X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=infobase%2Ffortunes.dat;h=08ad8bb920be06fab07436ce40112bfb6e027f72;hb=099c43685bd332b99878ab3732af7bd460ced78b;hp=a4aecf9c0a62298f26ac4d67f858055411b505a8;hpb=bb100ab895d263b41ce624a30bd9925cffd7913b;p=feisty_meow.git diff --git a/infobase/fortunes.dat b/infobase/fortunes.dat index a4aecf9c..08ad8bb9 100644 --- a/infobase/fortunes.dat +++ b/infobase/fortunes.dat @@ -42213,6 +42213,238 @@ Roger Babson's Ten Commandments of Investing + Buy adequate security, not super abundance. + Choose your dealer and buy outright (i.e., don't buy on margin.) ~ -Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection. - -- Mark Twain +Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection. -- Mark Twain +~ +All of us cherish helpful and loving friends, and wise, compassionate +spiritual mentors are especially important to us to progress on the path. +Being separated from the people we value or having an important relationship +not work out the way we had hoped is painful, yet it is a common occurrence in +cyclic existence. Because we ourselves, others, and all the conditioned +things around us are impermanent by nature, whatever comes together must also +separate. + -- Thubten Chodron, "Good Karma: How to Create the Causes of Happiness and + Avoid the Causes of Suffering", published by Shambhala Publications +~ +There are no limits to our imagination, +or if there are, +we can only imagine them. + -- Fred T. Hamster +~ +When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say +to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." + -- Fred Rogers +~ +Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a +triple. + -- Barry Switzer +~ + First, let’s take a look at how physical and emotional health supports +our spiritual health. What is spiritual health? One way that the Buddhist +teachings define spiritual health is having a sense of interconnection with +other living beings on the planet, as well as respect for the natural +environment. Recognition of this interconnection with others is developed as +we call to mind the things that all beings have in common: the wish to attain +happiness and avoid suffering. We can reflect on this by thinking that all of +the wonderful things we want for ourselves, others want them too. Just so, +all of the painful things we would like to avoid, others wish to avoid those +things too. + However, spiritual health is far more than a mere sense of connection. +True spiritual health arises from discovering love and compassion for all +sentient beings. In doing so, we cut through our own painful feelings of +anger, resentment, and strong desire, which cause us so much personal +unhappiness and sorrow. By bringing ourselves back into harmonious +relationship with friends, family, and the larger community, even those we may +dislike, we ourselves become spiritually rich. + -- Anyen Rinpoche & Allison Choying Zangmo, "The Tibetan Yoga of Breath: + Breathing Practices for Healing the Body and Cultivating Wisdom", + published by Shambhala Publications +~ +Our worries may zoom around the state of the world. “What happens if the +economy plummets? If the ozone layer keeps decreasing? If we have more +anthrax attacks? If terrorists take over the country? If we lose our civil +liberties fighting terrorism?” Here, our creative writing ability leads to +fantastic scenarios that may or may not happen, but regardless, we manage to +work ourselves into a state of unprecedented despair. This, in turn, often +leads to raging anger at the powers that be or alternatively, to apathy, +simply thinking that since everything is rotten, there’s no use doing +anything. In either case, we’re so gloomy that we neglect to act +constructively in ways that remedy difficulties and create goodness. + -- Thubten Chodron, in "Taming the Mind", published by Shambhala Publications +~ +It really seemed like every band built on the one just prior to it, so that as +each day moved on, the acts just generated more and more energy and awesome +music, storing it up in a celestial battery. the peak of it all for me was +the phish show on the last night, which was so high energy and saturated with +fun and healthy vibes that I felt like "i never need to feel fear again". +that feeling lasted for days after the concert was over. hopefully memory of +that thought never fades. + -- fred t. hamster, after lockn 2016 +~ +The dawn of the Great Eastern Sun is based on actual experience. It is not a +concept. You realize that you can uplift yourself, that you can appreciate +your existence as a human being. Whether you are a gas station attendant or +the president of your country doesn’t really matter. When you experience +the goodness of being alive, you can respect who and what you are. You need +not be intimidated by lots of bills to pay, diapers to change, food to cook, +or papers to be filed. Fundamentally, in spite of all those responsibilities, +you begin to feel that it is a worthwhile situation to be a human being, to be +alive, not afraid of death. + -- Chögyam Trungpa, "Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior", published + by Shambhala Publications +~ + These deities share a freedom from passion and experience more and more +subtle states of mind in each higher level. In the first level, the freedom +from passion is experienced; in the second, freedom from discursive thought; +in the third, the elimination of gross joy in meditation, leaving only sublime +delight; in the fourth, freedom even from delight. Above these are the four +levels of the realm of formlessness, whose inhabitants have transcended form +altogether and have no bodies or forms at all. Here deities experience +successively even more subtle states of mind: the infinity of space, the +infinity of consciousness, “nothing at all,” and neither perception nor +nonperception. + These states can certainly appear enormously attractive from our human +point of view. In fact, they correspond to what many think religious practice +is all about—attaining some kind of heaven or some sort of tranquillity or +bliss. But from the Buddhist viewpoint, the sublimity even of these states is +not a worthy ultimate goal. One may ask, “What can possibly be wrong with +such attainments?” + It is important to remember that the divine states of the desire realm, +the form realm, and the formless realm, like all the