Be someone else’s sunshine. Be the reason someone smiles today. Smile at everyone, you never know who’s an angel. ~CoolNsmart
What is undistracted calm abiding? It is meditative absorption free of the six types of distraction. What are these six?
1. Inherent distraction refers to the eye consciousness and the other four collections of consciousness. Because they are naturally directed outward, they [cause one to] emerge from meditative absorption.
2. External distraction refers to a mental consciousness that reaches out towards or engages objects.
3. Internal distraction concerns dullness and agitation, as well as savoring one’s meditative absorption.
4. The distraction of marks occurs when, trusting in meditative absorption, one apprehends marks of it and becomes attached.
5. Distraction brought about by negative tendencies is when directing the mind involves the apprehending of an ego. This is said to refer to the mental act of pridefully believing oneself to be superior to others, or (simply any mental act) that involves apprehending an “I.”
6. The distraction of directing the mind occurs when one is caught up in the mindset of, and directs the mind in the style of, the Lesser Vehicle.
The undistracted calm abiding that is determined by the elimination of those six is the unique calm abiding of the Great Vehicle. This is a state of one-pointed inner rest, a flawless calm abiding. In it, there is no apprehension of marks, as is the case when inner absorption alone is believed to bring liberation. Neither does it involve the ego apprehension that occurs in the concentrations of non-Buddhists. Further, one does not direct the mind as one would when cultivating the supports for the inferior paths [to liberation]. This is how the wise should understand the calm abiding of the Great Vehicle.
— From Middle Beyond Extremes: Maitreya’s ‘Madhyantavibhaga’ with commentaries by Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham, translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee, published by Snow Lion Publications
You might “kill time” walking, moving, sleeping, or sitting: ineffectual acts which are neither wholesome nor harmful, and which mature into neither good nor bad experiences. But since such actions simply waste this human life, instead of throwing your ability away in idle amusements, make a conscious effort to devote your time exclusively to wholesome action. — Jamgon Kongtrul
Desire, anger and stupidity–
Engaging in those creates karma that is non-virtuous.
The fruit of non-virtue is experienced as suffering.
Free of attachment, free of aversion, and without stupidity–
Acting within those states creates karma that is virtuous.
The fruit of virtue is experienced as happiness.
— Shantideva
The cultivation of bodhicitta is to wish for true, complete awakening for the welfare of others.
— The Ornament for Clear Realization
When we have acquired an awareness of the fact that all beings have been our mothers, and when this awareness is constant, the result will be that when we see meat, we will be conscious of the fact that it is the flesh of our own mothers. And, far from putting it in our mouths and eating it, we will be unable to even take it into our hands or smell its odor. ~ Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol
“When we bring mindfulness to the dinner table, it suffuses the rest of our life as well. We become more sensitive to the well-being of animals, of the environment, and of ourselves and our families. We are more aware of the choices we make in all areas of our life. We enjoy food more, know that, while the obtaining of even plant foods necessitates some suffering, the amount and kind of suffering is dramatically reduced when we leave meat off our shopping lists and out of our kitchens. We become more aware of how meat consumption feeds violence and anger.” ~Kate Lawrence
There are three ways of killing that we, as Buddhists, have to restrain: either by directly killing, indirectly killing, or rejoicing to see others be killed. Not only does this apply to human life, it should be also extended to all living beings. ~ Zen Master Thich Thanh Tu
Compassion without attachment is possible. Therefore, we need to clarify the distinctions between compassion and attachment. True compassion is not just an emotional response but a firm commitment founded on reason. Because of this firm foundation, a truly compassionate attitude toward others does not change even if they behave negatively. Genuine compassion is based not on our own projections and expectations, but rather on the needs of the other: irrespective of whether another person is a close friend or an enemy, as long as that person wishes for peace and happiness and wishes to overcome suffering, then on that basis we develop genuine concern for their problem. This is genuine compassion. For a Buddhist practitioner, the goal is to develop this genuine compassion, this genuine wish for the well-being of another, in fact for every living being throughout the universe. — Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism. — Albert Einstein
When the Buddha was diligently walking the path of Bodhisattva, he did not only aspire to achieve Buddhahood for himself. He also had a very deep concern for all the distressed sentient beings in this world. The Buddha showed much compassion in his constant actions of helping sentient beings. The world is like a dirty, stinking sewage tank and we are almost drowning in it. No one but the Buddha was willing to come to this suffering world to rescue us. Therefore, when Buddha was born in this world more than two thousand years ago, he denounced the worldly life, practiced diligently, attained enlightenment and then preached his teachings. If there was no distressed sentient beings like us, he wouldn’t have needed to come into this suffering world, as he had already freed himself from the cycle of birth and death and awakened to the truth of all phenomena.
The contributions of Buddha to us are profound and incomparable. As Buddhists we should reinforce the concept of appreciating the Buddha. Otherwise, if we do not understand the Buddha’s sincerity, do not learn his compassion, and do not pursue the vast merits of the great teaching in Buddhism, we do not qualify as the Buddha’s faithful disciples.
Source: BuddhaNet
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Sometimes people mistakenly look on vows and pledges as if these were a type of punishment, but this is not at all the case. For example, just as we follow certain methods of eating and drinking to improve our health and certainly not to punish ourselves, so the rules the Shakymuni Buddha formulated are for controlling counter-productive ill-deeds and ultimately for overcoming afflictive emotions, because these are self-ruinous. Thus, to relieve oneself from suffering, one controls the motivations and deeds producing suffering for one’s own sake. Realizing from his own experience that suffering stems from one’s own afflictive emotions as well as actions contaminated with them, he sets forth styles of behavior to reduce the problem for our own profit, certainly not to give us a hard time. Hence, these rules are for the sake of controlling sources of harm.
— by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dzong-ka-ba, and Jeffrey Hopkins, from Yoga Tantra
