwhelming love and kindness. Such a thought should bring about
-our appreciation.
- ...if all other sentient beings who have been kind to us since
-beginningless time are suffering, how can we devote ourselves to pursuing
-merely our own happiness? To seek our own happiness in spite of the suffering
-others are experiencing is tragically unfortunate. Therefore, it is clear
-that we must try to free all sentient beings from suffering.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday
- Life", edited by Nicholas Vreeland, afterword by Khyongla Rato and
- Richard Gere
-~
-3.2.4 The way in which experiences dawn through practicing [Mahamudra]
-
-In beginners, this is similar to water [gushing down] a gorge.
-In between, it is the gentle flow of the river Ganga.
-Finally, all waters meet like a mother and her child. -- Tilopa
-
- The meditative equipoise of beginners entails intense movement of
-thoughts, similar to water gushing down a narrow gorge. The reason for this
-is as follows. Though there is some slight resting in equipoise, thoughts
-proliferate. Right at that point, through the remedy of alertness and by
-considering that you like resting in meditative concentration and dislike not
-resting in it, you rest in meditative equipoise again. Through such an
-approach, your mind becomes somewhat uplifted.
- The meditative equipoise of those who have attained a little bit more
-stability than that and are of middling faculties is similar to the gentle
-flow of the river Ganga. The reason is as follows. Even if some thoughts
-come up, a little here and there, their own face is immediately recognized, so
-that the movement of thoughts does not run wild. Without various notions that
-chase after these [subtle thoughts] or any physical and mental effort, all
-thoughts that come up will dawn slowly. There is also no need to make great
-effort in [applying] their remedies. Rather, these happen naturally or of
-their own accord.
- Finally, in the meditative equipoise of those with highest faculties,
-neither thoughts to be relinquished arise nor is there any need to newly
-create some remedial wisdom, because there is nothing to be relinquished.
-Since existence and peace have become one taste, mother and child luminosity
-blend, or, expanse and wisdom have become indifferentiable. Once the
-tributary waters and the ocean have become one taste, like a mother and her
-child meeting, they cannot be disturbed.
- -- The Fifth Shamarpa Goncho Yenla, "Straight from the Heart: Buddhist Pith
- Instructions", translated and introduced by Karl Brunnholzl, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The theory of interdependence allows us to develop a wider perspective.
-With wider mind, there is less attachment to destructive emotions like anger,
-therefore more forgiveness. In today's world, every nation is heavily
-interdependent, interconnected. Under these circumstances, destroying your
-enemy--your neighbor--means destroying yourself in the long run. You need
-your neighbor. More prosperity in your neighbor, you'll get the benefit.
- Now, we're not talking about the complete removal of feelings like anger,
-attachment, or pride. Just reduction. Interdependence is important because
-it is not a mere concept; it can actually help reduce the suffering caused by
-these destructive emotions.
- We can say the theory of interdependence is an understanding of reality.
-We understand that our future depends on global well-being. Having this
-viewpoint reduces narrow-mindedness. With narrow mind, one is more likely to
-develop attachment, hatred. I think this is the best thing about the theory
-of interdependence--it is an explanation of the law of nature. It affects
-profoundly, for example, the environment.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Victor Chan, "The Wisdom of Forgiveness:
- Intimate Conversations and Journeys"
-~
-The Suffering of Change
- Feelings of suffering change into those of happiness. Feelings of
-happiness change into suffering. Both arise in dependence upon internal and
-external causes which change. For example, we see food as pleasurable, but if
-we eat too much, then it causes suffering. When we are young, we see our
-bodies as a source of pleasure. As we become older, the same body becomes a
-source of suffering.
- Just as a wave is always changing, so the nature of suffering is always to
-change. It may be experienced as pleasure or as suffering, but it arises from
-the same source. Pleasure arises from suffering. Seeing pleasure as
-happiness constitutes suffering.
- ...Pain and pleasure are of the same nature. Although they look different
-at different times, they both arise from the same sea of delusion and karmic
-action. Pleasure or pain, one or the other, arises and then falls back into
-the ocean. Thus we can conclude that pleasure and pain within the ocean of
-samsara are basically suffering, and dissolve into suffering.
- This becomes evident in the wide variety of sudden changes of experience
-depicted in films. Love and hatred, happiness and family strife, peace and
-war, follow each other in rapid succession. The continuous change, although
-exaggerated in films, is characteristic of life in general.
- -- Ven. Gen Lobsang Gyatso, "The Four Noble Truths", translated by Ven.
- Sherab Gyatso, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- We feel money and power can bring happiness and solve problems, but they
-are not definite causes of those desired states. If that were so, it would
-follow that those who have wealth would necessarily have happiness, and those
-who do not have wealth would always experience suffering. Money and power
-facilitate, but it is clear that they are not the primary causes of, happiness
-and solving our problems. It is justified for us to make material and
-financial development for building our nation and providing shelter, etc. for
-ourselves; we need to do that. But we also need to seek inner development.
-As we can see, there are many people who have wealth and power who remain
-unhappy, due to which their health declines, and they are always taking
-medicines. On the other hand, we find people who live like beggars but who
-always remain peaceful and happy.
- Therefore, in our daily life a certain way of thinking makes us happy, and
-a certain way of thinking makes us unhappy. In other words, there are certain
-states of mind which bring us problems, and they can be removed; we need to
-make an effort in that direction. Likewise, there are certain states of mind
-that bring us peace and happiness, and we need to cultivate and enhance them.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama XIV, "Generous Wisdom: Commentaries", the
- Jatakamala translated by Tenzin Dorjee edited by Dexter Roberts
-~
-Focusing the Mind on the Deity
-
- Those with superior mental capacity should refine their ability by
-practicing the development stage without any sense of clinging or fixation.
-In this approach, the appearance of the deity and its ornaments are visualized
-in such a way that they are totally complete, vivid, and distinct from the
-very beginning. This is the form of great wisdom, the union of development
-and completion. Beyond being an identifiable entity with a precise nature, it
-appears clearly yet is devoid of any essence. In other words, clarity and
-emptiness are indivisible. Like the reflection of the moon in a lake, its
-very nature is to appear in a distinct manner, down to the pupils of the eyes,
-while in reality it is empty.
- Those with moderate mental capacity should begin their meditation with a
-sudden recollection of the deity's complete appearance. The next step is to
-meditate on the clear appearance of the head, and, once this is stable, to
-then meditate progressively on the right arm, left arm, torso, right and left
-legs, and finally on the complete form of the deity and its seat. Training in
-the development stage of illusory clear appearance keeps one from straying
-into the view of nihilism. When one grows weary of this, the practitioner
-should recollect purity and refine his or her ability in the essence of this
-process, the vajra-like absorption. This key point keeps one from straying
-into the belief in permanence.
- For beginners with less mental capacity, it may be difficult to visualize
-in either of these ways. When not yet familiar with this process, one's
-ability should be refined using a permanent form. Take a consecrated and
-well-formed representation of the yidam deity, such as a painting or clay
-statue made by a skilled artisan, and place it before you. Without
-intentionally meditating, look directly at it from top to bottom without
-blinking. This is referred to as the auxiliary practice of setting
-mindfulness into motion. At first, the agitated movement of conditioned
-thought patterns will be experienced. This is the experience of movement,
-which is said to be "like water cascading off a cliff."
- -- Jigme Lingpa, Patrul Rinpoche, and Getse Mahapandita, "Deity, Mantra,
- and Wisdom: Development Stage Meditation in Tibetan Buddhist Tantra",
- translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee, fore. by Trulshik
- Rinpoche, fore. by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- The reason why we find so much discussion of epistemology, or how to
-define something as a valid cognition, in Buddhist writings is because all our
-problems, suffering and confusion derive from a misconceived way of perceiving
-things. This explains why it is so important for a practitioner to determine
-whether a cognitive event is a misconception or true knowledge. For it is
-only by generating insight which sees through delusion that we can become
-liberated.
- Even in our own experience we can see how our state of mind passes through
-different stages, eventually leading to a state of true knowledge. For
-instance, our initial attitude or standpoint on any given topic might be a
-very hardened misconception, thinking and grasping at a totally mistaken
-notion. But when that strong grasping at the wrong notion is countered with
-reasoning, it can then turn into a kind of lingering doubt, an uncertainty
-where we wonder: "Maybe it is the case, but then again maybe it is not". That
-would represent a second stage. When further exposed to reason or evidence,
-this doubt of ours can turn into an assumption, tending towards the right
-decision. However, it is still just a presumption, just a belief. When that
-belief is yet further exposed to reason and reflection, eventually we could
-arrive at what is called 'inference generated through a reasoning process'.
-Yet that inference remains conceptual, and it is not a direct knowledge of the
-object. Finally, when we have developed this inference and constantly
-familiarized ourselves with it, it could turn into an intuitive and direct
-realization--a direct experience of the event. So we can see through our own
-experience how our mind, as a result of being exposed to reason and
-reflection, goes through different stages, eventually leading to a direct
-experience of a phenomenon or event.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great
- Perfection", translated by Thupten Jinpa and Richard Barron, foreword by
- Sogyal Rinpoche, edited by Patrick Gaffney, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-Not recognizing their own face, but letting them run wild, one thought leads
-to many kinds of [other] thoughts. If you fall into letting this continue,
-you wander around in confusion. Through directly looking at the face of
-whatever thought that comes up at the very start [of a potential train of
-thought], without being able to stand its own ground, just like a rainbow
-fading away in space, this thought vanishes into emptiness. Since you arrive
-at such within the previous experience of stillness, if you become familiar
-with it, the stream of confusion is severed through thoughts coming to rest on
-their own and vanishing on their own. Hence, if you know how to sustain this,
-even if you regard movement as a flaw and [try to] stop it, you need neither
-stop it nor [apply] any other remedy for the movement of thoughts. Rather, by
-sustaining the state of realizing their own essence, you realize the essential
-point that all the various appearances of happiness and suffering emerge from
-the mind and dissolve back into the mind. Through this, you realize the
-essential point that all of cyclic existence and nirvana is produced by the
-mind, the mind resting naturally settled without being affected by thoughts
-about the three times.
- -- "Straight From the Heart: Buddhist Pith Instructions", translated and
- introduced by Karl Brunnholzl, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-It's a dangerous business going out your front door. -- JRR Tolkien
-~
-The only way to entertain some folks is to listen to them. -- Kin Hubbard
-~
-Never face facts; if you do,
-you'll never get up in the morning.
- -- Marlo Thomas
-~
-I hate television.
-I hate it as much as I hate peanuts.
-But I can't stop eating peanuts.
- -- Orson Welles
-~
-One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a human. -- Goethe
-~
-The opposite of talking isn't listening.
-The opposite of talking is waiting.
- -- Fran Lebowitz
-~
-Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal
-with the intent of throwing it at someone else;
-you are the one who gets burned.
- -- Shakyamuni Buddha
-~
-Question: Western religions use the term "God", and Buddhism does not. Could
-emptiness or nirvana be considered God? If the afflictive obstruction that is
-the conception of inherent existence is eliminated, does one realize that
-everything is God?
-
-Dalai Lama: If God is interpreted as an ultimate reality or truth, then
-selflessness may be considered as God and even as a creator in the sense that
-within the nature of emptiness things appear and disappear. In this sense,
-emptiness is the basis of everything; because of emptiness, things can change,
-and things can appear and disappear. Thus, voidness--emptiness,
-selflessness--is this kind of basis.
-
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama of Tibet, "The Dalai Lama at Harvard: Lectures on the
- Buddhist Path to Peace", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Immeasurable Joy
-
- Because such love and compassion have not arisen in their mindstreams,
-people don't understand that all sentient beings are their kind mothers. They
-hold on to them as friends or foes, and the power of bad karmic action causes
-them to experience the immeasurable suffering of cyclic existence. "Wouldn't
-it be a joy if I could carry the suffering of those mothers, and if all beings
-could have all of my happiness and virtue? In order to establish these
-mothers in happiness, what a joy it would be if, until cyclic existence is
-empty, their suffering and the cause and effect of suffering, their sins and
-the cause and effect of sins, would all ripen in me and these mothers would
-become abundantly happy. I give my body, enjoyments, power, prestige, and
-roots of virtue in all times for the sake of these mothers. I won't pursue my
-own peace and happiness for even a moment. I will work for the welfare of
-beings without regard for life or limb. These mothers must have the entire
-range of happiness and the causes of happiness." With that thought, meditate
-on joy.
- "Furthermore, I will not shrink away from the specific harm done to
-sentient beings, or any kind of sickness, suffering, misfortune, enemies, and
-obstructions that happen to me for their sakes. What a joy if all the
-suffering of beings ripened in me, so that I would have that kind of
-suffering. And even a greater joy when those suffering beings are free of
-suffering and dwell in exceptional happiness."
- Generate an extraordinary attitude with that thinking. It is important
-that such joy does not stray into any kind of bias. And if you know it all to
-be like a dream or an illusion, free of fixation to true existence, it is
-called immeasurable joy.
- -- "Machik's Complete Explanation: Clarifying the Meaning of Chod (Dharma)",
- translated and edited by Sarah Harding, a Tsadra Foundation Series
- book published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Curiosity is the very basis of education
-and if you tell me curiosity killed the cat
-I say only that the cat died nobly.
- -- Arnold Edinborough
-~
-Knowledge will forever govern ignorance
-and a people who mean to be their own governors
-must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives...
- -- James Madison
-~
-Question: What should you say to a loved one who is talking about a third
-person with hatred or anger? On the one hand, you want to show compassion for
-the feelings being experienced by the loved one. On the other hand, you don't
-want to reinforce or lend approval to that hatred. What might one say?
-
-Dalai Lama: Here I would like to tell a story. Once there was a Kadampa
-master called Gampowa who had many responsibilities. One day he complained to
-the Kadampa master Dromtonpa that he had hardly any time for his meditation or
-for his Dharma practice. So Dromtonpa responded by agreeing with him, "Yes,
-that's right. I don't have any time either." Then once an immediate affinity
-was established, Dromtonpa skillfully said, "But, you know what I am doing is
-for the service of the Dharma. Therefore, I feel satisfied." Similarly, if
-you find one of your beloved ones speaking against someone out of anger or
-hatred, maybe your initial reaction should be one of agreement and sympathy.
-Then once you have gained the person's confidence, you can say, "But...."
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a
- Buddhist Perspective", translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...if you have not purified ordinary appearances into emptiness, how could
-you possibly meditate on the mandala circle? The fact that all phenomena are
-emptiness, that samsara and nirvana are inseparable, is the very reason we are
-able to actualize this by meditating on the mandala circle. In other words,
-emptiness is the basis for the development stage. As it is said, "For the one
-to whom emptiness is possible, anything is possible." If all phenomena were
-not empty and ordinary appearances were truly present, development stage
-meditation would be impossible, as the following quotation points out: "Even
-though one might empower wheat to be rice, rice won't actually appear."
-However, even if all phenomena are realized to be empty in this way, without
-the momentum of great compassion you will not be able to manifest the
-rupakayas to benefit others. This is similar to the listeners and solitary
-buddhas, who enter into a state of cessation and do not benefit others with
-rupakaya emanations.
- Once one understands this point, it will be like the following saying:
-"All these phenomena are like an illusion and birth is like taking a stroll
-in a park...." Said differently, one will no longer dwell in existence, while
-through compassion, one will not get caught up in a state of peace either.
-This is the great, universal path of the offspring of the victorious ones.
-For all these reasons, making sure the three absorptions are not isolated from
-one another is a vitally important point.
- -- Jigme Lingpa, Patrul Rinpoche, and Getse Mahapandita, "Deity, Mantra,
- and Wisdom: Development Stage Meditation in Tibetan Buddhist Tantra",
- translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee, fore. by Trulshik
- Rinpoche, fore. by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
- We can experience things without confusion and without being tense. Even
-the most disturbed, nervous person has moments of clarity and calmness--even
-if only when he or she is peacefully asleep and dreaming pleasant or innocuous
-dreams. This demonstrates that confusion and tension are not integral parts
-of the nature of mind. Thus confusion can be removed. Not only can it be
-removed, but since confusion cannot be validated and can be totally replaced
-by understanding, which can be verified, confusion can be eliminated forever.
-Thus it is possible for a total absence of confusion to exist. Furthermore,
-since confusion limits mind from using its full potentials, once confusion is
-gone, a utilization of all potentials can also exist. Therefore, since we all
-have a mind, and all minds have the same nature of being able to experience
-whatever exists, we can all realize and experience the definitive Three
-Precious Gems.
- Thus, if we aim to remove our confusion and realize our potentials as
-indicated by the Buddhas, their achievement, their teachings, what they have
-built up along the path and those who are progressing along it, we are
-traveling through life with a safe, reliable and positive direction. Taking
-refuge, then, means to put this realistic, safe direction in our life.
-Without it, our practice of mahamudra either has no direction and leads
-nowhere, or an unsound direction leading to more confusion and trouble. In
-addition, the further we travel in this safe direction through the mahamudra
-techniques--in other words, the more we realize the nature of mind and its
-relation to reality--the more confident we become in the soundness of this
-direction and our ability to reach its goal. The stronger our confidence, the
-further we progress along the path.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama and Alexander Berzin, "The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of
- Mahamudra", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The Rolling Stones have a song that goes,
- "Wild horses couldn't drag me away.
- Wild, wild horses, we'll ride them some day."
-That is the level that we have to reach, where wild horses cannot drag us
-away from the present moment of awareness. Once we have reached that level of
-training, then even in the bardos of death we will be able to guide our mind
-steadily past all difficulties toward awakening, toward freedom from samsara.
- There is another well-known image; it compares our wild minds to a mad
-elephant in a china shop. When untamed, this elephant can very easily destroy
-many things in the shop, and even the shop itself. With one move, the
-elephant can destroy a wall; and with another move, another wall. In only
-four moves, this elephant can destroy the whole structure. In the same way,
-if our minds are not tamed, they can easily destroy our whole collection of
-virtue--all the merit and wisdom we have accumulated through the
-accomplishment of countless positive deeds.
- Vipashyana meditation is the process of taming and training our minds.
-How do we do it? We catch our minds with shamatha and we train them with
-vipashyana. Then we ride our minds with mindfulness while remaining aware of
-the greater environment. Following these methods, we will reach our goal
-quite quickly--especially when we remember the thought of impermanence, which
-works like a whip.
- -- Dzogchen Ponlop, "Mind Beyond Death", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-With or without religion, you would have good people doing
-good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good
-people to do evil things, that takes religion.
- -- Steven Weinberg
-~
-Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.
- -- Mahatma Gandhi
-~
-I was born not knowing and have had only a little
-time to change that here and there.
- -- Richard Feynman
-~
-As for me, except for an occasional heart attack,
-I feel as young as I ever did.
- -- Robert Benchley
-~
- It is possible to understand the Buddhist teachings as a method of
-psychological healing, comparable to psychotherapy, that teaches us how we can
-master destructive forces like anger, envy, and greed. Human beings seem to
-be a bundle of different qualities and psychological processes. We should
-attentively examine our qualities and be alertly aware of our experiences in
-order to recognize what we truly feel and think. At the same time, the
-personality of human beings is not seen as a unified whole. According to
-these teachings, the heart of consciousness is composed of various elements,
-the five types of attachment, or skandhas: body, sensations, perceptions,
-instinctual forces, and consciousness.
- These inner forces impart the false concept of an ego-consciousness. The
-basic problem of emotional disorders therefore lies in a false concept of
-identity. This I-blindness should therefore be abolished through self-
-study.... The goal is not self-realization but selflessness.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Felizitas Von Schonborn, "Path of
- Wisdom, Path of Peace", foreword by Wei Jingsheng
-~
-Life would be unbearable if everything stayed the same because human beings
-find situations that are fixed and predictable very hard to tolerate. Even in
-small matters, we become uneasy if we feel there is no end in sight. I know
-of couples who live harmoniously together for ten years then marry and are
-divorced within a year. As soon as they feel bound to each other for the rest
-of their lives, they begin to fight. Impermanence removes our reasons for
-quarrelling with each other. Arguments only break out if we imagine that our
-relationships are endless. When we appreciate that our time with our
-families, partners, and friends may be shorter than we think, we get on better
-with each other. Awareness of impermanence gives us extraordinary inner
-strength and resilience.
- -- Ringu Tulku, "Mind Training", edited by B.M. Shaughnessy, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.
- -- Josh Billings
-~
- The ability to look at events from different perspectives can be very
-helpful. Then, practicing this, one can use certain experiences, certain
-tragedies, to develop a calmness of mind. One must realize that every
-phenomenon, every event, has different aspects. Everything is of a relative
-nature. For example, in my own case, I lost my country. From that viewpoint,
-it is very tragic--and there are even worse things. There's a lot of
-destruction happening in our country. That's a very negative thing. But if I
-look at the same event from another angle, I realize that as a refugee, I have
-another perspective. As a refugee there is no need for formalities, ceremony,
-protocol. If everything were status quo, if things were okay, then on a lot
-of occasions you merely go through the motions; you pretend. But when you are
-passing through desperate situations, there's no time to pretend. So from
-that angle, this tragic experience has been very useful to me. Also, being a
-refugee creates a lot of new opportunities for meeting with many people.
-People from different religious traditions, from different walks of life,
-those whom I may not have met had I remained in my country. So in that sense
-it's been very, very useful.
- It seems that often when problems arise, our outlook becomes narrow. All
-of our attention may be focused on worrying about the problem, and we may have
-a sense that we're the only one that is going through such difficulties. This
-can lead to a kind of self-absorption that can make the problem seem very
-intense. When this happens, I think that seeing things from a wider
-perspective can definitely help--realizing, for instance, that there are many
-other people who have gone through similar experiences, and even worse
-experiences. This practice of shifting perspective can even be helpful in
-certain illnesses or when in pain. At the time the pain arises it is of
-course often very difficult, at that moment, to do formal meditation practices
-to calm the mind. But if you can make comparisons, view your situation from a
-different perspective, somehow something happens. If you only look at that
-one event, then it appears bigger and bigger. If you focus too closely, too
-intensely, on a problem when it occurs, it appears uncontrollable. But if you
-compare that event with some other greater event, look at the same problem
-from a distance, then it appears smaller and less overwhelming.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D., "The Art of
- Happiness: A Handbook for Living"
-~
-Three Forms of Compassion
-
- Chandrakirti explained three types of compassion: compassion aimed at
-suffering, aimed at phenomena, and unaimed. With the first, we look at
-animate beings in light of their suffering and develop the wish for them to be
-free from both that suffering and its causes. One source of their suffering
-is their unawareness that they even have any problems, let alone their not
-knowing the causes of their problems. For example, our friend becomes upset
-at the slightest thing that goes wrong and sees this as normal. He or she
-does not understand that hypersensitivity is to blame and that something can
-be done to remedy this. When we see this sad situation, our compassion for
-our friend becomes even stronger.
- Compassion aimed at phenomena looks at beings in light of their moment-to-
-moment changes. With it, we wish others to be free of suffering and its
-causes based on the understanding that these both are impermanent. We also
-see that others are unaware of this fact and so, when depressed, for example,
-they make their sufferings worse by imagining that they will last forever.
-Realizing this further enhances compassion for them.
- Unaimed compassion looks at beings in terms of their voidness. It has the
-same wish as the other two forms, but is based on not identifying others
-concretely with their suffering. Seeing that others do not have this insight
-and that consequently they identify themselves with their problems intensifies
-our compassion for them even more.
- -- Alexander Berzin, "Developing Balanced Sensitivity: Practical Buddhist
- Exercises for Daily Life", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Don't be confused; the point of Scrum and XP and other agile methodologies is
-the same point behind any management technique of the past 100 years--squeeze
-every drop of work out of your workers until they are empty husks and can be
-thrown away. If you're a programmer and you think Scrum is going to "empower"
-you, you could not be more mistaken. Management will hide behind the
-principles of Scrum when it suits them and then still do whatever they want
-otherwise. When it's pointed out to them that they're violating the agile
-principles, they will simply claim that this is how the system is tailored
-for our company's "needs" and that we shouldn't blindly follow it. But if you
-need to break with an agile practice, oh no, the process is *God* and we must
-follow it to the exact letter.
- -- John Nesmith
-~
- I always believe that each individual human being has some kind of
-responsibility for humanity as a whole....
- Through my own profession, I try my best to contribute as much as I can.
-This proceeds without my being concerned whether another person agrees with
-my philosophy or not. Some people may be very much against my belief, my
-philosophy, but I feel all right. So long as I see that a human being suffers
-or has needs, I shall contribute as much as I can to contribute to their
-benefit.
- -- Dalai Lama XIV, "Consciousness at the Crossroads", edited by Zara
- Houshmand, Robert B. Livingston, and B. Alan Wallace, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-A Song on Impermanence
-
-With this spouse and these near and dear ones you desire to live together,
-Inseparable for all times, but there is no doubt that you will be separated.
-
-From this excellent home you would like to be inseparable forever
-And take root in it, but you will surely depart.
-
-From this happiness, well-being, and wealth you want to be inseparable forever
-So you can relish them, but it is certain you will lose them.
-
-From this supreme human body with its freedoms and riches you wish to be
- inseparable
-And own it until the end of times, but there is no way that you won't die.
-
-From this really great teacher you yearn to be inseparable
-And listen to the dharma for all eternity, but there is no question that you
- will be separated.
-
-From these good friends you wish to be inseparable forever
-So you can hang out together, but it's a sure thing that you will be parted.
-
-Therefore, from today on, don your armor of vigor--
-The time has come to travel to the land of inseparable great bliss.
-You friends who have developed weariness from the depths of your hearts,
-I, a dharma-beggar, request you to do so.
-
- -- The Omniscient Longchen Rabjam, "Straight from the Heart: Buddhist Pith
- Instructions", translated and introduced by Karl Brunnholzl, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The wisdom that realizes emptiness, that has gained insight into the
-nature of reality, is of varying kinds, depending upon the level of subtlety
-of the consciousness perceiving the emptiness. In general, there are rough
-levels of consciousness, more subtle levels, and then the innermost subtle
-level of consciousness. It is the uncommon characteristic of Tantric practice
-that through it one can evoke this most subtle consciousness at will and put
-it to use in a most effective way. For example, when emptiness is realized by
-this subtlest level of mind, it is more powerful, having a much greater effect
-on the personality.
- In order to activate or make use of the more subtle levels of
-consciousness, it is necessary to block the rougher levels--the rougher or
-grosser levels must cease. It is through specifically Tantric practices, such
-as the meditations on the chakras and the channels, that one can control and
-temporarily abandon the rougher levels of consciousness. When these become
-suppressed, the subtler levels of consciousness become active. And it is
-through the use of the subtlest level of consciousness that the most powerful
-spiritual realizations can come about. Hence, it is through the Tantric
-practice involving the most subtle consciousness that the goal of
-enlightenment can most quickly be realized.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Answers: Discussions with Western Buddhists",
- edited by Jose Ignacio Cabezon, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-By building up good habits of the mind in meditation, our behavior in daily
-life gradually changes. Our anger decreases, we are better able to make
-decisions, and we become less dissatisfied and restless. These results of
-meditation can be experienced now. But we should always try to have a broader
-and more encompassing motivation to meditate than just our own present
-happiness. If we generate the motivation to meditate in order to make
-preparation for future lives, to attain liberation from the cycle of
-constantly recurring problems, or to reach the state of full enlightenment for
-the benefit of all beings, then naturally our minds will also be peaceful now.
-In addition, we'll be able to attain those high and noble goals.
- -- Thubten Chodron, "Buddhism for Beginners", published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- ...all four tantra sets make use of deity yoga, the special tantric means
-for amassing the collections of merit and wisdom quickly. Highest Yoga Tantra
-has, in addition, techniques for generating subtler minds that realise
-emptiness and for using the winds or currents of energy that are the mounts of
-these subtler minds as the substantial cause of an actual divine body.
-Through this enhancement of the wisdom consciousness the obstructions to
-omniscience are quickly removed and Buddhahood is attained.
- In the three lower tantras--Action, Performance, and Yoga--deity yoga is
-used to bring about the speedy achievement of many common feats and to come
-directly under the care of Buddhas and high Bodhisattvas, receiving their
-blessings, and so forth. This is done through a threefold process known as
-prior approximation, effecting the achievement of feats, and using the feats
-in the performance of activities for the welfare of others.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Deity Yoga in
- Action and Performance Tantra", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-If you are able to think about the meaning of cyclic existence in general and
-human life in particular, then it is possible to discipline the mind through
-religious practice which is the process of becoming peaceful and anxiety-free.
-Otherwise, if too much emphasis is put on the sufferings of the hells and the
-imminence of death, there is a chance of falling into paralysing fear. There
-is a story in Tibet about an abbot of a monastery who went to give a
-discourse. A fellow asked the abbot's servant where the abbot had gone, and
-the servant said, "He has gone to frighten old men and women." If you fulfil
-the value of a human lifetime through engaging in religious practice, then
-there is no point in worrying about death.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Tantra in Tibet",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-...if a fire which consumes
-One house moves to another,
-It is right to throw out anything
-Like straw which could ignite.
-
-Likewise anything to which the mind
-Is attached ignites the fire of anger.
-Fearing our merit will be consumed,
-It should be discarded at once.
-
- If a house is on fire and the fire is spreading, we need to clear away straw,
-wood or anything else which is highly flammable and could cause a conflagration
-that would consume our entire home and property. Similarly, one way to prevent
-desire and attachment is to avoid contact with the objects that stimulate it.
-If anything comes between us and what we desire or if the thing to which we're
-attached is harmed or threatened, we instantly feel angry. This destroys the
-positive energy we've created.
- Another way is not to avoid the objects but to contemplate their unappealing
-aspects, because desire results from focusing only on their attractive side.
-The third way is to contemplate their lack of true existence, since desire and
-clinging are based on seeing them as very real and objectively existent.
-Whichever technique we employ, the aim is to prevent desire and attachment,
-since they bring many other problems.
- -- Geshe Sonam Rinchen, "The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas",
- translated and edited by Ruth Sonam, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Usually when we breathe, we breathe in and, as soon as we have finished
-breathing in, we immediately start breathing out. And as soon as we have
-finished breathing out, we start breathing in again. There is never any space
-or gap in between the in-breath and the out-breath. Now, many different ways
-of focusing the mind on the breathing have been taught.... There are
-basically six methods taught in the abhidharma. But here we have something
-different from any of those. This is called gentle threefold breathing. It
-is called gentle because there is no particular attempt to manipulate the
-breathing, except that instead of breathing in and then immediately breathing
-out, after breathing in, you wait before you breathe out...here the duration
-of the inhalation, of the retention, and of the exhalation should all be
-equal, three equal periods within each complete breath.
- In doing this, some people combine the phases of the breath with the
-mental repetition of the three mantra syllables: OM AH HUM (HUNG)--OM
-coordinated with the in-breath, AH with the retention of the breath, and HUM
-(HUNG) with the out-breath. But what is most important here is simply to
-recollect, as they occur, the inhalation, retention, and exhalation, so that,
-while you are inhaling, you are aware that you are doing so; while you are
-retaining the breath, you are aware that you are doing so; and while you are
-exhaling, you are aware that you are doing so. In the beginning, it is
-recommended that beginners start with doing, for example, twenty-one of these
-breaths as a series, and it is important to practice with enough mindfulness
-so that, while you breathe in, and so forth, you maintain an awareness of what
-part of the breathing process you are in.
- -- Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, "The Ninth Karmapa's Ocean of Definitive
- Meaning", edited, introduced and annotated by Lama Tashi Namgyal,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Life is fragile, like the dew hanging delicately on the grass, crystal
-drops that will be carried away on the first morning breeze.
- -- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
-~
- ...though the emptiness of an impure phenomenon and the emptiness of a
-pure phenomenon are the same, there is a difference. What is the difference?
-The continuum of an impure substratum will later cease, not existing in
-Buddhahood, whereas a pure substratum's continuum of similar type will exist
-right through Buddhahood. Since the deity as whom you are imaginatively
-meditating yourself is a divine figure that exists in the state of Buddhahood
-when all defilements have been abandoned, this substratum is, for your
-imagination, pure.
- Hence, it is important when doing deity yoga to put great effort into:
- * working at realizing emptiness as much as you can,
- * then imagining that the wisdom realizing emptiness appears itself
- as a compassionately directed divine body with a face, arms, and
- so forth,
- * and then taking this divine figure as the substratum and
- continuously meditating on its emptiness.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Dzong-ka-ba and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Yoga Tantra: Paths
- to Magical Feats", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-...when you explain or hear the teachings, if your mind and the teachings
-remain separate, then whatever is explained will be inconsequential. Hence,
-listen in such a way that you determine how these teachings apply to your
-mind. For example, when you want to find out whether or not there is some
-smudge, dirt, or whatever, on your face, you look in a mirror and then remove
-whatever is there. Similarly, when you listen to the teachings, your faults
-such as misconduct and attachment appear in the mirror of the teachings. At
-that time, you regret that your mind has become like this, and you then work
-to clear away those faults and establish good qualities. Hence, you must
-train in the teachings.
- --Tsong-kha-pa, "The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to
- Enlightenment: The Lamrim Chenmo", translated by the Lamrim Chenmo
- Translation Committee, Joshua Cutler, Editor in Chief, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- if god exists, then god doesn't need me to believe in god. it will not
-harm god if i do not believe, because god's existence is not dependent on
-my belief. god could contact me directly if god existed and actually cared
-what i believed, thus i see no reason to believe in god until then. since
-i don't need to believe in god, this frees me from wasting any mental
-effort *believing* when that belief will not create god if god doesn't
-exist, and when my disbelief will not destroy god if god does exist.
-i can't change the state of god's existence one way or the other--i have
-realized this limitation in my capabilities.
- instead, god needs to believe in me. it's my existence that presumably
-requires god's participation in some way, if god does exist. but regardless
-of any effort to placate a deity, i feel that i need to be the kind of person
-who is worth believing in, by god or by anyone else. my seeking perfection
-should not come from fear of an ignored and needy deity. i must build the
-best moral and ethical system that i can come up with for myself in this life.
-it is my own self-control and my behavior towards others that is the final
-word on whether i am worth believing in.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-Sometimes doing nothing is doing something.
- -- Sir Thomas Robert Dewar
-~
-Enjoy now, another now is coming.
- -- Sir Thomas Robert Dewar
-~
-Less pain, more gain.
- -- Sir Thomas Robert Dewar
-~
-The pause is a part of the walk.
- -- Sir Thomas Dewar
-~
-Go ahead, look around.
- -- Sir Thomas Dewar
-~
-You better wait for the unexpected.
- -- Sir Thomas Dewar
-~
-Making a mistake is also an achievement.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-Leave for tomorrow what you can't do today.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-The further you are from a problem, the smaller it gets.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-If you think you know it all, you are missing something.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-Proper rules are not written.
- -- Sir Thomas Dewar
-~
-Sometimes a step forward needs a step back.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-If you get to the top on your own, who'll take the picture?
- -- Sir Thomas Robert Dewar, aka Lord Dewar
-~
-When a man says his word is as his bond--get his bond.
- -- Sir Thomas Robert Dewar, aka Lord Dewar
-~
-Never invest in a going concern until you know which way it is going.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-The quality of the article should be its greatest achievement.
- -- Sir Thomas Dewar
-~
-If you do not advertise, you fossilize.
- -- Sir Thomas Dewar
-~
-Yesterday's success belongs to yesterday.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-In charity there is no excess.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-The greatest mistake you can make is to be
-continually fearing you will make one.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-Life is a one-way street and you're not coming back.
- -- Sir Thomas Robert Dewar
-~
-Fish stimulates the brain, but fishing stimulates the imagination.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-Respectability is the state of never being caught
-doing anything which gives you pleasure.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-Of two evils, choose the more interesting.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-There is no traffic congestion on the straight and narrow path.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-We have a great regard for old age when it is bottled.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-A philosopher is a man who can look at an empty glass with a smile.
- -- Sir Thomas Dewar
-~
-A teetotaller is one who suffers from thirst instead of enjoying it.
- -- Sir Thomas Dewar
-~
-Experience is what you get when you're looking for something else.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-Ability without enthusiasm is like a rifle without a bullet.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-You can send a boy to college but you can't make him think.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-If we are here to help others, I often wonder what the others are here for.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-Don't question your wife's judgment; look who she married.
- -- Lord Dewar
-~
-I pray for all of us, oppressor and friend, that together we may succeed in
-building a better world through human understanding and love, and that in
-doing so we may reduce the pain and suffering of all sentient beings.
- -- His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama's Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech,
- Oslo, December 1989, "The Pocket Dalai Lama", compiled and edited by
- Mary Craig
-~
-Benefiting living beings is my main practice, and I would like to give a brief
-introduction to the three qualities that are its basis: pure love, compassion,
-and bodhichitta, the awakened mind. Pure love is the desire that all living
-beings have happiness and its causes. Compassion is the desire that living
-beings be free of suffering and its causes, such as unwholesome actions.
-Bodhichitta is the desire that all living beings be free of suffering and that
-we will be able to place them on the unsurpassed level of awakening, or
-buddhahood.
- -- "Music in the Sky: The Life, Art, and Teachings of the 17th Gyalwa
- Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje", by Michele Martin, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
-How can we eliminate the deepest source of all unsatisfactory experience?
-Only by cultivating certain qualities within our mindstream. Unless we
-possess high spiritual qualifications, there is no doubt that the events life
-throws upon us will give rise to frustration, emotional turmoil, and other
-distorted states of consciousness. These imperfect states of mind in turn
-give rise to imperfect activities, and the seeds of suffering are ever planted
-in a steady flow. On the other hand, when the mind can dwell in the wisdom
-that knows the ultimate mode of being, one is able to destroy the deepest root
-of distortion, negative karma and sorrow.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Enlightenment", translated and
- edited by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-It is important to realize that there is nobody else who can wake us up and
-save us from samsara. There is no such thing in Buddhism. That may be
-Buddhism's biggest drawback, and at the same time its greatest advantage.
-This view shows us that there is nobody else in control of our lives, our
-experiences, our freedom or our bondage. Who is responsible? Who is in
-control? It is us. We are in control. We can bind ourselves further in
-samsara or we can free ourselves from it right now. It is all up to us. We
-are the ones who have to keep looking at our thoughts, looking for the nature
-of our mind. There is no guru, deity, buddha or bodhisattva out there to look
-for it for us. Although they would happily do this, it would not help us; it
-would only help them. We have to do it for ourselves. That is the key point.
- -- Dzogchen Ponlop, "Mind Beyond Death", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-...mistakenly apprehending inherent existence in all phenomena
-serves as the root of all other delusions...
-
- The opponent force powerful enough to eliminate the delusions should be a
-wisdom which combines calm abiding and special insight. In order to cultivate
-an advanced meditative stabilization that is free of both subtle mental
-sinking and mental excitement, first of all there should be a basis: the
-practice of morality, an abstaining from negative actions. Therefore, the
-path leading to liberation is comprised of the three higher trainings: the
-training of morality as the foundation, the training of meditative
-stabilization as the complementing factor, and the actual path which is the
-training of wisdom. By enhancing the practice of wisdom and by developing it
-to its fullest extent, you will be able to eliminate totally the delusions,
-particularly ignorance which misapprehends the mode of being of phenomena.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Bliss", translated by Geshe Thupten
- Jinpa, edited by Christine Cox, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- There is considerable ongoing debate regarding the traditional view of the
-guru-disciple relationship, which asserts that seeing the guru as Buddha,
-impeccable and without failings, is vital to ripen the disciple's potential to
-attain the fruits of the path. This is reinforced by the admonition that to
-see faults in one's own guru will result in karmic downfalls and future
-suffering for the disciple. Any faults in the teacher should be seen as the
-disciple's aberrations projected outside. The tantric teachings insist this
-pure view should be held at all times to protect the disciple from accruing
-negative karma.
- However, underlying this is also the need to preserve the integrity,
-authority, and status of the teacher. This leads to a great deal of confusion
-when students begin to see evident flaws in teachers, and it would be folly to
-explain them away as the students' impure perception. Consequently it has
-become necessary to cultivate a less dogmatic, more pragmatic view. A teacher
-may not be a perfect carrier of the projection, but this does not contradict
-the tantric view that essentially the guru, an inner phenomenon projected
-outside, is Buddha.
- If we literalize this principle of the teacher as the embodiment of
-perfection, we are in danger of blinding ourselves to the reality that most
-teachers are human, and therefore not perfect. An individual can have deep
-insights into the nature of reality and still have human failings, a shadow
-that has not been fully eradicated. According to the teachings on the Ten
-Grounds or Stages of the Bodhisattva, until the final ground is reached, there
-are still subtle obscurations to full enlightenment that can manifest in
-flawed behavior. Believing without question that the outer guru is Buddha
-also traps the teacher in an unrealistic, unconscious position. The Dalai
-Lama has commented that too much deference harms the teacher, because we never
-challenge him or her.
- When disciples become devoted to teachers, considerable power and
-authority is entrusted to them. While a teacher's role is to support and
-empower disciples to discover their own potential, sometimes this does not
-happen. Some teachers become caught in the powerful position they have been
-endowed with and are unaware of their own desire for power and authority.
-They may begin to enjoy their power too much and take advantage of it for
-their own needs. This keeps their disciples disempowered, and ultimately does
-not allow growth and individual responsibility to emerge. Teachers may be
-unconsciously afraid to empower their disciples and allow them to gain a sense
-of their own authority and autonomy. They may try to hold on to their
-disciples, when to genuinely empower them could lead to their leaving to
-engage in their own journey.
- --Rob Preece, "The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra", foreword by Stephen
- Batchelor, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Attachment increases desire, without producing any satisfaction. There
-are two types of desire, unreasonable and reasonable. The first is an
-affliction founded on ignorance, but the second is not. To live, you need
-resources; therefore, desire for sufficient material things is appropriate.
-Such feelings as, "This is good; I want this. This is useful," are not
-afflictions. It is also desirable to achieve altruism, wisdom, and
-liberation. This kind of desire is suitable; indeed, all human development
-comes out of desire, and these aspirations do not have to be an affliction.
- ...when you have attachment to material things, it is best to desist from
-those very activities that promote more attachment. Satisfaction is helpful
-when it comes to material things, but not with respect to spiritual practice.
-Objects to which we become attached are something to be discarded, whereas
-spiritual progress is something to be adopted--it can be developed
-limitlessly, even in old age.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "How to Expand Love", translated and edited by
- Jeffrey Hopkins
-~
- Some people find it helpful to set a determination of a reasonable period
-of time during which they will sit in meditation without moving. If you do
-this, do not make it into a contest in which you grit your teeth in pain just
-to say that you sat without moving for a certain length of time. That isn't
-conducive for focusing with wisdom on the object of meditation. On the other
-hand, avoid moving whenever you feel the slightest bit of restlessness or
-discomfort. Doing that isn't conducive for developing concentration either.
-Rather, note when there is the urge to move but don't move. Observe the
-sensation: Is it really pain or is it simply restless energy in the body?
-Learn to differentiate between these two. Learn, also, to differentiate
-between pain and discomfort. Watch and study both of those when they arise in
-your field of experience.
- In general, when attachment, anger, jealousy, or other distracting
-emotions arise, observe them without getting involved in their stories.
-Experience the feeling, rather than repeat the story to yourself again and
-again. Be aware of what it feels like in your body when you are angry,
-jealous, arrogant, or clingy. Be aware of the feeling tone in your mind when
-one of these emotions is present. Observe how the feeling changes, never
-remaining the same.
- ...It is important to avoid criticizing yourself when your mind is
-distracted or dull. Do not fall into discouraging thoughts or self-hatred
-because these are unproductive and are to be abandoned on the path. Remember
-that internal transformation takes time and rejoice in your opportunity to
-learn and practice the Dharma. "Slowly, slowly," as Lama Thubten Yeshe used
-to say. Learn to be satisfied with what you are able to do now while you
-aspire to improve in the future.
- -- Ven. Thubten Chodron, "Guided Meditations on the Stages of the Path",
- foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another. If these
-minds love one another the home will be as beautiful as a flower garden.
-But if these minds get out of harmony with one another it is like a storm
-that plays havoc with the garden.
- -- Shakyamuni Buddha
-~
-You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by it.
- -- Shakyamuni Buddha
-~
-Buddhists take a vow of morality in the context of first taking refuge--in
-Buddha, in the states of realization, and in the spiritual community. Refuge
-is the foundation for the practice of morality. Buddha teaches us how to find
-refuge from suffering and limitation, but the chief refuge, or source of
-protection, is found in the states of realization achieved through practicing
-morality, concentrated meditation, and wisdom. ...A lama from the Drukpa
-Kagyu tradition and I were very close. We met frequently and always used to
-joke, teasing each other back and forth. On one occasion I asked him about
-his spiritual experience. He told me that when he was young, he was staying
-with his lama who had him perform the preliminary practice of making a hundred
-thousand prostrations to the Buddha, the doctrine, and the spiritual
-community. Early in the morning and late in the evening he had to make
-prostrations on a low platform the length of his body. His lama was
-meditating in the dark in the next room; so to trick him into thinking he was
-making prostrations he would tap with his knuckles on the prostration
-platform. Years later, after his lama passed away, he was taking a meditation
-retreat in a cave, during which he recalled his lama's great kindness over
-years of training him, and he wept and wept. He almost fainted, but then
-experienced the clear light, which he continuously practiced. Subsequently,
-after successful meditations he occasionally would remember past lives in
-vivid reflections before him.
- --His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful
- Life", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins,
- http://www.snowlionpub.com/search.php?isbn=HOPRPA
-~
- A practitioner needs faith, or trust.... Guru Rinpoche said that we
-should meditate in the same way that a sparrow enters a nest. A sparrow
-spends some time investigating whether or not it is safe to enter. Once his
-examination is over, he then enters unhesitatingly. That's a wonderful
-metaphor for practice. First clear up all your doubts about your technique,
-then throw yourself into the technique with no separation or self-
-consciousness. Of course, it's easy to say, but that is the direction toward
-which we should be moving.
- Another necessary quality is determination. It's easy to gear oneself up
-for counting mantras or prostrations. For some, physical discipline is also
-easy. But the determination of the meditator is different. We must be
-determined to strive to purify our obscurations until they're completely
-gone--in other words, until our buddha-nature unobstructedly shines through.
-When we sit, we decide to do our best not to be swayed by our negativity. We
-should cultivate this attitude at the beginning of our session. Otherwise, no
-matter how much we practice, we will daydream a lot and our meditation will
-always be wishy-washy. I know this from experience--I may do my session of
-meditation, but it is tepid. Why? I don't have that inner strength to remain
-unmoved by the arising of the various mental contents.
- -- Bruce Newman, "A Beginner's Guide to Tibetan Buddhism", published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-This is the way of peace:
- "Overcome evil with good,
- falsehood with truth, and
- hatred with love."
- -- Peace Pilgrim
-~
-The seeing of Truth cannot be dualistic (a "thing" seen). It cannot be seen
-by a see-er, or via a see-er. There can only be a seeing which itself is
-Truth. "All Else is Bondage; Non-Volitional Living"
- -- Wei Wu Wei
-~
-An economist is a surgeon with an excellent scalpel and a rough-edged lancet,
-who operates beautifully on the dead and tortures the living.
- -- Nicholas Chamfort
-~
-A joke's a very serious thing.
- -- Charles Churchill
-~
-You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.
- -- Ray Bradbury
-~
- The five subtler aggregates* will eventually be transformed into the
-Buddhas of the five lineages. They are now as if accompanied by mental
-defilements. When the defilements are removed, these factors do not become
-any coarser or subtler; their nature remains, but [when they] become separated
-from the faults of mental pollution, they become the Buddhas of the five
-lineages. So if you ask whether the Buddhas of the five lineages are present
-now in our continuums, these factors are currently bound by faults, and since
-there cannot be a Buddha who has a fault, they are not Buddhas. One is not
-yet fully enlightened, but that which is going to become a Buddha is present;
-therefore, these factors presently existent in our continuums are Buddha seeds
-and are called the Buddha nature, or the essence of the One Gone Thus
-(Tathagatagarbha).
- * The five consituents that are included within a person's continuum--earth,
- water, fire, wind, and space--that will be purified into the five Buddha
- lineages [the exalted manifestations of these constituents].
- -- The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, "Kindness,
- Clarity, and Insight", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins,
- co-edited by Elizabeth Napper, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...an inherently existent "I" appears to us, but instead of assenting to
-that appearance and holding it to be true, we analyze how the "I" actually
-exists.
- At those times in our life when there's a very solid feeling of "I," it's
-helpful to examine how that "I" appears. I remember the first time I stayed
-out all night in college and my mother didn't know. I came home the next day
-with this feeling that "I" really existed: "I did this and my mother doesn't
-know!" The feeling of "I" was just enormous, incredibly solid, because I did
-something I wasn't supposed to do.
- Examine how that "I" appears, that big "I," especially when you have a
-strong emotion. Get familiar with that sense of "I." When somebody criticizes
-us or accuses us of doing something that we didn't do, this feeling comes up
-very quickly. Usually, we're focused not on the feeling of "I," but on
-attacking the other person or escaping from him. But if we can step back,
-it's an incredible opportunity to study the feeling of "I." The person who
-irritates us the most can be our best Dharma asset, because he gives us an
-opportunity to look at this sense of "I."
- -- Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, "Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga
- Method of Chenrezig", foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-One time when I was giving an exposition on Nagarjuna's "Fundamentals of the
-Middle Way," which deals explicitly with the topic of emptiness, one student
-who did not have a prior background of learning in great treatises made a
-comment to another colleague. He said: 'Today's teaching was a little
-strange. His Holiness began with the presentation of the Buddha's path and
-built up the edifice one layer at a time. Then, all of a sudden, he started
-talking about emptiness and the absence of inherent existence, so that this
-whole edifice he had spent much time building was completely dismantled.'
-He couldn't really see the point. There is that danger. However, if we
-understand the importance of the need to generate wisdom into emptiness as a
-means of bringing about the cessation of the afflictions, particularly
-fundamental ignorance, then we recognise the value of deepening our
-realisation of emptiness. Also, as Dharmakirti points out, emotions such as
-loving kindness and compassion cannot directly challenge fundamental
-ignorance. It is only by cultivating insight into no-self that we can
-directly overcome our fundamental ignorance.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Lighting the Way", translated by Geshe Thupten
- Jinpa, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Having committed yourself to certain practices, be steadfast and never
-transgress the promises you have made. Let go of everything that could tempt
-you to do so and devote yourself entirely and single-mindedly to the
-accomplishment of your aims. For six years the Buddha did not waver from his
-practice of the meditative stabilization known as "Pervading Space." This
-meditation focuses on the fundamental nature of phenomena, which is present
-wherever there is space. Everywhere throughout space there are suffering
-living beings on whom this meditation also focuses with the compassionate wish
-to relieve their suffering and the loving wish to give them happiness. Thus
-it combines essential wisdom and skillful means.
- -- Geshe Sonam Rinchen, "The Three Principal Aspects of the Path: An Oral
- Teaching", translated and edited by Ruth Sonam, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-If you're not scared or angry at the thought of a human brain being controlled
-remotely, then it could be this prototype of mine is finally starting to work.
- -- John Alejandro King
-~
-Only fools are positive. -- Moe Howard
-~
-Just once, I wish we would encounter an alien menace
-that wasn't immune to bullets.
- -- Unknown
-~
-We are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by
-selfless thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a
-shadow that never leaves them.
- -- Buddha
-~
-If you find a good companion, who is following the same spiritual
-path, travel together, overcoming obstacles as they arise.
- -- Buddha
-~
-Man is harder than rock and more fragile than an egg.
- -- Yugoslav Proverb
-~
-That in man which cannot be domesticated is not his evil but his goodness.
- -- Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
-~
-Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.
- -- Albert Camus
-~
-A human being: an ingenious assembly of portable plumbing.
- -- Christopher Morley, Human Being
-~
-The universe may have a purpose, but nothing we know suggests that, if so,
-this purpose has any similarity to ours.
- -- Bertrand Russell
-~
-Ocean: A body of water occupying two-thirds of a
-world made for man--who has no gills.
- -- Ambrose Bierce
-~
-Man is harder than iron, stronger than stone and more fragile than a rose.
- -- Turkish Proverb
-~
-Man is the only kind of varmint sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it.
- -- John Steinbeck, Sweet Thursday
-~
-In nature a repulsive caterpillar turns into a lovely butterfly. But with
-humans it is the other way around: a lovely butterfly turns into a repulsive
-caterpillar.
- -- Anton Chekhov
-~
-Man is an intelligence in servitude to his organs.
- -- Aldous Huxley
-~
-We are perverse creatures and never satisfied.
- -- Nan Fairbrother
-~
-Modern man is the missing link between apes and human beings.
- -- Author Unknown
-~
-Human consciousness arose but a minute before midnight on the geological
-clock. Yet we mayflies try to bend an ancient world to our purposes, ignorant
-perhaps of the messages buried in its long history. Let us hope that we are
-still in the early morning of our April day.
- -- Stephen Jay Gould, "Our Allotted Lifetimes," The Panda's Thumb, 1980
-~
-Such is the human race, often it seems a pity
-that Noah... didn't miss the boat.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-There are too many people, and too few human beings.
- -- Robert Zend
-~
-It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human race proved to be
-nothing more than the story of an ape playing with a box of matches on a
-petrol dump.
- -- David Ormsby Gore
-~
-Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge,
-virtue, and abiding love.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
-~
-The disastrous history of our species indicates the futility of all attempts
-at a diagnosis which do not take into account the possibility that homo
-sapiens is a victim of one of evolution's countless mistakes.
- -- Arthur Koestler, Janus: A Summing Up
-~
-Men! The only animal in the world to fear.
- -- D.H. Lawrence
-~
-The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race.
- -- Don Marquis
-~
-Man embraces in his makeup all the natural orders;
-he's a squid, a mollusk, a sucker and a buzzard;
-sometimes he's a cerebrate.
- -- Martin H. Fischer
-~
-Men are cruel, but Man is kind.
- -- Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, 1916
-~
-Humanity is on the march, earth itself is left behind.
- -- David Ehrenfeld, The Arrogance of Humanism, 1978
-~
-Human nature, if healthy, demands excitement; and if it does not obtain its
-thrilling excitement in the right way, it will seek it in the wrong. God
-never makes bloodless stoics; He makes no passionless saints.
- -- Oswald Chambers
-~
-Cabbage: a familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as
-large and wise as a man's head.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
-~
-Monkeys are superior to men in this:
-When a monkey looks into a mirror, he sees a monkey.
- -- Malcolm de Chazal
-~
-It is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing.
- -- Mariane Moore, "A Grave," Collected Poems, 1951
-~
-The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that
-procession but carrying a banner.
- -- Mark Twain, "Reflections on Being the Delight of God."
-~
-Adam ate the apple, and our teeth still ache.
- -- Hungarian Proverb
-~
-Why was man created on the last day? So that he can be told, when pride
-possesses him: God created the gnat before thee.
- -- The Talmud
-~
-Man--a creature made at the end of the week's work when God was tired.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated His ability.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-O poor mortals, how ye make this earth bitter for each other.
- -- Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution, vol. I, book II, chapter 1
-~
-God pulled an all-nighter on the sixth day.
- -- Author Unknown
-~
-Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings.
- -- Evan Esar
-~
-The progress of evolution from President Washington to
-President Grant [is] alone enough to upset Darwin.
- -- Henry Adams, Education, 1907
-~
-Man--a being in search of meaning. -- Plato
-~
-Ultimately, aren't we all just talking monkeys with an attitude problem?
- -- "Uncle" Ben, as seen on quotes-r-us.org
-~
-The more humanity advances, the more it is degraded.
- -- Gustave Flaubert
-~
-Nothing feebler does earth nurture than man,
-Of all things breathing and moving.
- -- Homer, Odyssey
-~
-Everyone is as God made him, and often a good deal worse.
- -- Miguel de Cervantes
-~
-Man is a strange animal, he doesn't like to read the handwriting
-on the wall until his back is up against it.
- -- Adlai Stevenson
-~
-It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-God doesn't measure His bounty, but oh how we do!
- -- Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966
-~
-The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary;
-men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.
- -- Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes, 1911
-~
-The human race is governed by its imagination.
- -- Napoleon
-~
-Man uses his intelligence less in the care of his own species than he does in
-his care of anything else he owns or governs.
- -- Abraham Meyerson
-~
-Human beings cling to their delicious tyrannies and to their exquisite
-nonsense, till death stares them in the face.
- -- Sydney Smith
-~
-Why should man expect his prayer for mercy to be heard by What is above him
-when he shows no mercy to what is under him?
- -- Pierre Troubetzkoy
-~
-The small percentage of dogs that bite people is monumental proof that the dog
-is the most benign, forgiving creature on earth.
- -- W.R. Koehler, The Koehler Method of Dog Training
-~
-Man was created a little lower than the angels,
-and has been getting lower ever since.
- -- Josh Billings
-~
-We have no choice but to be guilty.
-God is unthinkable if we are innocent.
- -- Archibald MacLeish, JB, 1958
-~
-Human beings invent just as many ways to sabotage their lives
-as to improve them.
- -- Mark Goulston, Get Out of Your Own Way: Overcoming Self-Defeating
- Behavior, 1996
-~
-As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a
-man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.
- -- Samuel Johnson
-~
-What is man's greatest bane? His brother man alone.
- -- Bias of Priene, Maxims
-~
-Acedia is not in every dictionary; just in every heart.
- -- Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966
-~
-The study of crime begins with the knowledge of oneself.
- -- Henry Miller, The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, 1945
-~
-Is man a savage at heart, skinned o'er with fragile Manners? Or is savagery
-but a faint taint in the natural man's gentility, which erupts now and again
-like pimples on an angel's arse?
- -- John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor, 1960
-~
-God has given a great deal to man, but man would like something from man.
- -- Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
-~
-I was surprised just now at seeing a cobweb around a knocker;
-for it was not on the door of heaven.
- -- Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth,
- by Two Brothers, 1827
-~
-I sometimes think of what future historians will say of us.
-A single sentence will suffice for modern man:
-He fornicated and read the papers.
- -- Albert Camus
-~
-Man, when he is merely what he seems to be, is almost nothing.
- -- Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
-~
-Give a man secure possession of a bleak rock, and he will turn it
-into a garden; give him nine years' lease of a garden, and he will
-convert it into a desert.
- -- Arthur Young, Travels in France, 1792
-~
-Our behavior is human with a sliver of animal,
-our souls animal with a sliver of human.
- -- Carrie Latet
-~
-Occident: The part of the world lying west (or east) of the Orient.
-It is largely inhabited by Christians, a powerful subtribe of the
-Hypocrites, whose principal industries are murder and cheating, which
-they are pleased to call "war" and "commerce." These, also, are the
-principal industries of the Orient.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
-~
-Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal
-that is struck with the difference between what things are and what
-they ought to be.
- -- William Hazlitt, The English Comic Writers, 1819
-~
-Nature is neutral. Man has wrested from nature the power to make the world a
-desert or to make the deserts bloom. There is no evil in the atom; only in
-men's souls.
- -- Adlai Stevenson
-~
-A simple and irrefutable argument to knock creationism on its ass: (1) Humans
-are a mistake--subproof: opposable thumbs and enlarged brain capacity are the
-combined number one factor in the increasingly speedy destruction of planet
-Earth. (2) God doesn't make mistakes. (3) Therefore, God couldn't have
-created people.
- -- Cassus Garrulitas
-~
-Man talks about everything, and he talks about everything as though the
-understanding of everything were all inside him.
- -- Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
-~
-My dog is usually pleased with what I do, because she is not infected
-with the concept of what I "should" be doing.
- -- Lonzo Idolswine
-~
-Man will do many things to get himself loved;
-he will do all things to get himself envied.
- -- Mark Twain, Following the Equator, 1897
-~
-We are all parasites; we humans, the greatest.
- -- Martin H. Fischer
-~
-Suppose some mathematical creature from the moon were to reckon up the human
-body; he would at once see that the essential thing about it was that it was
-duplicate. A man is two men, he on the right exactly resembling him on the
-left. Having noted that there was an arm on the right and one on the left, a
-leg on the right and one on the left, he might go further and still find on
-each side the same number of fingers, the same number of toes, twin eyes, twin
-ears, twin nostrils, and even twin lobes of the brain. At last he would take
-it as a law; and then, where he found a heart on one side, would deduce that
-there was another heart on the other. And just then, where he most felt he
-was right, he would be wrong.
- -- Gilbert Keith Chesterton, "The Paradoxes of Christianity," Orthodoxy
-~
-It is the nature of mortals to kick a fallen man.
- -- Aeschylus, Agamemnon
-~
-God is less careful than General Motors, for He floods the world
-with factory rejects.
- -- Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
-~
-Man's highest merit always is, as much as possible, to rule external
-circumstances and as little as possible to let himself be ruled by them.
- -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-~
-So there he is at last. Man on the moon. The poor magnificent bungler! He
-can't even get to the office without undergoing the agonies of the damned, but
-give him a little metal, a few chemicals, some wire and twenty or thirty
-billion dollars and vroom! there he is, up on a rock a quarter of a million
-miles up in the sky.
- -- Russell Baker, New York Times, 21 July 1969
-~
-Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is
-a problem which he has to solve.
- -- Erich Fromm, Man for Himself, 1947
-~
-When freedom from want and freedom from fear are achieved,
-man's remains will be in rigor mortis.
- -- Martin H. Fischer
-~
-Man is nature's sole mistake.
- -- W.S. Gilbert
-~
-The average man's judgment is so poor, he runs a risk every time he uses it.
- -- E.W. Howe
-~
-Man--a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal.
- -- Alexander Hamilton
-~
-We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all
-his noble qualities, still bears in his bodily frame the indelible
-stamp of his lowly origin.
- -- Charles Darwin, Descent of Man, 1871
-~
-We're animals. We're born like every other mammal and we live our
-whole lives around disguised animal thoughts.
- -- Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams
-~
-Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not
-depend on us. We are not the only experiment.
- -- R. Buckminister Fuller
-~
-Be a good animal, true to your animal instincts.
- -- David Herbert Lawrence, White Peacock, 1911
-~
-The question is this: Is man an ape or an angel?
-I am on the side of the angels.
- -- Benjamin Disraeli
-~
-I viewed my fellow man not as a fallen angel, but as a risen ape.
- -- Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape
-~
-Man desired concord; but nature knows better what is good for his species; she
-desires discord. Man wants to live easy and content; but nature compels him
-to leave ease... and throw himself into roils and labors.
- -- Immanuel Kant, Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan
- Purpose, 1787
-~
-The thief and the murderer follow nature just as much as the philanthropist.
- -- T.H. Huxley, "Evolution and Ethics," 1893
-~
-Many people believe that they are attracted by God, or by Nature,
-when they are only repelled by man.
- -- William Ralph Inge
-~
-People are like birds: on the wing, all beautiful;
-up close, all beady little eyes.
- -- Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966
-~
-Evolution is individual--devolution is collective.
- -- Martin H. Fischer
-~
-I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-
-contain'd. I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and
-whine about their condition.... Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented
-with the mania of owning things, not one kneels to another, nor to his kind
-that lived thousands of years ago, not one is respectable or unhappy over the
-whole earth.
- -- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
-~
-As long as people believe in absurdities
-they will continue to commit atrocities.
- -- Voltaire
-~
-I demand of you, and of the whole world, that you show me
-a generic character... by which to distinguish between Man and Ape.
-I myself most assuredly know of none.
- -- Carl Linnaeus, 1788
-~
-In creating the human brain, evolution has wildly overshot the mark.
- -- Arthur Koestler
-~
-Evolution: that last step was a doozy!
- -- Astrid Alauda
-~
-We have a world for each one, but we do not have a world for all.
- -- Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
-~
-Evolution: one small step for man, one giant leap backward for mankind.
- -- The Quote Garden
-~
-I do not value any view of the universe into which man and the institutions of
-man enter very largely and absorb much of the attention. Man is but the place
-where I stand, and the prospect hence is infinite.
- -- Henry David Thoreau, journal, 2 April 1852
-~
-Nature does not deceive us; it is we who deceive ourselves.
- -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762
-~
-It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
- -- Niccolo Machiavelli
-~
-Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees
-that it is old enough to know better.
- -- Author Unknown
-~
-Question: How can one work with deep fears most effectively?
-
-DL: There are quite a number of methods. The first is to think about actions
-and their effects. Usually when something bad happens, we say, "Oh, very
-unlucky," and when something good happens, we say, "Oh, very lucky." Actually,
-these two words, lucky and unlucky, are insufficient. There must be some
-reason. Because of a reason, a certain time became lucky or unlucky, but
-usually we do not go beyond lucky or unlucky. The reason, according to the
-Buddhist explanation, is our past karma, our actions.
-
-One way to work with deep fears is to think that the fear comes as a result of
-your own actions in the past. Further, if you have fear of some pain or
-suffering, you should examine whether there is anything you can do about it.
-If you can, there is no need to worry about it; if you cannot do anything,
-then there is also no need to worry.
-
-Another technique is to investigate who is becoming afraid. Examine the
-nature of your self. Where is this I? Who is I? What is the nature of I?
-Is there an I besides my physical body and my consciousness? This may help.
-
-Also, someone who is engaging in the Bodhisattva practices seeks to take
-others' suffering onto himself or herself. When you have fear, you can think,
-"Others have fear similar to this; may I take to myself all of their fears."
-Even though you are opening yourself to greater suffering, taking greater
-suffering to yourself, your fear lessens.
- -- "The Dalai Lama, A Policy of Kindness: An Anthology of Writings By and
- About the Dalai Lama", compiled and edited by Sidney Piburn, Foreword
- by Sen. Claiborne Pell, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Object of Negation
-
- When a subject is analyzed, the object to be negated is determined to be
-either an appearance or something imagined. It is not logical, [however,] to
-negate momentary appearances, because reasonings cannot negate them. To take
-an example: for people with eye diseases, the appearances of floaters [bits of
-optical debris], double moons, and the like do not stop as long as their
-eyesight is impaired. Similarly, as long as beings are not free from
-unafflicted ignorance, illusionlike appearances [manifesting] to the six modes
-of consciousness do not stop.
- It is not necessary to negate [appearances], because our mistakes do not
-come from appearances: they arise from fixating on those [appearances]. This
-is the case because if we do not fixate on appearances, we are not bound--we
-are like a magician who, having conjured up a young woman, has no attachment
-towards her. [On the other hand, if,] like naive beings attached to an
-illusory young woman, we fixate intensely [on appearances], our karma and
-mental afflictions will increase.
- To intentionally negate appearances would be wrong because, if they were
-negated, emptiness would come to mean the [absolute] nonexistence of things.
-Another reason this would be a mistake is that yogins and yoginis meditating
-on emptiness would fall into the extreme of nihilism since they would be
-applying their minds to a negation that [equals] the [absolute] nonexistence
-of everything.
- Thus, [Madhyamikas] set out to negate only what is imagined, because that
-is what can be negated. Like a rope mistaken for a snake, what is imagined
-does not conform to facts: it is simply the mind's fixations.
- -- Kongtrul Lodro Taye, "The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Six, Part Three:
- Frameworks of Buddhist Philosophy", translated by Elizabeth M. Callahan,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Even though Mac Users may be only 10% of the market,
-always remember that we are the top 10%.
- -- Douglas Adams
-~
-While I don't claim to be a great programmer, I try to imitate one. An
-important trait of the great ones is constructive laziness. They know that
-you get an A not for effort but for results.
- -- Eric S. Raymond
-~
-We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the
-complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is
-not true.
- -- Robert Wilensky
-~
-C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but when
-you do, it blows away your whole leg.
- -- Bjarne Stroustrup
-~
-The question of whether computers can think is like the question of whether
-submarines can swim.
- -- Edsger Dijkstra
-~
-Consistently separating words by spaces became a general custom about the
-tenth century A.D., and lasted until about 1957, when FORTRAN abandoned the
-practice.
- -- Sun FORTRAN Reference Manual
-~
-UNIX was never designed to keep people from doing stupid things, because that
-policy would also keep them from doing clever things.
- -- Doug Gwyn
-~
-Anyone who slaps a "this page is best viewed with Browser X" label on a Web
-page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had
-very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another
-word processor, or another network.
- -- Tim Berners-Lee
-~
-If you were plowing a field, which would you rather use?
-Two strong oxen or 1024 chickens?
- -- Seymour Cray
-~
-The competent programmer is fully aware of the strictly limited size of his
-own skull; therefore he approaches the programming task in full humility; and
-among other things he avoids clever tricks like the plague.
- -- Edsger Dijkstra
-~
-A programming language is a tool that has profound influence
-on our thinking habits.
- -- Edsger Dijkstra
-~
-The Answer to the Great Question of Life, the Universe and Everything is
-forty-two.
- -- Deep Thought, 2nd greatest Computer in the Universe of Time and Space
-~
-If Windows is the solution, can we please have the problem back?
- -- unknown
-~
-This is a fascinating property: Writing texts in programming languages can not
-only be as creative as poetry, the creations more than in poetry, belong to
-the real world as soon as run through the machine.
- -- Heinz Zemanek
-~
-Any problem in computer science can be solved with another layer of
-indirection. But that usually will create another problem.
- -- Davin Wheeler
-~
-Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. -- Edsger Dijkstra
-~
-It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have
-had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally
-mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
- -- Edsger Dijkstra
-~
-Good artists copy. Great artists steal. -- Pablo Picasso
-~
-I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order I may learn how to do it.
- -- Pablo Picasso
-~
-Serious people have few ideas. People with ideas are never serious.
- -- Paul Valery
-~
-Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-The debt is like a crazy aunt we keep down in the basement. All the neighbors
-know she's down there, but nobody wants to talk about her.
- -- Ross Perot
-~
-Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.
- -- Mark Twain
-~
-Where true religion has prevented one crime, false religions have afforded a
-pretext for a thousand.
- -- Charles Caleb Colton
-~
-Whatever limits us, we call Fate. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher regard
-those who think alike than those who think differently.
- -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.
- -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-~
-Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think
-laughable.
- -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-~
-It often takes more courage to change ones opinion than to keep it.
- -- Willy Brandt
-~
-Let's be grateful for those who give us happiness; they are the charming
-gardeners who make our soul bloom.
- -- Marcel Proust
-~
-It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-There are only two forces that unite men--fear and interest.
- -- Napoleon Bonaparte
-~
-If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their
-own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have
-a paradise in a few years.
- -- Bertrand Russel
-~
-The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense.
- -- Tom Clancy
-~
-If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward,
-then we are a sorry lot indeed.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-Your character must be above suspicion and
-you must be truthful and self controlled.
- -- Mahatma Gandhi
-~
-Either you live or you are consequential. -- Erich Kaestner
-~
-Pedaled curd gets wide--not strong. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-~
-Do not follow where the path may lead.
-Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-She wore too much rouge last night and not quite enough clothes. Thats always
-a sign of despair in a woman.
- -- Oscar Wilde
-~
-Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
- -- Mahatma Gandhi
-~
-First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you
-win.
- -- Mahatma Gandhi
-~
-Wherever it has been established that it is shameful to be involved with
-sexual relationships with men, that is due to evil on the part of the rulers,
-and to cowardice on the part of the governed.
- -- Plato
-~
-We want to be poets of our life--first of all in the smallest
-most everyday matters.
- -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-Without music, life would be an error. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-Joseph LaGrange believed that a mathematician has not thoroughly understood
-his own work till he has made it so clear that he can go out and explain it
-effectively to the first man he meets on the street.
- -- E. T. Bell
-~
-There is no such thing as an inevitable war. If war comes it will be from
-failure of human wisdom.
- -- Andres Bonar Law
-~
-Perfect nonviolence is the highest bravery. -- Mahatma Gandhi
-~
-There never was a good war or a bad peace. -- Benjamin Franklin
-~
-There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing
-good in war. Except its ending.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only
-temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
- -- Mahatma Gandhi
-~
-An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. -- Mahatma Gandhi
-~
-Trust no one in whom the desire to punish is strong. -- Fyodor Dostoevsky
-~
-If we steal thoughts from the moderns, it will be cried down as plagiarism; if
-from the ancients, it will be cried up as erudition.
- -- Charles Caleb Colton
-~
-The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.
- -- Emile Zola
-~
-Ability is nothing without opportunity. -- Napoleon Bonaparte
-~
-Never work just for money or for power.
-They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night.
- -- Marian Wright Edelman
-~
-Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their
-pleasure takes joy, even as though it were his own.
- -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-~
-Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power,
-and magic in it.
- -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-~
-Censorship cannot eliminate evil, it can only kill freedom. -- unknown
-~
-Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong.
- -- John G. Riefenbaker
-~
-People demand freedom of speech to make up for
-the freedom of thought which they avoid.
- -- Soren Aabye Kierkegaard
-~
-Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the
-fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.
- -- Jim Morrison
-~
-If you are a phenomenologist, you can talk about this cocktail and make
-philosophy out of it.
- -- Raymond Aron
-~
-I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance.
- -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-I would not know what the spirit of a philosopher might wish more
-to be than a good dancer.
- -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-Faith means not wanting to know what is true. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen.
- -- Francois, Duc de la Rochefoucauld
-~
-This war, like the next war, is a war to end war. -- David Lloyd George
-~
-How good bad music and bad reasons sound when one marches against an enemy!
- -- Friedrich Nietzsche
-~
-When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them.
- -- Rodney Dangerfield
-~
- When your mind is trained in self-discipline, even if you are surrounded
-by hostile forces, your peace of mind will hardly be disturbed. On the other
-hand, if your mind is undisciplined, your mental peace and calm can easily be
-disrupted by your own negative thoughts and emotions. The real enemy is
-within, not outside. Usually we define our enemy as a person, an external
-agent, whom we believe is causing harm to us or to someone we hold dear. But
-such an enemy is dependent on many conditions and is impermanent. One moment,
-the person may act as an enemy; at yet another moment, he or she may become
-your best friend. This is a truth that we often experience in our own lives.
-But negative thoughts and emotions, the inner enemy, will always remain the
-enemy. They are your enemy today, they have been your enemy in the past, and
-they will remain your enemy in the future as long as they reside within your
-mind.
- This inner enemy is extremely dangerous. The destructive potential of an
-external enemy is limited when compared to that of its inner counterpart....
-In a time when every country is a potential target for the nuclear weapons of
-others, human beings still continue to develop defense systems of greater and
-greater sophistication. I do not know if it will ever be possible to create a
-defense system capable of guaranteeing worldwide protection against all
-external forces of destruction. However, one thing is certain: as long as
-those destructive internal enemies of anger and hatred are left to themselves
-unchallenged, the threat of physical annihilation will always loom over us.
-In fact, the destructive power of an external enemy ultimately derives from
-the power of these internal forces. The inner enemy is the trigger that
-unleashes the destructive power of the external enemy.
- Shantideva tells us that as long as these inner enemies remain secure
-within, there is great danger. Shantideva goes on to say that even if
-everyone in the world were to stand up against you as your enemies and harm
-you, as long as your own mind was disciplined and calm, they would not be able
-to disturb your peace. Yet a single instance of delusion arising in your mind
-has the power to disturb that peace and inner stability.
