X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=database%2Ffortunes.dat;h=217bdd521fdc1e69f6245cb0e0410ea0ffed552f;hb=9c30ed5289966dcc048a5a491399cf734fbf2973;hp=cc4b43df70ceeec023cc44f41e345abdd5824b1b;hpb=f7138a65bf58ce8938f2ea6598c5d136eadb3a14;p=feisty_meow.git

diff --git a/database/fortunes.dat b/database/fortunes.dat
index cc4b43df..217bdd52 100644
--- a/database/fortunes.dat
+++ b/database/fortunes.dat
@@ -38371,3 +38371,305 @@ startling to see how often we assume our interpretation of a situation is true
 when in fact it is based on flimsy evidence.
   -- Thubten Chodron, from "Don't Believe Everything You Think: Living with
      Wisdom and Compassion"
+~
+We are all human beings, and from this point of view, we are the same.  We all
+want happiness and we do not want suffering.  If we consider this point, we
+will find that there are no differences between people of different faiths,
+races, colors, or cultures.  We all have this common wish for happiness.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+Enlightenment is not anything new or something we create or bring into
+existence.  It is simply discovering within us what is already there.  It is
+the full realization of our intrinsic nature.  In Tibetan, buddha is sang
+gyay.  Sang means that all of the faults have been cleared away, while gyay
+means "full realization"; just as from darkness, the moon waxes, likewise
+from ignorance, the qualities of the mind's intrinsic nature emerge.
+  -- Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche
+~
+The fundamental teaching of the Buddha is that we should view others as being
+more important than we are.  Of course, you cannot completely ignore yourself.
+But neither can you neglect the welfare of other people and other sentient
+beings, particularly when there is a clash of interest between your own
+welfare and the welfare of other people.  At such a time you should consider
+other people's welfare as more important than your own personal well-being.
+Compare yourself to the rest of sentient beings.  All other sentient beings
+are countless, while you are just one person.  Your suffering and happiness
+may be very important, but it is just the suffering and happiness of one
+individual, whereas the happiness and suffering of all other sentient beings
+is immeasurable and countless.  So, it is the way of the wise to sacrifice one
+for the benefit of the majority and it is the way of the foolish to sacrifice
+the majority on behalf of just one single individual.  Even from the point of
+view of your personal well-being, you must cultivate a compassionate
+mind—that is that source of happiness in your life.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+  Attachment and love are similar in that both of them draw us to the other
+person.  But in fact, these two emotions are quite different.  When we're
+attached we're drawn to someone because he or she meets our needs.  In
+addition, there are lots of strings attached to our affection that we may or
+may not realize are there.  For example, I 'love' you because you make me feel
+good.  I 'love' you as long as you do things that I approve of.  I 'love' you
+because you're mine.  You're my spouse or my child or my parent or my friend.
+With attachment, we go up and down like a yo-yo, depending on how the other
+person treats us.  We obsess, "What do they think of me?  Do they love me?
+Have I offended them?  How can I become what they want me to be so that they
+love me even more?" It's not very peaceful, is it?  We're definitely stirred
+up.
+  On the other hand, the love we're generating on the Dharma path is
+unconditional.  We simply want other to have happiness and the causes of
+happiness without any strings attached, without any expectations of what these
+people will do for us or how good they'll make us feel.
+  -- Thubten Chodron, "Don't Believe Everything You Think: Living with Wisdom
+     and Compassion"
+~
+Because we don't recognize our essential nature--we don't realize that
+although appearances arise unceasingly, nothing is really there--we invest
+with solidity and reality the seeming truth of self, other, and actions
+between self and others.  This intellectual obscuration gives rise to
+attachment and aversion, followed by actions and reactions that create karma,
+solidify into habit, and perpetuate the cycles of suffering.  This entire
+process needs to be purified.
+  -- Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, from "In the Presence of Masters: Wisdom from 30
+     Contemporary Tibetan Buddhist Teachers", edited by Reginald A. Ray.
+~
+  Effort is crucial in the beginning for generating a strong will.  We all
+have the Buddha nature and thus already have within us the substances through
+which, when we meet with the proper conditions, we can turn into a fully
+enlightened being having all beneficial attributes and devoid of all faults.
