X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=database%2Ffortunes.dat;h=aceb7d5d883ac010f97bcac024bce7024a6f81ba;hb=0d70718f955a97a4682562501f7c295bc9f0e799;hp=8f0d22e836fd5ae91b1166b16c2dfa6fff3feed8;hpb=eed46848c60b504f49bc168c65b3eb69f5cb28b9;p=feisty_meow.git diff --git a/database/fortunes.dat b/database/fortunes.dat index 8f0d22e8..aceb7d5d 100644 --- a/database/fortunes.dat +++ b/database/fortunes.dat @@ -37562,3 +37562,103 @@ eventually be possible to attain liberation from all states of existence conditioned by ignorance and be free of suffering.(p.45) -- "Images of Enlightenment: Tibetan Art in Practice", by Jonathan Landaw and Andy Weber, published by Snow Lion Publications +~ + We must distinguish between pride and self-confidence. Self-confidence is +necessary. It is what enables us, in certain situations, not to lose courage +and to think with some justification, 'I am capable of succeeding.' Self- +confidence is quite different from excessive self-assurance based on a false +appreciation of our capacities or circumstances. + If you feel able to accomplish a task that other people cannot manage, then +you cannot be called proud as long as your assessment is well founded. It is +as if someone tall came across a group of short people who wanted to get +something too high for them to reach, and said to them, 'Don't exert +yourselves, I can do it.' This would simply mean that he was more qualified +than the others to carry out a particular task, but not that he is superior to +them or that he wants to crush them.(p.259) + -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "365 Dalai Lama: Daily Advice from the + Heart", edited by Matthieu Ricard, translated by Christian Bruyat, + published by Snow Lion Publications +~ + What is progress? How do we recognize it? The teachings are like a mirror +before which we should hold our activities of body, speech, and mind. Think +back to a year ago and compare the stream of activities of your body, speech, +and mind at that time with their present condition. If we practice well, then +the traces of some improvement should be reflected in the mirror of Dharma. + The problem with having expectations is that we usually do not expect the +right things. Not knowing what spiritual progress is, we search for signs of +it in the wrong areas of our being. What can we hope for but frustration? It +would be far better to examine any practice with full reasoning before +adopting it, and then to practice it steadily and consistently while observing +the inner changes one undergoes, rather than expecting this or that fantasy to +become real. + The mind is an evolving organism, not a machine that goes on and off with +the flip of a switch. The forces that bind and limit the mind, hurling it +into unsatisfactory states of being, are impermanent and transient agents. +When we persistently apply the practices to them, they have no option but to +fade away and disappear. + Ignorance and the "I"-grasping syndrome have been with us since +beginningless time, and the instincts of attachments, aversion, anger, +jealousy and so forth are very deeply rooted in our mindstreams. Eliminating +them is not as simple as turning on a light to chase away the darkness of a +room. When we practice steadily, the forces of darkness are undermined, and +the spiritual qualities that counteract them and illuminate the mind are +strengthened and made firm. Therefore, we should strive by means of both +contemplative and settled meditation to gain stability in the various Lam Rim +topics.(p.176) + -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Enlightenment", edited and translated + by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications +~ + We are beings of the Desire Realm, and thus our minds are also included +within Desire Realm minds. If we cultivate great compassion, our own minds +are the basis for great compassion. By contemplating countless sentient +beings and meditating to develop great compassion, one eventually achieves +great compassion. At that point, the mental basis--one's own mind--has become +of the entity of great compassion. There is no distinguishing the two at that +time. Meditating on great compassion does not mean taking compassion as an +object and looking at it; it means taking sentient beings as one's object and +developing compassion for them such that the mind comes to be of the nature of +great compassion. + The texts frequently speak of different mental bases: the basis for calm +abiding, the basis for meditative absorption, the basis for achieving a path. +The way of understanding all of these is the same. You may wonder whether, +when one cultivates a certain path, the mind becomes of the entity of that +path. It is important to understand this question because that is, in fact, +what occurs when one cultivates calm abiding. The mental basis becomes of the +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