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.
+~
+    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