X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=infobase%2Ffortunes.dat;h=22f958e36a39258f3ee7d784b295a1f1824050c5;hb=d7e8a05960951d8ce67e36c587726a851e2f5165;hp=b7e5967fb063d8e2af14e78faa3a10458c574c2a;hpb=507e77f5592c9bc5f3653540ae970c0554ebfd25;p=feisty_meow.git diff --git a/infobase/fortunes.dat b/infobase/fortunes.dat index b7e5967f..22f958e3 100644 --- a/infobase/fortunes.dat +++ b/infobase/fortunes.dat @@ -28186,7 +28186,7 @@ But if these minds get out of harmony with one another it is like a storm that plays havoc with the garden. -- Shakyamuni Buddha ~ -You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by it. +You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger. -- Shakyamuni Buddha ~ Buddhists take a vow of morality in the context of first taking refuge--in @@ -41925,4 +41925,568 @@ would be looked into. It was from then that the levies on the people for Norbulinka building projects stopped. -- Ven. Lobsang Gyatso, translated by Ven. Dr. Gareth Sparham, "Memoirs of a Tibetan Lama", published by Shambhala Publications +~ +The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor +to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and +earnestly. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on +the present moment. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +You only lose what you cling to. -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Pain is certain, suffering is optional. -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it +at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to +die. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Most problems, if you give them enough time and space, will eventually wear +themselves out + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +If the problem can be solved why worry? If the problem cannot be solved +worrying will do you no good. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates +people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant +relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be +filled with joy. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Happiness does not depend on what you have or who you are, it solely relies on +what you think. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to others. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Wear your ego like a loose fitting garment. -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +People with opinions just go around bothering one another. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Greater in battle +than the man who would conquer +a thousand-thousand men, +is he who would conquer +just one-- +himself. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Do not look for a sanctuary in anyone except your self. -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +With our thoughts we make the world. -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they +do you if you do not act on upon them? + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not +considered a good man because he is a good talker. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Silence is an empty space, space is the home of the awakened mind. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and +soul to it + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our +thoughts and made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil +thought, suffering follows him as the wheel follows the hoof of the beast that +draws the wagon... If a man speaks or acts with a good thought, happiness +follows him like a shadow that never leaves him. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +The mind is everything. What you think you become. -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +The fool who knows he is a fool is that much wiser. -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Every human being is the author of his own health or disease. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create +distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Three things can not hide for long: the Moon, the Sun, and the Truth. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe +in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe +in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do +not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. +Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many +generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything +agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, +then accept it and live up to it. + -- Shakyamuni Buddha +~ +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 +~ +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 +~ +I. 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 +~ +II. 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 +~ + Your eggnog to rum ratio should be 23% to 77%. I would then spice the +eggnog with nutmeg and use more than you're comfortable with because sailors +used to use it as [a] hallucinogen... + Also, enter on a reindeer. And if you enter on a reindeer, stay on the +reindeer. And if you can’t reach something because you’re too high up +sitting on the reindeer, just ask for help. That goes for life, too. Don’t +be afraid to ask for help and stay on that reindeer. + -- T.J. Miller’s recipe for the perfect holiday party +~ +if you can't beat them, join them, and subvert them from the inside. + -- fred t. hamster +~ +regarding christmas cards... +"i would create my own as a desktop publishing activity, with all new current +stuff. but it's way too much effort. basically, i can either give you a +present or make you a card. which do you prefer?" + -- thus spake slackathustra. +~ +III. Path of Insight + + The path of insight begins after the highest worldly dharma and consists +of calm abiding as a basis for special insight focused on the Four Noble +Truths. Four insights correspond to each of the Four Noble Truths, making a +total of sixteen—eight patient acceptances and eight cognitions: the patient +acceptance of the cognition of the dharma with respect to suffering, the +cognition of the dharma with respect to suffering, the patient acceptance of +the cognition that is the subsequent realization with respect to suffering, +the cognition that is the subsequent realization with respect to suffering, +and so forth. + Why is it called the path of insight? Because there, one realizes the +Four Noble Truths which were not seen before. At this stage there are seven +of the branches of enlightenment: + the perfect mindfulness branch, + the perfect discrimination branch, + the perfect perseverance branch, + the perfect joy branch, + the perfect relaxation branch, + the perfect absorption branch, and + the perfect equanimity branch. + -- The Jewel Ornament of Liberation, by Gampopa, published by Shambhala + Publications