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.
+The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from;
+furthermore, if you do not like any of them,
+you can just wait for next year's model.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum
~
A bore is a man who, when you ask him how he is, will tell you.
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
~
Parents were invented to make children happy
by giving them something to ignore.
- -- Ofden Nash
+ -- Ogden Nash
~
Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.
-- Jules de Gaultier
-- 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
+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
~
Trying to find the pain in life is the renunciation of hinayana. Trying to
find the ambition in life, trying to reach higher goals, is the
bodhisattva's ambition in the mahayana. Trying to find the subtleties of
-life is the tantric discovery of mystical experience in the vajrayana.
+life is the tantric discovery of mystical experience in the vajrayana.
-- Milarepa, from "Milarepa: Lessons from the Life and Songs of Tibet's
Great Yogi", by Chögyam Trungpa, published by Shambhala Publications
~
According to the Buddhist point of view, an artist's intention is
compassion. Buddhist artists create in order to make a link with other beings
through their inner pure elements, and to transform their outer ordinary gross
-elements into enlightenment by means of that connection.
+elements into enlightenment by means of that connection.
-- Thinley Norbu, from "Magic Dance: The Display of the Self-Nature of the
Five Wisdom Dakinis", published by Shambhala Publications
~
suffer greatly. Therefore, sentient beings born in the states of the six
wanderers have nothing but suffering. If we think about that, compassion can
arise.
- -- Khenchen Thrangu, "Essential Practice: Lectures on Kamalashīla's
+ -- Khenchen Thrangu, "Essential Practice: Lectures on Kamalashīla's
Stages of Meditation in the Middle Way School", published by Shambhala
Publications
~
causing all persons to possess happiness and the causes of happiness, is
inconceivable, but if it is not dedicated, then when anger arises, it will be
destroyed. This benefit cannot be seen with the eye, but it is inconceivable.
-Â -- Kensur Lekden, from "Meditations of a Tibetan Tantric Abbot: The Main
+ -- Kensur Lekden, from "Meditations of a Tibetan Tantric Abbot: The Main
Practices of the Mahayana Buddhist Path", translated and edited by
Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Shambhala Publications
~
countless future lives. If you consider only this which you can see now and
you do not consider all the future lives which you cannot see, you will incur
immeasurable fault. You will harm yourself.
-Â -- Kensur Lekden, from "Meditations of a Tibetan Tantric Abbot: The Main
+ -- Kensur Lekden, from "Meditations of a Tibetan Tantric Abbot: The Main
Practices of the Mahayana Buddhist Path", translated and edited by
Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Shambhala Publications
~
Thus with patience I will strive with diligence.
For in such diligence enlightenment is found.
If no wind blows, then nothing stirs,
- And neither is there merit without diligence.
+ And neither is there merit without diligence.
-- H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, from "The Bodhisattva Guide: A Commentary
on The Way of the Bodhisattva", The Bodhisattva Guide was originally
Hunger, thirst, cold, and the like--all forms of physical affliction--
Together with sadness, fear, and all such mental suffering,
Can, through the teachings, enhance the purifying path
-And, unburdened by avoidance or indulgence, adorn the mind!
+And, unburdened by avoidance or indulgence, adorn the mind!
-- Patrul Rinpoche, from "Beyond the Ordinary Mind: Dzogchen, Rimé, and the
Path of Perfect Wisdom", translated by Adam Pearcey, published by
Thereby everything is accomplished.
Attachment to pleasure brings misery.
Total clarity, being non-conceptual,
-Is self-refreshing pristine awareness.
+Is self-refreshing pristine awareness.
-- Longchenpa, from "You Are the Eyes of the World", published by Shambhala
Publications
~
The sun of fundamental nature, bright and clear,
Will rise up from within.
In this realization, changeless and unmoving,
-There is nothing to be added, nothing to remove.
+There is nothing to be added, nothing to remove.
-- Longchenpa, from "Finding Rest in Meditation", published by Shambhala
Publications
~
May you quickly find the emptiness of your own mind,
And from the kingdom of the ever-pure great perfection,
Bring about the great aims of boundless beings.
