X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=infobase%2Ffortunes.dat;h=2c38a86019b2421ac4d40ad932bf6af0bd13ae7c;hb=1a0a7f42c1db2a9dab7c10adf2fa8259ff115fd7;hp=e0e45f87b272ca7bf8c771bd136f72a7b769324b;hpb=38bbc57ccda45335e4a192267a5f858f3499b563;p=feisty_meow.git diff --git a/infobase/fortunes.dat b/infobase/fortunes.dat index e0e45f87..2c38a860 100644 --- a/infobase/fortunes.dat +++ b/infobase/fortunes.dat @@ -8230,12 +8230,8 @@ Life's a buffet... so eat me! ~ Montana--At least our cows are sane! ~ -Jesus died for my sins and all I got was this lousy T-shirt. -~ Mean people rule! ~ -Guns don't kill people, postal workers do. -~ Born again pagan. ~ God must love stupid people, he made so many. @@ -39756,3 +39752,78 @@ and relaxing the wind energy to impact the expression of neurotic mind. -- Anyen Rinpoche and Allison Choying Zangmo, from "The Tibetan Yoga of Breath: Breathing Practices for Healing the Body and Cultivating Wisdom", published by Shambhala Publications and Snow Lion Publications. +~ +Imagination relies on empty perception. Painting relies on empty planes. +Sculpture relies on empty space. Music relies on empty time. Literature +relies on empty concepts. If we are to realize the art of freedom, if we are +to discover our creative potential, we need to rely on the experience of our +intrinsic vibrant emptiness--the beginningless ground of what we are. + -- Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, from "Roaring Silence: Discovering + the Mind of Dzogchen", published by Shambhala Publications and Snow Lion + Publications. +~ +Detachment doesn't mean "throw it away" or "don’t have feelings +about it." It definitely does not mean denying or obstructing the mind's +natural tendency to project. Imagine you are about to go into a cotton +factory. Before entering you pour glue all over your body, and then you +demand, "I don’t want any cotton balls to stick to my body, but I won’t +remove the glue from my body either." Then you enter the cotton factory. +Of course the glue, by its nature, makes cotton balls stick to you. In +meditative language, that kind of stickiness is called deliberation or +fabrication, and here we call it the state of nondetachment. The state of +nondetachment is when you get entangled and you make the story line similar to +that of a daytime soap opera in which four characters go on for twenty years. +It keeps on multiplying and you exaggerate the situation. You create a state +in your mind that is full of grasping, clinging, and attachment. + -- Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche from "The Healing Power of Meditation: Leading + Experts on Buddhism, Psychology, and Medicine Explore the Health Benefits + of Contemplative Practice", edited by Andy Fraser, published by Shambhala + Publications and Snow Lion Publications. +~ + According to Sthiramati, though samsara has the nature of nirvana, in +ordinary beings true reality is obscured by their tendencies of clinging to a +self and really existing phenomena. Thus, they do not see emptiness, which +actually exists, but they naturally perceive the actually nonexistent +phenomena of apprehender and apprehended, just as when mistakenly not seeing +an existent rope, but seeing it as a nonexistent snake. + Bodhisattvas lack the clinging to a self and phenomena and thus they +naturally see true reality—emptiness—while not seeing any duality, just as +correctly seeing an existent rope, while not seeing it as a nonexistent snake. +When existent emptiness—true reality—is seen and the nonexistent +characteristics of apprehender and apprehended are not seen anymore, the +alaya-consciousness—the dependent nature—has undergone the fundamental +change. This fundamental change is liberation and nirvana. + Just as people liberated from bondage can do what they please, once this +fundamental change occurs, bodhisattvas are liberated because they have gained +mastery over their minds, which abide like space without any appearance of +characteristics. Thus, no matter what they encounter, they are able to act as +they please without being bound by any attachment or aversion. + -- Karl Brunnhölzl, from "Mining for Wisdom within Delusion: Maitreya’s + Distinction between Phenomena and the Nature of Phenomena and Its Indian + and Tibetan Commentaries", published by Shambhala Publications and Snow + Lion Publications +~ +Our awareness of feelings in the body and mind ranges from simple frustration +and malaise to anguish, despair, and white-hot physical pain, and from simple +pleasures to extraordinary ecstasy. As we become clearly cognizant of the +bandwidth of our own feelings, we direct our awareness externally. We become +vividly aware that myriad sentient beings around us are not simply objects of +our pleasure, displeasure, or indifference, but have feelings just like ours. +By turning our awareness outward and closely applying mindfulness to other +sentient beings, we can empathize with their feelings. When we empathize with +another’s suffering and we attend closely, compassion arises. The suffering +of unpleasant feelings is the very source of the experience of compassion. + -- B. Alan Wallace, in "Minding Closely: The Four Applications of + Mindfulness", works published by Shambhala Publications and Snow Lion + Publications +~ +It is our aim to have genuine loving-kindness toward all sentient beings +because we see them suffering. In the Mahayana tradition, it says that +through our innumerable lifetimes, at some time or other, every single +sentient being has been in the relation to us of our mother, our friends, or +someone who has helped us. We look at all sentient beings in this way. We +feel a deep yearning to help them because they have helped us. When we +contemplate in this way, we find that some kind of compassion begins to take +place. + -- Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in "The Tibetan Buddhism Reader", published by + Shambhala Publications