- -- Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, from "The Compassionate Life"
-~
-(Each day before breakfast the founder and abbess of Sravasti Abbey, Thubten
-Chodron, gives a morning motivation for residents and guests. We were moved
-by these inspiring words, and hope you will be, too.)
-
-Morning Motivation
-
- Let's recall our motivation in the morning and think that today, the most
-important thing I have to do is to guard my body, speech and mind so that I
-don't harm anybody through what I do with my body, through what I say, or even
-through what I think. That's the most important thing, more important than
-anything else today.
- The second most important thing is, as much as possible, to be of benefit
-to others. Thoroughly cultivate that as your motivation simply for being
-alive today. Our purpose for being alive isn't just to keep this body alive,
-to eat and sleep, and have pleasure. We have a higher purpose, a higher
-meaning: to really work for the benefit of living beings. If the purpose of
-our life is simply to keep the body alive and have pleasure, then at the end
-of life, we have nothing to show for it. The body dies and all the pleasures,
-like last night's dream, have gone. But if we work for a higher motivation, a
-higher purpose, to really do what's beneficial for all living beings, then
-there's happiness and benefit now.
- At the end of the life, the benefit that we've given to others continues,
-as do all the imprints of the attitude of kindness, the attitude of care
-towards others. All the imprints of having generated that positive mind go on
-with us into the next life. So even at the time of death, that kind heart
-brings incredible benefit and carries through into the next life.
- And then let's also generate a third motivation--a really long-term
-motivation--to become fully enlightened. In other words, to have the wisdom,
-compassion, and skill so that in the long term, we'll be able to be of the
-greatest benefit to all living beings, even being able to lead them on the
-path to enlightenment. That's our really long-term purpose.
- As we change and develop a kind heart, that influences every single living
-being we encounter in a positive way. Then, through the influence on them, it
-spreads out to all the people they know. So, just spending one day with a
-positive, long-term motivation may seem like a small thing, but when we think
-of the ripple effect it has now, and the benefit it has in future lives and
-for progressing along the path to liberation and enlightenment, we see that
-even one day spent with this motivation of kindness, directly and indirectly
-benefiting sentient beings, has tremendous outcomes--many, many good results.
- -- Thubten Chodron, who is the author of many books, including her latest
- work, "Guided Meditations on the Stages of the Path", published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...We can't blame one individual for what happens in our world. I think
-we should blame our entire society. Society produces our leaders and
-politicians, and if we try to develop a more compassionate and affectionate
-society, we will have human beings with a more peaceful nature. Leaders,
-politicians, and businesspeople coming from such a society would offer hope
-for a better world. Our long-term responsibility--everyone's responsibility,
-whether they are believers or nonbelievers--is to find ways to promote a
-peaceful and compassionate society.
- I think one way is quite simple. Each individual must try to ensure peace
-and compassion in his [or her] family. Put together ten peaceful,
-compassionate homes, or one hundred, and that's a community. The children in
-such a society would receive affection in their family and in their schools
-from the educators concerned. We might have one or two setbacks, but
-generally I think we could develop a sensible society. Sensible here means a
-sense of community, a sense of responsibility, and a sense of commitment.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Many Ways to Nirvana: Reflections
- and Advice on Right Living", edited by Renuka Singh, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- We can see that there are many ways in which we actively contribute to our
-own experience of mental unrest and suffering. Although, in general, mental
-and emotional afflictions themselves can come naturally, often it is our own
-reinforcement of those negative emotions that makes them so much worse. For
-instance when we have anger or hatred towards a person, there is less
-likelihood of its developing to a very intense degree if we leave it
-unattended. However, if we think about the projected injustices done to us,
-the ways in which we have been unfairly treated, and we keep on thinking about
-them over and over, then that feeds the hatred. It makes the hatred very
-powerful and intense. Of course, the same can apply to when we have an
-attachment towards a particular person; we can feed that by thinking about how
-beautiful he or she is, and as we keep thinking about the projected qualities
-that we see in the person, the attachment becomes more and more intense. But
-this shows how through constant familiarity and thinking, we ourselves can
-make our emotions more intense and powerful.
- We also often add to our pain and suffering by being overly sensitive,
-overreacting to minor things, and sometimes taking things too personally. We
-tend to take small things too seriously and blow them up out of proportion,
-while at the same time we often remain indifferent to the really important
-things, those things which have profound effects on our lives and long-term
-consequences and implications.
- So I think that to a large extent, whether you suffer depends on how you
-respond to a given situation.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D., "The Art of
- Happiness: A Handbook for Living"
-~
- Realizations come only if we practice joyfully, with confidence and
-courage. Realization doesn't grow within a timid or weak state of mind--it
-blossoms in the mind free of doubt and hesitation. Realization is fearless.
-When we see the true nature of reality, there's nothing hidden, nothing left
-to fear. At last we're seeing reality as it is, full of joy and peace.
- Our habitual patterns can only be removed by understanding the great
-emptiness aspect of true nature, that which is named the Mother of all the
-buddhas. Emptiness is freedom; emptiness is great opportunity. It is
-pervasive and all phenomena arise from it. As the great master Jigme Lingpa
-said, "The entire universe is the mandala of the dakini." The Mother's mandala
-is all phenomena, the display of the wisdom dakini.
- Without this ultimate great emptiness, the Mother of the buddhas, the
-universe would be without movement, development, or change. Because of this
-great emptiness state of the Mother, we see phenomena continually arising.
-Each display arises, transforms, and radiates, fulfilling its purpose and then
-dissolving back into its original state. This dramatic dance of energy is the
-activity, ability, or mandala of the wisdom dakini. Thus, the combination of
-the great emptiness or openness state, together with the activities of love
-and compassion, is both the ultimate Mother and the ultimate wisdom dakini.
- -- Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche,
- "Tara's Enlightened Activity: An Oral Commentary on 'The Twenty-one
- Praises to Tara' ", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Just as your innermost wish is to be free from suffering and to abide in
-happiness, so too is it the aspiration of all other beings. But, they, like
-you, encounter sufferings and problems in their lives, and often their
-difficulties are much worse than your own. Examine your capacity to help
-them. At this time your ability to help them is quite limited, but if you
-reduce your own ignorance, anger, attachment, and other faults, and increase
-your good qualities such as generosity, patience, loving-kindness, compassion,
-and wisdom, you will be of greater benefit. If you become fully enlightened,
-you will be of the greatest possible benefit to all beings. Thus generate the
-altruistic intention to become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient
-beings most effectively.
- -- Thubten Chodron, "Guided Meditations on the Stages of the Path",
- foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...at Bodh Gaya, [Shakyamuni] displayed the ways of becoming fully
-enlightened. Then in stages he turned the three renowned wheels of doctrine.
- In the first period, at Varanasi, Buddha turned the wheel of doctrine that
-is based on the four noble truths; he did this mainly in consideration of
-those having the lineage of Hearers (Sravaka). In the middle period, at
-Grdhrakuta, he set forth the middle wheel of doctrine, which is based on the
-mode of non-inherent existence of all phenomena; he did this mainly in
-consideration of trainees of sharp faculties who bear the Mahayana lineage.
-In the final period, at Vaisali, he set forth the final wheel [which is based
-on discriminating between those phenomena that do and those that do not truly
-exist]; he did this mainly in consideration of trainees of middling and lower
-faculties who bear the Mahayana lineage. The teacher Buddha also appeared in
-the body of Vajradhara, setting forth tantric doctrines.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Buddhism of Tibet", translated and edited by
- Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-There are different levels of faith. First, clear faith refers to the joy and
-clarity and change in our perceptions that we experience when we hear about
-the qualities of the Three Jewels and the lives of the Buddha and the great
-teachers. Longing faith is experienced when we think about the latter and are
-filled with a great desire to know more about their qualities and to acquire
-these ourselves. Confident faith comes through practicing the Dharma, when we
-acquire complete confidence in the truth of the teachings and the
-enlightenment of the Buddha. Finally, when faith has become so much a part of
-ourselves that even if our lives were at risk we could never give it up, it
-has become irreversible faith.
- -- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, "The Excellent Path to Enlightenment",
- translated by The Padmakara Translation Group, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- ...when seeking work, or if you already have a job, it is important to
-keep in mind that a human being isn't meant to be some kind of machine
-designed only for production. No. Human life isn't just for work, like [a
-socialistic] vision where everyone's purpose is just to work for the state,
-and there is no individual freedom, where the state even arranges the person's
-vacations and everything is planned out for the individual. That is not a
-full human life. Individuality is very important for a full human life, and
-then accordingly some leisure time, a bit of holiday, and time spent with
-family or friends. That is the means to a complete form of life.... If your
-life becomes only a medium of production, then many of the good human values
-and characteristics will be lost--then you will not, you cannot, become a
-complete person.
- So if you're looking for work and have a choice of a job, choose a job
-that allows the opportunity for some creativity, and for spending time with
-your family. Even if it means less pay, personally I think it is better to
-choose work that is less demanding, that gives you greater freedom, more time
-to be with your family, or to do other activities, read, engage in cultural
-activities, or just play. I think that's best.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Dr. Howard C. Cutler, M.D., "The
- Art of Happiness at Work"
-~
- Our painful experiences have brought the five poisons* right into our
-world. Our heavy sense of being a separate person has led to an anxiety about
-our safety in the world. This leads us to aversion and attachment, as we long
-to predict and control our relation with the environment. From this all the
-other fixed and defensive positions arise. And so the world that we encounter
-is covered over and suffused with many subtle moods of hopes and fears,
-doubts, jealousies, pride. So even here on a dharma retreat, as we look
-around the room, we have a complex sense of whose faces we can look at, and
-who we might have to look away from. This is not at all a neutral place. The
-force of projections, interpretations and impulsive reactions keeps us busy in
-trying to stay ahead of the game....
- However in dzogchen we are trying to get to the essential point where
-nirvana and samsara separate. This is like a great weed killer: If you spray
-it once all the weeds, all the confusion, all the pain and suffering will
-vanish. You don't need to pluck out each weed by itself. Believing that you
-are a bad person is very unhelpful for the practice of dzogchen. Also
-believing that you are a good person is not very helpful in the practice of
-dzogchen. You are not a person! Resting in the unborn state we are a pure
-awareness free of the least defilement. When you give up your ego identity,
-your samsara citizenship, you tear up your identity card and all the problems
-and sins and police records linked to that identity vanish immediately.
- * Five poisons (dug nga)--the five poisonous mental afflictions are
- desire, aggression, ignorance, pride, and jealousy. (Penetrating Wisdom)
- -- "Being Right Here: A Dzogchen Treasure Text of Nuden Dorje Entitled 'The
- Mirror of Clear Meaning' ", with commentary by James Low, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-And just as men depend upon
-A boat for traversing the sea,
-So does the mental body need
-The matter-body for occurrence.
-And as the boat depends upon
-The men for traversing the sea,
-So does the matter-body need
-The mental body for occurrence.
-Depending each upon the other
-The boat and men go on the sea.
-And so do mind and matter both
-Depend the one upon the other.
- -- Visuddhimagga (XVIII, 36)
-~
- There is a Buddhist practice in which one imagines giving joy and the
-source of all joy to other people, thereby removing all their suffering.
-Though of course we cannot change their situation, I do feel that in some
-cases, through a genuine sense of caring and compassion, through our sharing
-in their plight, our attitude can help alleviate their suffering, if only
-mentally. However, the main point of this practice is to increase our inner
-strength and courage.
- I have chosen a few lines that I feel would be acceptable to people of all
-faiths, and even to those with no spiritual belief. When reading these lines,
-if you are a religious practitioner, you can reflect upon the divine form that
-you worship. Then, while reciting these verses, make the commitment to
-enhance your spiritual values. If you are not religious, you can reflect upon
-the fact that, fundamentally, all beings are equal to you in their wish for
-happiness and their desire to overcome suffering. Recognizing this, you make
-a pledge to develop a good heart. It is most important that we have a warm
-heart. As long as we are part of human society, it is very important to be a
-kind, warm-hearted person.
- May the poor find wealth,
- Those weak with sorrow find joy.
- May the forlorn find new hope,
- Constant happiness and prosperity.
-
- May the frightened cease to be afraid,
- And those bound be free.
- May the weak find power,
- And may their hearts join in friendship.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday
- Life", edited by Nicholas Vreeland, afterword by Khyongla Rato
- and Richard Gere
-~
- Although there are as many categories of emptiness* as there are types of
-phenomena, when you realize the emptiness of one specific phenomenon, you also
-realize the emptiness of all phenomena. The ultimate nature, or emptiness, of
-all phenomena is of equal taste and of the same undifferentiable nature. Even
-though the nature of emptiness of all phenomena is the same, and all the
-different aspects of phenomena, such as whether they are good or bad, or the
-way they change, arise from the sphere of emptiness, you should understand
-that emptiness cannot be found apart from the subject or the object.
- Emptiness refers to an object's being free of intrinsic existence. Things
-depend on causes and conditions. This very dependence on causes and
-conditions signifies that phenomena lack independent, or intrinsic, existence.
-It also demonstrates how all the diverse aspects of things that we experience
-arise because they are by nature empty. When we talk about emptiness, we are
-not dealing with those different aspects, we are dealing with phenomena's
-ultimate reality.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Stages of Meditation", trans. by Ven. Geshe
- Lobsang Jordhen, Losang Choephel Ganchenpa, and Jeremy Russell,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The Treasure Discoverers
- Most of the influential terma [hidden treasures or teachings] were
-purportedly secreted by Padmasambhava or his immediate disciples, and specific
-instructions were also laid down for each terma at the time of its
-concealment. The theory behind this system is that certain teachings would be
-especially effective at particular points in the future, and so they were
-hidden in a "time release" system which assured that at the appropriate time a
-terton would locate the teaching and disseminate it. When Padmasambhava hid
-these treasures, he prophesied the circumstances for the discovery of each
-terma and the terton who would find it. He predicted that there would be
-three "grand" tertons, eight "great" ones, twenty-one "powerful" ones, one
-hundred eight "intermediate," and one thousand "subsidiary" tertons. Most of
-these were to be recognized as emanations of Padmasambhava or his chief
-disciples.
- ...Many hidden treasures still remain undiscovered, awaiting the proper
-time for their dissemination. They continue to reinvigorate the Nyingma
-tradition, and a number have been incorporated into other lineages. The
-institution of terma serves as a link with the past of the tradition, a link
-that periodically revitalizes the present and points the way to the future.
-The system reflects the Mahayana ideal of skill in means, the ability to adapt
-teachings to changing circumstances.
- -- John Powers, "Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism", published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- Practicing compassion will bring about the recognition of emptiness* as
-the true nature of the mind. When you practice virtuous actions of love and
-compassion on the relative level, you spontaneously realize the profound
-nature of emptiness, which is the absolute level. In turn, if you focus your
-meditation practice on emptiness, then your loving-kindness and compassion
-will spontaneously grow.
- These two natures, the absolute and the relative, are not opposites; they
-always arise together. They have the same nature; they are inseparable like a
-fire and its heat or the sun and its light. Compassion and emptiness are not
-like two sides of a coin. Emptiness and compassion are not two separate
-elements joined together; they are always coexistent.
- In Buddhism, emptiness does not mean the absence of apparent existence.
-Emptiness is not like a black hole or darkness, or like an empty house or an
-empty bottle. Emptiness is fullness and openness and flexibility. Because of
-emptiness it is possible for phenomena to function, for beings to see and
-hear, and for things to move and change. It is called emptiness because when
-we examine things we cannot find anything that substantially and solidly
-exists. There is nothing that has a truly existent nature. Everything we
-perceive appears through ever-changing causes and conditions, without an
-independent, solid basis. Although from a relative perspective things appear,
-they arise from emptiness and they dissolve into emptiness. All appearances
-are like water bubbles or the reflection of the moon in water.
- -- Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche,
- "Opening to our Primordial Nature", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-[Preceding story: Before reaching enlightenment, the Buddha was born as Prince
-Visvantara, who, despite facing many challenges and adversity, brought all of
-his heart and courage to bear against a single enemy--human suffering.]
-
-In giving we not only find wealth while in cyclic existence but we achieve the
-zenith of prosperity in supreme enlightenment. Therefore we all have to
-practice giving. A Bodhisattva's giving is not just overcoming miserliness
-and being generous to others; a pure wish to give is cultivated, and through
-developing more and more intimacy with it, such giving is enhanced infinitely.
-Therefore it is essential to have the firm mind of enlightenment rooted in
-great love and compassion and, from the depths of one's heart, to either give
-one's body, wealth and virtues literally to sentient beings as infinite as
-space, or to dedicate one's body, wealth and virtues for them while striving
-in all possible ways to enhance the wish to give infinitely. As mentioned in
-Engaging in Bodhisattva Activities and in The Precious Garland, we should
-literally give material help to the poor and needy, give teaching to others,
-and give protection to them, even the small insects, as much as we can. In
-the case of things which we are not able to part with, we should cultivate the
-wish to give them away and develop more and more intimacy with that wish.
- -- "Generous Wisdom: Commentaries by H.H. the Dalai Lama XIV on the
- Jatakamala", translated by Tenzin Dorjee, edited by Dexter Roberts
-~
- Mad yogins are known in virtually every tradition in Tibet, but most often
-in the Nyingma and Kagyu lineages, and also in the Shije (Pacification) and
-Chod traditions. The Nyingma, Kagyu, and Chod traditions are the three with
-which Tangtong Gyalpo had the closest ties. One of the texts in Tangtong's
-Oral Transmission, a collection of teachings originally passed down from
-Tangtong, quotes the great yogini Machik Labdron's statement concerning proper
-yogic conduct following realization. In response to a question by one of her
-sons, Machik recommended that a practitioner act like a child with unfeigned
-spontaneity, like a lunatic with no regard for what is conventionally
-acceptable, like a leper with no attachment to his or her own physical health,
-and like a wild animal wandering in isolated and rough terrain.
- ...Guru Padmasambhava himself prophesied that Tangtong Gyalpo would care
-for living beings by means of unpredictable actions. Tangtong's unusual
-conduct began to manifest at an early age, and resembled traits noted in the
-lives of other mad yogins. He was first called insane by his father and the
-members of his village when, as a child, he subdued a malicious spirit
-responsible for an epidemic. Several other early incidents are mentioned in
-the biographies. When he went to take scholastic examinations at the renowned
-monastery of Sakya he earned the nickname Tsondru Nyonpa (Crazy Tsondru)
-because of his disinterest in explaining the scriptural definitions of the
-highest states of realization. He preferred to spend his time absorbed in
-actually experiencing these states. When he was later practicing deliberate
-behavior secretly in a vast and empty wasteland, the dakinis gave him five
-names indicating his high realization, one of which was Lungtong Nyonpa
-(Madman of the Empty Valley).
- -- Cyrus Stearns, "King of the Empty Plain: The Tibetan Iron Bridge
- Builder Tangtong Gyalpo", a Tsadra Foundation book, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...In the Buddhist teachings, when we search for the causes of suffering,
-we find what is called 'the truth of the origin of suffering', namely that
-negative actions--karma--and the negative emotions that induce such actions
-are the causes of suffering.
- Talking about causes, if we take a step further and investigate more
-deeply, we find that the cause alone is not sufficient for bringing about the
-results. Causes themselves have to come in contact with co-operative
-circumstances or conditions. For instance, say we search for a material or
-substantial cause for this plant, we will find that it has a continuity
-stretching back into beginningless time.
- There are certain Buddhist texts that speak of space particles, existing
-before the evolution of this present universe. According to these texts, the
-space particles serve as the material and substantial cause for matter, such
-as this plant. Now if the essential and substantial cause for matter is
-traced to these space particles, which are all the same, how do we account for
-the diversity that we see in the material world? It is here that the question
-of conditions and circumstances comes into play. When these substantial
-causes come in contact with different circumstances and conditions, they give
-rise to different effects, that is, different kinds of matter. So we find
-that the cause alone is not sufficient for bringing about a result. What is
-required is an aggregation of many different conditions and circumstances.
- Although you can find certain differences among the Buddhist philosophical
-schools about how the universe came into being, the basic common question
-addressed is how the two fundamental principles--external matter and internal
-mind or consciousness--although distinct, affect one another. External causes
-and conditions are responsible for certain of our experiences of happiness and
-suffering. Yet we find that it is principally our own feelings, our thoughts
-and our emotions, that really determine whether we are going to suffer or be
-happy.
- -- H.H. The Dalai Lama, "Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great
- Perfection", translated by Thupten Jinpa and Richard Barron, Foreword
- by Sogyal Rinpoche, edited by Patrick Gaffney, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- Right now many of us wish for liberation, yet sometimes we cannot keep
-ourselves from creating the causes for cyclic existence. When we understand
-true suffering well, our wish for liberation will become firm. At present our
-resolve to reach liberation is not firm because we think of suffering, but not
-deeply. The deluded attitude believing that the unsatisfactoriness of change
-is true happiness easily arises in us because we are not yet deeply convinced
-that all happiness in cyclic existence is contaminated and is in fact only a
-variety of suffering. To remedy this, we should meditate on true suffering
-more often and explore its meaning deeply. Then our wish for liberation will
-become firm.
- We consider many things--clothes, food, good health, nice possessions,
-financial security, the higher rebirths--as true happiness. As a result, we
-are attached to them and create more causes for suffering in cyclic existence
-in order to gain them. Thinking that the human birth is something marvelous,
-we work at creating the causes that propel us toward it. In fact all we are
-doing is creating the cause for yet another rebirth in cyclic existence,
-together with all the problems that such a rebirth involves.
- If we understand that by its nature, cyclic existence is unsatisfactory,
-we will have a deep aversion to it. If we do not have a deep aversion to it,
-we will not be determined to be free, and therefore will not be able to
-destroy our self-grasping ignorance, which is the root of cyclic existence.
-In that case, we will not be able to attain liberation. However, when we
-deeply feel the extent to which we suffer in cyclic existence, we will
-automatically want to abandon the true origin of suffering, attain the true
-cessation, and meditate on the true path. Having realized true suffering, we
-will easily realize the other three of the four noble truths. Thus it is
-said: suffering is to be known. The origin is to be abandoned. The cessation
-is to be attained. The path is to be practiced. The determination to be free
-is the wish for ourselves to be free of cyclic existence. When we wish others
-to be free, that is compassion.
- -- Geshe Jampa Tegchok, "Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage:
- An Explanation of the Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas", edited by
- Thubten Chodron, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Mantras are invocations to buddhas... prayers, or a combination of these.
-Tantric practitioners repeat them in order to forge karmic connections between
-themselves and meditational deities and to effect cognitive restructuring
-through internalizing the divine attributes that the mantra represents. A
-person who wishes to develop greater compassion, for instance, might recite
-the mantra of Avalokitesvara, who embodies this quality: om mani padme hum...
-[a] mantra [that] is well known to Tibetans. It represents for them the
-perfect compassion of Avalokitesvara, who they believe has taken a special
-interest in the spiritual welfare of the Tibetan people. He epitomizes
-universal compassion that is unsullied by any trace of negative emotions or
-mental afflictions.
- Among ordinary beings there are, of course, many acts of compassion, but
-these are generally tinged by self-interest, pride, or desire for recognition.
-Avalokitesvara's compassion, by contrast, is completely free from all
-afflictions and is so vast that it encompasses all sentient beings without
-exception and without distinction. People who wish to develop such a
-perspective recite Avalokitesvara's mantra over and over, meditating on its
-significance, and in so doing they try to restructure their minds in
-accordance with the cultivation of his exalted qualities. According to the
-Dalai Lama,
- 'mani'... symbolizes the factors of method--the altruistic intention to
-become enlightened, compassion, and love. Just as a jewel is capable of
-removing poverty, so the altruistic mind of enlightenment is capable of
-removing the poverty, or difficulties, of cyclic existence and of solitary
-peace.... The two syllables, 'padme'... symbolize wisdom. Just as a lotus
-grows forth from mud but is not sullied by the faults of mud, so wisdom is
-capable of putting you in a situation of non-contradiction whereas there would
-be contradiction if you did not have wisdom.... Purity must be achieved by an
-indivisible unity of method and wisdom, symbolized by the final syllable
-'hum', which indicates indivisibility.... Thus the six syllables, 'om mani
-padme hum', mean that in dependence on a path which is an indivisible union of
-method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech, and mind into
-the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha.
- -- John Powers, "Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism", published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- "Now let's look at ultimate reality," the Dalai Lama said, pointing a
-little finger to his mug. "What exactly is it? We're seeing color, shape.
-But if we take away shape, color, material, what is mug? Where is the mug?
-This mug is a combination of particles: atoms, electrons, quarks. But each
-particle is not 'mug.' The same can be said about the four elements, the
-world, everything. The Buddha. We cannot find the Buddha. So that's the
-ultimate reality. If we're not satisfied with conventional reality, if we go
-deep down and try to find the real thing, we ultimately won't find it."
- Thus, the Dalai Lama was saying, the mug is empty. The term "mug" is
-merely a label, something we use to describe everyday reality. But each mug
-comes into existence because of a complex web of causes and conditions. It
-does not exist independently. It cannot come into being by itself, of its own
-volition.
- For example: suppose I decide to make a black mug. To do this, I mix
-black clay and water, shape it to my liking, and fire the resulting mixture in
-an oven. Clay plus water turns into a mug because of my actions. But it
-exists because of the myriad different ways that atoms and molecules interact.
-And what about me, the creator of the black mug? If my parents had never met,
-the black mug might never have existed.
- Therefore the mug does not exist independently. It comes into being only
-through a complex web of relationships. In the Dalai Lama's own words, and
-this is the key concept in his worldview, the mug is "dependently originated."
-It came to be a mug because of a host of different factors, not under its own
-steam. It is empty. "Empty" is shorthand for "empty of intrinsic, inherent
-existence." Or to put it another way, empty is another word for
-interdependent.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Victor Chan, "The Wisdom of
- Forgiveness: Intimate Conversations and Journeys"
-~
- Buddha teaches that one should not practice extremes.... As Nagarjuna's
-"Precious Garland of Advice" says,
- Practice is not done
- By mortifying the body,
- Since you have not forsaken injuring others
- And are not helping others.
- When you disregard the basic needs of the body, you harm the many sentient
-organisms that live within the body. You should also avoid the opposite
-extreme of living in great luxury. It is possible to make use of good food,
-clothing, residence, and furnishings without producing afflictive emotions
-such as attachment, pride, and arrogance. The crucial point is the control of
-internal factors such as lust and attachment; external factors are not in and
-of themselves good or bad. It is not suitable if attachment increases toward
-even mediocre food, clothing, and so forth.
- Contentment is the key. If you have contentment with material things, you
-are truly rich. Without it, even if you are a billionaire, you will not have
-happiness. You will always feel hungry and want more and more and more,
-making you not rich but poor. If you seek contentment externally, it will
-never happen. Your desire will never be fulfilled. Our texts speak of a king
-who gained control over the world, at which point he began thinking about
-taking over the lands of the gods. In the end his good qualities were
-destroyed by pride. Contentment is necessary for happiness, so try to be
-satisfied with adequate food, clothing, and shelter.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "How to Expand Love: Widening the Circle of Loving
- Relationships", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins
-~
-There is another way of speaking about the two types of meditation. In this
-case, they are differentiated into 1) meditation that perceives the object and
-2) meditation in which our mind is transformed into a specific affective
-state. An example of the former is meditating on impermanence and emptiness.
-These are subtle objects that we must use analytical meditation to perceive.
-An example of the latter is meditation on the four immeasurables
-(brahmaviharas)--love, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Here we are not
-trying to perceive a subtle object, but are practicing to transform our minds
-into those mental states. For example, everyone admires the quality of love,
-but we cannot just say, "I should love everyone," and expect our deepest
-feelings to change. First, we must free our minds from the gross obstacles of
-attachment to friends, hostility to people who threaten or harm us, and apathy
-towards strangers. On this basis, we then train our mind to recognize the
-kindness of others, which arouses in us a natural wish to reciprocate and
-share our kindness with them. After this we meditate on love and cultivate a
-genuine wish for all sentient beings to have happiness and its causes.
-Initially that feeling will arise in us but will not be stable. Anger may
-still flash into our mind making our good feelings towards others disappear.
-We need to cultivate love continuously and do so with a focused mind. The
-greater our concentration, the more stable and penetrative the experience
-will be.
- -- Thubten Chodron, "Guided Meditations on the Stages of the Path",
- foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...for the Christian practitioner, the Creator and the acceptance of the
-Creator as almighty, is a very important factor within that tradition in order
-to develop self-discipline, compassion, or forgiveness and to increase them in
-one's intimate relationship with God. That's something very essential. In
-addition, when God is seen as absolute and almighty, the concept that
-everything is relative becomes a little bit difficult. However, if one's
-understanding of God is in terms of an ultimate nature of reality or ultimate
-truth, then it is possible to have a kind of unified approach.
- ...As to one's personal religion, I think this must be based on one's own
-mental disposition.... Generally speaking, I think it is better to practice
-according to your own traditional background, and certainly you can use some
-of the Buddhist techniques. Without accepting rebirth theory or the
-complicated philosophy, simply use certain techniques to increase your power
-of patience and compassion, forgiveness, and things like that.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a
- Buddhist Perspective", translated by Thupten Jinpa, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
-When we compare two ancient spiritual traditions like Buddhism and
-Christianity, what we see is a striking similarity between the narratives of
-the founding masters: in the case of Christianity, Jesus Christ, and in the
-case of Buddhism, the Buddha. I see a very important parallel: in the very
-lives of the [founders] the essence of their teachings is demonstrated. For
-example... the essence of the Buddha's teaching is embodied in the Four Noble
-Truths: the truth of suffering, the truth of the origin of suffering, the
-truth of the cessation of suffering, and the truth of the path leading to this
-cessation. These Four Noble Truths are very explicitly and clearly
-exemplified in the life of... the Buddha himself. I feel [it] is the same
-with the life of Christ. If you look at the life of Jesus, you will see all
-the essential practices and teachings of Christianity exemplified. And in the
-lives of both Jesus Christ and the Buddha, it is only through hardship,
-dedication and commitment, and by standing firm on one's principles that one
-can grow spiritually and attain liberation. That seems to be a central and
-common message.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Pocket Dalai Lama", compiled and edited
- by Mary Craig
-~
- With the achievement of quiescence, the attention is drawn inwards and is
-maintained continuously, single-pointedly upon its object. Tsongkhapa
-emphasizes that genuine quiescence is necessarily preceded by an experience of
-an extraordinary degree of mental and physical pliancy, which entails an
-unprecedented sense of mental and physical fitness and buoyancy.
- In the state of meditative equipoise, only the aspects of awareness,
-clarity, and joy of the mind appear, and all one's other sense faculties
-remain dormant. Thus, while one's consciousness seems as if it has become
-indivisible with space, one lacks any sensation of having a body; and when
-rising from that state, it seems as if one's body is suddenly coming into
-being. When genuine quiescence is achieved, one's attention can effortlessly
-be maintained for hours, even days, on end, with no interference by either
-laxity or excitation.
- -- B. Alan Wallace, "Balancing the Mind: A Tibetan Buddhist Approach
- to Refining Attention", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- In Mahayana Buddhism, when one takes the bodhisattva vow, one pledges to
-work tirelessly in this life and all future lives to awaken oneself and purify
-oneself in order to help all other beings attain freedom from suffering
-through spiritual enlightenment. One vows to help beings whenever possible,
-and a profound way of doing this is to give a being the gift of life through
-an act of kindness. This can take the form of helping an animal in danger
-cross the road to safety before being struck by a vehicle or freeing an animal
-that is in captivity before it is killed by buying it from the captor and
-letting it roam free. If one is in a position to help save another's life--
-whether a human or an animal--one must practice fearless kindness to help the
-other being in danger.
- In Tibetan Buddhism, it is believed that due to the countless incarnations
-all beings have undergone throughout time, at one point or another any given
-living creature has been one's mother in a past life. Therefore, it is viewed
-as an obligation to repay the kindness of those who are referred to as "mother
-sentient beings." If your own mother in this life were in danger, you would
-certainly do whatever you could to save her life. Similarly, dedicated
-holders of the bodhisattva vow feel this kind of urgency to save the lives of
-all "mother sentient beings."
- -- Chatral Rinpoche, "Compassionate Action", edited, introduced and
- annotated by Zach Larson, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- In the frenzy of modern life we lose sight of the real value of humanity.
-People become the sum total of what they produce. Human beings act like
-machines whose function is to make money. This is absolutely wrong. The
-purpose of making money is the happiness of humankind, not the other way
-around. Humans are not for money, money is for humans. We need enough to
-live, so money is necessary, but we also need to realize that if there is too
-much attachment to wealth, it does not help at all. As the saints of India
-and Tibet tell us, the wealthier one becomes, the more suffering one endures.
- ...Eating, working, and making money are meaningless in themselves.
-However, even a small act of compassion grants meaning and purpose to our
-lives.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life",
- translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins
-~
-Unlike the Lesser Vehicle tenet systems, which teach only a selflessness of
-persons, the Great Vehicle tenet systems teach that the most profound reality,
-the most subtle and important type of selflessness, is a selflessness, or
-emptiness, that is a quality of all phenomena. They hold that the bodhisattva
-trains in altruistically motivated meditation on the emptiness of all
-phenomena, thus preparing for the omniscience of buddhahood. Some Great
-Vehicle systems maintain that Lesser Vehicle practitioners do not realize the
-profound emptiness of phenomena at all and are therefore unable to overcome
-the obstructions to omniscience. However, the highest system, the Middle Way
-Consequence system, holds that persons on Lesser Vehicle paths do realize
-emptiness, but are unable to achieve omniscience on their paths because their
-wisdom is not empowered by association with altruism and altruistically
-motivated actions of giving, ethics, patience, etc.
- -- Guy Newland, "Appearance and Reality: The Two Truths in the Four
- Buddhist Tenet Systems", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Selflessness in Context: Ultimate Bodhichitta
- Let us return for a moment to the beginning of [the Heart] Sutra where the
-Buddha enters into the meditative absorption called "appearance of the
-profound" and Avalokiteshvara beholds the practice of the profound perfection
-of wisdom. Generally speaking, the expression "appearance of the profound"
-refers to the bodhisattva deeds, which are encompassed in the practice of the
-six perfections. Here, however, the expression refers particularly to the
-perfection of wisdom, known in Sanskrit as prajnaparamita. What the text
-means by "perfection of wisdom" is a direct, unmediated realization of
-emptiness that is also called "ultimate bodhichitta." This is not the direct
-realization of emptiness alone; rather it is this direct realization in union
-with bodhichitta--the aspiration to become a buddha in order to free all
-beings. This union of wisdom and method constitutes the first bhumi, or level
-of bodhisattva attainment.
- The importance of this altruistic aspiration cannot be overstated.
-Bodhichitta is not only important as a motivating factor at the beginning of
-practice, it is also important as a complementary and a reinforcing factor
-during every stage of the path. The bodhichitta aspiration is twofold,
-comprised both of the wish to help others and of the wish to become
-enlightened so that one's assistance will be supremely effective.
- --from Essence of the Heart Sutra: The Dalai Lama's Heart of Wisdom
-Teachings by H.H. the Dalai Lama, translated & edited by Thupten Jinpa
-~
-From "The Prayer Requested by Namke Nyingbo" by Padmasambhava
-
-All these things of the outer environment and the beings therein
-That come into sight as the objects of your eyes like this,
-They may appear, but leave them in the sphere free from clinging to a self.
-Since they are pure of perceiver and perceived, they are the luminous-empty
- body of the deity.
-I pray to the guru in whom attachment is self-liberated,
-I pray to Padmasambhava from Uddiyana.
-
-All these sounds, taken as pleasant or unpleasant,
-That resound as the objects of your ears like this,
-Leave them in the sphere of inconceivable, empty resonance.
-Empty resonance, unborn and unceasing, is the Victor's speech.
-I pray to the words of the Victor that resound and yet are empty,
-I pray to Padmasambhava from Uddiyana.
-
-However these thoughts of afflictions' five poisons,
-Which stir as objects in your mind like this, may appear,
-Do not mess around with them through a mind that rushes ahead into the future
- or lingers in the past.
-Through leaving their movement in its own place, they uncoil as the
- dharmakaya.
-I pray to the guru whose awareness is self-liberated,
-I pray to Padmasambhava from Uddiyana.
-
-Grant your blessings that the mind stream of someone like me is liberated
- Through the compassion of the Tathagatas of the three times,
-So that objects, appearing as if perceived outside, become pure,
-That my very mind, perceiving as if inside, becomes liberated,
-And that, in between, luminosity will recognize its own face.
-
- -- "Straight from the Heart: Buddhist Pith Instructions", translated and
- introduced by Karl Brunnholzl, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Some people feel that although it may be right to curb feelings of intense
-hatred which can cause us to be violent and even to kill, we are in danger of
-losing our independence when we restrain our emotions and discipline the mind.
-Actually, the opposite is true. Like their counterparts of love and
-compassion, anger and the afflictive emotions can never be used up. They
-have, rather, a propensity to increase, like a river flooding in summer when
-the snow melts, so that far from being free, our minds are enslaved and
-rendered helpless by them. When we indulge our negative thoughts and
-feelings, inevitably we become accustomed to them. As a result, gradually we
-become more prone to them and more controlled by them. And we become
-habituated to exploding in the face of displeasing circumstances.
- Inner peace, which is the principal characteristic of happiness, and anger
-cannot coexist without undermining one another. Indeed, negative thoughts and
-emotions undermine the very causes of peace and happiness. In fact, when we
-think properly, it is totally illogical to seek happiness if we do nothing to
-restrain angry, spiteful, and malicious thoughts and emotions. Consider that
-when we become angry, we often use harsh words. Harsh words can destroy
-friendship. Since happiness arises in the context of our relationships with
-others, if we destroy friendships, we undermine one of the very conditions of
-happiness itself.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Ethics for the New Millennium", edited by
- Alexander Norman, translated by Dr. Thupten Jinpa
-~
-Two Senses of Self
-
- Psychologists talk about people who are co-dependent because they don't
-have a sense of self. What psychologists mean when they say a person has no
-sense of self is very different from what the Buddha meant by no-self or
-selflessness. People with psychological problems actually have a very strong
-sense of self in the Buddhist sense, although they may not in the
-psychological sense of the word. Psychologically, they don't see themselves
-as efficacious individuals in the world, but they still have a very strong
-sense of "I": "I am worthless." When somebody criticizes them, they don't
-like it. They get into co-dependent relationships to protect or to please
-this "I." When they fall into self-pity, their sense of an inherently
-existent "I" is very strong. Thus they still have self-grasping even though
-they lack a psychologically healthy sense of self.
- Buddhism recognizes two kinds of sense of self. There's one sense of self
-that is healthy and necessary to be efficacious on the path. The object of
-this sense of self is the conventionally existent "I." The other sense of
-self grasps at an inherently existent self that never has and never will
-exist. Within Buddhism, when we talk about realizing emptiness, we're
-negating the false self, this self that appears inherently existent to us.
- -- Thubten Chodron, "Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of
- Chenrezig", foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- Question: If a person views the self and other phenomena as being empty of
-any inherent existence, is it then, in that state, possible for them to take
-any animate or inanimate phenomenon as their object, and through the power of
-imputation or words, enable that object to actually take on a manifesting role
-with the qualities which we view objects to have?
-
- His Holiness: This is an instance of not properly understanding the
-meaning of "lack of inherent existence." If we think that "emptiness" means
-things cannot function, then, with an improper understanding of the view of
-emptiness, one will have fallen into nihilism. So, because one has failed to
-reconcile emptiness and the fact that things work, this view is incorrect.
-That is why it is said that the meaning of emptiness is to be understood in
-terms of dependent arising.
- Now, since the meaning of emptiness is to be explained in terms of
-dependent arising, we can only explain something as arising dependently if
-there is a basis, that is, some thing that is dependent. Hence, such a basis
-must exist. We see then that when we speak of dependent arising, we are
-indicating that things work. Dependent arising proves that things have no
-inherent existence, through the fact that things work in dependence on each
-other. The fact that things work and the fact that they do so in dependence,
-one on the other, eliminates the possibility of their being independent. This
-in turn precludes the possibility of inherent existence, since, to inherently
-exist means to be independent. Hence, the understanding of emptiness, of the
-the emptiness of a kind of inherent existence that is independent, boils down
-to understanding dependent arising.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Answers: Discussions with Western Buddhists",
- edited by Jose Ignacio Cabezon, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the most profound and commonly
-practiced teachings are those of the Vajrayana. Within this powerful system
-of skillful means, the supreme view and most potent methods are found in the
-teachings and practices of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection. These instructions
-are regarded as the pinnacle of the teachings and as the most direct path to
-realizing the nature of mind and the reality of the world.
- The instructions of the Dzogchen lineage are used to directly point out
-the nature of mind and bring the experience of enlightenment into our ordinary
-life. These teachings are known as "pith instructions," the pure,
-quintessential knowledge that cuts through all confusion and gets straight to
-the point. There is a saying, "Don't beat around the bush," meaning, "Get to
-the point." That is Dzogchen.
- In many ways, these teachings go beyond scripture and the formality of
-spiritual techniques. These two do have their place, since it is important to
-study scripture and meditate in a step-by-step manner. Yet, at some point we
-also must connect directly with the nature of mind. We have to strike the
-crucial point, the enlightened state, and leap directly into experiencing and
-realizing the true nature of our mind.
- -- The Third Dzogchen Rinpoche, "Great Perfection: Outer and Inner
- Preliminaries", trans. by Cortland Dahl, intro. by Dzogchen Ponlop,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Dzogchen teaches that practice conducted with contriving, rough, fleeting
-minds cannot bring enlightenment. Only practice with the deep awareness of
-non-contriving rigpa--pure awareness--can bring us to the state of a Buddha.
-We can understand this in the same way as we do the statement that practice of
-the yoga class of tantras and below cannot bring us enlightenment by itself.
-The ultimate, deepest reason why it cannot is that the pathways of practice of
-these levels of teaching cannot by themselves make manifest the deep awareness
-of subtlest clear light mind. Without the manifestation of the deep awareness
-of clear light mind, we do not have the perpetrating causes for an
-enlightening body and enlightening mind of a Buddha--causes that are in the
-same uncommon category of phenomena as a Buddha's body and mind. Therefore,
-no matter how much we practice with pathway minds of yoga tantra and below, we
-are never able to attain to enlightenment on their basis alone.
- ...when we make clear light mind of deep awareness prominent or enhanced
-through techniques presented in the anuttarayoga tantra texts, and then
-transform it into the nature of being a pathway mind, only then do we have
-what can actualize an enlightening body and enlightening mind of a Buddha.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama and Alexander Berzin, "The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of
- Mahamudra", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Whenever you consider there is bliss, and the objective conditions for
-bliss occur, if you fall under the control of that by becoming arrogant or
-conceited, then that will fester as an obstruction to the spiritual path.
-Rather than thinking about what has caused this happiness, which most probably
-is the accumulation of merit or the removal of obscurations, as soon as the
-bliss occurs, you think, "That's my nature." Based on that, you become
-arrogant or lazy, thinking, "Well, I've accomplished it." This is the
-greatest obstacle to the spiritual path. This is what creates the realms
-of deva-gods. Oftentimes it is said that people can handle only a little bit
-of felicity, but they can handle a lot of adversity. This is because
-happiness on the spiritual path is the most difficult thing to handle. Once
-it arises, that's where the path stops.
- This does not mean that it is necessary to give it all up. Giving up
-happiness is not the practice. The main point is not to become mesmerized by
-happiness as the end result. You realize that, "Ah, now, the good quality of
-this is that I am fortunate, and this is another result of the great fortune
-of the path and the result of the accumulation of merit and wholesome deeds.
-Even more than ever, I will carry on with the work at hand to achieve
-liberation from cyclic existence." So with more diligence and more courage,
-you continue listening to teachings, contemplating, meditating, and
-appreciating this precious human rebirth.
- -- Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche, "Meditation, Transformation, and Dream Yoga",
- translated by Sangye Khandro and B. Alan Wallace, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- As to what might be the mechanism through which karma plays a causal role
-in the evolution of sentience, I find helpful some of the explanations given
-in the Vajrayana traditions, often referred to by modern writers as esoteric
-Buddhism. According to the Guhyasamaja tantra, a principal tradition within
-Vajrayana Buddhism, at the most fundamental level, no absolute division can be
-made between mind and matter. Matter in its subtlest form is prana, a vital
-energy which is inseparable from consciousness. These two are different
-aspects of an indivisible reality. Prana is the aspect of mobility, dynamism,
-and cohesion, while consciousness is the aspect of cognition and the capacity
-for reflective thinking. So according to the Guhyasamaja tantra, when a world
-system comes into being, we are witnessing the play of this energy and
-consciousness reality.
- ...Despite the success of the Darwinian narrative, I do not believe that
-all the elements of the story are in place. To begin with, although Darwin's
-theory gives a coherent account of the development of life on this planet and
-the various principles underlying it, such as natural selection, I am not
-persuaded that it answers the fundamental question of the origin of life.
-Darwin himself, I gather, did not see this as an issue. Furthermore, there
-appears to be a certain circularity in the notion of "survival of the
-fittest." The theory of natural selection maintains that, of the random
-mutations that occur in the genes of a given species, those that promote the
-greatest chance of survival are most likely to succeed. However, the only
-way this hypothesis can be verified is to observe the characteristics of
-those mutations that have survived. So in a sense, we are stating simply
-this: "Because these genetic mutations have survived, they are the ones that
-had the greatest chance of survival."
- From the Buddhist perspective, the idea of these mutations being purely
-random events is deeply unsatisfying for a theory that purports to explain the
-origin of life. ...One empirical problem in Darwinism's focus on the
-competitive survival of individuals, which is defined in terms of an
-organism's struggle for individual reproductive success, has consistently been
-how to explain altruism, whether in the sense of collaborative behavior, such
-as food sharing or conflict resolution among animals like chimpanzees or acts
-of self-sacrifice. There are many examples, not only among human beings but
-among other species as well, of individuals who put themselves in danger to
-save others.
- ...From the scientific view, the theory of karma may be a metaphysical
-assumption--but it is no more so than the assumption that all of life is
-material and originated out of pure chance.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Universe in a Single Atom: Convergence of
- Science and Spirituality"
-~
- Praising others should be part of our daily life and a component of our
-Dharma practice. Imagine what our life would be like if we trained our minds
-to dwell on others' talents and good attributes. We would feel much happier
-and so would they! We would get along better with others, and our families,
-work environments, and living situations would be much more harmonious. We
-plants the seeds from such positive actions on our mindstream, creating the
-cause for harmonious relationships and success in our spiritual and temporal
-aims.
- An interesting experiment is to try to say something nice to or about
-someone every day for a month. Try it. It makes us much more aware of what
-we say and why. It encourages us to change our perspective so that we notice
-others' good qualities. Doing so also improves our relationships
-tremendously.
- A few years ago, I gave this as a homework assignment at a Dharma class,
-encouraging people to try to praise even someone they didn't like very much.
-The next week I asked the students how they did. One man said that the first
-day he had to make something up in order to speak positively to a fellow
-colleague. But after that, the man was so much nicer to him that it was easy
-to see his good qualities and speak about them!
- -- Thubten Chodron, "Taming the Mind", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many. -- Unknown
-~
-To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.
- --Unknown
-~
-He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
- -- Benjamin Franklin
-~
- If, after having performed a virtuous action and accumulated its potency,
-that potency remained without degenerating until its fruit issued forth in
-either this or a future life, it would not be so fragile. But that is not the
-case. Rather, the generation of a strong nonvirtuous state of mind, such as
-anger, overpowers the capacity of a virtuously established potency so that it
-cannot issue forth, much like scorching a seed. Conversely, the generation of
-a strong virtuous attitude overpowers potencies established by nonvirtues,
-making them unable to issue their effects. Thus it is necessary not only to
-achieve many powerful constructive causes but also to avoid contrary forces
-that would cause those beneficial causes to degenerate.
- The good actions required for accumulating these causes, or potencies,
-arise from a tamed mind, whereas bad actions arise from an untamed mind.
-Common beings like us have been accustomed to an untamed mind since
-beginningless time. Given this predisposition, we can conclude that actions
-performed with an untamed mind are more powerful for us and actions performed
-with a tamed mind are weaker. It is important to appreciate that this
-excellent life support of a human body that we now possess is a wholesome
-result of many powerful good actions from a tamed mind in the past. It was
-very difficult to gain, and, since it is very rare, you must take care to use
-it well, making sure that it is not wasted.
- ...If this human endowment, so difficult to attain, were stable and
-permanent--not prone to deterioration--there would be time later to make use
-of it. However, this life-support system is fragile and easily disintegrates
-from many external and internal causes. Aryadeva's "Four Hundred Stanzas on
-the Yogic Deeds of Bodhisattvas" says that once the body depends on the four
-elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, which themselves oppose each other,
-physical happiness is just an occasional balance of these elements, not an
-enduring harmony.
- ...So this human body is a precious endowment, potent and yet fragile.
-Simply by virtue of being alive, you are at a very important juncture, and
-carry a great responsibility. Powerful good can be achieved for yourself and
-others, so becoming distracted by the minor affairs of this lifetime would be
-a tremendous waste. You should make wishes to use this lifetime in this body
-effectively and make petitions to your guru, the three refuges, and other
-sources of help. In doing so, urge yourself on from the inside and seek
-assistance from the outside.....
- In sum, since this human body, which supports your life, is beneficial,
-was difficult to gain, and easily disintegrates, you should use it for your
-benefit and that of others. Benefits come from a tamed mind: When your mind
-is peaceful, relaxed, and happy, external pleasures such as good food,
-clothing, and conversation make things even better, but their absence does not
-overpower you. If your mind is not peaceful and tamed, no matter how
-marvelous the external circumstances are, you will be burdened by frights,
-hopes, and fears. With a tamed mind, you will enjoy wealth or poverty, health
-or sickness, you can even die happily. With a tamed mind, having many friends
-is wonderful, but if you have no friends, it is all right, too. The root of
-your own happiness and welfare rests with a peaceful and tamed mind.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Mind of Clear Light: Advice on Living Well
- and Dying Consciously", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D.
-~
- One of the reasons there is a need to adopt a strong countermeasure
-against someone who harms you is that, if you let it pass, there is a danger
-of that person becoming habituated to extremely negative actions, which in the
-long run will cause that person's own downfall and is very destructive for the
-individual himself or herself. Therefore a strong countermeasure, taken out
-of compassion or a sense of concern for the other, is necessary. When you are
-motivated by that realization, then there is a sense of concern as part of
-your motive for taking that strong measure.
- ...One of the reasons why there is some ground to feel compassionate
-toward a perpetrator of crime or an aggressor is that the aggressor, because
-he or she is perpetrating a crime, is at the causal stage, accumulating the
-causes and conditions that later lead to undesirable consequences. So, from
-that point of view, there is enough ground to feel compassionate toward the
-aggressor.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a
- Buddhist Perspective", translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- What do you think would be the chief obstacle in recognizing that each
-individual person has been kind to you? In my case, I was afraid of having to
-return the kindness, because then I'd be under the control of these people. I
-didn't want to do what my parents wanted me to do, although they gave me a lot
-of slack--I left college after my first year, went to the woods of Vermont,
-went to Tahiti, all on my own with whatever cash I earned. I didn't fit into
-the upper-middle-class community where we lived. I didn't want their control;
-the lifestyle they were pushing on me was completely unappealing. Therefore,
-I refused to recognize their kindness.
- However, assuming a debt with respect to every sentient being differs
-greatly from having a debt to a few. In this meditation, you start with
-friends, then neutral persons, and then enemies and contemplate: "I will
-return the debt of kindness that I have with this person through helping her
-or him achieve happiness." It is easy to determine that the response to all
-sentient beings' kindness cannot be to do everything they want, since, with so
-many people, what they want from you would be at cross-purposes. You cannot
-even do everything your mother of this lifetime wants you to do, though you
-know her advice is, for the most part, motivated by kindness....
- Those who help us--our parents, for instance--often attain power over us
-for that very reason: "Do as I say because I have helped you." Thus, for some,
-it becomes almost a mental habit to refuse to recognize those who have helped
-us, because they otherwise would attain some power over us. Still, we know we
-should return their many kindnesses. That is one reason why the practice of
-reflecting, "This person has helped me in many intimate ways and thus I must
-do something in return," gets to be uncomfortable, but when it is extended to
-more and more beings, we have to find a way of intending to return their
-kindness without coming under their misguided influence.
- ...one cannot do everything all those sentient beings want. There are so
-many of them, and they want such contradictory things. Besides, to fulfill
-what they temporarily want may not be the best way to help them. The greatest
-of all ways to return their kindness is to help them become free from all
-suffering and to assist in the process of becoming liberated from cyclic
-existence and attaining the bliss of Buddhahood. It is important to realize
-here in the step of developing an intention to return others' kindness that
-acknowledging a debt does not mean that you must do what they say. Otherwise,
-you might hold back from the truth of their attentive care.
- --Jeffrey Hopkins, "A Truthful Heart: Buddhist Practices for Connecting
- with Others", foreword by the Dalai Lama, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- ...Nagarjuna's Fundamental Treatise says, "That which arises dependently
-we explain as emptiness. This [emptiness] is dependent designation; this is
-the middle way." His Refutation of Objections says, "I bow down to the
-Buddha, the unequaled, supreme teacher, who taught that emptiness, dependent
-arising, and the middle way hold a single meaning."
- For Tsong-kha-pa, the compatibility of emptiness and dependent arising is
-the very heart of the Madhyamaka view and the key to the path. Dependent
-arising means that things come into being in dependence upon causes and
-conditions. Understanding dependent arising correctly refutes the idea that
-things exist in and of themselves--because they must depend on other things.
-In the same moment, it also refutes the nihilist extreme--because it shows
-that things do arise, they do come into existence, and they affect one
-another. Thus, Tsong-kha-pa advises that if you think that you may have found
-the profound view of emptiness, you should check to see if you have negated
-too much. Can this "emptiness" you have discovered be reconciled with the
-mere existence of things that arise interdependently? If not, then you are
-certainly mistaken.
- ...The point is that one cannot become a buddha without both compassionate
-action and nondual wisdom--and one cannot have these two types of path without
-both of the two truths, conventional and ultimate. If only emptiness existed
-and there were, in fact, no conventional truths, then there would be no living
-beings, no suffering to relieve; thus there would be no compassionate action;
-and thus there would be no buddhahood. Therefore, maintaining the
-compatibility of the two truths--the compatibility of emptiness and dependent
-arising--is crucial to the whole of the Dharma.
- -- Guy Newland, "Introduction to Emptiness: As Taught in Tsong-kha-pa's
- Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path", published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-Anything that can be done chemically can be done by other means.
- -- William S. Burroughs
-~
- ...let us discuss true sources of suffering. The fact that sufferings are
-not always produced but are produced in some places at some times and cease at
-some times and in some places indicates that they are caused. Logically, it
-can be said that sufferings are caused because of being produced occasionally.
-If sufferings were produced causelessly, either they would never exist or they
-would always exist.
- Since sufferings are caused, one needs to look into what their causes are.
-In the Buddhist systems, the causes are explained to be contaminated actions
-and afflictive emotions....
- For instance, if I had an angry feeling, this could serve as a motivating
-force that would lead to a harsh attitude, harsh speech, and harsh physical
-gestures. Since the anger that serves as the motivating factor is a
-defIlement--an afflictive emotion--the physical and verbal actions done
-through that motivating force are negative karmas, negative actions. Through
-them, the atmosphere immediately changes into one of tension. Right away, I
-might not feel the effects of those actions, perhaps even feeling that I had
-gained a victory over someone, even shouting, "I have won." However, later I
-will feel very sorry and shy, deep down experiencing a guilty conscience.
-Similarly, those around me would immediately lose their tranquility and peace.
-These are painful results of actions impelled by a bad motivation. This is
-the law of karma--motivation, action, result.
- Conversely, a good, open, sincere motivation such as compassion with a
-deep respect for others impels verbal and physical actions that immediately
-create a peaceful, harmonious, enjoyable atmosphere. Due to that, I feel
-happy and calm, enjoying that atmosphere, and others around me also enjoy the
-same. Therefore, bad motivation creates problems, suffering, and pain,
-whereas good motivation creates happiness and peacefulness--something good.
- This is the general explanation. On a deeper level, right at the time of
-an action, predisposing potencies are instilled in the consciousness. The
-performance of an action establishes a predisposing potency in the mind that,
-in the future, will serve as the causal condition for one's experiencing a
-good or bad effect.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Dalai Lama at Harvard: Lectures on the
- Buddhist Path to Peace", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-(Each day before breakfast the founder and abbess of Sravasti Abbey, Thubten
-Chodron, gives a morning motivation for residents and guests. Below is a
-teaching given during March 2008.)
-
-Quiet Place
-
- Have you ever had this experience? You walk outside, and all of a sudden
-the silence strikes you--it's in such sharp contrast to the chatter that's
-going on in the mind.
- We live in a very quiet place. We walk outside and it's pretty quiet--a
-few birds chirping, sun shining. Then suddenly the chatter in the mind stops
-because we see that it's just chatter. It's in such stark contrast to the
-silence that's outside.
- We want to learn to notice that chatter before we even have to walk
-outside. And we want to be able to find that quiet place inside ourselves and
-keep it with us, so that even when we're in a place where there is a lot of
-noise, the mind can be quiet.
- All that mental chatter is basically negative conceptualization. If we
-were thinking about emptiness or developing compassion with that kind of
-mental activity, fine! Continue that outside, inside, everywhere. But most
-of the time what's going on is, "I like this. I don't like this. I want
-this. I don't want that. Why does this person do this? Why don't they do
-that?" That kind of mental activity makes the mind quite stressful as well
-as accumulates negative karma and wastes a great deal of time.
- As soon as we can catch it and be aware of what's going on in our mind,
-and come back to that silent space inside, the more peaceful we'll be. Our
-lives will be more productive in terms of having the Dharma grow in our
-hearts, and we'll be more focused in whatever daily activities we're doing.
-We won't be quite so distracted.
- -- Thubten Chodron, author of numerous books, including Buddhism for
- Beginners; Taming the Mind; Open Heart, Clear Mind; and Working
- with Anger
-~
- ...if people have compassion, naturally that's something they can count
-on; even if they have economic problems and their fortune declines, they still
-have something to share with fellow human beings. World economies are always
-so tenuous and we are subject to so many losses in life, but a compassionate
-attitude is something that we can always carry with us.
- ...Of course, in attempting to explain to someone the importance of
-compassion, in some cases, you might be dealing with a very hardened,
-individualistic, and selfish person, someone concerned only with her or his
-own interests. And it is even possible that there are people who may not have
-the capacity to empathize with even someone whom they love or who may be close
-to them. But even to such people, it is still possible to present the
-importance of compassion and love on the grounds that it's the best way to
-fulfill their self-interests. They wish to have good health, live a longer
-life, and have peace of mind, happiness, and joy. And if these are things
-that they desire, I've heard that there is scientific evidence that these
-things can be enhanced by feelings of love and compassion.
- ...educating someone about these facts and scientific studies could
-certainly encourage some people to cultivate a more compassionate state of
-mind. But I think that, even aside from scientific studies, there are other
-arguments that people could understand and appreciate from their own practical
-or direct everyday experience. For example, you could point out that lack of
-compassion leads to a certain ruthlessness. There are many examples
-indicating that at some level deep down, ruthless people generally suffer from
-a kind of unhappiness and discontent, people like Stalin and Hitler. Such
-people suffer from a kind of nagging sense of insecurity and fear. Even when
-they are sleeping I think that sense of fear remains... these people lack
-something that you can find in a more compassionate person--a sense of
-freedom, a sense of abandonment, so when you sleep you can relax and let go.
-Ruthless people never have that experience. Something is always gripping
-them; there is some kind of hold on them, and they aren't able to experience
-that feeling of letting go, that sense of freedom.
- ...There are always different degrees of benefit that one might receive
-from practicing various methods and techniques, depending on one's particular
-circumstances.... First, through learning, thoroughly understanding the value
-of compassion--this gives you a feeling of conviction and determination.
-Then, employing methods to enhance empathy, such as using your imagination,
-your creativity, to visualize yourself in another's situation. And certain
-exercises or practices that you can undertake, such as Tong-Len, serve to
-strengthen your compassion. But I think it's important to remember that these
-techniques... were developed to help as many as possible, at least some
-portion of the human population. But it was never expected that these
-techniques could help 100 percent of people, the entire human population.
- ...the main point really, if we are talking about various methods to
-develop compassion, the important thing is that people make a sincere effort
-to develop their capacity for compassion. If they make their best efforts to
-be kinder, to cultivate compassion and make the world a better place, then at
-the end of the day they can say, "At least I've done my best!"
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D., "The Art of
- Happiness: A Handbook for Living"
-~
- In ascertaining luminous clarity at the time of the path, the general
-technique is to rest evenly in the very essence of luminous clarity. Telopa
-said:
-
- Rest relaxed within the uncontrived native state;
- Bonds are released and freedom is sure.
-
- This and other such instructions are expressed unanimously by the mighty
-adepts. Accordingly, with the body in the seven-point posture of meditative
-stability, the mind rests without support, relaxed and uncontrived. This will
-create the unerring yogic direct perception of emptiness. This is the
-ultimate esoteric instruction of the completion phase found in the profound
-tantras. The reason is that once the vital points of the vajra body, which is
-the support, are bound, the mind, eyes, and energy currents remain in a state
-of nonthought. Because of the special interconnection between body and mind,
-the movement in the right and left channels is stopped and immobilized within
-the central channel, causing the direct experience of mahamudra, emptiness
-with aspects.
- Therefore the luminous mind, which is the supported, is realized as empty
-appearance arising as the mahamudra of forms of emptiness. This, again,
-depends on the dissolution of the energy currents of the right and left
-channels in the central channel, the supreme support. There is no more
-profound method for affecting this dissolution than resting the mind once it
-is uncontrived and relaxed. Therefore, in all the esoteric instructions of
-highest tantra, this is called "the esoteric instruction of withdrawal" in the
-presentations.
- -- Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, "The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Eight, Part
- Four: Esoteric Instructions, A Detailed Presentation of the Process of
- Meditation in Vajrayana", trans. and annot. by Sarah Harding, foreword
- by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
- -- Mahatma Gandhi
-~
-Dignity does not consist in a silk dress. -- A saying from the Orient
-~
- To solve the problems humanity is facing, we need to organize meetings of
-scholars, educators, social workers, neuroscientists, physicians, and experts
-from all fields to discuss the positive and negative sides of what we have
-done thus far, as well as what needs to be introduced and what needs to be
-changed in our educational system. Proper environment plays a crucial role in
-the healthy growth of a child. All problems, including terrorism, can be
-overcome through education, particularly by introducing concern for all others
-at the preschool level.
- Living in society, we must share the suffering of our fellow citizens and
-practice compassion and tolerance not only toward our loved ones but also
-toward our enemies. This is the test of our moral strength. We must set an
-example by our own practice. We must live by the same high standards of
-integrity we seek to convey to others. The ultimate purpose is to serve and
-benfit the world.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "How to See Yourself As You Really Are",
- translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D.
-~
- "When Tibet was still free, we cultivated our natural isolation,
-mistakenly thinking that we could prolong our peace and security that way.
-Consequently, we paid little attention to the changes taking place in the
-world outside. Later, we learned the hard way that in the international
-arena, as well as at home, freedom is something to be shared and enjoyed in
-the company of others, not kept to yourself." Budapest, 1994
- "I believe that Tibet will be free only when its people become strong, and
-hatred is not strength. It is a weakness. The Lord Buddha was not being
-religious, in the popular sense of the term, when he said that hatred does not
-cease by hatred. Rather, he was being practical. Any achievement attained
-through hatred [can only invite] trouble sooner or later." Statement, 10 March
-1971
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Pocket Dalai Lama" compiled and edited by
- Mary Craig
-~
- Persons from orally oriented cultures, writes Ong, tend to project their
-sensibilities, to see them expressed in the world around them. More widely
-literate cultures create persons who tend to withdraw for insight into their
-own personal psyches. Orally oriented peoples may thus be more inclined than
-persons in print-dominated cultures to set their feelings or experiences in
-the space around them, including the invisible spirits presumed to occupy that
-space, and less likely to project these feelings and experiences onto
-individual persons. In Tibet lineages or sects are the most likely targets of
-negative projections. Western print-oriented persons are more likely to
-project their feelings onto other individuals, especially people in
-significant relationships with them. Unlike Tibet, or the premodern West, the
-contemporary West tends to identify the mind as the exclusive locus of ideas,
-feelings, and values. With this localization, the mind becomes "psychic" in a
-new sense, distinct from bodily soma and from the larger world.
- This very different configuration of personhood affects the way Westerners
-are likely to understand the Great Bliss Queen practice. For example, there
-is a tendency among Westerners for "visualization" to be a more disembodied
-practice than it is for Tibetans. The point in imagining oneself as the Great
-Bliss Queen is not just to replace one visual image of oneself with another,
-as if observing a changing scene in a movie theater, but to experience a
-physical as well as mental shift from deep inside the body.
- -- Anne Carolyn Klein, "Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists,
- and the Art of the Self", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...when you recognize how kind someone has been to you, you are using an
-ordinary worldly attitude to help keep you from responses of hatred. For
-instance, if someone gave me a grant with a blank check to form a team of
-translators of Tibetan thought, I would be more than extremely pleased. Now
-if the person who gave me the money came by someday and gave me a hard time, I
-would feel a measure of restraint due to reflecting on the person's kindness.
-I would seek other means to work things out with the person. When you reflect
-how kind every person has been, there is that restraint to the point where,
-believe it or not, trained Buddhists will look at a fly or an ant walking
-across the table and think, "This is someone who bore me in her womb in a
-former lifetime, who took care of me."
- If you watch how mothers take precautions for a child in the womb, it is
-clear that they do a great deal to help it. They eat nourishing foods and
-avoid harmful substances like coffee, alcohol, nicotine, and drugs. If you
-reflect on how such a mother takes care of the child in the womb and extend
-this reflection to all sentient beings, I think that because your field of
-awareness is no longer just a few sentient beings but is gradually expanding
-to more and more, you can reflect on the mother's kindness without doing it
-merely because you were helped. The staggering debt deflates your sense of
-exaggerated importance. The boil is pricked.
- -- Jeffrey Hopkins, "A Truthful Heart: Buddhist Practices for Connecting
- with Others", foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-He that can have patience can have what he will. -- Benjamin Franklin
-~
-One generation plants the trees, and another gets the shade.
- -- Chinese proverb
-~
-Most men are within a finger's breadth of being mad. -- Diogenes the Cynic
-~
-Fashion is something that goes in one year and out the other. -- Unknown
-~
-I'm a born-again atheist. -- Gore Vidal
-~
- Buddha's teachings on non-manifest phenomena, such as the extremely subtle
-presentations of actions and their effect--which are very hidden phenomena--
-cannot be proved with reasoning. How then can they be verified?
- There is no need to verify manifest phenomena through reasoning because
-they appear directly to the senses. The slightly hidden, however, can be
-proved with reasoning that generates inferential understanding, and since
-emptiness is very profound but only slightly hidden, it is accessible to
-reasoning.
- ...very hidden phenomena cannot be proved with reasoning, and it seems
-that Buddha can say whatever he likes. However, through our own experience we
-can confirm Buddha's teachings on more important topics such as emptiness, the
-altruistic mind of enlightenment, love, and compassion, for no matter who
-analyses--Buddhist or non-Buddhist--or how much one analyses, if the person is
-not biased through desire or hatred, these teachings can bear analysis and
-serve as powerful sources of thought. When you see that Buddha does not err
-with regard to these more important phenomena, you can accept his other
-presentations.
- ...The process of cyclic existence and the eradication of it can be proved
-by the reasoning that establishes the misconception of inherent existence as
-its root cause and establishes the wisdom cognising emptiness as its antidote.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Tantra in
- Tibet", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Meditation on [or cultivation of] the six deities is like faith or love
-meditation in that the mind is being generated into the entity of the object
-meditated. When faith or love are meditated, those two are not the object
-observed but the entity into which the consciousness is being generated.
-Meditation on impermanence or emptiness, on the other hand, means to take
-these as the object and meditate on them. Thus, there are two types of
-meditation--of a subjective aspect and on an objective aspect. Meditation on
-the six deities is the former, for first one generates a wisdom consciousness
-knowing the sameness in suchness of oneself and the deity--the ultimate--and
-then causes it to appear as the sounds, letters, and finally the form of the
-deity.
- --His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa, and Jeffrey Hopkins,
- "Deity Yoga in Action and Performance Tantra", published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- Once we realize emptiness, all phenomena are included within this reality,
-which is not separate from the cause and effect of karma and which is free of
-mental constructs. On this ultimate level of realization, it is possible to
-state that there is no wholesome or unwholesome action. When we have realized
-the nature of all phenomena, negative actions naturally subside and positive
-ones are spontaneously accomplished. Until this time, however, we would be
-slipping into nihilism if we said that the phenomena of relative truth, such
-as positive and negative actions or karma, do not exist.
- Just knowing this authentic view, however, is not enough. For others to
-be able to experience it, we must also know the scriptures and reasonings so
-that we can teach. Without the support of this knowledge, it will be
-difficult for others to trust what we say, and so Milarepa speaks of scripture
-and reasoning as an adornment to realization.
-
- Dissolving thoughts into the dharmakaya--
- Is this not meditation naturally arising?
- Join it with experience
- To make it beautifully adorned.
-
- One way to understand meditation is to see it as a practice of working
-with the many thoughts that arise in our mind. With realization they arise as
-mere appearances of the dharmakaya, the natural arising of mind's essential
-nature. Being clear about this true nature of thought is called "attaining
-the level of natural arising." At this point, there is no difference in any
-thought that may arise, because we see the nature of each thought to be
-emptiness, arising as the dharmakaya. Meditation could be defined as
-realizing the dharmakaya of the Buddha.
- -- Michele Martin, "Music in the Sky: The Life, Art & Teachings of the
- 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Who is the supreme friend
- always helpful in times of need?
- Mindfulness of the spiritual instructions
- learned through study and contemplation.
- -- The Seventh Dalai Lama
-
- Ordinary friends desert us when we fall on hard times or become an
-inconvenience in their lives. Others simply disappear into their own
-destinies. Even our spiritual teachers eventually die and leave us behind.
- Our practice of the Dharma, however, that has been cultivated by means of
-study, contemplation and meditation, is the one sure anchor that keeps our
-ship stable when the seas become choppy. In fact, the more difficult the
-situation we encounter, the more helpful it is to us.
- When the Buddha had become very old and was preparing to pass away,
-several of his disciples were overcome with grief. They asked him, "What
-will we do after you are gone?" He replied, "Whenever you rely upon my
-teachings, at that time I am there with you."
- The Second Dalai Lama wrote, "When we know how to rely on the Dharma, we
-are able to be happy in every situation. Where could one find a more
-trustworthy and reliable friend?"
- -- Glenn H. Mullin, "Gems of Wisdom from the Seventh Dalai Lama",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- I always believe that each individual human being has some kind of
-responsibility for humanity as a whole. Particularly, I always believe that
-as scientists, you have a special responsibility. Besides your own
-profession, you have a basic motivation to serve humanity, to try to produce
-better, happier human beings. Whether we understand consciousness or not, we
-must produce warm-hearted persons. That is important. I want to express
-that. Whenever I meet scientists, I always have to say this.
- Through my own profession, I try my best to contribute as much as I can.
-This proceeds without my being concerned whether another person agrees with my
-philosophy or not. Some people may be very much against my belief, my
-philosophy, but I feel alright. So long as I see that a human being suffers
-or has needs, I shall contribute as much as I can to contribute to their
-benefit. Scientists and medically qualified people can contribute especially.
-That's different; that's a particular context. A human being needs to be
-cared for according to your professional calling. You can contribute; that's
-your shared professional responsibility
- -- H. H. the Dalai Lama, "Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations
- with the Dalai Lama on Brain Science and Buddhism", edited by Zara
- Houshmand, Robert B. Livingston, and B. Alan Wallace, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...while walking in a park the body may be in the park while the mind is
-off working in the office, or at home, or talking to a distant friend, or
-making a list of groceries. That means the mind has disconnected from the
-body. Instead, when looking at a flower, really look at it. Be fully
-present. With the help of the flower, bring the mind back to the park.
-Appreciation for sensory experience reconnects mind and body. When the
-experience of the flower is felt throughout the body, a healing occurs; this
-can be the same when seeing a tree, smelling smoke, feeling the cloth of your
-shirt, hearing a bird call, or tasting an apple. Train yourself to vividly
-experience sensory objects without judgment. Try completely to be the eye
-with form, the nose with smell, the ear with sound, and so on. Try to be
-complete in experience while remaining in just the bare awareness of the
-sensory object.
- When this ability is developed, reactions will still occur. Upon seeing
-the flower, judgements about its beauty will arise, or a smell may be judged
-to be foul. Even so, with practice the connection to the pure sensory
-experience can be maintained rather than continuing to become lost in the
-mind's distraction. Being distracted by a cloud of concepts is a habit and it
-can be replaced with a new habit: using bodily sensual experience to bring us
-to presence, to connect us to the beauty of the world, to the vivid and
-nourishing experience of life that lies under our distractions. This is the
-underpinning of successful dream yoga.
- -- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, "The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep",
- edited by Mark Dahlby, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- To succeed in practicing any form of tantra, it is necessary first to
-train in developing the altruistic intention to become enlightened. Dzong-
-ka-ba says that this needs to be done "in accordance with the quintessential
-instructions," these being found in his Great Exposition of the Stages of the
-Path to Enlightenment. Specifically, such an altruistic intention is
-generated by way of the seven cause and effect quintessential instructions or
-the equalizing and switching of self and other. To do those, it is necessary
-to identify what liberation is and to develop an awareness seeking liberation,
-for which it is necessary to reflect on the three types of suffering and
-develop an intention to turn away from over-emphasizing the appearances of
-this life and then to turn away from over-emphasizing the appearances of
-future lives, developing an intention to leave such cyclic existence entirely,
-whereupon it is possible to reflect on how others suffer and develop
-compassion. Done continuously over a long period of time, at best one should
-develop a fully qualified altruistic intention to become enlightened, and at
-least one should develop such an intention from the depths of the heart.
- With such altruism as your basic motivation it is possible to receive
-initiation and take the pledges that lay out a type of behavior conducive to
-enlightenment.
- ...nowadays some people look on the practice of religion as if it were
-something that causes them to lose their freedom. Opposite to this, rules
-[for controlling counter-productive ill-deeds and overcoming afflictive
-emotions] are for the sake of utilizing your freedom to develop the limitless
-qualities of Buddhahood, in the quest for which you should never be satisfied.
