X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=database%2Ffortunes.dat;h=dcfacd59dce8cbc588706f0bc7e27cd097c8f6d9;hb=53cb3d0c027da7e8f8078ae20b4d6df4fa0fc9c1;hp=315d2b9175707484bec5e10208f72dfe1d27373c;hpb=6027706dda64d8c7179306263358702354efddc7;p=feisty_meow.git

diff --git a/database/fortunes.dat b/database/fortunes.dat
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--- a/database/fortunes.dat
+++ b/database/fortunes.dat
@@ -37964,3 +37964,192 @@ if we lack various external facilities that are normally considered necessary
 for a happy and joyful life, it is still possible to live a happy and joyful
 life.
   -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+COMPLICATED SIMPLICITY
+
+  Emptiness is the simplest and most unelaborated thing we could imagine, but
+then there is this whole literature about all these very discursive details
+with all their subpoints.  There are five paths and ten bhumis, and each path
+is divided into a number of stages, with certain numbers of obscurations
+having to be relinquished on each one of those subpaths.  Most people just
+think, "Who wants or needs to know all that?  Don’t we have too many
+thoughts already?  I thought this was about letting go of all reference
+points."
+  Of course nobody really wants to know all those details and in a sense we
+all know them already, because they are the details of the many reference
+points that we already have in our mind.  The fact that these sutras and their
+commentaries talk about our obscurations is precisely the point why they seem
+so endless and complicated—because our minds are complicated.  Emptiness is
+extremely simple, but our convoluted minds that do not get this simplicity are
+very complicated.  It is not that the Buddha and the other speakers in the
+sutras and the commentaries really like to, but they need to address each one
+of those knots in our minds, which are like knots in space.
+~
+If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have
+to be a horrible warning.
+  -- Catherine Aird
+~
+THE MIND OF CLEAR LIGHT
+
+  Is spiritual practice really worthwhile?  Is it really possible to eliminate
+from within ourselves the forces that give rise to suffering?  As is said,
+“The ultimate nature of mind is clear light.” Consciousness has many
+levels, and although the coarser levels are affected by the defiling forces,
+the most subtle level remains free of gross negativities.  In the Vajrayana
+this subtle level of consciousness is called the mind of clear light.
+  The delusions and emotional afflictions as well as the dualistic mind of
+right and wrong, love and hatred, etc., are associated only with the coarse
+levels of consciousness.  At the moment, we are totally absorbed in the
+interplay of these coarse states, so we must begin our practice by working
+within them.  This means consciously encouraging love over hate, patience in
+place of anger, emotional freedom rather than attachment, kindness over
+violence, and so forth.  Doing this brings immediate peace and calm to the
+mind, thus making higher meditation possible.
+  Then, because grasping at a self and at phenomena as being truly existent is
+the cause of all the vast range of distorted states of mind, one cultivates
+the wisdom that eliminates this ego-grasping.  To overcome ego-grasping is to
+overcome the entire host of mental distortions.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+It is the general Buddhist procedure that one’s own pleasure and pain are
+acheived by oneself and not from the outside, and that, therefore, sentient
+beings themselves must understand and implement practices to bring about their
+own happiness.  Thus, the most efficacious way to help others is through
+teaching what should be adopted in practice and what should be discarded from
+among current behavior.  There is no way to do this unless you come to know
+all of the topics involved in what should be adopted in practice and what
+should be discarded—you must become omniscient.  As mentioned earlier, there
+is no way to accomplish this except by removing the obstructions to
+omniscience, and one who has overcome, utterly and forever, the obstructions
+to omniscience is a Buddha.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+  In meditation, imagine that in front of you are three persons—an enemy, a
+friend, and a neutral person.  At that time, in our minds we have (1) a sense
+of closeness for one of them, thinking, “This is my friend”; (2) a sense
+of dislike even when imagining the enemy; and (3) a sense of ignoring the
+neutral person.  Now, we have to think about the reasons why we generate these
+feelings—the reasons being that temporarily one of them helped us whereas
+the other temporarily harmed us, and the third did neither.  However, when we
+think in terms of the long course of beginningless rebirth, none of us could
+decide that someone who has helped or harmed us in this life has been doing so
+for all lifetimes.
+  When you contemplate this way, eventually you arrive at a point where a
+strong generation of desire or hatred appears to you to be just senseless.
+Gradually, such a bias weakens, and you decide that one-sided classification
+of persons as friends and enemies has been a mistake.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+  Generally speaking, even if money brings us happiness, it tends to be the
+kind that money can buy: material things and sensory experiences.  And these,
+we discover, become a source of suffering themselves.  As far as actual
+possessions are concerned, we must admit that they often cause us more, not
+less, difficulty in life.  The car breaks down, we lose our money, our most
+precious belongings are stolen, our house is damaged by fire.  Or we worry
+about these things happening.
+  The problem is not materialism as such.  Rather it is the underlying
+assumption that full satisfaction can arise from gratifying the senses alone.
