X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=infobase%2Ffortunes.dat;h=529b92c3cb61283fa2029d116581ffa6be1d9253;hb=7e7383cf9baf945f6e86af15f59165003eafc803;hp=f276731df5acde7a07b03d130a4d5802b42d094a;hpb=da6c8371908fbd61143e2e930996b9f5310ed889;p=feisty_meow.git

diff --git a/infobase/fortunes.dat b/infobase/fortunes.dat
index f276731d..529b92c3 100644
--- a/infobase/fortunes.dat
+++ b/infobase/fortunes.dat
@@ -37178,7 +37178,7 @@ that these, and others, are the consequences of violating the pledges.
     The tantric pledges, like a dented vessel, are restored by the
         practitioner's strength.
       --Jamgon Kongtrul
-
+~
   When is it possible to restore a vow that has been transgressed?  All the
 tantras and transmissions state that if a monk has incurred a defeat with
 concealment, the transgressed vow, like a broken clay pot, cannot be repaired.
@@ -40803,4 +40803,229 @@ 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
+~
+    When we grasp a self, how can we possibly practice self-reflection?
+Everything becomes personal: our pain, our anger, our shortcomings.  When we
+take thoughts and emotions personally, they torture us.  Looking at our
+thoughts and emotions in this way is like rubbing our nose in something
+unpleasant—what purpose does it serve other than to create more pain?  This
+is not the kind of looking we are speaking of here.
+    With the view of selflessness, we can enjoy whatever arises in our
+awareness.  We can accept that everything that arises is a result of our past
+actions, or karma, but it is not who we are.
+  -- Dzigar Kongtrul, from "It’s Up to You", published by Shambhala
+     Publications
+~
+As with attaining any goal, you can’t go about putting an end to suffering
+and arriving at enlightenment just any old way.  If we throw a stone up into
+the air, we should not be surprised if it falls on our head.  In the same way,
+when we commit any act, whatever it may be, we can only expect that sooner or
+later it will produce an effect.  Thus it is logical that if we want to free
+ourselves from suffering, we have to perform certain actions and refrain from
+certain others.  The law of the causality of actions is the very foundation of
+the teaching of the Buddha, who proclaimed:
+
+        Avoid the least harmful act,
+        Perfectly accomplish the good,
+        And master your mind.
+        That is the teaching of the Buddha.
+
+  -- Tenzin Wangmo, from "The Prince and the Zombie: Tibetan Tales of Karma",
+     with foreword by Matthieu Ricard, published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+I am very pleased to be a human being, yet I know that I can make what I have
+been given even better.  I know I am not perfect, yet I also know I have the
+ability to transform my imperfections.  Remembering this when I begin to
+practice or study makes any effort needed during the session much more freely
+available.  Resting meditation is not just sitting on a cushion and zoning
+out.  Contemplative Meditation is not just thinking about whatever arises in
+the mind.  Practicing either form of meditation takes joyful exertion and
+self-discipline.
+  -- Khenpo Gawang, "Your Mind is Your Teacher", published by Shambhala
+     Publications
+~
+Not acting on our habitual patterns is only the first step toward not harming
+others or ourselves.  The transformative process begins at a deeper level when
+we contact the rawness we’re left with whenever we refrain.  As a way of
+working with our aggressive tendencies, Dzigar Kongtrül teaches the
+nonviolent practice of simmering.  He says that rather than “boil in our
+aggression like a piece of meat cooking in a soup,” we simmer in it.  We
+allow ourselves to wait, to sit patiently with the urge to act or speak in our
+usual ways and feel the full force of that urge without turning away or giving
+in.  This is the journey of developing a kindhearted and courageous tolerance
+for our pain.
+  -- Pema Chödrön, "Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change",
+     published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+During lifetimes spent wandering in the round of rebirth without beginning or
+end, your present enemies were once extremely beneficial friends and your
+present friends were once harmful enemies.  Moreover, if you do not consider
+present enemies as such, but treat them helpfully as friends, it is possible
+that they will prove even more helpful than friends.  Therefore, rest in
+equanimity toward others: give up attachment to friends and reject hatred
+toward enemies.
+  -- Choying Tobden Dorje, from "The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to
+     Tantra, Books 1 to 10", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+Compassion is not logical.  It’s basically spacious and generous.  A
+compassionate person might not be sure whether he is being compassionate to
+you or whether you are being compassionate to him, because compassion creates
+a total environment of generosity.  Generosity is implied; it just happens,
+rather than you making it happen.  It’s just there, without direction,
+without me, without “for them.” It’s full of joy, a spontaneously
+existing grin of joy, constant joy.
+  -- Chögyam Trungpa, from "Mindfulness in Action: Making Friends with
+     Yourself through Meditation and Everyday Awareness", published by
+     Shambhala Publications
+~
+We have a Buddhist prayer in which we ourselves aspire to become like [the
+earth].  We say:
+
+    May I be like the earth,
+    Providing the air, the ground, water,
+    And everything she provides
+    That is our sacred source of life.
+
+Inspired by the example of the earth, this prayer encourages us to aspire to
+be an unconditional source of all well-being and life for others.  This is a
+supreme aspiration.  We do not just have a great deal to learn about the
+environment—we also have a lot to learn from it.
