new fortune.

diff --git a/infobase/fortunes.dat b/infobase/fortunes.dat
index 6f1266812c095d546582cb4ba33c2fba2133e7c0..26b283e4902221afdba49e4370e1714d4a7dc972 100644 (file)
--- a/infobase/fortunes.dat
+++ b/infobase/fortunes.dat
@@ -42054,4 +42054,54 @@ the phish show on the last night, which was so high energy and saturated with
 fun and healthy vibes that I felt like "i never need to feel fear again".
 that feeling lasted for days after the festival was over.  hopefully memory of
 that thought never fades.
 fun and healthy vibes that I felt like "i never need to feel fear again".
 that feeling lasted for days after the festival was over.  hopefully memory of
 that thought never fades.

+~
+    Don’t become easily discouraged.  If you never try to go beyond that
+stage of initial discouragement because there are thoughts arising in your
+meditation, you are never going to have the true experiences of meditation.
+You need to go beyond that initial stage.  You need to keep trying.  If you
+keep making that effort to go beyond that initial discouragement, you will
+arrive at the experience of not getting caught up in your thoughts and mental
+events.
+    Sometimes you may even observe an increase in the frequency of thoughts.
+When that happens, don’t get discouraged.  My enlightened master Jigme
+Phuntsok Rinpoche says:
+    "One sign that your meditation is beginning to be effective is that both
+subtle thoughts and obvious thoughts become more noticeable than before.  This
+is not a bad sign; it’s a good sign.  When water rushes in a strong river
+current, you don’t see the fish or rocks beneath the rapids.  But when the
+current slows and the water becomes clear, then you can see the fish, the
+rocks, and everything below the surface distinctly.  Similarly, if you never
+pay attention to your mind, and your thoughts and emotions are uncontrolled,
+you don’t even know how many thoughts go by.  But when your mind becomes
+more stable and calm, you begin to see your thoughts more clearly.  Don’t be
+discouraged.  Take heart at this sign.  Don’t hold yourself too loosely or
+too tightly.  Maintain your meditation in the right way without concern and
+gradually your meditation experience will increase and stabilize."
+    Remember: Do not follow the past.  Do not anticipate the future.  Remain
+in the present moment.  Leave your mind alone.  Those four simple,
+straightforward instructions give us a chance to go beyond our mental events
+and, eventually, to experience the natural state of mind.
+  -- Orgyen Chowang Rinpoche, in "Our Pristine Mind", published by Shambhala
+     Publications
+~
+    Knowing full well that his aim is to achieve enlightenment, Sujata adopts
+a parallel program to help sustain him.  Symbolically feeding Gautama with
+each offering to the priests, she utters the dedication prayer,
+        May the Bodhisattva take my food and thereby truly attain perfect and
+completely unexcelled awakening!
+    After six years of this, the gods notify her that Gautama has ceased his
+austerities and urge her to take further action.  Due to her abundant good
+karma in past lives, she is preordained to serve him.  Sujata sets to work
+preparing the rice milk offering in the fashion of the one thousand cows
+milked to feed the five hundred and so forth.  In observing miracles around
+the cooking pot, she prays that they foretell the Bodhisattva’s imminent
+supreme awakening.  She brings the rice porridge in a golden bowl to Gautama
+where he is sitting along the river and offers it to him after reverentially
+making prostrations.  According to this story, the Bodhisattva regains his
+former strength and splendor upon consuming Sujata’s excellent food.  In
+this version, it is his first meal after the six years of austerities and has
+instantly restored him to wholeness.  After bathing and meditating at the
+river, Gautama proceeds to the tree of enlightenment.  All these events have
+taken place within the span of one day.
+  -- Wendy Garling, in "Stars at Dawn", published by Shambhala Publications