X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=infobase%2Ffortunes.dat;h=08ad8bb920be06fab07436ce40112bfb6e027f72;hb=099c43685bd332b99878ab3732af7bd460ced78b;hp=ab3f0ff4c7e01c17249b729e97f426b4c639055b;hpb=b2dde6a1851ab1a1776d23089789480acb96ff65;p=feisty_meow.git

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@@ -42043,4 +42043,408 @@ then accept it and live up to it.
 If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would
 change.
   -- Shakyamuni Buddha
+~
+brain fully charged
+(at lockn 2016...)
+
+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 festival was over.  hopefully memory of
+that thought never fades.
+~
+    Don’t become easily discouraged.  If you never try to go beyond that
+stage of initial discouragement because there are thoughts arising in your
+meditation, you are never going to have the true experiences of meditation.
+You need to go beyond that initial stage.  You need to keep trying.  If you
+keep making that effort to go beyond that initial discouragement, you will
+arrive at the experience of not getting caught up in your thoughts and mental
+events.
+    Sometimes you may even observe an increase in the frequency of thoughts.
+When that happens, don’t get discouraged.  My enlightened master Jigme
+Phuntsok Rinpoche says:
+    "One sign that your meditation is beginning to be effective is that both
+subtle thoughts and obvious thoughts become more noticeable than before.  This
+is not a bad sign; it’s a good sign.  When water rushes in a strong river
+current, you don’t see the fish or rocks beneath the rapids.  But when the
+current slows and the water becomes clear, then you can see the fish, the
+rocks, and everything below the surface distinctly.  Similarly, if you never
+pay attention to your mind, and your thoughts and emotions are uncontrolled,
+you don’t even know how many thoughts go by.  But when your mind becomes
+more stable and calm, you begin to see your thoughts more clearly.  Don’t be
+discouraged.  Take heart at this sign.  Don’t hold yourself too loosely or
+too tightly.  Maintain your meditation in the right way without concern and
+gradually your meditation experience will increase and stabilize."
+    Remember: Do not follow the past.  Do not anticipate the future.  Remain
+in the present moment.  Leave your mind alone.  Those four simple,
+straightforward instructions give us a chance to go beyond our mental events
+and, eventually, to experience the natural state of mind.
+  -- Orgyen Chowang Rinpoche, in "Our Pristine Mind", published by Shambhala
+     Publications
+~
+    Knowing full well that his aim is to achieve enlightenment, Sujata adopts
+a parallel program to help sustain him.  Symbolically feeding Gautama with
+each offering to the priests, she utters the dedication prayer,
+        May the Bodhisattva take my food and thereby truly attain perfect and
+completely unexcelled awakening!
+    After six years of this, the gods notify her that Gautama has ceased his
+austerities and urge her to take further action.  Due to her abundant good
+karma in past lives, she is preordained to serve him.  Sujata sets to work
+preparing the rice milk offering in the fashion of the one thousand cows
+milked to feed the five hundred and so forth.  In observing miracles around
+the cooking pot, she prays that they foretell the Bodhisattva’s imminent
+supreme awakening.  She brings the rice porridge in a golden bowl to Gautama
+where he is sitting along the river and offers it to him after reverentially
+making prostrations.  According to this story, the Bodhisattva regains his
+former strength and splendor upon consuming Sujata’s excellent food.  In
+this version, it is his first meal after the six years of austerities and has
+instantly restored him to wholeness.  After bathing and meditating at the
+river, Gautama proceeds to the tree of enlightenment.  All these events have
+taken place within the span of one day.
+  -- Wendy Garling, in "Stars at Dawn", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+True compassion is spacious and wise as well as resourceful.  This type of
+compassion could be called intelligent love or intelligent affection.  We know
+how to express our affection so that it does not destroy a person but instead
+helps him or her to develop.  It is more like a dance than a hug.  And the
+music behind it is that of intellect.
