is the ideal way to move toward buddhahood, or full perfection.
-- Tulku Thondup, from "Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth: A Tibetan Buddhist
Guidebook", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+ In the final stanza of his salutation, Tsong-kha-pa (1: 34) calls upon
+readers who may benefit from this approach, asking them to listen well. Such
+readers will be those with minds unclouded by biased thinking, the mental
+capacity to distinguish right from wrong, and an interest in finding real
+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
+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
+ 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
+like a dream. And—just as with our nighttime dreams—it will seem useless
+to have put so much effort into it. The fear we experience in a dream is gone
+when we wake up; feeling afraid was just an unnecessary exertion of effort
+causing us to lose sleep! When we look back on our lives at death, the amount
+of time we spent in hesitation, aggression, ignorance, selfishness, jealousy,
+hatred, self-preservation, and arrogance will seem like an equally useless
+exertion of energy. So be able to regard all of these illusory thoughts and
+concepts as dreams. Within this illusory existence, what, if anything, is the
+logic behind any stubbornness, distraction, hesitation, or habitual emotions
+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
+ 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
projects / feisty_meow.git / blobdiff