published by Shambhala Publications
~
The self-centered thought is not who we are. The self-centered thought is
-different from the mind that wants to be happy because we’re sentient
-beings. Everybody wants to be happy. There’s no problem with wanting to be
+different from the mind that wants to be happy because we're sentient
+beings. Everybody wants to be happy. There's no problem with wanting to be
happy. The problem is the way the self-centered thought goes about thinking
of our happiness and the way it goes about getting happiness. It is a
distorted mental state that can be eliminated by seeing its disadvantages,
applying the antidotes, and cultivating the mind that cherishes others.
- - Thubten Chodron, from "Don’t Believe Everything You Think: Living with
+ - Thubten Chodron, from "Don't Believe Everything You Think: Living with
Wisdom and Compassion", published by Shambhala Publications
~
According to the sutras, numerous eons ago, when the Buddha was an ordinary
of his past negative karma.
He and a companion were forced to pull a wheel of fire on which a wrathful
hell-guard was sitting, holding a burning club with which to beat them. His
-companion was so weak that he couldn’t pull the wheel anymore. The hell-
+companion was so weak that he couldn't pull the wheel anymore. The hell-
guard stabbed his companion with a burning trident. His companion kept crying
loudly and bleeding profusely. At that moment, with strong love and
compassion, the Buddha developed enlightened aspiration, a vow to take
cultivated bodhichitta, all the meritorious actions that are supported by and
complemented with this altruism—even the slightest form of positive
action—become causes for the achievement of omniscience.
- -- H. H. the Dalai Lama, from "The Fourteenth Dalai Lama in A Beginner’s
+ -- H. H. the Dalai Lama, from "The Fourteenth Dalai Lama in A Beginner's
Guide to Meditation: Practical Advice and Inspiration from Contemporary
Buddhist Teachers", published by Shambhala Publications
~
meaning in their human existence of leisure and opportunity. He asks those of
us with such good fortune, "Please listen to what I have to say with a
single-pointed mind."
- Again, this is strikingly similar to Aryadeva’s Four Hundred, which says
+ Again, this is strikingly similar to Aryadeva's Four Hundred, which says
that a practitioner of the Dharma who is listening to the teachings needs
three qualities: objectivity, critical intelligence, and a real interest in
what is being taught.
-- H. H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, in "From Here to Enlightenment: An
- Introduction to Tsong-kha-pa’s Classic Text The Great Treatise on the
+ Introduction to Tsong-kha-pa's Classic Text The Great Treatise on the
Stages of the Path to Enlightenment", published by Shambhala Publications
~
When we look back, at the time of death, the experience of this life will seem
of aggression, desire, selfishness, and jealousy? What is the use of holding
on to these useless emotions within impermanence? Impermanence is the nature
of everything.
- -- Khandro Rinpoche, from "Buddha’s Daughters: Teachings from Women Who
+ -- Khandro Rinpoche, from "Buddha's Daughters: Teachings from Women Who
Are Shaping Buddhism in the West", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+Please listen without your minds wandering.
+Though I am not skilled in composing songs,
+This is the way to understand the true oral instructions.
+Keep this in mind and ponder it.
+
+The three worlds are primordially pure.
+Ultimately, there is nothing more to understand.
+Not negation, unceasing continuity,
+Unchanging—such is the view.
+
+The innate essence is naturally luminous.
+Unconditioned, meditation is unceasing.
+Not negation, beyond losing and gaining,
+Without desire or attachment—such is the meditation.
+
+Arising from the natural occurrence of various coincidences,
+The play of illusion is unobstructed.
+Not negation,
+Things are unpredictable, abrupt—such is the action.
+
+Mind shines as bodhicitta.
+There is no attainment of the three kayas of buddha.
+Not negation, beyond hope and fear,
+Without ground or root—such is the fruition.
+ - from "The Life of Marpa the Translator", translated by Chögyam Trungpa
+ and the Nalanda Translation Committee, published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+FDR's Economic Bill of Rights
+
+ It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy
+for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American
+standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no
+matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of
+our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed,
+ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.
+ This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under
+the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right
+of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from
+unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
+ As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial
+economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us
+equality in the pursuit of happiness.
+ We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual
+freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.
+"Necessitous men are not free men."[3] People who are hungry and out of a
+job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
+ In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We
+have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of
+security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station,
+race, or creed.
+
+ Among these are:
+
+ The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or
+farms or mines of the nation;
+
+ The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and
+recreation;
+
+ The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which
+will give him and his family a decent living;
+
+ The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere
+of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or
+abroad;
+
+ The right of every family to a decent home;
+
+ The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and
+enjoy good health;
+
+ The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age,
+sickness, accident, and unemployment;
+
+ The right to a good education.
+
+ All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be
+prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals
+of human happiness and well-being.
+ America's own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how
+fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our
+citizens.
+ For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in
+the world.
