Spirituality-Buddhism

Cause and effect

Comment December 25, 2020

There is a story about a monk who had an extremely ugly body but a beautiful voice. People loved to hear him chant but recoiled when they saw him. Someone who had clairvoyant powers saw that in a previous lifetime, while constructing a stupa — a monument representing the Buddha’s mind — he continually complained and showed an ugly face. When the stupa was completed, he had a change of heart and offered a bell with a charming and elegant sound to the stupa. His ugly body was a result of his anger while making the stupa, and his beautiful voice was the result of having later offered the lovely-sounding bell to the stupa. ~ Thubten Chodron
The thing about being human

2 December 24, 2020

The thing about being human is that we have to touch the earth, we have to accept the limitations of this human form and planetary life. And just by doing that, then the way out of suffering isn’t through getting out of our human experience by living in refined conscious states, but by embracing the totality of all the human and Brahma realms through mindfulness. In this way, the Buddha pointed to a total realisation rather than a temporary escape through refinement and beauty. This is what the Buddha means when he is pointing the way to Nibbana. — Buddha Net
Kindness is like snow

1 December 23, 2020
Kindness is like snow. It beautifies everything it covers. ~ Kahlil Gibran

Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever. ~ George R.R. Martin

Snow falling soundlessly in the middle of the night will always fill my heart with sweet clarity. ~ Novala Takemoto
When the mind is at peace, the world too is at peace

2 December 22, 2020

When the mind is at peace,
the world too is at peace.
Nothing real, nothing absent.
Not holding on to reality,
not getting stuck in the void,
you are neither holy nor wise,
just an ordinary person who has completed their work.

~ Layman Pang
The root of all dharmas

Comment December 22, 2020

The root of all dharmas is one’s own mind:
Convincing when unexamined, ingenious in its deception;
Yet, when investigated, without basis or origin;
In essence, free of coming, staying or going.
All the phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa
Are but pure or impure projections of one’s own mind.
In reality, neither saṃsāra nor nirvāṇa exists.

Empty from the very beginning, pure from the first —
Still, this emptiness is not a nihilistic void,
For there is spontaneous presence in the nature of clear light.
Responsive pure awareness is the basis for all that unfolds.
Rigpa is beyond designation and verbalization.
From its potential saṃsāra and nirvāṇa arise in all their multiplicity.
The manifestation and the one that brings it about are not two:
In the experience of this non-duality, remain—unaltered.

~ Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö
The real spirit of Christmas

Comment December 21, 2020

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. – Calvin Coolidge

Christmas is a tonic for our souls. It moves us to think of others rather than of ourselves. It directs our thoughts to giving.” ― B.C. Forbes

I don’t want Christmas season to end, because it’s the only time I can legitimately indulge in on particular addiction: glitter. – Eloisa James, Paris in Love

Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends. – Margaret Thatcher

Christmas is the day that holds all time together. — Alexander Smith

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love. – Hamilton Wright Mabie

Christmas will always be as long as we stand heart to heart and hand in hand. – Dr. Suess

Peace on earth will come to stay, When we live Christmas every day. – Helen Steiner Rice

The world has grown weary through the years, but at Christmas, it is young. – Phillips Brooks

Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance — each beautiful, unique, and gone too soon. – Deborah Whipp

One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas Day. Don’t clean it up too quickly. – Andy Rooney Continue reading →
The gate of Dharma

Comment December 19, 2020

Some people cannot enter the gate of Dharma at all. Their lives come to an end without their even hearing about the Dharma. Unlike such people, we have had the extremely good fortune to hear about the Dharma and even start to practice the Dharma, so there is no reason whatsoever to be discouraged. We should be happy and excited about this. — Thrangu Rinpoche

Jendhamuni at the Wachusett Mountain on November 29, 2020.
Desire — a temporary pleasure

3 December 19, 2020

I want you to understand clean clear that we distinguish two things: negative, or sinful, and positive. Attachment, or desire, can be negative and sinful, but it can also be positive. The positive aspect is that which produces pleasure: samsaric pleasure, human pleasure — the ability to enjoy the world, to see it as beautiful, to have whatever you find attractive.

So you cannot say that all desire is negative and produces only pain. Wrong. You should not think like that. Desire can produce pleasure — but only temporary pleasure. That’s the distinction. It’s temporary pleasure. And we don’t say that temporal pleasure is always bad, that you should reject it. If you reject temporal pleasure, then what’s left? You haven’t attained eternal happiness yet, so all that’s left is misery.

But you should not make the mistake of trying to actualize temporary pleasure [as an end in itself]. You can enjoy it while you have it but you should not squeeze yourself striving for it. The problem is the mind that believes temporary pleasure to be the best there is. That’s a total delusion, an over-estimated conception. Like looking at a cloud in the sky and thinking, “What a beautiful cloud; I wish it would last forever.” You’re dreaming.

~ Lama Yeshe
Do all the good you can

3 December 17, 2020

Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can. —John Wesley
Whatever choice you make makes you

2 December 17, 2020

Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely. ― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

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