Poverty is an anomaly to rich people; it is very difficult to make out why
people who want dinner do not ring the bell.
-- Walter Bagehot
+~
+ In reality, nothing can save us from a state of chaos or confusion unless
+we have acknowledged it and actually experienced it. Otherwise, even though
+we may be in the midst of chaos, we don’t even notice it, although we are
+subject to it. On the path of meditation, the first real glimpse of our
+confusion and the general chaos is when we begin to feel uncomfortable. We
+feel that something is a nuisance. Something is bugging us constantly.
+ What is that? Eventually we discover that we are the nuisance. We begin
+to see ourselves being a nuisance to ourselves when we uncover all kinds of
+thought problems, emotional hang-ups, and physical problems in meditation.
+Before we work with anyone else, we have to deal with being a nuisance to
+ourselves. We have to pull ourselves together. We might get angry with
+ourselves, saying, "I could do better than this. What’s wrong with me? I
+seem to be getting worse. I’m going backward." We might get angry with
+the whole world, including ourselves. Everything, the entire universe,
+becomes the expression of total insult. We have to relate to that experience
+rather than rejecting it. If you hope to be helpful to others, first you have
+to work with yourself.
+ -- Chögyam Trungpa, from "Mindfulness in Action", published by Shambhala
+ Publications
+~
+If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered
+as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded,
+that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers
+against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious
+persecution.
+ -- George Washington, letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia (1789)
+~
+Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one,
+he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
+ -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr (1787)
+~
+In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof
+is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practiced, and both by
+precept and example inculcated on mankind.
+ -- Samuel Adams, The Rights of the Colonists (1771)
+~
+Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the
+strongly marked feature of all religions established by law. Take away the
+law-establishment, and every religion re-assumes its original benignity.
+ -- Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man (1791)
+~
+Congress has no power to make any religious establishments.
+ -- Roger Sherman, Congress (1789)
+~
+The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.
+ -- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack (1758)
+~
+I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people
+build a wall of separation between Church & State.
+ -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to the Danbury Baptists (1802)
+~
+To argue with a man who has renounced the use of reason is like administering
+medicine to the dead.
+ -- Thomas Paine, The American Crisis No. V (1776)
+~
+Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than
+our opinions in physics or geometry.
+ -- Thomas Jefferson, A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom (1779)
+~
+Christian establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption, all of which
+facilitate the execution of mischievous projects.
+ -- James Madison, letter to William Bradford, Jr. (1774)
+~
+There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of
+science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of
+public happiness.
+ -- George Washington, address to Congress (1790)
+~
+During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity
+been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride
+and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both,
+superstition, bigotry and persecution.
+ -- James Madison, General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia (1785)
+~
+If the present and the future
+Depend upon the past,
+Then both the present and the future
+Are existent in the past.
+
+If the present and the future
+Are not present then,
+How could the present and the future
+Be dependent on it?
+
+If they are not dependent on the past,
+Then both are unestablished.
+Thus the present and the future time
+Do not exist.
+
+To the two remaining times, it should be understood,
+This same procedure is applied.
+And likewise it applies to high and low and medium,
+And to the singular and so forth.
+
+Time that does not stay we cannot grasp;
+And time that could be grasped
+Does not remain. So how can time,
+Ungraspable, be said to be?
+
+If time depends on things,
+Then how can there be time if things do not exist?
+And since there are no things at all,
+How can time exist?
+ -- Nagarjuna, from "The Root Stanzas of the Middle Way: The
+ Mulamadhyamakakarika", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+White Rabbit, by Jefferson Airplane
+
+One pill makes you larger
+And one pill makes you small
+And the ones that mother gives you
+Don't do anything at all
+Go ask Alice
+When she's ten feet tall
+
+And if you go chasing rabbits
+And you know you're going to fall
+Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar
+Has given you the call
+Call Alice
+When she was just small
+
+When the men on the chessboard
+Get up and tell you where to go
+And you've just had some kind of mushroom
+And your mind is moving low
+Go ask Alice
+I think she'll know
+
+When logic and proportion
+Have fallen sloppy dead
+And the White Knight is talking backwards
+And the Red Queen's off with her head
+Remember what the dormouse said
+Feed your head
+Feed your head
+~
+How can we integrate these teachings into our lives? I think that only
+happens when we are faced with challenges and respond to them in a new way,
+not according to habitual self-importance. In other words, we respond by
+applying the exchange of self and other. When tonglen becomes our familiar
+way of being, the entire path unfolds easily in front of us. This difficult
+modern age turns out to be the perfect setting for our spiritual practice,
+proving far more hospitable to our growth than past eras of idealized calm and
+simplicity. When we figure out for ourselves how to apply the wisdom of books
+to whatever difficult circumstances arise in life, then that wisdom becomes
+part of our mind. We become transformed. My hope for every reader—as well
+as for myself—is that we will apply these lojong teachings again and again
+until they become part of who we are.
