Jendhamuni - Buddhism and inspiring quotes

Nature and Nonviolence

Comment January 21, 2015

Meditating Buddha statue at the Meditation Center in Leverett, MA.

by Thich Nhat Hanh

You don’t discriminate between the seed and the plant. You see that they ‘inter-are’ with each other, that they are the same thing. Looking deeply at the young cornstalk, you can see the seed of corn, still alive, but with a new appearance. The plant is the continuation of the seed.

The practice of meditation helps us to see things other people can’t see. We look deeply and we see that father and son, father and daughter, mother and son, mother and daughter, corn seed and cornstalk, have a very close relationship. That is why we should awaken to the fact, to the truth, that we inter-are. The suffering of one is the suffering of the other. […] When we see that we and all living beings are made of the same nature, how can there be division between us? How can there be lack of harmony? When we realize our ‘interbeing nature’, we’ll stop blaming and exploiting and killing, because we know that we inter-are. That is the great awakening we must have in order for the Earth to be saved.

We human beings have always singled ourselves out from the rest of the natural world. We classify other animals and living beings as ‘Nature’, a thing apart from us, and act as if we’re somehow separate from it. Then we ask, “How should we deal with Nature?” We should deal with Nature the same way we should deal with ourselves: nonviolently. Human beings and Nature are inseparable. Just as we should not harm ourselves, we should not harm Nature.

Causing harm to other human beings causes harm to ourselves. Accumulating wealth and owning excessive portions of the world’s natural resources deprives fellow humans of the chance to live. Participating in oppressive and unjust social systems creates and deepens the gap between rich and poor, and aggravates the situation of social injustice. While the rest of the human family suffers and starves, the enjoyment of false security and wealth is a delusion.

It’s clear that the fate of each individual is inextricably linked to the fate of the whole human race. We must let others live if we ourselves want to live. The only alternative to coexistence is co-nonexistence. A civilization in which we must kill and exploit others in order to live is not a healthy civilization. […] To bring about peace within the human family, we must work for harmonious co-existence. If we continue to shut ourselves off from the rest of the world, imprisoning ourselves in narrow concerns and immediate problems, we’re not likely to make peace or to survive. The human race is part of Nature. We need to have this insight before we can have harmony between people.

~Thich Nhat Hanh in “Nature and Nonviolence”
My dream says…

Comment January 21, 2015

My past says you met me.
My future says you will
always remember me.
My dream says you care for me.
But my heart says this
friend is born for me.

~sms4smile Link to Google+
A pearl for someone

Comment January 21, 2015

Sometimes your existence gives hope to one person,
Your smile may be a pearl for someone,
Your presence might be the desire of the one
who loves you dearly. So value yourself.

~sms4smile
One day…

Comment January 21, 2015

Smiling for someone is sweet.
But making someone smile
is the best feeling.
Keep smiling,
One day life will
bet tired of upsetting You

~sms4smile
My dream says

45 January 20, 2015

My past says you met me.
My future says you will
always remember me.
My dream says you care for me.
But my heart says this
friend is born for me.

~sms4smile

http://leelavadeeflower.blogspot.com/2015/01/my-dream-says.html

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All are not equally good

Comment January 20, 2015

Purple flowers

by Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda

Occasionally, there are complains from people who have never caused or given any trouble to other people and yet they become innocent victims of the wiles and intrigues of others. They feel frustrated despite the good lives they have lived. They feel they have been harmed through no fault of their own. Under such circumstances, the innocent victim must realise that the world is made up of all sorts of people – the good and the not so good, the bad and the not so bad, with all the unusual characters that go to make this world of ours. The innocent victim may console himself that he belongs to the good category whereas the disturber of the peace belongs to the bad, and that on certain occasions, he will still have to bear patiently the misdeeds of those belonging to the bad. We take for instance the case of a ‘good and careful driver’ and a ‘bad and reckless driver’. The good and careful driver took every precaution to drive carefully but nevertheless he met with an accident, through no fault of his own – the fault being that of a bad and reckless driver. Thus we can see the good may have to suffer, despite their goodness, because there are bad and reckless people around us. The world is neither good nor bad. It produces criminals as well as saints, fools and enlightened ones. Out of the same clay, beautiful and ugly, useful and even useless things can be made. The quality of good pottery depends on the potter and not on the clay. The potter is in fact yourself. The moulding of your happiness or unhappiness is in your hands.

Source: www.dhammatalks.net
Fear and Worry

Comment January 20, 2015

Red Roses

by Venenable K. Sri Dhammananda

Fear and worry are born of the imaginings of a mind that is influenced by wordly conditions. They are rooted in craving and attachment. In fact, life is like a motion picture in which everything is constantly moving and changing. Nothing in this world is permanent or still. Those who are youthful and strong have fear of dying young. Those who are old and suffering worry about living too long. Locked in between are those who craze for merriment all the year round.

Joyful expectations of the pleasant seem to pass off too quickly. Fearful expectations of the unpleasant create anxieties that do not seem to go away. Such feelings are natural. Such up and downs of life play with an illusionary self or ego like puppets on a string. But the mind is supreme unto itself.

The training of the mind, otherwise known as mental culture, is the first step towards taming mental unrest. The Buddha has explained:

“From craving springs grief,
from craving springs fear
For him who is wholly free from craving,
there is no grief, much less fear”.

All attachments will end in sorrow. Neither tears nor long goodbyes can end the transitoriness of life. All compounded things are impermanent.

Old and young suffer in this existence. No one is exempted. Many teenagers have growing pains. Being neither frogs nor tadpoles, teenagers are understandably inexperienced at building stable relationships with members of the opposite sex. They try to show off their beauty in trying to impress their opposite sex who are flattered to see themselves as sex objects. Both try to behave not as they really are but as what they think is adult. They are afraid that if they behave naturally they will be laughed at. Beheviour like this has the potential for exploitation. There is fear of rejection as well as worry about deflated egos. Unrequited love will often “break” many teenagers hearts because they feel they have made “fools of themselves”. Some are driven to commit suicide. But such traumas could be avoided if life is seen as it really is. Young people must be taught the Buddhist approach to life, so that they can grow into maturity the correct way.

‘Wheresoever fear arises, it arises in the fool, not in the wise men’. says the Buddha. Fear is nothing more than a state of mind. One’s state of mind is subject to control and direction; the negative thought produces fear, the positive use realizes hopes and ideals. The choice rests entirely with ourselves. Every human being has the ability to control his own mind. Nature has endowed man with absolute control over one thing, and that is thought. Everything a man creates begins in the form of a thought. Here is the key to help one understand the principle by which fear may be mastered.

Source: www.dhammatalks.net
Without forgiveness

Comment January 20, 2015

Without forgiveness life is governed by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.
~Roberto Assagioli

Take the first step in faith.
You don’t have to see the whole staircase,
just take the first step. ~sms4smile
Softness…

Comment January 20, 2015

Water is the softest thing,
yet it can penetrate
mountains and earth.
This shows clearly
the principle of softness
overcoming hardness.

~sms4smile Link to Google+
The fullness of life

Comment January 20, 2015

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~Melody Beattie

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Shantidevas’ Bodhisattva vows

Should anyone wish to ridicule me and make me an object of jest and scorn why should I possibly care if I have dedicated myself to others?

Let them do as they wish with me so long as it does not harm them. May no one who encounters me ever have an insignificant contact.

Regardless whether those whom I meet respond towards me with anger or faith, may the mere fact of our meeting contribute to the fulfilment of their wishes.

May the slander, harm and all forms of abuse that anyone should direct towards me act as a cause of their enlightenment.