X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=infobase%2Ffortunes.dat;h=b7e5967fb063d8e2af14e78faa3a10458c574c2a;hb=507e77f5592c9bc5f3653540ae970c0554ebfd25;hp=b9cf41b2bb848ddeb0a295b661120f5b8c11af4d;hpb=6c9081b1d19831b33ae982395f9dc183323787ea;p=feisty_meow.git

diff --git a/infobase/fortunes.dat b/infobase/fortunes.dat
index b9cf41b2..b7e5967f 100644
--- a/infobase/fortunes.dat
+++ b/infobase/fortunes.dat
@@ -41830,4 +41830,99 @@ Open awareness helps unite your mind with the result of healing.
     This meditation could also lead to, or be, the awareness state of the
 enlightened nature itself.
   -- by Tulku Thondup, in "Boundless Healing", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+    Amazing!
+    These precious freedoms and endowments are rare as a daytime star;
+    Even when found, like a candle flame in the wind,
+    They could vanish in an instant!
+    Pondering this, most people seem like mad sea captains.
+
+    The root of practice is renunciation.
+    So if you don’t use the key points of mind training
+    To till the soil of your mind, hardened toward liberation,
+    When death comes and you beat your chest with regret,
+    it will be too late!
+
+  -- Jigme Lingpa, from "Steps to the Great Perfection: The Mind-Training
+     Tradition of the Dzogchen Masters", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+We don’t have to try to surrender.  That sounds too effortful.  Then we will
+have a surrender competition.  There is going to be a spiritual marathon, a
+spiritual Olympics, how about that?  Indeed, there is a spiritual Olympics.
+It is not officially announced.  Many people are working really hard trying to
+be the best meditator, the best ascetic, the most enlightened.  So don’t try
+to surrender with your personal will or deliberate effort.  It sounds like too
+much work, trying to surrender to everything.  Instead, go inside.  That is
+all you need to do sometimes.  Go inside and let yourself be in touch with
+your heart.  You know how to be in touch with your heart.  Your heart is
+waiting to be recognized.  This is why the Tibetan masters often said there
+are many forms or levels of meditation.  The highest level is what they call
+effortless meditation.  When they teach how to meditate, especially the
+masters from the Nyingma tradition, they always say, "Don’t do anything."
+Rest in the present moment.  Relax in the natural state of your mind, because
+if you can relax, rest in the natural state of your own mind, then you will be
+in touch with your own heart, with your original heart, with your innocent
+heart, and then surrender is very easy because all of your heart wants it.
+  -- Anam Thubten, from "Embracing Each Moment: A Guide to the Awakened Life",
+     published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+    One day the Dalai Lama went to Ganden accompanied by his security agent
+Kumbula.  They went in ordinary clothes on ordinary horses and left Lhasa
+traveling east.  When they got to the ferries they met with an elderly man
+heading back home from Lhasa where he had taken a load of wood on a donkey.
+The Dalai Lama entered into a conversation with him.  "Where are you off to?"
+he asked.  "I am going back home," the man replied.  "I have taken a load of
+wood to the Norbulinka to the kitchens there."  This was when a new building
+called the Chensel Palace was being constructed.  New taxes had been
+introduced to pay for it and part of the tax was the requisitioning of pack
+animals to transport rocks.  "He already has some very beautiful palaces but
+still he is building a new one.  People have to spend a lot of their time
+there and use their animals for building this new palace.  It is that fellow
+Kumbula who decided yet another palace is needed in Norbulinka even though
+there are a lot there already.  He is not a bad fellow, this Kumbula," the old
+man continued, "but he really does load up the ordinary people with his taxes
+and requisitions.  This fellow Kumbula, he always has to be starting some new
+project or other, he is that sort of fellow."  Now Kumbula was right there
+with the Dalai Lama, and a bit later the old fellow started up again.  "This
+Kumbula is definitely too quick to start up new projects, if you ask me; but
+you know, he is no fool either, and he is loyal to the Dalai Lama.  He is
+useful to the Dalai Lama, no doubt about that."  The gist of his remarks was
+that the ordinary man like himself found the taxation burdensome.  The Dalai
+Lama was very pleased with the conversation.
+    "Rinpoche," the old man said, thinking the Dalai Lama was just a
+distinguished looking older monk, "have some tea with me." They had some tea
+and tsampa together and then the old fellow pulled out a bottle of barley beer
+and offered it to the Dalai Lama.  "I am a monk, I do not drink beer," the
+Dalai Lama protested.  "Do not be silly," he said, "a lot of the monks are
+drinking beer nowadays, go ahead and have a swig."  "Is that so?" said the
+Dalai Lama.  "A lot of the monks nowadays are drinking beer are they?"  "Piles
+of them," the old fellow replied, "though I am pleased to see that you do not
+accept my offer."  After the old man had downed his beer with some bread he
+was carrying, they set off in the direction of Ganden together, talking as
+they went.  As they began to approach Ganden, at the place called Dechen, they
+caught sight of a large smoke offering and the monks of Ganden lined up to
+welcome a special guest.  The old fellow said, "They are making a big welcome
+up there for someone today, I wonder who is coming."  The Dalai Lama said, "I
+am not positive, but I suspect it is for me." Then the old fellow began to
+suspect that he was there with the Dalai Lama and he thought he had better
+make a run for it.  As he tried to flee the Dalai Lama caught hold of him and
+would not let him go.  He took the old man right in through the gates of
+Ganden Monastery and told the people there not to let him leave, but to give
+him a good meal and something excellent to drink.  After he had been well-fed
+and looked after, the Dalai Lama sent word to bring him.
+    The old man was beside himself with fear, thinking he was going to be
+given a terrible punishment, but the Dalai Lama treated him as a friend and
+told him to sit down, right opposite to where Kumbula was sitting.  "Hey, old
+fellow," he said, "I must introduce you to Kumbula.  This is Kumbula."  He was
+overcome with embarrassment, but the Dalai Lama said that he should not be.
+"You spoke your heart, you spoke what you felt was true and there is no shame
+in that.  You described faults as faults and good qualities as good qualities.
+Some people only complain but you did not do that.  Some, again, cover up
+faults and say nothing but good and that is not right either.  You spoke
+honestly and openly, and I am very happy."  He gave him fifty white silver
+sangs as a parting gift, a large sum of money, and said that the problems
+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