-Â -- from "Gendun Chopel: Tibet's Modern Visionary", by Donald S. Lopez
+ -- from "Gendun Chopel: Tibet's Modern Visionary", by Donald S. Lopez
Jr., published by Shambhala Publications
~
Parallel to compassion, the Buddhist teachings emphasize loving-kindness--the
I am a Buddhist monk, so I try to practice accordingly. When people think
this practice is something unique and special and call me a leader of world
peace, I feel almost ashamed!
-Â -- H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, from "The Bodhisattva Guide", published
+ -- H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, from "The Bodhisattva Guide", published
by Shambhala Publications
~
We have talked about impermanence and how painful it is to acknowledge that
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.
+In truth, these are not two different things.
-- Maitreya, Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, and
Asanga in "Buddha Nature: The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra with Commentary",
help us see ourselves more accurately. The word skandha can be translated
literally as "heap." This definition, when applied to ourselves, can help
us see that we do not have a cohesive, real, and solid self. We are just a
-heap of stuff — flesh, blood, veins, nerves, bones, hair, cartilage, and so
+heap of stuff--flesh, blood, veins, nerves, bones, hair, cartilage, and so
on. When we sort through this heap, what are we actually? None of the
elements of the heap is actually "me." We are a mere mishmash of material
conditions that we have identified with and labeled "I."
feet without their mother, father, or guardian to guide them? When we are
born, we are completely helpless and dependent. We would never survive
without the help of others. There is truly no such thing as autonomy. So if
-you want to live in accordance with the nature of things—which means living
-in grace—practically speaking, it will require some humility and gratitude
-for the ways in which your tradition has come down to you with so much care.
+you want to live in accordance with the nature of things--which means living
+in grace--practically speaking, it will require some humility and gratitude
+for the ways in which your tradition has come down to you with so much care.
-- Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel, from "The Logic of Faith: The Buddhist Approach
to Finding Certainty Beyond Belief and Doubt", published by Shambhala
Publications
to do. So, when we are practicing meditation, we have to maintain the
attitude, "This is my time to meditate and now I am not trying to think
thoughts. If I let myself think, I am wasting this time I have to practice."
-Â -- Khenchen Thrangu, from "The Mahamudra Lineage Prayer: A Guide to
+ -- Khenchen Thrangu, from "The Mahamudra Lineage Prayer: A Guide to
Practice", published by Shambhala Publications
~
The arrogant mind never stops searching for identity, and this identity always
artist," "the fearless leader." We can hold onto these labels on a "good" day.
But when we feel insecure about our attributes, or our lack thereof, we start
to wonder how to define ourselves; we wonder who it is we really are.
-Regardless of whether we’re having a good day or a low self-esteem day, the
-point is, we haven’t found a way to relax, to be natural, unself-conscious.
-We don’t know how to take our seat in ordinariness and feel comfortable in
-our own skin. We’re always searching for something to be.
-Â -- Dzigar Kongtrul, from "Light Comes Through: Buddhist Teachings on
+Regardless of whether we're having a good day or a low self-esteem day, the
+point is, we haven't found a way to relax, to be natural, unself-conscious.
+We don't know how to take our seat in ordinariness and feel comfortable in
+our own skin. We're always searching for something to be.
+ -- Dzigar Kongtrul, from "Light Comes Through: Buddhist Teachings on
Awakening to Our Natural Intelligence", published by Shambhala
Publications
~
Expand your mindfulness and remain pervasive like the earth.
Steady your attention and remain unshakable like a mountain.
Brighten your awareness and remain shining like a flame.
-Clear your thought-free wakefulness and remain lucid like a crystal.
- -- Dakpo Tashi Namgyal, "Clarifying the Natural State", from "Jewels of
+Clear your thought-free wakefulness and remain lucid like a crystal.
+ -- Dakpo Tashi Namgyal, "Clarifying the Natural State", from "Jewels of
Enlightenment: Wisdom Teachings from the Great Tibetan Masters", compiled
and translated by Erik Pema Kunsang, published by Shambhala Publications
~
further.
-- Traleg Kyabgon, from "Mind at Ease: Self-Liberation through Mahamudra
Meditation", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+ACHTUNG!
+ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENSPEEPERS!
+DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN!
+ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN
+MIT SPITZENSPARKEN.
+IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN
+DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS.
+ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN.
+~
+ATTENTION
+This room is fullfilled mit special electronische equippment.