-Toward material things, which necessarily have a limit, it is best to be
-satisfied with what you have, but with regard to the limitless development of
-spiritual qualities, you should never be satisfied with a mere portion, but
-continually seek higher development. The rules themselves make your mind
-conducive to such progress, so there is no reason to be uptight about them.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Dzong-ka-ba and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Yoga Tantra:
- Paths to Magical Feats", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The practice of Dzogchen may begin with doing fixation on an object, in
-order to calm one's thoughts. Then one relaxes the fixation, dissolving the
-dependence on the object, and one fixes one's gaze in open space. Then, when
-one succeeds in making the calm state stable, it is important to work with the
-movement of one's thoughts and one's energy, integrating this movement with
-the presence of contemplation. At this point one is ready to apply
-contemplation in one's daily life. The system of practice just described is
-characteristic of the Series of the Nature of the Mind, but that is not to say
-that in Dzogchen one must necessarily begin with fixation and meditation on a
-calm state. In the Series of Primordial Space, and the Series of Secret
-Instructions, for example, one enters directly into the practice of
-contemplation. Particularly in the former, there are very precise
-instructions on how to find the pure state of contemplation. In the latter,
-on the other hand, the explanations are mainly concerned with how one
-continues in contemplation in all circumstances.
- The practice of contemplation is concisely explained in the line that
-reads, "but vision nevertheless manifests: all is good." Even if the
-condition of "what is" cannot be grasped with the mind, the whole
-manifestation of the primordial state, including our karmic vision, does
-nevertheless exist. All the various aspects of forms, colours, and so on,
-continue to arise without interruption. When we find ourselves in
-contemplation, this doesn't mean that our impure vision just disappears
-and pure vision manifests instead. If we have a physical body, there is a
-karmic cause for that, so there would be no sense in trying to abandon or
-deny the situation we find ourselves in. We just need to be aware of it.
-If we have a vision of the material, physical level of existence, which is
-the cause of so very many problems, we need to understand that this vision
-is only the gross aspect of the colours, which are the essence of the elements.
- -- Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, "Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State", edited by
- Adriano Clemente, translated by John Shane, published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Don't think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm.
- -- Malayan Proverb
-~
- A tantric yogi who has gained control of the subtle energies of the body
-and the subtle levels of consciousness will have control over the inner and
-outer elements and consequently can transform his or her ordinary samsaric
-form into a joyous rainbow body. But until we can do this, we have to accept
-the fact that our physical basis is a magnet attracting every kind of
-discomfort and pain.
- ...This samsaric body keeps us running all of our lives. We have to run
-to fulfill its endless needs, to keep it away from things that may harm it,
-and to protect it from anything unpleasant. We have to give it pleasure and
-comfort. We become ordained, and at first this is very satisfactory; but soon
-our body makes it so difficult for us that we think our practice would be less
-disturbed if we were to live as a layperson. So we give up and return to
-ordinary life; but then we end up with a family to support, leaving us with no
-time or energy for meditation. We have the pressing tasks of feeding,
-clothing, and sheltering our children, and of arranging their education and so
-forth. Our lives are spent alternating between work and worry, with
-occasional short periods of pleasure, and then we have to die; but even this
-we cannot do in peace, for, when we lie down to die, our last thoughts are
-worried ones concerning the family we are leaving behind. Such is the nature
-of worldly existence.
- ...To care for our old people--these ones who have given us our body, our
-life, and our culture--is a sacred duty of humanity. But most humans act more
-like animals than people, and often we see old people who have been abandoned
-by their families. Family units were very strong in Tibet, and old people
-were usually cared for directly by relatives. The national care for the old
-that we see in the West is something very good, a healthy sign, although
-perhaps here the spiritual and psychological basis is somewhat lacking.
- The suffering of old age is something we all must face, unless we die
-prematurely. There is nothing we can do about it. Gone will be that false
-sense of personal ability and strength that made us so proud when we were
-young. Instead, helpers or friends will bathe us, dress us, spoonfeed us, and
-have to take us to the toilet. Rather than live under the delusion of
-permanence, we should engage in spiritual training so that we can enter old
-age at least with the grace of wisdom.
- ...So we can see that this body indeed causes us much grief in this life
-and, sadly, in their quest to satisfy its many needs, most people just collect
-an endless stream of negative karmic instincts that will lead them to lower
-rebirths in the future. These are the sufferings of the human world.
- ...The important point here is to become aware of the third type of
-suffering, the subtle suffering that pervades all imperfect existence, the
-all-pervading misery concomitant with having a perishable, samsaric base....
-[All are] enmeshed in suffering because the nature of their body and mind is
-bound with compulsive cyclic processes. Until we develop the wisdom that is
-able to free the mind from these compelling forces, there is no doubt that we
-shall experience suffering throughout our lives, and that we shall continue to
-wander endlessly in the wheel of birth, life, death, and rebirth where the
-presence of misery can always be felt.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Enlightenment", edited and translated
- by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Observing the Mind Itself
-
- The primary meditative technique of great perfection is remaining in the
-state of pure awareness. This is accomplished by calming the mind and then
-abiding in comprehension of its basic clear light nature. The meditative
-practice involves being cognizant of the arising and passing away of feelings,
-emotions, sensations, etc., but understanding them within the context of pure
-awareness. The more one does this, the more one realizes that all phenomena
-arise from mind and remerge into it. They are of the nature of pure awareness
-and are a projection of luminosity and emptiness. Through cultivating this
-understanding, mental phenomena of their own accord begin to subside, allowing
-the clear light nature of mind to become manifest. They appear as reflections
-on the surface of a mirror and are perceived as illusory, ephemeral, and
-nonsubstantial.
- Those who succeed in this practice attain a state of radical freedom:
-there are no boundaries, no presuppositions, and no habits on which to rely.
-One perceives things as they are in their naked reality. Ordinary beings view
-phenomena through a lens clouded by concepts and preconceptions, and most of
-the world is overlooked or ignored. The mind of the great perfection adept,
-however, is unbounded, and everything is possible. For many beginners, this
-prospect is profoundly disquieting, because since beginningless time we have
-been constricted by rules, laws, assumptions, and previous actions. One who
-is awakened, however, transcends all such limitations; there is no ground on
-which to stand, no limits, nothing that must be done, and no prohibitions.
-This awareness is bottomless, unfathomable, immeasurable, permeated by joy,
-unboundedness, and exhilaration. One is utterly free, and one's state of mind
-is as expansive as space. Those who attain this level of awareness also
-transcend physicality and manifest the "rainbow body" ('ja lus), a form
-comprising pure light that cannot decay, which has no physical aspects, and
-which is coterminous with the nature of mind.
- -- John Powers, "A Concise Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism", published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from happening.
- -- Barbara Tober
-~
-In a democracy it's your vote that counts;
-in feudalism, it's your Count that votes.
- -- Mogens Jallberg
-~
-You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. -- Indira Gandhi
-~
-Luck is what you have left over after you give 100 percent.
- -- Langston Coleman
-~
-Every child is an artist. The problem is how to
-remain an artist once he grows up.
- -- Pablo Picasso
-~
- Among Tibetans, at least traditionally, the economic conditions are such
-that this nine-to-five daily employment isn't really an important part of
-[working life]. In Tibet, either you are a farmer or a nomad or a merchant.
-The work is seasonal.... During the season they work very hard, and when they
-finish they come back and don't have any employment.
- ...in modern society, and particularly in industrialized nations, the
-issue of unemployment is a very difficult situation. There are no easy
-answers. One has no choice but to try to cope, and make one's best effort to
-find new work. There is just no other solution.
- However, the basic attitude of the individual plays a very significant
-role, and can make a big difference in how someone responds. While we may not
-have control over our situation, our attitude is something that we have some
-control over. So first, what we need to realize is that uncertainty and
-change are very much a part of the modern economy, particularly with regard to
-employment. That is a serious problem, but a fact that we have to accept.
-There is no guarantee that there will be a job tomorrow if you are working
-today. So, if we understand this ahead of time, it may change how we respond
-when that happens. Then we won't feel so surprised, as if we are singled out.
-We understand that the loss of a job has many factors, the result of many
-causes and conditions. We will understand that, in many cases, it may even
-have roots in global economic issues. This way, we won't become so upset by
-taking it personally, or looking around us for someone to blame for our
-problems. This alone may help reduce our mental agitation. Of course, here
-we are talking about unemployment due to some wider causes or layoffs, not due
-to being fired because of one's own incompetence.
- So there might be different ways in which individuals will respond to the
-challenges of change. What is important is to acknowledge this fact and try
-to work out how best to cope with the immediate problem itself. For example,
-if you need employment as a means of your livelihood and if you become
-unemployed, then all your efforts should be put into looking for new
-employment so that your livelihood will be secure. But there are two
-different responses. One person may feel demoralized and become sort of
-paralyzed, thinking, There is no hope, I lost my job, what am I supposed to
-do? But another individual in the same situation might look at it as an
-opportunity to make some changes. As a challenge. So that is the more
-positive way, the more proactive way of dealing with this problem. But of
-course it is not easy.
- There may also be other ways that might help at least reduce the mental
-anxiety of dealing with the situation, so that a person can use all their
-mental energy to find new work. For Buddhists, there are certain thought
-processes and considerations that help--for example, the belief in karma
-[one's actions] and ultimately taking responsibility for one's own karma.
-Although this kind of mental attitude may not have any effect in physically
-resolving the situation, at least it will help ease the individual from the
-psychological effect of losing the job, and so on. And of course, believers
-in other religious systems can also take some consolation in their own
-beliefs.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Dr. Howard C. Cutler, M.D.,
- "The Art of Happiness at Work"
-~
- Compassion and love are not man-made. Ideology is man-made, but
-compassion and love are produced by nature. It is important to recognize
-natural qualities, especially when we face a problem and fail to find a
-solution. For example... in religious business, sometimes even due to
-religion, we create a problem. If we try to solve that problem using
-religious methods, it is quite certain that we will not succeed. So I feel
-that when we face those kinds of problems, it is important to return to our
-basic human quality. Then I think we will find that solutions come easier.
-Therefore, I usually say that the best way to solve human problems is with
-human understanding.
- It is very important to recognize the basic nature of humanity and the
-value of human qualities. Whether one is educated or uneducated, rich or
-poor, or belongs to this nation or that nation, this religion or that
-religion, this ideology or that ideology, is secondary and doesn't matter.
-When we return to this basis, all people are the same. Then we can truly say
-the words brother, sister; then they are not just nice words--they have some
-meaning. That kind of motivation automatically builds the practice of
-kindness. This gives us inner strength.
- ...Next, let us talk about the human being as a social animal. Even if we
-do not like other people, we have to live together. Natural law is such that
-even bees and other animals have to live together in cooperation. I am
-attracted to bees because I like honey--it is really delicious. Their product
-is something that we cannot produce, very beautiful, isn't it? I exploit them
-too much, I think. Even these insects have certain responsibilities, they
-work together very nicely. They have no constitution, they have no law, no
-police, nothing, but they work together effectively. This is because of
-nature. Similarly, each part of a flower is not arranged by humans but by
-nature. The force of nature is something remarkable. We human beings, we
-have constitutions, we have law, we have a police force, we have religion, we
-have many things. But in actual practice, I think that we are behind those
-small insects.
- Sometimes civilization brings good progress, but we become too involved
-with this progress and neglect or forget about our basic nature. Every
-development in human society should take place on the basis of the foundation
-of the human nature. If we lose that basic foundation, there is no point in
-such developments taking place.
- -- "The Dalai Lama, A Policy of Kindness: An Anthology of Writings By and
- About the Dalai Lama" compiled and edited by Sidney Piburn, Foreword by
- Sen. Claiborne Pell, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Emphasizing neither renunciation nor transformation, though incorporating
-both into its preparatory practices, the Great Completeness provides a
-method know as "self-liberation" (rang 'grol), sometimes described as
-"liberation in its own spot" (rang sar 'grol). Liberation takes place in the
-situation just as it is, because one's mind and all things are, despite
-powerful appearances to the contrary, primordially pure. If one has not yet
-made this essential discovery, the Great Bliss Queen ritual can prepare one
-for it. If one is familiar with the Great Completeness perspective, one
-performs the visualization and recitation of the Great Bliss Queen ritual
-entirely within an experience of innate awareness. In either case, the ritual
-encompasses the three nondualisms already discussed.
- One way of accessing the primordial purity so important to the Great
-Completeness tradition is a practice known as "pure vision." This involves
-visualizing companions, family, surroundings, and so forth as creations of
-light, the habitat of an enlightened being. From the viewpoint of the Great
-Completeness, such pure vision is not an imaginative overlay, but a move
-toward understanding things as they are. As Khetsun Sangpo taught it, this
-practice allows you to understand that apparently ordinary things and persons
-have "been [primordially pure] from the beginning" so that "you are
-identifying their own proper nature. Your senses normally misrepresent what
-is there, but through this visualization you can come closer to what actually
-exists." In short, by identifying one's body, companions, and world with
-those of the Great Bliss Queen, one develops the ability to discover what has
-always been there. This being so, there is no need to renounce or change
-anything, only to see it more completely. This is the Great Completeness
-tradition's special mix of ontological and cognitive nondualisms. Unlike the
-tantric traditions, in which it is necessary to cease the coarse sense and
-mental consciousness in order for the most subtle mind of clear light to
-appear, the Dalai Lama observes that "in the Old [Nyingma] Translation School
-of the Great Completeness it is possible to be introduced to the clear light
-without the cessation of the six operative consciousnesses." Hence the
-possibility of "discovering" what is already in our midst. Such discovery
-reveals a spontaneous presence (yon dan hlun gyis grub ba) of collateral
-qualities such as clarity and spontaneous responsiveness. Thus, comments
-Longchen Rabjam, "primordially pure primordial wisdom is free in the face of
-thought and the primordial wisdom, with a nature of spontaneity, abides as
-primordial radiance, and profound clarity."
- -- Anne Carolyn Klein, "Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists,
- and the Art of the Self", by published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Why is it that meeting our yidam deity directly and receiving the deity's
-blessing are so important? If we are studying texts and wish to become great
-scholars, there are an inconceivable number of the Buddha's teachings along
-with the treatises that comment on them. All these have to be studied
-diligently so that we can come to a basic understanding of their meaning;
-beyond this, it is extremely difficult to enter into the more subtle levels.
-In all of this practice and study, it is our own mind that is central.
-Without a great blessing or without awakening the generative power of previous
-habitual patterns, it will be extremely difficult to realize primordial
-wisdom.
- Lord Maitreya stated that bodhisattvas abiding on the various levels are
-not able to attain omniscience immediately, and he also affirmed that we do
-not need to become expert in all five traditional Buddhist sciences. Among
-these are all classifications of the inner science that deals with the mind.
-In the practice of the Secret Mantrayana, it is said that as long as objects
-continue to arise in our minds, so long will the classifications of the Secret
-Mantrayana last. As long as we have not realized the simultaneity of concepts
-and liberation, as long as we have not been blessed with the knowledge that
-knowing the nature of one phenomenon liberates us into knowing the nature of
-all, we need to train from lifetime to lifetime in the many aspects of the
-teachings. If we try to become expert in all five sciences or try to know all
-the objects of knowledge, our training will be endless. For these reasons, it
-is extremely important to seek accomplishments and blessings from the yidam
-deity, for through the blessing of the deity, our positive habitual patterns
-from the past will be awakened and the doubts that cloud our minds will be
-cleared away.
- -- "Music in the Sky: The Life, Art and Teachings of the Seventeenth
- Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje" by Michele Martin, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- Verse 6
- When someone whom I have helped
- Or in whom I have placed great hopes
- Mistreats me in extremely hurtful ways
- May I regard him still as my precious teacher.
- -- Shantideva, "Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life"
-
- According to worldly norms of human behaviour, when we help someone and
-place great trust in them and they mistreat us in return, it is seen as
-reasonable to be angry with them because we have been hurt. However,
-practitioners of bodhicitta must not give in to this type of conventional
-thinking. Instead, we should learn to view such people in a special way, as
-objects for our practice of forbearance and loving kindness. We must in fact
-recognise these people as our spiritual teachers.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Lighting the Way", translated by Geshe Thupten
- Jinpa, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Advanced meditators develop the ability to create environments of their
-own choosing, and they are able to transcend the sufferings that seem so real
-to ordinary beings who are bound by mundane conceptions. According to Tsong
-Khapa, for one who attains advanced levels of meditation, painful cognitions
-no longer occur, no matter what external experiences one encounters. All of
-one's cognitions are a union of bliss and emptiness. One recognizes that
-nothing is inherently what it appears to be. Whatever occurs is perceived by
-one's unshakably blissful consciousness as the sport of luminosity and
-emptiness, and so,
-
- "for a Bodhisattva who has attained the meditative stabilisation of
- bliss pervading all phenomena, only a feeling of pleasure arises with
- respect to all objects; pain and neutrality do not occur, even though
- [pieces from his body] the size of a small coin are cut or even though
- his body is crushed by elephants, only a discrimination of bliss is
- maintained."
- -- Tsong-ka-pa on Ratnarakshita's Commentary
-
- Tantric texts stress that such bodhisattvas are not creating a delusional
-system in order to hide from the harsher aspects of reality. Rather, they are
-transforming reality, making it conform to an ideal archetype. Since all
-phenomena are empty of inherent existence, they have no fixed nature. No one
-ever apprehends an object as it is in its true nature, because there is no
-such nature. Even if phenomena had fixed essences, we would still never be
-able to perceive them, since all we ever experience are our cognitions of
-objects, which are overlaid with conceptions about them. All our perceptions
-are ideas about things, and not real things. These ideas are also empty,
-arising from nothingness and immediately dissolving again into nothingness,
-leaving nothing behind. Tantric adepts develop the ability to reconstitute
-"reality," which is completely malleable for those who train in yogas
-involving blissful consciousnesses realizing emptiness. The sense of bliss
-pervades all their cognitions, and their understanding of emptiness allows
-them to generate minds that are manifestations of bliss and emptiness.
- -- John Powers, "A Concise Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism", published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Beware the flatterer; he feeds you with an empty spoon. -- Cosino DeGregrio
-~
-Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict
-the man before the dollar.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of
-labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is
-the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
- For those of you who are not able to devote all your time to meditation,
-there is nevertheless the possibility of engaging in practice in a serious
-way. For example, the students at the monastic universities in South India
-can, with some effort, do meditations during the prayers. When you recite the
-prayers, you can mentally do the contemplation. The lifestyle and daily
-routine at these monasteries have been structured by the great masters of the
-past in a way that is most conducive to individual practice as well as to the
-flourishing of the dharma.
- If you find that your mind is in a very fluctuating emotional state--
-displaying anger, hatred, attachment and so forth--then you should first try
-to calm down that state of strong emotion. This should be done by first
-transforming it into a neutral state of mind, because there is no way that one
-can switch directly from a negative state of mind to a positive one.
-Therefore, you should first reduce the force of these emotions and
-fluctuations and try to bring about some sort of calmness, using any means--
-such as taking a stroll or concentrating on the inhalation and exhalation of
-the breath--that will enable you to forget what you are immediately feeling.
-This will help you to reduce the force of strong emotion, thereby giving you
-the calmness necessary for the practice of dharma. Like a white piece of
-cloth which could be dyed any color that you desire, such a neutral state of
-mind could then be transformed into a virtuous state of mind.
- You could also engage in the preliminary practices of performing 100,000
-prostrations, recitations of the Vajrasattva mantra, and so forth. When you
-undertake these practices, you should do them properly, not being only
-concerned about the number. Many great masters of the past of all traditions
-have emphasized the importance of these preliminary practices--they will
-enable you to have a very firm start. If through them you can acquire a
-fertile mind, then when the seed of meditation is planted, it will readily
-bear the fruits of realizations.
- Having successfully neutralized the emotional fluctuations within your
-mind and having restored a reasonable degree of calmness, engage in the
-practice of taking refuge and generating the altruistic aspiration to attain
-full enlightenment. Taking refuge in the Three Jewels is the factor that
-distinguishes one's practice from that of an erroneous path, and the
-generation of the altruistic mind makes it superior to the paths aiming at
-individual liberation.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Bliss", translated by Geshe Thupten
- Jinpa, edited by Christine Cox, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...if you consider just the subtlest mind and the wind or energy that
-serves as its mount, the mere factor of luminosity and knowing of the subtlest
-mind itself as well as the energy associated with it are what will be
-transformed into the mind and body of a Buddha. This is the mind that will
-turn into an omniscient consciousness--a Buddha's mind; it is this mind which
-will be transformed, not some other mind coming from the outside. In other
-words, the Buddha nature is inherent; it is not imported from somewhere else.
- This is true because the very entity of the mind, its nature of mere
-luminosity and knowing, is not polluted by defilements; they do not abide in
-the entity of the mind. Even when we generate afflictive emotions, the very
-entity or nature of the mind is still mere luminosity and knowing, and because
-of this we are able to remove the afflictive emotions.
- -- H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, "Kindness,
- Clarity, and Insight", edited and translated by Jeffrey Hopkins,
- co-edited by Elizabeth Napper, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The recognition that worldly attainments just do not provide enduring
-happiness, and that we need to work on the internals, rather than the
-externals, is an important motivation. It is also the basis of achieving
-nirvana, often represented by the lotus flower. It is no accident that most
-statues of Buddha have him sitting on cushions resting on a lotus flower--the
-symbol of renunciation.
- But what if we achieve nirvana? What if, through extreme diligence, we
-attain its supreme peace and happiness? Would that be enough, or is there a
-more profound level of motivation still?
- Some years ago a number of tourists were kidnapped by terrorists in the
-Philippines, and held hostage in the jungle for many months. Finally they
-were released in small groups. I will never forget the reaction of one
-hostage who was interviewed at the airport on his way home to join his wife,
-who had been freed just days earlier.
- You would think that after months of extreme privation and the constant
-threat of uncertainty and death, returning safely to one's wife, home, and
-family would be a cause for joyful celebration. But the hostage, while
-relieved, could only think of the group of hostages he'd left behind. Those
-who, in the preceding months, had been his fellow prisoners, whom he now knew
-better than anyone else, and with whom in several cases, he had formed unique
-and profound bonds of attachment. His overriding concern was to ensure that
-those still being held captive would be safely released to experience the same
-freedom he had now. Only then would he really be able to celebrate.
- -- David Michie, "Buddhism for Beginners: Finding Happiness in an Uncertain
- World", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The term "meditation" carries with it a burden of trendy, pseudo-mystical
-connotations. The biggest mistake people make is to think that they will "get
-something" out of meditation. It would be more accurate to think they will be
-getting rid of something. Awareness practice undermines our unwitting
-subjugation to hypermentation. It cuts through the cascade of thoughts and
-feelings that distract us from the present moment where life actually happens.
-The inner newsreel, with its imagined or distorted dramas, becomes less urgent
-and seductive. The unexamined hopes and fears that have thrown us into
-automatic or reflexive behavior lose their power to toss us about. What we
-get rid of, initially, is a great deal of compelling noise with no point or
-real substance to it. Even by becoming aware of its nature we de-reify it,
-render it less solid and intractable.
- ...How can we sort out our neuroses when the mind is a wild, chaotic mess
-of fragmented thought? How can we work with our anger when we experience it
-as a deluge of highly charged, urgent impulses, all mixed in with fleeting
-bits of narrative, physical sensations, whispers of memory, rushes of fear,
-and the visceral press to act? We can't. Every beginning meditator discovers
-very quickly that the mind has a mind of its own. No beginner sits down,
-says, "Peace! Be still!" and accomplishes enlightenment. It's enough at the
-start just to see, discover, and acknowledge the chatter. That, in itself, is
-a great step towards self-awareness. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche taught that the
-awareness of our confusion is the first step towards clarity.
- Over time, we can learn to just take note of whatever arises without being
-pushed and pulled emotionally. We can sit still and not respond reflexively
-to our hypermentation. We can allow ourselves to rest, to gently release
-thoughts, to find a quiet space apart from the discursive jumble. We can
-choose to be simply and quietly aware. In these quiet moments, experiences
-arise much more clearly and distinctly. Only then can we discover the source
-of our suffering and our anger.
- I once attended a conference between a highly esteemed Tibetan lama,
-Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, and a group of psychiatrists. Someone asked
-Rinpoche: "What is meditation?" Rinpoche looked playfully puzzled, pretended
-not to understand, and after a brief consultation with his translator,
-answered: "Meditation? Meditation? I don't know what that means. We have
-another word for it which means 'paying attention to.' " Whatever the style,
-to meditate is to pay attention.
- -- Ron Leifer, M.D., "Vinegar into Honey: Seven Steps to Understanding and
- Transforming Anger, Aggression, and Violence", published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- ...practice must be carried out in terms of one's own thought. If one
-knows how to bring the teachings into one's own thought, all physical and
-verbal deeds can be made to accord with practice. If one does not know how to
-bring them into one's own thought, even though one might meditate, recite
-scriptures, or spend one's life in a temple, it will not help; thought is
-therefore important for practice. Thus, taking refuge in the Three Jewels
-(Buddha, his Doctrine and the Spiritual Community), taking into account the
-relationship between actions and their effects, and generating an attitude of
-helping others, are most important.
-
- Formerly in Tibet there was a famous lama called Drom. One day Drom saw a
-man walking around a reliquary. 'Walking around a reliquary is good,' he
-said. 'Practice is even better.' The man thought, 'Then, reading a holy book
-would be good.' He did so, and one day while he was reading, Drom saw him and
-said, 'Reading a holy book is good; practice is even better.'
-
- The man thought, 'This also does not seem to be sufficient. Now if I do
-some meditation, that will certainly be practice.' Drom saw him in meditation
-and said, 'Meditation is good; practice is even better.' The man was amazed
-and asked, 'How does one practise?' Drom answered, 'Do not be attached to this
-life; cause your mind to become the practices.' Dram said this because
-practice depends on thought.
-
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Buddhism of Tibet", translated and edited by
- Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Dampa said, "If these practitioners want buddhahood, they must reverse their
-present behavior!"
-
-[Kunga] asked, "What is wrong with their present behavior?"
-
-He said:
-
- They practice thinking that what are in actuality obstacles are
-attainments!
- They meet the liberating path, but doubting and striving, they part from
-it!
- Doubting if they should refrain from their ill-omened actions, they
-suffer!
- The speech of those without experience has become Dharma--supposedly the
-view.
- Kunga is never parted from his prayers for the three village girls!
- Now, draw your own conclusions!
-
-...
-
-Dampa said:
-
- When I see people clinging to illusions as real, compassion arises with a
-force.
- If one considers the sufferings of the six realms in terms of oneself, one
-has no time to remain ordinary.
- When one sees that the characteristic of samsara is suffering, a mind
-wanting nothing whatsoever is born!
- When one sees the various bases as rootless, self-grasping is not born!
- When impermanence is born in the mind, faith and perseverance will come
-together!
- Those who grasp at permanence will not destroy persistent grasping at
-things as real!
- Kunga! Internalize truthlessness and throw the kitchen sauce into the
-water!
- -- Lion of Siddhas: The Life and Teachings of Padampa Sangye, translated
- by David Molk, with Lama Tsering Wangdu Rinpoche, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
-Books have the same enemies as people:
-fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content.
- -- Paul Valery
-~
- In Buddhism there are basically two types of practices: Sutra and
-Tantra.... The special purpose of Tantra is to provide a faster path so that
-qualified practitioners can be of service to others more quickly. In Tantra
-the power of imagination is harnessed to meditation in a practice called deity
-yoga. In this practice you imagine 1) replacing your mind as it ordinarily
-appears, full of troubling emotions, with a mind of pure wisdom motivated by
-compassion; 2) substituting your body as it ordinarily appears (composed of
-flesh, blood, and bone) with a body fashioned from compassionately motivated
-wisdom; 3) developing a sense of a pure self that depends on purely appearing
-mind and body in an ideal environment, fully engaged in helping others. As
-this distinctive practice of Tantra calls for visualizing yourself with a
-Buddha's body, activities, resources, and surroundings, it is called "taking
-imagination as the spiritual path."
- Let us consider a qualm about this practice. You are considering yourself
-to have Buddha qualities which you presently do not have. Is this, then, a
-correct type of meditative consciousness? Yes. Your mind is involved in
-understanding reality, out of which you are appearing as a deity. Therefore,
-your mind, from this viewpoint, is correct. Also, you are purposely imagining
-yourself as having a divine body even if you do not presently possess one.
-This is an imaginative meditation; you are not convinced from the depths that
-you actually have pure mind, body, and selfhood. Rather, based in clear
-imagination of ideal body and mind, you are cultivating the sense of being a
-deity, compassionately helping others.
- ...to engage in Tantra at any level demands a powerful intention to become
-enlightened for the sake of others, and a feeling that this needs to be done
-very quickly.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful
- Life", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins
-~
-Why do we want to be wise and compassionate? If it's because we would simply
-like to be wise and compassionate, we are off course, because the "I" cannot
-attain wisdom and compassion. Wisdom and compassion can only be revealed once
-the "I" has disappeared. When we reach this level, we will be able to benefit
-others. In the meantime, it is the blind leading the blind. All true
-religions seek to gain access to that level of consciousness which is not ego-
-bound. In Buddhism, it is called the unconditioned, the unborn, the
-deathless. You can call it anything you like. You can call it atman. You
-can call it anatman. You can call it God. The fact is, there is a subtle
-level of consciousness which is the core of our being, and it is beyond our
-ordinary conditioned state of mind. We can all experience this. Some people
-experience it through service, others through devotion. Some even think they
-can experience it through analysis and intellectual discipline. Buddhists
-usually try to access it through meditation. That's what we are doing.
-Breaking through to the unconditioned in order to help others break through to
-the unconditioned. But we have to start where we are, from right here. We
-start with these minds, these bodies, these problems, these weaknesses, and
-these strengths.
- -- Venerable Tenzin Palmo, "Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings
- on Practical Buddhism", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Over the last few days I have been meeting scientists, mainly specialists
-on the brain, as well as psychologists and psychotherapists.... The majority
-of them agreed... that the key cause of the mental unrest and depression so
-prevalent today... is lack of sympathy and affection.
- I think you might find the following story quite interesting. A few weeks
-ago I met someone whose mind, I was told, is severely disturbed. At the
-beginning, I used all of my reasoning to encourage him, explaining that, as a
-human being, there was no need for him to be discouraged, because we have such
-a good human brain and intelligence. I pointed out how, with determination,
-we can solve all our human problems and overcome all obstacles, and so there
-is no reason to worry or be discouraged or depressed. Personally, I always
-find this kind of reasoning is quite effective, but this time it failed. He
-was not impressed by this line of thinking. On the contrary, instead of
-showing any appreciation, he developed a rather contrary attitude. After
-listening to what I had to say, he became even more agitated, and asked me,
-"Why are you concerned about my problem? How do I know if your attitude is
-sincere or not?" I felt really sad. I was quite moved as well, and as I was
-explaining something or other, my hand reached out and caressed his arm. It
-was a natural gesture, a sincere expression of how I felt. Gradually, his
-mood altered; I could see his face beginning to change, and finally a smile
-began to appear. Then as I gained confidence, I increased that expression of
-affection. At last a big smile spread right across his face.
- I told him, "Please consider me as an old friend. Any time, you can come
-to see me. Whatever I can do to help you, I am ready to do. I am at your
-service." When I said this, then his mood, it was clear, became very happy
-and joyful. The following day he came to see me again. When he arrived, he
-already had a happy air about him, but nevertheless he was trying to pretend
-otherwise and was not smiling. Anyway, what this incident really gave me was
-another confirmation of how powerful genuine compassion, love, or altruism can
-be, to affect other people's minds. And how they can remove fear and
-suspicion, and alleviate feelings of insecurity and mistrust.
- So I always consider compassion as the key, not only for achieving and
-maintaining our own mental calmness, stability and happiness, but also as
-something extraordinarily useful for creating a healthy human society. By
-that I mean a happier and less harmful human society. Therefore--whether it
-be in individual cases, on a family level, a national level, or an
-international level--altruism, love and compassion are the basis for success,
-for happiness, and for a happy environment.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great
- Perfection", translated by Thupten Jinpa and Richard Barron,
- Foreword by Sogyal Rinpoche, edited by Patrick Gaffney, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-According to Tibetan Buddhism, ordinary beings are born into life situations
-in which they are destined to suffer and die. This is the result of former
-contaminated actions and afflictions, which have been accumulated since
-beginningless time. Because of this process, physical and mental afflictions
-are deeply rooted in sentient beings, and so it is generally considered
-necessary to prepare oneself for tantric practice by engaging in the
-"preliminary practices," or ngondro (sngon 'gro, purvagama), in order to begin
-to reverse one's negative conditioning. These practices combine physical
-movements with visualization in order to transform the mind from one that is
-fixated on mundane concerns and desires into one that is primarily oriented
-toward religious practice for the benefit of others. Some teachers consider
-these preparatory trainings to be so essential to successful tantric practice
-that they will not give tantric initiations to those who have not completed
-them, and even teachers who are willing to waive them generally stress their
-importance. The preliminary practices are: (1) taking refuge; (2)
-prostration; (3) Vajrasattva meditation; (4) mandala offering; and (5) guru
-yoga.
- -- John Powers, "A Concise Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- [It] is quite clear to me is that the moment you think only of yourself,
-the focus of your whole reality narrows, and because of this narrow focus,
-uncomfortable things can appear huge and bring you fear and discomfort and a
-sense of feeling overwhelmed by misery. The moment you think of others with a
-sense of caring, however, your view widens. Within that wider perspective,
-your own problems appear to be of little significance, and this makes a big
-difference.
- If you have a sense of caring for others, you will manifest a kind of
-inner strength in spite of your own difficulties and problems. With this
-strength, your own problems will seem less significant and bothersome to you.
-By going beyond your own problems and taking care of others, you gain inner
-strength, self-confidence, courage, and a greater sense of calm. This is a
-clear example of how one's way of thinking can really make a difference.
- One's own self-interest and wishes are fulfilled as a byproduct of
-actually working for other sentient beings. As the well-known fifteenth-
-century master Tsongkhapa points out in his Great Exposition of the Path to
-Enlightenment, "The more the practitioner engages in activities and thoughts
-that are focused and directed toward the fulfillment of others' well-being,
-the fulfillment or realization of his or her own aspiration will come as a
-byproduct without having to make a separate effort." Some of you may have
-actually heard me remark, which I do quite often, that in some sense the
-bodhisattvas, the compassionate practitioners of the Buddhist path, are
-"wisely selfish" people, whereas people like us are the "foolishly selfish."
-We think of ourselves and disregard others, and the result is that we always
-remain unhappy and have a miserable time.
- ...we find that kindness and a good heart form the underlying foundation
-for our success in this life, our progress on the spiritual path, and our
-fulfillment of our ultimate aspiration, the attainment of full enlightenment.
-Hence, compassion and a good heart are not only important at the beginning but
-also in the middle and at the end. Their necessity and value are not limited
-to any specific time, place, society, or culture.
- Thus, we not only need compassion and human affection to survive, but they
-are the ultimate sources of success in life. Selfish ways of thinking not
-only harm others, they prevent the very happiness we ourselves desire. The
-time has come to think more wisely, hasn't it? This is my belief.
- -- Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, from "The Compassionate Life"
-~
- ...all apparent phenomena are nothing but delusion and there is, moreover,
-no freedom from delusion to be achieved by dispelling delusion. Delusion is,
-by its own essence, completely pure and, hence, enlightened. All phenomena
-are, in this way, primordially, fully, and completely enlightened. Phenomena
-appearing as various attributes are, therefore, indeed the mandala of vajra
-body, speech, and mind. They are like the Buddhas of the three times, never
-transcending the essence of complete purity. Sentient beings and Buddhas are
-not differentiated in terms of their essence. Just like distinct causes and
-results appearing in a dream, they are nothing but perceptions of individual
-minds brought forth by the power of imputation.
- Here the issue might be raised, "although the scriptures do teach this,
-there is no certainty whether it is to be taken at face value or requires
-interpretation. Therefore the essential purity of phenomena may well be
-established, but it is unreasonable to say that precisely the nature of that
-which appears as subjects with attributes is primordially enlightened. For,
-if it were that way, thorough affliction and samsara would be entirely absent.
-There can't be a reasoning that establishes such a philosophy." The
-conceptual mind that takes objects that appear in the experience of sentient
-beings as valid is, since beginningless time, deluded. It accepts or negates
-with reference to the way things appear to it. With such dialectics it is,
-indeed, not possible to establish the vast and profound meaning. Nevertheless,
-since the nature of phenomena is inconceivable, it is not the case that there
-is no way to realize it by means of discriminating knowledge. Thus it is not
-in any way a mistake if one, rather than that, is inclined to approach simply
-by faith, regarding the scriptures and oral instructions as valid. One will
-then gain access through trust.
- One may object, "Well, if one cannot prove [the primordial mandala] with
-reasoning, one cannot gain access to it either." We can prove it as follows:
-That phenomena are fully enlightened as the mandala of vajra body, speech, and
-mind is proven with the reasoning of the intrinsic nature. Just as it is
-stated in a sutra, "Form is empty by nature. Why is that? It is so because
-that is its nature." All phenomena are pure by their intrinsic nature and,
-therefore, there is not a single phenomenon that is impure. This is the
-intrinsic nature of phenomena. Complete purity is, therefore, also the
-intrinsic nature of body, speech, and mind, and their complete purity is
-enlightenment. Therefore, body, speech, and mind, distinguished by their
-complete purity, are inseparable, free from mental constructs, and perfectly
-pervasive. One must in this way understand them to be the mandala of vajra
-body, speech, and mind.
- -- Heidi I. Koppl, "Establishing Appearances as Divine: Rongzom
- Chozang on Reasoning, Madhyamaka, and Purity", published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Because spirits can be positive or negative in relation to humans, it is
-wise to be careful with practices that connect the practitioner to a spirit.
-It is currently popular for people to take drum journeys in their imaginations
-and to look for guardian spirits and power animals and so on. Although
-usually this is beneficial, or at least harmless, there really are beings with
-whom the rare individual will connect. Not all of them are beings anyone
-should want to connect with. There seems to be little regard for who the
-being is; this can be a dangerous practice. People are much more careful
-about choosing a business partner or a roommate than they seem to be about
-choosing a non-physical being for a guide or guardian.
- -- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, "Healing with Form, Energy and Light:
- The Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra and Dzogchen",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...reflect upon the negative consequences of our strong attachment to
-friends and hostility toward enemies. Our feelings for a friend or a loved
-one sometimes blind us to certain of his or her aspects. We project a quality
-of absolute desirability, absolute infallibility, upon that person. Then,
-when we see something contrary to our projections, we are stunned. We swing
-from the extreme of love and desire to disappointment, repulsion, and
-sometimes even anger. Even that sense of inner contentment and satisfaction
-in a relationship with someone we love can lead to disappointment,
-frustration, and hatred. Though strong emotions, like those of romantic love
-or righteous hatred, may feel profoundly compelling, their pleasure is
-fleeting. From a Buddhist point of view, it is far better not to be in the
-grip of such emotions in the first place.
- What are the repercussions of becoming overpowered by intense dislike?
-The Tibetan word for hatred, shedang, suggests hostility from the depth of
-one's heart. There is a certain irrationality in responding to injustice or
-harm with hostility. Our hatred has no physical effect on our enemies; it
-does not harm them. Rather, it is we who suffer the ill consequences of such
-overwhelming bitterness. It eats us from within. With anger we slowly begin
-to lose our appetite. We cannot sleep at night and often end up just rolling
-back and forth, back and forth, all night long. It affects us profoundly,
-while our enemies continue along, blissfully unaware of the state we have been
-reduced to.
- Free of hatred or anger, we can respond to actions committed against us
-far more effectively. If we approach things with a cool head, we see the
-problem more clearly and judge the best way to address it. For example, if a
-child is doing something that could be dangerous to himself or others, such as
-playing with matches, we can discipline him. When we behave in such a
-forthright manner, there is a far greater chance that our actions will hit the
-mark. The child will respond not to our anger but to our sense of urgency and
-concern.
- This is how we come to see that our true enemy is actually within us. It
-is our selfishness, our attachment, and our anger that harm us. Our perceived
-enemy's ability to inflict harm on us is really quite limited. If someone
-challenges us and we can muster the inner discipline to resist retaliating, it
-is possible that no matter what the person has done, those actions do not
-disturb us.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in
- Everyday Life", edited by Nicholas Vreeland, afterword by Khyongla
- Rato and Richard Gere
-~
- "All phenomena should be understood as lacking an end and a middle, just
- as the mind does not have an end or a middle. With the knowledge that the
- mind is without an end or a middle, no identity of the mind is perceived.
- What is thoroughly realized by the mind, too, is realized as being empty.
- By realizing that, the very identity, which is established as the aspect
- of the mind, like the identity of physical form, and so forth, is also
- ultimately not perceived. In this way, when the person does not ultimately
- see the identity of all phenomena through wisdom, he will not analyze
- whether physical form is permanent or impermanent, empty or not empty,
- contaminated or not contaminated, produced or non-produced, and existent
- or non-existent. Just as physical form is not examined, similarly feeling,
- recognition, compositional factors, and consciousness are not examined.
- When the object does not exist, its characteristics also cannot exist.
- So how can they be examined?"
- -- Stages of Meditation by Kamalashila
-
-The above passage deals with ultimate reality; its meaning is that in the
-ultimate sense the object of imputation is not findable. In this context we
-find in the Heart Sutra phrases like: "There is no physical form, no sound, no
-smell, no taste, and no object of touch." The mind, too, is not findable in
-the ultimate sense. Since in the ultimate sense such things are non-existent,
-there is no point examining whether they are permanent or impermanent.
-Ultimately all phenomena, including the aggregates and so forth, are devoid of
-true existence. Within the notion of ultimate reality, things are devoid of
-true existence. In the same way, suchness, which is an attribute of
-phenomena, is also devoid of true existence. This is important. Even when we
-understand that phenomena like physical form and so forth are devoid of true
-existence, there is a danger of thinking that ultimate reality may have true
-existence.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Stages of Meditation", root text by Kamalashila,
- translated by Geshe Lobsang Jordhen, Losang Choephel Ganchenpa, and
- Jeremy Russell, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- We usually discriminate strongly between someone who intends to harm us
-and someone who doesn't. We think, "That's all right; he didn't mean it"; or
-the person who has harmed us can say, "Why do you blame me so much? I didn't
-mean to." But we get really angry when we know people mean to harm us. How
-could we possibly see such people as intimate, close, dear--as dear as our
-best of friends?
- If you can retain a little compassion when people harm you
-unintentionally, you have made progress. But if you retain it when someone
-intends to harm you, you are really successful. It's not that you think,
-"This person is marvelous; she's trying to rob me," but you don't take these
-facts as reasons for hating the person. You recognize the intention and put
-your wallet in your front pocket. You take such measures, but the conditions
-that prompted them no longer serve as reasons for hatred. Our wish to love
-everyone and the actual attitudes we have under pressure are in constant
-conflict. That's just the way we are. We've been wandering in cyclic
-existence since beginningless time, because of desire and hatred, and it's
-going to take a lot of familiarization to change this. Be relaxed about it.
-Don't put pressure on yourself, thinking things like, "Oh, I'm a scumbag
-because I hate so deeply." Rather, try this attitude: "I have to admit it.
-As much as my ideals say I should love so-and-so--or at least be neutral--I
-have to face the fact that I don't." Go easy on yourself.
- -- Jeffrey Hopkins, "A Truthful Heart: Buddhist Practices for Connecting
- with Others", foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Many types of valid consciousnesses derive from basic, natural, and
-obvious perception. All of us have an innate "I," although if we try to
-locate this "I," we get into a lot of difficulties. This sense of "I" gives
-us a well-founded aspiration to happiness and a wish not to suffer.
- There are different levels of happiness and different kinds of suffering.
-Material things usually correspond to physical happiness, whereas spiritual
-development corresponds to mental happiness. Since our "I" has these two
-aspects--physical and mental--we need an inseparable combination of material
-progress and internal, or spiritual, progress. Balancing these is crucial to
-utilizing material progress and inner development for the good of human
-society.
- Big schemes for world development arise from this wish to gain happiness
-and relieve suffering. But there are higher levels of happiness beyond these
-worldly forms, in which one seeks something longer-term, not just confined to
-this lifetime. Just as we need a long-range perspective that protects the
-environment, we need an internal long-range perspective that extends to future
-lifetimes.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "How to Expand Love: Widening the Circle of
- Loving Relationships", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins
-~
- 128.
- Desire is painful because of not getting,
- Anger is painful through lack of might,
- And confusion through not understanding.
- Because of this, these are not recognized.
-
- Desire produces suffering when one does not encounter what one badly
-wants. Anger produces suffering when one lacks might to crush the strong.
-Confusion* induces suffering when one fails to understand a subtle matter
-thoroughly. The inability to recognize these forms of suffering when one is
-overwhelmed by desire and so forth is great suffering indeed. Therefore,
-persevere in getting rid of the disturbing emotions. It is like a poor man's
-son who suffered because he wanted a queen.
- A certain poor man wanted a queen, but kings keep their queens heavily
-guarded, and because he could not get her, his desire made him suffer. He
-felt anger toward the king for guarding his queens well, and since he could
-not do the slightest harm to the king, he suffered acutely on account of his
-anger. Blinded by desire and anger his confusion grew, and unable to
-understand the situation properly, he was tormented by the suffering it caused
-him.
-
-* confusion's function is to feed desire and anger.
-
- -- "Aryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas on the Middle Way: with Commentary by
- Gyel-tsap by Aryadeva and Gyeltsap, additional commentary by Geshe Sonam
- Rinchen", translated by Ruth Sonam, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Never hope more than you work. -- Rita Mae Brown
-~
-To lead the people, walk behind them. -- Lao Tzu
-~
- To consider those things which are existent, there are many phenomena
-which are produced only occasionally. For example, certain plants grow only
-during certain seasons, not all the time. That shows that they have been
-produced by their causes and conditions. On the other hand, certain phenomena
-exist permanently. Those are the two types of phenomena. In the case of
-phenomena which arise only occasionally for a certain period of time then
-cease to exist, their production is evidence used to prove their dependence on
-their causes and conditions. But permanent phenomena are not dependent on
-causes and conditions. Generally speaking, almost all phenomena which are
-beneficial or harmful to us belong to the category of the occasional, the
-dependent--the impermanent. Even our mind, which is to be disciplined and
-subdued, belongs to that category.
- Within the kind of phenomena which are existent, we can talk about
-different types: those which are animate and those which are inanimate; those
-with form and those formless; visible and invisible; audible and inaudible.
-And there are phenomena which definitely exist but can be experienced only by
-our mind, not our sense perceptions; in other words, we can talk about two
-types of phenomena, external matter and internal consciousness. When we talk
-about subduing mind, we refer to internal consciousness, that which has
-clarity and cognitive power and is capable of experiencing objects. Although
-our mind has arisen depending upon its causes and conditions, we need to find
-out to what extent it can be transformed, for it is through the transformation
-of our mind that we can subdue it. The way of transformation is to pacify the
-mind's faults and to cultivate and enhance its good qualities. Although there
-are certain phenomena which, having arisen from their causes and conditions,
-remain as they are and cannot be changed by any means, there are others,
-including our mind, which can be. To establish that kind of distinction, the
-reasons provided in the Lam-rim section on analytical meditation to generate
-special insight are especially important and useful.
- -- "Generous Wisdom: Commentaries", H.H. the Dalai Lama XIV on the
- Jatakamala translated by Tenzin Dorjee edited by Dexter Roberts
-~
-Whatever appears, nothing has moved from the absolute nature.
-
-Decide that nothing is extraneous to the absolute nature, taking the
-example of gold jewelry.
- Once we know how to remain in the absolute nature, the manifold thoughts
-that arise in the mind are no different from gold jewelry. One can make all
-sorts of things out of gold, such as earrings, bracelets, and necklaces, but
-although they have a variety of different shapes, they are all made of gold.
-Likewise, if we are able to not move from the absolute nature, however many
-thoughts we might have, they never depart from the recognition of the absolute
-nature. A yogi for whom this is the case never departs from that realization,
-whatever he does with his body, speech, and mind. All his actions arise as
-the outer display or ornament of wisdom. All the signs one would expect from
-meditating on a deity come spontaneously without him actually doing any formal
-practice. The result of mantra recitation is obtained without his having to
-do a large number of recitations. In this way everything is included in the
-recognition that nothing is ever extraneous to the absolute nature.
- In that state one does not become excited at pleasant events or depressed
-by unpleasant ones.
- -- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, "Zurchungpa's Testament: A Commentary on
- Zurchung Sherab Trakpa's 'Eighty Chapters of Personal Advice'", based
- on Shechen Gyaltsap's Annotated Edition, translated by the Padmakara
- Translation Group, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-crashola in second life:
-due to having been in a vehicle which crossed into forbidden land and got
-taken away, my avatar was left in an indeterminate and very unhealthy state.
-i was unable to move, deep underground, and i saw this object off down to
-my left, so i clicked on it and picked 'edit'. i realized as i was doing
-it, that this was my disembodied hair, which had flown off for some reason.
-once i clicked edit, *crunch*, no more second life.
-~
-It makes no sense to brood anxiously on the harmful actions we have committed
-in the past to the point where we become paralyzed. They are done, it is
-over. If the person is a believer in God, the appropriate action is to find
-some means of reconciliation with Him. So far as Buddhist practice is
-concerned, there are various rites and practices for purification. When the
-individual has no religious beliefs, however, it is surely a matter of
-acknowledging and accepting any negative feelings we may have in relation to
-our misdeeds and developing a sense of sorrow and regret for them. But then,
-rather than stopping at mere sorrow and regret, it is important to use this as
-the basis for resolve, for a deep-seated commitment never again to harm others
-and to direct our actions all the more determinedly to the benefit of others.
-The act of disclosure, or confession, of our negative actions to another--
-especially to someone we really respect and trust--will be found to be very
-helpful in this. We are quite wrong if we merely acknowledge the gravity of
-our actions inwardly and then, instead of confronting our feelings, give up
-all hope and do nothing. This only compounds the error. Above all, we should
-remember that as long as we retain the capacity of concern for others, the
-potential for transformation remains.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Ethics for the New Millennium"
-~
- According to Buddhism, compassion is an aspiration, a state of mind,
-wanting others to be free from suffering. It's not passive--it's not empathy
-alone--but rather an empathetic altruism that actively strives to free others
-from suffering. Genuine compassion must have both wisdom and lovingkindness.
-That is to say, one must understand the nature of the suffering from which we
-wish to free others (this is wisdom), and one must experience deep intimacy
-and empathy with other sentient beings (this is lovingkindness). Let's
-examine these two elements.
- The suffering from which we wish to liberate other sentient beings,
-according to Buddha's teachings, has three levels. The first level includes
-the obvious physical and mental sensations of pain and discomfort that we can
-all easily identify as suffering. This kind of suffering is primarily at the
-sensory level--unpleasant or painful sensations and feelings. The great
-Tibetan master Panchen Losang Chokyi Gyaltsan, tutor to the fifth Dalai Lama,
-reminds us that even animals seek to avoid physical suffering and pain.
- The second level of suffering is the suffering of change. Although
-certain experiences or sensations may seem pleasurable and desirable now,
-inherent within them is the potential for culminating in an unsatisfactory
-experience. Another way of saying this is that experiences do not last
-forever; desirable experiences will eventually be replaced by a neutral
-experience or an undesirable experience. If it were not the case that
-desirable experiences are of the nature of change, then, once having a happy
-experience, we would remain happy forever! In fact, if desirability were
-intrinsic to an experience, then the longer we remained in contact with it,
-the happier we would become. However, this is not the case. In fact, often,
-the more we pursue these experiences, the greater our level of
-disillusionment, dissatisfaction, and unhappiness becomes.
- ...But the third level of suffering is the most significant--the pervasive
-suffering of conditioning. This refers to the very fact of our unenlightened
-existence, the fact that we are ruled by negative emotions and their
-underlying root cause, namely our own fundamental ignorance of the nature of
-reality. Buddhism asserts that as long as we are under the control of this
-fundamental ignorance, we are suffering; this unenlightened existence is
-suffering by its very nature.
- If we are to cultivate the deepest wisdom, we must understand suffering at
-its deepest, most pervasive level. In turn, freedom from that level of
-suffering is true nirvana, true liberation, the true state of cessation.
-Freedom from the first level of suffering alone--merely being free of
-unpleasant physical and psychological experiences--is not true cessation of
-suffering. Freedom from the second level is again not true cessation.
-However, freedom from the third level of suffering--being completely free from
-the very source of suffering--that is genuine cessation, genuine liberation.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Essence of the Heart Sutra: The Dalai Lama's Heart
- of Wisdom Teachings", translated & edited by Geshe Thupten Jinpa
-~
- The only conclusion that can legitimately be reached is that the self is a
-fiction, a mere label superimposed onto the aggregates, a concept created and
-reified by the mind but lacking any substantial reality. This reasoning
-process alone does not eliminate the idea, however; it merely weakens it.
-Because it is so deeply ingrained, the idea of self is only eliminated through
-repeated meditation on the reasonings of no-self, which enable the yogin to
-become progressively more familiar with the understanding that no self or
-essence exists. The Dalai Lama concludes that "when such a realization is
-maintained and reinforced through constant meditation and familiarization, you
-will be able to develop it into an intuitive or direct experience." (From Path
-to Bliss.)
- Many Westerners reject this notion, contending that it would be a sort of
-cognitive suicide. The idea that the self (which is assumed even by people
-who reject religions that propound the idea) does not exist is profoundly
-disturbing to many non-Buddhists, but in Buddhist thought the denial of self
-is not seen as constituting a loss, but rather is viewed as a profoundly
-liberating insight. Since the innate idea of self implies an autonomous,
-unchanging essence, if such a thing were in fact the core of one's being, it
-would mean that change would be impossible, and one would be stuck being just
-what one is right now. Because there is no such self, however, we are open
-toward the future. One's nature is never fixed and determined, and so through
-engaging in Buddhist practice one can exert control over the process of change
-and progress in wisdom, compassion, patience, and other good qualities. One
-can even become a buddha, a fully awakened being who is completely liberated
-from all the frailties, sufferings, and limitations of ordinary beings. But
-this is only possible because there is no permanent and static self, no soul
-that exists self-sufficiently, separated from the ongoing process of change.
- -- John Powers, "A Concise Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism", published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- I often encounter people in and our of my office who seem to be lost in
-thought. I sometimes ask them what they are thinking about. They are usually
-startled by the question. They look at me blankly and are often surprised to
-hear themselves admit with embarrassment that they don't know or can't say.
-Or they describe one small, fleeting fragment of disconnected thought. The
-"normal" human state of mind is constant, incessant thinking--an enigmatically
-linked stream of consciousness, sensations, memories, feelings, desires,
-fears, and chatter. And at the center of the narrative, the star of the show
-is always--ME! This is why the first leg of the journey requires courage. To
-become familiar with the chaotic, egotistical, and often nonsensical narrative
-of our own mind stream is disconcerting and painful. To discover directly
-that we are literally "lost in thought" can be frightening. But this is where
-we are and where we must begin.
- It's consoling to remember that everyone is neurotic, each one of us. The
-"normal" mind suffers from a complex of conflicting desires and aversions.
-The best we can do is to become aware of our neuroses, to become wiser in our
-thinking and our conduct of life. In my experience, meditation is the most
-direct and efficient method for developing self-awareness. Self-awareness is
-not a steady state because experience is not a steady state. Through the
-practice of meditation, we can learn to watch our ever-fluctuating mental
-processes from a more detached, aerial perspective. Without necessarily
-understanding ourselves in some intellectual way, we can directly discover how
-the mind works. The mind has its causes and effects, its motivations and
-intentions, and its awareness and evaluation of their possible consequences.
- -- Ron Leifer, M.D., "Vinegar Into Honey: Seven Steps to Understanding and
- Transforming Anger, Aggression, and Violence", published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- "The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow,
-"is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow
-old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to
-the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world
-about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the
-sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then--to learn. Learn
-why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can
-never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust,
-and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what
-a lot of things there are to learn."
- -- T. H. White, "The Once and Future King"
-~
- In Chapter 4 we looked at the when and where of meditation. Whatever
-works best for you, given your personal circumstances and temperament, the
-important thing is to do it regularly, preferably every day.
- I would also recommend that you keep the session to a length of time that
-feels comfortable. This is because in the early stages of meditation it's
-easy to become discouraged and have thoughts along the lines of: "This might
-work for other people, but I don't have the right personality/mind/lifestyle/
-partner for meditation." Or: "I've been doing this for six months and my
-concentration is no better than when I started." With thoughts like these, you
-may start to resent the time you spend meditating and consider giving up.
- Much better to keep your practice light and easy to begin with; short
-sessions, and concentrated attention, especially towards the end of your
-practice so that you "finish like a winner" and feel encouraged for the next
-day. Better to end a short session thinking you could have gone on longer
-than keep glancing at your watch with the thought that has passed through the
-mind of every meditator at some stage--"My watch must have stopped. It's been
-longer than two minutes--surely?!"
- Having reviewed the meditation practices outlined in the previous chapter,
-you may decide you quite like the sound of several of them. On what basis
-should they be practiced? My own preference is to have a simple calendar of
-activity so that, for example, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are breath-
-counting days; Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays are visualization days; and
-Sundays are for whatever I'm in the mood to do.
- On this point, I once asked a high-ranking Tibetan lama which of a number
-of meditation practices I should focus on. He gave me an indulgent smile and
-said simply, "Whichever you enjoy the most." D'oh!
- -- David Michie, "Hurry Up and Meditate: Your Starter Kit for Inner Peace
- and Better Health", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-"Always be sustained by cheerfulness."
-
- The effectiveness of our practice can be measured by looking at our mood.
-If we are in better spirits, the practice is working. We can take heart
-because we have a purpose, to exchange whatever sadness we meet for joy. The
-smallest personal damage can be put to use to dissolve great suffering and do
-away with negativity. If there is a way, we try to stop unfortunate things
-from happening, but when unhappy events occur we meet them optimistically. We
-never let negativity discourage us or injure our ability to help.
- Setting out on any adventure demands determination. We may have to toil
-and struggle with setbacks along the way but the trials we face are short-
-lived. We can endure them because we have a great end in mind: to benefit all
-sentient beings. Remaining good-natured and enthusiastic shows that our
-efforts are succeeding. Being cheerful is the sign of a good practitioner.
- -- Ringu Tulku, "Mind Training", edited by B.M. Shaughnessy, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Once we take ourselves and the quality of our life seriously, and
-acknowledge the difficulties we may be experiencing, the next step is to have
-confidence that (1) it is possible to overcome them, (2) there is a way to
-accomplish this, and (3) we are capable of achieving it [Buddha-nature]. This
-bring us to the topics of refuge and Buddha-nature.
- Taking refuge is not a passive act of placing ourselves in the hands of a
-higher power that will do everything for us, as the English word "refuge"
-might imply. It is an active process of putting a safe, reliable and positive
-direction in our life. That direction is indicated by the Buddhas, the Dharma
-and the Sangha--the Three Precious Gems. They are precious in the sense that
-they are both rare and valuable....
- In short, the definitive level of the Three Precious Gems of Buddha,
-Dharma and Sangha presents the goal we would like to achieve. Their
-interpretable level indicates what we rely on, externally, to bring ourselves
-there. But we also have internal factors that we need to rely on as well.
-These refer to our Buddha-nature.
- We are capable of eliminating our problems and achieving the definitive
-Three Precious Gems because everyone has Buddha-nature, namely the various
-factors or working materials that make it possible. Of all our natural
-resources, the most important is mind. We all have a mind which, in its
-nature, is unhampered by anything from experiencing whatever exists. No
-matter what happens--no matter how confused, stressed or unhappy we may be--we
-experience it. Even death is something that we experience when it occurs.
-Therefore, because we have a mind that allows us to experience whatever
-exists, we have the basic resource that allows us to experience a total
-absence of confusion and a utilization of all possible good qualities for
-helping others--provided that such a total absence and utilization actually
-exist. In other words, if we can establish that it is possible for these two
-things to exist--and that they are not just objects of nice but totally
-unrealistic wishes--we can be confident that we are capable of attaining them,
-simply because we have a mind.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama and Alexander Berzin, "The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition
- of Mahamudra", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Actually, we Buddhists are supposed to save all sentient beings, but
-practically speaking, this may be too broad a notion for most people. In any
-case, we must at least think in terms of helping all human beings. This is
-very important. Even if we cannot think in terms of sentient beings
-inhabiting different worlds, we should nonetheless think in terms of the human
-beings on our own planet. To do this is to take a practical approach to the
-problem. It is necessary to help others, not only in our prayers, but in our
-daily lives. If we find we cannot help another, the least we can do is to
-desist from harming them. We must not cheat others or lie to them. We must
-be honest human beings, sincere human beings.
- On a very practical level, such attitudes are things which we need.
-Whether one is a believer, a religious person, or not, is another matter.
-Simply as an inhabitant of the world, as a member of the human family, we need
-this kind of attitude. It is through such an attitude that real and lasting
-world peace and harmony can be achieved. Through harmony, friendship, and
-respecting one another, we can solve many problems in the right way, without
-difficulties.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Answers: Discussions with Western Buddhists",
- edited by Jose Ignacio Cabezon, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-We may have all come on different ships, but we're all in the same boat now.
- -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
-~
-...Maitreya, in his text the Sublime Continuum, gives three reasons on the
-basis of which one can conclude that the essence of Buddhahood permeates the
-minds of all sentient beings. First, he says that the Buddha's activities
-radiate in the heart of all sentient beings. Now this can be understood in
-two different ways: one is that we can understand that in every sentient being
-there is a seed of virtue, and one could see the seed of virtue as an act of
-the completely enlightened, compassionate Buddha. But one could also see it
-in deeper terms, that is, that all sentient beings possess the potential for
-perfection. Therefore, there is a kind of perfected being inherent within all
-sentient beings, radiating. So one can understand it in these ways. Second,
-so far as the ultimate nature of reality is concerned, there is total equality
-between the samsaric state and nirvana. Third, we all possess a mind which
-lacks intrinsic reality and independent existence, which allows us to then
-remove the negativities and delusory states that obscure it. For these three
-reasons, Maitreya concludes that all sentient beings possess the essence of
-Buddhahood.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a
- Buddhist Perspective", translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...Compassion diminishes fright about your own pain and increases inner
-strength. It gives you a sense of empowerment, of being able to accomplish
-your tasks. It lends encouragement.
- Let me give you a small example. Recently, when I was in Bodh Gaya, I
-fell ill from a chronic intestinal infection. On the way to the hospital, the
-pain in my abdomen was severe, and I was sweating a great deal. The car was
-passing through the area of Vulture Peak (Buddha taught here) where the
-villagers are extremely poor. In general, Bihar State is poor, but that
-particular area is even more so. I did not even see children going to or
-coming from school. Just poverty. And sickness. I have a very clear memory
-of a small boy with polio, who had rusty metal braces on his legs and metal
-crutches up to his armpits. It was obvious that he had no one to look after
-him. I was very moved. A little later on, there was an old man at a tea
-stop, wearing only a dirty piece of cloth, fallen to the ground, left to lie
-there with no one to take care of him.
- Later, at the hospital, my thoughts kept circling on what I had seen,
-reflecting on how sad it was that here I had people to take care of me but
-those poor people had no one. That is where my thoughts went, rather than to
-my own suffering. Though sweat was pouring out of my body, my concern was
-elsewhere.
- In this way, though my body underwent a lot of pain that prevented sleep
-(a hole had opened in my intestinal wall), my mind did not suffer any fear or
-discomfort. It would only have made the situation worse if I had concentrated
-on my own problems. This is an example from my small experience of how an
-attitude of compassion helps even oneself, suppressing some degree of physical
-pain and keeping away mental distress, despite the fact that others might not
-be directly helped.
- Compassion strengthens your outlook, and with that courage you are more
-relaxed. When your perspective includes the suffering of limitless beings,
-your own suffering looks comparatively small.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Mind of Clear Light: Advice on Living
- Well and Dying Consciously", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins,
- Ph.D.
-~
- ...blissful light, with a Chenrezig on the tip of each ray, streams out of
-you and touches each and every sentient being--those whom you like, those whom
-you don't, and those you don't know. When this glowing light touches each
-sentient being, it performs two functions: it purifies them of their
-negativities, and it inspires them to realize all the stages of the path to
-enlightenment. We may start imagining the light touching the beings in the
-room and gradually spreading out to those in the area, the country, the
-continent, the world, and the universe. Or we can start with our friends and
-family, then radiate light to strangers, and finally to those who have harmed
-us or of whom we're afraid. Or, we can first radiate light to human beings,
-then animals, hungry ghosts, hell beings, demi-gods, and gods. We can use our
-creativity and imagination when doing this visualization. Each meditation
-session can have a different emphasis.
- It's very easy to love sentient beings in a general way. But it's more
-effective to be specific in our visualizations. Send light to the guy who cut
-you off on the highway. Send light to the IRS employee who questioned your
-tax return. Send light to the terrorist who thinks that killing others in the
-name of God will cause him to be reborn in heaven. Send light to government
-leaders who think that bombing others solves problems. Send light to your
-teenager who leaves his room a mess and gets mad when you comment on it. Send
-light to specific people you know and care about, people who are having
-problems, strangers, and people you don't like. Send it to hospitals, the
-Middle East, the inner cities, and Beverly Hills. There's suffering
-everywhere. The light frees sentient beings from their suffering.
- -- Thubten Chodron, "Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method
- of Chenrezig", foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- In Tibetan drenpa means "mindfulness," and sheshin means "awareness."
-Drenpa also means "mindfulness and memory." It means that one is mindful of
-what one is doing and remembers what one has to do whether one is meditating,
-whether one has lost the power of concentration, and so on. Mindfulness is
-like a causal condition and awareness is like the result. If one has very
-concentrated mindfulness, one immediately notices a thought arising and this
-becomes awareness, which becomes sheshin, and one knows what is occurring.
-Normally, one does not know what is in one's mind or what one is thinking, so
-there is no awareness. But if one has mindfulness, then it is said to the
-extent that mindfulness brings mental stability, one has awareness. So when
-one has mindfulness, it is through one's awareness of what is happening.
- At this level of pacification we become aware of the negative qualities of
-distraction. Santideva explains this by saying that when the mind is
-distracted, it is between the fangs of the wild animal of the kleshas
-[emotional obscurations], and from mental distractions come all the
-difficulties and mental hardships of this and future lives. Being in a state
-of distraction will increase the negative qualities of the mind more and more.
-However, being aware of the negative qualities motivates us to meditate.
- -- Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, "The Practice of Tranquillity and Insight:
- A Guide to Tibetan Buddhist Meditation", translated by Peter Roberts,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Developing a flexible approach to living is not only instrumental in
-helping us cope with everyday problems--it also becomes the cornerstone for a
-key element of a happy life: balance.
- Settling comfortably into his chair one morning, the Dalai Lama explained
-the value of leading a balanced life.
- "A balanced and skillful approach to life, taking care to avoid
-extremes, becomes a very important factor in conducting one's everyday
-existence. It is important in all aspects of life. For instance, in planting
-a sapling of a plant or a tree, at its very early stage you have to be very
-skillful and gentle. Too much moisture will destroy it, too much sunlight
-will destroy it. Too little will also destroy it. So what you need is a very
-balanced environment where the sapling can have a healthy growth. Or, for a
-person's physical health, too much or too little of any one thing can have
-destructive effects. For example, too much protein I think is bad, and too
-little is bad.
- "This gentle and skillful approach, taking care to avoid extremes,
-applies to healthy mental and emotional growth as well."
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D., "The Art of
- Happiness: A Handbook for Living"
-~
- ...Idle talk is usually considered a destructive action because it wastes
-our time. But if our friend is depressed and can't listen to wise advice, we
-can joke, tell silly stories, and use small talk to lighten his mood. Because
-our motivation is kind, our joking and chatting are positive.
- Laughing and having a good time aren't in opposition to Dharma. The more
-we leave behind attachment, anger, jealousy, and pride, the more we'll enjoy
-whatever we're doing. Our hearts will open to others and we can laugh and
-smile with ease. The holy beings I've been fortunate to meet have a wonderful
-sense of humor and are very friendly.
- In Buddhist groups, it's important for people to get to know each other
-and have a sense of fellowship. We can share experiences with our Dharma
-friends and encourage each other on the path. Buddhism isn't an isolated
-path, and it's important for Buddhists to cultivate group unity and
-companionship.
- It's not beneficial to retreat inside ourselves, thinking, "Every time I
-talk to someone I'm motivated by attachment. Therefore I'll concentrate on
-meditation and chanting and won't socialize with others." One of the
-fundamental principles of Buddhism is care and compassion for others.
-Although at times we may need to distance ourselves from others in order to
-settle our own minds, whenever possible we should actively develop genuine
-love for others. To do this, we must be aware of what's happening in others'
-lives, care about them as we do ourselves, and offer help whenever possible.
-Our ability to act with love develops with time and practice, and it has to be
-balanced with our need for private contemplation.
- -- Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, "Taming the Mind", published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-Young men and young women may work systematically six days in the week and
-rise fresh in the morning, but let them attend modern dances for only a few
-hours each evening and see what happens. The Waltz, Polka, Gallop and other
-dances of the same kind will be disastrous in their effects to both sexes.
-Health and vigor will vanish like the dew before the sun. It is not the
-extraordinary exercise which harms the dancer, but rather the coming into
-close contact with the opposite sex. It is the fury of lust craving
-incessantly for more pleasure that undermines the soul, the body, the sinews
-and nerves. Experience and statistics show beyond doubt that passionate
-excessive dancing girls can hardly reach twenty-five years of age and men
-thirty-one. Even if they reached that age they will in most instances be
-broken in health physically and morally. This is the claim of prominent
-physicians in this country.
- -- Quote from a 1910 periodical.
-~
-Why I Can't Go Out With You: I'd LOVE to, but...
- -- I'm trying to see how long I can go without saying yes.
- -- I'm attending the opening of my garage door.
- -- The monsters haven't turned blue yet, and I have to eat more dots.
- -- I'm converting my calendar watch from Julian to Gregorian.
- -- I have to fulfill my potential.
- -- I don't want to leave my comfort zone.
- -- It's too close to the turn of the century.
- -- I have to bleach my hare.
- -- I'm worried about my vertical hold knob.
- -- I left my body in my other clothes.
-~
- I remember most vividly my first lesson on epistemology as a child, when I
-had to memorize the dictum "The definition of the mental is that which is
-luminous and knowing." Drawing on earlier Indian sources, Tibetan thinkers
-defined consciousness. It was years later that I realized just how
-complicated is the philosophical problem hidden behind this simple
-formulation. Today when I see nine-year-old monks confidently citing this
-definition of consciousness on the debating floor, which is such a central
-part of Tibetan monastic education, I smile.
- These two features--luminosity, or clarity, and knowing, or cognizance--
-have come to characterize "the mental" in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist thought.
-Clarity here refers to the ability of mental states to reveal or reflect.
-Knowing, by contrast, refers to mental states' faculty to perceive or
-apprehend what appears. All phenomena possessed of these qualities count as
-mental. These features are difficult to conceptualize, but then we are
-dealing with phenomena that are subjective and internal rather than material
-objects that may be measured in spatiotemporal terms. Perhaps it is because
-of these difficulties--the limits of language in dealing with the subjective--
-that many of the early Buddhist texts explain the nature of consciousness in
-terms of metaphors such as light, or a flowing river. As the primary feature
-of light is to illuminate, so consciousness is said to illuminate its objects.
-Just as in light there is no categorical distinction between the illumination
-and that which illuminates, so in consciousness there is no real difference
-between the process of knowing or cognition and that which knows or cognizes.
-In consciousness, as in light, there is a quality of illumination.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Universe in a Single Atom: Convergence
- of Science and Spirituality"
-~
- False conceptions are exaggerated modes of thought that do not accord with
-the facts. Even if an object--an event, a person, or any other phenomenon--
-has a slightly favorable aspect, once the object is mistakenly seen as
-existing totally from its own side, true and real, mental projection
-exaggerates its goodness beyond what it actually is, resulting in lust. The
-same happens with anger and hatred; this time a negative factor is
-exaggerated, making the object seem to be a hundred percent negative, the
-result being deep disturbance. Recently, a psychotherapist told me that when
-we generate anger, ninety percent of the ugliness of the object of our anger
-is due to our own exaggeration. This is very much in conformity with the
-Buddhist idea of how afflictive emotions arise.
- At the point when anger and lust are generated, reality is not seen;
-rather, an unreal mental projection of extreme badness or extreme goodness is
-seen, evoking twisted, unrealistic actions. All of this can be avoided by
-seeing the fuller picture revealed by paying attention to the dependent-
-arising of phenomena, the nexus of causes and conditions from which they arise
-and in which they exist.
- Looked at this way, the disadvantages of afflictive emotions are obvious.
-If you want to be able to perceive the actual situation, you have to quit
-voluntarily submitting to afflictive emotions, because in each and every
-field, they obstruct perception of the facts.....
- Love and compassion also involve strong feelings that can even make you
-cry with empathy, but they are induced not by exaggeration but by valid
-cognition of the plight of sentient beings, and the appropriateness of being
-concerned for their well-being. These feelings rely on insight into how
-beings suffer in the round of rebirth called "cyclic existence," and the depth
-of these feelings is enhanced through insight into impermanence and
-emptiness.... Though it is possible for love and compassion to be influenced
-by afflictive emotions, true love and compassion are unbiased and devoid of
-exaggeration, because they are founded on valid cognition of your relationship
-to others. The perspective of dependent-arising is supremely helpful in
-making sure that you appreciate the wider picture.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "How to See Yourself As You Really Are",
- translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D.
-~
-The Prajna Paramita is a very profound philosophical doctrine, and I will just
-outline the main ideas in it in order to clarify the Chod. First we start off
-with the confused egocentric state of mind. This state of mind causes us to
-suffer, and so, to alleviate the suffering, we start to practice meditation.
-What happens in meditation is that the speedy mind begins to slow down and
-things begin to settle, like the mud sinking to the bottom of a puddle of
-water when it is left undisturbed. When this settling has occurred, a kind of
-clear understanding of the way things work in the mind takes place. This
-understanding is prajna, profound cognition. Then, according to Buddhist
-doctrine, through the use of this prajna, we begin to see that, in fact,
-although we think that we have a separate and unique essence, or self, which
-we call the "ego," when we look closely, we are a composite of form, sense-
-perceptions, consciousness, etc., and are merely a sum of these parts. This
-realization is the understanding of sunyata, usually translated as emptiness,
-or voidness. It means there is no self-essence, that we are "void of a self."
-If we are void of a self, there is no reason to be egocentric, since the whole
-notion of a separate ego is false. Therefore we can afford to be
-compassionate, and need not continually defend ourselves or force our desires
-onto others.
- -- Tsultrim Allione, "Women of Wisdom", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- There is a film called "Groundhog Day," which is really a Buddhist movie
-because this is exactly what the plot is about. For those of you who haven't
-seen it, it's about somebody who had to relive the same day again and again
-until he got it right. He started out with an extremely negative attitude,
-and so throughout the first day he created a lot of negative causes. People
-related back to him from his own level of negativity, and so he had a very bad
-day. Then the next day he had to experience the same day all over again.
-Then again, and again. He became desperate to find a way out. He attempted
-suicide many times, but the next morning, there he was again in the same room
-and the same bed. The date hadn't changed, and the same song was playing on
-the radio. His attitude underwent many, many changes, until in the end he
-spent most of his time trying to help people. He forestalled tragedies he
-knew were going to happen because he had lived the day over so many times, and
-his whole attitude gradually turned around into working out ways to help
-others. As his inner attitude transformed, the day gradually got better and
-better. Finally, he was able to break through to a new day.