+The very root of failure in our lives is to think, "Oh, how useless and
+powerless I am!" It is important to have a strong force of mind thinking,
+"I can do it," this not being mixed with pride or any other afflictive
+emotion.
+  Moderate effort over a long period of time is important, no matter what you
+are trying to do.  One brings failure on oneself by working extremely hard at
+the beginning, attempting to do too much, and then giving it all up after a
+short time.  A constant stream of moderate effort is needed.  Similarly, when
+meditating, you need to be skillful by having frequent, short sessions; it is
+more important that the session be of good quality than that it be long.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, from "Kindness, Clarity, and Insight"
+~
+We Buddhists are supposed to save all sentient beings, but practically
+speaking, this may be too broad a notion for most people.  In any case, we
+must at least think in terms of helping all human beings.  This is very
+important.  Even if we cannot think in terms of sentient beings inhabiting
+different worlds, we should nonetheless think in terms of the human beings on
+our own planet.  To do this is to take a practical approach to the problem.
+It is necessary to help others, not only in our prayers, but in our daily
+lives.  If we find we cannot help another, the least we can do is to desist
+from harming them.  We must not cheat others or lie to them.  We must be
+honest human beings, sincere human beings.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+  How things appear and how they actually exist differ greatly.  A person
+engaging in practice of the perfection of wisdom does this kind of analysis
+and then examines how things appear in ordinary experience, alternating
+analysis and comparison with the usual mode of appearance in order to notice
+the discrepancy between the actual mode of subsistence of phenomena and their
+appearance.
+  In this way the inherent existence which is the object of negation will
+become clearer and clearer.  As much as the object of negation becomes
+clearer, so much deeper will your understanding of emptiness become.  Finally,
+you will ascertain a mere vacuity that is a negative of inherent existence.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+  Three attitudes prevent us from receiving a continual flow of blessings.
+They are compared to three "pots": a full pot, a pot with poison in it,
+and a pot with a hole in the bottom.
+  The pot that's filled to the brim is like a mind full of opinions and
+preconceptions.  We already know it all.  We have so many fixed ideas that
+nothing new can affect us or cause us to question our assumptions.
+  The pot containing poison is like a mind that's so cynical, critical, and
+judgmental that everything is poisoned by this harshness.  It allows for no
+openness and no willingness to explore the teachings or anything else that
+challenges our righteous stance.
+  The pot with a hole is like a distracted mind: our body is present but
+we're lost in thought.  We're so busy thinking about our dream vacation or
+what's for dinner that we're completely deaf to what's being said.
+  Knowing how sad it is to receive blessings and not be able to benefit,
+Shantideva wants to save himself grief by remaining open and attentive.
+Nothing will improve, he says, unless we become more intelligent about cause
+and effect.  This is a message worth considering seriously.
+  -- Pema Chödrön, from "No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the
+     Bodhisattva".
+~
+  Shantideva cites three benefits of pain.  First, it is valuable because
+through sorrow, pride is driven out.  No matter how arrogant and condescending
+we've been, great suffering can humble us.  The pain of a serious illness or
+loss of a loved one can be transformative, softening us and making us less
+self-centered.
+  The second benefit of pain is empathy: the compassion felt for those who
+wander in samsara.  Our personal suffering brings compassion for others in the
+same situation.  A young woman was telling me that when her baby died, she
+felt a deep connection to all the other parents who had lost children.  This
+was, as she put it, the unexpected blessing of her sorrow.
+  The third value of suffering is that evil is avoided and goodness seems
+delightful.  When we practice according to Shantideva's instructions, we can
+get smarter about cause and result.  Based on this understanding, we'll have
+less inclination to cause harm, and more desire to gather virtue and benefit
+others.
+  -- Pema Chödrön, from "No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the
+     Bodhisattva"
+~
+  Since emptiness, from between positive and negative phenomena, is a negative
+phenomenon and, from between affirming negatives and non-affirming negatives,
+is a non-affirming negative, when it appears to the mind, nothing will appear
+except an absence of such inherent existence—a mere elimination of the
+object of negation.  Thus, for the mind of a person realizing emptiness there
+is no sense of, "I am ascertaining emptiness," and there is no thought,
+"This is emptiness." If you had such a sense, emptiness would become
+distant.  Nevertheless, the emptiness of inherent existence is ascertained and
+realized.
