new fortunes.

diff --git a/database/fortunes.dat b/database/fortunes.dat
index f4a56a560eae1199b7303801d80fc52edc7c6dca..455a614756f807eecdabcfbe40ac103936a1bbc4 100644 (file)
--- a/database/fortunes.dat
+++ b/database/fortunes.dat
@@ -37578,3 +37578,53 @@ them or that he wants to crush them.(p.259)
   -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, "365 Dalai Lama: Daily Advice from the
      Heart", edited by Matthieu Ricard, translated by Christian Bruyat,
      published by Snow Lion Publications
+~
+  What is progress?  How do we recognize it?  The teachings are like a mirror
+before which we should hold our activities of body, speech, and mind.  Think
+back to a year ago and compare the stream of activities of your body, speech,
+and mind at that time with their present condition.  If we practice well, then
+the traces of some improvement should be reflected in the mirror of Dharma.
+  The problem with having expectations is that we usually do not expect the
+right things.  Not knowing what spiritual progress is, we search for signs of
+it in the wrong areas of our being.  What can we hope for but frustration?  It
+would be far better to examine any practice with full reasoning before
+adopting it, and then to practice it steadily and consistently while observing
+the inner changes one undergoes, rather than expecting this or that fantasy to
+become real.
+  The mind is an evolving organism, not a machine that goes on and off with
+the flip of a switch.  The forces that bind and limit the mind, hurling it
+into unsatisfactory states of being, are impermanent and transient agents.
+When we persistently apply the practices to them, they have no option but to
+fade away and disappear.
+  Ignorance and the "I"-grasping syndrome have been with us since
+beginningless time, and the instincts of attachments, aversion, anger,
+jealousy and so forth are very deeply rooted in our mindstreams.  Eliminating
+them is not as simple as turning on a light to chase away the darkness of a
+room.  When we practice steadily, the forces of darkness are undermined, and
+the spiritual qualities that counteract them and illuminate the mind are
+strengthened and made firm.  Therefore, we should strive by means of both
+contemplative and settled meditation to gain stability in the various Lam Rim
+topics.(p.176)
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama, "The Path to Enlightenment", edited and translated
+     by Glenn H.  Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications
+~
+  We are beings of the Desire Realm, and thus our minds are also included
+within Desire Realm minds.  If we cultivate great compassion, our own minds
+are the basis for great compassion.  By contemplating countless sentient
+beings and meditating to develop great compassion, one eventually achieves
+great compassion.  At that point, the mental basis--one's own mind--has become
+of the entity of great compassion.  There is no distinguishing the two at that
+time.  Meditating on great compassion does not mean taking compassion as an
+object and looking at it; it means taking sentient beings as one's object and
+developing compassion for them such that the mind comes to be of the nature of
+great compassion.
+  The texts frequently speak of different mental bases: the basis for calm
+abiding, the basis for meditative absorption, the basis for achieving a path.
+The way of understanding all of these is the same.  You may wonder whether,
+when one cultivates a certain path, the mind becomes of the entity of that
+path.  It is important to understand this question because that is, in fact,
+what occurs when one cultivates calm abiding.  The mental basis becomes of the
+nature of calm abiding.
+  -- Geshe Gedun Lodro, "Calm Abiding and Special Insight: Achieving Spiritual
+     Transformation Through Meditation", translated and edited by Jeffrey
+     Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications