Flowers don’t bloom where no seeds have been planted. If you want kindness, be kind. If you want acceptance, be accepting. If you want encouragement, be encouraging. If you want forgiveness, be forgiving. If you want love, be loving. If you want respect, be respectful. We should not expect from others what we fail to give to them. ~Tom Krause
Most of the time, a cat will land on his feet when he falls. His body reflexively corrects its course so that by the time he arrives on the ground, his feet are in position to hit first. The height of a cat’s fall determines how well, or how poorly, his legs can absorb the shock of landing. A cat’s ability to land on his feet isn’t a trick taught by his mother or life experience, but is a gift of nature. By the time kittens are about 6 weeks old and able to run and jump in a coordinated way, their bodies can successfully correct their balance during a fall. However, your cat still needs to be protected from the risk of falling. If you have some open windows in your high-rise apartment or upstairs in your house, be sure they are properly screened. Source: AnimalPlanet
Sometimes, you need to step outside, get some fresh air, and remind yourself of who you are. ~Unknown
Whatever we are waiting for – peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance – it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart. ~Sarah Ban Breathnac
Once attained, even if by accident or trial and error, most knowledge is
retained for life, thanks to the cat’s excellent memory. Even hunting
techniques buried under years of neglect in the well-fed house cat’s
brain will be recalled with ease should the feline, for some reason,
ever have to fend for itself.
Easily frightened, a cat will
retain very strong memories of any incident that it considers
threatening. All it takes is one face-to-face encounter with a growling
dog to convince a feline that the entire canine species is best avoided
forever. However, positive experiences are just as easily stored and
recalled, particularly if they have to do with food or play.
As
any cat owner knows, domestic felines respond well to familiar sounds,
such as can openers, the rattling of their dry-food bags or the crinkly
noise of a favorite toy. Many of them also have an uncanny ability to
know the hour of their regular breakfast time, waking up their owner if
he or she tries to sleep in. Source: AnimalPlanet
It’s of great importance that we practise the Dhamma. If we don’t practise, then all our knowledge is only superficial knowledge, just the outer shell of it. It’s as if we have some sort of fruit but we haven’t eaten it yet. Even though we have that fruit in our hand we get no benefit from it. Only through the actual eating of the fruit will we really know its taste.
The Buddha didn’t praise those who merely believe others, he praised the person who knows within himself. Just as with that fruit, if we have tasted it already, we don’t have to ask anyone else if it’s sweet or sour. Our problems are over. Why are they over? Because we see according to the truth. One who has realized the Dhamma is like one who has realized the sweetness or sourness of the fruit. All doubts are ended right here.
When we talk about Dhamma, although we may say a lot, it can usually be brought down to four things. They are simply to know suffering, to know the cause of suffering, to know the end of suffering and to know the path of practice leading to the end of suffering.
This is all there is. All that we have experienced on the path of practice so far comes down to these four things. When we know these things, our problems are over.
Where are these four things born? They are born just within the body and the mind, nowhere else. So why is the teaching of the Buddha so detailed and extensive? This is so in order to explain these things in a more refined way, to help us to see them.
When Siddhattha Gotama was born into the world, before he saw the Dhamma, he was an ordinary person just like us. When he knew what he had to know, that is the truth of suffering, the cause, the end and the way leading to the end of suffering, he realized the Dhamma and became a perfectly Enlightened Buddha.
When we realize the Dhamma, wherever we sit we know Dhamma, wherever we are we hear the Buddha’s teaching. When we understand Dhamma, the Buddha is within our mind, the Dhamma is within our mind, and the practice leading to wisdom is within our own mind. Having the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha within our mind means that whether our actions are good or bad, we know clearly for ourselves their true nature.
That is how the Buddha discarded worldly opinions, praise and criticism. When people praised or criticized him he just accepted it for what it was. These two things are simply worldly conditions so he wasn’t shaken by them. Why not? Because he knew suffering. He knew that if he believed in that praise or criticism they would cause him to suffer.
When suffering arises it agitates us, we feel ill at ease. What is the cause of that suffering? It’s because we don’t know the truth, this is the cause. When the cause is present, then suffering arises. Once arisen we don’t know how to stop it. The more we try to stop it, the more it comes on. We say, ”Don’t criticize me,” or ”Don’t blame me”. Trying to stop it like this, suffering really comes on, it won’t stop.
So the Buddha taught that the way leading to the end of suffering is to make the Dhamma arise as a reality within our own minds. We become those who witness the Dhamma for themselves. If someone says we are good we don’t get lost in it; they say we are no good and we don’t forget ourselves. This way we can be free. ‘Good’ and ‘evil’ are just worldly dhammas, they are just states of mind. If we follow them our mind becomes the world, we just grope in the darkness and don’t know the way out.
If it’s like this then we have not yet mastered ourselves. We try to defeat others, but in doing so we only defeat ourselves; but if we have mastery over ourselves then we have mastery over all-over all mental formations, sights, sounds, smells, tastes and bodily feelings. Continue reading