new fortune.

diff --git a/database/fortunes.dat b/database/fortunes.dat
index 4b3973bcda8de51129b1a1064eee84d78db8e2f3..e575ee1bca00ba81f8e694994575eae7cb39532d 100644 (file)
--- a/database/fortunes.dat
+++ b/database/fortunes.dat
@@ -39309,3 +39309,45 @@ approachers to, and abiders in, these states.
 Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary
 Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
   -- Benjamin Franklin
+~
+  We need a clear mind-training map to keep us from missing the correct path.
+If we want to go to New York we need to know the roads and directions.  Just
+jumping in the car and starting to drive may get us there, but most likely we
+will end up in another place or take much longer than is necessary.
+  I have seen this happen with students who tell me of doing years of
+meditation without seeing any changes.  They may blame themselves, meditation,
+or the Dharma, yet most often the problem is not knowing or applying the
+correct techniques or methods.  Meditation is both easy and not easy.  With
+the correct techniques and methods, applied with diligence, meditation can
+become a swift path to clearing confusion and unhelpful habits.  Without them,
+we may wander in fogginess or agitation, never having engaged in true
+meditation even after years of “sitting.”
+  At Namdroling Monastery we practiced both resting and analytical meditation.
+The renowned teacher Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche believed that both types of
+meditation were important, but he thought it was best to begin with analytical
+meditation, because gaining familiarity with the true nature of reality would
+naturally lead to a clearer understanding of resting meditation and how to
+engage our mind constructively.
+  -- Khenpo Gawang, "Your Mind Is Your Teacher: Self-Awakening through
+     Contemplative Meditation", Shambhala Publications
+~
+  Never think, “Even though I have confidence in the Three Jewels, it is not
+really certain that this work will be accomplished.” Instead, one should
+know that the Enlightened One is surely able to protect those who surrender
+and act in accord with his words, because the Enlightened One is endowed with
+the transcendental wisdom which knows all the paths of practice that are in
+harmony with the intelligence and nature of all living beings, because he has
+the compassionate desire to establish his disciples on the right path after
+turning them from wrong ways, and because he has accomplished the two
+accumulations of merit and transcendental wisdom and has accomplished the
+resolve to help beings.  So even though one has not yet attained liberation
+from worldly existence, it is one’s fault for not having trusted and not
+having acted in accord with the words of the Three Jewels, not because the
+Three Jewels have no compassion.
+  In brief, those who do not entrust themselves to the Precious Jewels, who
+are arrogant and who assume they are intelligent have no certainty in
+accomplishing their schemes.  Even if they are accomplished, it is not certain
+whether those schemes will turn out well in the long run.  So it is important
+to entrust oneself always to the Precious Jewels.
+  -- Ngorchen Konchog Lhundrub, "Three Visions: Fundamental Teachings of the
+     Sakya Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism"