X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=infobase%2Ffortunes.dat;h=f276731df5acde7a07b03d130a4d5802b42d094a;hb=da6c8371908fbd61143e2e930996b9f5310ed889;hp=ce63b3a382ee9f016eaac033a206b5c7997cd9d9;hpb=cf4ddeebb0e07bf4115fa38cc6831ea006df9791;p=feisty_meow.git diff --git a/infobase/fortunes.dat b/infobase/fortunes.dat index ce63b3a3..f276731d 100644 --- a/infobase/fortunes.dat +++ b/infobase/fortunes.dat @@ -40735,4 +40735,72 @@ been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution. -- James Madison, General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia (1785) +~ +Being civil often has an element of acting. However, in the hinayana, you are +behaving rather than acting. Acting is trying to manifest yourself for the +sake of display, whereas behaving is how you feel. Acting is the way you +dance, and behaving is the way you sneeze or hiccup. You know if you are +being genuine. You are the first person who knows. When you are acting, you +are concerned with other people’s possible reactions; but when you are +behaving, you are just behaving. It’s like sitting on the toilet seat and +doing your duty: nobody is watching. It’s your private concern, so there is +a quality of genuineness. In the hinayana, you behave decently because the +dharma is actually a part of you. That is the meaning of taming yourself... +Becoming a dharmic person means that in your everyday life from morning to +morning, around the clock, you are not trying to kid anybody. + -- Chögyam Trungpa, from "The Path of Individual Liberation: Volume One of + The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma", published by Shambhala + Publications +~ +Today’s world requires us to accept the oneness of humanity. In the past, +isolated communities could afford to think of one another as fundamentally +separate. Some could even exist in total isolation. But nowadays, whatever +happens in one region eventually affects many other areas. Within the context +of our inter-dependence, self-interest clearly lies in considering the +interest of others. + -- H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, "The Pocket Dalai Lama", published by + Shambhala Publications +~ + Compassion is an internal attitude that may manifest in our behavior. +However, compassion is not the behavior itself, for one behavior can be done +with different motivations. For example, we may take care of a sick relative +because we have genuine affection for him. Conversely, we may care for him +because we want to inherit his estate. The action is the same, but the +motivations differ. The first motivation is prompted by genuine compassion, +the second by self-concern. + Acting with compassion entails being creative and knowing that one +behavior is not suitable for all occasions. In some circumstances, we may be +compassionate by sharing our possessions; while in others, we may show it by +saying, “no.” In this way, compassion must be combined with good judgment to +be effective. + -- Russell Kolts and Thubten Chodron, "An Open-Hearted Life", published by + Shambhala Publications +~ +Since the very beginning, the mind streams of all sentient beings possess the +way of being of the inseparability of being lucid and being empty in an +intrinsic manner. No matter how it may be obscured by adventitious stains, in +terms of its nature, it is never tainted by stains, while the stains exist in +the manner of being separable from it. This mind that is the inseparability +of being lucid and being empty has the nature of being permanent and being +free from change, decrease, and increase. It is ever undeceiving, changeless, +and genuinely stable. Throughout all three phases of ground, path, and +fruition, it is this nature of the mind that is certain to be solely the +object of the genuine meditative equipoise within the qualities that are the +nature of phenomena. This is what needs to be manifested through the practice +of superior insight. + -- from "When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition + as a Bridge between Sutra and Tantra", translated by Karl Brunnholzl, + published by Shambhala Publications +~ + Whatever obstacles we experience, if we can take them the right way, they +won’t obstruct our spiritual path. Rather, they will become a tool to +stimulate our advancement toward our destination: unconditional love and +enlightenment. + So try to feel joy when facing difficulties, for they provide the chance +to purify unvirtuous past deeds, the cause of ills, and infuse us with the +inspiration to generate yet greater virtuous deeds, the cause of healing and +enlightenment. + -- Tulku Thondup, from "The Heart of Unconditional Love: A Powerful New + Approach to Loving-Kindness Meditation", published by Shambhala + Publications