Distinctions such as large and small
Have relevance for you no more.
~
-The largest is the smallest too-
+The largest is the smallest too;
Here limitations have no place.
~
-What is is not, what is not is-
+What is is not, what is not is;
If this is not yet clear to you,
You're still far from the inner truth.
~
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 --
+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
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 --
+Kindness cannot be taught by harshness--
not by any amount of harshness.
-- Raymond M. Smullyan / The Tao is Silent
~
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 piss sniffers. it is not cost effective
+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
-- 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!'
+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
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 --
+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
-- 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
+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 --
+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) --
+ 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.
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
+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
+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,"
~
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
+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
-- 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
+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,
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
+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
[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
+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
but to be someone.
-- Coco Chanel
~
-In other words, can you forgive the people who have pissed
-you off in the past? If not, it seems like you're trapped
-in their piss. Or yours. Or something.
-~
If someone says 'can't', that shows you what to do.
-- John Cage
~
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.
+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.
+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"
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
+ Investigate your mind's real nature
So that your pure and total presence will
actually shine forth.
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.
+ 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.
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"
projects / feisty_meow.git / blobdiff