+Fingergrabbing and pressing the cnoeppkes from the computers is allowed for
+die experts only!
+So all the "lefthanders" stay away and do not disturben the brainstorming von
+here working intelligencies.
+Otherwise you will be out thrown and kicked anderswhere!
+Also: please keep still and only watchen astaunished the blinkenlights.
+~
+Naval Lint! Belly up to the finest barnacle scrub on the market, and have
+your teams boat bright as a button!
+Only $9.99 a bottle, sold at all Ben Franklin Department Stores.
+ -- fictional product developed due to misspelling of navel lint
+~
+(a missing phone haiku)
+
+tech disconnection
+no friends, no spam, brain at peace
+must log back in now!
+
+ -- fred t. hamster
+~
+Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the
+truth, for being correct, for being you. Never apologize for being correct,
+or for being years ahead of your time. If you're right and you know it,
+speak your mind. Speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the
+truth is still the truth.
+ -- Mahatma Gandhi
+~
+ The sky is pure, open space, free from all obstructions. The nature of
+our mind is similar: the afflictions, self-centered attitude, and other
+obscurations are not in its essential nature. Just as clouds may temporarily
+obscure the open sky, anger, attachment, and confusion can temporarily obscure
+our mind. When they do, the pure, open nature of the mind still remains; we
+just can't see it at the time.
+ By generating the wisdom realizing the emptiness of inherent existence, we
+will be able to eradicate obscurations from our mind forever and enjoy the
+sky-like spaciousness of a purified mind.
+ -- Thubten Chodron, from "Awaken Every Day: 365 Buddhist Reflections to
+ Invite Mindfulness and Joy", Shambhala Publications
+~
+i buy all my hats
+at interdimensional
+pancake restaurant
+ -- fred t. hamster
+~
+Love is about finding something pleasant in everyone. It can't be external
+appearance, or what the person is engaged in at the moment; it has to be just
+the fact that this is a sentient being who wants happiness and does not want
+suffering and who has been the best of friends at some time in the limitless
+past. A Tibetan definition of love is that the person pleasantly comes to
+mind (yid du 'ong ba). Rather than pushing people away, you experience a core
+similarity and closeness in them that makes you receptive to their basic
+being, regardless of the problem--regardless of how distorted their current
+attitudes and behavior are. That's how strong spiritual love is.
+ -- Jeffrey Hopkins, from "A Truthful Heart: Buddhist Practices for
+ Connecting with Others", Shambhala Publications
+~
+this is not confirmed yet, but UVa is changing the name of its funding tokens.
+UVa is moving away from the PTAO payment codes (Project, Task, Award, and
+Organization) to a new acronym using "Cost center, Activity, Program, Spend
+category" or... CAPS!!!
+finally all my hard work in fallout new vegas will be paying off.
+~
+Rob's Meeting Mantra:
+
+Is what I am thinking necessary to say?
+Is it necessary for this to be said by ME?
+Is it necessary for me to say this RIGHT NOW?
+
+ -- Rob Diethorn
+~
+fred's chow mantra:
+ just eat when you're hungry,
+ and be sure you're hungry and not just sating an appetite,
+ because scheduled food times are irrelevant to your body,
+ and can lead to overfeeding unless you're malnourished;
+ so let the body decide when to eat,
+ and use your brain to decide what you feed it.
+ -- fred t. hamster
+~
+No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
+ -- Voltaire
+~
+Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.
+ -- Thomas Szasz
+~
+Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?
+ -- Winnie the Pooh
+~
+It is well for people who think,
+to change their minds occasionally
+in order to keep them clean.
+ -- Luther Burbank
+~
+Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.
+ -- Benjamin Lee Whorf
+~
+Misery is almost always the result of thinking.
+ -- Joseph Joubert
+~
+Most of the mistakes in thinking
+are inadequacies of perception
+rather than mistakes of logic.
+ -- Edward de Bono
+~
+Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.
+ -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
+~
+What we think, we become. -- Shakyamuni Buddha
+~
+pseudo-code for our daily lives:
+
+repeat:
+ if (not one_thing) then {
+ other_thing
+ }
+:forever
+~
+U R brilliant,
+U need 2 keep working on that shine,
+U can't lord it over others,
+U R your own completeness as they are theirs.
