X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=infobase%2Ffortunes.dat;h=674d62894f3c6aa25a8ed48ad8906f47528f9c5d;hb=f3c3e1a53718e2eecdcac085e347be831f1caf26;hp=4b508630323329b784086d78e521b67815242972;hpb=9767543e09806172d5ff8bd3f4d8cb9ddd087601;p=feisty_meow.git

diff --git a/infobase/fortunes.dat b/infobase/fortunes.dat
index 4b508630..674d6289 100644
--- a/infobase/fortunes.dat
+++ b/infobase/fortunes.dat
@@ -43018,3 +43018,107 @@ elements into enlightenment by means of that connection.   
 ~
 Never admit defeat.  Just move the front.
   -- fred t. hamster
+~
+down came eddy from his heady,
+where he dwells often unsteady,
+you see he gets so high,
+mind expanded to sky;
+real world grokking just not ready.
+  -- fred t. hamster
+~
+    Generally speaking, when we are too desirous of something in life, we’re
+less likely to attain it.  Success seems to increase in direct proportion to
+the diminution of our desires.  The same logic applies to our need for
+recognition.  We might want to be appreciated and respected, but we have only
+a limited ability to influence how other people respond and we can’t make
+somebody show us gratitude any more than we can force someone to love us.  If
+we show love without expecting it to be reciprocated, we will have more chance
+of finding love than if we simply yearn for it.  Likewise, doing something
+without expecting gratitude is more likely to elicit appreciation for what we
+do.  Whether someone can acknowledge our actions or not should be no concern
+of ours.
+    We simply commit ourselves to doing things to the best of our ability and
+in as thorough a manner as possible without sloppiness.  We should never think
+that other people are indebted to us or obligated to help us in return.  We
+should simply do things because we love doing them, not because we want other
+people to feel indebted to us.  Shantideva says:
+
+        The work of bringing benefit to beings
+        Will not, then, make me proud and self-admiring.
+        The happiness of others is itself my satisfaction;
+        I do not expect another recompense.
+
+  -- Traleg Kyabgon, from "The Practice of Lojong: Cultivating Compassion
+     through Training the Mind", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava says:
+
+        If you want to go sightseeing, try touring your own clear,
+        mirrorlike mind instead.
+
+    What technique can we use to effectively start our journey to realizing
+our natural, pristine state?
+    The clearest instructions for doing this come from Guru Rinpoche
+Padmasambhava, the main architect of the Pristine Mind teachings.  Guru
+Rinpoche has given us the essential opening instructions for practicing
+Pristine Mind meditation in four steps:
+
+         Don’t follow the past.
+         Don’t anticipate the future.
+         Remain in the present moment.
+         Leave your mind alone.
+
+    We must understand these instructions.  They are designed to help us stay
+in the present moment.  Some other forms of meditation teachings say that
+remaining in the present moment is the ultimate objective of meditation.
+However, the present moment itself is not ultimate reality, ultimate truth, or
+the ultimate goal of Pristine Mind meditation.  Nor is it what I mean when I
+refer to our fundamental nature.  Instead, being in the present moment, with
+our mind calm and relaxed, simply creates the right conditions to begin to
+connect with our Pristine Mind.
+  --Excerpted from "Our Pristine Mind: A Practical Guide to Unconditional
+    Happiness", by Orgyen Chowang, published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+Some people think that causes are not necessary.  They think that things do
+not need causes and can exist without them.  This is mistaken.  Think about
+it.  If you plant a seed in a flowerpot, a flower will grow.  It will not grow
+from this table in front of me now.  What is the reason for that?  The causes
+for a flower are present in a flowerpot, and for that reason a flower can grow
+there.  The causes for a flower are not present on the surface of this table,
+and for that reason a flower cannot grow there.  If things arose in the
+absence of causes, a flower would have to be able to grow from the surface of
+this table even though the causes for a flower are not present there.  Or, as
+we know, flowers bloom in the summer but not in the winter.  What is the
+reason for that?  In the summer, the causes and conditions for the growth of
+flowers are complete.  In the winter, they are not.  In dependence upon that,
+flowers grow in the summer but not in the winter.  If causes were not
+necessary, flowers would grow in the winter also.  They would grow at all
+times.
+  -- Khenchen Thrangu, "Essential Practice: Lectures on Kamalashīla’s
+     Stages of Meditation in the Middle Way School", published by Shambhala
+     Publications
+~
+    Human beings have many kinds of suffering.  Some human beings are put into
+prisons.  Some are destitute.  Some are enslaved by others.  Thus, they are
+not actually hell-beings, but their sufferings are like those of hell-beings;
+they are not actually hungry ghosts, but their sufferings are like those of
+hungry ghosts; and they are not actually animals, but their sufferings are
+like those of animals.  We think in that way about the sufferings that human
+beings experience.  Some human beings are wealthy and comfortable.  However,
+that wealth and comfort does not last for a very long time.  Not being able to
+enjoy wealth and comfort for a long time, in the end suffering comes to them
+too.  When we think about the suffering that they experience, compassion
+arises.
+    The demigods suffer from continual jealousy of and warfare with the gods
+of the Desire Realm.  As for the gods, though comfortable temporarily, later
+they fall down into painful situations and, at the time of falling, they
+suffer greatly.  Similarly, even the gods of the Form Realm and the Formless
+Realm cannot just stay there.  They fall down to the states of hell-beings,
+hungry ghosts, animals, humans, and so forth.  When they fall, mentally they
+suffer greatly.  Therefore, sentient beings born in the states of the six
+wanderers have nothing but suffering.  If we think about that, compassion can
+arise.
+  -- Khenchen Thrangu, "Essential Practice: Lectures on Kamalashīla’s
+     Stages of Meditation in the Middle Way School", published by Shambhala
+     Publications
+