From: Chris Koeritz Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2016 15:29:20 +0000 (-0500) Subject: new fortune X-Git-Tag: 2.140.90~356 X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?p=feisty_meow.git;a=commitdiff_plain;h=8a715b5267cad025465305eee1f37d39d3568133 new fortune --- diff --git a/infobase/fortunes.dat b/infobase/fortunes.dat index 33c4f7a9..1a569eb9 100644 --- a/infobase/fortunes.dat +++ b/infobase/fortunes.dat @@ -42339,4 +42339,40 @@ Whatever pleasure you feel, send it out to others. In this way, our personal problems and delights become a stepping-stone for understanding the suffering and happiness of all beings. -- Pema Chodron's "Compassion Cards", published by Shambhala Publications +~ +Tuvaṭaka Sutta: The Discourse on Being Quick + +(The Buddha said,) +"Let them completely destroy the root +Of conceptual differentiation, +That is, [the idea] ‘I am the thinker.’ +Ever mindful, they train to subdue their cravings. + +"They shouldn’t get entrenched in any teachings they know +Whether their own or that of others. +Good people say that +Being entrenched is not release. + +"They would not, because of this, think themselves +Better, worse, or equal [to others]. +Experiencing many things, +They don’t take a stand in thoughts of themselves." + + The Buddha’s first teachings in this poem are particularly important. +Here he emphasizes the destruction of the root source for conceptual +proliferation which he describes as being either the idea "I am the +thinker" or the thought "I am." While the grammar of the Pali phrase +allows for both translations into English, the two options both identify some +form of conceit as the basis from which a problematic differentiation of +concepts with which the world is categorized arises. When this conceit is +uprooted, the conceptual proliferation stops. A sage does not categorize or +conceptualize the world with any fixed reference point of existing as "I." + While training to become such a sage, a monastic should avoid swelling up +with conceit, which is described as thinking they are better, worse, or equal +to others. The alternative to such comparative thinking is to have a mind +that is still and unmoving like a calm sea. Many of the training instructions +the Buddha mentions can be understood as support for having a still, peaceful +mind. + -- Gil Fronsdal, "The Buddha before Buddhism: Wisdom from the Early + Teachings", published by Shambhala Publications