new fortunes

diff --git a/infobase/fortunes.dat b/infobase/fortunes.dat
index 9bc89df5254dba2a9b2fa0002b5ea34358379864..efef4152ce855daf642c3af2c05f3a80ca5bdb50 100644 (file)
--- a/infobase/fortunes.dat
+++ b/infobase/fortunes.dat
@@ -41532,4 +41532,60 @@ okay if you don’t.
 - You are a deeply selfish person. -
 + You are a deeply compassionate person. +
 * You are a deeply deep person. *
+~
+    Buddhism asserts that the mind can be changed.  I doubt whether anyone
+would dispute that point although we often feel as if we are stuck with an
+obstinate mind that refuses to do what we want it to.  In addictions this
+feeling of being stuck can be very powerful.  But Buddha said that all this
+can change, no matter how bad it is.
+    Buddha was a top psychologist.  He taught methods for dealing with
+immediate and urgent situations as well as methods that look into long-term
+change.  For the long term, meditation is an important method.  When he was
+teaching about how to meditate, he suggested a number of tools from which we
+can benefit.  We are going to use three of these tools to help us:
+mindfulness, introspection, and equanimity.  Mindfulness keeps our mind on
+whatever we have decided to do.  Introspection checks whether we are being
+mindful or not.  Equanimity stops the dramatizing and catastrophizing that we
+get into when we do not get what we want (the craving and grasping that arise
+from attachment) or we get what we do not want (aversion which gives rise to
+hatred, jealousy, and depression).
+  -- Chönyi Taylor, from "Enough!  A Buddhist Approach to Finding Release
+from Addictive Patterns", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+It is said in the Supreme Continuum of the Great Vehicle:
+    Earth is based upon water,
+    Water on wind, and wind on space,
+    But space is not based on anything.
+    Similarly, the aggregates and sensory sense fields
+    Are based on deeds and afflictive mental states.
+    Deeds and afflictive mental states are always based on mistaken attention.
+    Mistaken attention is based on the purity of mind.
+    But the nature of mind is not itself based on any of these things.
+  -- Choying Tobden Dorje, from "The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to
+Tantra, Books 15 to 17, Volume 1", published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+    First, I’ll begin with self, which sometimes goes by the name ego, or
+more familiarly, I and me.  What is this self, really?  We can investigate by
+trying to analyze this self, to locate it or pin it down, to see if it even
+exists in the first place.  This can be a highly illuminating contemplation,
+but for the purposes of this book, I would like to focus more on our everyday
+experience.  Let’s identify how having a self feels.  In our mind stream,
+there is always some kind of feeling of having a self, which is at the center
+of all our thoughts and emotions.  One Tibetan phrase targets this phenomenon
+precisely: dak che dzin.  Dak means “self”; che means “important” or
+“dear”; dzin means “holding” or “regarding.” This term has various
+translations, which all capture different nuances: self-centeredness, self-
+clinging, ego-clinging, self-absorption.  I like to use all of these terms in
+different contexts, but my favorite translation is “self-importance.”
+    This word may make us think dak che dzin has mostly to do with being proud
+and arrogant, but such pride is nowhere near the whole story.  Self-importance
+includes both self-cherishing and self-protection.  It is the source of the
+five main types of painful emotions, known as the “five poisons”:
+attachment, aggression, jealousy, arrogance, and stupidity.  It can manifest
+as feeling like we’re better than others, but just as easily it can manifest
+as low self-esteem, or even self-hatred.  The bottom line is that we regard
+this self—whatever or wherever it is—as the most important thing in the
+entire universe.
+  -- Dzigar Kongtrul, from "The Intelligent Heart: A Guide to the
+Compassionate Life", published by Shambhala Publications.