+  After such realization, even though whatever phenomena appear appear to
+exist in their own right, you understand that they do not exist that way.  You
+have a sense that they are like a magician's illusions in that there is a
+combination of their appearing one way but actually existing another way.
+Though they appear to exist inherently, you understand that they are empty of
+inherent existence.
+  When phenomena are seen this way, the conceptions that superimpose a sense
+of goodness or badness on phenomena beyond what is actually there and serve as
+a basis for generating desire and hatred lessen; this is because they are
+based on the misconception that phenomena are established in their own right.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+      Rely on timeless awareness, which is free of elaboration, without
+        identity, and the very essence of being;
+      do not rely on ordinary consciousness, which is a mind fixated
+        on characteristics and concepts.
+
+  Timeless awareness entails (a) understanding that the way in which phenomena
+actually abide is, from the ultimate perspective, free of all limitations
+imposed by elaborations of origination, cessation, and so forth; (b)
+realization of the nonexistence of the two kinds of identity; and (c) unerring
+knowledge of sugatagarbha as utter lucidity, the way in which things actually
+abide, beyond any context of speculative value judgments.  It is on this
+awareness that one should rely.
+  Ordinary consciousness entails (a) belief that what one immediately
+perceives constitutes something truly existent; (b) conceptualization in terms
+of characteristics, such as the sense of personal identity and the mind-body
+aggregates; and (c) mental states that are conditioned, for example, by
+attitudes of naively fixating on the pleasures of the senses.  One should not
+rely on such consciousness.
+  -- Jamgön Kongtrül Lodro Taye, from "The Treasury of Knowledge: Book Seven
+     and Book Eight, Parts One and Two"
+~
+  Such is the process of karma: it is ineluctable; its results are greatly
+magnified; actions not committed have no effect; and the effects of actions
+committed never expire on their own.
+  Generally speaking, whether you are an ordinary mortal individual or a
+spiritually advanced being, all positive experiences that carry with them any
+pleasant sensation—down to even the slightest pleasure caused by a cool
+breeze for beings reborn in a hell realm—occur due to positive karma
+reinforced in the past; it is not in accord with the nature of things that
+happiness be due to negative karma.  And all negative experiences that carry
+with them any unpleasant sensation—down to even the slightest suffering that
+could occur in the experience of an arhat—occur due to negative karma one
+has reinforced in the past; for it is not in accord with the nature of things
+that suffering be due to positive karma.
+  -- Jamgön Kongtrül Lodro Taye, from "The Treasury of Knowledge: Book Seven
+     and Book Eight, Parts One and Two"
+~
+      "That which is seen and that which is touched are of a dream-like and
+      illusion-like nature.  Because feeling arises together with the mind,
+      it is not [ultimately] perceived." --Shantideva
+
+  There is nothing whatever that has a true mode of existence.  Nevertheless,
+this does not suggest that a person who experiences feelings and the feelings
+themselves—pleasant and unpleasant—are utterly non-existent.  They do
+exist, but in an untrue fashion.  Thus, the things that we see and touch have
+a dream-like and illusion-like quality.
+  In the second line the author refutes the true existence of the mind that
+experiences feelings.  Since feelings arise in conjunction with the mind,
+feelings are not perceived by the mind that is simultaneous with them.  There
+must be a causal relationship between the experienced object and the
+experiencing subject.  If two entities are substantially distinct and exist
+simultaneously, there could be neither a causal relationship nor an identity
+relationship between them.
+  For this reason the author denies that either [intrinsic] relationship could
+hold for the feelings and the awareness that is simultaneous with them.  Two
+mental events that arise in conjunction with each other are not able to
+apprehend one another.  This holds true for all states of awareness.  Thus,
+feelings are not observed by the awareness that arises in conjunction with
+them and that exists simultaneously with them.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+Any happiness there is in the world ultimately turns to pain.  Why?  Consider
+the two sides of a coin: just because what we desire is to be seen on the
+front does not mean that dislike won’t soon appear on the back.  Likewise,
+hope and fear are a single coin, one entity with two faces--on the other side
+of a moment in which we hope for more happiness will be our fear of more
+suffering.  Until attachment is eliminated, we can be certain of having both
+hope and fear.  As long as there is hope and fear, the delusions of samsara
+will be perpetuated and there will be constant suffering.  Thus attachment is
+the nature of both hope and fear: looking at the ultimate emptiness of the
+self-envisioned magical illusion of hope and fear, we should hang loosely in
+the flow.