+ -- Excerpt from President Roosevelt's January 11, 1944 message to the
+ Congress of the United States on the State of the Union
+~
+ Whatever arises in our mind—whether it's a thought, an emotion, a
+sensation, or a perception—is the arising of coemergent wisdom. It is the
+radiation of the mind's emptiness and clarity. Every arising is a temporary
+arising—one thought comes and goes, then another thought comes and goes.
+All our thoughts and emotions just appear and disappear.
+ This is very important, because we usually grasp at whatever occurs. For
+instance, when sadness arises, we hold on to this feeling and think, “I am
+so sad, I am so depressed.” But from the Mahamudra point of view, what has
+happened? A feeling has arisen in the mind, like a cloud. Like a cloud, it
+appears and then it disappears, and that's all there is to it. This time it
+is sadness arising, the next time it may be happiness, the next time it may be
+anger, and later it may be kindness. All sorts of things arise, like
+wildflowers in a spring meadow. All sorts of flowers grow; all sorts of
+thoughts and emotions arise. They are all okay; they're nothing special.
+When we understand what our thoughts and feelings are, and we experience them
+in this way, we are able to let them come and let them go.
+ -- Ringu Tulku, from "Confusion Arises as Wisdom: Gampopa's Heart Advice on
+ the Path of Mahamudra", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+ The second quality of devotion is absence of arrogance. The arrogant
+approach is to be so passionately involved with our teacher that we become
+devotional chauvinists and cease to see the rest of the world properly. In
+fact, we become passionately involved with our own arrogance. We indulge our
+“devotion” by collecting information, techniques, stories, little words of
+wisdom—all to confirm our chauvinistic view. It actually reaches a point
+that the teacher upon whom our arrogance is based himself becomes a threat.
+The absurdity is that we even end up wanting to use our collection of
+ammunition against our teacher when he begins giving our “devotion” a hard
+time.
+ If our devotion is without arrogance there is not this resentment toward the
+world or the guru. Absence of such arrogance is absolutely necessary. When
+courting a teacher, students frequently make a sort of detailed application,
+listing all their insights and spiritual credentials. That is too arrogant;
+it is phony, out of the question altogether. It is fine to offer our
+particular skills or neuroses to the guru as a gift or an opening gesture.
+But if we begin to dress up our neuroses as virtues, like a person writing a
+resumé, that is unacceptable. Devotion without arrogance demands that we
+stop clinging to our particular case history, that we relate to the teacher
+and to the world in a naked and direct way, without hiding behind credentials.
+ -- Chögyam Trungpa, from "The Heart of the Buddha: Entering the Tibetan
+ Buddhist Path", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+To study and to contemplate what one has learned is very important, but these
+two can only progress if one engages in meditation practice. Thus, the
+importance of each of these three—moral conduct, study, and
+meditation—cannot be underestimated. If one practices these free of
+attachment to this life, the benefits are enormous. But to pursue these while
+seeking worldly attainments means one will not receive the benefits that would
+be gained by a genuine spiritual practitioner. For this reason, it will be
+best if you abandon any inauthentic approaches to ethical discipline, study,
+and meditation.
+ -- Chogye Trichen Rinpoche, in "Parting from the Four Attachments: A
+ Commentary on Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen's Song of Experience on Mind
+ Training and the View", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+If what appears to be apprehended does not exist by its very own essence apart
+from that which apprehends it, then what appears to be the apprehender does
+not exist either. The reason, here, is that the apprehender exists in
+relation to the apprehended, not in isolation. Therefore, awareness is devoid
+of both apprehender and apprehended, in all their various forms. Free from
+subject and object, by its very own nature awareness is a mere indescribable
+luminosity.
+ -- from "Distinguishing Phenomena from Their Intrinsic Nature: Maitreya's
+ Dharmadharmatavibhanga with Commentaries by Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham",
+ published by Shambhala Publications.
+~
+"Immediately join whatever you meet with meditation"
+
+ This slogan refers to the practice of transforming adverse circumstances
+and situations into the path of awakening. It is a reminder not to respond to
+things in a habitual way, but rather to respond with understanding, openness,
+and courage by maintaining a sense of awareness. We shouldn't think of
+meditation as something we only do if we're sitting on a cushion, but should
+treat everyday situations as meditations by focusing our mind on whatever
+arises. There's nothing we can't utilize for our own and others'
+benefit if we use both fortunate and unfortunate circumstances to train the
+mind.
+ -- Traleg Kyabgon, "The Practice of Lojong: Cultivating Compassion through
+ Training the Mind", published by Shambhala Publications.
+~
+O monks, you should focus on four things. What are these four? To focus on
+the teachings and not focus on the individual; to focus on the meaning and not
+focus on the words; to focus on timeless awareness and not focus on ordinary
+consciousness; and to focus on the definitive meaning and not focus on the
+meaning that guides. These four things are things to be realized; they are
+not four kinds of spiritual individuals.
+ -- Jamgön Kongtrul, from "The Treasury of Knowledge: Book Seven and Book
+ Eight, Parts One and Two: Foundations of Buddhist Study and Practice",
+ published by Shambhala Publications.
projects / feisty_meow.git / blobdiff