From d7ff4817f03185890972577c3f4dd277a4078979 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Chris Koeritz Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2016 01:31:02 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] new fortune. --- infobase/fortunes.dat | 50 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 50 insertions(+) diff --git a/infobase/fortunes.dat b/infobase/fortunes.dat index 6f126681..26b283e4 100644 --- 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 -- 2.34.1