+  --Tulku Pema Rigtsal, "The Great Secret of Mind: Special Instructions on the
+    Nonduality of Dzogchen", translated by Keith Dowman
+~
+  The feelings of joy and sorrow do not exist from their own side.  Although
+they exist as conceptual imputations, you cling to them as existing from their
+own side.  Feelings do not exist by their own intrinsic nature; rather, they
+are identified on the basis of contributing circumstances.
+  Therefore, this analysis is cultivated as an antidote for that [false
+conception of intrinsic existence].  The meditative absorption that arises
+from the field of discriminative investigation is the food of the
+contemplative.—Shantideva
+  Feelings do not truly exist; they are not found when sought through
+analysis; they do not exist independently, but exist by the power of
+convention.  Thus, the means for overcoming the misconception of the true
+existence of feelings is meditation on their lack of such existence.  This
+entails analyzing the mode of existence of feelings.
+  Such investigation is an aid to meditative absorption and leads to the
+integration of meditative quiescence and insight.  That increases the physical
+vitality of the contemplative and enhances the power of his [or her] spiritual
+practice.  Thus it is called the nourishment of the contemplative.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Transcendent Wisdom".
+~
+It is not enough merely to look into the space of happiness or sadness; it is
+important to have pure presence constant in that flow.  If the power of
+meditation is not constant, it is impossible to remain long in the place of
+nondual perception.  Thoughts that arise intermittently will break the
+continuity, and radiating out from this, like ripples on a pond, the poisonous
+taste of emotion will arise to obstruct the meditation.  As gross thoughts
+increase, ripples become rough waves that intensify the emotion.  Until subtle
+emotions are left behind, we cannot eradicate suffering, so it is crucially
+important to sustain the state of meditation.  When we gain strong familiarity
+by staying in that space for a long time, then no matter what thoughts arise,
+whether gross or subtle, they will not be able to dislodge us: upon
+recognizing the first thought, whatever thought it may be, in that very
+moment, we realize it to be the play of the spontaneous creativity of
+dharmakaya.  Like a wave falling back into the ocean, the thought vanishes
+into the dharmakaya.  In that space of naked empty pure presence that is the
+view, always cherishing thoughts of the five poisonous emotions and all the
+movements of body, speech, and mind, and the acts of eating, sleeping, moving,
+and sitting, we are known as the yogins and yoginis who stand guard over the
+shifting dharmakaya display.  This is the supreme method of sustaining the
+essence of meditation.  According to Dzogchen teaching, this is unadulterated
+by any kind of focus; it is called “the great meditation that is
+nonmeditation.”
+  --Tulku Pema Rigtsal, "The Great Secret of Mind: Special Instructions on the
+    Nonduality of Dzogchen", translated by Keith Dowman.
+~
+       Who is more shameless in this world,
+       Than one who abandons to samsara’s ocean of suffering
+       All the mothers who have tenderly cared for him since beginningless time
+       And instead strives toward the peace of a solitary nirvana?
+         --Shechen Gyaltsap Pema Namgyal
+
+  In each of our lives since beginningless time, our mother carried us within
+her body for nine months.  She took care of us when we were helpless babies;
+she gave us food, education, and protection.  In return, we feel love and
+gratitude for her kindness.
+  Why not extend our respect and appreciation for our mother to everyone else?
+If we take a broader perspective, we can consider that, within the countless
+existences we have lived, every being has been our mother at one time or
+another.  Don’t they also deserve our kindness now?  We can extend the same
+debt of gratitude that we owe our present mother to all sentient beings.  By
+doing so, we naturally begin to develop a deep concern for the happiness of
+others, and this feeling makes sense to us.
+  We take the refuge vow not just for our own sake, but also for the sake of
+all sentient beings.  This is bodhichitta, or the altruistic mind, which aims
+for the enlightenment of all sentient beings.
+  --Shechen Rabjam, "The Great Medicine That Conquers Clinging to the Notion
+    of Reality: Steps in Meditation on the Enlightened Mind"
+