new fortunes.

diff --git a/database/fortunes.dat b/database/fortunes.dat
index 5ee0dac87828243cf38ae07514ff79868edd1565..cd2a230c93ccf7800cb13ad29c583e27a4ee62db 100644 (file)
--- a/database/fortunes.dat
+++ b/database/fortunes.dat
@@ -38459,3 +38459,37 @@ lives.  If we find we cannot help another, the least we can do is to desist
 from harming them.  We must not cheat others or lie to them.  We must be
 honest human beings, sincere human beings.
   -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+  How things appear and how they actually exist differ greatly.  A person
+engaging in practice of the perfection of wisdom does this kind of analysis
+and then examines how things appear in ordinary experience, alternating
+analysis and comparison with the usual mode of appearance in order to notice
+the discrepancy between the actual mode of subsistence of phenomena and their
+appearance.
+  In this way the inherent existence which is the object of negation will
+become clearer and clearer.  As much as the object of negation becomes
+clearer, so much deeper will your understanding of emptiness become.  Finally,
+you will ascertain a mere vacuity that is a negative of inherent existence.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+  Three attitudes prevent us from receiving a continual flow of blessings.
+They are compared to three “pots”: a full pot, a pot with poison in it,
+and a pot with a hole in the bottom.
+  The pot that’s filled to the brim is like a mind full of opinions and
+preconceptions.  We already know it all.  We have so many fixed ideas that
+nothing new can affect us or cause us to question our assumptions.
+  The pot containing poison is like a mind that’s so cynical, critical, and
+judgmental that everything is poisoned by this harshness.  It allows for no
+openness and no willingness to explore the teachings or anything else that
+challenges our righteous stance.
+  The pot with a hole is like a distracted mind: our body is present but
+we’re lost in thought.  We’re so busy thinking about our dream vacation or
+what’s for dinner that we’re completely deaf to what’s being said.
+  Knowing how sad it is to receive blessings and not be able to benefit,
+Shantideva wants to save himself grief by remaining open and attentive.
+Nothing will improve, he says, unless we become more intelligent about cause
+and effect.  This is a message worth considering seriously.
+  -- Pema Chödrön, from "No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the
+     Bodhisattva".
+
+