X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=database%2Ffortunes.dat;h=8fd1c4acdde7ea87ba0d7ccf72b9335706b65e54;hb=aaeba0b3e4ba6c33ccb6d76c826f94cfed7131a5;hp=b5213309776d9f801131f13bf63cd4fe86190144;hpb=a6f19413110deef2b61b8129f47a62dbfd7e6bcd;p=feisty_meow.git diff --git a/database/fortunes.dat b/database/fortunes.dat index b5213309..8fd1c4ac 100644 --- a/database/fortunes.dat +++ b/database/fortunes.dat @@ -31598,7 +31598,7 @@ by unpleasant ones. ~ crashola in second life: due to having been in a vehicle which crossed into forbidden land and got -taken away, my avatar was left in an indetermine and very unhealthy state. +taken away, my avatar was left in an indeterminate and very unhealthy state. i was unable to move, deep underground, and i saw this object off down to my left, so i clicked on it and picked 'edit'. i realized as i was doing it, that this was my disembodied hair, which had flown off for some reason. @@ -39260,3 +39260,150 @@ Buddha’s Wisdom Body. All we have to do is learn to transform these ordinary elements into their pure natures. Then buddhahood naturally comes into our hands. -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, from "The Path to Enlightenment" +~ + There are three kinds of people [who practice Buddhism]. Like all other +beings, the lowest person wants happiness and not suffering or rebirth in the +lower realms of existence, so he practices Buddhism to create the causes of +rebirth in the human realm or in the heavenly realms of the gods. He does not +have the power or the courage to leave worldly existence completely. He only +wants the best parts of worldly existence; he wants to avoid the worst parts, +and that is why he practices the Buddhist religion—to gain a higher rebirth. + The middling sort of person understands that the whole of worldly existence, +no matter where one is born, is suffering by its nature, just as fire is hot +by its nature. He wants to get out of it altogether and attain nirvana, the +state that is entirely away from suffering. + The highest person realizes that just as he himself does not want to suffer +and does want happiness, so also do all living beings have the same fears and +wishes. He knows that since we have been born again and again from +beginningless time in worldly existence, there is not a single sentient being +who has not been our mother and father at one time or another. Since we are +that close to all sentient beings, the best person is one who practices +Buddhism in order to remove all these countless beings from suffering. + -- H.H. Sakya Trinzin, from "Treasures of the Sakya Lineage: Teachings from + the Masters", by Migmar Tseten +~ + To take refuge in the Buddha means to take refuge in the dharmas that +constitute a buddha (a nonlearner). These consist of a buddha’s knowledge +of the termination and nonarising [of the obscurations]. Together with the +associated factors [of this knowledge], they consist of the five +uncontaminated skandhas. + To take refuge in the sangha means [to take refuge] in the dharmas that +constitute the sangha, which consists of [all] learners and nonlearners except +for buddhas. It is by virtue of having attained their respective [dharmas] +that the eight persons* are not separated from the path by [anyone], including +gods. Therefore, they are called “sangha.” In other words, [the sangha] +is represented by the five uncontaminated skandhas in the mind streams of said +eight persons. + To take refuge in the dharma means [to take refuge] in the analytical +cessation that is nirvana, that is, the two nirvanas [with and without +remainder] of the noble ones. + +*The eight persons are also known as “the four pairs of persons”--stream- +enterers, once-returners, nonreturners, and arhats, each divided into +approachers to, and abiders in, these states. + + --from "Groundless Paths: The Prajnaparamita Sutras, The Ornament of Clear + Realization, and Its Commentaries in the Tibetan Nyingma Tradition", + translated by Karl Brunnholzl, from Shambhala Publications +~ +Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary +Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. + -- Benjamin Franklin +~ + We need a clear mind-training map to keep us from missing the correct path. +If we want to go to New York we need to know the roads and directions. Just +jumping in the car and starting to drive may get us there, but most likely we +will end up in another place or take much longer than is necessary. + I have seen this happen with students who tell me of doing years of +meditation without seeing any changes. They may blame themselves, meditation, +or the Dharma, yet most often the problem is not knowing or applying the +correct techniques or methods. Meditation is both easy and not easy. With +the correct techniques and methods, applied with diligence, meditation can +become a swift path to clearing confusion and unhelpful habits. Without them, +we may wander in fogginess or agitation, never having engaged in true +meditation even after years of “sitting.” + At Namdroling Monastery we practiced both resting and analytical meditation. +The renowned teacher Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche believed that both types of +meditation were important, but he thought it was best to begin with analytical +meditation, because gaining familiarity with the true nature of reality would +naturally lead to a clearer understanding of resting meditation and how to +engage our mind constructively. + -- Khenpo Gawang, "Your Mind Is Your Teacher: Self-Awakening through + Contemplative Meditation", Shambhala Publications +~ + Never think, “Even though I have confidence in the Three Jewels, it is not +really certain that this work will be accomplished.” Instead, one should +know that the Enlightened One is surely able to protect those who surrender +and act in accord with his words, because the Enlightened One is endowed with +the transcendental wisdom which knows all the paths of practice that are in +harmony with the intelligence and nature of all living beings, because he has +the compassionate desire to establish his disciples on the right path after +turning them from wrong ways, and because he has accomplished the two +accumulations of merit and transcendental wisdom and has accomplished the +resolve to help beings. So even though one has not yet attained liberation +from worldly existence, it is one’s fault for not having trusted and not +having acted in accord with the words of the Three Jewels, not because the +Three Jewels have no compassion. + In brief, those who do not entrust themselves to the Precious Jewels, who +are arrogant and who assume they are intelligent have no certainty in +accomplishing their schemes. Even if they are accomplished, it is not certain +whether those schemes will turn out well in the long run. So it is important +to entrust oneself always to the Precious Jewels. + -- Ngorchen Konchog Lhundrub, "Three Visions: Fundamental Teachings of the + Sakya Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism" +~ +Setting out on a spiritual path is a little like planning a trip—to Machu +Picchu, for example. Some travellers will approach the project by investing a +lot of time in reading travel books or Googling Internet sites about the best +route to take and where to stay--a method that works, but only to a certain +extent. Other travellers prefer a much simpler and safer method: to ask +someone they know and trust who has already been to Machu Picchu to go with +them and show them the way. Similarly, those wishing to follow the Buddhist +path to enlightenment should rely on what are called in the teachings the +“four authentics”: the authentic words of the Buddha (his teachings); the +authentic clarification of the teachings that can be found in the shastras +(commentaries) written by great masters of the past; the further clarification +that is the result of authentic personal experience; and for this experience +to find expression, an authentic guru. + -- Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, "Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called + Preliminary Practices", Shambhala Publications +~ +With regard to selflessness, it is necessary to know what "self" is--to +identify the self that does not exist. Then one can understand its opposite, +selflessness. Selflessness is not a case of something that existed in the +past becoming non-existent; rather, this sort of "self" is something that +never did exist. What is needed is to identify as non-existent something that +always was nonexistent, for due to not having made such identification, we are +drawn into the afflictive emotions of desire and hatred as well as all the +problems these bring. + -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, from "Kindness, Clarity, and Insight", Shambhala + Publications +~ + The essence of mind is somewhat difficult to explain, so we look at it from +the negative point of view, that is, what mind is not. First of all, we see +that it is not something which arises or ceases or abides. It is free of +these three things. From beginningless time, there is no arising, no +cessation and no abiding in terms of staying in one place, not moving, or not +changing. It is completely free of all three of these. + It is also free of being a thing or a substance composed of particles. The +essential entity, or substance, of mind is not something that can be defiled +or stained by grasping at subject and object. It is completely free of the +stains from those activities. + Further, when we look at the essential substance of mind, we find that no +matter how much we search for it, no matter how much we analyze it, there is +no thing there to be found. There is no entity that we can come up with by +searching, evaluating, and analyzing. No matter how much we seek for its +essential substance, we cannot find it. The searcher, the one who does the +search for essential substance of mind, cannot find it. Therefore it is said +that the essential substance of mind itself is emptiness. + -- Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche, "The Practice of Mahamudra", published + by Shambhala Publications +~ + "Like a cloud." This is a simile for how the wisdom mind benefits sentient +beings without conceptual thought. For example, in the summer, clouds gather +in the sky without effort, causing crops and so forth to grow perfectly +through the rain falling on the ground without conceptual thought. + Likewise, the activities of the wisdom mind ripen the trainees' crop of +virtue through the rainfall of Dharma without conceptual thought. + -- Gampopa, from "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation: The Wish-fulfilling Gem + of the Noble Teachings"