X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=database%2Ffortunes.dat;h=4d42cf7c744098f8d2d9871840d7ac9bf9a79942;hb=1abc7c0a32c98db6dfbc0ceadbc30a72c54bb13e;hp=9bbb16b2259601350ec8e5f9e8e7ab01629fe495;hpb=3552cdb767df6079935b4e089124b13d914fc488;p=feisty_meow.git diff --git a/database/fortunes.dat b/database/fortunes.dat index 9bbb16b2..4d42cf7c 100644 --- a/database/fortunes.dat +++ b/database/fortunes.dat @@ -37680,3 +37680,119 @@ aware in whatever we do, never be distracted!(p.68) -- "Self-Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness", translation and commentary by John Myrdhin Reynolds, foreword by Namkhai Norbu, published by Snow Lion Publications +##Our mind needs to stretch to encompass emptiness. Our minds are so stuck in +the idea, "Things exist the way they appear to me. What I see is reality. It +is 100 percent true. There's nothing to doubt. Things exist exactly as they +appear to my senses, exactly as they appear to my mental consciousness." We +hardly ever doubt that. Not only do we have the appearance of inherent +existence to our sense consciousnesses and mental consciousness, but also our +mental consciousness grasps on to that appearance and says, "Yes! Everything +really exists in this findable, independent way. Everything is real as it +appears to me." + +##When we believe there's a real "me," then we have to protect that self and +bring it happiness. Thus, we are attached to things that are pleasurable and +become angry at anything unpleasant. Pride, jealousy, laziness, and the whole +gamut of negative emotions follow. Motivated by these, we act physically, +verbally, and mentally. These actions, or karma, leave seeds on our +mindstream, and when these ripen, they influence what we experience. We again +relate to these experiences ignorantly, so more emotions arise, motivating us +to create more karma. As a result, cyclic existence with all its difficulties +continues on and on, created by our mind, dependent on the ignorance that +misconceives the nature of ourselves and all other phenomena. + +##...However, when we investigate more deeply and look beyond appearances, we +realize that it's impossible for things to exist in the way they appear. +Seeing this gives us a kind of spaciousness and freedom because, if samsara +were inherently existent and everything really did exist the way it appears to +us, then transformation and change could not occur...and the best we could +ever have is what we have right now. Thinking about the emptiness of inherent +existence shows us the possibility for change. Beauty can come forth because +nothing is inherently concrete, fixed, or findable.(p.105) + +##--Thubten Chodron, "Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of +Chenrezig", foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama, published by Snow Lion Publications + +Three Meditations + +(4 lines per verse) + +######If one does not sow the seed + +######Of appreciation for a perfect guru, + +######The tree of spiritual power is not born. + +######With undivided mind entrust yourself. + +######Human life is rare and precious, + +######Yet if not inspired by thoughts of death, + +######One wastes it on materialism: + +######Be ready to die at any moment. + +######All living beings have been our mothers, + +######Three circles of suffering always binding them. + +######Ignoble it would be not to repay them, + +######Not to strive to attain enlightenment. (p.100) + +##The colophon [inscription] for this poem reads, "Written at the request of +Ritropa Samdrub, an Amdo monk from Dechen Monastery, who begged for a short +teaching...." The Seventh Dalai Lama advises him to establish three central +pillars in his spiritual practice: (1) a disciplined spiritual connection with +his teacher; (2) awareness of the preciousness of life, and the uncertainty of +the time of death; and (3) the mind of love and compassion for all living +beings, coupled with the aspiration to enlightenment as the best means of +fulfilling that love and compassion. + +##--The Seventh Dalai Lama, "Meditations to Transform the Mind", translated, +edited, and introduced by Glenn Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications + +##Courageous Bodhisattvas risk their lives to help others, and so, when we are +in relatively better, more comfortable situations, we must certainly practice +giving. Even if they are threatened, the courageous ones will not engage in +improper actions. Instead, after examining the situation carefully, when they +find that certain actions are correct and justified, on the basis of reason, +they engage in them even at the risk of their lives. That is the way of the +decent, civilized and courageous ones, who do not follow misleading paths.(p.20) + +##--H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama, "Generous Wisdom: Commentaries by H.H. the +Dalai Lama XIV on the Jatakamala, Garland of Birth Stories", translated by +Tenzin Dorjee, edited by Dexter Roberts + +##One day, when a very learned scholar or geshe and I were discussing the fact +that the self is an elusive phenomenon, that it is unfindable in either body +or mind, he remarked: 'If the self did not exist at all, in a sense that would +make things very simple. There would be no experience of suffering and pain, +because there would be no subject to undergo such experiences. However, that +is not the case. Regardless of whether we can actually find it or not, there +is an individual being who undergoes the experience of pain and pleasure, who +is the subject of experiences, who perceives things and so on. Based on our +own experience we do know that there is something--whatever we may call it-- +that makes it possible for us to undergo these experiences. We have something +called discernment or the ability to perceive things.' + +##In fact, when we examine the experience of suffering, although some +sufferings are at the sensory or bodily level, such as physical pain, even the +very experience of pain is intimately connected with consciousness or mind and +therefore is part of our mental world. This is what distinguishes sentient +beings from other biological organisms, such as plants, trees and so on. +Sentient beings have a subjective dimension, which we may choose to call +experience, consciousness or the mental world. + +##....One thing we can understand, both through scientific analysis and also +from our own personal experience or perception, is that whatever experiences +we have now are consequences of preceding conditions. Nothing comes into +being without a cause. Just as everything in the material world must have a +cause or condition that gives rise to it, so must all experiences in the +mental world also have causes and conditions.(p.74) + +##--from Lighting the Way by the Dalai Lama, translated by Geshe Thupten +Jinpa, published by Snow Lion Publications + +