X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=database%2Ffortunes.dat;h=cd2a230c93ccf7800cb13ad29c583e27a4ee62db;hb=4a516fd856a6468167dfc4546c3db47ee31869e0;hp=e2d69e9e8b91d07af1edf06a55e8d342a86ac4e2;hpb=7114fc3d93915a1582a52e562690fc7ecf8d6f2b;p=feisty_meow.git

diff --git a/database/fortunes.dat b/database/fortunes.dat
index e2d69e9e..cd2a230c 100644
--- a/database/fortunes.dat
+++ b/database/fortunes.dat
@@ -38447,3 +38447,49 @@ 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".
+
+