~
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.
many unexamined lives together result in an uncritical, unjust, dangerous
world.
-- Linda Elder, September, 2007
-
+~
+In philosophical terms, Tibetan scriptures refer to neurotic mind as the
+impure or afflicted mind. But within the context of wind energy, neurotic
+mind is not just caused by self-attachment. The mind is also propelled by the
+movement of wind energy. The Tibetan language describes this relationship
+between the wind and the mind as the wind-mind (Tib. rlung sems). This
+compound word describes the wind energy and the conceptual mind as always
+intertwined and moving together—a singular motion. Again, a metaphor is
+helpful to understand how the mind and the wind work together. The Tibetan
+Buddhist teachings compare the mind and the breath to a rider and its mount.
+In this metaphor, the wind energy is the mount and the mind is the rider.
+This metaphor illustrates how it is the wind energy that carries the mind and
+that influences and shapes the mind’s energy. The wind energy is the root
+of all of our experience, since it provides energy for the mind’s movement.
+So, wind energy training is a powerful tool for purifying, calming, taming,
+and relaxing the wind energy to impact the expression of neurotic mind.
+ -- Anyen Rinpoche and Allison Choying Zangmo, from "The Tibetan Yoga of
+ Breath: Breathing Practices for Healing the Body and Cultivating Wisdom",
+ published by Shambhala Publications and Snow Lion Publications.
+~
+Imagination relies on empty perception. Painting relies on empty planes.
+Sculpture relies on empty space. Music relies on empty time. Literature
+relies on empty concepts. If we are to realize the art of freedom, if we are
+to discover our creative potential, we need to rely on the experience of our
+intrinsic vibrant emptiness--the beginningless ground of what we are.
+ -- Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, from "Roaring Silence: Discovering
+ the Mind of Dzogchen", published by Shambhala Publications and Snow Lion
+ Publications.
+~
+Detachment doesn't mean "throw it away" or "don’t have feelings
+about it." It definitely does not mean denying or obstructing the mind's
+natural tendency to project. Imagine you are about to go into a cotton
+factory. Before entering you pour glue all over your body, and then you
+demand, "I don’t want any cotton balls to stick to my body, but I won’t
+remove the glue from my body either." Then you enter the cotton factory.
+Of course the glue, by its nature, makes cotton balls stick to you. In
+meditative language, that kind of stickiness is called deliberation or
+fabrication, and here we call it the state of nondetachment. The state of
+nondetachment is when you get entangled and you make the story line similar to
+that of a daytime soap opera in which four characters go on for twenty years.
+It keeps on multiplying and you exaggerate the situation. You create a state
+in your mind that is full of grasping, clinging, and attachment.
+ -- Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche from "The Healing Power of Meditation: Leading
+ Experts on Buddhism, Psychology, and Medicine Explore the Health Benefits
+ of Contemplative Practice", edited by Andy Fraser, published by Shambhala
+ Publications and Snow Lion Publications.
+~
+ According to Sthiramati, though samsara has the nature of nirvana, in
+ordinary beings true reality is obscured by their tendencies of clinging to a
+self and really existing phenomena. Thus, they do not see emptiness, which
+actually exists, but they naturally perceive the actually nonexistent
+phenomena of apprehender and apprehended, just as when mistakenly not seeing
+an existent rope, but seeing it as a nonexistent snake.
+ Bodhisattvas lack the clinging to a self and phenomena and thus they
+naturally see true reality—emptiness—while not seeing any duality, just as
+correctly seeing an existent rope, while not seeing it as a nonexistent snake.
+When existent emptiness—true reality—is seen and the nonexistent
+characteristics of apprehender and apprehended are not seen anymore, the
+alaya-consciousness—the dependent nature—has undergone the fundamental
+change. This fundamental change is liberation and nirvana.
+ Just as people liberated from bondage can do what they please, once this
+fundamental change occurs, bodhisattvas are liberated because they have gained
+mastery over their minds, which abide like space without any appearance of
+characteristics. Thus, no matter what they encounter, they are able to act as
+they please without being bound by any attachment or aversion.
+ -- Karl Brunnhölzl, from "Mining for Wisdom within Delusion: Maitreya’s
+ Distinction between Phenomena and the Nature of Phenomena and Its Indian
+ and Tibetan Commentaries", published by Shambhala Publications and Snow
+ Lion Publications
+~
+Our awareness of feelings in the body and mind ranges from simple frustration
+and malaise to anguish, despair, and white-hot physical pain, and from simple
+pleasures to extraordinary ecstasy. As we become clearly cognizant of the
+bandwidth of our own feelings, we direct our awareness externally. We become
+vividly aware that myriad sentient beings around us are not simply objects of
+our pleasure, displeasure, or indifference, but have feelings just like ours.
+By turning our awareness outward and closely applying mindfulness to other
+sentient beings, we can empathize with their feelings. When we empathize with
+another’s suffering and we attend closely, compassion arises. The suffering
+of unpleasant feelings is the very source of the experience of compassion.
+ -- B. Alan Wallace, in "Minding Closely: The Four Applications of
+ Mindfulness", works published by Shambhala Publications and Snow Lion
+ Publications
+~
+It is our aim to have genuine loving-kindness toward all sentient beings
+because we see them suffering. In the Mahayana tradition, it says that
+through our innumerable lifetimes, at some time or other, every single
+sentient being has been in the relation to us of our mother, our friends, or
+someone who has helped us. We look at all sentient beings in this way. We
+feel a deep yearning to help them because they have helped us. When we
+contemplate in this way, we find that some kind of compassion begins to take
+place.
+ -- Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in "The Tibetan Buddhism Reader", published by
+ Shambhala Publications
projects / feisty_meow.git / blobdiff