new fortunes

diff --git a/infobase/fortunes.dat b/infobase/fortunes.dat
index 41f85f59ef73b83d3209129ac35efa5d4aded8e2..674d62894f3c6aa25a8ed48ad8906f47528f9c5d 100644 (file)
--- a/infobase/fortunes.dat
+++ b/infobase/fortunes.dat
@@ -43078,4 +43078,47 @@ our mind calm and relaxed, simply creates the right conditions to begin to
 connect with our Pristine Mind.
   --Excerpted from "Our Pristine Mind: A Practical Guide to Unconditional
     Happiness", by Orgyen Chowang, published by Shambhala Publications
+~
+Some people think that causes are not necessary.  They think that things do
+not need causes and can exist without them.  This is mistaken.  Think about
+it.  If you plant a seed in a flowerpot, a flower will grow.  It will not grow
+from this table in front of me now.  What is the reason for that?  The causes
+for a flower are present in a flowerpot, and for that reason a flower can grow
+there.  The causes for a flower are not present on the surface of this table,
+and for that reason a flower cannot grow there.  If things arose in the
+absence of causes, a flower would have to be able to grow from the surface of
+this table even though the causes for a flower are not present there.  Or, as
+we know, flowers bloom in the summer but not in the winter.  What is the
+reason for that?  In the summer, the causes and conditions for the growth of
+flowers are complete.  In the winter, they are not.  In dependence upon that,
+flowers grow in the summer but not in the winter.  If causes were not
+necessary, flowers would grow in the winter also.  They would grow at all
+times.
+  -- Khenchen Thrangu, "Essential Practice: Lectures on Kamalashīla’s
+     Stages of Meditation in the Middle Way School", published by Shambhala
+     Publications
+~
+    Human beings have many kinds of suffering.  Some human beings are put into
+prisons.  Some are destitute.  Some are enslaved by others.  Thus, they are
+not actually hell-beings, but their sufferings are like those of hell-beings;
+they are not actually hungry ghosts, but their sufferings are like those of
+hungry ghosts; and they are not actually animals, but their sufferings are
+like those of animals.  We think in that way about the sufferings that human
+beings experience.  Some human beings are wealthy and comfortable.  However,
+that wealth and comfort does not last for a very long time.  Not being able to
+enjoy wealth and comfort for a long time, in the end suffering comes to them
+too.  When we think about the suffering that they experience, compassion
+arises.
+    The demigods suffer from continual jealousy of and warfare with the gods
+of the Desire Realm.  As for the gods, though comfortable temporarily, later
+they fall down into painful situations and, at the time of falling, they
+suffer greatly.  Similarly, even the gods of the Form Realm and the Formless
+Realm cannot just stay there.  They fall down to the states of hell-beings,
+hungry ghosts, animals, humans, and so forth.  When they fall, mentally they
+suffer greatly.  Therefore, sentient beings born in the states of the six
+wanderers have nothing but suffering.  If we think about that, compassion can
+arise.
+  -- Khenchen Thrangu, "Essential Practice: Lectures on Kamalashīla’s
+     Stages of Meditation in the Middle Way School", published by Shambhala
+     Publications