- The important thing is how we respond to our situation. We can transform
-anything if we respond in a skillful way. This is precisely what karma is
-about. If we greet situations with a positive attitude, we will eventually
-create positive returns. If we respond with a negative attitude, negative
-things will eventually come our way. Unlike the scenario in the movie, it
-doesn't always happen right away. We can be very nice people but still have
-lots of problems. On the other hand, we can be awful people and have a
-wonderful time. But from a Buddhist perspective, it's just a matter of time
-before we receive the results of our conduct. And usually it is true that
-people with a positive attitude encounter positive circumstances. Even if the
-circumstances do not appear positive, they be transformed through a positive
-view. On the other hand people with negative minds complain even when things
-are going well. They also transform circumstances, but they transform
-positive ones into negative ones!
- Both our present and our future depend on us. From moment to moment, we
-are creating our future. We are not a ball of dust tossed about by the winds
-of fate. We have full responsibility for our lives. The more aware we
-become, the more capable we are of making skillful choices.
- -- Venerable Tenzin Palmo, "Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings
- on Practical Buddhism", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Why is endeavor necessary? If we consider material progress, we see that
-research started by one person can always be continued by another. But this
-is not possible with spiritual progress. The realization we talk about in the
-Buddhadharma is something that has to be accomplished by the individual. No
-one else can do it for us. Of course, it would be wonderful if in the future
-we could attain realization through some sort of new injection or by means of
-a new generation of computers, without having to go through any difficulties.
-If we could be absolutely certain that such a time would come, we could simply
-lie back and wait to get enlightened. But I doubt that this will ever happen.
-It is better to make an effort. We have to develop endeavor.
- I.
- Thus with patience I will practice diligence,
- For it is through zeal that I will reach enlightenment.
- If there is no wind, then nothing stirs;
- Neither is there merit where there is no diligence.
- We can be patient in various ways, such as by not thinking ill of those
-who harm us or by accepting suffering as the path. Of these two, the latter
-is the more important for generating endeavor, and it is endeavor that enables
-us to attain enlightenment. As Shantideva says, "It is through zeal that I
-will reach enlightenment." In the same way that protecting a lamp from the
-wind allows the flame to burn without flickering, endeavor enables the
-virtuous mind to grow undisturbed.
- What is endeavor? It is finding joy in doing what is good. To do that,
-it is necessary to remove anything that counteracts it, especially laziness.
-Laziness has three aspects: having no wish to do good, being distracted by
-negative activities, and underestimating oneself by doubting one's ability.
-Related to these are taking undue pleasure in idleness and sleep and being
-indifferent to samsara as a state of suffering.
- -- Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, "A Flash of
- Lightning in the Dark of Night: A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of
- Life", translated by The Padmakara Translation Group.
-~
- Western women emerging from crisis situations often choose to live alone,
-intuitively knowing that the confrontation with oneself that this brings will
-lead to a deeper understanding. These women in our society (which sees them
-as pitiable and unfortunate) can take strength from the stories of Tibetan
-yoginis.
- These Western women also seek the support of other women or
-psychotherapists to help them to emerge from their descents, just as the
-yoginis sought the guidance of their teachers and spiritual friends, and the
-Greeks needed the help of the "therapeutes" [helpers] to make sense of the
-memories they brought back from the oracle cave.
- Speaking of the descent myth in terms of her experiences in controlled
-therapeutic regressions, Jungian analyst M.L. Von Franz describes the descent
-process in relation to the story of "The Handless Maiden":
- In the Middle Ages there were many hermits, and in Switzerland there
- were the so-called Wood Brothers and Sisters. People who did not want
- to live a monastic life but who wanted to live alone in the forest had
- both a closeness to nature and also a great experience of spiritual
- inner life. Such Wood Brothers and Sisters could be personalities on
- a high level who had a spiritual fate and had to renounce active life
- for a time and isolate themselves to find their own inner relation to
- God. It is not very different from what the shaman does in the Polar
- tribes, or what medicine men do all over the world, in order to seek
- an immediate personal religious experience in isolation.
- ...If we avoid the descent because of fear of what we will discover about
-ourselves in the "underworld," we block ourselves off from a powerful
-transformative process. This process has been recognized by modern
-psychologists and ancient mystery religions alike.
- -- Tsultrim Allione, "Women of Wisdom", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The modes of thought in pride and in courageous thought are entirely
-different.
- Depression caused by disintegration of the ego probably comes from not
-being able to posit a conventionally existent I. Still, when some
-understanding of emptiness develops, you have a different feeling of I than
-that to which you previously were accustomed. Our usual feeling is that the I
-is something solid, really independent, and very forceful. Such no longer
-remains, but at the same time there is a sense of a mere I that accumulates
-karma and performs actions. Such a sense of self is not at all a source of
-depression.
- If you have difficulty positing a merely nominal I as well as merely
-nominal cause and effect of actions--if you get to the point where if you
-assert selflessness, you cannot posit dependent-arising--then it would be
-better to assert dependent-arising and give up selflessness. Indeed, there
-are many levels of understanding selflessness, and Buddha, out of great
-skillfulness in method, taught many different schools of tenets that posit
-coarser levels of selflessness for those temporarily unable to understand the
-more subtle levels. It is not the case that only if the most profound level
-is immediately accessible, it is suitable, and if it is not accessible, the
-whole endeavor should be thrown away. You have to proceed step by step with
-whatever accords with your level of mind. Between emptiness and dependent-
-arising, you should value dependent-arising more highly.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama of Tibet, "The Dalai Lama at Harvard: Lectures on the
- Buddhist Path to Peace", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Puba Supoche asked, "Dampa, tell me what it's like when you really
-practice sincerely! I understand neither heads nor tails of it!"
- Dampa said, "View is the destruction of extreme ideas regarding things!
-Cutting pride of self with confidence is realization! Being without support
-in luminosity is meditation! In insight, absence of recognition is the
-innate! Finding nowhere to place the mind among shifting phenomena is
-subsequent attainment! In their absence, there is no antidote but natural
-intensity! Naked awareness without grasping is dharmakaya! Disappearance
-without being anything is experience! Don't you wonder whether all this truly
-exists?"
- -- Padampa Sangye, "Lion of Siddhas: The Life and Teachings of Padampa
- Sangye", translated by David Molk, with Lama Tsering Wangdu Rinpoche,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-[do you have any thoughts about how a person could go about increasing their
-feeling of autonomy or freedom at work?]
-
- ...it will completely depend on the person's individual circumstances,
-what position they are in. Let's take the example of a prisoner. Now of
-course it is best not to be in prison, but even in that situation, where a
-person may be deprived of freedom, he or she may discover small choices that
-they are able to make. And even if somebody is in prison, with very rigid
-rules, they can undertake some spiritual practices to try to lessen their
-mental frustrations, try to get some peace of mind. So they can work on
-internal development...if people can do this under the extreme conditions of
-prison, in the workplace people may try to discover small things, small
-choices that they can make in how to go about their work. And of course,
-somebody may work on an assembly line with little variation in how to do their
-tasks, but they still have other kinds of choices in terms of their attitudes,
-how they interact with their co-workers, whether they utilize certain inner
-qualities or spiritual strengths to change their attitude at work even though
-the nature of the work may be difficult. Isn't it? So, perhaps that would
-help.
- Of course, when you are talking about rigid rules and lack of freedom,
-that doesn't mean that you are required to blindly follow and accept
-everything others tell you. In instances where the worker might be exploited,
-where the employer thinks of nothing but profit and pays a small salary and
-demands a lot of overtime, or where one may be asked to do things that are not
-appropriate or are unethical, one should not simply think, "Well, this is my
-karma," and take no action. Here it is not enough to think, "I should just be
-content."
- If there is injustice, then I think inaction is the wrong response. The
-Buddhist texts mention what is called "misplaced tolerance," or "misplaced
-forbearance." So...misplaced patience or forbearance refers to the sense of
-endurance that some individuals have when they are subject to a very
-destructive, negative activity. That is a misplaced forbearance and
-endurance. Similarly, in the work environment, if there is a lot of injustice
-and exploitation, then to passively tolerate it is the wrong response. The
-appropriate response really is to actively resist it, to try to change this
-environment rather than accept it. One should take some action...perhaps one
-could speak with the boss, with the management, and try to change these
-things. One needs to actively resist exploitation. And in some cases, one
-may simply need to quit and to look for other work.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Dr. Howard C. Cutler, M.D.,
- "The Art of Happiness at Work"
-~
- The purpose of Buddha's coming to the world was for the sake of sentient
-beings' attaining the wisdom that he achieved. The paths that he taught are
-only a means leading to Buddhahood; he does not lead sentient beings with a
-low vehicle that is not a method leading to Buddhahood. He establishes
-sentient beings in the powers and so forth that exist in his own state.
-
- "Manjushri, all the doctrines that I teach to sentient beings are for
- the sake of attaining omniscient wisdom. Flowing into enlightenment
- and descending into the Mahayana, they are means of achieving
- omniscience, leading completely to one place. Therefore, I do not
- create different vehicles."
- -- from "Chapter of the True One Sutra".
-
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Tantra in Tibet",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- We are aiming to develop a strong feeling of love and compassion with
-respect to everyone, but this cannot be done without first seeing an equality
-of all beings throught meditatively cultivating equanimity. Otherwise, you'll
-easily be able to generate love and compassion for friends and may be able to
-extend a little of this to neutral people, but even minor enemies will remain
-a huge problem. Thus at first it is necessary to recognize how friends,
-neutral persons, and enemies are equal.
- This is done in two ways. One way to break down rigid classifications of
-people is by reflecting first with respect to friends, then neutral persons,
-and then enemies:
- "Just as I want happiness and don't want suffering, so this friend
- wants happiness and doesn't want suffering. And equally, this neutral
- person wants happiness and doesn't want suffering. And equally, this
- enemy wants happiness and doesn't want suffering."
- Another way is to reflect on what your relationships have been with others
-over the course of lifetimes, beginning with neutral persons, then friends,
-and finally enemies. An enemy in this lifetime wants to do you in, but over
-the course of lifetimes was this person just an enemy? No. If you do not
-believe in rebirth, utilize the rebirth game, the rebirth perspective, as a
-technique for making your mind more flexible.
- Either of these techniques will work:
- - Reflecting on the similarity of yourself and others in the basic
- aspiration to gain happiness and be rid of suffering.
-
- - Reflecting on the changeability of relationships over the course
- of lifetimes.
- -- Jeffrey Hopkins, "A Truthful Heart: Buddhist Practices for Connecting
- with Others", foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- What is wisdom? It is as explained in the perfection of supreme knowledge
-teachings: all phenomena are free from elaborations, and when the perceiving
-subject as well becomes equally free from elaborations, that is wisdom. In
-particular, the wisdom of the buddha consists in the pacification of the
-elaborations and their habitual tendencies in relation to suchness. It is the
-inseparability of the expanse and wisdom. It is free from singularity and
-multiplicity, quality and qualified. It realizes the nonduality of subjects
-and objects. In it all phenomena--samsara and nirvana, faults and qualities,
-and so on--are always undifferentiable and equal. Outside of that, there is
-no way to posit wisdom.
- In a nonanalytical context of repeating what others accept, we Followers
-of the Middle Way describe knowable objects as existing. The wisdom of the
-buddhas is the same. Since we speak of all phenomena as existing from the
-perspective of others (even though from our own perspective they are free of
-the elaborations of existence and nonexistence), it is unreasonable to debate
-solely about the existence or nonexistence of the wisdom of buddhas.
- -- "The Karmapa's Middle Way: Feast for the Fortunate by the Ninth Karmapa,
- Wangchuk Dorje", trans. by Tyler Dewar, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-Well timed silence hath more eloquence than speech. -- Martin Fraqhar Tupper
-~
-A diplomat is a man who says you have an open mind,
-instead of telling you that you have a hole in the head.
- -- Anonymous
-~
-To achieve great things, two things are needed;
-a plan, and not quite enough time.
- -- Leonard Bernstein
-~
-To bend a bamboo, start when it is a shoot. -- Malaysian Proverb
-~
-Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.
- -- John Wooden
-~
-No shade tree? Blame not the sun, but yourself. -- Chinese Proverb
-~
-'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool,
-than to speak and remove all doubt.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-Art is either plagiarism or revolution. -- Paul Gauguin
-~
- When this world initially formed, there seem to have been two types of
-events or entities, one sentient, the other insentient. Rocks, for instance,
-are examples of nonsentient entities. You see, we usually consider them to
-have no feelings: no pains and no pleasures. The other type, sentient beings,
-have awareness, consciousness, pains and pleasures.
- But there needs to be a cause for that. If you posit there is no cause
-for consciousness, then this leads to all sorts of inconsistencies and logical
-problems. So, the cause is posited, established. It is considered certain.
- The initial cause must be an independent consciousness. And on that basis
-is asserted the theory of continuation of life after death. It is during the
-interval when one's continuum of awareness departs from one's body at death
-that the subtle mind, the subtle consciousness, becomes manifest. That
-continuum connects one life with the next.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations
- with the Dalai Lama on Brain Science and Buddhism", edited by Zara
- Houshmand, Robert B. Livingston, and B. Alan Wallace, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Channels and cakras represent the inner structure of the human body,
-referred to in the tantric teachings as the 'vajra body'. 'Vajra' means
-'indestructible', and 'vajra body' refers to the dimension of the three
-fundamental components: the channels and cakras, the prana that flows through
-them, and the bindu or thigle, the white and red seed-essences of the physical
-body that form the basis for practices such as the Tummo.
- In the tantras of the Upadesa section of Dzogchen, it is explained that
-after the conception of a human being the first thing to develop is the navel
-cakra. Then from this, through a channel, the head cakra develops followed by
-the other main cakras of the throat and the heart. This channel or meridian,
-known as the life-channel, develops into the spinal cord and spine. At the
-same time it remains as the fundamental energy of the central channel.
- The central channel, known as Uma in Tibetan, is connected with the two
-lateral channels called Roma and Kyangma. The Roma channel, which is white
-and corresponds to lunar energy, is on the right side in men and on the left
-in women. Ro means 'taste', and the main function of this channel is to give
-the sensation of pleasure. The Kyangma channel, red and corresponding to
-solar energy, is on the left side in men and on the right in women. Kyang
-means 'sole', and unlike the Roma, this channel is not connected with many
-secondary channels. Control of this channel is fundamental in order to
-cultivate the experience of emptiness. These are the characteristic features
-of the two channels, which are related to the two principles of upaya or
-method, and of prajna or energy. Method denotes everything pertaining to the
-visible or material dimension; while 'prajna', which generally means
-discriminating wisdom, in this context denotes the energy of emptiness that is
-the base of any manifestation.
- -- Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, "Yantra Yoga: The Tibetan Yoga of Movement",
- translated by Adriano Clemente, published byy Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Flowers leave some of their fragrance in the hand that bestows them.
- -- Chinese proverb
-~
-The taller the bamboo grows, the lower it bends.
- -- Chinese proverb
-~
-You can't depend on the man who made the mess to clear it up.
- -- Indian proverb
-~
-You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket. -- John Adams
-~
-Kissing is like drinking salted water; you drink and your thirst increases.
- -- Chinese Proverb
-~
-The eye is a menace to clear sight, the ear is a menace to subtle hearing, the
-mind is a menace to wisdom, every organ of the senses is a menace to its own
-capacity.... Fuss, the god of the Southern Ocean, and Fret, the god of the
-Northern Ocean, happened once to meet in the realm of Chaos, the god of the
-center. Chaos treated them very handsomely and they discussed together what
-they could doto repay his kindness. They had noticed that, whereas everyone
-else had seven apertures, for sight, hearing, eating, breathing and so on,
-Chaos had none. So they decided to make the experiment of boring holes in
-him. Every day they bored a hole, and on the seventh day, Chaos died.
- -- Chuang Tzu
-~
- Everybody loves to talk about calm and peace, whether in a family,
-national, or international context. But without inner peace how can we make
-real peace? World peace through hatred and force is impossible. Even in the
-case of individuals, there is no possibility to feel happiness through anger.
-If in a difficult situation one becomes disturbed internally, overwhelmed by
-mental discomfort, then external things will not help at all. However, if
-despite external difficulties or problems, internally one's attitude is of
-love, warmth, and kind-heartedness, then problems can be faced and accepted.
- -----
- The necessary foundation for world peace and the ultimate goal of any new
-international order is the elimination of violence at every level. For this
-reason the practice of non-violence surely suits us all. It simply requires
-determination, for by its very nature non-violent action requires patience.
-While the practice of non-violence is still something of an experiment on this
-planet, if it is successful it will open the way to a far more peaceful world
-in the next century.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Pocket Dalai Lama", compiled and edited by
- Mary Craig
-~
- On the tenth night of the twelfth month, Gyal Dawa, the girl, came again.
-She said, "Don't neglect my request for a prayer. It is very important."
-That's the dream she had. I thought, "I'll write it on the full moon day."
-So on the night of the fourteenth I prayed with single-pointed devotion to
-Guru Rinpoche to grant blessing that the prayer would be beneficial and then
-fell asleep. Early in the morning of the fifteenth I dreamed I was sitting in
-front of the shrine in a very large building that looked like a temple.
-Suddenly a young white man dressed in white with his hair falling loosely over
-his shoulder appeared at the entrance. He was playing the cymbals melodiously
-and dancing the swirling, joyous dance of the Ging. He came closer and
-closer, singing:
-
- If you want to establish the dharma,
- Establish it in your mind.
- In the depth of mind, you will find Buddha.
- If you wish to visit the buddha fields,
- Purify ordinary deluded attachment.
- The perfectly comfortable buddha field is close by.
- Develop the joyful effort to practice,
- That is the essence of the teaching.
- Without practice, who can gain the siddhis?
- It is hard to see one's faults,
- But to see them nakedly is powerful advice.
- In the end when faults have been cleared away,
- The enlightened qualities increase and shine forth.
-
- At the end of this he rolled his cymbals. Then he crashed them together,
-and I awoke. After I woke up, I did not forget what he had said. I
-understood it to have been advice on practicing what to accept and what to
-reject. I was sad that although I had actually seen the face of my only
-father, Guru Padmasambhava, I had not recognized him.
- I, Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, old father of the Nyingma, wrote this from my own
-experience. Sarva Mangalam [May all be auspicious].
- -- Khenpo Tsewaang Dongyal Rinpoche, "Light of Fearless Indestructible
- Wisdom: The Life and Legacy of His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche", published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The modern economy has no national boundaries. When we talk about ecology,
-the environment, when we are concerned about the ozone layer, one individual,
-one society, one country cannot solve these problems. We must work together.
-Humanity needs more genuine cooperation. The foundation for the development
-of good relations with one another is altruism, compassion, and forgiveness.
-For small arguments to remain limited, in the human circle the best method is
-forgiveness. Altruism and forgiveness are the basis for bringing humanity
-together. Then no conflict, no matter how serious, will go beyond the bounds
-of what is truly human.
- -- "The Dalai Lama, A Policy of Kindness: An Anthology of Writings By and
- About the Dalai Lama", compiled and edited bby Sidney Piburn, Foreword
- by Sen. Claiborne Pell, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Creation in four vajra steps entails meditation on emptiness; generating a
-moon, sun, and seed-syllable from which light emanates and then converges; the
-full manifestation of the deity resulting from the convergence of the light
-and transformation of the seed-syllable; and visualization of three syllables
-at the deity's three places. [The syllables om, ah, and hum are imagined at
-the forehead, throat, and heart, respectively.]
- ...Kongtrul explains that all the varieties of the creation phase
-incorporate the four key elements of form, imagination, result, and
-transformative power. "Form" means meditating on forms that represent the
-aspects of awakening and generating clear images of these forms, thereby
-stopping impure appearances. "Imagination" means using the force of creative
-imagination to convert the visualized forms of awakening into reality.
-"Result" means meditating on the result, that is, the very goal to be
-attained, and thereby achieving that goal. "Transformative power" means
-turning the ordinary body and mind into pristine awareness by relying on the
-transformative powers of awakened beings. Among these, Kongtrul points out,
-the most important element for realization of the path is the transformative
-power of the vajra master combined with one's own devotion to that master.
- -- Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taaye, "The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Eight,
- Part Three: The Elements of Tantric Practice", translated by Ingrid
- Loken McLeod and Elio Guarisco, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-From The Prayer Requested by Namke Nyingbo
-by Padmasambhava
-
-All these things of the outer environment and the beings therein
-That come into sight as the objects of your eyes like this,
-They may appear, but leave them in the sphere free from clinging to a self.
-Since they are pure of perceiver and perceived, they are the
-luminous-empty body of the deity.
-I pray to the guru in whom attachment is self-liberated,
-I pray to Padmasambhava from Uddiyana.
-
-All these sounds, taken as pleasant or unpleasant,
-That resound as the objects of your ears like this,
-Leave them in the sphere of inconceivable, empty resonance.
-Empty resonance, unborn and unceasing, is the Victor's speech.
-I pray to the words of the Victor that resound and yet are empty,
-I pray to Padmasambhava from Uddiyana.
-
-However these thoughts of afflictions' five poisons,
-Which stir as objects in your mind like this, may appear,
-Do not mess around with them through a mind that rushes ahead into the
- future or lingers in the past.
-Through leaving their movement in its own place, they uncoil as the dharmakaya.
-I pray to the guru whose awareness is self-liberated, I pray to
- Padmasambhava from Uddiyana.
-
-Grant your blessings that the mind stream of someone like me is liberated
-Through the compassion of the Tathagatas of the three times,
-So that objects, appearing as if perceived outside, become pure,
-That my very mind, perceiving as if inside, becomes liberated,
-And that, in between, luminosity will recognize its own face.
-
- -- "Straight from the Heart: Buddhist Pith Instructions", translated
- and introduced by Karl Brunnholzl, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The actual method of cultivating the correct attitudes towards the
-spiritual master is to practice contemplative meditation upon the guru's good
-qualities and the beneficial effects that he or she introduces into one's
-life. By reflecting again and again on the great kindness the guru performs,
-a confidence suitable for spiritual training under him or her is born. This
-process of reflecting on the role of the guru is important in the beginning as
-well as in the higher practices, for as we sit in contemplation we become
-faced with a stream of reactions, which if understood at an early stage can
-clear the mind of much doubt, confusion and superstition.
- The spiritual master is the source of all spiritual progress. In this
-context, Geshe Potowa once said, "If even those who want to learn a common
-worldly trade must study under a qualified teacher, how much more so must we
-who seek enlightenment? Most of us have come from the lower realms and have
-no background or experience in the paths and stages to enlightenment; and, if
-we wish to gain this experience, why should we not study with someone
-qualified to teach us the methods that develop it?"
- In the beginning of his Great Exposition, Lama Tsongkhapa writes, "The
-root of spiritual development is to cultivate an effective relationship with a
-master." This means that we must cultivate the correct attitudes and then
-demonstrate them correctly in action. This is the root that, if made strong,
-supports the trunk, branches, leaves and flowers of practice. When the roots
-of a tree are strong, the entire tree becomes strong, whereas when the roots
-are weak, the entire tree will remain weak.
- ...We should engender respect such that we see the guru as a Buddha. If
-we can do this, then we experience the guru as we would a Buddha and
-consequently are sufficiently inspired to practice what he or she teaches.
-The instruction to see the guru as a Buddha is not unreasonable, for in many
-ways the spiritual master is Buddha himself.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Enlightenment", edited and translated
- by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Liion Publications
-~
- ...when you start practicing, you should not expect too much. We live in
-a time of computers and automation, so you may feel that inner development is
-also an automatic thing for which you press a button and everything changes.
-It is not so. Inner development is not easy and will take time. External
-progress, the latest space missions and so forth, have not reached their
-present level within a short period but over centuries, each generation making
-greater developments based on those of the previous generation. However,
-inner development is even more difficult since internal improvement cannot be
-transferred from generation to generation. Your past life's experience very
-much influences this life, and this life's experience becomes the basis for
-the next rebirth's development, but transference of inner development from one
-person to another is impossible. Thus, everything depends on yourself, and it
-will take time.
- I have met Westerners who at the beginning were very enthusiastic about
-their practice, but after a few years have completely forgotten it, and there
-are no traces of what they had practiced at one time. This is because at the
-beginning they expected too much. Shantideva's Engaging in the Bodhisattva
-Deeds emphasizes the importance of the practice of patience--tolerance. This
-tolerance is an attitude not only towards your enemy but also an attitude of
-sacrifice, of determination, soo that you do not fall into the laziness of
-discouragement. You should practice patience, or tolerance, with great
-resolve. This is important.
- -- The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatsoo, "Kindness,
- Clarity, and Insight 25th Anniversary Edition", edited and translated
- by Jeffrey Hopkins, co-edited by Elizabeth Napper, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- I take refuge until I am enlightened in the Buddhas,
- the Dharma, and the Sangha.
- By the positive potential I create by practicing generosity
- and the other far-reaching attitudes (ethical discipline,
- patience, joyous effort, meditative stabilization, and wisdom),
- may I attain Buddhahood in order to benefit all sentient beings.
-
- It takes only a few moments to think in this way and to recite the prayer,
-yet doing so has a significant effect on the rest of our day. We'll be more
-cheerful and will be sure of our direction in life. Especially if we don't do
-a regular meditation practice, starting the day in this way is extremely
-beneficial.
- In the evening, after reviewing the day's activities and freeing our minds
-from any remaining afflictions that may have arisen during the day, we again
-take refuge and generate the altruistic intention.
- Before going to sleep, we can envision the Buddha, made of light, on our
-pillow. Placing our head in his lap, we fall asleep amidst the gentle glow of
-his wisdom and compassion. Instead, we can learn the guidelines and try to
-implement them as much as we can, reviewing them periodically to refresh our
-minds. We may choose one guideline to emphasize this week in our daily lives.
-Next week, we can add another, and so on. In that way, we'll slowly build up
-the good habits of practicing all of them.
- -- Ven. Thubten Chodron, "Taming the Mind", published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-Compassion is the wish for another being to be free from suffering;
-love is wanting them to have happiness.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Compassionate Life"
-~
-The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past,
-worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present
-moment wisely and earnestly.
- -- Buddha
-~
-Our patience will achieve more than our force. -- Edmund Burke
-~
-The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his tax return,
-it's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
- -- Arthur C. Clarke
-~
- Despite all the material progress in this and the last century we still
-experience suffering, especially in relation to mental well-being. In fact,
-if anything, the complex way of life created by modernisation or globalisation
-is causing new problems and new causes of mental unrest. Under these
-circumstances I feel that the various religious traditions have an important
-role to play in helping to maintain peace and the spirit of reconciliation and
-dialogue, and therefore harmony and close contact between them is essential.
-Whether we are believers or non-believers and, within the category of the
-believers, whether we hold this or that belief, we must respect all the
-traditions. That's very important.
- I always tell people in non-Buddhist countries that followers of other
-religions should maintain their own tradition. To change religion is not
-easy, and people can get into trouble as a result of confusion. So it is much
-safer to keep to one's own tradition, while respecting all religions. I'm
-Buddhist--sometimes I describe myself as a staunch Buddhist--but, at the same
-time, I respect and admire the works of other traditionss' figures such as
-Jesus Christ. Basically, all the religious traditions have made an immense
-contribution to humanity and continue to do so, and as such are worthy of our
-respect and admiration.
- When we contemplate the diversity of spiritual traditions on this planet
-we can understand that each addresses the specific needs of different human
-beings, because there is so much diversity in human mentality and spiritual
-inclination. Yet, fundamentally, all spiritual traditions perform the same
-function, which is to help us tame our mental state, overcome our negativities
-and perfect our inner potential.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Lighting the Way", translated by Geshe Thupten
- Jinpa, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...For one who abides in thought
- Feats do not arise.
- Therefore abandon thought
- And think a mantra form.
-
-'Abandon thought' refers to the eradication of thought conceiving self
-[inherent existence] through the wisdom of selflessness; it does not mean to
-stop any and all types of thought. 'Think a mantra form' means to meditate on
-a deity. The measure of firmness in deity yoga is indicated by 'whether
-going, standing, or sitting is always immovable though moving about'. When
-one has attained the capacity to hold the mind on the divine body in all types
-of behaviour--whether in meditative equipoise or not--without moving to
-something else, one has the capacity to remove the pride of ordinaariness.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa, and Jeffrey Hopkins,
- "Deity Yoga in Action and Performance Tantra", published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- A person who is liberated, who has freed his or her mind of all mental
-afflictions, still experiences physical suffering. The difference between us
-and an arhat, a person who has freed the mind from mental affliction, is that
-an arhat doesn't identify with pain. Arhats experience physical pain vividly
-but don't grasp onto it; they can take action to avoid or alleviate pain, but
-whether they do so or not, the physical pain doesn't come inside. What an
-arhat does not experience is mental suffering. A buddha, one who is perfectly
-spiritually awakened, has gone a further step. A buddha has no mental
-suffering of his or her own, but is vividly and non-dually aware of the
-suffering of others.
- Superficially, the arhat who is free from mental suffering can seem to us
-who lack this realization as numb and detached, in a state of existential
-anesthesia. A buddha, one who is fully awakened, presents the paradox of
-being free from suffering and also non-dually present with other people's joys
-and sorrows, hopes and fears. A buddha taps into immutable bliss, the
-ultimate ground state of awareness beyond the dichotomy of stimulus-driven
-pain and pleasure. The mind of a buddha has been purified of all obscuration
-and from its own nature there naturally arises immutable bliss, like a spring
-welling up from the earth. With the unveiling of the buddha-nature of
-unconditioned bliss, there is also a complete erosion of an absolute
-demarcation between self and other. The barrier is gone. This is why buddhas
-are vividly and non-dually aware of the suffering of others, their hopes and
-fears, the whole situation, and at the same time are not disengaged from the
-purity and bliss of their own awareness. The mind of a buddha doesn't block
-out anything and nothing is inhibited, and this is why the awareness of an
-awakened being is frequently described as "unimaginable."
- -- B. Alan Wallace, "Buddhism with an Attitude: The Tibetan Seven-Point
- Mind Training", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The fifth Tara is known as Wangdu Rigje Lhamo. She is Kurukulle in
-Sanskrit and Rigjema or Rigje Lhamo in Tibetan. Wangdu means power of
-"gathering, summoning," or "magnetizing." We can think of it as attracting
-everything beneficial, to benefit all beings. Rigjema means "she who
-precisely understands everything" and Lhamo is "divine lady." So she is known
-as the Tara who precisely understands the power of magnetizing.
- Kurukulle's practice is very extensively taught throughout Tibetan
-Buddhism. She is often named the "Red Tara" because of her color. Her Praise
-is:
- CHAG TSHAL TUT TA RA HUNG YI GE
- Homage, Mother, filling all regions, sky, and the realm of desire
-
- DO DANG CHOG DANG NAM KHA GANG MA
- With the sounds of TUTTARA and HUNG,
-
- JIG TEN DUN PO ZHAB CHI NEN TE
- Trampling the seven worlds with her feet,
-
- LU PA ME PAR GUG PAR NU MA
- Able to summon all before her.
- -- Khenchen Palden Sherab annd Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal, "Tara's Enlightened
- Activity: An Oral Commentary on 'The Twenty-one Praises to Tara'",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
- -- Gandhi
-~
-Always bear in mind that your resolution to succeed
-is more important than any one thing.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless-like water. Now you put water into a
-cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle,
-you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can
-crash. Be water, my friend.
- --Bruce Lee
-~
-All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability.
-The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.
- --Bruce Lee
-~
-A wise man can learn more from a foolish question
-than a fool can learn from a wise answer.
- --Bruce Lee
-~
-The remembrance of youth is a sigh. -- Oriental Maxim
-~
-Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life.
- -- Herbert Henry Asquith
-~
-The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next.
- -- Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)
-~
-What we play is life. -- Louis Armstrong
-~
-Fight for your opinions, but do not believe that they contain
-the whole truth, or the only truth.
- -- Charles Dana
-~
-Some say the glass is half empty,
-some say the glass is half full,
-I say, are you going to drink that?
- -- Lisa Claymen
-~
-Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. -- Carl Jung
-~
-Since a politician never believes what he says,
-he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.
- -- Charles de Gaulle
-~
-On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable.
-The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the
-other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out
-is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting
-against each other.
- -- Stewart Brand at the first Hackers' Conference in 1984
-~
-Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites.
- -- William Ruckelshaus
-~
-Those who get too big for their briches will be exposed in the end. -- Anon.
-~
-We're not talking about the same thing," he said. "For you the world is weird
-because if you're not bored with it you're at odds with it. For me the world
-is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my
-interest has been to convince you that you must accept responsibility for being
-here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous
-time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count,
-since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for
-witnessing all the marvels of it.
- -- Don Juan, Yaqui Shaman
-~
-Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use.
- -- Wendell Johnson
-~
-People prefer to believe what they prefer to be true. -- Francis Bacon
-~
-The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling,
-but in rising every time we fall.
- -- Nelson Mandela
-~
-Stapp's Ironical Paradox:
-The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any
-human accomplishment an incredible miracle.
- -- Col. John P. Stapp
-~
-When the only tool you own is a hammer,
-every problem begins to resemble a nail.
- -- Abraham Maslow
-~
-Peace is not a little white dove. It is you and me. -- Rigoberta Menchu Tum
-~
-If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
- -- African proverb
-~
-The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes,
-in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip
-himself of almost all sense and meaning.
- -- Sir Winston Churchill
-~
-Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is? -- Frank Scully
-~
-Money often costs too much. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
-~
-The pen is mightier than the sword, and considerably easier to write with.
- -- Marty Feldman
-~
-The true meaning of life is to plant trees
-under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- -- Nelson Henderson
-~
-The first human being who hurled an insult instead
-of a stone was the founder of civilization.
- -- Sigmund Freud
-~
-When the weight of the world has got you down
- and you want to end your life.
-Bills to pay, a dead-end job,
- and problems with the wife.
-But don't throw in the tow'l,
- 'cuz there's a place right down the block...
-Where you can drink your misery away...
-At Flaming Moe's.... (Let's all go to Flaming Moe's...)
-When liquor in a mug (Let's all go to Flaming Moe's...)
- can warm you like a hug. (Flaming Moe's...)
-And happiness is just a Flaming Moe away...
-Happiness is just a Flaming Moe away...
- -- Flaming Moe's Theme Song, The Simpsons.
-~
-Stop living for what's around the corner
-and start enjoying the walk down the street.
- -- Grant L. Miller
-~
-Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom. -- George Iles
-~
-One day Ananda, who had been thinking deeply about things for a while, turned
-to the Buddha and exclaimed: "Lord, I've been thinking--spiritual friendship
-is at least half of the spiritual life!" The Buddha replied: "Say not so,
-Ananda, say not so. Spiritual friendship is the whole of the spiritual life!"
- -- Samyutta Nikaya, Verse 2
-~
-There are moments when one feels free from one's own identification with human
-limitations and inadequacies. At such moments one imagines that one stands on
-some spot of a small planet, gazing in amazement at the cold yet profoundly
-moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable; life and death flow into one,
-and there is neither evolution nor destiny; only Being.
- -- Albert Einstein
-~
-A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing, but
-together can decide that nothing can be done.
- -- Fred Allen
-~
-An undefined problem has an infinite number of solutions.
- -- Robert A. Humphrey
-~
-The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best--and therefore
-never scrutinize or question.
- -- Stephen Jay Gould
-~
-41. One's own awareness, fresh and uncontrived
- One's own awareness, fresh and uncontrived,
- Is the primordially present ultimate Lama
- From whom you have not been separated for even an instant.
- This meeting with the original abiding nature--how amazing!
-I, Jnana, wrote this in response to Changchub Palmo's request.
- -- "Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoche's Heart Advice", translated by
- Ron Garry, a Tsadra Foundation Series book, published by Snow Lion
-~
- I hunted up statistics, and was amazed to find that after all the glaring
-newspaper headings concerning railroad disasters, less than three hundred
-people had really lost their lives by those disasters in the preceding twelve
-months. The Erie road was set down as the most murderous in the list. It had
-killed forty-six.or twenty-six, I do not exactly remember which, but I know
-the number was double that of any other road. But the fact straightway
-suggested itself that the Erie was an immensely long road, and did more
-business than any other line in the country; so the double number of killed
-ceased to be matter for surprise.
- By further figuring, it appeared that between New York and Rochester the
-Erie ran eight passenger trains each way every day.sixteen altogether; and
-carried a daily average of 6,000 persons. That is about a million in six
-months.the population of New York city. Well, the Erie kills from thirteen
-to twenty-three persons out of its million in six months; and in the same
-time 13,000 of New York's million die in their beds! My flesh crept, my hair
-stood on end.
- "This is appalling!" I said. "The danger isn't in travelling by rail, but
-in trusting to those deadly beds. I will never sleep in a bed again."
- --Mark Twain on Risk Analysis, 1871
-~
-The activities of this degenerate age are like a madman's performance of dance.
-No matter what we do, there is no way to please others.
-Think about what is essential.
-This is my heart's advice.
- --Bhande Dharmaradza
-
- In any group of people, there is always some misunderstanding. You cannot
-satisfy everyone, no matter what you do. The Bodhicaryavatara says that every
-individual has a different way of thinking. Thus, it is very difficult to
-please everyone. Even the Buddha could not do it, so how can we? Instead of
-trying to please others, please yourself by applying yourself fully to
-bodhicitta.
- Investigate your situation carefully, according to the Dharma. For us, it is
-more important to know what is best than to know how to please everyone. Know
-what is right, and on the basis of your own wisdom and skill, just do it.
-Don't expect that other people will be pleased with you or that they will be
-happy about what you do. Rather, do what's best, what's helpful for yourself
-and for others. If they are happy about it, that's fine. If they are not
-happy, what can you do?
- -- "A Complete Guide to the Buddhist Path", by Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen,
- edited by Khenmo Trinlay Chodron, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Lochen Gyurme Dechen, nephew of the great accomplished master Tangtong
-Gyalpo, sang this song, a prayer of the Six Doctrines, called "The Rain
-of Great Bliss":
-
-Nama Shri Jnana Daki Nigupta-ye!
-
- Lady of the celestial realms, compassionate one,
- Chief of wisdom dakinis, Niguma,
- When I, your child, pray fervently to you,
- In your expanse free from formulations, please think of me.
- Lady who reveals the sacred circle of great secrets,
- Bestow now the empowerment of the four joys!
- Lady who opens the door to the unborn state,
- Clear away now my negative acts and obscurations with the purification
- practice!
- Lady who emits fire from the short Ah,
- Burn now my soiled aggregates and sense elements!
- Lady who draws great bliss from the syllable Ham,
- Bestow now coemergent wisdom!
- Lady who reveals the natural experience of illusion,
- Destroy now my attachment to the reality of anger and desire!
- Lady who emanates and transforms during lucid dreams,
- Lady who makes spontaneous luminosity arise,
- Dispel now the darkness of my stupidity!
- Lady who leads above at the time of departure,
- Guide me now to the celestial realms!
- Lady who overcomes the appearances of delusion in the intermediate state,
- Grant me now the invincible body of enlightenment's perfect rapture.
-
-This prayer was sung by the religious teacher Gyurme Dechen.
-
- -- "Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse of the Shangpa Masters", compiled by
- Jamgon Kongtrul, translated & edited by Ngawang Zangpo, a Tsadra
- Foundation Series book, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...ngondro, the foundational practices, are ways to bring body, speech, or
-energy, and all aspects of mind into increasingly effortless harmony with the
-oceanic expanse central to Dzogchen teachings. This expanse is another name
-for reality, the heart of our being, and thus for mind-nature. Its vastness
-challenges the cramped and reified self-images that temporarily obstruct our
-view of the whole. Finitudes of any kind--the sense of being small and
-contained, the familiar urgent rush of business, passions, or plans--are
-simply conceptions. These conceptions are both cause and effect of energetic
-holdings in the body. The foundational practices illuminate these holdings
-and, in the end, lead to their dissolution into the expanse. As Khetsun
-Sangpo Rinpoche has said, "Like a fire that burns fuel, the mind consumes
-thought by working with it."
- In the Tibetan traditions, teaching and practice sessions typically open
-with a reference, brief or extensive, to the foundational practices. Every
-lineage has its own variations, but the basic structure and principles of
-these practices are virtually identical. After an acknowledgment of one's
-guru or lineage and the intention to benefit all beings, the sequence usually
-begins with the four thoughts. These are reflections on (1) the preciousness
-of one's own life, (2) the fragility of life and the uncertainty of death's
-timing, (3) the inexorable nature of karma, and (4) the impossibility of
-avoiding suffering so long as ignorance holds one in samsara. In addition,
-there are two other contemplations: (5) the benefits of liberation compared to
-life in samsara and (6) the importance of a spiritual guide. These six are
-known as the outer foundational practices.
- These six are combined with five inner practices, each of which is repeated
-one hundred thousand times. The first inner foundational practice is refuge.
-Refuge, writes Adzom Drukpa, is the cornerstone of all paths. Without it, he
-adds, quoting Candrakirti, all vows come to nothing. Most succinctly, refuge
-helps us cultivate a quality vital to the path and to human interaction in
-general: this is the quality of trust, the ability to fruitfully rely on
-someone or something other than oneself. Adzom Paylo Rinpoche once said that
-whereas relying on others in the context of samsara generally leads us astray,
-relying on the Dharma increases our good qualities.
- -- "Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse: A Story of Transmission", by Anne C.
- Klein, foreword by Adzom Paylo Rinpoche, preface by Tulku Thondup
- Rinpoche, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-1.18 Fruition of the Seed of Enlightenment
-
- When we engage in virtuous actions, we realize they are beneficial not only
-for others, but also for ourselves. Our good deeds can earn the praise and
-appreciation of others, and the benefits of our work come back to us through
-others. When we are involved with virtuous works, people respect us and hold
-us in high esteem. And we know we must be doing something good, because we
-experience a wholesome, pleasant feeling about our life's work. We quickly
-begin to see the short-term benefits of our involvement in virtuous action as
-our bodies and minds become more peaceful in our daily lives.
- This serenity in turn increases our longevity as our body and mind become
-more harmonized. Even after our death, we will be reincarnated in higher
-realms of existence as a result of our involvement with virtuous works during
-this life. Yet a higher rebirth is merely a short-term benefit, a temporary
-relief from the sufferings of samsara, for until we achieve liberation from
-samsara we remain trapped in the cycle of suffering, and "whatever goes up,
-must come down!"
- Within the mundane world, when our evil deeds are common knowledge, no one
-sings their praises. If such deeds are remembered at all, it is in infamy.
-However, when a being lives with a mind of true bodhichitta and does great
-works of pure altruism, their deeds are remembered for centuries. Of such
-cases we have many examples within the Kagyu lineage alone: the historical
-Buddha, Guru Rinpoche, Milarepa, the Karmapas, and countless others. Yet it
-is also important to remember that virtuous action eventually leads us to the
-liberation of buddhahood; this is the ultimate long-term benefit of planting
-the seed of enlightenment of which we speak. Hence, as we make this journey
-towards liberation, it is extremely important for us to learn to recognize
-which of our actions are virtuous and which are not.
- -- Lama Dudjom Dorjee, "Heartfelt Advice", Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, addressing those who have or will undertake a
-retreat, gives this advice:
-
- "You will fall sick, experience pain, and encounter many adverse
-circumstances. At such times do not think, 'Although I am practicing the
-Dharma, I have nothing but trouble. The Dharma cannot be so great. I have
-followed a teacher and done so much practice, and yet hard times still befall
-me.' Such thoughts are wrong views. You should realize that through the
-blessing and power of the practice, by experiencing sickness and other
-difficulties now, you are purifying and ridding yourself of negative
-actions.... By purifying them while you have the chance, you will later go
-from bliss to bliss. So do not think, 'I don't deserve this illness, these
-obstacles, these negative influences.' Experience your difficulties as
-blessings...when you do experience such difficulties, you should be very happy
-and avoid having adverse thoughts like, 'Why are such terrible things
-happening to me.'"
-
- As Rinpoche advises, relating to hardship properly depends on the strength
-of one's view. In general, having a view is knowing exactly where you want
-to go and how to get there. It is the vision of knowing what you want. For
-example, if you have the view to become a doctor, your vision guides you
-through financial burdens, physical and emotional difficulties, and obstacles
-that get in your way. You know it will be difficult and involve sacrifice,
-but with a strong view, you forge to the finish line.
- Similarly, if you want to become spiritually awakened, it is the power of
-your view that gets you there. If you are having a hard time getting to the
-meditation cushion, or engaging in the necessary study, it is because your
-view is not strong enough or is incomplete. A partial view, in this case, is
-one that doesn't include hardship. You can strengthen your view and
-accelerate progress by understanding how you lose your view in the fog of
-hardship, and therefore lose sight of your path.
- -- Dr. Andrew Holecek, "The Power and the Pain: Transforming Spiritual
- Hardship into Joy", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Chod is a very powerful path to buddhahood. Its power comes from working
-with the practitioner's afflictive emotions. Chod is purposely performed in
-frightening places to help the practitioner heighten his fear so that he has
-the opportunity to cut through it.
- -- adapted from Chod Practice in the Bon Tradition, by Alejandro Chaoul,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Under the heading of the great way's [Mahayana's] perspective, we read of how
-the Buddha merely demonstrates the process of enlightenment in this world,
-something he has done and will do repeatedly. Kongtrul quotes the Buddha in
-an important discourse:
-
- "In the past, countless ages ago, in a world-system that united as many
-realms as there are grains of sand in the Ganges, I attained enlightenment as
-Transcendent Buddha Crown of the Powerful One, aided beings, and transcended
-sorrow. Then once again, from that point until the present age, I have
-repeatedly demonstrated the inconceivable process of enlightenment.
- "I will continue, until cyclic existence is empty, to demonstrate [this
-process of] enlightenment beginning with the initial development of the mind
-of awakening as an ordinary being."
-
- While such statements do not help us grasp the nature of the Buddha's
-enlightenment, they do underline the fact that enlightenment is a specific
-experience, the result of a known and knowable process that the Buddha
-deliberately demonstrates time and again so that we might follow his example,
-no guesswork involved.
- -- Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, "Treasury of Knowledge, Books Two, Three,
- and Four: Buddhism's Journey to Tibet" translated and introduced by
- Ngawang Zangpo, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Yang Gonpa says:
-
- The essence of thoughts that suddenly arise is without any nature. Do not
-inhibit their appearance in any way, and without thinking of any essence, let
-them arise clearly, nakedly, and vividly. Likewise, if one thought arises,
-observe its nature, and if two arise, observe their nature. Thus, whatever
-thoughts arise, let them go without holding onto them. Let them remain as
-fragments. Release them unimpededly. Be naked without an object. Release
-them without grasping. This is close to becoming a Buddha. This is the self-
-extinction of samsara, samsara is overwhelmed, samsara is disempowered, and
-samsara is exhausted. Knowledge of the path of method and wisdom, appearances
-and emptiness, the gradual stages, the common and special paths, and the 84,
-000 entrances to the Dharma is made perfectly complete and fulfilled in an
-instant. This is self-arisen, for it is present like that in the very nature
-[of awareness]. Natural liberation is the essence of all the stainless paths,
-and it bears the essence of emptiness and compassion.
- -- Karma Chagme, "A Spacious Path to Freedom: Practical Instructions on the
- Union of Mahamudra and Atiyoga", commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche, trans.
- by B. Alan Wallace, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- We must learn to trust ourselves when we practice the doctrines of the Buddha.
-In time, we come to trust the infallibility of karmic cause and effect and of
-the interdependence of all actions. We must come to know and trust the
-importance of the accumulation of merit and wisdom, in the same way we know
-and trust that even the smallest drops of water falling into a bucket will
-eventually fill it.
- We must learn to trust that our own dharma practice will remove our entire
-jungle of kleshas [unwholesome qualities], much like knowing a raging wildfire
-can clear an entire forest from the earth. All of our negativities can be
-swept away by the firestorm of our compassionate wisdom. We must trust that
-all of our happiness and sadness is completely dependent on, and a result of,
-our previous karma; when we trust this process we can begin the accumulation
-of virtuous actions immediately.
- No one achieves perfection in anything meaningful the very first time they
-try; however, we've heard the phrase over and over again that "practice makes
-perfect." It is true that with multiple repetitions and patience everyone can
-achieve perfection over time. I don't know of anyone who has sat down to
-meditate for the very first time and immediately attained enlightenment, but
-just like the drops of water that we trust will eventually fill our bucket,
-consistent dharma practice will eventually lead us to liberation.
- -- Lama Dudjom Dorjee, "Heartfelt Advice", published by Snow Lion
-~
- Unbroken practice is like a watchful guard.
- It is simply unscattered and is free from acceptance or rejection.
- There is no duality of things to be abandoned and their antidotes.
- This is my heart's advice.
-
-This verse and the following instructions concern how to continue with
-Mahamudra practice. Once we have received instructions, we have to accomplish
-them and perfect the practice. Continuity of practice is essential for the
-perfection of enlightenment.
- Unbroken practice means that one is mindful all the time, like a watchful
-guard. Thieves and robbers may come at any time, so the guard of a mansion
-containing great treasure must be alert twenty-four hours a day. In the same
-way, it is important to watch our mind since the thieves of attachment,
-desire, anger, and forgetfulness can come at any time and steal the wealth of
-our compassion and wisdom, along with our realization of Mahamudra.
- Once mindfulness is continuously established, an unscattered mind is "just
-there," on the spot, whether we are walking, eating, driving, or performing
-other activities. We can watch the mind and see how our mental state shapes
-our world. But when we watch it, we should just relax. Milarepa advises us
-in a vajra song:
-
- Rest naturally, like a small child.
- Rest like an ocean without waves.
- Rest with clarity, like a candle flame.
- Rest without self-concern, like a corpse.
- Rest unmoving like a mountain.
-
- -- Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen, "A Complete Guide to the Buddhist Path",
- edited by Khenmo Trinlay Chodron, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Every time we begin to practice, it helps not to plunge in right away.
-Instead, take a few moments to stop your ordinary chain of thoughts. This is
-especially relevant if you are very busy and have only five minutes for your
-daily practice, but even ordinarily we have this constant stream of thoughts.
-Suppose that just before practice you have a fight with your fianc�. This
-will probably trigger a chain of thoughts about what you want to say to your
-partner. If you start your practice in the midst of all this, it is not going
-to go so well. This is why it helps to put a stop to this chain of thoughts
-for just a few moments.
- I have found this to be very, very useful. There are actually countless
-methods for stopping the chain of thoughts, but for me, before I practice, I
-just sit for a while. Every time a thought comes along, I try to stop it by
-cultivating a sense of renunciation, and I do this over and over again. I
-think about how I am now forty-years-old and, even if I live to be eighty, I
-only have half of my life left. I think that out of this forty years, I am
-going to sleep the equivalent of twenty years. So now there are only twelve
-hours a day that could actually be termed living. If we then factor in
-watching at least one movie a day, eating, and gossip, we have maybe five
-hours or so left. Out of forty years that means eight years remain, and most
-of that will go to indulging our paranoia, anxiety, and all that.... There is
-actually very little time for practice!
- This should give you an idea of how to stop the chain of thoughts. Don't
-immediately throw yourself into the practice; instead, just watch yourself,
-watch your life, and watch what you are doing. If you are doing ten minutes
-of practice every day, you should try to stop the chain of thoughts for at
-least two to three minutes. We do this to transform the mind by invoking a
-sense of renunciation. When we think, "I am dying. I am coming closer to
-death" and other such thoughts, it really helps.
- -- Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche in the commentary to "Entrance to the Great
- Perfection: A Guide to the Dzogchen Preliminary Practices", compiled,
- translated, and introduced by Cortland Dahl, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that
-something else is more important than fear.
- -- Ambrose Redmoon
-~
-Good timber does not grow with ease;
-the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees.
- -- Douglas Malloch
-~
-Q: Does every kind of desire lead to pain?
-
-A: Not all desire leads directly to pain. However, the very word expresses
-the sense of sticking to something. It does not permit freedom. It binds.
-When attached and fastened to something, we cannot move far away. It is as if
-the desired object pulls us back, and we cannot free ourselves from it. For
-this kind of desire we use a term meaning attachment. So long as we are
-attached, we stick there and cannot achieve liberation. However, this does
-not necessarily entail chaos and pain.
-
-Q: Does that mean that some desire is actually beneficial?
-
-A: In the Tibetan language, desire names an attachment that harms ourselves
-and others. The source of benefit for ourselves and others receives a
-different name; we call that "longing."
-
- -- "Essential Practice: Lectures on Kamalashila's Stages of Meditation in
- the Middle Way School by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche", translated and
- introduced by Jules B. Levinson, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-He who plants a tree plants hope. -- Lucy Larcom
-~
-We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with
-nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a
-presumption that once our eyes watered.
- -- Tom Stoppard
-~
-The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do
-something stupid.
- -- Art Spander
-~
-It is our earth, not yours or mine or his. We are meant to live on it,
-helping each other, not destroying each other.
- -- J. Krishnamurti
-~
-When one has the feeling of dislike for evil, when one feels tranquil, one
-finds pleasure in listening to good teachings; when one has these feelings and
-appreciates them, one is free of fear.
- -- Buddha
-~
-In Buddhism, there is a teaching called the "three bodies" (sanjin), also
-called the "three properties" or the "three enlightened properties". These
-are the three kinds of form that a Buddha may manifest as: 1) the Dharma Body
-(dharmakaya or hosshin) is the form in which a Buddha transcends physical
-being and is identical with the undifferentiated unity of being or Suchness
-(Skt. tathata, Jp. shinnyo); 2) the Bliss or Reward Body (sambhogakaya or
-hojin) is obtained as the "reward" for having completed the bodhisattva
-practice of aiding other beings to end their suffering and having penetrated
-the depth of the Buddha's wisdom. Unlike the Dharma Body, which is
-immaterial, the Bliss Body is conceived of as an actual body, although one
-that is still transcendent and imperceptible to common people; 3) the
-Manifested Body (nirmanakaya or ojin) is the physical form in which the Buddha
-appears in this world in order to guide sentient beings. It is considered
-that the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, is nirmanakaya. Honen believed that
-Amida is sambhogakaya.
-~
- Sometimes we put our glasses in our pockets or on our heads and later we ask,
-"Where are my glasses?" This is quite common. We look everywhere else without
-finding our glasses. That is why we need the guru, who can say to us, "There
-are your glasses." That is all that the Mahamudra and Dzogchen teachers do:
-they simply point out. What they are pointing out is something that you
-already have. It is not something that they give you. They do not give you
-new glasses. They cannot afford to give you new glasses, but they can afford
-to point out where you can find your own glasses.
- When we receive pointing-out instructions from our root teacher, we are
-being introduced directly and nakedly to the reality of mind's nature. These
-instructions become very effective if we have prepared ourselves to receive
-them.
- ...Pointing-out is similar to pointing to the sky when it is very cloudy and
-saying to someone, "There is the blue sky." The person will look up and say,
-"Where?" You may reply, "It is there--behind the clouds." The person to whom
-you are pointing out the blue sky will not see it at first. However, if even
-a patch of blue sky appears, then you can say, "Look--the blue sky is like
-that." The person then gets a direct experience. He or she knows
-experientially that there is blue sky, which will be fully visible when the
-clouds are gone.
- -- The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, "Mind Beyond Death", published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
-In general, clear light is of two types--the objective clear light that is
-the subtle emptiness [of inherent existence], and the subjective clear light
-that is the wisdom consciousness realizing this emptiness.
- -- Lati Rinbochay, "Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth"
-~
- [At the time of Buddha, a farmer asked to be ordained as a monk. Shariputra
-did not see his merit. But, with a great, compassionate mind, the Buddha took
-his hand and said, "I will give you ordination. You do have a seed to attain
-arhatship...."]
- The Buddha explained, "Thousands and thousands of kalpas ago, this man was
-born as a fly. He was sitting on a pile of cow dung when a sudden rush of
-water caught the cow dung, along with the fly, and sent them into the river.
-Downstream, someone had placed a prayer wheel in the water, and that cow dung
-and fly swirled around and around it. Because of that circumambulation, this
-man now has a seed to attain arhatship in this lifetime."
- Cause and result are so subtle that only omniscient wisdom can perceive
-every detail. That is why we must be very careful that our actions are truly
-beneficial.
- Reciting just one mantra, protecting the life of even one small bug, giving
-a small thing--we should not ignore such actions by saying, "This is nothing;
-it makes no difference if I do it or not." Many small actions will gather and
-swell like the ocean. These are not merely Buddhist beliefs; these are the
-causes that create our world no matter who we are. Our study and practice
-give us the opportunity to understand this and to be sincere with ourselves
-even in small things.
- -- Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen, "A Complete Guide to the Buddhist Path",
- edited by Khenmo Trinlay Chodron, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.
- -- Isaac Asimov
-~
-What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears as easily as we
-open and shut our eyes!
- -- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
-~
-Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an
-acquaintance, or a stranger.
- -- Franklin P. Jones
-~
-Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts.
-Develop the mind of equilibrium. You will always be getting praise and blame,
-but do not let either affect the poise of the mind: follow the calmness, the
-absence of pride.
- -- Sutta Nipata
-~
-Whosoever has heard the law of virtue and vice is as one who has eyes and
-carries a lamp, seeing everything and will become completely wise.
- -- Buddha
-~
-...in Dzogchen, one applies specific practices in order to create a variety of
-sensations, so that the practitioner is more clearly enabled to distinguish
-the state of presence--which always remains the same--from the sensations
-which change according to the practice being carried out. This obviously
-enables one to 'no longer remain in doubt' as to what the state of pure
-presence is. The practices known as the twenty-one Semdzin found in the
-Dzogchen Mennagde, or Upadesha, series, have this particular function,
-enabling the practitioner to separate the ordinary, reasoning mind from the
-nature of the mind.
- -- Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, "The Crystal and the Way of Light: Sutra, Tantra
- and Dzogchen", compiled and edited by John Shane, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-People often wonder how to reconcile the Buddha's teachings on non-attachment
-with those on love. How can we love others without being attached to them?
-Non-attachment is a balanced state of mind in which we cease overestimating
-others' qualities. By having a more accurate view of others, our unrealistic
-expectations fall away, as does our clinging. This leaves us open to loving
-others for who they are, instead of for what they do for us. Our hearts can
-open to care for everyone impartially, wishing everyone to be happy simply
-because he or she is a living being. The feeling of warmth that was
-previously reserved for a select few can now be expanded to a great number of
-people.
- -- Ven. Thubten Chodron, "Taming the Mind", published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
- Even in this world, and even now, there are said to be many hidden yogis or
-discreet yogis, called bepay naljor in Tibetan. It means those realized ones
-who are not generally recognized as great spiritual sages or saints, but have
-deeply tasted the fruit of enlightenment, and are living it. Perhaps they are
-anonymously doing their good works here among us right now!
- The infinite vast expanse is one's own inconceivable nature. Who can say
-who has realized it and who hasn't? When we travel around the world or
-experience other dimensions, there are so many beings who have tasted it. We
-can see it in their behavior, in their countenance, and in stories that are
-told--not just in the Dzogchen tradition or the Buddhist tradition, but in any
-tradition, and in our Western world too.
- This true nature is so vast and inconceivable that even some birds and
-animals and beings in other unseen dimensions can be said to have realized it,
-as in some of the ancient Indian Jataka stories and other teaching tales. It
-is always said that everything is the self-radiant display of the primordial
-Buddha Samantabhadra. There are infinite numbers of Buddhas and infinite
-numbers of beings. Who can say who is excluded from it?
- -- Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche and Lama Surya Das, "Natural Great Perfection:
- Dzogchen Teachings and Vajra Songs", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Many spiritual seekers are not yet ready to become the disciples of
-spiritual mentors. Their present levels of commitment may suit working only
-with Buddhism professors, Dharma instructors, or meditation or ritual
-trainers. Even if they are ready to commit themselves to the Buddhist path
-and to spiritual mentors, they may not yet have found properly qualified
-mentors. Alternatively, the spiritual teachers available to them may be
-properly qualified and may even have shown them great kindness. Yet, none
-seem right to be their mentors. They feel they can relate to them only as
-their Buddhism professors. Nevertheless, the Kadam style of guru-meditation
-may still help such seekers to gain inspiration from these teachers at the
-present stages of their spiritual paths.
- Unless our spiritual teachers are total charlatans or complete scoundrels,
-all of them have at least some good qualities and exhibit at least some level
-of kindness. Our Buddhism professors, Dharma instructors, or meditation or
-ritual trainers may lack the qualities of great spiritual mentors. Still,
-they have some knowledge of the Dharma, some insight from applying the Dharma
-to life, or some technical expertise in the practice. Our teachers are kind
-to instruct us, even if their motivations contain the wish to earn a living.
-If we correctly discern and acknowledge whatever qualities and levels of
-kindness that our professors, instructors, or trainers in fact possess, we may
-derive inspiration, through guru-meditation, by focusing on them with
-conviction and appreciation.
- -- Dr. Alexander Berzin, "Wise Teacher, Wise Student: Tibetan Approaches to
- a Healthy Relationship", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- A tenth-century Bengali pandita named Palden Atisha reintroduced Buddhism
-into Tibet. He had a servant who was really awful. He was abusive to Atisha,
-disobedient, and generally a big problem. The Tibetans asked Atisha what he
-was doing with such an awful guy who was so completely obnoxious. They said,
-"Send him back. We'll take care of you." Atisha replied, "What are you
-talking about? He is my greatest teacher of patience. He is the most
-precious person around me!"
- Patience does not mean suppression, and it doesn't mean bottling up our
-anger or turning it in on ourselves in the form of self-blame. It means
-having a mind which sees everything that happens as the result of causes and
-conditions we have set in motion at some time in this or past lives. Who
-knows what our relationship has been with someone who is causing us
-difficulties now? Who knows what we have have done to him in another life!
-If we respond to such people with retaliation, we are just locking ourselves
-into that same cycle. We are going to have to keep replaying this part of
-the movie again and again in this and future lifetimes. The only way to break
-out of the cycle is by changing our attitude.
- -- "Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings on Practical Buddhism by
- Venerable Tenzin Palmo", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-[Understanding through the merging of sound and meaning takes place when one
-immediately understands the meaning of a teaching through hearing the sound of
-the words.]
-
- One might ask what these words are in the key instructions on the Three
-Words That Strike the Vital Point. The sound and the word are the same. For
-example, the word "mother" can be understood as indicating someone who is very
-kind. If one says "mother," the meaning of what that word expresses is
-pointed out. What is known as "the three words" is like that.
- What are the three words? "View," "meditation," and "action." What does it
-mean to "strike the vital point" with these three words? If one wants to kill
-a man and strikes his heart with a weapon, the man will not live another hour.
-He will die immediately. What vital point do these three words strike? Just
-as oil is present in a mustard seed, all of us, all sentient beings, have
-buddha nature. Though it is present, we do not recognize it, because our
-minds are obscured by delusions. When, as a result of the view, meditation,
-and action, we come to recognize these delusions, we can get rid of them in a
-moment. In one day sentient beings can be transformed into buddhas--that is
-the ultimate view, meditation, and action of dzogchen. Such a power of
-transformation is called "striking the vital point."
- -- Dilgo Khyentse, "The Collected Works of Dilgo Khyentse", edited by
- Matthieu Ricard and Vivian Kurz, excerpt from Volume 3: "Primordial
- Purity", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- If we can attain nondual, nonconceptual awareness in meditation, we are
-engaged in profound political activity, even though we may lose this awareness
-during the times we are not formally meditating (the buddha's awareness in
-post-meditation is the same as during meditation). Meditating in nondual,
-nonconceptual awareness, which is meditating on the dharmadhatu, immediately
-begins systematically to destroy in ourselves the structure of dualistic
-consciousness with all its attendant cognitive obscurations and emotional
-affiictions. From the standpoint of duality, since this dualistic
-consciousness also involves other sentient beings as the other pole of our
-duality, our activity in dissolving this consciousness has a profound impact
-on them as well.
- While our nondualistic, nonconceptual meditation is purifying our own
-obscurations and afflictions and thereby transforming our personal experience
-of others, it is also becoming a spark of buddha activity in those others. As
-our meditation becomes effective, the attitude of others towards us begins to
-change, and they themselves begin to turn inward and to search with greater
-conscientiousness through the stuff of their own minds and lives for spiritual
-solutions to their own problems. And as the power of our meditation
-increases, this effect reaches ever-widening concentric circles of sentient
-beings with whom we have karmic interdependence, which in this day and age
-includes not only our immediate family and friends, working associates, and
-local communities, but also everyone with whom we are connected through all
-the media of our lives.
- --Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, "The Ninth Karmapa's Ocean of Definitive
- Meaning", edited, introduced and annotated by Lama Tashi Namgyal,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Realizations come only if we practice joyfully, with confidence and courage.
-Realization doesn't grow within a timid or weak state of mind--it blossoms in
-the mind free of doubt and hesitation. Realization is fearless. When we see
-the true nature of reality, there's nothing hidden, nothing left to fear. At
-last we're seeing reality as it is, full of joy and peace.
- ...Thinking of Tara will bring total calm, peace, and protection from all
-fears and all frightening situations. Tara's practice removes the two
-obscurations: negative emotions and subtle conceptual thinking. It will
-increase the two merits: accumulation merit and wisdom merit. From the moment
-you start praying to and practicing Tara, your life will be always under the
-protection of the Great Mother. From then on rebirth in the lower realms will
-be prevented. If you do this prayer for others, it will bring them the same
-benefits; it will protect them in their lifetimes as well as uproot future
-births in the lower realms. So there is great benefit.
- -- Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal in "Tara's Enlightened
- Activity: An Oral Commentary on 'The Twenty-one Praises to Tara'",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Realizations come only if we practice joyfully, with confidence and courage.
-Realization doesn't grow within a timid or weak state of mind--it blossoms in
-the mind free of doubt and hesitation. Realization is fearless. When we see
-the true nature of reality, there's nothing hidden, nothing left to fear. At
-last we're seeing reality as it is, full of joy and peace.
- ...Thinking of Tara will bring total calm, peace, and protection from all
-fears and all frightening situations. Tara's practice removes the two
-obscurations: negative emotions and subtle conceptual thinking. It will
-increase the two merits: accumulation merit and wisdom merit. From the moment
-you start praying to and practicing Tara, your life will be always under the
-protection of the Great Mother. From then on rebirth in the lower realms will
-be prevented. If you do this prayer for others, it will bring them the same
-benefits; it will protect them in their lifetimes as well as uproot future
-births in the lower realms. So there is great benefit.
- -- Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal in "Tara's Enlightened
- Activity: An Oral Commentary on 'The Twenty-one Praises to Tara'",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-6. Meditation on the Buddha
- Begin by observing your breath for a few minutes to calm the mind.
- Think of the qualities of infinite love, compassion, wisdom, skillful means,
-and other wonderful qualities you aspire to develop. What would it feel like
-to have those qualities? Get a sense of the expansiveness and peace of having
-a wise and kind heart that reaches out impartially to work for the benefit of
-all beings.
- Those qualities of love, compassion, wisdom, skillful means, and so on now
-appear in the physical form of the Buddha, in the space in front of you. He
-sits on an open lotus flower, and flat sun and moon disks. His body is made
-of radiant, transparent light, as is the entire visualization. His body is
-golden and he wears the robes of a monk. His right palm rests on his right
-knee and his left is in his lap, holding a bowl of nectar, which is medicine
-to cure our afflictions and other hindrances. The Buddha's face is very
-beautiful. His smiling, compassionate gaze looks at you with total acceptance
-and simultaneously encompasses all sentient beings. His eyes are long,
-narrow, and peaceful. His lips are red and his earlobes long.
- Rays of light emanate from each pore of the Buddha's body and reach every
-part of the universe. These rays carry countless miniature Buddhas, some
-going out to help beings, others dissolving back into the Buddha after having
-finished their work.
- The Buddha is surrounded by the entire lineage of spiritual teachers, all
-meditational deities, innumerable other Buddhas, bodhisattvas, arhats, dakas,
-dakinis, and Dharma protectors. To the side of each spiritual master is an
-elegant table upon which are arranged volumes of Dharma teachings.
- Surrounding you are all sentient beings appearing in human form, with your
-mother on your left and your father on your right. The people you do not get
-along with are in front of you. All of you are looking to the Buddha for
-guidance.
- -- Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, "Guided Meditations on the Stages of the
- Path", foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- If we investigate on a deeper level, we will find that when enemies inflict
-harm on us, we can actually feel gratitude toward them. Such situations
-provide us with rare opportunities to put to test our own practice of
-patience. It is a precious occasion to practice not only patience but the
-other bodhisattva ideals as well. As a result, we have the opportunity to
-accumulate merit in these situations and to receive the benefits thereof.
- The poor enemy, on the other hand, because of the negative action of
-inflicting harm on someone out of anger and hatred, must eventually face the
-negative consequences of his or her own actions. It is almost as if the
-perpetrators of the harm sacrifice themselves for the sake of our benefit.
-Since the merit accumulated from the practice of patience was possible only
-because of the opportunity provided us by our enemy, strictly speaking, we
-should dedicate our merit to the benefit of that enemy. This is why the Guide
-to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life speaks of the kindness of the enemy.
- --Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, "The Compassionate Life"
-~
- If our practice does not diminish self-grasping, or perhaps even enhances
-it, then no matter how austere and determined we are, no matter how many hours
-a day we devote to learning, reflection, and meditation, our spiritual
-practice is in vain.
- A close derivative of self-grasping is the feeling of self-importance. Such
-arrogance or pride is a very dangerous pitfall for people practicing Dharma.
-Especially in Tibetan Buddhism, with its many levels of practice, the exalted
-aspirations of the bodhisattva path, and the mystery surrounding initiation
-into tantra, we may easily feel part of an elite. Moreover, the philosophy of
-Buddhism is so subtly refined and so penetrating that, as we gain an
-understanding of it, this also can give rise to intellectual pride.
- But if these are the results of the practice, then something has gone awry.
-Recall the well-known saying among Tibetan Buddhists that a pot with a little
-water in it makes a loud noise when shaken, but a pot full of water makes no
-noise at all.
- People with very little realization often want to tell everyone about the
-insights they have experienced, the bliss and subtleties of their meditation,
-and how it has radically transformed their life. But those who are truly
-steeped in realization do not feel compelled to advertise it, and instead
-simply dwell in that realization. They are concerned not to describe their
-own progress, but to direct the awareness of others to ways in which their own
-hearts and minds can be awakened.
- -- B. Alan Wallace, "The Seven-Point Mind Training", edited by Zara
- Houshmand, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- What is method, within the context of the unity of method and wisdom? It is
-a dedicated heart of bodhichitta, based on love and compassion. It apprehends
-its object, enlightenment, with the intention to achieve it in order to
-benefit others. Compassion, as its basis, apprehends its object, the
-suffering of others, with the wish to remove it.
- Wisdom, on the other hand, is a correct view that understands voidness--the
-absence of fantasized, impossible ways of existing. Even if it is aimed at
-the same object as method, it apprehends that object as not existing in an
-impossible way.
- The ways wisdom and compassion each apprehend their object are not at all
-the same. Therefore, we need to actualize these two, as method and wisdom,
-first separately and then together.
- Even if we speak about the mahamudra* that is method and wisdom, inseparable
-by nature in the ultimate tantric sense, the first stage for its realization
-is understanding the abiding nature of reality.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama and Alexander Berzin, "The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of
- Mahamudra", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- In Buddhism we speak of three types of phenomena: First, there are evident
-phenomena that are perceived directly.
- Second, there are slightly hidden phenomena, which are not accessible to
-immediate perception. There are differences of opinion on this even within
-Buddhist philosophy. Generally speaking, we think this second type of
-phenomena can be known indirectly by inference.
- One example of something known by inference is that anything arising in
-dependence upon causes and conditions is itself subject to disintegration and
-momentary change. This momentary change is not immediately evident to your
-senses. You can look at something with your eyes, and it does not appear to
-be changing right now, but by inference you can know that it is momentarily
-changing. This is an example of the second category of phenomena.
- Third, there are very concealed phenomena, which cannot be known by either
-of the two preceding methods. They can be known only by relying upon
-testimony of someone such as the Buddha.
- -- "Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on
- Brain Science and Buddhism", edited by Zara Houshmand, Robert B.
- Livingston, and B. Alan Wallace, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in
-magnificent glow, than asleep and permanent as a planet.
- -- Jack London
-~
- Sometimes our life can feel devoid of meaning even though we may try in
-different ways to put meaning into it.... Meaning comes when we go deeply
-within, wait, listen, and open. It begins to come when we genuinely open to
-the suffering of those around us with a compassionate heart. Equally, it
-comes as we respond to the environment within which we live with care and
-concern.
- The meaning or purpose to be found in bodhichitta is less associated with
-what we do than with the quality we bring to what we engage in. Small, simple
-aspects of our life can be profoundly meaningful and have deep impact both for
-ourselves and others. Meaning lies in the quality of heart that we put into
-what we do.
- It is not, therefore, the outer manifestation of what we can achieve that is
-the root of meaning. It is the undercurrent of bodhichitta's intention or
-purpose and meaning that flows within. What bodhichitta implies is that in
-attuning to our buddha nature or buddha potential, we touch a source of
-meaning in ourselves that will come through whatever we do.
- This root of meaning gives the bodhisattva the capacity to live a relatively
-ordinary life and transform adverse circumstances into the path. Even small
-things become meaningful, like the way we respond to someone's distress or a
-gesture of friendliness that lifts someone's day. This deeper sense of
-purpose is reflected in the care we give to our relationships and the
-environment.
- Being present and responsive to what arises may mean that the eventual goal
-of our sense of purpose is less crucial. We are seldom, if ever, able to see
-fully where our path will take us, and once we are open to the meaning present
-in bodhichitta, the ego must surrender ambitions and allow the journey to
-unfold.
- -- Rob Preece, "The Courage to Feel: Buddhist Practices for Opening to
- Others", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- We have to admit impermanence into our lives. It's important to live with
-impermanence as a frame of reference so that we can approach each moment or
-each day with a sense of humility about what we are able to do and what we are
-not able to do and relinquish control over things we cannot have control over.
-It is important to live as if things are as permanent as stone.
- You have to invest yourself in love and concern for people, accept people's
-love as if that's the only thing that exists. The commitment to living as if
-everything is always there forever with the acceptance that nothing is going
-to survive.
- --David Hodge and Hi-Jin Kang Hodge, "Impermanence: Embracing Change",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-We are the people our parents warned us about. -- Jimmy Buffett
-~
-To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid,
-you must also be well-mannered.
- -- Voltaire
-~
-I won't take my religion from any man who never works except with his mouth.
- -- Carl Sandburg
-~
-Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time.
-Hatred ceases through love.
-This is an unalterable law.
- -- Shakyamuni Buddha
-~
- The Tibetan controversies about instantaneous enlightenment through
-recognition of the nature of the mind have been studied by David Jackson.