+  -- " 'Intellect and Intuition,' in The Heart of the Buddha: Entering the
+     Tibetan Buddhist Path", by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, published by
+     Shambhala Publications
+~
+    Gampopa recognized in Dusum Khyenpa an exceptional being and declared that
+he would amply spread Buddhism throughout Tibet.  He added that he would be
+liberated in this life from samsara, cyclic existence.  Over many years the
+Karmapa received from this great bodhisattva the teachings that Gampopa
+himself had been given by his masters.  First, Gampopa transmitted to him the
+teachings of the Kadampa tradition, including the classical scholastic studies
+known as the “gradual path,” which emphasize the development of
+renunciation and altruism.  They henceforth became an educational constant for
+the Kagyu lineage and the basis of the study of the Vajrayana.  Dusum Khyenpa
+then received from his master the teachings and transmissions related to the
+tantras.  One day, when Gampopa bestowed upon his disciple the Hevajra
+initiation, the Karmapa perceived his master in the form of the deity himself.
+    Gampopa then urged Dusum Khyenpa to go on retreat into the neighboring
+caves in order to actualize what had been transmitted.  After only nine days
+of meditation, he spontaneously experienced a strong feeling of warmth and
+bliss.  He removed his monk robes and dressed himself in the simple attire of
+white cotton—repa—worn by yogis.  He meditated for nine months,
+concentrating in particular on the practice of calm abiding (samatha), which
+allows practitioners to pacify and stabilize their mind.  Having excelled in
+this, he continued his retreat for three more years, perfecting his meditative
+capacities on the understanding of the nature of mind through penetrating
+vision (vipashyana) practice.  Finally Gampopa conferred upon him the ultimate
+instructions of the Kagyu lineage.  He then considered that the realization of
+his disciple was henceforth stable.
+    From then on the life of Dusum Khyenpa was divided between retreat and
+travel.  He traveled throughout central Tibet, receiving instructions from
+other teachers or dispensing his own teachings.  Nonetheless, until his master
+passed away, he often returned to Gampopa to receive other transmissions.
+Gampopa encouraged the Karmapa to go on retreat in the near future at Kampo
+Gangra in eastern Tibet, prophesying that it would be in this location that
+Dusum Khyenpa would attain complete enlightenment.
+  --  from "History of the Karmapas", by Lama Kunsang, Lama Pemo, and Marie
+      Aubèle, published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+One cannot force or grasp a spiritual experience, because it is as delicate as
+the whisper of the wind.  But one can purify one’s motivation, one’s body,
+and train oneself to cultivate it.  Because we come from a culture which
+teaches us there is always something external to be obtained which will lead
+us to fulfillment, we lose contact with our innate wisdom.  As the Indian
+Tantric Buddhist saint Saraha says in one of his dohas (poems expressing the
+essence of his understanding):
+    Though the house-lamps have been lit,
+    The blind live on in the dark.
+    Though spontaneity is all-encompassing
+    And close, to the deluded it remains
+    Always far away.
+  -- Tsultrim Allione, in "Women of Wisdom", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+being royalty is nothing compared to being composed from parts of a far
+flung star explosion, as we all are.
+  -- fred t. hamster
+~
+Six right livelihood guidelines...
+
+Consume mindfully.
+    Eat with awareness and gratitude.
+    Pause before buying and see if breathing is enough.
+    Pay attention to the effects of media you consume.
+
+Pause. Breathe. Listen.
+    When you feel compelled to speak in a meeting or conversation, pause.
+    Breathe before entering your home, pleace of work, or school.
+    Listen to the people you encounter. They are buddhas.
+
+Practice gratitude.
+    Notice what you have
+    Be equally grateful for opportunities and challenges.
+    Share joy, not negativity.
+
+Cultivate compassion and loving kindness.
+    Notice where help is needed and be quick to help
+    Consider others' perspectives deeply.
+    Work for peace at many levels.
+
+Discover wisdom
+    Cultivate "don't know" mind (= curiosity).
+    Find connections between Buddhist teachings and your life.
+    Be open to what arises in every moment.
+
+Accept constant change.
+
+  -- Source: "Moon journeying through clouds", Zen Buddhist chants, sayings and recitations from the Buddhist Society for Compassionate Wisdom.
+~
+never forget that the truth is always larger than you know.
+  -- fred t. hamster
+~
+Roger Babson's Ten Commandments of Investing
+
++ Keep speculation and investments separate.
++ Don't be fooled by a name.
++ Be wary of new promotions.
++ Give due consideration to market ability.
++ Don't buy without proper facts.
++ Safeguard purchases through diversification.
++ Don't try to diversify by buying different securities of the same company.
++ Small companies should be carefully scrutinized.
++ 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
+~
+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
+~
+Tuvaá¹­aka 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