other states known in the +other five realms, are still part of samsara and subject to karma, +impermanence, and suffering. In spite of the relative exaltation of their way +of being, there comes a day for every god when he or she begins to feel the +signs of impending death. The intoxication of the godly state gives way to +sadness, pain, fear, and finally terror, and this is followed by death and +rebirth in a lower realm. + In addition, the gods have one enormous liability: precisely because of +their power, longevity, and intoxication, they are unable to hear the dharma +with its teachings about duhkha, the first noble truth. They, like the +inhabitants of all the other nonhuman realms, are victims of their karma and +are unable to practice a spiritual path to gain liberation. + -- Reginald A. Ray, in "Indestructible Truth", published by Shambhala Publications +~ +The Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh writes, "I like to walk alone on country paths, +rice plants and wild grasses on both sides, putting each foot down on the +earth in mindfulness, knowing that I walk on the wondrous earth. In such +moments, existence is a miraculous and mysterious reality. People usually +consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real +miracle is to walk on earth... a miracle we don’t even recognize." + -- from Jan Chozen Bays, MD, "How to Train a Wild Elephant & Other Adventures + in Mindfulness", published by Shambhala Publications +~ +Begin the sequence of sending and taking with yourself + +Whatever pain you feel, take it in, wishing for all beings to be free of it. +Whatever pleasure you feel, send it out to others. In this way, our personal +problems and delights become a stepping-stone for understanding the suffering +and happiness of all beings. + -- Pema Chodron's "Compassion Cards", published by Shambhala Publications +~ +Tuvaṭaka Sutta: The Discourse on Being Quick + +(The Buddha said,) +"Let them completely destroy the root +Of conceptual differentiation, +That is, [the idea] ‘I am the thinker.’ +Ever mindful, they train to subdue their cravings. + +"They shouldn’t get entrenched in any teachings they know +Whether their own or that of others. +Good people say that +Being entrenched is not release. + +"They would not, because of this, think themselves +Better, worse, or equal [to others]. +Experiencing many things, +They don’t take a stand in thoughts of themselves." + + The Buddha’s first teachings in this poem are particularly important. +Here he emphasizes the destruction of the root source for conceptual +proliferation which he describes as being either the idea "I am the +thinker" or the thought "I am." While the grammar of the Pali phrase +allows for both translations into English, the two options both identify some +form of conceit as the basis from which a problematic differentiation of +concepts with which the world is categorized arises. When this conceit is +uprooted, the conceptual proliferation stops. A sage does not categorize or +conceptualize the world with any fixed reference point of existing as "I." + While training to become such a sage, a monastic should avoid swelling up +with conceit, which is described as thinking they are better, worse, or equal +to others. The alternative to such comparative thinking is to have a mind +that is still and unmoving like a calm sea. Many of the training instructions +the Buddha mentions can be understood as support for having a still, peaceful +mind. + -- Gil Fronsdal, "The Buddha before Buddhism: Wisdom from the Early + Teachings", published by Shambhala Publications +~ +Path of Accumulation + + One who has the Mahayana family cultivates bodhicitta, receives teachings +from masters, and makes effort in the virtues until the heat of wisdom is +attained. During this time, progress is classified in four stages: +realization, aspiration, greater aspiration, and achievement. Why is this +called the path of accumulation? Because on it, one gathers the accumulations +of virtue in order to become a vessel for the realization of heat and so forth. +Therefore, it is called the path of accumulation. + + These are also called the root virtues which are similar to liberation. +At this stage, twelve of the branches of enlightenment are practiced: + + A. the four types of mindfulness, + B. the four types of perfect abandonment, and + C. the four feet of miracle powers. + +The Four Types of Mindfulness are: + + 1. sustaining mindfulness of the body, + 2. sustaining mindfulness of feelings, + 3. sustaining mindfulness of the mind, and + 4. sustaining mindfulness of phenomena. + +These four occur during the lesser stage of the path of accumulation. + +The Four Types of Perfect Abandonment are: + + 1. abandoning nonvirtues which have been created, + 2. not allowing new nonvirtues to be produced, + 3. producing the antidotes, virtues which have not arisen, and + 4. allowing those virtues which have arisen to increase. + +These four occur during the middle stage of the path of accumulation. + +The Four Feet of Miracle Powers are: + + 1. the absorption of strong aspiration, + 2. the absorption of perseverance, + 3. the absorption of the mind, and + 4. the absorption of investigation. + +These four occur during the greater stage of the path of accumulation. + -- Gampopa, from "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation", published by Shambhala + Publications +~ +Path of Application + + The path of application begins after perfection of the path of +accumulation. It has four stages corresponding to the realization of the Four +Noble Truths: heat, maximum heat, patience, and realization of the highest +worldly dharma. Why is it called the path of application? Because there, one +makes an effort to directly realize truth. + +A. Five Powers. Furthermore, during the stages of heat and maximum heat, +five powers are practiced: + the power of faith, + the power of perseverance, + the power of mindfulness, + the power of absorption, and + the power of wisdom awareness. + +B. Five Strengths. During the stages of patience and highest worldly dharma, +five strengths are practiced: + the strength of faith, + the strength of perseverance, + the strength of mindfulness, + the strength of absorption, and + the strength of wisdom awareness. + -- Gampopa, in "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation", published by Shambhala + Publications