-As he shows, it is mainly members of the Kagyu traditions in Tibet who have
-maintained this doctrine, although it is certainly common in Chinese Ch'an
-Buddhism and in the teachings of the Great Perfection in Tibet. Dolpopa
-quotes the position that is the object of his refutation: "Recognizing the
-very essence naturally purifies them, without rejection." This expresses the
-view that through recognition of the essence of the thoughts as the dharmakaya
-they are purified or dissolved into the dharmakaya, and also the idea that any
-affliction that arises is actually a manifestation or self-presencing of
-primordial awareness itself. Thus there is no need to reject thoughts or
-afflictions, which are naturally purified by means of the recognition. This
-type of viewpoint is widespread in Tibetan Buddhism.
- In contrast to these views, Dolpopa claims that the definition of an
-ordinary sentient being or a buddha, and of samsara or nirvana, is determined
-by the presence or absence of the incidental and temporary obscurations that
-veil the true nature of reality. It is not determined solely by recognition
-of the nature of the mind or the thoughts.
- ...While the ground buddhahood of the dharmakaya and the resultant
-buddhahood of the dharmakaya have not the slightest difference in essence,
-they are distinguished as ground and result by means of the presence or
-absence of incidental stains.
- -- Cyrus Stearns, "The Buddha from Dolpo: A Study of the Life and Thought
- of the Tibetan Master Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen", a Tsadra Foundation
- Series book, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- We live in an ocean of cyclic existence whose depth and extent cannot be
-measured. We are troubled again and again by the afflictions of desire and
-hatred as if repeatedly attacked by sharks.
- Our mental and physical aggregates are impelled by former contaminated
-actions and afflictions and serve as a basis for present suffering as well as
-inducing future suffering. While such cyclic existence lasts, we have various
-thoughts of pleasure and displeasure: 'If I do this, what will people think?
-If I do not do this, I will be too late; I won't make any profit.' When we see
-something pleasant we think, 'Oh, if I could only have that!'
- ...Day and night, night and day we spend our lives in the company of the
-afflictions, generating desire for the pleasant and anger at the unpleasant,
-and continue thus even when dreaming, unable to remain relaxed, our minds
-completely and utterly mixed with thoughts of desire and hatred without
-interruption.
- To what refuge should we go? A source of refuge must have completely
-overcome all defects forever; it must be free of all faults. It must also
-have all the attributes of altruism--those attainments which are necessary for
-achieving others' welfare. For it is doubtful that anyone lacking these two
-prerequisites can bestow refuge; it would be like falling into a ditch and
-asking another who is in it to help you out. You need to ask someone who is
-standing outside the ditch for help; it is senseless to ask another who is in
-the same predicament. A refuge capable of protecting from the frights of
-manifold sufferings cannot also be bound in this suffering but must be free
-and unflawed.
- Furthermore, the complete attainments are necessary, for if you have fallen
-into a ditch, it is useless to seek help from someone standing outside it who
-does not wish to help or who wishes to help but has no means to do so.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Tantra in Tibet",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- If we were forced to choose between a sense of practical application and
-learnedness, a sense of practical application would be more important, for one
-who has this will receive the full benefit of whatever he knows. The mere
-learnedness of one whose mind is not tamed can produce and increase bad states
-of consciousness, which cause unpleasantness for himself and others instead of
-the happiness and peace of mind that were intended. One could become jealous
-of those higher than oneself, competitive with equals and proud and
-contemptuous towards those lower and so forth. It is as if medicine had
-become poison.
- Because such danger is great, it is very important to have a composite of
-learnedness, a sense of practical application and goodness, without having
-learnedness destroy the sense of practical application or having the sense of
-practical application destroy learnedness.
- -- The Dalai Lama, "A Policy of Kindness: An Anthology of Writings By and
- About the Dalai Lama", compiled and edited by Sidney Piburn, Foreword
- by Sen. Claiborne Pell, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- A bodhisattva, having generated a sincere and spontaneous desire to attain
-full enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, enters the Mahayana
-path of accumulation. Here the bodhisattva cultivates the four mindfulnesses
-and develops mental quiescence, then passes on to the path of application,
-where she or he strives for a conceptual insight into emptiness. When
-quiescence and insight are combined in examining emptiness, the bodhisattva
-attains a direct, non-conceptual realization of emptiness, and thus becomes an
-arya, on the path of seeing.
- The path of seeing corresponds to the first of the ten bhumis, i.e. stages,
-levels, or grounds said to be traversed by a bodhisattva. The other nine
-bodhisattva stages are coextensive with the path of development, during the
-course of which the disciple completely eliminates not only the defilements
-that are obstacles to liberation but even the traces of defilement, which are
-obstacles to full enlightenment.
- When the path of development is completed, the disciple is ready to enter
-the path of no-more-training; this marks the attainment of full enlightenment,
-the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya of an omniscient, compassionate,
-and powerful buddha.
- -- Geshe Lhundub Sopa, Roger Jackson, John Newman, "The Wheel of Time: The
- Kalachakra in Context", edited by Beth Simon, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-"If you fear you are running after the objects of the six senses, hold
-yourself with the hook:"
- 'Employ the watchman that is mindfulness.'
-
- Someone who has been captured with a hook has no option but to go wherever
-he is led. In the same way, if we catch hold of our mind--which risks being
-distracted by the objects of the six senses--with the hook of mindfulness, and
-with vigilance and carefulness, this will be of enormous benefit. We should
-use this watchman to constantly check how many positive or negative thoughts
-and actions we produce during the day. When we are able to control our minds
-through mindfulness, everything that appears in samsara and nirvana becomes an
-aid in our practice and serves to confirm the meaning of the teachings. All
-appearances are understood as being dharmakaya. We perceive everything in its
-natural purity, and there is nothing we can call impure.
- -- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, "Zurchungpa's Testament: A Commentary on
- Zurchung Sherab Trakpa's 'Eighty Chapters of Personal Advice'", based on
- Shechen Gyaltsap's Annotated Edition, translated by the Padmakara
- Translation Group, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-A committee can make a decision that is dumber than any of its members.
- -- David Coblitz
-~
-Art is science made clear. -- Jean Cocteau
-~
-A specification that will not fit on one page of 8.5x11 inch paper
-cannot be understood.
- -- Mark Ardis
-~
-A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff
-that nature replaces it with.
- -- Tennessee Williams
-~
-The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time.
- -- Willem de Kooning
-~
- We need to understand the essential nature of the broad diversity of
-phenomena. For example, if we are obliged to be involved frequently with a
-man who exhibits a personality that is true only on the surface, as well as
-another basic personality, it is important for us to know both of them. To
-engage in a relationship with this person that does not go awry, we must know
-both aspects of his personality. To know only the facade that he presents is
-insufficient; we need to know his basic disposition and abilities. Then we
-can know what to expect from him; and he will not deceive us.
- Likewise, the manifold events in the world are not non-existent; they do
-exist. They are able to help and hurt us--no further criterion for existence
-is necessary. If we do not understand their fundamental mode of existence, we
-are liable to be deceived, just as in the case of being involved with a person
-whose basic personality we do not know.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Transcendent Wisdom", translated, edited and
- annotated by B. Alan Wallace, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- One has to be cautious when one is very successful since at that time there
-is danger of becoming prideful and becoming involved in the non-religious, and
-one has to be cautious also when one has undergone lack of success and so
-forth since there is a danger of becoming discouraged--the life of the mind,
-so to speak, dying--due to which harm to one's practice could be incurred.
- ...Specifically, in situations of low self-esteem, Shantideva recommends
-reflection this way:
- "Even very tiny bugs and worms have the Buddha nature and thus, when they
- encounter certain conditions, through the power of effort they can achieve
- the non-abiding nirvana of a Buddha. Now, I have been born as a human with
- the capacity to understand what is to be adopted in practice and what is to
- be discarded; thus, there is no reason for me to be discouraged. The great
- saints and so forth of the past who achieved a high level were people with
- a life-basis such as I have, not something separate."
- Through such reflection, a resurgence of will can be generated.
- -- "The Dalai Lama at Harvard: Lectures on the Buddhist Path to Peace by
- H.H. the Dalai Lama of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso", translated and edited by
- Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-When we understand the evolution of our unsatisfactory experiences in cyclic
-existence, we will see that meditating on emptiness is their antidote. All
-knowable things--people and phenomena--appear to our minds to be inherently
-existent. We then grasp at them as existing inherently. Our inappropriate
-attention focuses on them, and that gives rise to the various disturbing
-attitudes of anger, attachment, and so on. These disturbing attitudes
-motivate our actions, which in turn leave karmic imprints on our mindstreams.
-When these imprints ripen, we meet with suffering.
- -- Geshe Jampa Tegchok, "Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage: An
- Explanation of the Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas", edited by
- Thubten Chodron, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The essential point about this condition of potentiality is that, although
-there is a causal relationship between the physical world and the world of
-mental phenomena, in terms of their own continuum one cannot be said to be the
-cause of the other. A mental phenomenon, such as a thought or an emotion,
-must come from a preceding mental phenomenon; likewise, a particle of matter
-must come from a preceding particle of matter.
- Of course, there is an intimate relationship between the two. We know that
-mental states can influence material phenomena, such as the body; and,
-similarly, that material phenomena can act as contributory factors for certain
-subjective experiences. This is something that we can observe in our lives.
-Much of our gross level of consciousness is very closely connected to our
-body, and in fact we often use terminology and conventions which reflect this.
- For example, when we say 'human mind' or 'human consciousness' we are using
-the human body as the basis to define a particular mind state. Likewise, at
-the gross levels of mind such as our sensory experiences, it is very obvious
-that these are heavily dependent upon our body and some physiological states.
-When a part of our body is hurt or damaged, for instance, we immediately
-experience the impact on our mental state. Nevertheless, the principle
-remains that mental phenomena must come from preceding phenomena of the same
-kind, and so on.
- If we trace mental phenomena back far enough, as in the case of an
-individual's life, we come to the first instant of consciousness in this life.
-Once we have traced its continuum to this point of beginning, we then have
-three options: we can either say that the first instant of consciousness in
-this life must come from a preceding instant of consciousness which existed in
-the previous life. Or we can say that this first instant of consciousness
-came from nowhere--it just sort of 'popped up'. Or we can say that it came
-from a material cause.
- From the Buddhist point of view, the last two alternatives are deeply
-problematic. The Buddhist understanding is that, in terms of its continuum,
-consciousness or mind is beginningless. Mental phenomena are beginningless.
-Therefore, the person or the being--which is essentially a designation based
-on the continuum of the mind--is also devoid of beginning.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Lighting the Way", translated by Geshe Thupten
- Jinpa, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-If someone wants a sheep, then that means that he exists.
- -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
-~
-If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one? -- Abraham Lincoln
-~
-There is something about the outside of a horse
-that is good for the inside of a man.
- -- Sir Winston Churchill
-~
- Life is a party on death row. Recognizing mortality means we are willing to
-see what is true. Seeing what is true is grounding. It brings us into the
-present and, eventually, into presence. It also brings us into our bodies,
-especially if we combine meditation on impermanence with an energetic
-awareness at the base of the spine. At first, the important thing about
-impermanence seems to be the limited time we have in this precious life. This
-is crucial and foundational, and yet it is not the whole story.
- The teachings on impermanence concern the death of a self that never
-existed. Our sense of such a false and finite self, which initially is
-inseparable from our wish to practice, can dissolve. Understanding
-impermanence, Khetsun Rinpoche says, will lead you into the natural clarity of
-your own mind. To know impermanence is thus not only a path leading to what
-Dzogchen traditions speak of as "unbounded wholeness" (thigle nyag cig), it is
-also integral to that wholeness.
- -- Anne C. Klein, "Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse: A Story of
- Transmission", foreword by Adzom Paylo Rinpoche, preface by Tulku
- Thondup Rinpoche, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Now, you see, world peace through mental peace is an absolute. It is the
-ultimate goal. But as for the method, there are many factors that must be
-taken into consideration. Under a particular set of circumstances, a certain
-approach may be useful while under other circumstances another may be useful.
-This is a very complicated issue which compels us to study the situation at a
-particular point of time. We must take into account the other side's
-motivation, etc., so it is a very complex matter.
- But we must always keep in mind that all of us want happiness. War, on the
-other hand, only brings suffering--that is very clear. Even if we are
-victorious, that victory means sacrificing many people. It means their
-suffering. Therefore, the important thing is peace. But how do we achieve
-peace? Is it done through hatred, through extreme competition, through anger?
-It is obvious that through these means it is impossible to achieve any form of
-lasting world peace. Hence, the only alternative is to achieve world peace
-through mental peace, through peace of mind. World peace is achieved based
-only on a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood, on the basis of compassion.
-The clear, genuine realization of the oneness of all mankind is something
-important. It is something we definitely need. Wherever I go, I always
-express these views.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Answers: Discussions with Western Buddhists",
- edited by Jose Ignacio Cabezon, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-koan for dependency inversion:
-
- High-level modules should not depend upon low-level modules.
- Both should depend upon abstractions.
-
- Abstractions should not depend upon details.
- Details should depend upon abstractions.
-~
-People harm others only when they are unhappy. No one wakes up in the morning
-and says, "I feel so great today! I think I'll go out and harm someone!" When
-we can allow ourselves to know the depth of the pain and confusion felt by
-those who have harmed us, compassion--the wish that they be free from such
-suffering--can easily arise. Thinking in this way does not mean whitewashing
-or denying harm that was done. Rather, we acknowledge it, but go beyond
-amassing resentment, because we know that grudges help neither ourselves nor
-others.
- -- Thubten Chodron, "Working with Anger", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The reason why the qualities of a teacher are described at such length in
-the scriptures is because we should know what to look for when seeking a guru
-capable of opening up the Buddhist paths within us. To take up training under
-an unqualified teacher can be disastrous. It is said in the tantric
-scriptures that one is not unwise to examine a guru for twelve years before
-accepting that person as one's teacher. The choice of teachers is an
-important one and must be made carefully.
- Not only does the guru perform the work of the Buddhas and thus equal them
-in activity, in terms of kindness the guru surpasses them. Of all Buddhas of
-the past who have manifested as universal teachers, it is said that Buddha
-Shakyamuni is kindest to us; for it is with his teachings that we have come
-into contact...even though Buddha Shakyamuni is most kind of the past Buddhas,
-still we are unable to receive teachings from him or witness his inspiring
-presence.
- Were all the Buddhas and lineage masters of the past to manifest before us
-at this very moment, we would not be able to recognize them as enlightened
-beings. Due to our not having a sufficiently strong karmic connection with
-them, they would be unable to affect us. The guru performs the great kindness
-of coming to us in an ordinary form which we can perceive and to which we can
-relate, and carries out the work of the Buddhas in our lives. The fact that a
-donkey like us is brought into the family of spiritual beings is purely due to
-the kindness of the guru. The Buddhas can only come to us through him or her.
-Thus if we do not respect the guru and heed his or her teachings, what hope do
-we have? We should meditate upon the guru's unexcelled kindness and give
-birth to profound appreciation.
- The reason why we have been wandering unceasingly in cyclic existence since
-time immemorial is because we have not met a spiritual master before; or even
-if we have met one we did not cultivate an effective relationship with him or
-her. We should determine to take the opportunities afforded by our present
-human situation and cultivate a spiritual practice under the guidance of a
-master.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Enlightenment", edited and translated
- by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-There was once a Spartan boy,
-who, one night, stole a fox.
-In order not to be caught,
-he hid it under his cloak.
-He stood stock still as his
-elder looked him over,
-but all the while the fox
-chewed away at his insides.
-The boy bit his lip against
-the pain until he inevitably fell,
-dead to the ground.
- -- Plutarch
-~
-An exalting task for all humankind
- The West is fascinated by efficiency. And there is no doubt that in many
-areas its efficiency is quite admirable. That is why I would like to ask this
-question, which seems natural to me: why not apply this technical efficiency
-to protect all forms of life? This would be an exalting task for all
-humankind, especially as we seem to lack a truly large-scale project or ideal.
-It is difficult, yet it is absolutely necessary. If the question of human
-survival is not solved, there will be nobody left to solve the problem. And
-Buddhism can help here.
- -- "The Dalai Lama's Little Book of Inner Peace: The Essential Life and
- Teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama"
-~
- If you continue to practice meditation, then your experience will gradually
-increase and there will be greater and greater stability and greater and
-greater lucidity. However, the experiences that can arise in meditation can
-take various different forms. And in spite of the fact that the person has a
-real recognition of the mind's nature, there is still the possibility or
-probability of fluctuation in experience even after that.
- Sometimes you may feel that you have amazing, tremendous meditation, and at
-other times you may feel that you have no meditation at all. This
-characterizes meditation experience, which fluctuates a great deal.
-Realization, which is distinct from experience, does not change, but
-experiences can fluctuate a great deal or alternate between good and bad.
-There will still be times when you will have what you regard as good
-experiences and, in contrast, what you regard as bad experiences. When that
-occurs, just keep on looking. Don't get distracted or sidetracked by the
-experience. Whatever meditation experience arises, you should recognize that
-it is transitory. As is said, "meditation experience is like mist, it will
-surely vanish."
- Experiences are different from the actual fact of the recognition itself.
-Because they are ephemeral experiences, they aren't worth investing in. So if
-you have a bad meditation experience, do not be alarmed, because it too will
-vanish. If you have a good meditation experience, you need to continue; if
-you have a bad meditation experience, you need to continue. In either case,
-you simply need to continue to rest in this recognition of the mind's nature.
- -- Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, "Pointing Out the Dharmakaya", published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The person witnessing another person's suffering has only one appropriate
-response: "How can I help?" When karma comes to fruition and causes suffering,
-the response should never be, "This is your karma. It's your destiny, so I
-can't help." Your own karma may very well present itself as an opportunity to
-help a suffering person. Misunderstanding actions and their consequences can
-be disastrous.
- From the Buddhist perspective, the type of fortune we encounter, happiness
-or sorrow, is not due to somebody doing something to us. If I win the
-lottery, it is not because Buddha selected me for a bonus. No god or buddha
-is responsible for what happens to us....This does not imply that a suffering
-person is morally degenerate any more than suffering the consequences of
-eating contaminated food does. The suffering we experience is due to karma
-accumulated under the influence of delusion and mental afflictions. This is
-true for all sentient beings.
- The Buddhist response to the non-virtues we all commit while strapped to the
-wheel of samsara can be inspiring and encouraging. The Buddhist teaching is
-that it is possible to neutralize negative karmic seeds embedded in the stream
-of consciousness. Deeds cannot be undone, but it is possible to purify one's
-mind-stream so that the impact of karmic seeds will be nullified.
- The method used to purify the mind-stream is the "four remedial powers"
-[remorse, reliance, resolve, and purification]. The metaphor for the
-effectiveness of the four remedial powers is that of burning a seed. Karma,
-like a seed, can be scorched in the fire of purification so that it will not
-sprout. The seed won't vanish, but it will not sprout.
- -- B. Alan Wallace, "Buddhism with an Attitude: The Tibetan Seven-Point
- Mind Training", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- ...it is said that through the power of believing one's own body, speech,
-and mind to be undifferentiable from the deity's exalted body, speech, and
-mind all one's physical actions and movements are seals and all one's speech
-is mantra. In this way the Vajrapani Initiation Tantra says:
- "A son or daughter of lineage* who has seen a mandala, who generates the
-mind of enlightenment, who is compassionate, skilled in means and in teaching
-the ways of letters--the door of Secret Mantra--should think thus, 'Separate
-from speech, there is no mind. Separate from mind, there is no speech.
-Separate from mind, there is no divine form. Mind itself is speech; speech
-itself is mind; divine form itself is also mind, and speech itself is also
-divine form.'
- "If a mantra practitioner believes in this way that these are
-undifferentiable, he attains purity of mind. At those times when he has a
-pure mind, he always views in all ways his own body to be the same as the
-deity's body, his own speech to be the same as the deity's speech, and his own
-mind to be the same as the deity's mind; then, he is in meditative equipoise."
-* One who is a suitable vessel for the teaching.
- -- "Deity Yoga in Action and Performance Tantra", by His Holiness the Dalai
- Lama, Tsong-ka-pa, and Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-My fellow Americans. As a young boy, I dreamed of being a baseball, but
-tonight I say, we must move forward, not backward, upward not forward,
-and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.
- -- Kodos gives a speech, "Treehouse of Horror VII"
-~
- Mind is empty like an illusion;
- Separate from body, it cannot achieve.
- Body also is like a wall;
- Separate from mind it is without activity.
- Similarly the yoga of seals....
- --Shriparamadhya
-
- Mind separate from body cannot openly display activities; body separate from
-mind is the same. Rather, actions must be done upon the aggregation of mind
-and body. Just so, here when practicing techniques for transforming basic--or
-ordinary--body, speech, mind, and activities into those of the fruit stage of
-Buddhahood, it is necessary both to cultivate (1) internal meditative
-stabilization on a divine body, on a vajra on a moon disc at the heart, on a
-seed syllable on a vajra in the throat, and on a vajra at the heart, and (2)
-at the same time to construct the appropriate gesture, or seal, with the
-hands. These must be done in unison, for it is said in Yoga Tantra ritual
-texts that if you fail to construct seals with the hands, the rite is
-nullified. Unlike on other occasions, it is not just that if the hand-seals
-are constructed, it is better, but if not, there is no fault of nullifying the
-rite. Here, they must be done.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Dzong-ka-ba and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Yoga Tantra: Paths
- to Magical Feats", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Following the Vajrayana teachings, we do not give up or reject anything;
-rather we make use of whatever is there. We look at our negative emotions and
-accept them for what they are. Then we relax in this state of acceptance.
-Using the emotion itself, it is transformed or transmuted into the positive,
-into its true face.
- When, for instance, strong anger or desire arises, a Vajrayana practitioner
-is not afraid of it. Instead he or she would follow advice along the
-following lines: Have the courage to expose yourself to your emotions. Do not
-reject or suppress them, but do not follow them either. Just look your
-emotion directly in the eye and then try to relax within the very emotion
-itself. There is no confrontation involved. You don't do anything.
-Remaining detached, you are neither carried away by emotion nor do you reject
-it as something negative. Then, you can look at your emotions almost casually
-and be rather amused.
- When our usual habit of magnifying our feelings and our fascination
-resulting from that are gone, there will be no negativity and no fuel. We can
-relax within them. What we are trying to do, therefore, is to skillfully and
-subtly deal with our emotions. This is largely equivalent to the ability of
-exerting discipline.
- -- Ringu Tulku, "Daring Steps: Traversing the Path of the Buddha", edited and
- translated by Rosemarie Fuchs, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Although we did not have the fortune to see Buddha Shakyamuni himself in
-person, we do have the great fortune of having access to his own precious
-teachings, which is actually superior to seeing him in person. The same is
-the case with masters like Nagarjuna and his immediate disciples. If we make
-the necessary effort, and undertake the practice and study, we can fully enjoy
-a benefit equal to that of having met them in person.
- ...So visualize in space, in front of you, all the exalted masters,
-including Buddha Shakyamuni, Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, eighty mahasiddhas, the
-Nyingma masters, Atisha, the Kadampa masters, the five great masters of the
-Sakya tradition, the lineages of Lamdre practice, the great masters of the
-Kagyu lineage, such as Marpa, Milarepa, and also the great masters of the
-Gelugpa lineage, Lama Tsongkhapa, and all of their followers.
- Around you also are the protectors who have taken the oath in the presence
-of Buddha Shakyamuni to safeguard and protect the precious doctrine of Buddha.
-Visualize as well the harmful spirits--actually an embodiment of your own
-delusions--from which you are being protected by the guardians. Also
-visualize various emanations of the buddhas actively working for the benefit
-of all living beings. Surrounding you are all sentient beings...undergoing
-the sufferings of their individual realms of existence. Now generate a strong
-force of compassion directed towards all these sentient beings, particularly
-your enemies.
- Having created this mental image, question yourself as to how all these
-objects of refuge, the buddhas and the masters of the past, achieved such a
-high state of realization and reached a state where they can provide
-protection to all living beings. You will find that it is because of their
-having made effort in the practice of dharma in general and, in particular,
-the practice of bodhicitta*. Think as follows: "I shall, from today, follow
-in the footsteps of these great masters, and take the initiative of generating
-bodhicitta."
- * The aspiration to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all beings.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Bliss", translated by Geshe Thupten
- Jinpa, edited by Christine Cox, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves.
- -- Gandhi
-~
-I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire
-to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.
- -- E.B. White
-~
- The question then is "How do we cultivate and develop this bodhicitta, the
-mind of enlightenment?" The key, and the root, is great compassion.
-Compassion here refers to a state of mind that makes it utterly unbearable for
-us to see the suffering of other sentient beings. The way to develop this is
-through understanding how we feel about our own suffering. When we become
-conscious of our own suffering, we have a spontaneous wish to be free from it.
-If we are able to extend that feeling to all other beings, through realizing
-the common instinctive desire we all have to avoid and overcome suffering,
-then that state of mind is called 'great compassion'.
- All of us have the potential to develop that kind of compassion, because
-whenever we see people who are suffering, especially those close to us, we
-immediately feel empathy towards them, and witness a spontaneous response
-within our minds. So all we have to do is to bring that potential out, and
-then to develop it to become so impartial that it can include all sentient
-beings within its embrace, whether friend or foe.
- To cultivate this great compassion within ourselves, first of all we need to
-develop what is called loving-kindness, a feeling of connectedness or
-closeness with all living creatures. This closeness and intimacy should not
-be confused with the kind of feeling we normally have toward our loved ones,
-which is tainted by attachment...ego and selfishness. On the contrary, we are
-seeking to develop a feeling of closeness towards other sentient beings, and
-affection for them, by reflecting on the fact that suffering is inherent in
-their very nature, on the helplessness of their situation, and on the
-instinctive desire they all have to overcome suffering.
- The greater the force of our loving kindness towards other beings, the
-greater the force of our compassion. And the greater the force of our
-compassion, the easier it will be for us to develop a sense of responsibility
-for taking upon ourselves the task of working for others. The greater that
-sense of responsibility, the more successful we will be in generating
-bodhicitta, the genuine altruistic aspiration to attain buddhahood for the
-benefit of all.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great
- Perfection", translated by Thupten Jinpa and Richard Barron, Foreword by
- Sogyal Rinpoche, edited by Patrick Gaffney, published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
- Understanding the power of the path provides the inspiration that keeps us
-going forward; exploring its pain provides the understanding of what holds us
-back. It doesn't take long to discover the power, nor to feel the pain.
-Waking up hurts. And if we don't understand why, we will run from the pain
-and abandon the path. There are countless people who have become spiritual
-dropouts, or who are lost in detours because they have not understood
-hardship.
- When your arm falls asleep, it prickles and burns as it returns to life.
-Frozen fingers sting when they thaw; we jolt awake when the alarm clock rings.
-But physical instances of anesthesia are mild compared to the anesthesia born
-of ignorance, and so is the level of discomfort upon awakening. The longer
-something has been asleep, the more painful it is to wake it up. If your
-fingers are merely cold, it is easy to warm them up. But if your fingers are
-frozen solid, it hurts like hell when they thaw. According to the traditions,
-unless one is already a buddha, an "awakened one," one has been snoring from
-beginningless time, and it can really hurt before we completely wake up.
-Mingyur Rinpoche writes,
- "I'd like to say that everything got better once I was safely settled among
-the other participants in the three-year retreat.... On the contrary,
-however, my first year in retreat was one of the worst in my life. All the
-symptoms of anxiety I'd ever experienced--physical tension, tightness in the
-throat, dizziness, and waves of panic--attacked in full force. In Western
-terms, I was having a nervous breakdown. In hindsight, I can say that what I
-was actually going through was what I like to call a 'nervous breakthrough'."
- -- Dr. Andrew Holecek, "The Power and the Pain: Transforming Spiritual
- Hardship into Joy", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Through our eyes the universe is perceiving itself, and through our ears the
-universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witness through which the
-universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.
- -- McMurdo Station Forklift Driver paraphrasing Alan Watts
-~
- As human beings we are deeply insecure and we do not know who we truly are.
-Of course this problem does not show on the surface of our lives. We are
-always telling ourselves who we are, based on this notion that we are separate
-from everything else. This sense that "I am separate" is the ground of our
-sense of self. It is reinforced by various false identities that we cling to,
-notions that "I am this" or "I am that." Whatever beliefs we have about
-ourselves are just another extension. Most of the time when we look around,
-we immediately see that our surroundings are validating these false
-identities. For this very reason, it is a challenging endeavor to deconstruct
-this illusion of self.
- Every time we look into our mirror we might have some thought about
-ourselves. Each of these thoughts adds up. They become the conceptual bricks
-we use to keep building this illusory castle of self. Yet, there is a
-suspicion that this notion of self might be very fragile and transient, and
-this thought is silently lurking somewhere in our consciousness. Most of the
-time this suspicion is not brought into the light of awareness, but if it is,
-some deep, inner wisdom will arise without choice.
- Our suspicion of the fragility of this false notion of self can go in one of
-two directions. In general it becomes a source of fear, anxiety, and
-insecurity. We often see people who are fearful and overly defensive when it
-comes to their own identity. We ourselves tend to become fearful if our
-identity is threatened. But at other times the suspicion can go another way.
-When that happens, it can be a life-changing revelation that can lead us to
-the realization of the highest level of truth. This idea is not some new,
-lofty theory. It is timeless wisdom that has been realized by many people in
-human history. Buddha taught this wisdom, and in his tradition it is called
-anatman or "no self." Anatman, or "no self," is the term used to mean that one
-has seen through this false sense of self. One has seen that this false sense
-of self is merely an identification with one's roles in life. It is just a
-mask, not the truth.
- -- Anam Thubten, "No Self, No Problem", edited by Sharon Roe, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- It is common worldly knowledge that by believing untrue information to be
-true we fall into confusion and are harmed. Similarly, by believing phenomena
-to be inherently existent when in fact they are not inherently existent, we
-are also harmed. For example, with respect to the different ways in which
-there can be a consciousness of 'I', there is a definite difference between
-the way the 'I' is apprehended when desire, hatred, pride and so forth are
-generated based on this 'I', and the way the 'I' is apprehended when we are
-relaxed without any of those attitudes being manifest.
- Similarly, there is the mere consciousness that apprehends an article in a
-store before we buy it, and there is the consciousness apprehending that
-article after it has been bought, when it is adhered to as 'mine' and grasped
-with attachment. Both these consciousnesses have the same object, and in both
-cases the mode of appearance of the article is the appearance of it as
-inherently existent. However, there is the difference of the presence or
-absence of our adhering to it as inherently or independently existent.
- ...a consciousness conceiving inherent existence precedes any bad
-consciousness, leading it on by the nose, and also accompanies, or aids, many
-other bad consciousnesses as well. Thus, if there were no ignorance
-conceiving inherent existence, then there would be no chance for desire,
-hatred and so forth to be generated.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Buddhism of Tibet", translated and edited by
- Jeffrey Hopkins, with Anne Klein, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Avoid Sidetracks
-
- As practitioners we will face many obstacles and sidetracks on our path to
-liberation, and these will provide us with many challenges along the way. We
-shouldn't allow our practice to become interrupted due to these obstacles and
-sidetracks, such as the appearance and disappearance of the many friends we
-will have over the course of our lives.
- We also shouldn't allow our practice to become interrupted by a change in
-the availability or quality of food and shelter. And we shouldn't allow our
-practice to become interrupted by the obstacles and sidetracks presented by
-the many distractions of mind that are readily available in the mundane world
-of our external environment. We shouldn't allow our practice to be
-interrupted by obstacles and sidetracks that arise due to the desire and
-attachment we feel for loved ones, or our aversion to enemies, or our
-indifference towards others. Finally, we should not allow our practice to
-become interrupted by our desire to accumulate wealth, or by our attachment to
-our material possessions. Only an advanced practitioner, motivated by deep
-bodhichitta, can get through these obstacles and avoid these sidetracks to
-reach their goal of liberation from samsara.
- -- Lama Dudjom Dorjee, "Heartfelt Advice", published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
- Cultivating an aspiration to help other sentient beings becomes a cause for
-wanting to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. These are
-the two levels of the awakening mind of bodhichitta.
- Such a mind cannot be cultivated in a mere few months or years, but this
-does not mean it cannot be cultivated at all. If you continue your practice
-to cultivate bodhichitta, a time will come when you will be successful. For
-example, in the initial stage you may not even understand the meaning of the
-word bodhichitta. You might wonder how you could ever cultivate such a mind.
-But through repeated practice and familiarity, you will gradually come closer
-to such a mind.
- It is the nature of conditioned things that they change depending on causes
-and conditions. So it is important to recall the advantages and benefits of
-such a mind and cultivate a strong determination to achieve it. Make ardent
-prayers. Whether you sleep, walk, or sit, you should think: "How good it
-would be if I could cultivate such a mind." Try to cultivate bodhichitta even
-on an aspirational level. If you spend your days in such repeated and
-persistent practice, you can definitely develop it. Make the determination to
-cultivate it even if it will take many aeons. As Shantideva prays in his
-Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life:
-
- As long as space endures
- And as long as sentient beings remain,
- May I too abide
- To dispel the sufferings of all sentient beings.
-
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Stages of Meditation", root text by Kamalashila,
- translated by Geshe Lobsang Jordhen, Losang Choephel Ganchenpa, and
- Jeremy Russell, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The theory of dependent-arising can be applied everywhere. One benefit of
-applying this theory is that viewing a situation this way gives you a more
-holistic picture, since whatever the situation is--good or bad--it depends on
-causes and conditions. An event is not under its own power but depends on
-many present causes and conditions as well as many past causes and conditions.
-Otherwise, it could not come into being.
- When you think from this viewpoint, you can see much more of the whole
-picture, and from this wider perspective, you can see the reality of the
-situation, its interdependence. With the help of this relational outlook, the
-action that you take will be realistic.
- ...Failure to look at the whole picture means realism is lost. The attitude
-that money alone is sufficient leads to unforeseen consequences. Money is
-certainly necessary; for instance, if you thought that religious retreat in
-meditation alone was sufficient, you would not have anything to eat. Many
-factors have to be considered. With awareness of the fuller picture, your
-outlook becomes reasonable, and your actions become practical, and in this way
-favorable results can be achieved.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "How to See Yourself As You Really Are",
- translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D.
-~
-Fear and Fearlessness.
-
- Perhaps the first reaction we have to our own suffering is fear. Fear
-arises in us almost automatically when we experience strong emotions or pain.
-We don't have to sit there and generate fear--it just arises. When we
-experience a disturbing emotion such as jealousy we think, "No, I don't want
-this." We would rather not experience it. However, if we examine fear
-closely, we see that it is a thought to which we have been habituating our
-mind for a very long time. We have repeated this thought pattern of fear for
-many years, and from a Buddhist point of view, many lifetimes.
- In just the same way, when we habituate our minds to being fearless, to
-being brave and open towards our emotions, fearlessness will also arise
-naturally. In order for this to happen, we must train in applying antidotes
-to our thought patterns that are caught up in fear. In this way, we transcend
-fear first through a conceptual process, which later becomes nonconceptual, a
-natural fearlessness. In order to become fearless in this way, we need
-determination and the willingness to face our emotions. With that strong
-determination and courage, fearlessness will arise effortlessly.
- -- "Trainings in Compassion: Manuals on the Meditation of Avalokiteshvara",
- trans. by Tyler Dewar under the guidance of The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- There is both a reason and a purpose for cultivating the meditative
-stabilization observing exhalation and inhalation of the breath. The reason
-is mainly to purify impure motivations. What exactly is to be purified? The
-main of these are the three poisons--desire, hatred, and obscuration. Even
-though we have these at all times and even though the meditator will still
-retain them, she or he is seeking to suppress their manifest functioning at
-that time. The specific purpose for cleansing impure motivations before
-meditation is to dispel bad motivations connected with this lifetime, such as
-having hatred toward enemies, attachment to friends, and so forth.
- In terms of the practice I am explaining here, even the thought of a
-religious practitioner of small capacity is included within impure
-motivations; such a person engages in practice mainly for the sake of a good
-future lifetime. Similarly, if on this occasion one has the motivation of a
-religious practitioner of middling capacity--that of only oneself escaping
-from cyclic existence, this is also impure.
- What is a pure motivation? To take as one's aim the welfare of all sentient
-beings. This is the motivation of a religious practitioner of great capacity.
-Meditators should imagine or manifest their own impure motivation in the form
-of smoke, and with the exhalation of breath should expel all bad motivation.
-When inhaling, they should imagine that all the blessings and good qualities
-of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, in the form of bright light, are inhaled into
-them. This practice is called purification by way of the descent of ambrosia.
-There are many forms of this purification, but the essence of the practice is
-as just indicated.
- -- Geshe Gedun Lodro, "Calm Abiding and Special Insight: Achieving Spiritual
- Transformation Through Meditation", translated and edited by Jeffrey
- Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Tsongkhapa pays homage to the "foremost holy lamas," for it is in dependence
-upon a qualified lama that the three principal aspects of the path are
-realized.
- The high title "lama" alone does not qualify someone as a lama; the good
-qualities associated with the title must also be present. The three words--
-foremost, holy, and lama--set forth the three qualities of a lama.
- "Foremost" describes a person who has diminished emphasis on this lifetime
-and is primarily concerned with future lifetimes and deeper topics. Such a
-person has a longer perspective than the shortsighted one of those who mainly
-look to the affairs of this life and thus, in relation to common beings whose
-emphasis is mainly on this life, is the foremost, or a leader.
- "Holy" refers to one who, as a result of developing renunciation for all
-forms of cyclic existence, is not attached to any of its marvels and is
-seeking liberation. A holy person has turned his or her mind away from
-attachment outside to the better things of cyclic existence and focused it
-within.
- In the word "lama", "la" means high, and "ma" is a negative, which indicates
-that there is none higher; this is a person who has turned away from self-
-cherishing to cherishing others, has turned away from the lower concern for
-personal benefit in order to achieve the higher purpose of attaining benefit
-for others.
- -- "Kindness, Clarity, and Insight 25th Anniversary Edition", by The
- Fourteenth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, edited and translated
- by Jeffrey Hopkins, co-edited by Elizabeth Napper, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-...beginning with an attitude
-Of love for all living creatures,
-Consider beings, excluding none,
-Suffering in the three bad rebirths,
-Suffering birth, death and so forth.
-
- The" attitude of love" to which the text refers is the affection which sees
-all living beings as lovable. The stronger our affection the more easily
-compassion arises and the more intense and steadfast it is. Compassion can
-arise without it, but it will not be consistent. Unless we see all living
-beings as near, dear, appealing and beloved, we won't care what happens to
-them. On the contrary, we may even wish more suffering on those we dislike.
-That affection is what a doting mother feels for the apple of her eye, what a
-dog-owner feels for a beloved pet--a warm feeling that makes you want to hug
-and pat and say, "Adorable!"
- At present our feelings of affection are restricted to those we like and,
-even then, vanish quite quickly if they do something that goes against our
-wishes. It's a tall order to ask us to feel affection toward all living
-beings. It doesn't come naturally, which is why we need to train ourselves to
-see them in a new way.
- -- "Atisha's Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment", commentary by Geshe Sonam
- Rinchen, translated and edited by Ruth Sonam, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- Why should one work so hard to please people, doing all sorts of things for
-others in order to make them feel happy? If one can't bear one's enemy's
-happiness, then why should one do all sorts of things to make anyone else
-happy?
- Shantideva explains an inconsistency regarding this issue. He notes that
-when praise is directed toward oneself, when people speak highly of oneself,
-one not only feels happy but also expects others to be happy when they hear
-this praise. However, this is totally inconsistent with one's attitude toward
-others. When people praise others, then not only does one disapprove of
-others' happiness but one's own peace of mind and happiness are destroyed as
-well. So there seems to be an inconsistency when it comes to relating to
-praise directed toward oneself and praise directed toward others.
- Then, especially for a Bodhisattva practitioner who has dedicated his or her
-life to bringing about joy and happiness in others and leading them to the
-ultimate state of happiness, to be jealous of others' happiness and joy is
-totally inappropriate. In fact, one should feel that if other sentient beings
-of their own accord, from their own efforts, gain any little experience of
-happiness and joy here and there, we should be all the more grateful, because
-without our helping them, they have been able to achieve these joyful
-experiences and happiness.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a
- Buddhist Perspective", translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- What is meant by going for refuge is that you are seeking refuge from some
-fear. All the objects [Buddha, lama, guru, etc.] in front of you are what is
-known as the causal refuge, because they serve as the cause for bringing about
-the resultant refuge within you. You should entrust yourself to these objects
-from the depth of your heart, and you should see the objects as protectors.
-The resultant state of your own future realizations, becoming an arya being
-and attaining buddhahood--which depends on your own actualization of the path-
--is called the resultant refuge. Someone in difficulty seeking the assistance
-of a high official is analogous to someone seeking refuge in the causal
-refuge.
- But depending upon others' protection forever is not a courageous way of
-life; therefore, one has to try to achieve a state where one is no longer
-dependent upon such a refuge, and this is likened to taking refuge in the
-resultant buddha, dharma, and sangha. That is the process of taking refuge by
-a person of high faculty and courage. This practice should be done not for
-the sake of oneself alone but rather for the sake of all other sentient
-beings. When you cultivate such an aspiration focused toward the achievement
-of the omniscient state, it is very much like the generation of the
-bodhichitta mind.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Union of Bliss and Emptiness: Teachings on the
- Practice of Guru Yoga", translated by Thupten Jinpa, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- Many of the methods of practicing Dharma that are learned during waking can,
-upon development of dream awareness, be applied in the dream condition. In
-fact, one may develop these practices more easily and speedily within the
-Dream State if one has the capacity to dream lucidly. There are even some
-books that say that if a person applies a practice within a dream, the
-practice is nine times more effective than when it is applied during the
-waking hours.
- The dream condition is unreal. When we discover this for ourselves within
-the dream, the immense power of this realization can eliminate obstacles
-related to conditioned vision. For this reason, dream practice is very
-important for liberating us from habits. We need this powerful assistance in
-particular because the emotional attachments, conditioning, and ego
-enhancement which compose our normal life have been strengthened over our
-many, many years.
- In a real sense, all the visions that we see in our lifetime are like the
-images of a dream. If we examine them well, the big dream of life and the
-smaller dreams of one night are not very different. If we truly see the
-essential nature of both, we will find that there really is no difference
-between them. If we can finally liberate ourselves from the chains of
-emotions, attachments, and ego by this realization, we have the possibility of
-ultimately becoming enlightened.
- -- Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, "Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light",
- ed. & intro. by Michael Katz, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Cultivating Memory and Joyful Effort
-
- [This] foundational practice is engaged upon awaking in the morning. It
-further cultivates strong intention and also strengthens the capacity to
-remember the events of the night.
- Begin by reviewing the night. The Tibetan term for this preparation is
-literally "remembering." Did you dream? Were you aware that you were in a
-dream? If you dreamt but did not attain lucidity, you should reflect, "I
-dreamt but did not recognize the dream as a dream. But it was a dream."
-Resolve that next time you enter a dream you will become aware of its true
-nature while still in the dream.
- If you find it difficult to remember dreams, it can be helpful, throughout
-the day and particularly before sleep, to generate a strong intention to
-remember dreams. You can also record dreams in a notepad or with a tape
-recorder, as this will reinforce the habit of treating your dreams as
-something valuable. The very act of preparing the notebook or recorder at
-night serves to support the intention to recall the dream upon waking. It is
-not difficult for anyone to remember dreams once the intention to do so is
-generated and sustained, even over just a few days.
- If you did have a lucid dream, feel joy at the accomplishment. Develop
-happiness relative to the practice and resolve to continue to develop the
-lucidity the following night. Keep building intention, using both successes
-and failures as occasions to develop ever stronger intent to accomplish the
-practice. And know that even your intention is a dream.
- --Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, "The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- On some occasions, people faint. Even when your breath temporarily stops,
-during that moment, there is a reduced level of consciousness. Consciousness
-is most reduced late in the course of dying. Even after all physical
-functions cease, we believe that the "I," or "self," still exists. Similarly,
-just at the beginning of life, there must be a subtle form of consciousness to
-account for the emergence of consciousness in the individual.
- We must explore further the point at which consciousness enters into a
-physical location. At conception, the moment when and the site where
-consciousness interacts with the fertilized egg is something to be discovered,
-although there are some reference to this in the texts.... The Buddhist
-scriptures do deal with it, but I am interested to see what science has to say
-about this. During this period we believe that without the subtle
-consciousness, there would be a life beginning without consciousness. If that
-were the case then no one could ever recollect experiences from their past
-life. It is also in terms of Buddhist beliefs relating to this topic that
-Buddhism expounds its theory of cosmology: how the universe began and how it
-later degenerates.
- Based on this metaphysical reasoning and other arguments, and based on the
-testimony of individuals who are able to recollect their experiences in past
-lives very vividly, Buddhists make this claim. I am a practitioner, so based
-on my own limited experiences, and the experiences of my friends, I cannot say
-with one hundred percent certainty that there is a subtle consciousness.
- Scientists don't posit consciousness in the same sense that Buddhists do.
-At the moment of conception, however, there has to be something that prevents
-the sperm and egg from simply rotting, and causes it to grow into a human
-body. When does that occur? Why does that occur?
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations with
- the Dalai Lama on Brain Science and Buddhism", edited by Zara Houshmand,
- Robert B. Livingston, and B. Alan Wallace, published by Snow Lion
-Taking the reins is the key to happiness
-~
- The state of mind of a Buddhist practitioner should be stable, and should
-not be subject to too many conflicting events. Such a person will feel both
-joy and pain, but neither will be too weak or too intense. Stability is
-developed through discipline. The heart and mind become more full of energy,
-more resolute, and therefore less susceptible to being blown about by outside
-events.
- Deep within the human being abides the wisdom that can support him or her in
-the face of negative situations. In this way, events no longer throw him
-because he is holding the reins. Similarly, when something good happens it is
-also possible to rein it in. Taking the reins is the key to happiness. In
-Tibet we have a saying: "If you are beside yourself with joy, tears are not
-far behind." This shows how relative what we call joy and pain are.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "The Dalai Lama's Little Book of Inner
- Peace: The Essential Life and Teachings"
-~
- From a Buddhist perspective, busying ourselves with worldly activities is a
-form of laziness, because we're lax in self-cultivation. Our lives are so
-busy in modern society: Our appointment books are completely full and we're
-always running here and there. We often complain there isn't enough time for
-the Dharma.
- However, whenever we have a spare moment, we work overtime or call some
-friends to fill in the gap. We always have time to eat, but we hardly ever
-have time to nourish ourselves spiritually by attending Dharma classes or
-meditating. When the temple has entertainment and free meals, we go; but when
-there is meditation or lessons, we're busy.
- This hindrance to spiritual progress comes because we're attached to worldly
-pleasures: food, money, reputation, amusement, and friends. The harm comes
-from our inappropriate way of relating to them. Attached, we selfishly
-indulge in them. However, these things in and of themselves aren't bad.
-Through pacifying our afflictions, we can enjoy these things with a good
-motivation--to improve ourselves for the benefit of others.
- -- Ven. Thubten Chodron, "Taming the Mind", published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
- It is important to note that we should make sure that our meditation suits
-our mind. If we feel comfortable doing analytical meditation on the various
-topics in a progressive way, we should go ahead with it. If, on the other
-hand, we find it difficult and it is not compatible with our mind, we should
-meditate on whatever topic we like.
- If we enjoy meditation on emptiness, we should go ahead with this. If it
-suits us and we derive pleasure from meditating principally on the altruistic
-intention, we can emphasize this. At some point if we find that we cannot
-really get into whatever analytical meditation we have been doing, but doing
-prostrations, chanting mantra, visualizing a meditation deity, or reciting
-aspirational prayers brings peace and pleasure to our mind, we should do that
-practice.
- -- Geshe Jampa Tegchok, "Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage: An
- Explanation of the Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas", edited by
- Thubten Chodron, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Attaining realization is not such a long path once we become able to
-integrate all our movements of energy in our practice, because then every
-action is governed by presence and becomes a step on the path and an
-expression of virtue.
- Practice is not only sitting in meditation, reciting mantras, or chanting.
-It is the application of practice in daily life that is most difficult,
-working with our energy in every life situation, with every sense perception,
-with every person we meet, whether we want to encounter that person or not.
- -- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, "Wonders of the Natural Mind: The Essence of
- Dzogchen in the Native Bon Tradition of Tibet", published by Snow Lion
-~
-When we focus our attention on the passage of breath, we break the usually
-continuous flow of thoughts of attachment, hostility and so forth, whatever
-they might be. This causes such thoughts to subside for the moment. Thus, by
-occupying the mind with our breath, we cleanse it of all positive and negative
-conceptual thoughts and thus remain in a neutral state of mind unspecified as
-either constructive or destructive. This is the meaning of the line in the
-root text, "Thoroughly clean out your state of awareness." This unspecified or
-neutral state of mind, cleaned out of all positive and negative conceptual
-thoughts, is the most conducive one to work with. Because an unspecified
-state of mind like this is unburdened and supple, it is relatively easy to
-generate it into a constructive state.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama and Alexander Berzin, "The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of
- Mahamudra", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-76.
- "You may ask: If there is no sentient being, whose is the goal? We grant
- that desire [for liberation, etc.] is indeed delusive. Still, in order to
- eradicate suffering, effective delusion, whose result [is understanding of
- the ultimate] is not prevented."
- -- Shantideva
-
-Objection:
- If sentient beings do not exist, who is it that attains the fruition of the
-spiritual path--full awakening? And while on the path, for whom does one
-cultivate compassion?
-
-Response:
- Sentient beings do exist. It is for them that compassion is felt, and
-compassion is cultivated by existent people. Whatever is designated by
-delusion is to be acknowledged. Due to cultivating compassion while on the
-spiritual path, the fruition of full awakening is attained. Who attains
-awakening? That, too, is to be established conventionally, without [ultimate]
-examination or analysis. In order to pacify the suffering of oneself and
-others, impure appearances that arise due to ignorance are not to be rejected.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Transcendent Wisdom", translated, edited and
- annotated by B. Alan Wallace, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The object of meditation this time is emotion. In other words, we
-specifically focus on the emotions that arise from our feelings of good, bad,
-and indifferent. In the first of the equanimity meditations, we made the
-choice to not follow up these emotions. This time we make the choice to
-meditate on them. We might choose to meditate on sensations and feelings that
-arise in our immediate, present environment. We might also choose to meditate
-on an event or person that sets off strong sensations, feelings, and emotions.
- Let's say you choose to base your meditation on an event such as a family
-argument. This time you contemplate an aspect of that event and try to
-disentangle the sensations, feelings, and emotions. Sensations are what you
-feel with your body. Feelings assess whether that sensation is nice, nasty,
-or neutral. What emotions arise as a result of those sensations and feelings?
- As we now know, equanimity means not getting caught in further
-exaggerations: "Oh, I am so bad because this is what I did," "Look how good I
-am," "How could anyone love someone like me?" and so on. In this meditation,
-equanimity means not judging whether we are good or bad people, but just
-noting what happened.
- -- Chonyi Taylor, "Enough! A Buddhist Approach to Finding Release from
- Addictive Patterns", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Everyone tries to remove superficial pain, but there is another class of
-techniques concerned with removing suffering on a deeper level--aiming at a
-minimum to diminish suffering in future lives and, beyond that, even to remove
-all forms of suffering for oneself as well as for all beings. Spiritual
-practice is of this deeper type.
- These techniques involve an adjustment of attitude; thus, spiritual practice
-basically means to adjust your thought well. In Sanskrit it is called dharma,
-which means "that which holds." This means that by adjusting counterproductive
-attitudes, you are freed from a level of suffering and thus held back from
-that particular suffering. Spiritual practice protects, or holds back,
-yourself and others from misery.
- From first understanding your own situation in cyclic existence and seeking
-to hold yourself back from suffering, you extend your realization to other
-beings and develop compassion, which means to dedicate yourself to holding
-others back from suffering. It makes practical sense...by concentrating on
-the welfare of others, you yourself will be happier.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Mind of Clear Light: Advice on Living Well
- and Dying Consciously", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D.
-~
-Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me eight
-times, I must be a f**king idiot.
- -- Jon Stewart, on the last eight presidents vowing to end America's
- addiction to foreign oil
-~
-A lot of disappointed people have been left standing on the street corner
-waiting for the bus marked "Perfection".
- -- Donald Kennedy
-~
- In his closing discussion on loving-kindness, Buddhaghosa asks: "What is the
-proximate cause of loving-kindness?" The answer is the observation of
-lovableness in the person to whom you are attending.
- Bring to mind right now someone whom you find lovable. It could be a person
-you have a romance with, or a child, or a dear friend, or a great teacher--
-someone to whom your heart would leap like a deer in the forest if this person
-were to walk through the door, someone whose presence is so lovable that a
-gladness arises on seeing him or her. If you can sense that in a dear friend,
-then try to seek out the lovableness of a neutral person. Then, finally, when
-you break down all the barriers, see it in a person who has done you injury.
- It's a great key if you can seek out something to love, even in the enemy.
-Bear clearly in mind that this does not endorse or embrace evil. The crucial
-point here is to be able to slice through like a very skilled surgeon,
-recognizing vicious behavior that we would love to see annihilated as separate
-from the person who is participating in it. The doctor can be optimistic. A
-cure is possible: the person is not equivalent to the action or the
-disposition. Moreover there is something there that we can hold in affection,
-with warmth. That really seems to be a master key that can break down the
-final barrier and complete the practice.
- One way of approaching this is to look at the person you hold in contempt,
-and try to find any quality he might share with someone you deeply admire and
-respect. Is there anything at all noble to be seen, anything that would be
-akin to what a truly great spiritual being would display? Focus on that:
-There is something there that you can love. The rest is chaff, that hopefully
-will be blown away quickly, to everyone's benefit. It is as if you could see
-a little ray of light from within, knowing that its source is much deeper than
-the despicable qualities on the outside. That light is what you attend to.
-(p. 112)
- -- B. Alan Wallace, "The Four Immeasurables: Practices to Open the Heart",
- edited by Zara Houshmand, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Question: I have the strong wish to be reborn in any of the realms in a
-position to truly help other sentient beings in that realm. Is it wrong for
-me in these circumstances not to have the strong wish to leave the wheel of
-cyclic existence?
-
-Answer: Your wish to stay in order to help is certainly right. One of
-Shantideva's prayers, roughly translated is, "As long as there is space, I
-will remain with sentient beings, to serve and help them." Therefore, I also
-am trying to practice this. Helping others is the real purpose of life; it
-will bring the most satisfaction. The one action of helping others out of a
-sincere motivation brings two results--satisfaction for yourself and benefit
-to others. It is most beautiful.
- One might ask whether there is a contradiction between a Bodhisattva's
-developing a determination to leave cyclic existence by viewing it as faulty
-and a Bodhisattva's wishing to remain in cyclic existence in order to help
-others. An answer to this is given in Bhavaviveka's Heart of the Middle Way:
-...because of being under the influence of love and compassion, one is not
-captivated by the idea of retreating into solitary peace and, with an attitude
-of seeking to bring about the welfare of other sentient beings, remains in
-cyclic existence. This attitude is really marvelous. Though you are really
-fed up with cyclic existence, still because of a willingness and a
-determination to serve others, you voluntarily accept to remain.
- However, as is indicated by the frequently cited example of a lotus that is
-produced from mud but not polluted by it, a Bodhisattva stays in cyclic
-existence but is not affected by its faults. It would indeed be hypocritical
-to claim from one's mouth that one had taken up the practice of a Bodhisattva
-but actually to be happily stuck in cyclic existence with great attachment.
-(p. 91)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama of Tibet Tenzin Gyatso, "The Dalai Lama at Harvard:
- Lectures on the Buddhist Path to Peace", translated and edited by Jeffrey
- Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Sutras, tantras, esoteric instructions, and experiences teach
- The vital point of deathlessness, awakening without meditating:
- How this body of karma fully ripening
- Arises as a naturally pure awareness body.
- Visualize the fully ripening karmic body as the deity's form
- And meditate without fixation on it.
- It is itself inseparable from mind.
- No essence of mind is established,
- So where is something that dies?
- "Death" is just a concept.
- The hosts of concepts are nonexistent phenomena of samsara and nirvana.
- -- Mokchokpa
-
- According to this and other statements, since one's own mind in essence has
-no real existence whatsoever, it was always unborn. Therefore the great
-natural liberation of deathlessness is attained. As for this body of fully
-ripening karma, since it is a conglomeration of inert matter, it is not a
-basis on which to attribute the designations of birth or death. In fact, the
-body even arises as a mere appearance of mind.
- When one gains confidence in the realization that the mind is unborn and
-undying, then the body appears as the deity's form in mahamudra and one
-becomes bound to basic space without erring into the path of deluded
-appearance. By this kind of instruction one discovers the kaya of union in
-this lifetime. Even just hearing it can cause one to get enlightened in the
-intermediate state as the sambhogakaya of the victors. Of the Five Golden
-Dharmas, it is said to be like the ripened fruit. (p. 248)
- -- Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, "The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Eight, Part
- Four: Esoteric Instructions, A Detailed Presentation of the Process of
- Meditation in Vajrayana", translated by Sarah Harding, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- Buddhas and Bodhisattvas see clearly that our neglect of others, our self-
-preoccupation and our disregard for the connection between actions and their
-effects are responsible for all our miseries. The feeling that it doesn't
-matter what we do as long as we can get away with it kills our chances of
-liberation and enlightenment. Our selfishness robs us of worldly and
-supramundane good qualities, leaving us naked and empty-handed. It separates
-us from happiness now and in the future and fetters us to suffering.
- Resolve never again to let yourself be dominated by this mean and selfish
-way of thinking and do everything in your power to combat it. Your happiness
-begins the moment you recognize self-cherishing as your chief foe. There are
-many good reasons why cherishing others makes sense. Shantideva says:
- The state of Buddhahood is accomplished
- Equally through living beings and Victorious Ones.
- What kind of behavior then is it to revere
- Victorious Ones but not living beings?
- ...If we truly want to please Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and all those noble
-beings in the world whom we admire and whose sole guiding principles are their
-affection, love and compassion for others, we can do nothing better than to
-cherish living beings. (p. 100)
- -- "The Three Principal Aspects of the Path", an oral teaching by Geshe
- Sonam Rinchen, translated and edited by Ruth Sonam, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
-How Purification Works
-
- During Nyungne [fasting] practice, true purification is possible primarily
-because of the power of Chenrezig's compassion and blessing, as well as our
-faith, devotion, and correct motivation to do the practice. When such causes
-and conditions come together, a result inevitably occurs, and this result is
-understood as the interdependently-arising nature of all phenomena.
- For the most part, enlightened and unenlightened phenomena all arise due to
-this interdependently-arising nature. As a spiritual practitioner, the basic
-qualities one must bring to the practice are faith, devotion, and a trust in
-the power of the practice and Chenrezig. These qualities stem from our own
-pure nature of mind, a purity that is identical to Chenrezig's heart, that is,
-unceasing love and compassion. When these two things are combined together,
-our devotion and faith and Chenrezig's love and compassion, one could say
-miracles happen; a true purification takes place.
- It has been said that when one is sitting before the mandala of Chenrezig,
-one should believe that although Chenrezig is not physically visible to us, in
-fact he is really there in front of us. Just as we would be very careful of
-our thoughts and behavior if we were in the presence of a powerful and
-clairvoyant enlightened guru, in the same way we must generate vigilance so
-that we don't act shamefully in front of this great being. If we develop such
-vigilance and noble habit, then our negativities will automatically decrease.
-(p.11)
- -- Wangchen Rinpoche, "Buddhist Fasting Practice: The Nyungne Method of
- Thousand-Armed Chenrezig", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Reflect on the basic pattern of our existence. In order to do more than
-just barely survive, we need shelter, food, companions, friends, the esteem of
-others, resources, and so on; these things do not come about from ourselves
-alone but are all dependent on others. Suppose one single person were to live
-alone in a remote and uninhabited place. No matter how strong, healthy, or
-educated this person were, there would be no possibility of his or her leading
-a happy and fulfilling existence.... Can such a person have friends? Acquire
-renown? Can this person become a hero if he or she wishes to become one? I
-think the answer to all these questions is a definite no, for all these
-factors come about only in relation to other fellow humans.
- When you are young, healthy, and strong, you sometimes can get the feeling
-that you are totally independent and do not need anyone else. But this is an
-illusion. Even at that prime age of your life, simply because your are a
-human being, you need friends, don't you? This is especially true when we
-become old and need to rely more and more on the help of others: this is the
-nature of our lives as human beings.
- In at least one sense, we can say that other people are really the principal
-source of all our experiences of joy, happiness, and prosperity, and not only
-in terms of our day-to-day dealings with people. We can see that all the
-desirable experiences that we cherish or aspire to attain are dependent upon
-cooperation and interaction with others. It is an obvious fact.
- Similarly, from the point of view of a Buddhist practitioner, many of the
-high levels of realization that you gain and the progress that you make on
-your spiritual journey are dependent upon cooperation and interaction with
-others. Furthermore, at the stage of complete enlightenment, the
-compassionate activities of a buddha can come about spontaneously only in
-relation to other beings, for those beings are the recipients and
-beneficiaries of those enlightened activities. (p.5)
- -- Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, "The Compassionate Life"
-~
- The difficulty with a purely materialistic interpretation of life is that,
-in addition to ignoring an entire dimension of the mind, it does not deal
-effectively with the problems of this life. A materialistic mind is an
-unstable mind, for its happiness is built on transient, physical
-circumstances. Mental disease is as high among the affluent as it is among
-the poor, which is a clear indication of the limitations of the approach.
- Although it is essential to maintain a reasonable material basis on which to
-live, the emphasis in one's life should be on cultivating the mental and
-spiritual causes of happiness. The human mind is very powerful and our
-worldly needs are not so great that they must demand all of our attention,
-especially in light of the fact that materialistic success solves so few of
-the many challenges and problems that confront men and women throughout their
-lives, and it does nothing for them at death.
- On the other hand, if one cultivates spiritual qualities such as mental
-harmony, humility, non-attachment, patience, love, compassion, wisdom and so
-forth, then one becomes equipped with a strength and intelligence able to deal
-effectively with the problems of this life; and because the wealth one is
-amassing is mental rather than material, it will not have to be left behind at
-death. There is no need to enter the after-death state empty-handed. (31)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Enlightenment", edited and translated
- by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The bardo* of this life does not last forever. We know that, like a guest
-in a hotel, our mind is only temporarily sheltered in this body. As we face
-the challenges of this life and the impending challenges of the bardos to
-come, how does engaging in the three-stage process of study, contemplation and
-meditation help us? By applying ourselves to these three, we acquire the
-skills to stabilize our mind and we develop actual insight into how our mind
-functions. First we gain an understanding of the nature of mind; then, we
-experience that nature; and finally, we arrive at the ultimate benefit, which
-is fully realizing that nature.
- When we practice these stages of the path, it is like accumulating the exact
-things we will need to take with us on our trip. When we are ready to pack
-our suitcase, we will have what we need without looking further. We will not
-have to go out at the last minute and buy a map or a guidebook. We will not
-have to worry about whether we are forgetting something crucial.
- We have knowledge and experience that has blossomed into realization;
-therefore we can handle any situation. We have confidence in ourselves, in
-the teachings, and the guidance of our lineage teachers. At this point, we
-can let go of all our doubt and hesitation. We can simply relax and be who we
-are, wherever we are. (p.58)
- * in-between state, interval
- -- The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, "Mind Beyond Death", published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- The thoughts that in this year and month
- I will put right all my tasks and plans
- And then start a perfect dharma practice
- Is in fact the devil which brings all downfalls.
-
- The lack of death awareness prevents one from undertaking the practice of
-dharma. This is very true: If one is not aware of the eventuality of death,
-one will be totally concerned and preoccupied with the affairs of this
-lifetime alone, and with actions that are just for the benefit of this
-lifetime. Such ventures may take all one's time and energy, but no matter how
-important they appear to be, since they are directly related to this lifetime
-alone, their benefits are limited--once one leaves the present body, their
-benefit ends. Even though one might have a best friend, when one has to leave
-the body, one cannot take the friend along.
- ...Think that after twenty or thirty years even the Dalai Lama will also be
-no more. While I am alive, there will be people who are, from the depths of
-their hearts, prepared to give their lives for my sake, but on the day when I
-have to leave, I cannot take even one among them with me. Neither will I be
-able to take any of my possessions, even the body which I have always
-preserved and protected. This also will be left behind. At that time of my
-death, what will benefit is only the positive seeds that are imprinted upon my
-consciousness. No other factors will help at that time. (p.106)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Bliss", translated by Geshe Thupten
- Jinpa, edited by Christine Cox, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- At the beginning of the process of deity meditation and mantra repetition
-one meditates on emptiness, settling the non-inherent existence of oneself and
-the deity through a reasoning such as that of dependent-arising--the fact that
-both oneself and the deity arise in dependence on their respective bases of
-designation. One's own final nature and the final nature of the deity are the
-same, an emptiness of inherent existence.
- To perform deity yoga one does not just withdraw ordinary appearances and
-then appear as a deity but causes the mind realising emptiness itself to
-appear as a deity. Thus, it is essential initially to meditate on emptiness,
-cleansing all appearances in emptiness. One then uses that wisdom
-consciousness realising emptiness as the basis of emanation of a divine body.
-This must be done at least in imitation of a consciousness actually doing
-this, for meditation on a truly existent divine body, instead of helping, will
-only increase adherence to inherent existence. Meditated properly, the
-appearance of a divine figure is the sport of the ultimate mind of
-enlightenment, first in imitation and later in fact. (p.39)
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa, and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Deity
- Yoga in Action and Performance Tantra", published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
- If one could attain the state of perfect buddhahood that is free from all
-faults, that sees directly all aspects of the qualities to be cultivated and
-faults overcome in the quest for enlightenment, and that is physically adorned
-with the marks and signs of perfection, the mere perception of which is
-beneficial, then one would be beyond the distinction of feeling attraction or
-aversion toward the infinite sentient beings. One would regard all beings
-with an equal compassion, and would have the ability to really benefit them.
-Think, "I should make every effort to attain this all-beneficial state."
- In brief, the motivation should be, "For the ultimate benefit of the
-sentient beings, who are as infinite as the sky is vast, I must attain the
-state of a peerless, perfect, pure buddha." This is the aspirational aspect of
-the bodhimind.
- -- Glenn Mullin, "The Practice of Kalachakra", foreword by H.H. the Dalai
- Lama, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-After suffering severe puncture wounds without shooting any goop on my
-opponent, I realized I was simply outgunned. Never bring caulk to a
-nailgun fight.
- -- Stephanie S. Thompson
-~
-My cat Elea added a trick to her repertoire this morning.
-I sleep in a bit on the weekend, and both cats protest by
-visiting the bed every few minutes until I get up.
-Elea, being toothless, is afflicted with a mean case of drool when
-she's hungry. So this morning I got a "drool shower" since she
-sat next to my face and shook her head vigorously,
-flinging drool everywhere (especially onto my face).
-I know this wasn't just a fluke because a few minutes later
-she came back and did it again.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
-On Arcadia Asylum, pioneering creator in Second Life...
- "Nope, she can't log into Arcadia, Aley Arai, nor Lora Lemon. She's great
- at building, but she doesn't think she should have to pay the Lindens for
- anything, so she doesn't, and they get mad about that and close her
- accounts. :D"
-~
-The important thing is the obvious thing nobody is saying.
- -- William S. Burroughs
-~
- Our fundamental nature--what we term 'the buddha nature', the very nature of
-our mind, is inherently present within us as a natural attribute. This mind
-of ours, the subject at hand, has been going on throughout beginningless time,
-and so has the more subtle nature of that mind. On the basis of the
-continuity of that subtle nature of our mind rests the capacity we have to
-attain enlightenment. This potential is what we call 'the seed of
-buddhahood', 'buddha nature', 'the fundamental nature', or 'tathagatagarbha'.
- We all have this buddha nature, each and every one of us. For example, this
-beautiful statue of Lord Buddha here, in the presence of which we are now
-sitting, is a representation that honours someone who attained buddhahood. He
-awakened into that state of enlightenment because his nature was the buddha
-nature. Ours is as well, and just as the Buddha attained enlightenment in the
-past, so in the future we can become buddhas too.
- ...In any case, there dwells within us all this potential which allows us to
-awaken into buddhahood and attain omniscience. The empowerment process draws
-that potential out, and allows it to express itself more fully. When an
-empowerment is conferred on you, it is the nature of your mind--the buddha
-nature--that provides a basis upon which the empowerment can ripen you.
-Through the empowerment, you are empowered into the essence of the buddhas of
-the five families. In particular, you are 'ripened' within that particular
-family through which it is your personal predisposition to attain buddhahood.
-(p.29)
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great
-Perfection", translated by Thupten Jinpa and Richard Barron, Foreword by
-Sogyal Rinpoche, edited by Patrick Gaffney, published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-For achieving calm abiding... your mind must have two qualities:
- -great clarity of both the object and the consciousness itself
- -staying one-pointedly on the object of observation.
- Two factors prevent these from developing--laxity and excitement. Laxity
-prevents the development of clarity, and excitement prevents the stability of
-staying with the object.
- That which interferes with the steadiness of the object of observation and
-causes it to fluctuate is excitement, which includes any scattering of the
-mind to an object other than the object of meditation. To stop that, withdraw
-your mind more strongly inside so that the intensity of the mode of
-apprehension of the object begins to lower. If you need a further technique
-to withdraw the mind, it helps to leave the object of meditation temporarily
-and think about something that makes you more sober, such as the imminence of
-death. Such reflections can cause your heightened mode of apprehension of the
-object, the mind's being too tight, to lower or loosen somewhat, whereby you
-are better able to stay on the object of observation.
- It is not sufficient just to have stability; clarity is also needed. That
-which prevents clarity is laxity, which is a case of the mind's becoming too
-relaxed, too loose, lacking intensity--the tautness of the mind having become
-weak, caused by over-withdrawal inside. Heaviness of mind and body can lead
-to becoming lax, which can lead to a type of lethargy in which, losing the
-object of observation, you have as if fallen into darkness; this can lead even
-to sleep. When this begins to occur, it is necessary to raise, to heighten,
-this excessive declination of the mind by making it more taut, more tight. To
-accomplish this, it helps to brighten the object of meditation or, if that
-does not work, to leave the object of meditation temporarily and think on
-something that makes you joyous, such as the wonderful opportunity that a
-human lifetime affords for spiritual practice. If that does not work, you can
-even leave off meditating and go to a high place or where there is a vast
-view. Such techniques cause your deflated mind to heighten, to sharpen.
- While holding the object of observation with mindfulness, investigate with
-introspection from time to time to see whether the mind has come under the
-influence of laxity or excitement and determine the best practice for lowering
-or heightening it. In time, your will develop a sense of the proper level of
-tautness of the mind such that you will be able to catch laxity and excitement
-just before they arise and prevent their arising. (p.50)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Dzong-ka-ba and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Yoga Tantra: Paths
-to Magical Feats", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow
-Lion Publications
-~
-The position of the body [during meditation] is very important because the
-channels within the body will follow the external disposition of the body.
-The way the body is placed will set the channels; and the winds, of course,
-flow inside the channels, so if they are properly set, the winds will flow
-properly. Mind follows the wind. To focus the mind properly, the winds must
-also be functioning properly. (p.39)
- -- Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche, "The Practice of Mahamudra", translated
- by Robert Clark, ed. by Ani K. Trinlay Chodron, published by Snow Lion
-~
- The real source of my suffering is self-centeredness: my car, my possession,
-my well-being. Without the self-centeredness, the suffering would not arise.
-What would happen instead? It is important to imagine this fully and to focus
-on examples of your own. Think of some misfortune that makes you want to lash
-out, that gives rise to anger or misery. Then imagine how you might respond
-without suffering. Recognize that we need not experience the misery, let
-alone the anger, resentment, and hostility. The choice is ours.
- Let's continue with an example. You see that there is a dent in the car.
-What needs to be done? Get the other driver's license number, notify the
-police, contact the insurance agency, deal with all the details. Simply do it
-and accept it. Accept it gladly as a way to strengthen your mind further, to
-develop patience and the armor of forbearance. There is no way to become a
-Buddha and remain a vulnerable wimp.
- Patience does not suddenly appear as a bonus after full enlightenment. Part
-of the whole process of awakening is to develop greater forbearance and
-equanimity in adversity. Santideva, in the sixth chapter of his Guide to the
-Bodhisattva's Way of Life, eloquently points out that there is no way to
-develop patience without encountering adversity, and patience is indispensable
-for our own growth on the path to awakening. (p.66)
- -- B. Alan Wallace, "The Seven-Point Mind Training", edited by Zara
- Houshmand, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- While the great adept [Tangtong Gyalpo] did not stray from vajralike
-meditative concentration on the peak of glorious Riwoche, the ornamental wheel
-of his inexhaustible enlightened body, speech, and mind manifested in three
-great regions of Kham.
- At Gyalmorong, a person who had received the Path with the Result at Sakya,
-and who meditated single-mindedly on the Time of the Path during four sessions
-and on the Profound Path Guruyoga, saw the great adept to be Vajradhara, the
-lord of all spiritual families, and made countless prostrations.
- ...A person who recited a thousand of the heart-mantra of Tara every day,
-declared, "This isn't Avalokiteshvara. It's Tara."
- Also, a person said, "This is the Great Adept of Iron Bridges. O great
-adept, why do different visual manifestations appear to us?" The great adept
-replied:
- By bringing the vital winds
- and mind under control,
- taking control of how things appear to myself,
- overwhelming how things appear to others,
- and positioning magical bodies,
- I display whatever will tame sentient beings
- according to their various inclinations.
- (p.410)
- -- Cyrus Stearns, "King of the Empty Plain: The Tibetan Iron Bridge Builder
- Tangtong Gyalpo", a Tsadra Foundation Series book, published by Snow Lion
-~
- When I was a boy, Ling Rinpochay, who was then my junior tutor, was always
-very stern; he never smiled, not even a little. This bothered me a lot. By
-wondering why he was so humorless, I examined more and more what I was doing
-in my own mind. This helped me develop self-awareness with regard to my
-motivation. By my early twenties when I had matured, Ling Rinpochay
-completely changed; he always had a big smile when we were together.
- Effective practice of the morality of individual liberation depends upon
-sound, long-term motivation. For example, one should not become a monk or a
-nun to avoid having to work at a worldly job for food and clothing. Also, it
-is not sufficient merely to seek to avoid difficulty in this lifetime. To be
-motivated by such trifling purposes does not help to achieve freedom from
-cyclic existence--the ultimate reason to practice the morality of individual
-liberation.
- This is confirmed by Buddha's life story. One day Shakyamuni slipped
-outside the palace wall to experience life for himself. For the first time he
-saw a sick person, an old person, and a corpse. Deeply troubled by the
-suffering of sickness, aging, and death, he came to the conclusion that
-worldly life is without substance. Later, inspired by several religious
-practitioners, Buddha became captivated by the possibility of a higher, more
-meaningful, spiritual life. At that point he escaped from the palace, leaving
-his ordinary life behind to pursue that vision.
- What does this teach us? Like Buddha we need to begin by becoming concerned
-about the suffering of cyclic existence and by turning away from temporary
-distractions. Influenced by this new attitude, we must take up a system of
-morality by renouncing cyclic existence and by taking vows of pure behavior
-through seeking to avoid the ten nonvirtues. (p.29)
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful
- Life", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins
-~
- Tsong-ka-pa's intention in praising Buddhism is not to insult other
-teachers. Statements of the greatness of Buddhism are made in order to
-develop one-pointedness of mind toward practice, for one who is able to
-practise Buddhism must generate effort to do so. It is necessary for him to
-have confidence in Buddha's teaching from the round orb of his heart.
- There is a Tibetan saying that one cannot sew with a two-pointed needle or
-achieve aims with a two-pointed mind. Similarly, if a practitioner is
-hesitant, he will not put great force into the practice of any one system.
-Tsong-ka-pa states that Buddhism is the best in order that persons who would
-be helped more through engaging in the Buddhist path than through another
-system might not be diverted to another path. (p.48)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Tantra in Tibet",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- At the level of conventional truth we all naturally possess both the desire
-and the potential to overcome suffering and to attain happiness. In this
-context, we can reflect upon the Buddha's teachings on the Four Noble Truths
-and the Two Truths, and on the basis of such reflection we gradually develop
-an understanding of how we can gain freedom from suffering and of the
-potential we possess within ourselves for accomplishing such a goal.
- We can reflect further that: 'Just like me, all other sentient beings
-possess this same desire and potential to be happy and overcome suffering',
-and ask ourselves: 'If I continue to be guided by my own self-centredness and,
-through my single-pointed concern for my own well-being, continue to ignore
-the well-being of others, what will the consequences be?'
- Then we can reflect: 'From beginningless lifetimes I have harboured this
-self-cherishing attitude and have grasped onto the notion of an intrinsically
-real, enduring self. I have nurtured these two thoughts of self-cherishing
-and self-grasping deep in my heart as if they are twin jewels. But where has
-this way of being led me? By pursuing the dictates of my self-grasping and
-self-centredness, have I actually managed to attain the fulfilment of my self-
-interest? If it were possible, surely by now I should have achieved my goal.
-But I know that this is not the case.'
- We should then compare ourselves to enlightened beings such as the Buddha
-Shakyamuni who achieved total victory over all defilements and perfected all
-qualities of goodness. We should then ask ourselves: 'How did the Buddha
-accomplish this?' Through contemplation we will come to recognise that, at a
-certain point in his existence, the Buddha reversed the normal way of thinking
-and being. In the place of self-cherishing he cultivated the thought of
-cherishing the well-being of other sentient beings, and in place of self-
-grasping he cultivated the wisdom realising the absence of self-existence. In
-this way he attained full awakening. (p.30)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Lighting the Way", translated by Geshe Thupten
- Jinpa, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-In the history of the Nyungne tradition, many practitioners have been able to
-overcome incurable disease through the practice of Nyungne. We could say
-miracles like this literally do take place, although in the Buddhist
-understanding, overcoming great obstacles and disease would be considered
-blessings. A miracle is something else. It is the enlightened power that is
-demonstrated by enlightened masters. A true miracle in the Buddhist sense
-would be like the miracle of Milarepa entering into a little horn while his
-student, Rechungpa, sees him in his usual size yet he is inside the horn. Or
-like the miracle of Milarepa sitting on a lake and people seeing that he
-hasn't become any larger nor has the lake shrunk in size, yet he is completely
-covering it. These are real, enlightened miracles.(p.13)
- -- Wangchen Rinpoche, "Buddhist Fasting Practice: The Nyungne Method of
- Thousand-Armed Chenrezig", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- [In listening to teachings one] of the defects is to listen in a way that is
-like a container with holes. This means that even though we are listening to
-the teachings, we do not retain their contents. In this case we lack
-mindfulness and memory. Practice of Dharma means that we should be able to
-benefit from what we have heard. It is not a pastime, like listening to a
-story. The teachings give us guidance on how to live meaningful lives and how
-to develop proper attitudes. So in order to benefit from the teachings, we
-must retain them with mindfulness.
- In all kinds of learning processes, listening, reading, etc., we must pay
-full attention and should endeavor to remember their contents. When our
-interest is halfhearted, we only remember half the points, and we retain them
-for only a short time. We should reflect and think about whatever we have
-heard, over and over again. In this way, the knowledge will stay in our mind
-for a long time. Another technique for remembering instructions is debate as
-it is practiced in the traditional debating schools. (p.22)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Stages of Meditation", root text by Kamalashila,
- translated by Geshe Lobsang Jordhen, Losang Choephel Ganchenpa, and
- Jeremy Russell, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- We are duped by maya. The whole display of our senses has tricked us into
-believing it and thus seduces us into the world of suffering. And the
-illusionist is that old trickster, one's own mind. But when this illusory
-nature is recognized to be just that, one is released from the bondage of the
-magic show, at which time it becomes a wonderful spectacle, even a display of
-the unimpeded creativity and freedom of mind. Then maya itself is both the
-medium for this realization and the expression of it.
- This conscious and intentional method of relating to all phenomena as
-illusion is thus cast in a totally positive light on the spiritual path, a
-complete turn-around from the original negative valuation of it as deceit.
-Now illusion is seen as illumination and opportunity. The nature of our
-relationship with it is the salient point, rather than its own nature, which
-certainly does not exist anyway, in any way.
- Aryadeva says:
- Since everything is an illusory display,
- it is possible to attain enlightenment.
- The transformation of the maya concept from something to escape to something
-to engage may be loosely correlated with the shift of emphasis on
-understanding emptiness that emerged in the mahayana teachings. A further
-development may be seen in the vajrayana teachings with the esoteric
-instruction known as Illusory Body (sgyu lus). This occurs as one of the Six
-Dharmas of Niguma and in other configurations of completion stage practices in
-many lineages. (p.40)
- -- Sarah Harding, "Niguma, Lady of Illusion", a Tsadra Foundation Series
- book, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Afflictions are classed as peripheral mental factors and are not themselves
-any of the six main minds [eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mental
-consciousnesses]. However, when any of the afflicting mental factors becomes
-manifest, a main mind [a mental consciousness] comes under its influence, goes
-wherever the affliction leads it, and 'accumulates' a bad action.
- There are a great many different kinds of afflictions, but the chief of them
-are desire, hatred, pride, wrong view and so forth. Of these, desire and
-hatred are chief. Because of an initial attachment to oneself, hatred arises
-when something undesirable occurs. Further, through being attached to oneself
-the pride that holds one to be superior arises, and similarly when one has no
-knowledge of something, a wrong view that holds the object of this knowledge
-to be non-existent arises.
- How do self-attachment and so forth arise in such great force? Because of
-beginningless conditioning, the mind tightly holds to 'I, I' even in dreams,
-and through the power of this conception, self-attachment and so forth occur.
-This false conception of 'I' arises because of one's lack of knowledge
-concerning the mode of existence of things. The fact that all objects are
-empty of inherent existence is obscured and one conceives things to exist
-inherently; the strong conception of 'I' derives from this. Therefore, the
-conception that phenomena inherently exist is the afflicting ignorance that is
-the ultimate root of all afflictions. (p.26)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Buddhism of Tibet", translated and edited by
- Jeffrey Hopkins, with Anne Klein, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- With regard to awareness of the present moment, our mind is utterly
-insubstantial and yet has this characteristic of luminosity (Tib. salwa).
-"Luminosity" here simply means the cognitive capacity, the fact that our mind
-can know, experience, feel, and so on. This awareness always occurs in the
-present. When we are not thinking of the past or thinking of the future, when
-we're letting our mind simply rest in the direct experience of the present
-moment, then this awareness or lucidity emerges as an unfabricated
-intelligence.
- Initially we do this very briefly, for one moment, two moments, and so on,
-but as we work with this, it starts to take on a momentum. However, it's
-important not to interfere with the naturalness of this awareness by
-appraising what is occurring, which means that we shouldn't think, "Well, this
-is happening, that is happening, I'm aware of this, I'm aware of that." Nor
-should we judge what's happening by thinking, "Well, this is good, this is
-what's supposed to be happening," or, "This is bad, this isn't what's supposed
-to be happening."
- On the other hand, we do need to "plant the watchman of mindfulness and
-alertness," which means that we maintain some intentional awareness of what is
-occurring. Here, mindfulness means a simple, direct recollection of what
-we're trying to do. In other words, mindfulness is recollecting that we are
-trying to rest in a direct experience of the present moment. Alertness then
-is that faculty of mind that becomes aware when we become distracted from this
-present experience. However, this watchfulness or, this watchman, has to be
-very relaxed and gentle. It can't be too heavy-handed, otherwise the whole
-thing becomes a conceptual judgement. The technique of mind is to rest in
-this awareness of the present moment with a gentle watchman of mindfulness and
-alertness. (p.36)
- -- Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, "Pointing Out the Dharmakaya", foreword by
- the Dalai Lama, introduction by Lama Tashi Namgyal, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
-The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet. -- William Gibson
-~
- Complete spiritual fulfillment requires the ability to act compassionately,
-and that involves making practical distinctions. Therefore, Tsong-kha-pa
-insists upon the clarifying power of analysis that is not ultimate, analysis
-that operates within the constraints and boundaries of conventional fact and
-language so as to illuminate what does and what does not exist, what is and
-what is not helpful.
- Not all useful analysis need immediately reduce everything to emptiness. In
-other words, we can learn valuable, practical things by analyzing which car is
-good to drive, which action is good to do, which seed is good to plant,
-without at each step interrogating the final ontological status of the car,
-action, or seed.
- ...A pervasive sense that things are real and solid and exist just as they
-appear is woven right into the fabric of the world as we experience it. While
-tables do exist, we have yet to see them just as they are. Our very
-perception of them--while a valid source of information--is at the same time
-contaminated with a layer of distortion. That distortion is the appearance of
-the table as something that is able to be there on its own power, something
-that exists in and of itself.
- Thus when we begin to see, or even to suspect, that things lack essence and
-are not at all as we had supposed, we may feel terrified, as though our world
-is coming apart at the seams or evaporating beneath our feet. We calm those
-fears by again remembering that it is not that there is nothing. There is
-dependent arising, just as there has always been. Analysis threatens nothing
-but the false overlay, the distorting superimposition, which has caused us and
-others so much misery. (p.43)
- -- Guy Newland, "Introduction to Emptiness: As Taught in Tsong-kha-pa's
- Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path", published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
- The play of this divine mind,
- The union of bliss, the supreme father, and emptiness,
- Is unlimited and thus beyond concept.
- -- The Seventh Dalai Lama, Kelsang Gyatso
-
- Cultivate a state of mind focused on bliss and emptiness as forcefully as
-possible. The wisdom of bliss and emptiness is compared to space, which is
-non-obstructive and expansive. Because offerings are the manifestation of the
-wisdom of bliss and emptiness, these substances are called "offerings of
-Samantabhadra (All-Good)."
- Generally speaking, a bodhisattva named Samantabhadra is renowned for his
-elaborate offerings to the buddhas and bodhisattvas. But here the term all-
-good (samantabhadra) refers most appropriately to the wisdom of bliss and
-emptiness. It is all-good from the viewpoint of emptiness and also from the
-viewpoint of bliss. This emptiness is the ultimate truth and also the
-ultimate virtue. And the wisdom of great bliss is the clear light wisdom:
-With a feeling of joy, imagine that offerings having such a nature pervade
-entire space. (p.64)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Union of Bliss and Emptiness: Teachings on the
- Practice of Guru Yoga", translated by Thupten Jinpa, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- The spiritual path is truly simple. It is simple because it is not about
-acquiring, accumulating, or achieving anything. It is all about giving up
-what we don't need. It's about giving up what isn't useful instead of
-acquiring things with the idea of going somewhere or achieving something.
-That was the old game. That game which we have been playing for a long time
-is like a vicious circle. It has no end.
- Sometimes the spiritual search itself prevents us from seeing the truth that
-is always one with us. We have to know when to stop the search. There are
-people who die while they are searching for the highest truth with
-philosophical formulas and esoteric techniques. For them spiritual practice
-becomes another egoic plot which simply maintains and feeds delusions.
-Amazing! Buddha, God, truth, the divine, the great mystery, whatever you have
-been searching for, is here right now. (p.37)
- -- Anam Thubten, "No Self, No Problem", edited by Sharon Roe, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Practice of the morality of individual liberation, whether lay or monastic,
-leads to contentment.... Examine your attitudes toward food, clothes, and
-shelter. By reducing expectations you will promote contentment. The extra
-energy which is released should be devoted to meditation and to achieving
-cessation of problems, corresponding to the fourth and third noble truths. In
-this way, contentment is the basis, and the resulting action is called "liking
-meditation and abandonment."
- We should be contented in material areas, for those are bound by limitation,
-but not with regard to the spiritual, which can be extended limitlessly.
-Though it is true that a discontented person who owned the whole world might
-want to own a tourist center on the moon, that person's life is limited, and
-even the amount that can be owned is limited. It is better right from the
-beginning to be contented.
- However, with regard to compassion and altruism there is no limit, and thus
-we should not be content with the degree that we have. We are just the
-opposite; in the spiritual field we are content with slight amounts of
-practice and progress, but materially we always want more and more. It should
-be the other way around. Everyone needs to practice this, whether lay or
-monastic. (p.67)
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful
- Life", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins
-~
- If we view the world's religions from the widest possible viewpoint and
-examine their ultimate goal, we find that all of the major world religions,
-whether Christianity or Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism, are dedicated to the
-achievement of permanent human happiness. They are all directed toward that
-goal. All religions emphasize the fact that the true follower must be honest
-and gentle, in other words, that a truly religious person must always strive
-to be a better human being. To this end, the different world religions teach
-different doctrines which will help transform the person. In this regard, all
-religions are the same, there is no conflict. This is something we must
-emphasize. We must consider the question of religious diversity from this
-viewpoint. And when we do, we find no conflict.
- ...Different kinds of food have different tastes: one may be very hot, one
-may be very sour, and one very sweet. They are opposite tastes, they
-conflict. But whether a dish is concocted to taste sweet, sour, or hot, it is
-nonetheless made in this way so as to taste good. Some people prefer very
-spicy, hot foods with a lot of chili peppers. Many Indians and Tibetans have
-a liking for such dishes. Others are very fond of bland tasting foods. It is
-a wonderful thing to have variety. It is an expression of individuality; it
-is a personal thing. Likewise, the variety of the different world religious
-philosophies is a very useful and beautiful thing. (p.13)
- -- "Answers: Discussions with Western Buddhists by the Dalai Lama", edited
- by Jose Ignacio Cabezon, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The basic principles and precepts of all true religions are very pure. What
-you see as impure is simply the inability of those who adhere to them. So as
-Buddhists, for instance, if you fail to embrace and internalize the basic
-principles and precepts of the practice, then your mind is always going to be
-overrun by the five mental afflictions. These negative afflictions are
-desire, hatred, jealousy, pride, and ignorance. They are the basic obstacles
-which impede you from making any true progress on the path. It is, in fact,
-the function of the preliminary training to prepare the field of the mind so
-that you are actually able to put to rest the gross delusions and give rise to
-your innermost qualities. This allows you to actualize your true bodhicitta
-nature, the mind which cares about others more than self.
- Leaving aside the idea of the so-called spiritual path, or religion, if you
-are able to uproot these delusions, the stones and boulders, from the field of
-your mind, then you will become an honorable person, respected in the world,
-with an easier, flexible attitude toward yourself and others. If you are
-able, through your development of wisdom and skillful means, to unite the
-teachings with your life, then true results will be achieved. (p.96)
- -- Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche, "Meditation, Transformation, and Dream Yoga",
- trans. by B. Alan Wallace and Sangye Khandro, published by Snow Lion
-~
- What premises or grounds do we have for accepting that mental afflictions
-can be ultimately rooted out and eliminated from our mind? In Buddhist
-thought, we have three principal reasons for believing that this can happen.
-One is that all deluded states of mind, all afflictive emotions and thoughts,
-are essentially distorted in their mode of apprehension, whereas all the
-antidotal factors such as love, compassion, insight, and so on not only are
-undistorted, but they also have grounding in our varied experience and in
-reality.
- Second, all these antidotal forces also have the quality of being
-strengthened through practice and training. Through constant familiarity, one
-can enhance their capacity and increase their potential limitlessly. So the
-second premise is that as one enhances the capacity of these antidotal forces
-and increases their strength, one is able to correspondingly reduce the
-influences and effects of delusory states of mind.
- The third premise is that the essential nature of mind is pure; in other
-words, there is the idea that the essential nature of mind is clear light or
-Buddha-nature.
- So it is on these three premises that Buddhism accepts that delusions, all
-afflictive emotions and thoughts, can be ultimately eliminated through
-practice and meditation. (p.38)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a
- Buddhist Perspective", translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- As we become aware of the working of our mind, we'll find ourselves
-grappling with an inner trickster. Pay attention! The mind in which anger
-arises is also the mind that holds it, hides it, fans it, justifies it, or
-suppresses it. That's why this first step is crucial--before we can
-understand, befriend, tame, and transform our anger, we have to recognize it
-clearly and acknowledge it frankly. This is no small task.
- Self-awareness is a precondition for understanding and healing our anger.
-If we become aware of the workings of our mind we can discover the means by
-which we create our anger and the key to healing it. If we become aware that
-we are harboring irrational beliefs, ideas with false premises, mistaken
-assumptions or flawed logic, we can examine them and correct them. If we
-discover that we cherish ideas which are not in harmony with the realities of
-life and nature we can learn to relax into existence. If we find that we
-harbor desires, hopes, and expectations which cannot be achieved we have the
-option of letting them go.
- ...To develop awareness is to take a journey within--into the heart of our
-being. (p.33)
- -- Ron Leifer, M.D., "Vinegar into Honey: Seven Steps to Understanding and
- Transforming Anger, Aggression, and Violence", published by Snow Lion
-~
- A kind heart is the essential cause of happiness. Being kind to others is
-the nicest thing we can do for ourselves. When we respect others and are
-considerate of their needs, opinions and wishes, hostility evaporates. It
-takes two people to fight, and if we refuse to be one of them, there is no
-quarrel.
- ...A kind heart is the root of harmony and mutual respect. It prevents us
-from feeling estranged or fearful of others. It also protects us from
-becoming angry, attached, closed-minded, proud or jealous. When opportunities
-arise to help others we won't lack courage or compassion. If political
-leaders had impartial minds and kind hearts, how different our world would be!
- As all problems arise from the self-cherishing attitude, it would be wise
-for each of us, as individuals, to exert ourselves to subdue it. World peace
-doesn't come from winning a war, nor can it be legislated. Peace comes
-through each person eliminating his or her own selfishness and developing a
-kind heart...we can each do our part beginning today. The beneficial result
-in our own lives will immediately be evident. (p.76)
- -- Thubten Chodron, "Open Heart, Clear Mind", foreword by His Holiness
- the Dalai Lama, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- In order to have strong consideration for others' happiness and welfare, it
-is necessary to have a special altruistic attitude in which you take upon
-yourself the burden of helping others. In order to generate such an unusual
-attitude, it is necessary to have great compassion, caring about the suffering
-of others and wanting to do something about it. In order to have such a
-strong force of compassion, first you must have a strong sense of love which,
-upon observing suffering sentient beings, wishes that they have happiness--
-finding a pleasantness in everyone and wishing happiness for everyone just as
-a mother does for her sole sweet child.
- In order to have a sense of closeness and dearness for others, you first
-train in acknowledging their kindness through using as a model a person in
-this lifetime who was very kind to yourself and then extending this sense of
-gratitude to all beings. Since, in general, in this life your mother was the
-closest and offered the most help, the process of meditation begins with
-recognizing all other sentient beings as like your mother. (p.44)
- -- The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, "Kindness,
- Clarity, and Insight 25th Anniversary Edition", edited and translated
- by Jeffrey Hopkins, co-edited by Elizabeth Napper, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- Most people feel cozy enough in samsara. They do not really have the
-genuine aspiration to go beyond samsara; they just want samsara to be a little
-bit better. It is quite interesting that "samsara" became the name of a
-perfume. And it is like that. It seduces us into thinking that it is okay:
-samsara is not so bad; it smells nice! The underlying motivation to go beyond
-samsara is very rare, even for people who go to Dharma centers. There are
-many people who learn to meditate and so forth, but with the underlying motive
-that they hope to make themselves feel better. And if it ends up making them
-feel worse, instead of realizing that this may be a good sign, they think
-there is something wrong with Dharma. We are always looking to make ourselves
-comfortable in the prison house. We might think that if we get the cell wall
-painted a pretty shade of pale green, and put in a few pictures, it won't be a
-prison any more.
- ...There are two basic reasons we follow a spiritual path and look for
-liberation. One reason is that we want to be free. Let's take the
-traditional example of a burning house: your whole house is on fire, and you
-run out from it. But all your family--your partner, your children, your
-parents, even your pet dog--are all still inside. What are you going to do?
-You don't just say, "Well, I'm out. So too bad. Do your best to get out,
-too." Naturally this leads to the second basic reason for following a
-spiritual path: we will try to pull them out as well. (p.71)
- -- Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, "Into the Heart of Life", foreword by H.H. the
- Gyalwang Drukpa, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form."
-
- We are empty, or rather the matter of which we are composed is empty. But I
-must emphasize that emptiness does not mean nothingness. Some commentators
-have been mistaken when they have accused Buddhism of being nihilistic. We
-believe that the world in which we live is part of a flux, a stream of events.
-This does not mean it is nothing. Everything depends on everything else.
-Nothing exists on its own. On account of all the influences that come to bear
-upon them, things appear, exist, and disappear, and then reappear again. But
-they never exist independently. Form is therefore empty, by which we mean it
-is not separate and independent. Form depends on a multitude of different
-factors. And emptiness is form because all forms emerge from emptiness, from
-this absence of independent existence. Emptiness exists only to give rise to
-form. (p.341)
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "The Dalai Lama's Little Book of Inner
- Peace: The Essential Life and Teachings".
-~
- When we understand the empty nature of our own mind, then the consequences
-of merit and sin will not be realized. In the state of emptiness, there
-exists no objective merit or sin.
- ...The nature of the mind is like a mirror; merits and sins are like the
-reflections in this mirror; and reflections in no way affect or modify the
-nature of the mirror. When we are in a state of contemplation, we are living
-in the condition of the mirror. At the time when all phenomena are exhausted
-and pass into the nature of reality, then our virtuous and vicious deeds will
-cause no benefit or harm to us. There is no basis for effect--all
-limitations, all frames of reference, all solid ground having been eliminated.
-But if we do not understand the nature of the mind and intrinsic awareness
-through direct personal experience, it will be a very dangerous situation for
-us.
- Indeed, it is not sufficient merely to understand these teachings
-intellectually; one must first practice and attain realization from this
-practice. Otherwise the virtuous and the vicious acts we commit in this life
-will create and accumulate karma, leading us again inevitably into
-transmigration. From the present time until we realize the ultimate
-exhausting of all phenomena into the nature of reality, our behavior must be
-refined; it must be heedful and scrupulous. Otherwise our view is only so
-much empty intellectual talk. (p.66)
- -- "Self-Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness", translation and
- commentary by John Myrdhin Reynolds, foreword by Namkhai Norbu, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The attainment of shamata is a serenely stilled state of mind, settled on
-mind itself. Although the attainment of such a meditational state focused on
-mind is the foundation for developing the highest attainments and is, of
-course, very excellent, by itself it is insufficient for reaching those goals.
- When we achieve a mind focused on mind with the perfect placement of
-absorbed concentration, free from all faults of dullness or flightiness, we
-increasingly experience an element of bliss accompanying our meditation. When
-we experience serene joy, on both a physical and mental level, brought on by
-the force of total absorption of mind on mind, we achieve a meditational state
-that fulfills the definition of shamata.
- Our ordinary mind is like raw iron ore that needs to be made into a steel
-sword. Progressing through the stages for attaining shamata is like forging
-the iron into steel. All the materials are there at our disposal. But since
-the mind wanders after external objects, then although it is the material for
-attaining shamata, it cannot yet be used as this product. We have to forge
-our mind through a meditational process. It is like putting the iron ore into
-fire.
- To fashion the steel into a sword, or in this analogy to fashion the mind
-into an instrument that understands voidness, our serenely stilled and settled
-mind needs to come to decisive realization of voidness as its object. Without
-such a weapon of mind, we have no opponent with which to destroy the
-disturbing emotions and attitudes. (p.142)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama and Alexander Berzin, "The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of
- Mahamudra", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The Yolmo Valley has many different aspects that are beneficial to
-practitioners. Ian Baker writes:
- Chatral Rinpoche said that specific [places] in Yolmo are conducive to
-particular kinds of practice. Places with waterfalls inspire reflection on
-impermanence. Places with steep cliffs where the rocks are dark and jagged
-are good for meditating on wrathful deities. Places with rolling hills and
-flowering meadows support meditation on peaceful deities....
- Chatral Rinpoche clarified that the beyul [hidden lands] that Padmasambhava
-established in Tibet are not literal arcadias, but paradises for Buddhist
-practice, with multiple dimensions corresponding to increasingly subtle levels
-of perception. Beyond Yolmo's visible terrain of mountains, streams, and
-forests, he said, lies an inner level, corresponding to the flow of intangible
-energies in the physical body. Deeper still, the subtle elements animating
-the environment merge with the elements present within the practitioner--the
-secret level.
- Finally, at the beyul's innermost level--yangsang--lies a paradisiacal, or
-unitary dimension revealed through an auspicious conjunction of person, place,
-and time.... Chatral Rinpoche contended that yangsang is not merely a
-metaphor for the enlightened state, but an ever-present, if hidden, reality.
-(p.62)
- -- Chatral Rinpoche, "Compassionate Action", edited and annotated by Zach
- Larson, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Distinguishing between constructive and destructive emotions is right there
-to be observed in the moment when a destructive emotion arises--the calmness,
-the tranquillity, the balance of the mind are immediately disrupted. Other
-emotions do not destroy equilibrium or the sense of well-being as soon as they
-arise, but in fact enhance it--so they would be called constructive.
- Also there are emotions that are aroused by intelligence. For example,
-compassion can be aroused by pondering people who are suffering. When the
-compassion is actually experienced, it is true that the mind is somewhat
-disturbed, but that is more on the surface. Deep down there is a sense of
-confidence, and so on a deeper level there is no disturbance. A consequence
-of such compassion, aroused by intelligent reflection, is that the mind
-becomes calm.
- The consequences of anger--especially its long-term effects--are that the
-mind is disturbed. Typically, when compassion moves from simply being a
-mental state to behavior, it tends to manifest in ways that are of service to
-others, whereas when anger goes to the point of enactment it generally, of
-course, becomes destructive. Even if it doesn't manifest as violence, if you
-have the capacity to help, you would refrain from helping. That too would be
-a kind of destructive emotion. (p.158)
- -- "Destructive Emotions: How Can We Overcome Them?" A Scientific Dialogue
- with the Dalai Lama narrated by Daniel Goleman
-~
-I love smiles. That is a fact. How to develop smiles? There are a variety
-of smiles. Some smiles are sarcastic. Some smiles are artificial-diplomatic
-smiles. These smiles do not produce satisfaction, but rather fear or
-suspicion. But a genuine smile gives us hope, freshness. If we want a
-genuine smile, then first we must produce the basis for a smile to come.
- —- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
- Suffering is something very concrete, which everyone knows and wants to
-avoid if possible, and the Buddha therefore began his teaching by talking
-about it in his famous formulation of the Four Noble Truths.
- The first truth draws our attention to the fact that we suffer, pointing out
-the existence of the basic dissatisfaction inherent in our condition; the
-second truth explains the cause of dissatisfaction, which is the dualistic
-state and the unquenchable thirst (or desire) inherent in it: the subject
-reifies its objects and tries to grasp them by any means, and this thirst (or
-desire) in turn affirms and sustains the illusory existence of the subject as
-an entity separate from the integrated wholeness of the universe.
- The third truth teaches that suffering will cease if dualism is overcome and
-reintegration achieved, so that we no longer feel separate from the plenitude
-of the universe. Finally, the fourth truth explains that there is a Path that
-leads to the cessation of suffering, which is the one described by the rest of
-the Buddhist teachings.
- All the various traditions are agreed that this basic problem of suffering
-exists, but they have different methods of dealing with it to bring the
-individual back to the experience of primordial unity. (p.47)
- -- Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, "The Crystal and the Way of Light: Sutra, Tantra,
- and Dzogchen", compiled and edited by John Shane, published by Snow Lion
-~
- To disciples of increasing purity, ability, and rarity the Buddha gave more
-private guidance in the subtle mysteries. It appears that such teachings are
-included in the Mahayana sutras. There is no certainty, however, that all of
-the tantras were taught while the historical Buddha was alive. To an
-extremely small number of pure disciples the Buddha could appear today. They
-could encounter Vajradhara, the King of the Tantras, and he could reveal
-tantras and quintessential guidance to them.
- This is possible even though more than twenty-five hundred years have gone
-by since the historical Buddha passed away. There is no possibility, after
-the Buddha's death, of additions being made to his public discourses. But I
-think that teachings to disciples of pure action do not necessarily have to be
-given during the historical Buddha's lifetime. (pg.44)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Transcendent Wisdom", translated, edited and
- annotated by B. Alan Wallace, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- 30.
- Since the five perfections without wisdom
- Cannot bring perfect enlightenment,
- Along with skillful means cultivate the wisdom
- Which does not conceive the three spheres [as real]
- This is the practice of Bodhisattvas.
- -- Gyelsay Togmay Sangpo
-
- Practice of the five perfections without the understanding of reality
-remains contaminated, and though it may yield boundless happiness, it doesn't
-lead to omniscience. Love and compassion without the understanding of reality
-cannot help us to escape from worldly existence.
- On the other hand, we may easily remain trapped in a state of personal peace
-if we have understood reality but lack enough love and compassion. It is
-therefore the practice of Bodhisattvas to combine the two--skillful means and
-wisdom. Which of us can say we don't want to possess knowledge, kindness and
-pure conduct? Our text is a manual of instruction on how to gain these
-qualities and become a fully developed human being. (p.70)
- -- Geshe Sonam Rinchen, "The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas",
- translated and edited by Ruth Sonam, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- "The Buddhas have already achieved all their own goals, but remain in the
-cycle of existence for as long as there are sentient beings. This is because
-they possess great compassion. They also do not enter the immensely blissful
-abode of nirvana like the Hearers. Considering the interests of sentient
-beings first, they abandon the peaceful abode of nirvana as if it were a
-burning iron house. Therefore, great compassion alone is the unavoidable
-cause of the non-abiding nirvana of the Buddha."
- -- Kamalashila
-
- Compassion's importance cannot be overemphasized. Chandrakirti paid rich
-tribute to compassion, saying that it was essential in the initial,
-intermediate, and final stages of the path to enlightenment.
- Initially, the awakening mind of bodhichitta is generated with compassion as
-the root, or basis. Practice of the six perfections and so forth is essential
-if a Bodhisattva is to attain the final goal.
- In the intermediate stage, compassion is equally relevant. Even after
-enlightenment, it is compassion that induces the Buddhas not to abide in the
-blissful state of complacent nirvana. It is the motivating force enabling the
-Buddhas to enter non-abiding nirvana and actualize the Truth Body, which
-represents fulfillment of your own purpose, and the Form Body, which
-represents fulfillment of the needs of others. Thus, by the power of
-compassion, Buddhas serve the interests of sentient beings without
-interruption for as long as space exists. This shows that the awakening mind
-of bodhichitta remains crucial even after achieving the final destination.
-(p.44)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, root text by Kamalashila, "Stages of Meditation",
- translated by Geshe Lobsang Jordhen, Losang Choephel Ganchenpa, and
- Jeremy Russell, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- [During sleep and waking states] there are physiological processes that
-correspond to different mental states, and these are associated with
-subjectively experienced energies in the body.
- In the waking state, these energies tend to be drawn into a locus in the
-center of the head, at the level of the forehead. In the dreaming stage,
-these energies will be even more drawn to a point in the throat. In the deep
-sleep state, these energies are more drawn into the heart. The location is
-not the physical heart, the organ, but the heart center which is right in the
-center of the chest.
- Certain events are experienced in meditation that seem to corroborate this
-theory. For example, in meditation, it is possible to bring your awareness
-into the heart cakra, and sometimes when this happens, the person will faint.
-On other occasions, the meditative awareness, finely concentrated, may be
-brought into the area of the navel. And at this juncture, it has been found
-experientially that heat is produced by such concentration. If you look at
-the anatomy of the body, you don't find these cakra points. (p.106)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations with
- the Dalai Lama on Brain Science and Buddhism", edited by Zara Houshmand,
- Robert B. Livingston, and B. Alan Wallace, published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
- When you meditate with concentration, there are three particular experiences
-that arise: bliss, clarity, and nonthought.
- The experience of meditative bliss is greater than ordinary worldly
-happiness. Sometimes when you are meditating, a feeling of blissfulness
-suddenly arises from the subtle state of your mind and pervades your entire
-body. This bliss is healthy and brings out your inner qualities. Some people
-use drugs to induce blissfulness and visions, but drugs are external supports
-that cannot bring lasting happiness. The bliss experienced in meditation can
-last for many days, according to your ability to meditate. When you
-experience this kind of bliss, on the outside you might look very poor, but
-inside you remain very joyful.
- The second main experience in meditation is clarity. Sometimes while
-meditating you can suddenly feel that your mind is very clear and bright.
-Even if you are meditating in the dark, you do not feel heavy or tired.
-Sometimes your body feels very light and your mind is very clear, and many
-kinds of reflections appear. Clarity brings great wisdom and the ability to
-read other people's minds, as well as to see your own past and future lives.
- The third main experience is nonthought, or a state of equanimity without
-distractions. Beginners can also experience this. Nonthought is more settled
-than the experiences of bliss and clarity. If you have thoughts, they
-suddenly dissolve and you can remain continuously in meditation. As your
-ability to meditate develops, your mind becomes more and more settled, so that
-you can meditate for one hour or one week or one month without being
-distracted by thoughts. You simply remain in the natural state for as long as
-you want.
- Bliss, clarity, and nonthought are the main qualities of concentration.
-However, it is important not to be attached to them or concerned about whether
-they arise or not; one should simply continue to practice. (p.29)
- -- Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche,
- "The Buddhist Path: A Practical Guide from the Nyingma Tradition of
- Tibetan Buddhism", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The Buddha's teachings can be divided into two main categories: the
-scriptures and realization. A verse states:
-
- The teachings of the Teacher have two aspects:
- Scripture and realization presented as they truly are.
- There is nothing else to do but
- Sustain them, speak of them, and practice them.
-
- When we practice listening, reflecting, and meditating, the teachings will
-free us from the heavy darkness of suffering. They are like a never-setting
-sun whose luminous rays reach to the farthest corners of this world. Among
-the eighty-four thousand teachings of the Buddha are those found in Tibet that
-maintain the unity of the sutra and mantra traditions. These teachings are
-like a tree trunk with numerous branches: a variety of lamas hold lineages
-within diverse traditions.
- ...In showing how to cut through the delusion of duality, these teachings
-open up to every living being the possibility of attaining true mastery over
-the immense and profound gates to the eighty-four thousand teachings. They
-are precious because they make nonconceptual wisdom manifest and bring forth
-the amrita of all-pervading emptiness. Like placing a perfect fruit in the
-palm of our hand, these teachings bring about two kinds of wisdom: the wisdom
-that sees the multitude of all phenomena distinctly and the wisdom that sees
-clearly into their nature.
- Relying on an appropriate path allows the fruition of practice to manifest.
-This result is possible because buddha nature is found in the mindstream of
-all living beings. (p.160)
- -- "Music in the Sky: The Life, Art and Teachings of the Seventeenth
- Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje", by Michele Martin, published by Snow Lion
-~
- All is neither real nor delusive--
- Held to be like [a reflection of] the moon on water by the learned.
- Just this ordinary mind
- Is called "dharmadhatu" and "Heart of the victors."
- --Venerable Rangjung Dorje
-
- ...Thus, seeming reality consists of the adventitious stains that are like
-[mistakenly seeing] a [white] conch as being yellow. Ultimate reality is the
-tathagata heart, which is like the [natural] white of the conch. Except for
-the mere appearances from the perspective of a mistaken [perceiving] subject,
-within the object--the conch--there is nothing white or yellow to be added or
-to be removed. Therefore, the pith instruction is to rest naturally and
-uncontrived.
- In brief, what are called "samsara" and "nirvana" are set up from the point
-of view of mere seeming appearances, while the nature of both--luminosity free
-from reference points--is called tathagata heart. Consequently, in terms of
-the definitive meaning, mere appearances and their nature cannot be separated,
-just like fire and its heat. For this reason, the mother [sutras] say:
- "Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. Emptiness is nothing other than
-form. Form is nothing other than emptiness." (p.165)
- -- "Gone Beyond: The Prajnaparamita Sutras, The Ornament of Clear
- Realization, and Its Commentaries in the Tibetan Kagyu Tradition", Volume One
- translated and introduced by Karl Brunnholzl, a Tsadra Foundation Series book,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- In the Mahayana 'cause and effect' refer to totally supreme emptiness and
-supreme immutable bliss. The Brief Explication of Initiations (Shekhoddesha)
-[included in the Kalachakra cycle] says:
-
- That bearing the form of emptiness is the cause,
- That bearing immutable compassion is the effect.
- Emptiness and compassion indivisible
- Are called the mind of enlightenment.
-
- The indivisibility of these two is a Cause Vehicle in the sense of being the
-means by which one progresses, and it is an Effect Vehicle in the sense of
-being that to which one is progressing. Such a Vajra Vehicle has reference to
-Highest Yoga Tantra and cannot occur in the lower tantras. For the supreme
-immutable bliss can only arise when one has attained the branch of meditative
-stabilisation (in the system of the Kalachakra) and thus the branches of
-mindfulness and those below must be the means of achieving it. The three
-lower tantras do not have all the factors that are included in these causal
-branches. (p.107)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Tantra in Tibet",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-...one of the things you can learn from history is that men have learned
-to live with machinery at least as well as, and probably a good deal better
-than, they have learned to live with one another.
- -- E. E. Morison, from "Computers and the World of the Future"
-~
-Everything is perfect in the universe--even your desire to improve it.
- -- Dr. Wayne Dyer
-~
-On Practice Space
-
- I encourage you to conduct your own research on the results of practicing in
-various environments. Tibetan yogis are especially attracted to places with
-an enormous amount of open space and distant vistas. I have greatly enjoyed
-meditating in the high desert of the eastern Sierra Nevada range, where the
-views extend to peaks sixty miles away. The ability to direct the attention
-to such distant points gives a very expansive feeling to the intervening
-space.
- In such a spacious environment, allow your awareness to come out, with your
-eyes open and your gaze resting vacantly in the space in front of you. The
-experience in a vast space is very different from that in a tiny room. Gazing
-up at a clear night sky studded with stars is a wonderful way to experience
-the sheer enormity of space.
- It is important to distinguish between the contents of a space and the space
-itself. Colors and shapes constitute the contents of visual space. These are
-aspects or representations of ordinary phenomena in the visual field.
-Attending to the space of the mind means attending to that space from which
-all such contents emerge, in which they are present, and into which they
-dissolve; it is the space that lingers in between discrete events. (p.220)
- -- B. Alan Wallace, "Minding Closely: The Four Applications of Mindfulness",
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- "Through analytical meditation, you come to a point of clarity and decisive
-insight, and at this point it is beneficial to abide in that revelation. Your
-insight will grow gradually like a sprout. Simply be present and settle your
-mind in the absolute nature of reality. Remain in a state of meditative
-equipoise, and do not think of this as a waste of your time. If you think you
-should rather be actively engaged in such practices as circumambulations or
-the stage of generation, it is the time for you to be simply present in
-meditative equipoise. But do not just sit and space out."
- --Karma Chagme
-
- In some scholarly discursive meditations in the sutra tradition, one
-continually seeks out the mind, and there is a tradition in which
-investigation is needed. Here, in the tradition of Mahamudra and Atiyoga, it
-is enough to seek and investigate during this phase of Dharma practice, but
-afterwards it is not necessary to continue the search. In the Katok
-tradition, the investigation of the mind is said to takes months, for one
-examines for three days each of the points of the mind's color and shape as
-well as the exterior and the interior of the body. Our tradition does not
-take so long, so it is important for you to seek out the mind without even a
-moment's distraction. (p.100)
- -- Karma Chagme, "A Spacious Path to Freedom: Practical Instructions on the
-Union of Mahamudra and Atiyoga", commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche, trans. by B.
-Alan Wallace, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- When the root of duality--dualistic clinging, dualistic perceptions, deluded
-perceptions--is severed, all the leaves, the branches, and even the tree trunk
-of samsara and nirvana naturally wither on their own and topple in their own
-time. Then this great spreading tree of samsara and nirvana, of duality, of
-worldliness, of conditioned being, does not need to be chopped down: it is
-already as if dead. We can relax; done is what had to be done, as the Buddha
-sang.
- This is the whole point of the Dharma, of spiritual awakening, of
-Buddhahood; this is its ultimate evolution or unfolding. If we aspire to
-experience such an awakening, there is nothing else to do except recognize the
-true nature of our primordial awareness, our own essential being, our own
-birthright, which is within. This is the intrinsic nature of our own heart-
-mind, also known as bodhicitta or bodhi-mind. It is our own being, our own
-nature, this renowned buddha-nature. It is not a Buddha anywhere else. (p.103)
- -- Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche and Lama Surya Das, "Natural Great Perfection:
- Dzogchen Teachings and Vajra Songs", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- A common [Tibetan Buddhist] motif is the "Wheel of Life," symbolizing the
-workings of cyclic existence. This is frequently found at the doorway to a
-main assembly hall and serves to remind the inhabitants of the dangers of
-mundane existence. This striking image has a large central circle divided
-into two halves. The top half has three sections, representing the three
-"happy transmigrations"--humans, demi-gods, and gods. The lower half also has
-three sections, indicative of the three bad transmigrations--animals, hungry
-ghosts, and hell beings. A pigeon symbolizes the mental affliction of desire,
-a snake represents hatred, and a pig--symbol of ignorance--holds the tails of
-the first two in its mouth. These three afflictions are the primary factors
-that bind people to cyclic existence, causing them to transmigrate helplessly
-from birth to birth.
- The theme of cause and effect is further illustrated by twelve sections
-around the rim of the wheel, symbolizing the twelve links of dependent arising
-(a summary of the process of transmigration). The whole wheel is held in the
-jaws of the Lord of Death, indicating that death is inevitable for those who
-are caught up in this cycle. Outside of the wheel are buddhas and
-bodhisattvas, often shown teaching the dharma, which provides an avenue of
-escape for those who are perceptive enough to recognize this and follow their
-instructions. (p.239)
- -- John Powers, "Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism", published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
-Is Anger Beneficial?
-
- We generally consider something beneficial if it promotes happiness. But
-when we ask ourselves, "Am I happy when I'm angry?" the answer is undoubtedly
-no. We may feel a surge of physical energy due to physiological reasons, but
-emotionally we feel miserable. Thus, from our own experience, we can see that
-anger does not promote happiness.
- In addition, we don't communicate well when we're angry. We may speak
-loudly as if the other person were hard of hearing or repeat what we say as if
-he had a bad memory, but this is not communication. Good communication
-involves expressing ourselves in a way that the other person understands. It
-is not simply dumping our feelings on the other. Good communication also
-includes expressing our feelings and thoughts with words, gestures, and
-examples that make sense to the other person. Under the sway of anger,
-however, we neither express ourselves as calmly nor think as clearly as usual.
- Under the influence of anger, we also say and do things that we later
-regret. Years of trust built with great effort can be quickly damaged by a
-few moments of uncontrolled anger.... If we could tame our anger, such
-painful consequences could be avoided.(p.23)
- -- Thubten Chodron, "Working with Anger", published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
- Why should we want to help our enemies or to give them happiness? Here are
-various useful ideas to consider. One approach is to think that the harm they
-have done us is, in fact, the result of our own past negative actions through
-which we have set ourselves up as a target for their harm. We could also
-consider how those who harm us are totally driven by their disturbing
-emotions.
- If someone in our family, someone we love dearly, becomes insane and tries
-to harm us, we wouldn't think of taking revenge but would try to help them
-regain a normal state of mind. Living beings, our mothers, are crazed by
-their disturbing emotions. Those who harm us are in particular need of our
-love and compassion. (p.52)
- -- Geshe Sonam Rinchen, "The Bodhisattva Vow", translated and edited by
- Ruth Sonam, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- On top of the sufferings of birth, aging, sickness, and death, we encounter
-the pains of facing the unpleasant, separating from the pleasant, and not
-finding what we want. The basic problem lies with the type of mind and body
-that we have. Our mind-body complex serves as a basis for present sufferings
-in the form of aging, sickness, and death, and promotes future suffering
-through our usual responses to painful situations.
- By reflecting on birth and on the nature of mind and body, you will be moved
-from the depths of your heart to seek relief, thinking, "If I could only be
-free from a life driven by afflictive emotions and karma!" Without such
-reflection on pain, your knowledge of your own condition will be limited,
-which itself will put a limit on your compassion. As Tsonghkapa says:
- "If you do not cultivate a genuine sense of disenchantment with cyclic
-existence--whose nature is a mind-body complex under the sway of afflictive
-emotions and karma--you will have no chance to develop a genuine attitude
-intent on liberation, and there will be no way to develop great compassion for
-beings wandering in cyclic existence. Therefore, it is crucial to reflect on
-your situation." (p.151)
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Becoming Enlightened", trans. and ed. by
- Jeffrey Hopkins, PhD
-~
- When I was a young boy, Tantra was just a matter of blind faith. At age
-twenty-four I lost my own country, and then after coming to India started
-really reading Tsongkhapa's explanations on emptiness. Then, after moving to
-Dharamsala, I put more effort into the study and practice of the stages of the
-path, emptiness, and Tantra. So it was only in my late twenties after gaining
-some experience of emptiness that deity yoga made sense.
- One time in the main temple in Dharamsala I was performing the ritual of
-imagining myself as a deity of Highest Yoga Tantra, called Guhyasamaja. My
-mind continuously remained on the recitation of the ritual text, and when the
-words "I myself" came, I completely forgot about my usual self in relation to
-my combination of mind and body: Instead, I had a very clear sense of "I" in
-relation to the new, pure combination of mind and body of Guhyasamaja that I
-was imagining. Since this is the type of self-identification that is at the
-heart of Tantric yoga, the experience confirmed for me that with enough time I
-could definitely achieve the extraordinary, deep states mentioned in the
-scriptures. (p.188)
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful
- Life", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins
-~
- In Buddhism, one speaks of three different levels of understanding, which
-are sequential--an understanding arrived at through learning and studying, an
-understanding developed as a result of deep reflection and contemplation, and
-an understanding acquired through meditative experience.
- There is a definite order in the sequence of this three. So on the basis of
-study and learning--which is the first level--we deepen our understanding of a
-given topic by constantly reflecting upon it until we arrive at a point where
-we gain a high degree of certainty or conviction that is firmly grounded in
-reason. At this point, even if others were to contradict our understanding
-and the premises upon which it is based we would not be swayed, because our
-conviction in the truth has arisen through the power of our own critical
-reflection. This is the second level of understanding which, however, is
-still at the level of the intellect.
- If we pursue this understanding further and deepen it through constant
-contemplation and familiarity with the truth, we reach a point where we feel
-the impact at the emotional level. In other words, our conviction is no
-longer at the level of mere intellect. This is the third level of
-understanding, which is experiential, and this is referred to in the Buddhist
-texts as an understanding derived through meditative experience.... You will
-need to deepen your understanding still further by engaging in regular
-meditation so that you can progress to the third level of understanding.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Lighting the Way", translated by Geshe Thupten
- Jinpa, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Shortly after attaining enlightenment under the bodhi tree, the Buddha gave
-a sermon in Varanasi sharing the fruits of his realization. This sermon is
-referred to as the "first turning of the wheel of Dharma." The word Dharma
-here refers to the Buddha's teachings themselves. It was this sermon in which
-the Buddha developed what would become the framework for the entirety of his
-teachings: the four noble truths.
- These four truths are the truth of suffering, the truth of its origin, the
-truth of the possibility of its cessation, and the truth of the path that
-leads to that cessation. In essence, the four noble truths say that we all
-naturally desire happiness and do not wish to suffer--and that the suffering
-we wish to avoid comes about as a result of a chain of causes and conditions
-begun even before our birth. If we are to pursue our aspiration to gain
-freedom from suffering, we need to clearly understand the causes and
-conditions that give rise to suffering and strive to eliminate them.
-Additionally, we must clearly understand the causes and conditions that give
-rise to happiness as well, and actively practice them. This is the essence of
-the four noble truths.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Essence of the Heart Sutra: The Dalai Lama's
- Heart of Wisdom Teachings", translated & edited by Geshe Thupten Jinpa
-~
- In Dzogchen, while thoughts are active, rigpa permeates them all, so that
-even at the very moment when powerful thoughts like attachment and aversion
-are arising, there remains a pervasive quality of clear light rigpa.
-Dodrupchen says, "in Dzogchen, since the clear light's natural way of being is
-like the sun and its rays, inseparable, if you are able, through this, to
-bring out the radiance of genuine mind, you will be able to maintain the
-experience of clear light in meditation, without it fluctuating, or coming and
-going."
- Longchen Rabjam speaks of self-arising wisdom, which is in fact rigpa:
-"Self-arising wisdom is rigpa that is empty, clear and free from all
-elaboration, like an immaculate sphere of crystal. Its very being is such
-that it never explores objects of the senses."
- This "self-arising wisdom" is rigpa, which in essence is primordially pure.
-Longchenpa describes it as "empty and clear". To call it empty is to refer to
-its essence, primordially pure. To call it clear is to speak of its nature,
-spontaneously present. As such, it is "free from all elaboration", and free
-from the elaborations of adventitious phenomena. So it is like a flawless
-crystal sphere, and truly "its very being is such that it never explores
-objects of the senses". (p.180-5)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
- There is an Indian saying: if you are struck by a poisonous arrow, it is
-important first to pull it out, there is no time to ask who shot it, what sort
-of poison it is and so on. First handle the immediate problem, and later we
-can investigate. Similarly, when we encounter human suffering, it is
-important to respond with compassion rather than question the politics of
-those we help. Instead of asking whether their country is enemy or friend, we
-must think, "These are human beings, they are suffering, and they have a right
-to happiness equal to our own."
- Our attitude towards suffering is very important because it can affect how
-we cope with it when it arises. Our usual attitude consists of an intense
-aversion and intolerance of our own pain and suffering. However, if we can
-transform our attitude, adopt an attitude that allows us greater tolerance of
-it, this can do much to help counteract feelings of mental unhappiness,
-dissatisfaction and discontent. (p.92)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Pocket Dalai Lama", compiled and edited by
- Mary Craig
-~
- Why should we want to help our enemies or to give them happiness? Here are
-various useful ideas to consider. One approach is to think that the harm they
-have done us is, in fact, the result of our own past negative actions through
-which we have set ourselves up as a target for their harm. We could also
-consider how those who harm us are totally driven by their disturbing
-emotions.
- If someone in our family, someone we love dearly, becomes insane and tries
-to harm us, we wouldn't think of taking revenge but would try to help them
-regain a normal state of mind. Living beings, our mothers, are crazed by
-their disturbing emotions. Those who harm us are in particular need of our
-love and compassion. (p.52)
- -- Geshe Sonam Rinchen, "The Bodhisattva Vow", translated and edited by
- Ruth Sonam, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- If you are totally concerned and preoccupied with the affairs of this
-lifetime, there is a great danger of causing your own downfall. If by such
-concern you were able to achieve the desired happiness, that is okay, but this
-is not the case.
- We all let ourselves be caught in this web of preoccupation with the
-activities and confusion of this lifetime. Having too much worldly
-involvement ends in confusion. We spend our whole lives thinking that this
-might be better than that, I should do this, or perhaps something else is
-better and I should do that. If you reflect upon the underlying
-dissatisfaction, then you will be able to find that, well, after all, whatever
-they might be, the affairs of this lifetime are not that important, because
-they yield a limited benefit. This does not mean that you should not work for
-your own livelihood, but it does indicate that you should not be preoccupied
-with that alone. (p.107)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Bliss", translated by Geshe Thupten
- Jinpa, edited by Christine Cox, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Do you understand who the enemy is? You do not need to beat anyone up, and
-you do not need a weapon to kill your enemy. You do not need money to buy a
-weapon. It is all very easy.
- How is liberation accomplished? The offering of liberation is accomplished
-by abandoning the dualistic mind of discursive thoughts. The sharp weapon of
-primordial wisdom, which completely annihilates the dualistic mind, is the
-means for achieving this separation. This "weapon" has been part of your
-continuum for a long time now. With this weapon you can completely devastate
-the dualistic mind, leaving not even a trace behind, thus liberating the mind
-into the sphere of unborn truth. The enemy will never return. This is called
-great liberation.
- I must emphasize that primordial wisdom is not something you can buy, get
-from your best friend or have handed to you by a buddha in heaven. It is not
-something that someone else has but you do not. Abandon such concepts.
-Primordial wisdom does not come from an external source. It is simply your
-true nature. It is something that you and everyone else have as the very
-essence of your mind.
- You should know what your qualities and capabilities are. (p.79)
- -- Gyatrul Rinpoche, "The Generation Stage in Buddhist Tantra", published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- With regard to ordinary study, except for the fact that there is a limit to
-our lifetime, it is not that you arrive at a point where there is no more room
-in your brain. No matter how much you study, even if you study a hundred
-thousand million words, the mind can still retain them. This indicates that
-the basis of these qualities, consciousness, is stable and continuous.
- The other day, I made a joke to someone who was asking about the brain. I
-said that if, like a computer, you needed a cell for each moment of memory,
-then as you become more and more educated, your head would have to get bigger
-and bigger!
- Because of these reasons--that compassion, wisdom, and so forth are
-qualities that depend on the mind, and the mind is stable and continuous--they
-can be developed to a limitless degree.
- It is from this point of view that it is said that the conception of
-inherent existence can be extinguished. When one removes the conception of
-inherent existence, one thereby also ceases the afflictive emotions generated
-in dependence upon that ignorance. Also, since the ignorance that drives
-contaminated actions has ceased, this class of actions ceases. Once the
-motivator of the action and the actions cease, the results of those actions
-will cease. That is how the third noble truth--true cessation--comes to be.
-(p.103)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso, "The Dalai Lama at
- Harvard: Lectures on the Buddhist Path to Peace", translated and
- edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- "Accumulating merit" can be approached from a psychological perspective that
-lends itself to experiential verification or from a spiritual dimension that
-requires some faith. "Merit" can be understood as "spiritual power" that
-manifests in day-to-day experience. When merit, or spiritual power, is
-strong, there is little resistance to practicing Dharma and practice itself is
-empowered.
- Tibetans explain that people who make rapid progress in Dharma, gaining one
-insight after another, enter practice already having a lot of merit. By the
-same theory, it is possible to strive diligently and make little progress.
-Tibetans explain this problem as being due to too little merit. Merit is the
-fuel that empowers spiritual practice.
- How do you accumulate merit? Engaging in virtue of any sort, with your
-mind, your speech, or your body results in merit. Just as merit can be
-accumulated, it can also be dissipated by doing harm. In general, mental
-afflictions dissipate merit. The mental affliction that is like a black hole
-sucking up merit, worse than all the others, is anger. Attachment or sensual
-craving can get you in a lot of trouble, but it doesn't have the debilitating
-impact upon spiritual practice that anger does. Remember the warrior
-metaphor--standing at the gateway of the mind, vigilant, spear ready. The
-spear is for mental afflictions, especially anger. Nip anger in the bud. (p.208)
- -- B. Alan Wallace, "Buddhism with an Attitude: The Tibetan Seven-Point Mind
- Training", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- It is necessary to alternate stabilising meditation and analytical
-meditation... by merely cultivating non-conceptuality and non-analysis it is
-impossible to enter into the yoga of signlessness.
- Even after emptiness has been realised, powerful and repeated analysis is
-needed. Merely to set one's mind on the meaning of emptiness is the mode of
-cultivating calm abiding observing emptiness; in order to cultivate special
-insight it is necessary to analyse again and again. These two modes of
-meditation--stabilising and analytical--are alternated until analysis itself
-induces even greater stablisation, at which point stabilisation and wisdom are
-of equal strength, this being a union of calm abiding and special insight.
- In Performance as well as in Action Tantra the meditative stabilisation
-which is a union of calm abiding and special insight is used to gain feats for
-the sake of aiding sentient beings and accumulating merit quickly. (p.42)
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa, and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Deity
- Yoga in Action and Performance Tantra", published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Seeking a Place of Refuge.
-
- A spiritual aspirant requires a model, something he or she can look up to as
-an ideal and thus find guidance and inspiration. In Buddhism this is the
-Triple Gem, or the Three Jewels of Refuge: the Buddhas, Dharma and Sangha.
- When we think of the fully enlightened Buddhas--the beings who have purified
-their minds of all stains and obscurations and who have expanded their wisdom
-to the limits of existence--we feel very attracted and awed; but somehow there
-always seems to be a great distance between the Buddhas and us. Therefore,
-there is the refuge of Sangha, the community of spiritual aspirants, the
-assembly of practitioners dwelling in the various stages of practice and
-attainment.
- These beings provide us with a perspective on the path. We have to look up
-to the Sangha, but not as far as to the Buddhas. The Sangha make us think,
-"This person is not that far ahead of me. If I just make a bit more
-effort...." They give us confidence for spiritual practice. Sometimes they
-make us feel like we can even race them to enlightenment. These are the
-Sangha of spiritual friends.
- Thoughts of the Buddhas make us numb with admiration; thoughts of the Sangha
-cause us to jump to it and to apply ourselves with zeal to the spiritual path.
-This path and the methods for traversing it are the third Jewel of Refuge, the
-Dharma. This is the collection of teachings to be practiced and the
-realizations to be attained. (p.97)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Enlightenment", edited and translated
- by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Suppose there is this religious group building thousands of childcare
-facilities and hospices.... Although these religious workers are doing a lot
-of caring work, there is no wish to enlighten sentient beings. Their aim is
-just to provide food and education. At the same time, imagine there is one
-hermit living somewhere in the mountains of the Himalayas who is doing none of
-this. In fact, within close range of him, there are a lot of babies dying,
-yet outwardly he is doing nothing about it. Inwardly, however, he is actually
-meditating, "May all sentient beings be enlightened!" and he continues to do
-this every day. Purely because of the enlightenment aspect, this person is
-worthier of homage than the first group. Why? Because it is so difficult to
-truly and genuinely wish for the enlightenment of others. It is much easier
-to give people food and educate them.
- Most of us don't really appreciate this fact. We have never before
-genuinely wished for someone else to achieve enlightenment. Likewise, if
-someone were to come over and say to us: "Here you go, you have a ticket for
-enlightenment. There is only one ticket." I don't think we would even think
-about giving it to someone else! We'd grab it and go for it. Enlightenment
-is such a valuable thing.
- Actually, enlightenment is much too large a subject, so let's not take that
-as an example. Instead, let's say someone comes along with a potion that
-promises you clairvoyance or omniscience. We would drink it ourselves, not
-even sharing half of it with others!
- Just think how often we are jealous when someone is a better practitioner.
-How often do we get jealous when someone receives a better or a higher
-teaching than we do? If you have genuine bodhichitta, you should be happy,
-shouldn't you? After all, isn't that what you wished for? Their getting
-enlightenment means your wish is at last coming true. Their receiving higher
-teachings, or becoming better practitioners, means that your aspiration is
-finally being fulfilled! But we don't feel this way, instead we feel jealous
-or envious. Some of us may be so-so Dharma practitioners, so we don't really
-feel jealous or envious, but we still feel left behind. Who cares? If you
-are a genuine bodhisattva, you shouldn't care about these things. (p.123)
- -- "Entrance to the Great Perfection: A Guide to the Dzogchen Preliminary
- Practices", compiled, translated, and introduced by Cortland Dahl,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- It is very difficult to help somebody overcome his or her problems when the
-problems are unstructured, when in a certain way this person does not have any
-problems, though deep inside all the problems are there. It is very difficult
-for a human being whose problem is confused, whose ego is ill-defined and
-without foundation, to really purify, clarify, and develop anything.
- The same principle applies to praying. As long as we have our self, our
-ego, we pray to the Buddha: "Please bless me so that my prayers for the
-benefit of all sentient beings be fulfilled." Otherwise our prayer does not
-follow any line or direction. It would be like going to a big five-star hotel
-with five hundred rooms and not knowing your room number, or taking an
-elevator without knowing which floor to go to--this would be a big problem.
- This is the reason for calling upon the great compassion of the Buddha and
-asking him to consider our prayers. The reason is not that the Buddha only
-listens to someone who prays to him; rather, without praying to the Buddha we
-are not developed enough to have the condition necessary to receive his
-blessing. Rain might be falling for ten thousand years, yet if our cup is
-upside down it will remain empty. Through praying we open up, we turn our cup
-to let the water get inside. (p.48)
- -- XII Khentin Tai Situpa Rinpoche, "The Third Karmapa's Mahamudra Prayer",
- translated and edited by Rosemarie Fuchs, published by Snow Lion Pub
-~
-Catproof is an oxymoron, childproof nearly so. -- unknown
-~
- In Tibetan there is no word for "emotion."
- Bearing in mind that the fundamental goal of Buddhist practice is the
-achievement of nirvana, when you study the mind what you're really concerned
-with is what specific mental states impede the accomplishment of that end.
-That's what the six primary states and twenty derivative states (the
-unwholesome mental factors) all have in common. Some are emotions and some
-are not, but it doesn't really matter. What's important is they all share
-that common factor of being impediments.
- In contrast, modern psychology does not have the aim of nirvana. My
-conjecture, in terms of trying to understand why the West places such a strong
-emphasis on identifying emotion, is that, going back to the Enlightenment,
-even as far back as Aquinas, there is an enormous priority placed on reason
-and intelligence. What can impede reason? Emotion.
- You have two categories that are set in opposition to each other. The fact
-that there is a specific term for emotion in Western thought does not
-necessarily imply that there was a special emphasis placed on understanding
-the nature of emotion. Perhaps initially the motive for labeling something as
-emotion was to enhance reason by identifying something that is unreasonable,
-something that is irrational. (p.159)
- -- "Destructive Emotions: How Can We Overcome Them? A Scientific Dialogue
- with the Dalai Lama", narrated by Daniel Goleman, foreword by the Dalai
- Lama
-~
-The solution of this problem is trivial and is left as an exercise for the reader.
- -- Standard textbook cookie
-~
-Question:
- Your Holiness and other teachers tell us to be sincerely joyful about
-others' worldly achievements, happiness, and acquisitions. But if we know
-with certainty that a person has acquired or achieved something through
-unskillful or non-virtuous means, such as lying, stealing, cheating, harming,
-in what manner should that happiness for them be experienced and expressed?
-
-Dalai Lama:
- One's attitude toward superficial successes that are achieved through wrong
-means of livelihood such as lying, stealing, cheating, and so on, should not
-be the same as for achievements and happiness which are genuine. However,
-here you must bear in mind that if you examine this carefully, you will find
-that although the immediate circumstances that gave rise to a person's joy and
-happiness may be a wrong means of livelihood, that is merely the immediate
-circumstance: the actual cause of that happiness is the individual's merit in
-the past.
- So one has to see the difference between immediate circumstances and long-
-term causes. One of the characteristics of karmic theory is that there is a
-definite, commensurate relationship between cause and effect. There is no way
-that negative actions or unwholesome deeds can result in joy and happiness.
-Joy and happiness, by definition, are the results or fruits of wholesome
-actions. So, from that point of view, it is possible for us to admire not so
-much the immediate action, but the real causes of joy. (p.119)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a
- Buddhist Perspective", translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- At all times, do not lose courage in your inner awareness; uplift yourself,
-while assuming a humble position in your outer demeanor. Follow the example
-of the life and complete liberation of previous accomplished masters (siddha).
-Do not blame your past karma; instead, be someone who purely and flawlessly
-practices the Dharma. Do not blame temporary negative circumstances; instead,
-be someone who remains steadfast in the face of whatever circumstances may
-arise.
- In brief, taking your own mind as witness, make your life and practice one,
-and at the time of death, with no thought of anything left undone, do not be
-ashamed of yourself. This itself is the pith instruction of all practices.
- Eventually, when the time of death arrives, completely give up whatever
-wealth you possess, and do not cling to even one needle. Moreover, at death,
-practitioners of highest faculty will be joyful; practitioners of middling
-faculty will be without apprehension; and practitioners of the lowest faculty
-will have no regrets. When realization's clear light becomes continuous day
-and night, there is no intermediate state (bardo): death is just breaking the
-enclosure of the body.
- If this is not the case, but if you have confidence that you will be
-liberated in the intermediate state, whatever you have done in preparation for
-death will suffice. Without such confidence, when death arrives, you can send
-your consciousness to whichever pure land you wish and there traverse the
-remaining paths and stages to become enlightened. (p.58)
- -- "Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoche's Heart Advice", translated by Ron Garry,
- a Tsadra Foundation Series book, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- There are many different forms of bodywork that can purify and heal in the
-context of preparing for tantric practice. Trauma held in the body from early
-experiences is cleared only when we are able to work therapeutically in the
-body. Whether it is body-centered therapy or the various practices of
-acupuncture, osteopathy, homeopathy, and so on, if the practice releases and
-transforms trauma, then it is beneficial as a preliminary to any further
-tantric practice. I often suggest to people I teach that they follow some
-form of body-energy healing in order to further their release of trauma.
-Also, after trauma has been released, it is often extremely useful to then
-explore some form of psychotherapy.
- We should not assume that the traditional practices will do it all for us.
-It is simply idealistic and naive to think that all our ills can be resolved
-by doing the traditional preliminary practices or, indeed, by classical
-"dharma practice" alone. We should consider a healthy body-mind-life
-relationship as a necessary part of our practice. When we get this balance
-right, we create the basis for a sound dharma practice.
- The practice of tantra in particular needs this healthy, balanced basis
-because when we work with tantric practices, we stimulate processes in the
-body that are often very powerful. If we have a sound base for practice and
-have a level of emotional and energetic maturity, then the effects of tantra
-can be held and grounded without creating the potential for problems to arise.
-Without a sound relationship to the body, the practice of tantra has no real
-base from which to unfold.(p.53)
- -- Rob Preece, "Preparing for Tantra: Creating the Psychological Ground
- for Practice", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-During a visit to America, Winston Churchill was invited to a buffet luncheon
-at which cold fried chicken was served. Returning for a second helping, he
-asked politely, "May I have some breast?" "Mr. Churchill," replied the
-hostess, "in this country we ask for white meat or dark meat." Churchill
-apologized profusely. The following morning, the lady received a magnificent
-orchid from her guest of honor. The accompanying card read: "I would be most
-obliged if you would pin this on your white meat."
-~
-The Three Refuges
-
- What are the methods for causing one's own mind to become the practices?
-Initially, one should take refuge and think about actions and their effects.
-The refuge is the Three Jewels: Buddha, his Doctrine and the Spiritual
-Community.
-
- [Buddha] When a sentient being purifies the taints of his own mind as well
-as their latent predispositions, he is free of all defects that act as
-obstructions. Thus, he simultaneously and directly knows all phenomena. Such
-a being is called a Buddha, and he is a teacher of refuge, like a physician.
-
- [Dharma] The Doctrine jewel is the superior paths--the chief right paths
-which remove the taints as well as their latent predispositions--and the
-absences which are states of having removed what is to be removed. The
-Doctrine is the actual refuge, like medicine.
-
- [Sangha] The Spiritual Community jewel is all persons, whether lay or
-ordained, who have generated a superior path in their continuum. They are
-friends helping one to achieve refuge, like nurses.
-
- The three refuges that have been achieved and presently exist in other
-beings' continuums are one's own causal refuge; one relies on a protector just
-as a weak person takes refuge in a stronger person. The three refuges that
-one will attain in the future are one's own effect refuge. One who relies on
-the Three Jewels from the point of view of knowing that he is to attain them,
-must cause them to be generated in his own continuum.(p.35)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Buddhism of Tibet", translated and edited by
- Jeffrey Hopkins, with Anne Klein, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Buddhism was extremely helpful to me during the process of my sister's
-lingering death two years ago. She was forty-five years old and had very few
-spiritual aspirations. She was actually fearful and closed to any suggestions
-that she might find comfort in expanding her degree of awareness and
-understanding. At first I was extremely upset by her attitude, but then I
-realized it was not for me to decide what she should or should not do with the
-last few months of her life. I was with her for support and comfort and not
-to force her to view her life in a way which was foreign and threatening to
-her.
- Enabling a person to accomplish a sense of having lived purposefully and
-with significance is a major goal of caregivers and loved ones. Being able to
-support someone during their dying trajectory, regardless of what they are
-thinking or feeling is probably one of the most valuable services one person
-can offer to another. But, it is difficult to stay close to someone who is
-dying. Not trying to evade an open encounter with the intense psychic pain
-that usually accompanies the recognition of impending death is one of the most
-valuable contributions that a nurse or any other caregiver or loved one can
-make to the patient who wishes to discuss his or her circumstances. Facing
-forthrightly the situation of dying, however, requires feeling comfortable
-with one's own feelings about death and the frailty of being human.
- Buddhism has taught me that death need not be approached only as a tragedy;
-it is also an event from which a profound understanding can unfold. (p.44)
- -- "Buddhism through American Women's Eyes", edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Offerings should not be influenced by fluctuations of motivation and they
-should not be procured by devious means--offerings procured through wrong
-means are not good offerings. They should be arranged with proper motivation.
-As explained in the precepts of refuge, you should make offerings of the first
-portion of your food or drink of the day, whether it be food, milk or tea.
- Offerings should be made of what is edible; it is not helpful to arrange a
-torma that could not be eaten and then to say OM AH HUM, OM AH HUM. If you
-can in reality transform something into delicious food just by reciting OM AH
-HUM three times, then it is alright! On the other hand, if your offerings
-remain as mere tsampa (roasted barley flour) after having repeated OM AH HUM a
-thousand times, it will not help much. The offerings should be the best you
-can afford. At least you can offer the first portion of your daily food, as
-no one can live without food! Our offerings should be something which is
-edible.... [Even] if you make water offerings in a proper manner, you can
-generate great merit.(p.35)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Union of Bliss and Emptiness: Teachings on the
- Practice of Guru Yoga", translated by Thupten Jinpa, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- Hundreds of people may be more popular, powerful, and wealthy than we are,
-but from the point of view of the Dharma, no one is more fortunate. We have a
-very precious opportunity to make the best of our lives by working toward the
-attainment of buddhahood. We have obtained this precious human birth and have
-come in contact with the teachings and spiritual friends. All the favorable
-conditions are available--we could not ask for more. Yet this is only for a
-very short period of time. Within this very short time, the best thing we can
-do for ourselves is commit ourselves fully and wholeheartedly to practicing
-the disciplines, which are an essential part of the practice of the teachings.
- ...The practice of discipline is very profound. In terms of the
-effectiveness of the practice of the Dharma, there is a hundredfold difference
-between someone who follows some level of discipline and someone who does not.
-Whether visualizing a deity, practicing basic meditation, or reciting mantras,
-the benefit is a hundredfold greater when we have the ground of discipline.
- The teachings of the Buddha say that if we take dust from the footprint of a
-person who embodies discipline and put it on our heads, it is a blessing.
-Even the king of the devas would do that, because of the sacredness of
-discipline. There is a tradition, followed to this day in India, of touching
-the feet of a holy person or touching the doorstep before entering his or her
-door, and then touching our foreheads. This is not merely a cultural
-tradition, but is acknowledging something very profound.(p.73)
- -- Khenpo Karthar, "Dharma Paths" 2nd Edition, translated by Ngödup Burkhar
- and Chöjor Radha, edited by Laura M. Roth, published by Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- According to the lower schools of Buddhist thought, when a being, like
-Sakyamuni Buddha, attains mahaparinirvana and passes away, he ceases to exist,
-there is no further continuity of consciousness. Therefore, according to the
-Vaibhasika school, for example, after this point there is no more being, no
-more consciousness. Only the name remains. And yet, they believe that this
-being who has now disappeared can influence the course of those who follow him
-due to the virtues that he created in the past.
- This is not accepted by the higher schools of thought, however, that instead
-believe that there are two kinds of bodies, those that are pure in nature and
-those that are impure. The latter is more gross, whereas a body that has been
-purified is more subtle. Now, for example, when Sakyamuni Buddha gave up his
-body, there still remained the more subtle one. So, according to these
-schools of thought, at the stage of Buddhahood, there are two bodies: a mental
-body and a physical one. I don't know whether the English word "body" is the
-most appropriate one. In Sanskrit, the words used to signify these two bodies
-of the Buddha are dharmakaya and rupakaya. The first is of the nature of
-mind, whereas the latter is material. So when the Buddha passes away, there
-is still this more subtle body, which is of the nature of mind, and since the
-mental continuum is also present, we can say that the personality is still
-there. Even today, the Buddha remains as a living being. I think this is
-better, don't you?(p.91)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Answers: Discussions with Western Buddhists",
- edited by Jose Ignacio Cabezon, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Blame everything on one thing. It simplifies life incredibly, and yet it
-truly is not simplistic. If we believe from our hearts that all of our
-misfortunes can be attributed to self-centeredness, this must radically
-transform our lives.
- Do we have reservations? Isn't there some part of the mind that says,
-"Self-centeredness is not such a bad idea. It got me my job, a good salary,
-my house and car. How can this be my enemy?" On the surface self-centeredness
-may seem like an aide who looks after our interests. There is one powerful
-answer to this: insofar as self-centeredness dominates our lives, it brings us
-into conflict with virtually everyone else. Because most people are dominated
-by self-centeredness, their interests are at odds with our own. There is
-bound to be conflict, and conflict gives rise to suffering.
- Imagine what life would be like without self-centeredness. Would we give
-away all our possessions, waste away from malnutrition, and die prematurely of
-disease? No. This would be a partial lack of self-centeredness combined with
-a large part of stupidity. If we are to serve others effectively, we must
-take care of ourselves. A bodhisattva has no self-centeredness, but there
-have been people in all stations of life, including kings, who are
-bodhisattvas. If we free ourselves of self-centeredness and really concern
-ourselves with the cherishing of others, then our own welfare comes as a kind
-of echo.(p.67)
- -- B. Alan Wallace, "The Seven-Point Mind Training", edited by Zara
- Houshmand, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- When we achieve a mind focused on mind with the perfect placement of
-absorbed concentration, free from all faults of dullness or flightiness, we
-increasingly experience an element of bliss accompanying our meditation. When
-we experience serene joy, on both a physical and mental level, brought on by
-the force of total absorption of mind on mind, we achieve a meditational state
-that fulfills the definition of shamata.
- Our ordinary mind is like raw iron ore that needs to be made into a steel
-sword. Progressing through the stages for attaining shamata is like forging
-the iron into steel. All the materials are there at our disposal. But since
-the mind wanders after external objects, then although it is the material for
-attaining shamata, it cannot yet be used as this product. We have to forge
-our mind through a meditational process. It is like putting the iron ore into
-fire.
