X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=infobase%2Ffortunes.dat;h=18bad2ac476755cc7edbd0810cc3da8258b50b1e;hb=f799e53be210af2e72697045c45274a120536813;hp=ce63b3a382ee9f016eaac033a206b5c7997cd9d9;hpb=cf4ddeebb0e07bf4115fa38cc6831ea006df9791;p=feisty_meow.git

diff --git a/infobase/fortunes.dat b/infobase/fortunes.dat
index ce63b3a3..18bad2ac 100644
--- a/infobase/fortunes.dat
+++ b/infobase/fortunes.dat
@@ -40735,4 +40735,113 @@ been on trial.  What has been its fruits?  More or less, in all places, pride
 and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both,
 superstition, bigotry and persecution.
   -- James Madison, General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia (1785)
+~
+Being civil often has an element of acting.  However, in the hinayana, you are
+behaving rather than acting.  Acting is trying to manifest yourself for the
+sake of display, whereas behaving is how you feel.  Acting is the way you
+dance, and behaving is the way you sneeze or hiccup.  You know if you are
+being genuine.  You are the first person who knows.  When you are acting, you
+are concerned with other people’s possible reactions; but when you are
+behaving, you are just behaving.  It’s like sitting on the toilet seat and
+doing your duty: nobody is watching.  It’s your private concern, so there is
+a quality of genuineness.  In the hinayana, you behave decently because the
+dharma is actually a part of you.  That is the meaning of taming yourself...
+Becoming a dharmic person means that in your everyday life from morning to
+morning, around the clock, you are not trying to kid anybody.
+  -- Chögyam Trungpa, from "The Path of Individual Liberation: Volume One of
+     The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma", published by Shambhala
+     Publications
+~
+Today’s world requires us to accept the oneness of humanity.  In the past,
+isolated communities could afford to think of one another as fundamentally
+separate.  Some could even exist in total isolation.  But nowadays, whatever
+happens in one region eventually affects many other areas.  Within the context
+of our inter-dependence, self-interest clearly lies in considering the
+interest of others.
+  -- H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, "The Pocket Dalai Lama", published by
+     Shambhala Publications
+~
+    Compassion is an internal attitude that may manifest in our behavior.
+However, compassion is not the behavior itself, for one behavior can be done
+with different motivations.  For example, we may take care of a sick relative
+because we have genuine affection for him.  Conversely, we may care for him
+because we want to inherit his estate.  The action is the same, but the
+motivations differ.  The first motivation is prompted by genuine compassion,
+the second by self-concern.
+    Acting with compassion entails being creative and knowing that one
+behavior is not suitable for all occasions.  In some circumstances, we may be
+compassionate by sharing our possessions; while in others, we may show it by
+saying, “no.” In this way, compassion must be combined with good judgment to
+be effective.
+  -- Russell Kolts and Thubten Chodron, "An Open-Hearted Life", published by
+     Shambhala Publications
+~
+Since the very beginning, the mind streams of all sentient beings possess the
+way of being of the inseparability of being lucid and being empty in an
+intrinsic manner.  No matter how it may be obscured by adventitious stains, in
+terms of its nature, it is never tainted by stains, while the stains exist in
+the manner of being separable from it.  This mind that is the inseparability
+of being lucid and being empty has the nature of being permanent and being
+free from change, decrease, and increase.  It is ever undeceiving, changeless,
+and genuinely stable.  Throughout all three phases of ground, path, and
+fruition, it is this nature of the mind that is certain to be solely the
+object of the genuine meditative equipoise within the qualities that are the
+nature of phenomena.  This is what needs to be manifested through the practice
+of superior insight.
+  -- from "When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition
+     as a Bridge between Sutra and Tantra", translated by Karl Brunnholzl,
+     published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+    Whatever obstacles we experience, if we can take them the right way, they
+won’t obstruct our spiritual path.  Rather, they will become a tool to
+stimulate our advancement toward our destination: unconditional love and
+enlightenment.
+    So try to feel joy when facing difficulties, for they provide the chance
+to purify unvirtuous past deeds, the cause of ills, and infuse us with the
+inspiration to generate yet greater virtuous deeds, the cause of healing and
+enlightenment.
+  -- Tulku Thondup, from "The Heart of Unconditional Love: A Powerful New
+     Approach to Loving-Kindness Meditation", published by Shambhala
+     Publications
+~
+Although deliberately framed as if it were a law of nature or of mathematics,
+its purpose has always been rhetorical and pedagogical: I wanted folks who
+glibly compared someone else to Hitler or to Nazis to think a bit harder about
+the Holocaust.
+  -- Mike Godwin, on "Godwin's Law", originated in 1990, which (paraphrasing)
+     states that any online discussion will eventually devolve into a
+     comparison with Hitler or Nazism.  At that point, the person who brought
+     either topic up has lost the argument and their basic credibility.
+~
+Your mind, the primordial buddha,
+Searches elsewhere due to the power of desire.
+Doesn’t it notice that it is wandering in samsara?
+
+Now that you have obtained the precious human body,
+You continuously get carried away by mundane actions.
+Don’t you notice that your life is running out?
+  -- Padmasambhava
+~
+    The key to understanding the truth of suffering is what the Buddha called
+the “three marks” of everything that exists.  All conditioned phenomena,
+he said, are pervaded by these three marks: impermanence (anitya),
+dissatisfaction or suffering (duhkha), and insubstantiality (anatman,
+“without self”).
+    According to the Buddha, if we do not understand how conditioned phenomena
+are marked by these three aspects, then we will not be able to understand the
+first Noble Truth.  We may do all we can in order to avoid facing the fact
+that everything is contingent and transient—we may try to hide ourselves
+from it, and we may even spin out all kinds of metaphysical theories of an
+unchanging, permanent, substantial reality to avoid this all-pervasive nature
+of ephemerality.  Also, if we do not understand that conditioned phenomena are
+unsatisfactory, we will not think about restraining ourselves from
+overindulgence in sensory gratifications, which makes us lose our center and
+become immersed in worldly concerns, so that our life is governed by greed,
+craving, and attachment.  All of these things disturb the mind.
+    If we do not understand that everything is insubstantial—anatman—then
+we may believe that there is some kind of enduring essence or substance in
+things, or in the personality, and because of this belief we generate delusion
+and confusion in the mind.
+  -- Traleg Kyabgon, from "The Essence of Buddhism", published by Shambhala
+     Publications