+ -- fred t. hamster
+~
+and goddess said to me, she said like, "i am omni-sexual and pan-gender...
+bitches." i apologize for her language, but that's what she said.
+ -- fred t. hamster
+~
+
+vape temperature mantra for cannabis
+(also a haiku if you don't pronounce the numbers...)
+
+ things are tastiest,
+ celsius degrees ranging 164 -> 228,
+ dank vaporizer.
+
+ get lightly toasted 164+,
+ proceed on to half baked at 180+,
+ way fully baked at 200+.
+
+ dude, know when it's cooked,
+ never go over 230 ever,
+ we vape you long time.
+ -- fred t. hamster
+~
+ I found I was able to get a lot of tension off my shoulders by almost
+"outing" myself in the press in that way, in very early circumstances. So
+I wasn't going to get people crawling out the woodwork saying [seedy, muck-
+raking voice]: "I'll tell you something about David Bowie that you don't
+know..." I wasn't going to have any of that. I knew that at some point I
+was going to have to say something about my life. And, again, Ziggy enabled
+me to make things more comfortable for myself. There was an excitement that
+the age of exploration was really finally here. Which is what I was going
+through. It perfectly mirrored my lifestyle at the time. It was exactly what
+was happening to me. There was nothing that I wasn't willing to try, to
+explore and see if it was really part of my psyche or my nature. I was
+terribly exploratory in every way, not just culturally but sexually and...
+God, there was nothing I would leave alone. Like a--it's a terrible pun,
+but--like a dog with a bone, I suppose! So I buried it!
+ The quote has taken on far more in retrospect than actually it was at the
+time. I'm quite proud that I did it. On the other hand I didn't want to
+carry a banner for any group of people, and I was as worried about that as
+the aftermath. Being approached by organisations. I didn't want that. I
+didn't feel like part of a group. I didn't like that aspect of it: this is
+going to start overshadowing my writing and everything else that I do.
+But there you go.
+ -- David Bowie, in Mojo, July 2002
+~
+I am King Gesar of Ling,
+not so long ago named king
+and principal ruler of the six provinces of Ling,
+mandated by the gods to be the destined leader
+and the one to quell the demons of the dark side.
+Since I am the one entrusted with this aspiration,
+my deeds and actions must follow.
+ -- from "The Taming of the Demons: From the Epic of Gesar of Ling",
+ translated by Jane Hawes, David Shapiro, and Lama Chönam, published
+ by Shambhala Publications
+~
+ One of the stories that drew me to Zen was about how one of our Zen
+ancestors responded to both insult and praise. In this story, Hakuin Zenji
+was falsely accused of impregnating a young girl who lived in the village near
+his hermitage. When her parents and the villagers came to accuse him, he said
+merely, "Is that so?"
+ When the baby was born, Hakuin received the infant and cared for the child
+with the help of a wet nurse. Sometime later, the girl confessed to her
+parents that a village boy was the father of her child. Those who had accused
+him earlier came then to reclaim the child and to praise Hakuin.
+ In response to their praise, he simply said, again, "Is that so?"
+ -- Reb Anderson, from "Entering the Mind of Buddha: Zen and the Six Heroic
+ Practices of Bodhisattvas", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+One day in a lecture Suzuki Roshi said, "When you see one leaf falling, you
+may say, Oh, autumn is here! One leaf is not just one leaf; it means the
+whole autumn. Here you already understand the all-pervading power of your
+practice. Your practice covers everything."
+ -- Shunryu Suzuki, from "Zen Is Right Here: Teaching Stories and Anecdotes
+ of Shunryu Suzuki, author of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind", published by
+ Shambhala Publications
+~
+Compared with the force of the all-powerful weapons that exist today, we are
+nothing, even less than ants. And yet those weapons were not made by demons
+or aliens from another planet. They were made by humans just like me and
+you... If we ever press the red button, others will do the same. If we bomb
+them, bombs will rain on us. That's cause and effect, and it will just go
+on and on. So what can we do? Only one thing can help us: loving-kindness.
+Loving-kindness is the very foundation of a civilized world.
+ -- Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, from "Sadness, Love, Openness: The Buddhist Path
+ of Joy", published by Shambhala Publications
+~