- To fashion the steel into a sword, or in this analogy to fashion the mind
-into an instrument that understands voidness, our serenely stilled and settled
-mind needs to come to decisive realization of voidness as its object. Without
-such a weapon of mind, we have no opponent with which to destroy the
-disturbing emotions and attitudes.(p.142)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama and Alexander Berzin, "The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of
- Mahamudra", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Focusing the mind on the object of meditation is like planting a seed for
-the arisal of the realization.... Even in the beginning stages one might
-become impatient, thinking, "I really want to get this done quickly." One
-might think that by exerting more effort, by adding more and more stuff, by
-changing things this way or that way the process can be made to go faster.
- The good gardener knows that too much water or fertilizer is harmful, not
-helpful. The mature meditator must understand this as well. The Kadampa
-masters of old gave this counsel: First, pay great heed to getting the proper
-causes and conditions together. Next, engage in the practice without
-agitation and without anxiety. Then, with the mind at ease, carry on to the
-end.(p.20)
- --Gen Lamrimpa, "How to Practice Shamatha Meditation: The Cultivation of
- Meditative Quiescence", translated by B. Alan Wallace, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
-The Need for Reasoning
-
- All Buddhist schools agree that the analytical reasoning process which leads
-to an inference (a conceptual realization) derives from basic, shared, direct
-perception. As an example let us consider the following reasoning:
-
- A plant does not inherently exist because of being a dependent-arising.
-
- You begin by reflecting on the fact that a plant is a dependent-arising
-because its production depends on certain causes and conditions (such as a
-seed, soil, sunlight, and water), but eventually the reasoning process must be
-supported by direct perception, or it cannot stand. We can see with our eyes
-that plants change; they grow; mature, and finally dry up. In this sense,
-inference is blind, since it must eventually rely on direct perception.
-Inference depends on reasoning, which in turn rests on basic, shared,
-indisputable experience through direct perception. (p.153)
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful
- Life", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins
-~
- The root of all qualities of the Bodhisattva vehicle is caring for sentient
-beings. We admire and respect the Buddha because he has reached the state
-free of all faults and possessing all good qualities, knows the method to
-reach that state, and teaches it to us. If we do as the Buddha did, by
-meditating on love and compassion for all sentient beings, not harming or
-getting angry with them, we too can become a Buddha.
- Our enlightenment depends on the Buddhas and on sentient beings, and from
-this point of view, they are equally important to us. Thus when we look at
-any sentient being, we should recognize that she is indispensable to our
-attainment of enlightenment. Our enlightenment comes from cherishing sentient
-beings; it does not come from cherishing only ourselves. Understanding this,
-whenever we encounter people in our lives, it becomes easy to feel, "May this
-person be happy and free from suffering."
- Caring for sentient beings means freeing them from the suffering of
-unfortunate rebirths and of cyclic existence in general, teaching the Dharma
-to those who want to hear it, providing the means for them to eliminate the
-causes which bring suffering temporarily and ultimately, not harming them, not
-lying to them, not creating discord among them, not speaking harshly to them,
-and so on. Through caring about them now, excellent results will follow, for
-us and for them.(p.179)
- -- Geshe Jampa Tegchok, "Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage: An
- Explanation of the Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas", edited by
- Thubten Chodron, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The term 'karma' literally means 'action', and more specifically refers to
-the process of cause and effect, where the intention of an agent or being is
-involved. So here karma means an intentional act committed or carried out by
-a being who possesses a sentient nature and who is also capable of having a
-sentient experience.
- ...Buddhist texts state that only a buddha's omniscient mind can penetrate
-the subtlest aspects of the workings of karma, and know at the most
-microscopic level which specific causes and conditions give rise to which
-specific consequences. At our level, we can only recognise that an intimate
-relationship exists between the external elements of the material world and
-the internal elements of our mental world; and, based on that, we can learn to
-detect varying levels of subtlety within our mental and emotional experiences.
-(p.13)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Lighting the Way", translated by Geshe Thupten
- Jinpa, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- All attachment and aversion come from what we have mentally created. We
-have made an image and that is our mind as we normally experience it. In
-order to solve this problem in a more profound and permanent way, we have to
-look at our mind and see its true nature. In our innate, unfabricated nature,
-which is the basic state of our mind, there is no problem. We make all our
-problems by creating concepts and all kinds of mental conditioning.
- Seeing the true nature of mind means experiencing the way the mind is when
-we do not fabricate and contrive anything. We need to look at our mind when
-it is devoid of our creations and free from mental elaborations. If we can
-see this state of mind, there is no grasping, no grasped object, and no
-subject doing the grasping. There is simply perception or seeing, which in
-itself does not cause a problem.
- When the true nature of mind is seen, there are just appearances without any
-evaluation. One thing arises in the mind and then another thing arises. The
-arising that is pleasant is no better than the one that is unpleasant. They
-are simply different manifestations of the mind. There is no need to grasp
-one and reject the other. Once this is seen clearly, we see the true nature
-of mind. This is something that we need to experience directly. When we see
-the truth, we become liberated from our struggle within the nets of aversion
-and attachment.(p.97)
- --Ringu Tulku, "Daring Steps: Traversing the Path of the Buddha", edited and
- translated by Rosemarie Fuchs, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- In general, most non-Buddhist religions meditate on the deity as being
-outside the physical body. In these cases the deity takes the form of a
-refuge, or of a protector or messenger. Thus do they meditate, and of course
-this is fine. In the Buddhist tradition, however, the deity is not meditated
-on as being outside the physical body. One meditates on the deity as being
-one's own essence expressing itself through oneself arising as the deity. One
-therefore thinks, "I am the deity," and with this conviction one meditates.
- Why is it justifiable to meditate in this manner? As previously seen, the
-five afflictions are actually self-expressions of the five kinds of primordial
-awareness; thus our own mind is in essence exactly the same as the mind of a
-Buddha. In the philosophical treatises this is sometimes referred to as
-'sugatagarbha' or 'buddha-nature'.
- Because all beings possess this innately pure buddha-nature, they are pure
-by nature and not at all impure. Being pure by nature it is perfectly
-justified to meditate that you are the deity, because this is exactly how it
-is! (p.95)
- --Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, "Everyday Consciousness and Primordial
- Awareness", translated and edited by Susanne Schefczyk, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- In day to day life if you lead a good life, honestly, with love, with
-compassion, with less selfishness, then automatically it will lead to
-nirvana....We must implement these good teachings in daily life. Whether you
-believe in God or not does not matter so much; whether you believe in Buddha
-or not does not matter so much; as a Buddhist, whether you believe in
-reincarnation or not does not matter so much. You must lead a good life.
- And a good life does not mean just good food, good clothes, good shelter.
-These are not sufficient. A good motivation is what is needed: compassion,
-without dogmatism, without complicated philosophy; just understanding that
-others are human brothers and sisters and respecting their rights and human
-dignity. That we humans can help each other is one of our unique human
-capacities. We must share in other peoples' suffering; even if you cannot
-help with money, to show concern, to give moral support and express sympathy
-are themselves valuable. This is what should be the basis of activities;
-whether one calls it religion or not does not matter.... In my simple
-religion, love is the key motivation.(p.20)
- -- The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, "Kindness,
- Clarity, and Insight 25th Anniversary Edition", edited and translated by
- Jeffrey Hopkins, co-edited by Elizabeth Napper, published by Snow Lion
-~
- All beings suffer in the same way as we do, and some are even more deeply
-immersed in sorrow. Yet all of these beings wish to experience only happiness
-and to avoid all suffering, frustration, and pain. They wish lasting
-happiness but do not know how to cultivate its causes, and they wish to avoid
-misery but automatically collect only causes of further misery. As Shantideva
-said, "Although seeking happiness, they destroy their own causes of happiness
-as they would an enemy. And although seeking to avoid misery, they treat its
-causes as they would a close friend."
- Were the countless sentient beings unrelated to us, or were they not to mind
-their sufferings, perhaps there would be no need for us to bother with their
-welfare. In reality, however, all are related to us and not one of them
-wishes to suffer. Over the billions of lifetimes that we have experienced
-since beginningless time, we have known all the living beings again and again.
-Sometimes they have been parents to us, sometimes friends or mates, sometimes
-enemies. Without exception, each of them has been even a mother to us again
-and again, performing all the kindnesses of a mother. How can we be
-indifferent to them?
- Wishing them to have only happiness and its causes and to be free of
-suffering and its causes, we ourselves should generate a sense of
-responsibility for their well-being. Finally, as only an omniscient
-Enlightened One is effectively able to benefit beings in deep, lasting, and
-ultimate ways, we must quickly attain enlightenment. This is the wishing
-bodhimind, the inner basis of Mahayana practice.(p.136)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Enlightenment", edited and translated
- by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Recalling our interconnectedness, we begin to recognize our total
-interdependence and that whatever we enjoy in our life comes through others--
-through their efforts, their work, their hardships.
- It does not necessarily require that others had a specific intention to
-enable us to enjoy the things of our life. If we think of this in terms of
-the obvious examples like food and clothing, we can immediately see the global
-meaning of this contemplation. Our food comes from all over the world and if
-we consider the people and other creatures involved in its production,
-picking, packaging, transportation, and selling so that we can enjoy it, the
-numbers are vast. It is through their labor, their efforts, their struggles
-that we enjoy what we eat. Often their lives are terribly hard, and to feed a
-family they must work for very little--yet we enjoy the fruits of their labor.
-This is something to feel a huge gratitude for.
- If we begin to look more closely at our Western life, we can see how much we
-are dependent upon people in considerably poorer circumstances all over the
-world for what we consume. What we often don't consider is the impact of this
-consumption on those who produce it. In this meditation, it can be very
-useful to spend some time dwelling upon this so that we really feel the
-profound depth of appreciation for our interdependence upon others for our
-lives. This can counter the tendency to take our good fortune for granted and
-can open up a sense of gratitude for the kindness of those around. If guilt
-arises, it can be used to increase our awareness of the responsibility we have
-globally.
- Gradually, we may begin to see the complete interdependent nature of our
-relationship with the countless other beings around us. We cannot overlook
-this connectedness to others and the kindness and benefit we have gained
-through them. When we come to feel this deeply, we will be able to hold
-others dear and automatically respond to others with a greater sense of care
-and concern.(p.80)
- -- Rob Preece, "The Courage to Feel: Buddhist Practices for Opening to
- Others", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-If you cannot stop worrying over something in the past or what might happen in
-the future, shift your focus to the inhalation and exhalation of your breath.
-Or recite this mantra: om mani padme hum (pronounced "om mani padmay hum").
-Since the mind cannot concentrate on two things simultaneously, either of
-these meditations causes the former worry to fade.(p.133)
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful
- Life", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins
-~
-When serving society or others in general, it is very important to set a
-proper motivation at the start of each day. When we wake up each morning, we
-reflect, 'Today I am not going to come under the power of either attachment or
-hostility. Today I am going to be of benefit and help to others.' Thus we
-consciously set the tone for the entire day so that we go through it within
-the context of a pure, altruistic motivation and attitude.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, excerpted from "The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of
- Mahamudra", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- We all have a certain style for doing things--how we drive, how we cook, how
-we dress. Some of us are shy or cautious, others assertive or flamboyant.
-We've refined that style over the years based on how successful it is, but
-it's not usually something of which we're completely aware. As long as it
-gets the job done, as long as we get the appropriate feedback from others, our
-style goes unnoticed, and when questioned we'll say, "That's just the way I
-am."
- When we begin meditation, it is inevitable that we will meditate with the
-same style with which we do everything else, because it's who we think we are.
-Furthermore, this style has proven to be reasonably successful in our other
-activities. However, in this case, it is not at all appropriate. If there is
-any style, there is a hidden agenda and an implicit judgment of the various
-phenomena of meditation. There is not the true detachment or choiceless
-awareness of real meditation. Our style contains our unacknowledged attitudes
-toward meditation.
- ...What's the problem in meditating with an attitude? First, a large amount
-of energy goes into maintaining the attitude. To make this clearer, if we are
-trying to be aware of our breathing, 100 percent of our attention should be on
-our breathing. If we're thinking, "I'm a shy person and I'm a little afraid
-of what's going on here," even if we're not consciously aware of that thought,
-it will be taking our energy away from the breathing and keeping it tied up in
-the world of ego. Consequently, this energy is not available for our
-practice. And your evaluation of your practice and progress will be based on
-your agenda rather than on the Buddha's teaching.
- Of course, no one is a perfect meditator. It's not like we have to wait
-until we have a perfect attitude before we begin. If that were the case, we
-would never start..With time, the purity of your attitude will grow...refining
-one's approach is a lifetime's work and is at the same time the practice
-itself.(p.72)
- -- Bruce Newman, "A Beginner's Guide to Tibetan Buddhism", published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Developing a sense of good cheer in the face of adversity, you can
-specifically use adversity as the support for refuge and true spiritual
-development. I am discussing how you relate to your suffering, how you relate
-to your adversity, as it affects you in life and on the path.
- Now, as you know, whenever you are suffering by way of the body, speech, and
-mind, be it physical illness or a mental affliction, this is a very big deal
-to you. Usually it appears as something major. Even if it's minor, you make
-it into some great distress. If you lose a little money or if someone speaks
-nastily to you, it invokes a strong reaction. This is called "appearances
-arising as the enemy." When your habituation to adversity reaches such a
-point that you actually fall prey to appearances arising as the enemy, it
-means that you no longer have patience for suffering.
- ...If you can't bear the minor aspects of adversity in this, the best
-rebirth in cyclic existence, the precious human rebirth, what will you do when
-you're reborn in the three lower realms? Samsara is so vast, so deep and
-limitless, and the number of sentient beings within samsara are equal to that.
-All of them want to be free; all of them desire liberation. You should
-consider then how unnecessary or pointless it is to think that your small
-problems in this fortunate life are so great, when in fact they really are
-not.
- Any rebirth in this ocean of cyclic existence will by nature bring this type
-of discontent or suffering. Since you've been in this cycle of rebirths from
-beginningless time until now and you are still not free, it points out the
-fact that help is needed. Refuge is necessary. Adversity then becomes the
-support for training in refuge, which demonstrates that adversity is used to
-your advantage.(p.44)
- -- Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche, "Meditation, Transformation, and Dream Yoga",
- trans. by B. Alan Wallace and Sangye Khandro, published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
- The practice of Dharma is to pacify the afflictions and concepts that fill
-our minds. When we blend the teachings with our minds, the power of the
-Dharma can act upon and pacify afflictions and concepts. If on the outside we
-look like Dharma practitioners while on the inside our Dharma practice has not
-diminished our afflictions or concepts, we merely call ourselves practitioners
-without actually being one. This is not to say that outer behavior, our
-reflection in the world, is not important, but what is crucial is to train in
-taming our minds.
- What we tame are the three main afflictions: ignorance, attachment, and
-aversion. Ignorance, the root of the two others, is defined as the continual
-fixation on our self that we assume to be permanent and independent. This
-ego-clinging is the main cause for our cycling in samsara. We wish to be in
-paradise for our own advantage; we wish to erase all suffering for our own
-advantage. We cling to this "I" of ours, thinking that it is so special that
-we should not be bothered with problems but enjoy wealth, power, and charisma.
-If we honestly look into our minds, it is quite easy to see this kind of
-coarse and obvious grasping to a self.
- There are also subtle forms of fixating on the self ("I") and what belongs
-to it ("mine"), like the quick thought of ourselves before another one comes.
-When practicing Dharma, we are taming this coarse and subtle clinging to an
-ego. If this does not happen, we will merely be able to suppress the
-afflictions temporarily, distancing ourselves for the time being. To cut
-through them completely, we must steadily apply ourselves to practice.(p.187)
- -- "Music in the Sky: The Life, Art and Teachings of the Seventeenth
- Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje", by Michele Martin, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- "The mantra of the perfection of wisdom--the mantra of great knowledge,
- the unexcelled mantra, the mantra equal to the unequalled, the mantra
- that quells all suffering--is true because it is not deceptive."
- -- The Heart Sutra
-
- The perfection of wisdom is called "the mantra of great knowledge" because
-thoroughly understanding its meaning eliminates the three poisons of craving,
-hatred, and delusion. It is called the "unexcelled mantra" because there is
-no greater method than the perfection of wisdom for saving one from the
-extremes of cyclic existence and the isolated peace of individual nirvana. It
-is called the mantra "equal to the unequalled" because the Buddha's
-enlightened state is unequalled, and, through the deepest realization of this
-mantra, one attains a state equal to that state. Finally, the perfection of
-wisdom is known as the "mantra that quells all suffering" because it quells
-manifest sufferings and also removes all propensities for future suffering.
- The perfection of wisdom is the ultimate truth, thus the statement "it is
-true." In the realm of the ultimate truth, there is no disparity, as there is
-in conventional reality, between appearance and reality, and thus this
-manifest ultimate truth is "not deceptive." This nondeceptiveness also
-suggests that, through actualization of this mantra, the perfection of wisdom
-can enable one to attain total freedom from suffering and its causes. From
-this perspective too, we can say that it is the truth.
- "The mantra of the perfection of wisdom is proclaimed: tadyatha gate gate
-paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha! Shariputra, the bodhisattvas, the great
-beings, should train in the perfection of wisdom in this way."
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Essence of the Heart Sutra: The Dalai Lama's Heart
- of Wisdom Teachings", translated & edited by Geshe Thupten Jinpa
-~
-For as long as space endures
-And for as long as sentient beings remain,
-Until then may I too abide,
-To dispel the misery of the world.
- -- Shantideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life
-~
-Global Responsibility
-
- Occasionally I notice that people are making a convenient distinction
-between ethics on the personal level and ethics on the wider social level. To
-me, such attitudes are fundamentally flawed, as they overlook the
-interdependence of our world.
- That individual ethics--or rather their absence--can have an impact on the
-lives of many is powerfully demonstrated by the global financial crisis that
-began in 2008, the repercussions of which are still being felt around the
-world. It revealed the way unbridled greed on the part of a few can adversely
-affect the lives of millions. So, just as in the wake of the 9/11 attacks we
-started to take the dangers of religious extremism and intolerance seriously,
-so too, in the wake of the financial crisis, should we take the dangers of
-greed and dishonesty seriously. When greed is seen as acceptable, even
-praiseworthy, there is clearly something wrong with our collective value
-system.
- In this age of globalization, the time has come for us to acknowledge that
-our lives are deeply interconnected and to recognize that our behavior has a
-global dimension. When we do so, we will see that our own interests are best
-served by what is in the best interests of the wider human community. By
-contrast, if we concentrate exclusively on our inner development and neglect
-the wider problems of the world, or if, having recognized these, we are
-apathetic about trying to solve them, then we have overlooked something
-fundamental. Apathy, in my view, is itself a form of selfishness. For our
-approach to ethics to be truly meaningful, we must of course care about the
-world. This is what I mean by the principle of global responsibility, which
-is a key part of my approach to secular ethics.(p.84)
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole
- World", trans. by Thupten Jinpa Langri
-~
- Speech that is not harmful is the meaning of "right speech." It is wise
-speech. Wise people can still be quite firm and decisive when that is what is
-needed. It means finding generous and productive ways of saying things.
-There are times when we need to be strict, but we do not have to denigrate or
-harm the person or child who is out of line. Firm speech can also be wise
-speech.
- Wise speech is another tool that can be practiced. We can begin by
-practicing wise speech to ourselves--replacing the inner voice of guilt that
-is putting us down and opening a space to listen to our deeper needs.
- What can I say which will be helpful to someone? What tone of voice will I
-use? And when is it wise to say nothing? Imagine yourself actually saying
-something helpful and supportive. Imagine the difference it would make in
-your life if you could say just one helpful thing to one person. Imagine your
-life if your speech always came from wisdom.(p.136)
- -- Chonyi Taylor, "Enough! A Buddhist Approach to Finding Release from
- Addictive Patterns", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
-The famous nineteenth-century dzogchen master Paltrul Rinpoche explained self-
-liberation concretely and precisely:
-
- The practitioner of self-liberation is like an ordinary person as far as
- the way in which the thoughts of pleasure and pain, hope and fear,
- manifest themselves as creative energy. However, the ordinary person,
- taking these really seriously and judging them as acceptable or rejecting
- them, continues to get caught up in situations and becomes conditioned by
- attachment and aversion.
-
- Not doing this, a practitioner, when such thoughts arise, experiences
- freedom: initially, by recognizing the thought for what it is, it is freed
- just like meeting a previous acquaintance; then it is freed in and of
- itself, like a snake shedding its skin; and finally, thought is freed in
- being unable to be of benefit or harm, like a thief entering an empty
- house.
-
-...Freeing or liberating thought does not mean ignoring, letting go of, being
-indifferent to, observing, or even not having thoughts. It means being
-present in hope and fear, pain and pleasure, not as objects before us, but as
-the radiant clarity of our natural state. Thus anger, for example, when
-experienced dualistically, is an irritation which we may indulge in or reject,
-depending on our conditioning. Either way we are caught up in it and act out
-of it. But when aware of anger as a manifestation of clarity, its energy is a
-very fresh awareness of the particulars of the situation. However, these
-particulars are no longer irritating.(p.77)
-
- -- Longchenpa, "You Are the Eyes of the World", translated by Kennard Lipman
- and Merrill Peterson, introduction by Namkhai Norbu, published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
- In this practice one recollects negativity, contemplates its nature,
-generates apprehension of its karmic implications, and resolves to purify
-one's mind of the negative traces. On the basis of this resolve one takes
-refuge, develops the bodhimind and enters the Vajrasattva meditation or
-whatever method is being used. One can also do exercises such as prostrations
-and so forth. This concentration of purifying energies destroys the potency
-of negative karmic imprints like the germ of a barley seed roasted in a fire.
- Here it is important to begin the meditation session with a contemplative
-meditation and then to transform this into settled meditation for a prolonged
-period of time. One abides in the settled meditation until it begins to lose
-intensity, and then temporarily reverts to contemplative meditation in order
-to invigorate the mind, returning to fixed meditation once a contemplative
-atmosphere has been restored.
- Generally our mind is habituated to directing all of our energies into
-things that benefit this life alone, things of no spiritual consequence. By
-performing these types of meditations, our natural attachment to the
-meaningless activities of this life subsides and we begin to experience an
-inner appreciation for spiritual values. When spontaneously one's mind
-appreciates spiritual rather than mundane goals one has become an active
-practitioner of initial perspective.(p.117)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Enlightenment", edited and translated
- by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- When doing lamrim meditations, it is important to know clearly the state of
-mind you want to reach as a conclusion to the meditation. Lamrim texts
-describe the purpose of each meditation, and we want to make sure that our
-mind arrives at that conclusion and not at an incorrect or irrelevant
-conclusion. For example, when meditating on the disadvantages of the self-
-centered thought, our mind may twist that meditation and conclude, "I'm a
-horrible person because I'm so selfish." This is the wrong conclusion to reach
-from that meditation. The Buddha didn't teach the disadvantages of self-
-centeredness so that we would deride ourselves.
- If you meditate on a lam rim topic and arrive at an incorrect conclusion,
-the meditation hasn't been done correctly. In the above case, thinking, "I'm
-a bad person because I'm so selfish," indicates that we have misunderstood the
-purpose of the meditation and probably have fallen into an old pattern of
-putting ourselves down. Stop and ask yourself,
- "What conclusion does the Buddha want me to reach from this meditation? He
-wants me to ascertain that the self-centered mind is the actual 'enemy' that
-destroys my happiness. Self-centeredness is not an intrinsic part of me; it
-is not who I am. It's an incorrect, but deeply entrenched, thought that
-creates problems for me. I can free myself from it. Since I want to be
-happy, I will realize this selfish attitude for what it is and will stop
-following it! Instead, I will cultivate love and compassion for all beings."
- This is the conclusion you want to reach.(p.58)
- -- Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, "Guided Meditations on the Stages of the
- Path", foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, published by Snow Lion
-~
- Greed is a form of desire. However, it is an exaggerated form of desire,
-based on overexpectation. The true antidote of greed is contentment.
- For a practicing Buddhist, for a Dharma practitioner, many practices can act
-as a kind of counterforce to greed: the realization of the value of seeking
-liberation or freedom from suffering, recognizing the underlying
-unsatisfactory nature of one's existence, and so on. These views also help an
-individual to counteract greed. But in terms of an immediate response to
-greed, one way is to reflect upon the excesses of greed, what it does to one
-as an individual, where it leads. Greed leads one to a feeling of
-frustration, disappointment, a lot of confusion, and a lot of problems.
- When it comes to dealing with greed, one thing which is quite characteristic
-is that although it arises from the desire to obtain something, it is not
-satisfied by obtaining it. Therefore, it becomes limitless or boundless, and
-that leads to trouble. The interesting thing about greed is that although the
-underlying motive is to seek satisfaction, as I pointed out, even after
-obtaining the object of one's desire, one is still not satisfied. On the
-other hand, if one has a strong sense of contentment, it doesn't matter
-whether one obtains the object or not; either way, one is still content.(p.32)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a
- Buddhist Perspective", translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-We will hereby start scouring the net for people who say git is hard to
-understand and use, and just kill them. They clearly are just polluting
-the gene pool.
- -- Linus Torvalds
-~
-i got nothin'.
-~
- What is the Bodhisattva's Way of life? It is the way of life that follows
-naturally from having cultivated the awakening mind of bodhicitta.
-Omniscience is achieved only through the process of purifying the disturbing
-emotions within your mind. It cannot be achieved merely through wishes and
-prayers. We have to train in eliminating all the specific disturbing emotions
-within your mind. We have to train in eliminating all the specific disturbing
-emotions by relying on specific antidotes.
- All the activities of a Bodhisattva can be included in two major categories:
-the practice of skillful means and the practice of wisdom. If the practices
-of giving, ethics, and so forth are to be perfected, they should be supported
-and influenced by the practice of wisdom. Without the practice of wisdom, the
-first five of the six perfections cannot actually become practices of
-perfection. In order to cultivate such wisdom, you must first cultivate the
-genuine unmistaken philosophical view that is known as the view of the Middle
-Way, or Madhyamika.
- ...even when you have understood the wisdom realizing emptiness, that alone
-will not become a powerful antidote to ignorance if it is not supported by
-other practices such as giving, ethics, patience, and so forth. Mere
-understanding of selflessness is not sufficient to defeat the disturbing
-emotions.(p.76)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Stages of Meditation", root text by Kamalashila,
- translated by Geshe Lobsang Jordhen, Losang Choephel Ganchenpa, and
- Jeremy Russell, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The many tantras of both the Ancient and New traditions unanimously agree
-that these, and others, are the consequences of violating the pledges.
-
- Means of Restoration
- The proclaimers' vows, like a clay pot, once broken cannot be repaired;
- The awakening mind commitments, like gold or silver, can be restored;
- The tantric pledges, like a dented vessel, are restored by the
- practitioner's strength.
- --Jamgon Kongtrul
-
- When is it possible to restore a vow that has been transgressed? All the
-tantras and transmissions state that if a monk has incurred a defeat with
-concealment, the transgressed vow, like a broken clay pot, cannot be repaired.
-An awakening mind commitment that has been transgressed is like a cracked gold
-or silver vase which can still be soldered by a blacksmith. A violated vow or
-pledge in this Secret Mantra system is likened to a dented golden vessel,
-which can be straightened out by the practitioner's own strength.
- Pledges are restored through action, precious substances, earnest desire,
-contemplation, and reality.
- The Great Cleansing can purify all transgressions.(p.296)
- -- Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, "Treasury of Knowledge--Book Five: Buddhist
- Ethics", trans. by the Kalu Rinpoche Translation Group, under the
- direction of Ven. Bokar Rinpoche, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- How to Become a Receptacle Suitable for Cultivating the Paths.
You are
-made into a vessel suitable for cultivating the path through entering a
-mandala such as that of the Vajra Element, receiving initiation, and receiving
-the pledges and vows.
- Concerning this, there are two types: those who merely enter a mandala and
-those who enter and receive initiation, of which there are two types. The
-former are those who cannot hold the vows of the five lineages but who hold
-the Bodhisattva vows; only the initiation of a student is granted to them.
-However, to those who can hold both Bodhisattva and mantra vows the full
-initiation of a vajra master is granted.(p.78)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Dzong-ka-ba and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Yoga Tantra: Paths
- to Magical Feats", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Awareness as virtue. Beyond choosing more virtuous forms of speech, you can
-also try to cultivate awareness of the subtle vibration underlying your speech
-and of how your speech manifests from there. Is your voice creating the right
-energy field?
- In dzogchen the concept of virtuous speech is taken to its highest level.
-For example, the A-Tri system of dzogchen offers a group of successive
-practices in which one learns to maintain awareness while engaging in various
-virtuous, neutral, and nonvirtuous activities.
- One initially tries to stay present amid virtuous activity such as praying
-or chanting mantras. Once that experience is stabilized, one integrates
-presence with neutral speech, such as conversing casually with a friend about
-cooking or gardening. Finally, one tries to integrate with negative speech
-such as lying, arguing, or giving insults. It is easier if you can establish
-your intent for self-awareness before you get drawn into an angry argument.
-For example, think of how courtroom lawyers argue a case: although they may
-use strong, sharp language, they are never driven by their emotions--every
-word is carefully chosen for its impact and is guided by intent, if not
-awareness.
- From this perspective "nonvirtuous speech" might be defined as speech that
-is driven and not guided and through which you lose connection with your self.
-In dzogchen practice you aim to arrive at a place where all activity of body,
-speech, and mind becomes an expression of contemplative awareness and an aid
-to spiritual development--therefore virtuous in the truest sense of the word.
-(p.85)
- -- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, "Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech, and Mind",
- edited by Polly Turner, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Bodhisattvas give solely out of concern for others, without a self-
-cherishing attitude. That is the proper way of giving. Courageous
-Bodhisattvas risk even their lives to help others, and so, when we are in
-relatively better, more comfortable situations, we must certainly practice
-giving. Even if they are threatened, the courageous ones will not engage in
-improper actions. Instead, after examining the situation carefully, when they
-find that certain actions are correct and justified, on the basis of reason,
-they engage in them even at the risk of their lives. That is the way of the
-decent, civilized and courageous ones, who do not follow misleading paths.(p.20)
- -- H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama, "Generous Wisdom: Commentaries by H.H. the
- Dalai Lama XIV on the Jatakamala, Garland of Birth Stories", translated
- by Tenzin Dorjee, edited by Dexter Roberts
-~
- Merely understanding the mind is not good enough. Recognizing it as the
-source of happiness and suffering is good, but great results come only from
-looking inward and meditating on the nature of the mind. Once you recognize
-its nature, then you need to meditate with joyful effort. Joyful meditation
-will actualize the true nature of the mind, and maintaining the mind in this
-natural state will bring enlightenment. This type of meditation reveals the
-innermost, profound wisdom that is inherent in the mind.
- Meditation can transform your body into wisdom light, into what is known as
-the rainbow body of wisdom. Many masters in the history of the Nyingma
-lineage have achieved this, as can anyone who practices these methods of
-meditation. The wisdom aspect of our nature exists at all times in each of
-us. You have always had this nature and it can be revealed through
-meditation. When you maintain the mind in its natural state, wonderful
-qualities shine out like light from the sun. Among these qualities are
-limitless compassion, limitless loving-kindness, and limitless wisdom.
- -- Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche,
- "The Buddhist Path: A Practical Guide from the Nyingma Tradition of
- Tibetan Buddhism", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- In order for the wisdom of special insight to remove impediments to proper
-understanding, and to remove faulty mental states at their very roots, we need
-concentrated meditation, a state of complete single-mindedness in which all
-internal distractions have been removed.
- Single-minded meditation involves removing subtle internal distractions such
-as the mind's being either too relaxed or too tight. To do so we must first
-stop external distractions through training in the morality of maintaining
-mindfulness and conscientiousness with regard to physical and verbal
-activities--being constantly aware of what you are doing with your body and
-your speech. Without overcoming these obvious distractions, it is impossible
-to overcome subtler internal distractions. Since it is through sustaining
-mindfulness that you achieve a calm abiding of the mind, the practice of
-morality must precede the practice of concentrated meditation.(p.23)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life",
- translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins
-~
- Buddha means one who is fully enlightened. In other words, a buddha has
-fully awakened from the sleep of delusion. He is free from all obscurations,
-both gross and subtle, and has revealed the two intrinsic wisdom awarenesses.
-Buddhahood is the spontaneously established, uncompounded nature that does not
-depend on any other conditions. A buddha has perfect wisdom, has perfectly
-accomplished the nature of compassion, and has every ability to manifest all
-excellent activities.
- There are many buddhas in the past, present, and future. In fact, there are
-as many buddhas as there are particles of dust. Basically, the term buddha
-refers to anyone whose mind is fully awakened and who is free from all
-suffering and its causes. When we point to Buddha Shakyamuni as a buddha, he
-is an example of this. A buddha has four forms, all of which emanate from the
-dharmakaya:
- 1. Nirmanakaya is a buddha who has emanated in a physical form. A
-nirmanakaya can emanate anywhere as anything animate or inanimate--as a human
-being, an animal, or even a bridge, if necessary...
- 2. Sambhogakaya is the expression of the complete, perfect manifestation
-of the Buddha's excellent, infinite qualities, called the enjoyment body--
-splendid and glorious. All the buddhas appear and manifest in the limitless
-buddha fields in this form...
- 3. Dharmakaya is one's own perfection, fully free from all delusion and
-suffering. It is infinite and transcends all boundaries...
- 4. Svabhavikakaya is the indivisible nature of the other three forms.(p.165)
- -- Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen, "A Complete Guide to the Buddhist Path",
- edited by Khenmo Trinlay Chodron, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Boundless joy is the joy you should feel when you see gifted and learned
-beings who are happy, famous or influential. Instead of feeling uneasy and
-envious of their good fortune, rejoice sincerely, thinking, "May they continue
-to be happy and enjoy even more happiness!" Pray too that they may use their
-wealth and power to help others, to serve the Dharma and the Sangha, making
-offerings, building monasteries, propagating the teachings and performing
-other worthwhile deeds. Rejoice and make a wish: "May they never lost all
-their happiness and privileges. May their happiness increase more and more,
-and may they use it to benefit others and to further the teachings."
- Pray that your mind may be filled with boundless equanimity, loving-
-kindness, compassion and joy--as boundless as a Bodhisattva's. If you do so,
-genuine bodhichitta will certainly grow within you.
- The reason these four qualities are boundless, or immeasurable, is that
-their object--the totality of sentient beings--is boundless; their benefit--
-the welfare of all beings--is boundless; and also their fruit--the qualities
-of enlightenment--is boundless. They are immeasurable like the sky, and they
-are the true root of enlightenment.(p.49)
- -- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, "The Excellent Path to Enlightenment",
- translated and edited by The Padmakara Translation Group, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Regarding an online merchant... I think I have bought a couple things from
-them before, and my "cornholio sense" is not tingling (a power I got from
-being bitten by a radioactive asshole), so I don't think they were jerks when
-I used them last time.
- -- fred t. hamster
-~
- External circumstances are not what draw us into suffering. Suffering is
-caused and permitted by an untamed mind. The appearance of self-defeating
-emotions in our minds leads us to faulty actions. The naturally pure mind is
-covered over by these emotions and troubling conceptions. The force of their
-deceit pushes us into faulty actions, which leads inevitably to suffering.
- We need, with great awareness and care, to extinguish these problematic
-attitudes, the way gathering clouds dissolve back into the sphere of the sky.
-When our self-defeating attitudes, emotions, and conceptions cease, so will
-the harmful actions arising from them.
- As the great Tibetan yogi Milarepa says, "When arising, arising within space
-itself; when dissolving, dissolving back into space." We need to become
-familiar with the state of our own minds to understand how to dissolve ill-
-founded ideas and impulses back into the deeper sphere of reality. The sky
-was there before the clouds gathered, and it will be after they have gone. It
-is also present when the clouds seem to cover every inch of the sky we can
-see.(p.22)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "How to Expand Love: Widening the Circle of Loving
- Relationships", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins
-~
- Usually the reason that we can't experience transcendent bliss is because
-our consciousness is actually chained by the illusion called "I." It is
-chained because this concept literally ties our consciousness to the prison of
-duality, the prison of concepts and ideas. What most people experience is
-that their consciousness is chained by that illusion.
- But now and then there are people who find the so-called spiritual path.
-This is another quite strange and sneaky way that ego can actually keep
-binding our consciousness once again to another form of prison, the prison of
-duality, the prison of concepts and ideas. Transcendent bliss comes from
-breaking every chain.
- Breaking all chains, losing every concept, every idea, sounds very
-frightening to the ego's mind. But actually when we let go of every concept,
-we land on this infinite ground of eternal bliss, and that bliss is not some
-kind of religious or mystical experience, some altered state of consciousness.
-That bliss is not the result of doing something to our consciousness, rather
-it is the pure state of our consciousness.(p.74)
- -- Anam Thubten, "The Magic of Awareness", edited by Sharon Roe, published
- by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The all-base consciousness* works like a savings bank. Continuously money
-is paid into the bank and continuously it is taken out again. In the same way
-karmic imprints are absorbed by the all-base, are stored there, and can
-therefore be brought forth again.
- Learning, for example, occurs through the mind consciousness. The mind
-consciousness itself vanishes. Nevertheless, on the next day we have a memory
-of what we learned. At this time of remembrance, the mind consciousness of
-what we learned is no longer actually present, since it has ceased to exist.
-Yet, still we did not forget what we learned previously. What we learned was
-seized by the all-base in the form of karmic imprints, and stored. Due to the
-'all-base of complete ripening' these imprints can be re-awakened, so that the
-mind consciousness perceives them afresh. This is why we learn things. It is
-similar with strong mental afflictions.
- ...The example of the savings bank is particularly effective, especially in
-the context of karmic actions. Whoever puts money into the bank can get it
-out again later, often including interest!(p.37)
-
-* The all-base consciousness is the general basis for the whole mind, all
-aspects of the mind.
-
- -- Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, "Everyday Consciousness and Primordial
- Awareness", translated and edited by Susanne Schefczyk, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Q: How can Dzogchen help us in our daily jobs and careers?
-
- HHDL: In the first place, it is quite difficult to have an experience of
-Dzogchen. But once you do have that experience, it can be extremely
-beneficial in dealing with your day to day life, your job, and your career.
-This is because that kind of experience will give you the ability to prevent
-yourself from being overwhelmed by circumstances, good or bad. You will not
-fall into extreme states of mind: you will not get over-excited or depressed.
-Your attitude toward circumstances and events will be as if you were someone
-observing the mind, without being drawn away by circumstances.
- For example, when you see a reflection of a form in a mirror, the reflection
-appears within the mirror but it is not projected from within. In the same
-way, when you confront the situations of life, or deal with others, your
-attitude too will be mirror-like.
- Also, when a reflection appears in the mirror, the mirror does not have to
-go after the object that is reflected: it simply reflects, spontaneously, on
-the surface. The same with you: since there is no attachment or agitation at
-having these 'reflections' in your mind, you will feel tremendous ease and
-relief. You are not preoccupied by what arises in the mind, nor does it cause
-you any distress. You are free from conceptuality or any form of
-objectifying. And so it really does help you, in allowing you to be free from
-being caught up in the play of emotions like hatred, attachment, and the like.
-(p.162)
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great
- Perfection", translated by Thupten Jinpa and Richard Barron, foreword by
- Sogyal Rinpoche, edited by Patrick Gaffney, published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
- The quality of one's rebirth in the next life is determined by the quality
-of one's mental activity in this life. Generally speaking, we have no power
-to choose how we are born; it is dependent on karmic forces. However, the
-period near the time of death is very influential in terms of activating one
-from among the many karmas that a person has already accumulated, and,
-therefore, if one makes particular effort at generating a virtuous attitude at
-that time, there is an opportunity to strengthen and activate a virtuous
-karma. Moreover, when one has developed high realization and has gained
-control over how one will be reborn, it is possible to take what is called
-"reincarnation" rather than mere rebirth.(p.42)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso, "The Dalai Lama at Harvard:
- Lectures on the Buddhist Path to Peace", translated and edited by Jeffrey
- Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Without an acute awareness of our personal suffering and a deep, heartfelt
-determination to be completely rid of both this suffering and its causes,
-there is no way to begin the spiritual quest authentically. For just as
-Prince Siddhartha's sudden and unexpected visions of old age, sickness and
-death shocked him out of mistaking the world to be a pleasure palace, so too
-must all spiritual seekers confront the unsatisfactory nature of their lives
-so directly that they become thoroughly disenchanted with the ordinary human
-condition.
- If we do not take a long, hard look at the uncomfortable truths of our
-impermanent existence, we can easily waste the time between now and our
-inevitable death in essentially worthless pursuits, never taking advantage of
-this precious opportunity to do something truly meaningful with our life.
-Like the foolish prisoner who becomes so accustomed to the confines of his
-cell that he turns a blind eye to all chances of escape, we shall be
-condemning ourselves to spiritual stagnation and the endlessly recurring
-miseries of cyclic existence.
- Yet it is not enough merely to become discontent with our present condition;
-everyone experiences discontent at one time or another but very few do
-anything of real significance about it. In fact, the usual ways of dealing
-with problems and disappointment--blaming them on someone else or drowning
-them in forgetfulness--only bind us tighter to the wheel of suffering. What
-we must do is recognize that the true causes of all our misery lie rooted in
-our own ignorant misconceptions and that these can only be eradicated through
-the development of a clear, penetrating insight into the nature of reality.
-Only through the continued cultivation of such penetrating wisdom will it
-eventually be possible to attain liberation from all states of existence
-conditioned by ignorance and be free of suffering.(p.45)
- -- "Images of Enlightenment: Tibetan Art in Practice", by Jonathan Landaw
- and Andy Weber, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- We must distinguish between pride and self-confidence. Self-confidence is
-necessary. It is what enables us, in certain situations, not to lose courage
-and to think with some justification, 'I am capable of succeeding.' Self-
-confidence is quite different from excessive self-assurance based on a false
-appreciation of our capacities or circumstances.
- If you feel able to accomplish a task that other people cannot manage, then
-you cannot be called proud as long as your assessment is well founded. It is
-as if someone tall came across a group of short people who wanted to get
-something too high for them to reach, and said to them, 'Don't exert
-yourselves, I can do it.' This would simply mean that he was more qualified
-than the others to carry out a particular task, but not that he is superior to
-them or that he wants to crush them.(p.259)
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "365 Dalai Lama: Daily Advice from the
- Heart", edited by Matthieu Ricard, translated by Christian Bruyat,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- What is progress? How do we recognize it? The teachings are like a mirror
-before which we should hold our activities of body, speech, and mind. Think
-back to a year ago and compare the stream of activities of your body, speech,
-and mind at that time with their present condition. If we practice well, then
-the traces of some improvement should be reflected in the mirror of Dharma.
- The problem with having expectations is that we usually do not expect the
-right things. Not knowing what spiritual progress is, we search for signs of
-it in the wrong areas of our being. What can we hope for but frustration? It
-would be far better to examine any practice with full reasoning before
-adopting it, and then to practice it steadily and consistently while observing
-the inner changes one undergoes, rather than expecting this or that fantasy to
-become real.
- The mind is an evolving organism, not a machine that goes on and off with
-the flip of a switch. The forces that bind and limit the mind, hurling it
-into unsatisfactory states of being, are impermanent and transient agents.
-When we persistently apply the practices to them, they have no option but to
-fade away and disappear.
- Ignorance and the "I"-grasping syndrome have been with us since
-beginningless time, and the instincts of attachments, aversion, anger,
-jealousy and so forth are very deeply rooted in our mindstreams. Eliminating
-them is not as simple as turning on a light to chase away the darkness of a
-room. When we practice steadily, the forces of darkness are undermined, and
-the spiritual qualities that counteract them and illuminate the mind are
-strengthened and made firm. Therefore, we should strive by means of both
-contemplative and settled meditation to gain stability in the various Lam Rim
-topics.(p.176)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Enlightenment", edited and translated
- by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- We are beings of the Desire Realm, and thus our minds are also included
-within Desire Realm minds. If we cultivate great compassion, our own minds
-are the basis for great compassion. By contemplating countless sentient
-beings and meditating to develop great compassion, one eventually achieves
-great compassion. At that point, the mental basis--one's own mind--has become
-of the entity of great compassion. There is no distinguishing the two at that
-time. Meditating on great compassion does not mean taking compassion as an
-object and looking at it; it means taking sentient beings as one's object and
-developing compassion for them such that the mind comes to be of the nature of
-great compassion.
- The texts frequently speak of different mental bases: the basis for calm
-abiding, the basis for meditative absorption, the basis for achieving a path.
-The way of understanding all of these is the same. You may wonder whether,
-when one cultivates a certain path, the mind becomes of the entity of that
-path. It is important to understand this question because that is, in fact,
-what occurs when one cultivates calm abiding. The mental basis becomes of the
-nature of calm abiding.
- -- Geshe Gedun Lodro, "Calm Abiding and Special Insight: Achieving Spiritual
- Transformation Through Meditation", translated and edited by Jeffrey
- Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Nature's law dictates that, in order to survive, bees must work together.
-As a result, they instinctively possess a sense of social responsibility.
-They have no constitution, no law, no police, no religion or moral training,
-but because of their nature, they labor faithfully together. Occasionally,
-they may fight, but in general, based on cooperation, the whole colony
-survives.
- We human beings have a constitution, laws and a police force. We have
-religion, remarkable intelligence and a heart with a great capacity for love.
-We have many extraordinary qualities, but in actual practice, I think we are
-lagging behind those small insects. In some respects I feel we are poorer
-than the bees.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Pocket Dalai Lama", compiled and edited by
- Mary Craig
-~
- Nagarjuna offers us encouragement in terms of someone of modest potential
-accomplishing the practice, in verse 116:
-
- And even those who realized the truth
- Did not fall from the heavens, nor emerge
- Like crops of corn from earth's dark depths, but once
- Were ruled by kleshas and were ordinary men.
-
- Not one of all the sublime beings who have appeared--individuals who had
-direct realization of the Dharma of the four truths--was already a sublime
-being right from the beginning: they did not fall from the sky, nor did they
-emerge from the darkness of the earth like a crop. In the past they were
-subject to afflictive emotions ['kleshas']--they were ordinary people
-dominated by the afflictive emotions. They are therefore worth following as
-an example for accomplishing the path.(p.150)
- -- Nagarjuna, "Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend: with Commentary by Kangyur
- Rinpoche", with commentary by Longchen Yeshe Dorje, Kyabje Kangyur
- Rinpoche, translated by The Padmakara Translation Group, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Our sense of self
-
- As long as we cling to some notion of objective existence--the idea that
-something actually exists in a concrete, identifiable way--emotions such as
-desire and aversion will follow. When we see something we like--a beautiful
-watch, for example--we perceive it as having some real quality of existence
-among its parts. We see the watch not as a collection of parts, but as an
-existing entity with a specific quality of watch-ness to it. And if it's a
-fine mechanical timepiece, our perception is enhanced by qualities that are
-seen to exist definitely as part of the nature of the watch. It is as a
-result of this misperception of the watch that our desire to possess it
-arises.
- In a similar manner, our aversion to someone we dislike arises as a result
-of attributing inherent negative qualities to the person. When we relate this
-process to how we experience our own sense of existence--how the thought "I"
-or "I am" arises--we notice that it invariably does so in relation to some
-aspect of our physical or mental aggregates.
- Our notion of ourselves is based upon a sense of our physical and emotional
-selves. What's more, we feel that these physical and mental aspects of
-ourselves exist inherently. My body is not something of which I doubt the
-specificity. There is a body-ness as well as a me-ness about it that very
-evidently exists. It seems to be a natural basis for my identifying my body
-as "me." Our emotions such as fear are similarly experienced as having a valid
-existence and as being natural bases for our identifying ourselves as "me."
-Both our loves and our hates serve to deepen the self sense. Even the mere
-feeling "I'm cold" contributes to our sense of being a solid and legitimate
-"I."(p.61)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "A Profound Mind: Cultivating Wisdom in Everyday
- Life", edited by Nicholas Vreeland, afterword by Richard Gere
-~
- In the Mahayana, there exist the vows of the Bodhisattva... but in Dzogchen,
-there exist no such rules or vows.
- When the Indian Buddhist master Atisa came to Tibet in the eleventh century,
-he met the famous Tibetan translator Rinchen Zangpo. Atisa asked him how he
-practiced the Tantras which he had translated, and he replied that he
-practiced them meticulously one after the other. But Atisa told him that this
-was not the correct way. He pointed out to the translator that all of the
-Tantras could be condensed and integrated into a single Upadesa and one need
-only practise that in order to maintain all of the transmissions which he had
-received.
- The same is true with Dzogchen. If we really understand this single
-teaching here which comes directly from Guru Padmasambhava, we can attain
-liberation. But we must grasp this vital core of the teaching. No matter
-what we are doing, which ever among the four modes of behavior--walking,
-sitting, lying down, or eating, we must always hold to awareness, never
-forgetting, never losing this awareness. This is the real meaning of Rigdzin,
-one who is totally aware. In Dzogchen, there is only one rule--always be
-aware in whatever we do, never be distracted!(p.68)
- -- "Self-Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness", translation and
- commentary by John Myrdhin Reynolds, foreword by Namkhai Norbu,
- published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Our mind needs to stretch to encompass emptiness. Our minds are so stuck in
-the idea, "Things exist the way they appear to me. What I see is reality. It
-is 100 percent true. There's nothing to doubt. Things exist exactly as they
-appear to my senses, exactly as they appear to my mental consciousness." We
-hardly ever doubt that. Not only do we have the appearance of inherent
-existence to our sense consciousnesses and mental consciousness, but also our
-mental consciousness grasps on to that appearance and says, "Yes! Everything
-really exists in this findable, independent way. Everything is real as it
-appears to me."
- When we believe there's a real "me," then we have to protect that self and
-bring it happiness. Thus, we are attached to things that are pleasurable and
-become angry at anything unpleasant. Pride, jealousy, laziness, and the whole
-gamut of negative emotions follow. Motivated by these, we act physically,
-verbally, and mentally. These actions, or karma, leave seeds on our
-mindstream, and when these ripen, they influence what we experience. We again
-relate to these experiences ignorantly, so more emotions arise, motivating us
-to create more karma. As a result, cyclic existence with all its difficulties
-continues on and on, created by our mind, dependent on the ignorance that
-misconceives the nature of ourselves and all other phenomena.
- ...However, when we investigate more deeply and look beyond appearances, we
-realize that it's impossible for things to exist in the way they appear.
-Seeing this gives us a kind of spaciousness and freedom because, if samsara
-were inherently existent and everything really did exist the way it appears to
-us, then transformation and change could not occur...and the best we could
-ever have is what we have right now. Thinking about the emptiness of inherent
-existence shows us the possibility for change. Beauty can come forth because
-nothing is inherently concrete, fixed, or findable.(p.105)
- -- Thubten Chodron, "Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of
- Chenrezig", foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama, published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
-Three Meditations
-
- If one does not sow the seed
- Of appreciation for a perfect guru,
- The tree of spiritual power is not born.
- With undivided mind entrust yourself.
-
- Human life is rare and precious,
- Yet if not inspired by thoughts of death,
- One wastes it on materialism:
- Be ready to die at any moment.
-
- All living beings have been our mothers,
- Three circles of suffering always binding them.
- Ignoble it would be not to repay them,
- Not to strive to attain enlightenment. (p.100)
-
- The colophon [inscription] for this poem reads, "Written at the request of
-Ritropa Samdrub, an Amdo monk from Dechen Monastery, who begged for a short
-teaching...." The Seventh Dalai Lama advises him to establish three central
-pillars in his spiritual practice: (1) a disciplined spiritual connection with
-his teacher; (2) awareness of the preciousness of life, and the uncertainty of
-the time of death; and (3) the mind of love and compassion for all living
-beings, coupled with the aspiration to enlightenment as the best means of
-fulfilling that love and compassion.
- -- The Seventh Dalai Lama, "Meditations to Transform the Mind", translated,
- edited, and introduced by Glenn Mullin, published by Snow Lion Pub.
-~
- Courageous Bodhisattvas risk their lives to help others, and so, when we are
-in relatively better, more comfortable situations, we must certainly practice
-giving. Even if they are threatened, the courageous ones will not engage in
-improper actions. Instead, after examining the situation carefully, when they
-find that certain actions are correct and justified, on the basis of reason,
-they engage in them even at the risk of their lives. That is the way of the
-decent, civilized and courageous ones, who do not follow misleading paths.(p.20)
- -- H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama, "Generous Wisdom: Commentaries by H.H. the
- Dalai Lama XIV on the Jatakamala, Garland of Birth Stories", translated
- by Tenzin Dorjee, edited by Dexter Roberts
-~
- One day, when a very learned scholar or geshe and I were discussing the fact
-that the self is an elusive phenomenon, that it is unfindable in either body
-or mind, he remarked: 'If the self did not exist at all, in a sense that would
-make things very simple. There would be no experience of suffering and pain,
-because there would be no subject to undergo such experiences. However, that
-is not the case. Regardless of whether we can actually find it or not, there
-is an individual being who undergoes the experience of pain and pleasure, who
-is the subject of experiences, who perceives things and so on. Based on our
-own experience we do know that there is something--whatever we may call it--
-that makes it possible for us to undergo these experiences. We have something
-called discernment or the ability to perceive things.'
- In fact, when we examine the experience of suffering, although some
-sufferings are at the sensory or bodily level, such as physical pain, even the
-very experience of pain is intimately connected with consciousness or mind and
-therefore is part of our mental world. This is what distinguishes sentient
-beings from other biological organisms, such as plants, trees and so on.
-Sentient beings have a subjective dimension, which we may choose to call
-experience, consciousness or the mental world.
- ....One thing we can understand, both through scientific analysis and also
-from our own personal experience or perception, is that whatever experiences
-we have now are consequences of preceding conditions. Nothing comes into
-being without a cause. Just as everything in the material world must have a
-cause or condition that gives rise to it, so must all experiences in the
-mental world also have causes and conditions.(p.74)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Lighting the Way", translated by Geshe Thupten
- Jinpa, published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Meditation, when learned skillfully, can enable a return to awareness of the
-body, our sensations, and feelings. When we are not given specific guidance
-to ground our meditation within the body, however, meditation can easily
-perpetuate a disembodied spiritual practice. This is accentuated if our view
-of spirituality sees the body as some kind of problem to be transcended.
-Unfortunately, this view can prevail even within the Buddhist world, despite
-being counter to the essential principle of mindfulness and presence. When,
-however, we cultivate the capacity to remain present in our felt experience
-within the body, our relationship to ourselves changes. We can begin to feel
-more grounded in our life and more stable in our identity.
- Engaging in a disembodied spirituality is no solution to our life demands.
-It may be a way of experiencing states of mind that can be very seductive,
-even addictive. Seldom does it address the roots of our emotional problems.
-Transformation comes when we are willing and able to restore or develop a
-sound relationship to our body in a healthy way. With many Buddhist
-practices, such as Tantra, this is essential, for the body contains the
-vitality that is the heart of our innate creative potential.
- Embodiment therefore implies a full engagement in life with all of its
-trials and tribulations, rather than avoidance through disembodied spiritual
-flight. The value of meditation is that it can enable this engagement because
-it cultivates the capacity to be present and remain open, not grasping at or
-rejecting what arises. When meditation emphasizes presence rather than
-transcendence, this openness is a natural outcome.(p.143)
- -- Rob Preece, "The Wisdom of Imperfection: The Challenge of Individuation
- in Buddhist Life", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- Those training in great love should forsake self-centeredness and engage in
-the Buddha's practice, the root of which is compassion. You may be thinking,
-Love is indeed very profound, but I do not have the skill to practice it; I
-will focus my efforts on practices aimed at getting myself out of cyclic
-existence instead. On one hand, this is true, because you should choose a
-path of development appropriate to your ability. On the other hand, there is
-great advantage in attempting the highest degree of love you can.
- Even if you cannot actually implement the practices of love and compassion,
-merely hearing about them establishes powerful predispositions for future
-success. This can be amplified by planting prayer-wishes aspiring to
-altruism. Do not be discouraged; it is difficult to absorb such a profound
-perspective. Be courageous and think of your future potential. It is
-particularly important to do the best you can.(p.82)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "How to Expand Love: Widening the Circle of Loving
- Relationships", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins
-~
- What is very important for us to recognise is our own falsity. This is not
-a judgement that sometimes we are authentic and sometimes we are false. It
-means that everything about us in our ordinary sense of self is false because
-it is grounded on a misapprehension of the nature of reality.... It is like
-somebody in University who is having their final examinations. They go into
-the wrong examination room and not reading the questions very clearly they
-write very long answers on their own subject that is unfortunately not the one
-they are being examined on. It does not matter how good the answer is they
-will fail, for they are not addressing the question.
- The basic question is always: "Who are you?", "Who am I?" but we do not
-understand it and so we answer with a ceaseless narrative of self definition.
-This covers over the freshness of the question, the possibility of looking and
-seeing, and so all our answers are stale, the reworking of self-protective
-versions constructed out of unexamined elements. We have many, many, many
-answers and all of them are false. That's why it is very important when you
-do meditations, to put your full energy one-pointedly into the practice, to
-try to repair the initial basic fault that has torn subject and object apart.
- It is very important to stop being ashamed of being false. For we have to
-see how falsity arises, how obscuration develops. We want to look directly at
-our falsity and learn its tricks so that we will not be caught by them. This
-helps to open the space in which we can recognise our own nature.
- "When you understand the falsity of your confusion remain unartificially,
-effortlessly in the natural mode (dharmakaya)."(p.90)
- -- "Being Right Here: A Dzogchen Treasure Text of Nuden Dorje entitled 'The
- Mirror of Clear Meaning' with commentary by James Low", published by Snow
- Lion Publications
-~
-groundhog daze:
- this is an event that can be caused by strong intoxication of various sorts.
-the sufferer passes out while seated at a table, such that he or she then has
-their head thud down onto the table. after a brief rest, the unlucky person
-wakes up again, and starts to rise off the table. when the head rises to a
-certain point, where blood pressure starts to increase, the effect of the
-intoxication takes over again, and they pass out once more. bam. hence, the
-head repeatedly banging into the table: a groundhog daze.
- i have seen this happen. it's not fun to watch. well, maybe a little.
- --fred t. hamster
-~
- We are the source of healing and happiness. Our generosity and concern
-pacify every negative situation. As we send out kindness, we grow accustomed
-to being strong and kind. In this way, our positive feelings are constantly
-renewed and can never be exhausted.
- Perhaps you know the story about the man who arrived in heaven and when
-asked by God where he wanted to go replied that he wanted to see both heaven
-and hell. First, he went to hell. There was a large table with all the
-inhabitants of hell sitting around it. The center of the table was full of
-delicious food. Each person had two very long chopsticks. They could reach
-the food but they could not get it into their mouths because their chopsticks
-were too long. They were miserable. No one was eating and everyone went
-hungry. Next he was taken to visit heaven. All the inhabitants of heaven
-were also sitting around a big table full of delicious food but they were
-happy. They too had very long chopsticks but they were eating and enjoying
-themselves. They used the chopsticks to feed each other across the table.
-The people in heaven had discovered that it was in their interest to
-collaborate unselfishly.(p.69)
- -- Ringu Tulku, "Mind Training", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- When you are in a fluctuating state of mind, like when you are angry or have
-lost your temper, then it is good to bring back calmness by concentrating on
-breathing. Just count the breaths, completely forgetting about anger.
-Concentrate on breathing and count in/out "one, two, three," up to twenty.
- At that moment when your mind concentrates fully on breathing, the breath
-coming and going, the passions subside. Afterwards it is easier to think
-clearly.
- Since all activities, including meditation, depend very much on the force of
-intention or motivation, it is important that, before you begin to meditate,
-you cultivate a correct motivation... The correct motivation is the
-altruistic attitude.(p.69)
- -- Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "Cultivating a Daily
- Meditation", published by Snow Lion Publications
-~
- The crazy elephant of the mind behaving wildly
- Is tied to the pillar of an object of observation
- With the rope of mindfulness.
- By degrees it is brought under control with the hook of wisdom.
- --Bhavaviveka
-
- "Wisdom" here is introspection. Hence, the example of taming an elephant
-indicates the achievement of a serviceable mind by way of the two--mindfulness
-and introspection. The subtle vajra that is the base on which the mind is
-being set is like a stable pillar to which an elephant is tied. The
-unserviceable mind is like an untamed elephant. Causing the mind not to be
-distracted from its object of observation through relying on mindfulness is
-like using a rope to tie an elephant. Setting the mind free from fault--when
-it does not hold the object of observation as originally set--through
-immediately recognizing such by means of introspection is like a herder's
-hitting an elephant with a hook and correcting it when it strays from the tie-
-up.
-
- Hence, there are two important factors with regard to holding the mind:
- + From the beginning, stay on the object of observation without being
- distracted to anything other than it.
- + Then if distracted, immediately recognize such, and again focus the mind
- as before. (p.94)
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Dzong-ka-ba and Jeffrey Hopkins, "Yoga Tantra: Paths
- to Magical Feats", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published by
- Snow Lion Publications
-~
-Even if it seems certain that you will lose, retaliate. Neither wisdom nor
-technique has a place in this. A real man does not think of victory or
-defeat. He plunges recklessly towards an irrational death. By doing this
-you will awaken from your dreams.
- -- Hagakure, Yamamoto Tsunetomo
-~
-LEEEEEEEROYYYY JENNNNNKINZZZ!!!
- -- To be yelled before irrationally throwing away all plans and jumping into
- the worst possible situation.
-~
-what is an inference?
- someone says, "my hand stinks because my butt stinks."
-an inference you could draw:
- that hand has probably been too close to that butt.
-~
-What Do We Mean by Bodhisattva?
-
- Bodhi means enlightenment, the state devoid of all defects and endowed with
-all good qualities. Sattva refers to someone who has courage and confidence
-and who strives to attain enlightenment for the sake of all beings. Those who
-have this spontaneous, sincere wish to attain enlightenment for the ultimate
-benefit of all beings are called bodhisattvas. Through wisdom, they direct
-their minds to enlightenment, and through their compassion, they have concern
-for beings. This wish for perfect enlightenment for the sake of others is
-what we call bodhichitta, and it is the starting point on the path.
-~
-The Notion of Self
-
- When we talk about the notion of self in Buddhism, it is important to bear
-in mind that there are different degrees or types. There are some types of
-sense of self which are not only to be cultivated but also to be reinforced
-and enhanced. For instance, in order to have a strong determination to seek
-buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings, one needs a very strong
-sense of confidence, which is based upon a sense of commitment and courage.
-This requires a strong sense of self. Unless one has that identity or sense
-of self, one will not be able to develop the confidence and courage to
-strongly seek this aim.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
-Genuine peace of mind is rooted in affection and compassion. There is a very
-high level of sensitivity and feeling involved. So long as we lack inner
-discipline, an inner calmness of mind, then no matter what external facilities
-or conditions we may have, they will never give us the feeling of joy and
-happiness that we seek. On the other hand, if we possess this inner
-quality—that is, calmness of mind, a degree of stability within—then even
-if we lack various external facilities that are normally considered necessary
-for a happy and joyful life, it is still possible to live a happy and joyful
-life.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
-COMPLICATED SIMPLICITY
-
- Emptiness is the simplest and most unelaborated thing we could imagine, but
-then there is this whole literature about all these very discursive details
-with all their subpoints. There are five paths and ten bhumis, and each path
-is divided into a number of stages, with certain numbers of obscurations
-having to be relinquished on each one of those subpaths. Most people just
-think, "Who wants or needs to know all that? Don't we have too many
-thoughts already? I thought this was about letting go of all reference
-points."
- Of course nobody really wants to know all those details and in a sense we
-all know them already, because they are the details of the many reference
-points that we already have in our mind. The fact that these sutras and their
-commentaries talk about our obscurations is precisely the point why they seem
-so endless and complicated—because our minds are complicated. Emptiness is
-extremely simple, but our convoluted minds that do not get this simplicity are
-very complicated. It is not that the Buddha and the other speakers in the
-sutras and the commentaries really like to, but they need to address each one
-of those knots in our minds, which are like knots in space.
-~
-If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have
-to be a horrible warning.
- -- Catherine Aird
-~
-THE MIND OF CLEAR LIGHT
-
- Is spiritual practice really worthwhile? Is it really possible to eliminate
-from within ourselves the forces that give rise to suffering? As is said,
-"The ultimate nature of mind is clear light." Consciousness has many
-levels, and although the coarser levels are affected by the defiling forces,
-the most subtle level remains free of gross negativities. In the Vajrayana
-this subtle level of consciousness is called the mind of clear light.
- The delusions and emotional afflictions as well as the dualistic mind of
-right and wrong, love and hatred, etc., are associated only with the coarse
-levels of consciousness. At the moment, we are totally absorbed in the
-interplay of these coarse states, so we must begin our practice by working
-within them. This means consciously encouraging love over hate, patience in
-place of anger, emotional freedom rather than attachment, kindness over
-violence, and so forth. Doing this brings immediate peace and calm to the
-mind, thus making higher meditation possible.
- Then, because grasping at a self and at phenomena as being truly existent is
-the cause of all the vast range of distorted states of mind, one cultivates
-the wisdom that eliminates this ego-grasping. To overcome ego-grasping is to
-overcome the entire host of mental distortions.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
-It is the general Buddhist procedure that one's own pleasure and pain are
-acheived by oneself and not from the outside, and that, therefore, sentient
-beings themselves must understand and implement practices to bring about their
-own happiness. Thus, the most efficacious way to help others is through
-teaching what should be adopted in practice and what should be discarded from
-among current behavior. There is no way to do this unless you come to know
-all of the topics involved in what should be adopted in practice and what
-should be discarded—you must become omniscient. As mentioned earlier, there
-is no way to accomplish this except by removing the obstructions to
-omniscience, and one who has overcome, utterly and forever, the obstructions
-to omniscience is a Buddha.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
- In meditation, imagine that in front of you are three persons—an enemy, a
-friend, and a neutral person. At that time, in our minds we have (1) a sense
-of closeness for one of them, thinking, "This is my friend"; (2) a sense
-of dislike even when imagining the enemy; and (3) a sense of ignoring the
-neutral person. Now, we have to think about the reasons why we generate these
-feelings—the reasons being that temporarily one of them helped us whereas
-the other temporarily harmed us, and the third did neither. However, when we
-think in terms of the long course of beginningless rebirth, none of us could
-decide that someone who has helped or harmed us in this life has been doing so
-for all lifetimes.
- When you contemplate this way, eventually you arrive at a point where a
-strong generation of desire or hatred appears to you to be just senseless.
-Gradually, such a bias weakens, and you decide that one-sided classification
-of persons as friends and enemies has been a mistake.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
- Generally speaking, even if money brings us happiness, it tends to be the
-kind that money can buy: material things and sensory experiences. And these,
-we discover, become a source of suffering themselves. As far as actual
-possessions are concerned, we must admit that they often cause us more, not
-less, difficulty in life. The car breaks down, we lose our money, our most
-precious belongings are stolen, our house is damaged by fire. Or we worry
-about these things happening.
- The problem is not materialism as such. Rather it is the underlying
-assumption that full satisfaction can arise from gratifying the senses alone.
-Unlike animals whose quest for happiness is restricted to survival and to the
-immediate gratification of sensory desires, we human beings have the capacity
-to experience happiness at a deeper level, which, when achieved, can overwhelm
-unhappy experiences.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
-We humans are social beings. We come into the world as the result of
-others' actions. We survive here in dependence on others. Whether we like
-it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives in which we do not benefit
-from others' activities. For this reason it is hardly surprising that most
-of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others. Nor
-is it so remarkable that our greatest joy should come when we are motivated by
-concern for others. But that is not all. We find that not only do altruistic
-actions bring about happiness, but they also lessen our experience of
-suffering. Here I am not suggesting that the individual whose actions are
-motivated by the wish to bring others happiness necessarily meets with less
-misfortune than the one who does not. Sickness, old age, mishaps of one sort
-or another are the same for us all. But the sufferings which undermine our
-internal peace—anxiety, doubt, disappointment—these are definitely less.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
-If we view the world's religions from the widest possible viewpoint and
-examine their ultimate goal, we find that all of the major world religions,
-whether Christianity or Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism, are dedicated to the
-achievement of permanent human happiness. They are all directed toward that
-goal. All religions emphasize the fact that the true follower must be honest
-and gentle, in other words, that a truly religious person must always strive
-to be a better human being. To this end, the different world religions teach
-different doctrines which will help transform the person. In this regard, all
-religions are the same, there is no conflict. This is something we must
-emphasize. We must consider the question of religious diversity from this
-viewpoint. And when we do, we find no conflict.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
-Emptiness vs. Non-Existence
-
-The doctrines of emptiness and selflessness do not imply the non-existence of
-things. Things do exist. When we say that all phenomena are void of self-
-existence, it does not mean that we are advocating non-existence, that we are
-repudiating that things exist. Then what is it we are negating? We are
-negating, or denying, that anything exists from its own side without depending
-on other things. Hence, it is because things depend for their existence upon
-other causes and conditions that they are said to lack independent self-
-existence.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
-If we view the world's religions from the widest possible viewpoint and
-examine their ultimate goal, we find that all of the major world religions,
-whether Christianity or Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism, are dedicated to the
-achievement of permanent human happiness. They are all directed toward that
-goal. All religions emphasize the fact that the true follower must be honest
-and gentle, in other words, that a truly religious person must always strive
-to be a better human being. To this end, the different world religions teach
-different doctrines which will help transform the person. In this regard, all
-religions are the same, there is no conflict. This is something we must
-emphasize. We must consider the question of religious diversity from this
-viewpoint. And when we do, we find no conflict.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
- The process of overcoming our defilements goes in conjunction with gaining
-higher levels of realisation. In fact, when we speak of gaining higher levels
-of realisation in Buddhism we are speaking primarily of the processes through
-which our wisdom and insight deepen. It is actually the wisdom aspect that
-enables the practitioner to move from one level to the next on the path.
- The attainment of the levels of the path is explained in condensed form in
-the Heart Sutra, where we find the mantra tadyatha om gate gate paragate
-parasamgate bodhi svaha. Tadyatha means It is thus; gate gate means go, go;
-paragate means go beyond and transcend; parasamgate means go utterly beyond,
-go thoroughly beyond; and bodhi svaha means firmly rooted in enlightenment.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
-ENDURING SUCCESS
- It is often seen that human beings can endure problems quite well, but
-cannot endure success. When we are successful and have everything we desire,
-it can easily go to our heads. There is a great danger of losing our common
-sense and becoming careless and arrogant. As it is said, "Nothing corrupts a
-person more than power." Very powerful people sometimes become so proud that
-they no longer care about their actions or about the effect they have on
-others. Losing any sense of right and wrong, they create severe problems for
-themselves and everyone else.
- Even if we have all the success we could dream of—fame, wealth, and so
-on—we must understand that these things have no real substance. Attachment
-does not come from having things, but from the way our mind reacts to them.
-It is fine to participate in good circumstances, provided we can see that they
-have no real essence. They may come and they may go. When seeing this, we
-will not become so attached. Even if we lose our wealth we will not be badly
-affected, and while it is there we will enjoy it without being senseless and
-arrogant.
- -- Ringu Tulku, from "Daring Steps: Traversing the Path of the Buddha",
- edited and translated by Rosemarie Fuchs, page 92.
-~
-The role of other sentient beings
-
- In relation to the attainment of liberation from cylic existence, which is
-known also as "definite goodness," the role of other sentient beings is
-indispensable. In the Buddhist understanding, the key spiritual practices
-that lead to the attainment of liberation are the Three Higher
-Trainings—higher training in morality, in meditation, and in wisdom. The
-last two are based upon the foundation of the first, namely the training in
-morality. As I said before, the presence of other sentience beings is
-indispensable for this training. This is how we come to the powerful
-realisation that the role of other sentient beings is essential in all areas
-of our mundane and spiritual activities.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
- To avoid being hurt by thorns and brambles, we might consider covering all
-the mountains with leather. That would be impossible, but putting on shoes
-would serve the same purpose. Similarly, if we tried to subdue all our outer
-enemies, we would never succeed. Once one was eliminated, another would rise
-against us. While doing this, our anger would continue to breed new foes.
-The only way to overcome our enemies is to turn inward and kill the real one,
-which is our own hatred.
- -- Ringu Tulku, from "Daring Steps: Traversing the Path of the Buddha",
- edited and translated by Rosemarie Fuchs.
-~
- One should not view one's dharma practice as being something decorative,
-regarding statues and images as material possessions or as furnishings for
-one's house, or thinking that because there is an empty space on a wall one
-might as well put up a thangka for decoration. That kind of attitude should
-not be cultivated. When you arrange the statues or thangkas, you should do so
-out of a deep respect from the mind, moved by your faith and conviction. If
-you can arrange these physical representations—statues and so forth—out of
-deep respect and faith, that's all right. On the other hand, the attitude
-that they are merely material possessions is dangerous and destructive. I
-think that some people who have a cupboard or the like in which they keep all
-their precious possessions may arrange an altar on it just for the sake of
-decoration. This is very wrong.
- Having such motivations is not the proper way to become a Buddhist; the
-proper way to become a Buddhist is to bring about some positive change within
-the mind. Any practice that can give you more courage when you are undergoing
-a very difficult time and that can provide you with some kind of solace and
-calmness of mind is a true practice of the dharma.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
-The environment where you are doing the meditation should be properly cleaned.
-While cleaning, you should cultivate the motivation that since you are engaged
-in the task of accumulating great stores of merit by inviting the hosts of
-buddhas and bodhisattvas to this environment, it is important to have a clean
-place. You should see that all external dirt and dust around you is basically
-a manifestation of the faults and stains within your own mind. You should see
-that the most important aim is to purge these stains and faults from within
-your mind. Therefore, as you cleanse the environment, think that you are also
-purifying your mind. Develop the very strong thought that by cleaning this
-place you are inviting the hosts of buddhas and bodhisattvas who are the most
-supreme merit field, and that you will subsequently engage in a path that will
-enable you to purge your mind of the stains and delusions.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
- From the point of view of one who seeks enlightenment, it is far better to
-be a human being than to be born even in the heavens of the gods, where there
-is nectar to live on and all wishes are granted by the wish-fulfilling tree;
-where there is neither fatigue nor difficulty, neither sickness nor old age.
-It is as humans, possessed of the eight freedoms and the ten endowments, and
-not as gods, that every one of the thousand Buddhas of this age has attained,
-or will attain, enlightenment. This human existence, moreover, is not to be
-achieved by force or mere chance; it is the result of positive actions. And
-because it is rare for beings to accomplish positive actions, a precious human
-existence is indeed difficult to obtain.
- Nevertheless, we have now managed to be born into such a state; we have
-encountered the Buddadharma, have entered the path and are now receiving
-teachings. But if we are unable to practise them, simply listening to the
-teachings will not in itself liberate us from samsara, and will be of no help
-to us when we are confronted by the hardships of birth, disease, old age and
-death. If we do not follow the doctor's prescription when we are sick, then
-even if the doctor sits constantly by our side, the pain will not go away.