+Unlike animals whose quest for happiness is restricted to survival and to the
+immediate gratification of sensory desires, we human beings have the capacity
+to experience happiness at a deeper level, which, when achieved, can overwhelm
+unhappy experiences.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+We humans are social beings.  We come into the world as the result of
+others' actions.  We survive here in dependence on others.  Whether we like
+it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives in which we do not benefit
+from others' activities.  For this reason it is hardly surprising that most
+of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others.  Nor
+is it so remarkable that our greatest joy should come when we are motivated by
+concern for others.  But that is not all.  We find that not only do altruistic
+actions bring about happiness, but they also lessen our experience of
+suffering.  Here I am not suggesting that the individual whose actions are
+motivated by the wish to bring others happiness necessarily meets with less
+misfortune than the one who does not.  Sickness, old age, mishaps of one sort
+or another are the same for us all.  But the sufferings which undermine our
+internal peace—anxiety, doubt, disappointment—these are definitely less.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+If we view the world’s religions from the widest possible viewpoint and
+examine their ultimate goal, we find that all of the major world religions,
+whether Christianity or Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism, are dedicated to the
+achievement of permanent human happiness.  They are all directed toward that
+goal.  All religions emphasize the fact that the true follower must be honest
+and gentle, in other words, that a truly religious person must always strive
+to be a better human being.  To this end, the different world religions teach
+different doctrines which will help transform the person.  In this regard, all
+religions are the same, there is no conflict.  This is something we must
+emphasize.  We must consider the question of religious diversity from this
+viewpoint.  And when we do, we find no conflict.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+Emptiness vs. Non-Existence
+
+The doctrines of emptiness and selflessness do not imply the non-existence of
+things.  Things do exist.  When we say that all phenomena are void of self-
+existence, it does not mean that we are advocating non-existence, that we are
+repudiating that things exist.  Then what is it we are negating?  We are
+negating, or denying, that anything exists from its own side without depending
+on other things.  Hence, it is because things depend for their existence upon
+other causes and conditions that they are said to lack independent self-
+existence.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+If we view the world’s religions from the widest possible viewpoint and
+examine their ultimate goal, we find that all of the major world religions,
+whether Christianity or Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism, are dedicated to the
+achievement of permanent human happiness.  They are all directed toward that
+goal.  All religions emphasize the fact that the true follower must be honest
+and gentle, in other words, that a truly religious person must always strive
+to be a better human being.  To this end, the different world religions teach
+different doctrines which will help transform the person.  In this regard, all
+religions are the same, there is no conflict.  This is something we must
+emphasize.  We must consider the question of religious diversity from this
+viewpoint.  And when we do, we find no conflict.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+  The process of overcoming our defilements goes in conjunction with gaining
+higher levels of realisation.  In fact, when we speak of gaining higher levels
+of realisation in Buddhism we are speaking primarily of the processes through
+which our wisdom and insight deepen.  It is actually the wisdom aspect that
+enables the practitioner to move from one level to the next on the path.
+  The attainment of the levels of the path is explained in condensed form in
+the Heart Sutra, where we find the mantra tadyatha om gate gate paragate
+parasamgate bodhi svaha.  Tadyatha means It is thus; gate gate means go, go;
+paragate means go beyond and transcend; parasamgate means go utterly beyond,
+go thoroughly beyond; and bodhi svaha means firmly rooted in enlightenment.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+ENDURING SUCCESS
+  It is often seen that human beings can endure problems quite well, but
+cannot endure success.  When we are successful and have everything we desire,
+it can easily go to our heads.  There is a great danger of losing our common
+sense and becoming careless and arrogant.  As it is said, "Nothing corrupts a
+person more than power." Very powerful people sometimes become so proud that
+they no longer care about their actions or about the effect they have on
+others.  Losing any sense of right and wrong, they create severe problems for
+themselves and everyone else.
+  Even if we have all the success we could dream of—fame, wealth, and so
+on—we must understand that these things have no real substance.  Attachment
+does not come from having things, but from the way our mind reacts to them.
+It is fine to participate in good circumstances, provided we can see that they
+have no real essence.  They may come and they may go.  When seeing this, we
+will not become so attached.  Even if we lose our wealth we will not be badly
+affected, and while it is there we will enjoy it without being senseless and
+arrogant.
+  -- Ringu Tulku, from "Daring Steps: Traversing the Path of the Buddha",
+     edited and translated by Rosemarie Fuchs, page 92.
+~
+The role of other sentient beings
+
+  In relation to the attainment of liberation from cylic existence, which is
+known also as "definite goodness," the role of other sentient beings is
+indispensable.  In the Buddhist understanding, the key spiritual practices
+that lead to the attainment of liberation are the Three Higher
+Trainings—higher training in morality, in meditation, and in wisdom.  The
+last two are based upon the foundation of the first, namely the training in
+morality.  As I said before, the presence of other sentience beings is
+indispensable for this training.  This is how we come to the powerful
+realisation that the role of other sentient beings is essential in all areas
+of our mundane and spiritual activities.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama