X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=database%2Ffortunes.dat;h=aceb7d5d883ac010f97bcac024bce7024a6f81ba;hb=0d70718f955a97a4682562501f7c295bc9f0e799;hp=455a614756f807eecdabcfbe40ac103936a1bbc4;hpb=fdfa87b46edfda5f42ba2d34dc6d265328a0d455;p=feisty_meow.git diff --git a/database/fortunes.dat b/database/fortunes.dat index 455a6147..aceb7d5d 100644 --- a/database/fortunes.dat +++ b/database/fortunes.dat @@ -37628,3 +37628,37 @@ nature of calm abiding. -- Geshe Gedun Lodro, "Calm Abiding and Special Insight: Achieving Spiritual Transformation Through Meditation", translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications +~ + Nature's law dictates that, in order to survive, bees must work together. +As a result, they instinctively possess a sense of social responsibility. +They have no constitution, no law, no police, no religion or moral training, +but because of their nature, they labor faithfully together. Occasionally, +they may fight, but in general, based on cooperation, the whole colony +survives. + We human beings have a constitution, laws and a police force. We have +religion, remarkable intelligence and a heart with a great capacity for love. +We have many extraordinary qualities, but in actual practice, I think we are +lagging behind those small insects. In some respects I feel we are poorer +than the bees. + -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Pocket Dalai Lama", compiled and edited by + Mary Craig +~ + Nagarjuna offers us encouragement in terms of someone of modest potential +accomplishing the practice, in verse 116: + + And even those who realized the truth + Did not fall from the heavens, nor emerge + Like crops of corn from earth's dark depths, but once + Were ruled by kleshas and were ordinary men. + + Not one of all the sublime beings who have appeared--individuals who had +direct realization of the Dharma of the four truths--was already a sublime +being right from the beginning: they did not fall from the sky, nor did they +emerge from the darkness of the earth like a crop. In the past they were +subject to afflictive emotions ['kleshas']--they were ordinary people +dominated by the afflictive emotions. They are therefore worth following as +an example for accomplishing the path.(p.150) + -- Nagarjuna, "Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend: with Commentary by Kangyur + Rinpoche", with commentary by Longchen Yeshe Dorje, Kyabje Kangyur + Rinpoche, translated by The Padmakara Translation Group, published by + Snow Lion Publications