- -- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, from "Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of the
- Seven-Point Mind Training", translated by Padmakara Translation Group.
-~
-The realization of the nature of the mind is not something we can find by
-searching for it from afar. It is present within the essence of the mind
-itself. If we do not alter or change that in any way, that is enough. It is
-not as if we were lacking something before, so we need to make something new
-through our meditation. It is not as if we are bad and have to go through all
-sorts of efforts to make ourselves good. Goodness is something we all have.
-It has always been with us, but we have just not looked for it or seen it yet,
-so we have become confused. Therefore all we need to do is to just rest
-within it without changing it. We see where it stays and rest there, so we
-are like a kusulu. This means that we rest free and easy with nothing to do,
-very simply. We do not need to think that we are making something good or
-that we need to meditate properly. It is enough just to know what we already
-have.
- -- Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, from "Vivid Awareness", in "The Best Buddhist
- Writing 2012", edited by Melvin McLeod and the editors of the Shambhala
- Sun, pages 196–197.
-~
-We all have to recognize the tremendous opportunity that we have. As humans
-we have this rare intelligence, but there is a real danger that we will waste
-it. Death is certain, but when we will die is totally unpredictable. We
-could lose our precious human existence at any moment. With such reflections,
-we must motivate ourselves to do something meaningful right now. The best way
-to make your human existence meaningful is to really engage in the practice of
-Dharma. During formal sitting meditation and in between sessions, in
-different ways, be mindful and introspectively vigilant. Keep constant watch
-on your mind.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
- In order to carry out a practice--such as constantly watching the mind--you
-should form a determination, make a pledge, right when you wake up: "Now, for
-the rest of this day, I will put into practice what I believe just as much as
-I can." It is very important that, at the start of the day, we should set out
-to shape what will happen later. Then, at the end of every day, check what
-happened. Review the day. And if you carried through for that whole day your
-morning's determination, then rejoice. Reinforce further your motivation to
-continue in the same line. However, when you do your reviewing, you may
-discover that you did things during the day that are contrary to your
-religious values and beliefs. You should then acknowledge this and cultivate
-a deep sense of remorse. Strengthen your resolve not to indulge in these
-actions in the future.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
- There are two different ways in which we can understand the term "ordinary
-mind." One way is to not take control over anything and end up following our
-afflictions. When a thought of anger arises, we follow it; when greed arises,
-we lose control of ourselves to it. Similarly, we lose control of ourselves
-to our pride and jealousy. Although we might think of this as our ordinary
-state of mind, it is not what we mean here. Here it does not mean losing
-control of ourselves to negative emotions. Instead, it means that we do not
-need to do anything at all to the essence of the mind itself.
- We do not need to alter this essence in any way. We do not have to worry
-about what we are thinking, what is pleasant, or what is painful. We can
-leave this mind as it is. If we try to alter the mind in any way, thoughts
-will arise. But if we do not do anything to it and let it rest easily, then
-it is unaltered. The Kagyu masters of the past called this the ordinary mind,
-or the natural state. They called it this out of their experience. This
-ordinary mind itself is the dharma expanse and the essence of the buddhas; it
-is our buddha-nature.
- -- Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, from "Vivid Awareness" in "The Best Buddhist
- Writing 2012", edited by Melvin McLeod and the editors of the Shambhala
- Sun, page 200.
-~
- If your engagement with others is tainted by strong attachment, craving,
-aversion, anger, and so forth, then that form of grasping is undesirable. But
-on the other hand, when you are interacting with other living beings and
-become aware of their needs or suffering or pain, then you need to fully
-engage with that and be compassionate. So there can be positive attachment in
-this sense of active engagement.
- Buddhist masters have long used the term attachment to describe the quality
-of compassion for others. For example, a verse from Haribhadra's Clear
-Meaning Commentary refers to compassion that is attached to other living
-beings. And as we have seen, Nagarjuna teaches that attachment for other
-living beings will arise spontaneously in the person who realizes emptiness.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
-Kongtrul Rinpoche suggested we pray to the guru, buddhas, and bodhisattvas and
-ask them to grant their blessings, "So I may give birth to the heart of
-sadness." But what is a "heart of sadness"? Imagine one night you have
-a dream. Although it is a good dream, deep down you know that eventually you
-will have to wake up and it will be over. In life, too, sooner or later,
-whatever the state of our relationships, or our health, our jobs and every
-aspect of our lives, everything, absolutely everything, will change. And the
-little bell ringing in the back of your head to remind you of this
-inevitability is what is called the "heart of sadness." Life, you realise,
-is a race against time, and you should never put off dharma practice until
-next year, next month, or tomorrow, because the future may never happen.
- -- Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, from "Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-
- Called Preliminary Practices"
-~
- What we want to eliminate is grasping that is grounded upon falsification of
-the object, distortions that arise as afflictions grasp at the apparent
-substantial existence of an object. Some texts say that mental states such as
-compassion and faith are, by their very nature, virtuous and thus cannot at
-the same time be afflicted mental states. Yet there are other texts that
-refer to "afflicted compassion" or "afflicted faith." For those of us
-who have not realized emptiness, when we generate strong devotion toward the
-Buddha perhaps there is within that faith, within that devotion, an element of
-grasping at the Buddha as substantially real. This makes it an instance of
-so-called "afflicted devotion."
- Still, it is important to distinguish grasping rooted in falsification and
-distortion from the attachment, focus, or holding that we associate with
-compassion. In our immediate experience, these two forms of grasping may seem
-the same, but in terms of the overall mental environment they are quite
-different. Compassion is fact-based, while distorted grasping is not.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
- By and large, human beings tend to prefer to fit in to society by following
-accepted rules of etiquette and being gentle, polite, and respectful. The
-irony is that this is also how most people imagine a spiritual person should
-behave. When a so-called dharma practitioner is seen to behave badly, we
-shake our heads over her audacity at presenting herself as a follower of the
-Buddha. Yet such judgments are better avoided, because to "fit in" is not
-what a genuine dharma practitioner strives for.
- Think of Tilopa, for example. He looked so outlandish that if he turned up
-on your doorstep today, odds are you would refuse to let him in. And you
-would have a point. He would most likely be almost completely naked; if you
-were lucky, he might be sporting some kind of G-string; his hair would never
-have been introduced to shampoo; and protruding from his mouth would quiver
-the tail of a live fish. What would your moral judgment be of such a being?
-"Him! A Buddhist?" This is how our theistic, moralistic, and judgmental
-minds work. Of course, there is nothing wrong with morality, but the point of
-spiritual practice, according to the vajrayana teachings, is to go beyond all
-our concepts, including those of morality.
- -- Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, from "Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-
- Called Preliminary Practices".
-~
-Because it is a reality that we are by nature social animals, bound to depend
-on each other, we need to cultivate affection and concern for other people if
-we really desire peace and happiness. Look at wild animals and birds. Even
-they travel together, flock together, and help each other. Bees do not have a
-particular legal system, they do not follow any spiritual practice, but for
-their livelihood and survival they depend on each other--that is their
-natural way of existence. Even though we intelligent human beings must also
-depend on each other, we sometimes misuse our intelligence and try to exploit
-each other. That goes against human nature. For those of us who profess to
-believe in a particular religious practice, it is extremely important that we
-try to help each other and cultivate a feeling of affection for each other.
-That is the source of happiness in our life.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
- It's important to differentiate a thought from an emotion. We say things
-such as, "I feel like they don't accept me." Actually, that is a thought.
-We may feel hurt or frustrated, and it's because we're thinking that others
-don't accept us. How do we know they don't accept us? We don't. We
-haven't asked them. Instead, on the basis of how they looked at us or a
-comment they made, our mind constructs a story that we believe.
- As soon as you hear yourself saying, "I feel like...," stop and recognize
-that you can't "feel like" something. You are thinking. After you have
-identified the thought, ask yourself, "Is that true? How do I know it's true?
-What evidence do I have to prove the validity of that thought?" It's really
-startling to see how often we assume our interpretation of a situation is true
-when in fact it is based on flimsy evidence.
- -- Thubten Chodron, from "Don't Believe Everything You Think: Living with
- Wisdom and Compassion"
-~
-We are all human beings, and from this point of view, we are the same. We all
-want happiness and we do not want suffering. If we consider this point, we
-will find that there are no differences between people of different faiths,
-races, colors, or cultures. We all have this common wish for happiness.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
-Enlightenment is not anything new or something we create or bring into
-existence. It is simply discovering within us what is already there. It is
-the full realization of our intrinsic nature. In Tibetan, buddha is sang
-gyay. Sang means that all of the faults have been cleared away, while gyay
-means "full realization"; just as from darkness, the moon waxes, likewise
-from ignorance, the qualities of the mind's intrinsic nature emerge.
- -- Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche
-~
-The fundamental teaching of the Buddha is that we should view others as being
-more important than we are. Of course, you cannot completely ignore yourself.
-But neither can you neglect the welfare of other people and other sentient
-beings, particularly when there is a clash of interest between your own
-welfare and the welfare of other people. At such a time you should consider
-other people's welfare as more important than your own personal well-being.
-Compare yourself to the rest of sentient beings. All other sentient beings
-are countless, while you are just one person. Your suffering and happiness
-may be very important, but it is just the suffering and happiness of one
-individual, whereas the happiness and suffering of all other sentient beings
-is immeasurable and countless. So, it is the way of the wise to sacrifice one
-for the benefit of the majority and it is the way of the foolish to sacrifice
-the majority on behalf of just one single individual. Even from the point of
-view of your personal well-being, you must cultivate a compassionate
-mind—that is that source of happiness in your life.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
- Attachment and love are similar in that both of them draw us to the other
-person. But in fact, these two emotions are quite different. When we're
-attached we're drawn to someone because he or she meets our needs. In
-addition, there are lots of strings attached to our affection that we may or
-may not realize are there. For example, I 'love' you because you make me feel
-good. I 'love' you as long as you do things that I approve of. I 'love' you
-because you're mine. You're my spouse or my child or my parent or my friend.
-With attachment, we go up and down like a yo-yo, depending on how the other
-person treats us. We obsess, "What do they think of me? Do they love me?
-Have I offended them? How can I become what they want me to be so that they
-love me even more?" It's not very peaceful, is it? We're definitely stirred
-up.
- On the other hand, the love we're generating on the Dharma path is
-unconditional. We simply want other to have happiness and the causes of
-happiness without any strings attached, without any expectations of what these
-people will do for us or how good they'll make us feel.
- -- Thubten Chodron, "Don't Believe Everything You Think: Living with Wisdom
- and Compassion"
-~
-Because we don't recognize our essential nature--we don't realize that
-although appearances arise unceasingly, nothing is really there--we invest
-with solidity and reality the seeming truth of self, other, and actions
-between self and others. This intellectual obscuration gives rise to
-attachment and aversion, followed by actions and reactions that create karma,
-solidify into habit, and perpetuate the cycles of suffering. This entire
-process needs to be purified.
- -- Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, from "In the Presence of Masters: Wisdom from 30
- Contemporary Tibetan Buddhist Teachers", edited by Reginald A. Ray.
-~
- Effort is crucial in the beginning for generating a strong will. We all
-have the Buddha nature and thus already have within us the substances through
-which, when we meet with the proper conditions, we can turn into a fully
-enlightened being having all beneficial attributes and devoid of all faults.
-The very root of failure in our lives is to think, "Oh, how useless and
-powerless I am!" It is important to have a strong force of mind thinking,
-"I can do it," this not being mixed with pride or any other afflictive
-emotion.
- Moderate effort over a long period of time is important, no matter what you
-are trying to do. One brings failure on oneself by working extremely hard at
-the beginning, attempting to do too much, and then giving it all up after a
-short time. A constant stream of moderate effort is needed. Similarly, when
-meditating, you need to be skillful by having frequent, short sessions; it is
-more important that the session be of good quality than that it be long.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, from "Kindness, Clarity, and Insight"
-~
-We Buddhists are supposed to save all sentient beings, but practically
-speaking, this may be too broad a notion for most people. In any case, we
-must at least think in terms of helping all human beings. This is very
-important. Even if we cannot think in terms of sentient beings inhabiting
-different worlds, we should nonetheless think in terms of the human beings on
-our own planet. To do this is to take a practical approach to the problem.
-It is necessary to help others, not only in our prayers, but in our daily
-lives. If we find we cannot help another, the least we can do is to desist
-from harming them. We must not cheat others or lie to them. We must be
-honest human beings, sincere human beings.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
- How things appear and how they actually exist differ greatly. A person
-engaging in practice of the perfection of wisdom does this kind of analysis
-and then examines how things appear in ordinary experience, alternating
-analysis and comparison with the usual mode of appearance in order to notice
-the discrepancy between the actual mode of subsistence of phenomena and their
-appearance.
- In this way the inherent existence which is the object of negation will
-become clearer and clearer. As much as the object of negation becomes
-clearer, so much deeper will your understanding of emptiness become. Finally,
-you will ascertain a mere vacuity that is a negative of inherent existence.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
- Three attitudes prevent us from receiving a continual flow of blessings.
-They are compared to three "pots": a full pot, a pot with poison in it,
-and a pot with a hole in the bottom.
- The pot that's filled to the brim is like a mind full of opinions and
-preconceptions. We already know it all. We have so many fixed ideas that
-nothing new can affect us or cause us to question our assumptions.
- The pot containing poison is like a mind that's so cynical, critical, and
-judgmental that everything is poisoned by this harshness. It allows for no
-openness and no willingness to explore the teachings or anything else that
-challenges our righteous stance.
- The pot with a hole is like a distracted mind: our body is present but
-we're lost in thought. We're so busy thinking about our dream vacation or
-what's for dinner that we're completely deaf to what's being said.
- Knowing how sad it is to receive blessings and not be able to benefit,
-Shantideva wants to save himself grief by remaining open and attentive.
-Nothing will improve, he says, unless we become more intelligent about cause
-and effect. This is a message worth considering seriously.
- -- Pema Chödrön, from "No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the
- Bodhisattva".
-~
- Shantideva cites three benefits of pain. First, it is valuable because
-through sorrow, pride is driven out. No matter how arrogant and condescending
-we've been, great suffering can humble us. The pain of a serious illness or
-loss of a loved one can be transformative, softening us and making us less
-self-centered.
- The second benefit of pain is empathy: the compassion felt for those who
-wander in samsara. Our personal suffering brings compassion for others in the
-same situation. A young woman was telling me that when her baby died, she
-felt a deep connection to all the other parents who had lost children. This
-was, as she put it, the unexpected blessing of her sorrow.
- The third value of suffering is that evil is avoided and goodness seems
-delightful. When we practice according to Shantideva's instructions, we can
-get smarter about cause and result. Based on this understanding, we'll have
-less inclination to cause harm, and more desire to gather virtue and benefit
-others.
- -- Pema Chödrön, from "No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the
- Bodhisattva"
-~
- Since emptiness, from between positive and negative phenomena, is a negative
-phenomenon and, from between affirming negatives and non-affirming negatives,
-is a non-affirming negative, when it appears to the mind, nothing will appear
-except an absence of such inherent existence—a mere elimination of the
-object of negation. Thus, for the mind of a person realizing emptiness there
-is no sense of, "I am ascertaining emptiness," and there is no thought,
-"This is emptiness." If you had such a sense, emptiness would become
-distant. Nevertheless, the emptiness of inherent existence is ascertained and
-realized.
- After such realization, even though whatever phenomena appear appear to
-exist in their own right, you understand that they do not exist that way. You
-have a sense that they are like a magician's illusions in that there is a
-combination of their appearing one way but actually existing another way.
-Though they appear to exist inherently, you understand that they are empty of
-inherent existence.
- When phenomena are seen this way, the conceptions that superimpose a sense
-of goodness or badness on phenomena beyond what is actually there and serve as
-a basis for generating desire and hatred lessen; this is because they are
-based on the misconception that phenomena are established in their own right.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
- Rely on timeless awareness, which is free of elaboration, without
- identity, and the very essence of being;
- do not rely on ordinary consciousness, which is a mind fixated
- on characteristics and concepts.
-
- Timeless awareness entails (a) understanding that the way in which phenomena
-actually abide is, from the ultimate perspective, free of all limitations
-imposed by elaborations of origination, cessation, and so forth; (b)
-realization of the nonexistence of the two kinds of identity; and (c) unerring
-knowledge of sugatagarbha as utter lucidity, the way in which things actually
-abide, beyond any context of speculative value judgments. It is on this
-awareness that one should rely.
- Ordinary consciousness entails (a) belief that what one immediately
-perceives constitutes something truly existent; (b) conceptualization in terms
-of characteristics, such as the sense of personal identity and the mind-body
-aggregates; and (c) mental states that are conditioned, for example, by
-attitudes of naively fixating on the pleasures of the senses. One should not
-rely on such consciousness.
- -- Jamgön Kongtrül Lodro Taye, from "The Treasury of Knowledge: Book Seven
- and Book Eight, Parts One and Two"
-~
- Such is the process of karma: it is ineluctable; its results are greatly
-magnified; actions not committed have no effect; and the effects of actions
-committed never expire on their own.
- Generally speaking, whether you are an ordinary mortal individual or a
-spiritually advanced being, all positive experiences that carry with them any
-pleasant sensation—down to even the slightest pleasure caused by a cool
-breeze for beings reborn in a hell realm—occur due to positive karma
-reinforced in the past; it is not in accord with the nature of things that
-happiness be due to negative karma. And all negative experiences that carry
-with them any unpleasant sensation—down to even the slightest suffering that
-could occur in the experience of an arhat—occur due to negative karma one
-has reinforced in the past; for it is not in accord with the nature of things
-that suffering be due to positive karma.
- -- Jamgön Kongtrül Lodro Taye, from "The Treasury of Knowledge: Book Seven
- and Book Eight, Parts One and Two"
-~
- "That which is seen and that which is touched are of a dream-like and
- illusion-like nature. Because feeling arises together with the mind,
- it is not [ultimately] perceived." --Shantideva
-
- There is nothing whatever that has a true mode of existence. Nevertheless,
-this does not suggest that a person who experiences feelings and the feelings
-themselves—pleasant and unpleasant—are utterly non-existent. They do
-exist, but in an untrue fashion. Thus, the things that we see and touch have
-a dream-like and illusion-like quality.
- In the second line the author refutes the true existence of the mind that
-experiences feelings. Since feelings arise in conjunction with the mind,
-feelings are not perceived by the mind that is simultaneous with them. There
-must be a causal relationship between the experienced object and the
-experiencing subject. If two entities are substantially distinct and exist
-simultaneously, there could be neither a causal relationship nor an identity
-relationship between them.
- For this reason the author denies that either [intrinsic] relationship could
-hold for the feelings and the awareness that is simultaneous with them. Two
-mental events that arise in conjunction with each other are not able to
-apprehend one another. This holds true for all states of awareness. Thus,
-feelings are not observed by the awareness that arises in conjunction with
-them and that exists simultaneously with them.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
-Any happiness there is in the world ultimately turns to pain. Why? Consider
-the two sides of a coin: just because what we desire is to be seen on the
-front does not mean that dislike won't soon appear on the back. Likewise,
-hope and fear are a single coin, one entity with two faces--on the other side
-of a moment in which we hope for more happiness will be our fear of more
-suffering. Until attachment is eliminated, we can be certain of having both
-hope and fear. As long as there is hope and fear, the delusions of samsara
-will be perpetuated and there will be constant suffering. Thus attachment is
-the nature of both hope and fear: looking at the ultimate emptiness of the
-self-envisioned magical illusion of hope and fear, we should hang loosely in
-the flow.
- --Tulku Pema Rigtsal, "The Great Secret of Mind: Special Instructions on the
- Nonduality of Dzogchen", translated by Keith Dowman
-~
- The feelings of joy and sorrow do not exist from their own side. Although
-they exist as conceptual imputations, you cling to them as existing from their
-own side. Feelings do not exist by their own intrinsic nature; rather, they
-are identified on the basis of contributing circumstances.
- Therefore, this analysis is cultivated as an antidote for that [false
-conception of intrinsic existence]. The meditative absorption that arises
-from the field of discriminative investigation is the food of the
-contemplative.—Shantideva
- Feelings do not truly exist; they are not found when sought through
-analysis; they do not exist independently, but exist by the power of
-convention. Thus, the means for overcoming the misconception of the true
-existence of feelings is meditation on their lack of such existence. This
-entails analyzing the mode of existence of feelings.
- Such investigation is an aid to meditative absorption and leads to the
-integration of meditative quiescence and insight. That increases the physical
-vitality of the contemplative and enhances the power of his [or her] spiritual
-practice. Thus it is called the nourishment of the contemplative.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Transcendent Wisdom".
-~
-It is not enough merely to look into the space of happiness or sadness; it is
-important to have pure presence constant in that flow. If the power of
-meditation is not constant, it is impossible to remain long in the place of
-nondual perception. Thoughts that arise intermittently will break the
-continuity, and radiating out from this, like ripples on a pond, the poisonous
-taste of emotion will arise to obstruct the meditation. As gross thoughts
-increase, ripples become rough waves that intensify the emotion. Until subtle
-emotions are left behind, we cannot eradicate suffering, so it is crucially
-important to sustain the state of meditation. When we gain strong familiarity
-by staying in that space for a long time, then no matter what thoughts arise,
-whether gross or subtle, they will not be able to dislodge us: upon
-recognizing the first thought, whatever thought it may be, in that very
-moment, we realize it to be the play of the spontaneous creativity of
-dharmakaya. Like a wave falling back into the ocean, the thought vanishes
-into the dharmakaya. In that space of naked empty pure presence that is the
-view, always cherishing thoughts of the five poisonous emotions and all the
-movements of body, speech, and mind, and the acts of eating, sleeping, moving,
-and sitting, we are known as the yogins and yoginis who stand guard over the
-shifting dharmakaya display. This is the supreme method of sustaining the
-essence of meditation. According to Dzogchen teaching, this is unadulterated
-by any kind of focus; it is called "the great meditation that is
-nonmeditation."
- --Tulku Pema Rigtsal, "The Great Secret of Mind: Special Instructions on the
- Nonduality of Dzogchen", translated by Keith Dowman.
-~
- Who is more shameless in this world,
- Than one who abandons to samsara's ocean of suffering
- All the mothers who have tenderly cared for him since beginningless time
- And instead strives toward the peace of a solitary nirvana?
- --Shechen Gyaltsap Pema Namgyal
-
- In each of our lives since beginningless time, our mother carried us within
-her body for nine months. She took care of us when we were helpless babies;
-she gave us food, education, and protection. In return, we feel love and
-gratitude for her kindness.
- Why not extend our respect and appreciation for our mother to everyone else?
-If we take a broader perspective, we can consider that, within the countless
-existences we have lived, every being has been our mother at one time or
-another. Don't they also deserve our kindness now? We can extend the same
-debt of gratitude that we owe our present mother to all sentient beings. By
-doing so, we naturally begin to develop a deep concern for the happiness of
-others, and this feeling makes sense to us.
- We take the refuge vow not just for our own sake, but also for the sake of
-all sentient beings. This is bodhichitta, or the altruistic mind, which aims
-for the enlightenment of all sentient beings.
- --Shechen Rabjam, "The Great Medicine That Conquers Clinging to the Notion
- of Reality: Steps in Meditation on the Enlightened Mind"
-~
- Direct perfect enlightenment [with regard to] all aspects,
- and abandonment of the stains along with their imprints
- [are called] buddha and nirvana respectively.
- In truth, these are not two different things.
- —Arya Maitreya
-
-All aspects of the knowable—all absolute and relative phenomena—are
-directly known. Through this knowledge one is immediately and perfectly
-enlightened. This is the aspect of realization. All the adventitious
-defilements—the two veils along with their remaining imprints—are
-abandoned without any exception. This is the aspect of abandonment. These
-two qualities have been led to ultimate perfection. They are therefore named
-"perfect buddha" ["perfectly awakened and expanded"] from the
-viewpoint of the former aspect, and "nirvana" ["gone beyond any torment
-and pain"] from the viewpoint of the latter aspect. These two aspects are
-contained in one and the same meaning, the meaning of the tathagatagarbha,
-whereas a difference only lies in the convention of the different terms. In
-the sense of the absolute field of experience of the noble ones' primordial
-wisdom the qualities of realization and abandonment are therefore completely
-inseparable and do not exist as two different things.
- -- Arya Maitreya, "Buddha Nature: The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra with
- Commentary", with commentary by Jamgön Kongtrül Lodro Thaye
-~
- "Vehicle" (yana) has two meanings: the means by which one progresses and
-the destination to which one is progressing. Mahayana in the sense of the
-vehicle by which one progresses means to be motivated by the mind of
-enlightenment—wishing to attain highest enlightenment for the sake of all
-sentient beings, one's objects of intent—and means to engage in the six
-perfections.
- Seeing reason and need, Buddha set forth many systems and vehicles, but
-these did not arise due to his being intimate with some and alien to others.
-The trainees who were listening to his teaching had various dispositions,
-interests, and abilities, and thus he taught methods that were suitable for
-each of them. For those who temporarily did not have the courage to strive
-for Buddhahood or who did not at all have the capacity of obtaining Buddhahood
-at that time, Buddha did not say, "You can attain Buddhahood." Rather, he
-set forth a path appropriate to the trainees' abilities. Buddha spoke in
-terms of their situation, and everything that he spoke was a means of
-eventually attaining highest enlightenment even though he did not always say
-that these were means for attaining Buddhahood.
- Since the purpose of a Buddha's coming is others' realization of the
-wisdom of Buddhahood, the methods for actualizing this wisdom are one vehicle,
-not two. A Buddha does not lead beings by a vehicle that does not proceed to
-Buddhahood; he establishes beings in his own level. A variety of vehicles are
-set forth in accordance with temporary needs.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
-You do not have to seek out loneliness--it is always there. Egolessness is a
-concept, a philosophy, but loneliness is a reality that you experience. A
-feeling of loneliness is part of the journey. As for me, I feel that way
-constantly, and I think it's a very healthy feeling, a very real feeling.
-When you sense that you are not you anymore and that nothing can replace that
-state, you begin to make discoveries. You discover devotion, and you discover
-a quality of richness and artistic expression that is very special. Being
-you, but not being you, is very resourceful. You become a complete mountain
-man: you know how to make fire and cook food. But it doesn't mean anything.
-You are still nobody. That is the inspiration.
- -- Chögyam Trungpa, "The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma, Volume
- One: The Individual Path of Liberation"
-~
- Interdependence is our reality, whether we accept it or not. In order to
-live productively within such a reality, it is better to acknowledge and work
-with interdependence, wholeheartedly and without resistance. This is where
-love and compassion come in. It is love that leads us to embrace our
-connectedness to others, and to participate willingly in the relations created
-by our interdependence. Love can melt away our defenses and our painful sense
-of separation. The warmth of friendship and love makes it easy for us to
-accept that our happiness is intimately linked to that of others. The more
-widely we are able to love others, the happier and more content we can feel
-within the relations of interdependence that are a natural part of our life.
- Love is possible in all our relationships because all people want happiness.
-No one wants to suffer. This is true of the people we love. It is also true
-of those we dislike. We are all absolutely identical in this respect. I
-think this universal wish for happiness is something we can easily grasp
-intellectually. When we learn to also feel and respect this in our heart,
-love naturally flourishes within us.
- -- The Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, "The Heart is Noble: Changing the World
- from the Inside Out"
-~
- Day and night, night and day we spend our lives in the company of the
-afflictions, generating desire for the pleasant and anger at the unpleasant,
-and continue thus even when dreaming, unable to remain relaxed, our minds
-completely and utterly mixed with thoughts of desire and hatred without
-interruption.
- To what refuge should we go? A source of refuge must have completely
-overcome all defects forever; it must be free of all faults. It must also
-have all the attributes of altruism—those attainments which are necessary
-for achieving others' welfare. For it is doubtful that anyone lacking these
-two prerequisites can bestow refuge; it would be like falling into a ditch and
-asking another who is in it to help you out. You need to ask someone who is
-standing outside the ditch for help; it is senseless to ask another who is in
-the same predicament. A refuge capable of protecting from the frights of
-manifold sufferings cannot also be bound in this suffering but must be free
-and unflawed. Furthermore, the complete attainments are necessary, for if you
-have fallen into a ditch, it is useless to seek help from someone standing
-outside it who does not wish to help or who wishes to help but has no means to
-do so.
- Only a Buddha has extinguished all faults and gained all attainments.
-Therefore, one should mentally go for refuge to a Buddha, praise him with
-speech, and respect him physically. One should enter the teaching of such a
-being.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
- All that is has me—universal creativity,
- pure and total presence—as its root.
- How things appear is my being.
- How things arise is my manifestation.
- Sounds and words heard are my messages
- expressed in sounds and words.
- All the capacities, forms, and pristine
- awareness of the buddhas;
- The bodies of sentient beings, their
- habituations, and so forth;
- All environments and their inhabitants,
- life forms, and experiences;
- Are the primordial state of pure and total
- presence.
-
- Without understanding me, the creativity of
- the universe,
- But investigating the phenomena that I
- manifest,
- You perceive everything dualistically due
- to your attachment and longing.
- Impermanent, apparitional things will fade
- away.
- They are aimless, like a blind man.
-
- All that is experienced and
- Your own mind are the unique primary reality.
- They cannot be conceptualized according to
- the cause and effect systems of thought.
- Investigate your mind's real nature
- So that your pure and total presence will
- actually shine forth.
-
- -- Longchenpa, "You Are the Eyes of the World"
-~
- Devotion, or mögü in Tibetan, can be divided into two aspects: möpa and
-küpa. Möpa means "longing" or "wanting," and küpa means "humility,"
-"respect," or "being without arrogance." With küpa, you are not pretending
-to be somebody who has reached a higher level of wisdom. So in devotion,
-longing and humbleness are put together. That state of mind brings openness
-to the teacher and to the dharma.
- With küpa, the longing of möpa does not become purely an emotional
-indulgence or demand on the part of either the student or the teacher. The
-devotion of küpa is the respect or sacredness that comes from that experience
-of aah [the space before first thought]! Küpa arises because every highlight
-in your life has always been touched by the sacredness of vajrayana, even
-before you knew it.
- -- Chogyam Trungpa, from "The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma,
- Volume Three: The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness"
-~
-All suffering in this life and others is created by the unsubdued mind.
-Similarly, the basis of all the practices of the six paramitas, such as
-generosity, moral discipline, and so on, is the mind.
-
-Nothing is more important than guarding the mind. Let us constantly keep
-watch over the wild elephant of the mind, curbing it with mindfulness and
-vigilance. This is how to avoid being influenced by different external
-conditions. But even in retreat in a very secluded place, if the mind is not
-kept under control, it will wander all over the place. Even completely alone,
-we can have an enormous amount of negative emotions.
-
-How are we to guard the mind? We should use attentiveness to watch our
-thoughts and use mindfulness to judge whether we are acting correctly. With
-these two we have the means to annihilate all adverse conditions. But without
-them, we will not see whether our thoughts are positive or negative or whether
-we are doing right or wrong, nor will we then be able to use antidotes as
-necessary.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
-The great yogi Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol replies to a Losar Day request from
-his disciple Depa Wangpo on what to adopt and what to reject regarding
-attitude and conduct...
-
- Don't harm your friends and neighbors; help them.
- Don't be stingy; use your wealth for offerings and charity.
- Don't let your body be idle; do prostrations and circumambulations.
- Don't let your mouth be idle; recite the mani mantra.
- Always have pure thoughts towards others.
-
- In brief, keeping Death in mind, practice the sacred Dharma.
- Give up doing wrong, and do what is wholesome.
- Whatever happiness and sufferings you undergo,
- Regard them as the result of previous actions.
- Always act in accord with the Dharma.
- Even though I may be far away,
- These instructions will remain like my very presence.
- Keep them in mind!
-
- -- Shabkar Natshok Rangdrol, in "The Life of Shabkar"
-~
-On the very night of Dodrupchen's death, his spiritual testament was
-received by his principal disciple, Do Khyentse. Dodrupchen appeared in the
-sky in a radiant light body and an attire of lights. He was floating on a
-carpet of light, which was held up by four dakinis. In a very enchanting
-voice he sang the verses of his testament, which include the following lines:
-
- I am going into the expanse of the Wisdom of the Ultimate Sphere,
- Which is the state that transcends thoughts and expressions.
- I am going into the state of Mirrorlike Wisdom,
- Which is the ceaseless clear glow, fresh and open.
- I am going into the expanse of the Wisdom of Evenness,
- In which all the thoughts of grasping and grasper have vanished into the
- ultimate sphere.
- I am going into the Wisdom of Discriminative Awareness,
- Which is the clarity, the dawn of six kinds of foreknowledge.
- I am going into the state of the Wisdom of Accomplishment,
- Which emanates various manifestations in accordance with [the needs of]
- trainable beings.
-
- Son, please stay healthy.
- Now you have won over the obstructions of your life.
- Until all the phenomenal existents are liberated as the signs and
- teachings [of Dharma],
- [You should be] aware of samsara and nirvana as dreams and illusions.
- Dedicate yourself to the meditation where there is no reference point.
- This is the empowerment of total entrustment and aspiration.
- This is the supreme empowerment of empowerments.
-
- -- from "Masters of Meditation and Miracles", by Tulku Thondup.
-~
- The view of interdependence makes for a great openness of mind. In general,
-instead of realizing that what we experience arises from a complicated network
-of causes, we tend to attribute happiness or sadness, for example, to single,
-individual sources. But if this were so, as soon as we came into contact with
-what we consider to be good, we would be automatically happy, and conversely,
-in the case of bad things, invariably sad. The causes of joy and sorrow would
-be easy to identify and target. It would all be very simple, and there would
-be good reason for our anger and attachment. When, on the other hand, we
-consider that everything we experience results from a complex interplay of
-causes and conditions, we find that there is no single thing to desire or
-resent, and it is more difficult for the afflictions of attachment or anger to
-arise. In this way, the view of interdependence makes our minds more relaxed
-and open.
- By training our minds and getting used to this view, we change our way of
-seeing things, and as a result we gradually change our behavior and do less
-harm to others. As it says in the sutras:
-
- Abandon evildoing;
- Practice virtue well;
- Subdue your mind:
- This is the Buddha's teaching.
-
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, from "For the Benefit of All Beings"
-~
-In the avadhuti, the main path of enlightenment,
-Prana and mind, bliss and warmth, are united,
-Becoming unconditioned great bliss.
-The wisdom of unobscured insight dawns.
-
-"This is unsurpassable," the guru has said.
-The darkness of ignorance is purified in space.
-One is free from the two obscurations of grasping and fixation.
-Therefore bliss and luminosity dawn in simplicity.
-
-This appearance of collective coincidence
-Is a reflection without self-nature.
-All appearances are realized like that,
-And just like appearances in a dream,
-All dharmas arise as illusions...
-
-When thoughts arise, rest naturally.
-When dreaming, be mindful without corrupting it.
-When in the pardo, don't control, but be aware.
-When there is fruition, let it arise without obscuration.
-
- -- from "The Life of Marpa the Translator" translated by Chögyam Trungpa
- and the Nalanda Translation Committee.
-~
-The Four Seals in Buddhism are:
-
- All products are impermanent.
- (or all compounded phenomena are impermanent?)
- ('du byed thams cad mi rtag pa)
-
- All contaminated objects are miserable.
- (zag bcas thams cad sdug bsngal ba)
-
- All phenomena are selfless.
- (chos thams cad bdag med pa)
-
- Nirvana is peace.
- (mya ngan las 'das ba zhi ba)
-
- --from "Meditation on Emptiness" (London: Wisdom, 1983), by Jeffrey Hopkins
-~
- When you pass away, nothing will do you any good except for the pure Dharma.
-You will not simply disappear when you die. Rather, what happens next will be
-dictated by your previous actions.
- For these reasons, you should exert yourself by whatever means necessary to
-free yourself from samsara, which is nothing but a vast ocean of suffering!
-Practice your teacher's guidance concerning what to do and what to give up
-to the letter, without falling under the influence of immature friends or bad
-influences. To the best of your ability, incorporate this genuine teaching on
-the certainty of death into each and every day.
- Keeping all this in mind, arouse faith in the Three Jewels so that you will
-be able to practice in this manner, thinking to yourself, "Think of me,
-Three Jewels!" At the same time, be sure to generate an intense sense of
-renunciation and subdue your mind stream.
- -- from "Entrance to the Great Perfection: A Guide to the Dzogchen
- Preliminary Practices", edited and translated by Cortland Dahl
-~
-I would like to mention my visit to Lourdes as a pilgrim. There, in front of
-the cave, I experienced something very special. I felt a spiritual vibration,
-a kind of spiritual presence there. And then, in front of the image of the
-Virgin Mary, I prayed. I expressed my admiration for this holy place that has
-long been a source of inspiration and strength, that has provided spiritual
-solace, comfort and healing to millions of people. And I prayed that this may
-continue for a long time to come. My prayer there was not directed to any
-clearly defined object, like Buddha or Jesus Christ or a bodhisattva, but was
-simply directed to all great beings who have infinite compassion towards all
-sentient beings.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
-~
-The Buddhist teaching is superior in four ways: view, meditation, behavior,
-and fruit.
-
-1. The "four seals" that distinguish the [Buddhist] view are as follows: all
-composed phenomena are impermanent, all contaminated things are miserable, all
-phenomena are selfless, and nirvana is peace.
-
-2. Buddhist meditation serves as an antidote to all cyclic existence within
-the three realms.
-
-3. Buddhist behavior is free from the two extremes, having abandoned both the
-extreme of overindulgence of desire, which is a case of being desirous and
-wanting good and great quantities of food and clothing, and the extreme of
-being too tired and worn out in body and mind.
-
-4. The fruits are the true cessations, which are abandonments such that the
-obstruction that is removed does not arise again [and which comes about]
-through analyzing individually the nonexistence of the referent object of the
-conception of self.
-
-These four [view, meditation, behavior, and fruit] are the distinguishing
-features of Buddhist doctrine.
- -- Jamyang Shayba, from "Buddhist Philosophy: Losang Gonchok's Short
- Commentary to Jamyang Shayba's Root Text on Tenets", by Daniel Cozort
- and Craig Preston, page 88.
-~
-When you are busy and preoccupied, you feel hassled by your own existence.
-You are so busy that you think that you do not have any time to spare for your
-practice. Such torment and busyness seem to be monumental or historic, but
-that is not the case. As far as we are concerned, that kind of torment is
-absolutely ordinary. As you begin to work on that, you realize that the
-inconvenience, discomfort, and anguish that you experience is no more than
-anybody else experiences. So your experience is no longer regarded as
-monumental—no more than if you step on a cat's tail, and the cat cries
-out, "Wooaaaoow!" However, it is still a problematic situation. Therefore
-you need to practice the paramita of discipline, which overcomes that type of
-preoccupation altogether. You begin to realize that preoccupations are
-garbage; they are worth flushing out so that something real could come up.
-Then paramita activity begins to make sense, and you begin to act in a more
-genuine way.
- -- Chögyam Trungpa, from "The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma.
- Volume Two: The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion"
-~
-If we unbalance nature, humankind will suffer. Furthermore, we must consider
-future generations: a clean environment is a human right like any other. It
-is therefore part of our responsibility toward others to ensure that the world
-we pass on is as healthy as, if not healthier than, we found it. This is not
-quite such a difficult proposition as it might sound. For although there is a
-limit to what we as individuals can do, there is no limit to what a universal
-response might achieve. It is up to us as individuals to do what we can,
-however little that may be. Just because switching off the light on leaving
-the room seems inconsequential, it does not mean we shouldn't do it.
- -- His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, from "The Pocket Dalai Lama"
-~
-Basically we are trying to put a stop to frivolity of any kind. Frivolity is
-an interesting word. It can mean being crazy and indulging unnecessarily in a
-very crude fashion, but it could also mean indulging in something in the name
-of humor and overdoing it slightly. If you are embarrassed to deal with a
-particular subject, you find another subject to discuss. If you are tired of
-drinking vodka, you switch to sake. If you are bored with talking to one
-person, you switch to somebody else. Frivolity is anything that creates
-further confusion, or the longing for further confusion. Confusion may seem
-luxurious: when you no longer have it, you begin to miss that confusion, and
-you would like to re-create it. It is like going back to an adult bookshop
-and getting more magazines. But with discipline, you control any form of
-potential escape from reality.
- -- Chögyam Trungpa, from "The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma.
- Volume Two: The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion"
-~
- The essence of all the songs can be epitomized by the four dharmas of
-Gampopa. These are: (1) one's mind becomes dharmic; (2) that dharma
-practice becomes path; (3) in following that path, confusion is removed; (4)
-having removed confusion, everything dawns as wisdom.
- The first dharma is the ground, where our mind becomes dharmic so that we
-and the dharma are no longer separate entities. We develop true renunciation
-and have a sense of revulsion towards samsara. The second dharma is the path.
-When our mind goes along with the dharma, the dharma becomes the path, and any
-obstacles, whether extreme or ordinary, become a part of our journey. The
-third dharma is the fruition. As the journey is taking place, the process of
-the journey liberates us from confusion and anxiety. We are delighted by our
-journey and we feel it is good. The fourth dharma is the total vision. When
-we are able to overcome confusion and anxiety, even our anxiety is not
-regarded as anti-dharma or anti-path. Cosmic wakefulness takes place.
- -- Chögyam Trungpa's in the foreword to "The Rain of Wisdom: The Essence of
- the Ocean of True Meaning"
-~
-Scrutinize Apperances
-
-No matter what our mind makes appear as an object of one of our six
-collections of consciousness—sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile or
-bodily sensations, or mental objects or events—we thoroughly scrutinize its
-mode of appearance. Our mind is making it appear as though its existence were
-established by virtue of itself, empowered by some truly and inherently
-existent self-nature—and not by virtue simply of mental labeling
-establishing its existence as what can be labeled "this" or "that"
-from this side. We thoroughly scrutinize this mode of appearance and the mode
-of existence it implies. There does appear to be something solidly there, not
-existing as what it is by virtue simply of mental labeling, but by virtue of
-itself, independently of anything else. But, by reminding ourselves that it
-does not exist as it appears to exist—by being mindful that its existence
-and identity are not established through its own power—we automatically
-reconfirm and become even stronger in our conviction in its bare mode of
-existence. In other words, as the text [the First Panchen Lama's A Root
-Text for the Precious Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra] says, "[You
-experience] their bare mode of existence dawning in an exposed, resplendent
-manner."
- -- His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, from "The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition
- of Mahamudra"
-~
-The dakini principle must not be oversimplified, as it carries many levels of
-meaning. On an outer level, accomplished female practitioners were called
-dakinis.... But ultimately, though she appears in female form, a dakini
-defies gender definitions. "To really meet the dakini, you have to go
-beyond duality," Khandro Rinpoche teaches, referring to an essential
-understanding in Vajrayana that the absolute reality cannot be grasped
-intellectually. The Tibetan word for dakini, khandro, means "sky-goer" or
-"space-dancer," which indicates that these ethereal awakened ones have
-left the confinements of solid earth and have the vastness of open space to
-play in.
- -- Michaela Haas, from "Dakini Power: Twelve Extraordinary Women Shaping the
- Transmission of Tibetan Buddhism in the West"
-~
-Drawing from Longchenpa, Jamgon Kongtrul explains the method of awakening in
-the Dzog-chen system, calling it the "Liberation as Ever-Perfect," as the
-primordial buddha Samantabhadra... Liberation as Ever-Perfect does not refer
-to the liberation of a buddha that has occurred in the past, such as that of
-Buddha Sakyamuni, but to the way in which countless beings are liberated right
-now and will continue to be liberated in the future simply by realizing their
-primordial purity. The basis, the path, and the ultimate result in this
-system are all of a singular, undifferentiated nature: total, pure awareness.
-Thus, the primordial freedom that one seeks to attain by practicing the
-spiritual path is something that one already possesses. Intrinsic freedom is
-itself the path that leads to the actualization of the goal.
- -- from the Translator's Introduction, "The Treasury of Knowledge: Book One,
- Myriad Worlds", by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye
-~
- If we realize, "I am a human being. A human being can do anything,"
-this determination, courage, and self-confidence are important sources of
-victory and success. Without will power and determination, even something
-that you might have achieved easily cannot be achieved. If you have will
-power and reasonable courage—not blind courage but courage without
-pride—even things that seemed impossible at a certain stage turn into being
-possible because of continuing effort inspired by that courage. Thus,
-determination is important.
- How can this be developed? Not through machines, not by money, but by our
-own inner strength based on clear realization of the value of human beings, of
-human dignity. For, once we realize that a human being is much more than just
-material, much more than just money, we can feel the importance of human life,
-from which we can feel the importance of compassion and kindness.
- Human beings by nature want happiness and do not want suffering. With that
-feeling everyone tries to achieve happiness and tries to get rid of suffering,
-and everyone has the basic right to do this. In this way, all here are the
-same, whether rich or poor, educated or uneducated, Easterner or Westerner,
-believer or nonbeliever, and within believers whether Buddhist, Christian,
-Jewish, Muslim, and so on. Basically, from the viewpoint of real human value
-we are all the same.
- -- His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, from "Kindness, Clarity, and Insight"
-~
-Pete's Song:
-My fur reeks like
-Racoon dead six weeks.
-Feed me!
-~
-The Epic of Gesar
-
-Through aspiration prayers and arousing bodhicitta, for the noble families the
-time had come to tame the māras and cannibal demons of Tibet, and resounding
-as self-arising formless sound from the sky was this song, which invokes the
-enlightened mindstreams [of all the sages]:
-
- E MA HO
- Unborn primordially empty dharmadhatu,
- Unobstructed ground for the arising of phenomena,
- The strength of emptiness free from the extremes of existing or not,
- Listen to this song, a self-arising spontaneously present song.
-
- Without considering the six grains of the three months of autumn,
- Why toil in the fields in the three months of spring?
- Without considering the abundance of the plunder,
- Why wave your arms to summon enemies and disputes?
- Without considering the benefit of others,
- Why single-pointedly practice to try to accomplish enlightenment?
-
- Failing to know the minds of those to be tamed, one is not a buddha.
- Failing to fulfill the welfare of others is not the sacred dharma.
- Failing to lead others to liberation is not the sangha.
-
- -- from The Epic of Gesar of Ling, "Gesar's Birth and Childhood"
-~
-When we meditate I encourage all of us to have the attitude that we are
-meditating to dissolve the self. That's why we meditate. Hold this
-perspective in your awareness and let your dualistic mind dissolve for at
-least a half hour, or at least for ten minutes every day. When you allow
-yourself to witness that unexpected glimpse of the truth, where the self is
-dissolved, it's like drinking nectar. It's inexpressible. We often use
-the word bliss to describe that state. Bliss is a good word, but it can be
-misunderstood. The bliss that I am speaking about has nothing to do with
-ordinary bliss. It's not like the bliss of having great food or other
-sensual pleasure. This is nonconceptual bliss that is not based on emotions
-but is based on awareness. We often say that realizing the true nature of who
-we are is like drinking the nectar of ultimate bliss. The more we drink, the
-more we are going to be addicted, which is very good.
- -- Anam Thubten, "No Self, No Problem: Awakening to Our True Nature"
-~
- Why is a man condemned to death not fortunate
- If he is released after having his hand cut off?
- Why am I who am experiencing human misery not fortunate
- If by that I am spared from (the agonies of) hell?
-
- If I am unable to endure
- Even the mere sufferings of the present,
- Then why do I not restrain myself from being angry,
- Which will be the source of hellish misery?
-
- In these two verses [from The Way of the Bodhisattva], Shantideva explains
-that by not being angry and developing hatred in response to harm caused by
-others, what one is gaining is protection from potential undesirable
-consequences that might otherwise come about. Because if one responds to such
-situations with anger and hatred, not only does it not protect one from the
-injury that has already been done, but on top of that one creates an
-additional cause for one's own suffering in the future. However, if one
-responds without anger and hatred and develops patience and tolerance, then
-although one many face temporary discomfort or injury, that temporary
-suffering will protect one from potentially dangerous consequences in the
-future. If this is the case, then by sacrificing small things, by putting up
-with small problems or hardships, one will be able to forgo experiences of
-much greater suffering in the future.
- An example Shantideva uses here is that if a convicted prisoner can save his
-life by sacrificing his arm as a punishment, wouldn't that person feel
-grateful for that opportunity? By accepting the pain and suffering of having
-his arm cut off, that person will be saving himself from death, which is a
-greater suffering. Shantideva adds that there is another advantage: not only
-will one be protected from potentially dangerous consequences in the future,
-but also by experiencing the pain and suffering which has been caused
-temporarily by others, one is exhausting the karmic potentials of negative
-karma which one has accumulated in the past. So it serves two purposes.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, from "Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a
- Buddhist Perspective"
-~
-The Fifth Dalai Lama (1617–1682) was perhaps the most mystical of all the
-Dalai Lamas in that he seemed to spend much of his time in a state of trance.
-During these trances many gurus of past ages, as well as mandala deities,
-buddhas, and bodhisattvas, would appear directly to him and give him secret
-transmissions, initiations, and teachings. As the Thirteenth Dalai Lama says
-of the Great Fifth later in this chapter, he "was continually absorbed in
-the wisdom dance that experiences all appearances as pure vision."
- -- Glenn H. Mullin, from "From the Heart of Chenrezig: The Dalai Lamas on
- Tantra"
-~
-Wishing others to be happy doesn't mean we give them everything they want,
-because sometimes what they want can be harmful. Wishing them to be happy
-entails wanting them to be free from pain and loneliness. Wouldn't it be
-wonderful if they were free from these and all other miseries? In order to
-love others, we have to be able to overcome our anger and hatred toward them.
-We have to be able to forgive them for the wrongs they've done. To do that,
-we have to get "me" out of the way and see that when people create harm,
-it is a reflection of their own pain, confusion, and misery. We just happened
-to walk across their path. We may even have done something to antagonize
-them, either deliberately or accidentally, but the reason that they got so
-upset is because of what is going on inside of them. We might also look at
-how we made ourselves into a target or accidentally became a target onto which
-they projected their confusion. Maybe we weren't very considerate of them.
-Maybe we have certain bad habits of which we're not aware and to which
-they're reacting.
- -- Thubten Chodron, "How to Free Your Mind: The Practice of Tara the
- Liberator"
-~
-We humans are actually not that far from enlightenment. Our five senses are
-like the Emanation Body of a Buddha; our dream body, which is similar to the
-after-death form, is like a Buddha's Beatific Form; and the basis of both of
-these is the subtle mind of clear light which shares the nature of a
-Buddha's Wisdom Body. All we have to do is learn to transform these
-ordinary elements into their pure natures. Then buddhahood naturally comes
-into our hands.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, from "The Path to Enlightenment"
-~
- There are three kinds of people [who practice Buddhism]. Like all other
-beings, the lowest person wants happiness and not suffering or rebirth in the
-lower realms of existence, so he practices Buddhism to create the causes of
-rebirth in the human realm or in the heavenly realms of the gods. He does not
-have the power or the courage to leave worldly existence completely. He only
-wants the best parts of worldly existence; he wants to avoid the worst parts,
-and that is why he practices the Buddhist religion—to gain a higher rebirth.
- The middling sort of person understands that the whole of worldly existence,
-no matter where one is born, is suffering by its nature, just as fire is hot
-by its nature. He wants to get out of it altogether and attain nirvana, the
-state that is entirely away from suffering.
- The highest person realizes that just as he himself does not want to suffer
-and does want happiness, so also do all living beings have the same fears and
-wishes. He knows that since we have been born again and again from
-beginningless time in worldly existence, there is not a single sentient being
-who has not been our mother and father at one time or another. Since we are
-that close to all sentient beings, the best person is one who practices
-Buddhism in order to remove all these countless beings from suffering.
- -- H.H. Sakya Trinzin, from "Treasures of the Sakya Lineage: Teachings from
- the Masters", by Migmar Tseten
-~
- To take refuge in the Buddha means to take refuge in the dharmas that
-constitute a buddha (a nonlearner). These consist of a buddha's knowledge
-of the termination and nonarising [of the obscurations]. Together with the
-associated factors [of this knowledge], they consist of the five
-uncontaminated skandhas.
- To take refuge in the sangha means [to take refuge] in the dharmas that
-constitute the sangha, which consists of [all] learners and nonlearners except
-for buddhas. It is by virtue of having attained their respective [dharmas]
-that the eight persons* are not separated from the path by [anyone], including
-gods. Therefore, they are called "sangha." In other words, [the sangha]
-is represented by the five uncontaminated skandhas in the mind streams of said
-eight persons.
- To take refuge in the dharma means [to take refuge] in the analytical
-cessation that is nirvana, that is, the two nirvanas [with and without
-remainder] of the noble ones.
-
-*The eight persons are also known as "the four pairs of persons"--stream-
-enterers, once-returners, nonreturners, and arhats, each divided into
-approachers to, and abiders in, these states.
-
- --from "Groundless Paths: The Prajnaparamita Sutras, The Ornament of Clear
- Realization, and Its Commentaries in the Tibetan Nyingma Tradition",
- translated by Karl Brunnholzl, from Shambhala Publications
-~
-Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary
-Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
- -- Benjamin Franklin
-~
- We need a clear mind-training map to keep us from missing the correct path.
-If we want to go to New York we need to know the roads and directions. Just
-jumping in the car and starting to drive may get us there, but most likely we
-will end up in another place or take much longer than is necessary.
- I have seen this happen with students who tell me of doing years of
-meditation without seeing any changes. They may blame themselves, meditation,
-or the Dharma, yet most often the problem is not knowing or applying the
-correct techniques or methods. Meditation is both easy and not easy. With
-the correct techniques and methods, applied with diligence, meditation can
-become a swift path to clearing confusion and unhelpful habits. Without them,
-we may wander in fogginess or agitation, never having engaged in true
-meditation even after years of "sitting."
- At Namdroling Monastery we practiced both resting and analytical meditation.
-The renowned teacher Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche believed that both types of
-meditation were important, but he thought it was best to begin with analytical
-meditation, because gaining familiarity with the true nature of reality would
-naturally lead to a clearer understanding of resting meditation and how to
-engage our mind constructively.
- -- Khenpo Gawang, "Your Mind Is Your Teacher: Self-Awakening through
- Contemplative Meditation", Shambhala Publications
-~
- Never think, "Even though I have confidence in the Three Jewels, it is not
-really certain that this work will be accomplished." Instead, one should
-know that the Enlightened One is surely able to protect those who surrender
-and act in accord with his words, because the Enlightened One is endowed with
-the transcendental wisdom which knows all the paths of practice that are in
-harmony with the intelligence and nature of all living beings, because he has
-the compassionate desire to establish his disciples on the right path after
-turning them from wrong ways, and because he has accomplished the two
-accumulations of merit and transcendental wisdom and has accomplished the
-resolve to help beings. So even though one has not yet attained liberation
-from worldly existence, it is one's fault for not having trusted and not
-having acted in accord with the words of the Three Jewels, not because the
-Three Jewels have no compassion.
- In brief, those who do not entrust themselves to the Precious Jewels, who
-are arrogant and who assume they are intelligent have no certainty in
-accomplishing their schemes. Even if they are accomplished, it is not certain
-whether those schemes will turn out well in the long run. So it is important
-to entrust oneself always to the Precious Jewels.
- -- Ngorchen Konchog Lhundrub, "Three Visions: Fundamental Teachings of the
- Sakya Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism"
-~
-Setting out on a spiritual path is a little like planning a trip—to Machu
-Picchu, for example. Some travellers will approach the project by investing a
-lot of time in reading travel books or Googling Internet sites about the best
-route to take and where to stay--a method that works, but only to a certain
-extent. Other travellers prefer a much simpler and safer method: to ask
-someone they know and trust who has already been to Machu Picchu to go with
-them and show them the way. Similarly, those wishing to follow the Buddhist
-path to enlightenment should rely on what are called in the teachings the
-"four authentics": the authentic words of the Buddha (his teachings); the
-authentic clarification of the teachings that can be found in the shastras
-(commentaries) written by great masters of the past; the further clarification
-that is the result of authentic personal experience; and for this experience
-to find expression, an authentic guru.
- -- Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, "Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called
- Preliminary Practices", Shambhala Publications
-~
-With regard to selflessness, it is necessary to know what "self" is--to
-identify the self that does not exist. Then one can understand its opposite,
-selflessness. Selflessness is not a case of something that existed in the
-past becoming non-existent; rather, this sort of "self" is something that
-never did exist. What is needed is to identify as non-existent something that
-always was nonexistent, for due to not having made such identification, we are
-drawn into the afflictive emotions of desire and hatred as well as all the
-problems these bring.
- -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, from "Kindness, Clarity, and Insight", Shambhala
- Publications
-~
- The essence of mind is somewhat difficult to explain, so we look at it from
-the negative point of view, that is, what mind is not. First of all, we see
-that it is not something which arises or ceases or abides. It is free of
-these three things. From beginningless time, there is no arising, no
-cessation and no abiding in terms of staying in one place, not moving, or not
-changing. It is completely free of all three of these.
- It is also free of being a thing or a substance composed of particles. The
-essential entity, or substance, of mind is not something that can be defiled
-or stained by grasping at subject and object. It is completely free of the
-stains from those activities.
- Further, when we look at the essential substance of mind, we find that no
-matter how much we search for it, no matter how much we analyze it, there is
-no thing there to be found. There is no entity that we can come up with by
-searching, evaluating, and analyzing. No matter how much we seek for its
-essential substance, we cannot find it. The searcher, the one who does the
-search for essential substance of mind, cannot find it. Therefore it is said
-that the essential substance of mind itself is emptiness.
- -- Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche, "The Practice of Mahamudra", published
- by Shambhala Publications
-~
- "Like a cloud." This is a simile for how the wisdom mind benefits sentient
-beings without conceptual thought. For example, in the summer, clouds gather
-in the sky without effort, causing crops and so forth to grow perfectly
-through the rain falling on the ground without conceptual thought.
- Likewise, the activities of the wisdom mind ripen the trainees' crop of
-virtue through the rainfall of Dharma without conceptual thought.
- -- Gampopa, from "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation: The Wish-fulfilling Gem
- of the Noble Teachings"
-~
- Psychologists tell us that a strong sense of self is essential to be
-psychologically healthy. But it seems Buddhism says there is no self. How
-can we reconcile these two views?
- When psychologists speak of a sense of "self" they are referring to the
-feeling that oneself is an efficacious person, someone who is self-confident
-and can act in the world. Buddhists agree that such a sense of self is both
-realistic and necessary. However, the sense of self that Buddhism says is
-unrealistic is that of a very solid, unchanging, independent "I." Such a
-self never has and never will exist. To understand this is to realize
-emptiness.
- Strange though it may sound, someone may have a psychologically weak sense
-of self that in Buddhist parlance would be considered strong self-grasping.
-For example, a person with poor self-esteem may focus a lot on himself and
-have a strong feeling of the existence of an independent self that is
-inferior, unlovable, and a failure. From a Buddhist viewpoint, such an
-independent self does not exist, although a conventional self does.
- --Thubten Chodron, "Buddhism for Beginners"
-~
-We all depend on one another. For this reason, whenever we act according to
-self-interest, sooner or later our selfish aims are bound to clash with the
-aims of the people we rely upon to accomplish our own goals. When that
-happens, conflicts will inevitably arise. As we learn to be more balanced in
-valuing others' concerns with our own, we will naturally find ourselves
-involved in fewer and fewer conflicts. In the meantime, it is helpful to
-acknowledge that conflicts are the logical outcome of this combination of
-self-interest and interdependence. Once we recognize this, we can see that
-conflicts are nothing to feel shocked or offended by. Rather, we can address
-them calmly and with wisdom.
- -- Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, in "Beyond Anger: How to Hold On to Your
- Heart and Your Humanity in the Midst of Injustice", Shambhala Publications
-~
-Cyclic existence continues to evolve through the power of the unbroken
-relationship of the twelve links of dependent origination. What are these
-twelve? They are (1) ignorance, which afflicts wandering beings by keeping
-them from seeing true reality. In obscuring the perception of true reality,
-ignorance also functions as the source for the subsequent links, such as
-karmic formation, by grasping as if there were an "I" and "mine." (2)
-Formation afflicts wandering beings by implanting the seeds of subsequent
-existence in the consciousness. In this way, when the root text states:
-"Wandering beings are afflicted due to…," it should be understood to
-apply to all the remaining links as well, from consciousness on. Accordingly,
-(3) consciousness becomes infused with habitual tendencies and leads sentient
-beings to the place of their birth. (4) Name and form take hold of the body
-of one's coming existence. (5) The six sense sources bring the state of
-name and form to completion. (6) Contact determines the experience of an
-object based on the coming together of three factors: object, faculty, and
-cognition. (7) Sensation experiences the various types of enjoyable and
-painful karmic ripening. (8) Craving creates the cohesion necessary for a
-future existence. (9) Grasping totally binds one to such an existence. (10)
-Becoming brings about the actual acquisition of this birth. (11) Birth serves
-as the support for the suffering of old age and so on. (12) Aging and death
-is the essence of suffering.
- -- Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham, "Middle Beyond Extremes: Maitreya's
- Madhyantavibhaga with Commentaries"
-~
-Compassion and generosity must be accompanied by detachment. Expecting
-something in return for them is like doing business. If the owner of a
-restaurant is all smiles with his customers, it is not because he loves them
-but because he wants to increase his turnover. When we love and help others,
-it should not be because we find a particular individual likable but because
-we see that all beings, whether we think of them as friends or enemies, want
-to be happy and have the right to happiness.
- -- The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, in "On the Path to
- Enlightenment: Heart Advice from the Great Tibetan Masters",
- Shambhala Publications
-~
-Examining the understanding of heat in Vajrayana gives insight into tantra's
-somewhat different embrace of classical Buddhist imagery. From this
-perspective, the experience of mental burning is indeed the central suffering
-of our lives. It is the experiential dimension of the intensity of our
-obscurations, whether emotional, conceptual, or habitual. But rather than
-attempting to put out the flames with meditation methods, it is important to
-allow the burning to occur during practice. Certainly in the foundational
-stages of the path we must learn not to become engulfed in the flames, to tame
-the wild mind and emotions, and to train ourselves to open further to
-experience. Finally, however, through Vajrayana practice under the guidance
-of a guru, the burning we experience becomes a great teacher and a great
-blessing.
- -- Judith Simmer-Brown, "Dakini's Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in
- Tibetan Buddhism", Shambhala Publications
-~
-Life is mainly froth and bubble,
-Two things stand like stone--
-Kindness in another's trouble,
-Courage in your own.
- -- Adam Lindsay Gordon
-~
-With regard to one's behavior, one must relinquish all the limitations
-implied in subject-object duality (gzung 'dzin gyi la dor ba). One should
-abandon all ordinary ways of assessing outer and inner phenomena, and the
-engagement or withdrawal of the mind with regard to "good" and "bad."
-One must not, through mindless clinging to sense objects, stray into the five
-ordinary mental poisons. For when approached with skillful means, all are but
-the display of the great and perfect equality.
- -- Jigme Lingpa, from "Treasury of Precious Qualities: Book Two: Vajrayana
- and the Great Perfection", by Shambhala Publications
-~
- Recollection is the path of meditating on
- The nature that was seen with awareness.
- Constituted by the aspects of enlightenment,
- This serves to eliminate the stains.
-
- Recollection involves repeatedly recalling and realizing, in the context of
-the path of cultivation, what was realized when the intrinsic nature was
-directly seen with individual self-awareness at the prior stage. In this way,
-the term recollection refers to all that constitutes the factors of
-enlightenment. The path of cultivation is [referred to as such] because it
-involves eradicating those stains that are eliminated through cultivation.
- -- from "Distinguishing Phenomena from Their Intrinsic Nature: Maitreya's
- Dharmadharmatavibhanga with Commentaries by Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham",
- Shambhala Publications.
-~
- The Capable One spoke of the following attributes as the seven noble riches,
-for they are the causes of untainted happiness and are not in any way
-ordinary. Faith—that is, the three kinds of faith in the Three Jewels and
-confidence in the law of actions and their effects. Discipline, the avoidance
-of harmful actions. Learning that comes from listening to the holy Dharma
-that leads to liberation, with the intention of gaining complete knowledge.
-Being generous—with a desire to make offerings and to help beings, to give
-away all one's possessions without expecting anything in return or any
-karmic reward. A sense of shame with respect to oneself that prevents one
-from indulging in negative actions, and that is unstained by such things as
-jealousy or seeking veneration. A sense of decency with regard to others that
-stops one from engaging in unvirtuous practices. And wisdom, that is,
-knowledge of the particular and general characteristics of phenomena.
- You should realize that other common things that the world calls
-riches—gold, for instance—are of no value in obtaining untainted
-qualities; they are worthless, hollow, and without essence.
- -- from "Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend With Commentary by Kyabje Kangyur
- Rinpoche", Shambhala Publications
-~
-All apparent phenomena are nothing but delusion, and there is, moreover, no
-freedom from delusion to be achieved by dispelling delusion. Delusion is, by
-its own essence, completely pure and, hence, enlightened. All phenomena are,
-in this way, primordially, fully, and completely enlightened. Phenomena
-appearing as various attributes are, therefore, indeed the mandala of vajra
-body, speech, and mind. They are like the Buddhas of the three times, never
-transcending the essence of complete purity. Sentient beings and Buddhas are
-not differentiated in terms of their essence. Just like distinct causes and
-results appearing in a dream, they are nothing but perceptions of individual
-minds brought forth by the power of imputation.
- -- Heidi I. Köppl, "Establishing Appearances as Divine: Rongzom Chökyi
- Zangpo on Reasoning, Madhyamaka, and Purity", Shambhala and Snow Lion
- Publications
-~
- "Emptiness" is a rough translation of the Sanskrit term shunyata and the
-Tibetan term tongpa-nyi. The basic meaning of the Sanskrit word shunya is
-"zero," while the Tibetan word tongpa means "empty"—not in the sense
-of a vacuum or a void, but rather in the sense that the basis of experience is
-beyond our ability to perceive with our senses and or to capture in a nice,
-tidy concept. Maybe a better understanding of the deep sense of the word may
-be "inconceivable" or "unnameable."
- So when Buddhists talk about emptiness as the basis of our being, we don't
-mean that who or what we are is nothing, a zero, a point of view that can give
-way to a kind of cynicism. The actual teachings on emptiness imply an
-infinitely open space that allows for anything to appear, change, disappear,
-and reappear. The basic meaning of emptiness, in other words, is openness, or
-potential. At the basic level of our being, we are "empty" of definable
-characteristics.
- -- Tsoknyi Rinpoche, from "The Best Buddhist Writing 2013", published by
- Shambhala Publications and Snow Lion Publications.
-~
- The Lama is the ecstatic, wild, and gentle figure who short-circuits your
-systems of self-referencing. The Lama is the only person in your life who
-cannot be manipulated. The Lama is the invasion of unpredictability you allow
-into your life, to enable you to cut through the convolutions of interminable
-psychological and emotional processes. The Lama is the terrifyingly
-compassionate gamester who reshuffles the deck of your carefully arranged
-rationale. To enter into vajra commitment is to leap from the perfect
-precipice. To find yourself in the radiant space of this choiceless choice is
-the very heart of Tantra. To leap open-eyed into the shining emptiness of the
-Lama's wisdom display and to experience the ecstatic impact of each dynamic
-gesture of the Lama's method display is the essential luminosity and power
-of the path.
- -- Ngak'chang Rinpoche, quoted in "Dangerous Friend: The Teacher-Student
- Relationship in Vajrayana Buddhism", Shambhala Publications
-~
- When clouds cover the sky, we cannot see the pure nature of space.
-Likewise, when conceptual thoughts occupy the mind, we cannot see the pure
-nature of the mind. To see whether this is true, we can meditate so that the
-mind becomes relaxed and peaceful, and then there is room to develop
-compassion, love, and bodhicitta. But when our mind is occupied by conceptual
-thoughts and negative thoughts, there is no space to develop good qualities.
-Our mind becomes full of suffering and we cannot disentangle ourselves from
-confusion.
- When our mind emphasizes positive, calming, and relaxing thoughts, it leaves
-no space for negative thoughts to arise. Then we can maintain a peaceful,
-harmonious mind regardless of external conditions. This becomes a matter of
-how much we habituate ourselves to the Dharma teachings.
- -- from "Opening the Treasure of the Profound: Teachings on the Songs of
- Jigten Sumgön and Milarepa", by Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche,
- Shambhala Publications and Snow Lion Publications.
-~
-What is true patience and how can we develop it? Patience is imperturbability
-in the face of harm and hardship. Responding to these difficulties with anger
-is extremely destructive because it creates unpleasant consequences and
-destroys positive energy. There is no austere practice to equal the practice
-of patience, which calms the turbulence of the disturbing emotions. It is
-cultivated in meditation and implemented in everyday life. There are three
-main kinds of patience: the patience of taking no account of those who inflict
-harm, the patience of willingly accepting adversity and the patience of
-gaining certainty with regard to the teachings. Their opposites are
-animosity, discouragement and reluctance to engage with the teachings.
- -- from "The Six Perfections: An Oral Teaching by Geshe Sonam Rinchen",
- Shambhala Publications and Snow Lion Publications.
-~
-Bodhichitta can be understood as a quality of intention, sometimes called a
-“great will.” This great will does not come from the ego; it is
-paradoxically an intention that arises through the surrender of the ego. As
-the ego lets go of its assumption that it has a real understanding of what is
-needed in the path of awakening, it surrenders to a deeper quality of will and
-wisdom. The shift from the ego’s center of will to the intention of our
-buddha nature to awaken us for the welfare of others aligns us with a source
-of will far beyond our limited sense of self. I have often described this
-will as a river of intention, which once stepped into becomes an undercurrent
-in all we do in our life.
- -- Rob Preece, "Preparing for Tantra: Creating the Psychological Ground for
- Practice", published by Shambhala and Snow Lion Publications.
-~
- In fact, one of the things that I hope all of us have learned these past few
-weeks is that it turns out smart, effective government is important. It
-matters. I think the American people during this shutdown had a chance to get
-some idea of all the things, large and small, that government does that make a
-difference in people's lives.
- We hear all the time about how government is the problem. Well, it turns
-out we rely on it in a whole lot of ways. Not only does it keep us strong
-through our military and our law enforcement, it plays a vital role in caring
-for our seniors and our veterans, educating our kids, making sure our workers
-are trained for the jobs that are being created, arming our businesses with
-the best science and technology so they can compete with companies from other
-countries. It plays a key role in keeping our food and our toys and our
-workplaces safe. It helps folks rebuild after a storm. It conserves our
-natural resources. It finances startups. It helps to sell our products
-overseas. It provides security to our diplomats abroad.
- So let's work together to make government work better, instead of treating
-it like an enemy or purposely making it work worse. That’s not what the
-founders of this nation envisioned when they gave us the gift of self-
-government. You don’t like a particular policy or a particular president,
-then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election. Push to
-change it. But don’t break it. Don’t break what our predecessors spent
-over two centuries building. That's not being faithful to what this country
-is about.
- -- Barack Obama, after the US government shutdown of 2013 had ended.
-~
-When the teachings say we need to reduce our fascination with the things of
-this life, it does not mean that we should abandon them completely. It means
-avoiding the natural tendency to go from elation to depression in reaction to
-life’s ups and downs, jumping for joy when you have some success, or wanting
-to jump out the window if you do not get what you want. Being less concerned
-about the affairs of this life means assuming its ups and downs with a broad
-and stable mind.
- -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in "On the Path to Enlightenment: Heart
- Advice from the Great Tibetan Masters", from Shambhala Publications and
- Snow Lion Publications.
-~
-Critical Thinking as Defined by the National Council for Excellence in
-Critical Thinking, 1987
-
- Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and
-skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or
-evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation,
-experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and
-action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values
-that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision,
-consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and
-fairness.
- It entails the examination of those structures or elements of thought
-implicit in all reasoning: purpose, problem, or question-at-issue;
-assumptions; concepts; empirical grounding; reasoning leading to conclusions;
-implications and consequences; objections from alternative viewpoints; and
-frame of reference. Critical thinking — in being responsive to variable
-subject matter, issues, and purposes — is incorporated in a family of
-interwoven modes of thinking, among them: scientific thinking, mathematical
-thinking, historical thinking, anthropological thinking, economic thinking,
-moral thinking, and philosophical thinking.
- Critical thinking can be seen as having two components: 1) a set of
-information and belief generating and processing skills, and 2) the habit,
-based on intellectual commitment, of using those skills to guide behavior. It
-is thus to be contrasted with: 1) the mere acquisition and retention of
-information alone, because it involves a particular way in which information
-is sought and treated; 2) the mere possession of a set of skills, because it
-involves the continual use of them; and 3) the mere use of those skills ("as
-an exercise") without acceptance of their results.
- Critical thinking varies according to the motivation underlying it. When
-grounded in selfish motives, it is often manifested in the skillful
-manipulation of ideas in service of one’s own, or one's groups’, vested
-interest. As such it is typically intellectually flawed, however
-pragmatically successful it might be. When grounded in fairmindedness and
-intellectual integrity, it is typically of a higher order intellectually,
-though subject to the charge of "idealism" by those habituated to its selfish
-use.
- Critical thinking of any kind is never universal in any individual; everyone
-is subject to episodes of undisciplined or irrational thought. Its quality is
-therefore typically a matter of degree and dependent on, among other things,
-the quality and depth of experience in a given domain of thinking or with
-respect to a particular class of questions. No one is a critical thinker
-through-and-through, but only to such-and-such a degree, with such-and-such
-insights and blind spots, subject to such-and-such tendencies towards self-
-delusion. For this reason, the development of critical thinking skills and
-dispositions is a life-long endeavor.
- -- from a statement by Michael Scriven & Richard Paul, presented at the 8th
- Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education
- Reform, Summer 1987.
-~
-Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to
-reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. People who think
-critically consistently attempt to live rationally, reasonably, empathically.
-They are keenly aware of the inherently flawed nature of human thinking when
-left unchecked. They strive to diminish the power of their egocentric and
-sociocentric tendencies. They use the intellectual tools that critical
-thinking offers--concepts and principles that enable them to analyze,
-assess, and improve thinking. They work diligently to develop the
-intellectual virtues of intellectual integrity, intellectual humility,
-intellectual civility, intellectual empathy, intellectual sense of justice and
-confidence in reason. They realize that no matter how skilled they are as
-thinkers, they can always improve their reasoning abilities and they will at
-times fall prey to mistakes in reasoning, human irrationality, prejudices,
-biases, distortions, uncritically accepted social rules and taboos, self-
-interest, and vested interest. They strive to improve the world in whatever
-ways they can and contribute to a more rational, civilized society. At the
-same time, they recognize the complexities often inherent in doing so. They
-avoid thinking simplistically about complicated issues and strive to
-appropriately consider the rights and needs of relevant others. They
-recognize the complexities in developing as thinkers, and commit themselves to
-life-long practice toward self-improvement. They embody the Socratic
-principle: The unexamined life is not worth living, because they realize that
-many unexamined lives together result in an uncritical, unjust, dangerous
-world.
- -- Linda Elder, September, 2007
-
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