+  -- H.H. the Seventeenth Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, "The Heart Is Noble",
+     published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+Many people wish to be healthy, to be free from disease, and to remain forever
+young, but these are not very meaningful goals.  If you can tame your mind,
+the value of this will far surpass anything in the world.  Patrul Rinpoche
+said, "Tame the mind, tame the mind, use bodhichitta to tame the mind.  Even
+if we do not cultivate any good deeds in body and speech, taming our mind in
+fact benefits ourselves and all beings."
+  -- Jigme Phuntsok, from "Always Present", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+Transcendent knowledge is beyond thought, word, or description.  It neither
+arises nor ceases, like the identity of space.  It is the domain of
+individual, self-knowing wakefulness.  I salute this mother of the buddhas of
+the three times.
+  -- Shantarakshita, in praise of Prajnaparamita, from "Jewels of
+     Enlightenment", by Erik Pema Kunsang, published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+To rejoice in others’ happiness without any preferences of our own shows
+that we understand that the longing for happiness is the same for all beings.
+We can rejoice in their temporal happiness, which has come from their
+accumulation of merit.  When we recognize the quality of happiness in
+others—when we see someone genuinely smile or laugh or see a glimmer of
+brightness in their eyes—we can rejoice.  When they obtain something they
+want or need, whatever it may be, we have an opportunity to practice
+rejoicing.  Beings long for all kinds of things, some of which we might not
+want ourselves—but that doesn’t matter.  The important thing is that, if
+only for a single moment, it has brought them some happiness.
+  -- Dzigar Kongtrul, from "Light Comes Through", published by Shambhala
+     Publications
+~
+Even if we think we have found the origin of phenomena, we are only being
+deluded by the karmic seeds of new discoveries which are constantly ripening,
+becoming exhausted, and being replaced through the ripening of other karmic
+seeds.  Yet we continue to be fascinated by trying to define substance,
+constantly trying to catch it, thinking that we have caught it but then losing
+it.  We are endlessly lured by the material creations of our conceptions.
+Sublime beings, knowing the characteristics of each phenomenon and the nature
+of all phenomena, are never lured by anything.  They abide in the infinite
+display of enlightenment’s empty appearance without trying to catch anything
+or being able to be caught.
+  -- Thinley Norbu, from "White Sail", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+When there is never any fear or despair no matter what adversity or suffering
+is encountered, when difficulty is taken as an aid to mind training and you
+always have the help of a joyful mind, then you have acquired proficiency in
+mind training.  When adverse conditions come, meditate joyfully and, in
+addition, learn to take joyfully all the adversity others experience.
+  -- Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, from "The Great Path of Awakening", published
+     by Shambhala Publications
+~
+The origin of all science is in the desire to know causes; and the origin of
+all false science and imposture is in the desire to accept false causes rather
+than none; or, which is the same thing, in the unwillingness to acknowledge
+our own ignorance.
+  -- William Hazlitt (1778–1830)
+~
+Not only are there two different categories of phenomena, the person and the
+external phenomena, there are also two different types of misconceptions with
+respect to the nature of phenomena: misconceptions with respect to the nature
+of the person and with respect to the external phenomena.  This means to
+overcome these two types of misconception is to realize selflessness, which is
+the ultimate nature of these two types of phenomena.  Therefore there are two
+selflessnesses, selflessness of person and selflessness of phenomena.
+Generally speaking, comparing the two, the realization of the selflessness of
+the person is said to be easier than realization of the selflessness of
+phenomena because of long familiarity with the actual self, the person.
+  -- H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, "Gentle Bridges: Conversations with the
+     Dalai Lama on the Sciences of Mind", edited by Jeremy Hayward and
+     Francisco J. Varela, published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+The Tibetan term for renunciation is ngepar jungwa; nges par ’byung ba,
+which literally means "certainty of release."  Ngepar is short for ngepar
+shepa, meaning to have certain, decisive knowledge from within; in this case,
+it refers to having certainty that the nature of worldly existence is
+suffering.  In addition to this certainty, there is the heartfelt wish to be
+released, jungwa, from this suffering.  One must gain confidence in the fact
+that the nature of cyclic existence in samsara is suffering, together with
+having the powerful wish and intention to be free of this suffering.  This is
+what is known as the thought of renunciation.
+  -- Nyoshul Khenpo, "The Fearless Lion’s Roar: Profound Instructions on
+     Dzogchen, the Great Perfection", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+“Karma” basically means action.  When we talk about karma, we talk about
+action, which in Buddhism entails thinking in terms of cause and effect.
+Actions are performed because there are certain preexisting causes and
+conditions giving rise to the impulse to engage in particular actions, and
+from this the karmic effect issues.  In the performance of actions, there is
+usually a propelling factor.  We feel compelled by something to do certain
+things, and when we engage in those actions, based on those impulses, the
+actions then produce relevant effects.  As we have seen though, this does not
+mean that every action performed has a particular cause and a particular
+effect.  Nevertheless, the Buddhist theory of karma is irrevocably tied to
+this mechanism, for want of a better word, and hence to the responsibility of
+the individual, as opposed to a divine governance of sorts.
+  -- Traleg Kyabgon, "Karma: What It Is, What It Isn't, Why It Matters",
+     published by Shambhala Publications