+ -- Dzigar Kongtrul and Joseph Waxman, in "The Intelligent Heart: A Guide
+ to the Compassionate Life", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+Siddhis? Cities.
+
+Honolulu: a relaxed city, like an uncrowded bar where everyone is clean and
+rested.
+
+Los Angeles: a scattered city, like a teenager's sexual curiosity.
+
+San Francisco: a clean city, like an elegant, genteel Christian graveyard.
+
+Santa Fe: a picturesque city, like a painter’ s bright, simple palette,
+imitating Tibet.
+
+Boston: a sophisticated city, like London without queens and dukes and falling
+bridges.
+
+New York: a no-more-nothingness city,
+where gentle, quiet audiences sit in theaters listening to classical concerts;
+where rough, noisy audiences sit in stadiums in pandemonium watching boxing;
+where there are clean people with dirty minds;
+where there are dirty people with clean minds;
+where hundreds of nihilist people reject spiritual teachings;
+where hundreds of spiritual teachers reject samsara's teachings;
+where poor people sleep underground on low subway platforms;
+where rich people sleep aboveground in high skyscraper penthouses;
+where many non-practitioners stay for their nightclub retreat to find pleasure;
+practitioners leave for their countryside retreat to find pleasure.
+ - Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, from "A Brief Fantasy History of a Himalayan",
+ published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+As a blind man feels when he finds a pearl in a dustbin, so am I amazed by the
+miracle of awakening rising in my consciousness. It is the nectar of
+immortality that delivers us from death, the treasure that lifts us above
+poverty into the wealth of giving to life, the tree that gives shade to us
+when we roam about scorched by life, the bridge that takes us across the
+stormy river of life, the cool moon of compassion that calms our mind when it
+is agitated, the sun that dispels darkness, the butter made from the milk of
+kindness by churning it with the dharma. It is a feast of joy to which all
+are invited.
+ -- from "Teachings of the Buddha", written by Shantideva, edited by Jack
+ Kornfield, published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+Even though we may actually recognize the nature of awareness, we should not
+hold on to that mindfulness tightly, thinking, “I have indeed recognized it."
+If we do hold on to it tightly, it will be like when a thread is twisted too
+taut: one cannot sew with it, because it knots up. In the same way, if one
+is too tense, one's mindfulness will be obscured. If mindfulness is not
+grasped too tightly but left in the natural flow, sometimes it will be clear
+and sometimes not. But we should not get caught up in whether it is clear or
+not. If genuine mindfulness is left without being altered, gradually we will
+come to know, through our own experience, “This is awareness, and this is
+ignorance; this is mind, and this is wisdom.”
+ -- Dilgo Khyentse, from "Primordial Purity", published by Shambhala
+ Publications
+~
+He says Tibetans are unique because we value the practice of Buddhism. He
+gives the example of Tibetan mothers who in the course of a day point
+repeatedly toward suffering. They tell their children: don’t kill the ant,
+it will suffer; don’t pour hot water on the soil, the earthworm will feel
+the sting and the heat will cause it great pain; don’t pull the dog’s tail
+so hard. We are told to think for the animals and insects who cannot voice
+their pain but for whom suffering is as acute as it is for humans. From a
+young age, he says, we are reminded that nobody is free from suffering. I
+agree that my Tibetan friends are instinctively more likely to brush away
+flies or mosquitoes instead of crushing or swatting them. But why is
+compassion so important? What about our land, our independence? Will
+compassion free our land?
+ -- Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, in "Coming Home to Tibet: A Memoir of Love, Loss,
+and Belonging", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+ At the end of every meditation session, recognize what kind of healing
+experience you are feeling. You could be feeling peace, warmth, bliss,
+spaciousness, boundlessness, richness, sacredness, or strength. If you have
+multiple experiences, it can help to recognize the most prominent one.
+ The goal is to calmly enjoy the particular experience, resting in
+awareness of what you are feeling, without grasping at it or analyzing it or
+needing to think about it in words. Just remain one with the experience, in
+open awareness, in silence, like water that has merged in water.
+ Purpose: This meditation is for sowing the seed of experience of the
+meditation, not on the rough surface of concepts or afflicting emotions but at
+the deeper and calmer level of the open mind. Merging your awareness with the
+experience ensures the fruition of the meditation with greatest certainty.
+Open awareness helps unite your mind with the result of healing.
+ This meditation could also lead to, or be, the awareness state of the
+enlightened nature itself.
+ -- by Tulku Thondup, in "Boundless Healing", published by Shambhala Publications
projects / feisty_meow.git / blobdiff