Spiritual Quotes 2 

 


Dudjom Rinpoche used to say that a beginner should practice meditation in
short sessions. Practice for four or five minutes, then take a short break
of just one minute. During the break, let go of the method, but do not let
go of your mindfulness altogether.

Sometimes when you have been struggling to practice, curiously, the very
moment when you take a break from the method-if you are still mindful and
present-is the moment when meditation actually happens. That is why the
break is just as important a part of meditation as the sitting itself.
Sometimes I tell my students who are having problems with their practice to
practice during the break and take a break during their meditation!

Sogyal Rinpoche

If all we know of mind is the aspect of mind that dissolves when we die, we
will be left with no idea of what continues, no knowledge of the new
dimension of the deeper reality of the nature of mind. So it is vital for us
all to familiarize ourselves with the nature of mind while we are still
alive. Only then will we be prepared for the time when it reveals itself
spontaneously and powerfully at the moment of death; be able to recognize it
"as naturally," the teachings say, "as a child running into its mother's
lap"; and by remaining in that state, finally be liberated.



Sogyal Rinpoche

To contemplate impermanence on its own is not enough: You have to work with
it in your life. Let's try an experiment. Pick up a coin. Imagine that it
represents the object at which you are grasping. Hold it tightly clutched in
your fist and extend your arm, with the palm of your hand facing the ground.
Now if you let go or relax your grip, you will lose what you are clinging
to. That's why you hold on.

But there's another possibility: You can let go and yet keep hold of it.
With your arm still outstretched, turn your hand over so that it faces the
sky. Release your hand and the coin still rests on your open palm. You let
go. And the coin is still yours, even with all this space around it.

So there is a way in which we can accept impermanence and still relish life,
at one and the same time, without grasping.


Sogyal Rinpoche


Above all else, we need to nourish our true self-what we can call our buddha
nature-for so often we make the fatal mistake of identifying with our
confusion, and then using it to judge and condemn ourselves, which feeds the
lack of self-love that so many of us suffer from today.

How vital it is to refrain from the temptation to judge ourselves or the
teachings, and to be humorously aware of our condition, and to realize that
we are, at the moment, as if many people all living in one person.

And how encouraging it can be to accept that from one perspective we all
have huge problems, which we bring to the spiritual path and which indeed
may have led us to the teachings, and yet to know from another point of view
that ultimately our problems are not so real or so solid, or so
insurmountable as we have told ourselves.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Peace is not the product of terror or fear.
Peace is not the silence of cemeteries.
Peace is not the silent revolt of violent repression.
Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all.
Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity.
It is right and it is duty.

 

- Bishop Oscar Romero

 

Just as a writer learns the spontaneous freedom of expression only after
years of often grueling study, and just as the simple grace of a dancer is
achieved only with enormous, patient effort, so when you begin to understand
where meditation will lead you, you will approach it as the greatest
endeavor of your life, one that demands of you the deepest perseverance,
enthusiasm, intelligence, and discipline.


Sogyal Rinpoche


At the time of Buddha, there lived an old beggar woman called Relying on
Joy. She used to watch the kings, princes, and people making offerings to
Buddha and his disciples, and there was nothing she would have liked more
than to be able to do the same. But she could only beg enough oil to fill a
single lamp. However, as she placed it before Buddha she made this wish: "I
have nothing to offer but this tiny lamp. But through this offering, in the
future may I be blessed with the lamp of wisdom. May I free all beings from
their darkness. May I purify all their obscurations, and lead them to
enlightenment."

That night, the oil in all the other lamps went out. But the beggar woman's
lamp was still burning at dawn, when Buddha's great disciple Maudgalyayana
came to collect the lamps. He saw no reason why one lamp was still alight
and tried to snuff it out. But whatever he did, the lamp kept burning.

Buddha had been watching all along, and said: "Maudgalyayana, do you want to
put out that lamp? You cannot. You could not even move it, let alone put it
out. If you were to pour the water from all the oceans over this lamp, it
still wouldn't go out. The water in all the rivers and lakes of the world
could not extinguish it. Why not? Because this lamp was offered with
devotion, and with purity of heart and mind. And that motivation has made it
of tremendous benefit."


Sogyal Rinpoche

DO NOT DESPISE THE SMALL ACT.
Every small act, if you do it deeply, profoundly, can touch the whole universe. My small act, your small act, her small act, his small act. Millions of small acts will build a wonderful world. You can move the hearts of thousands of people.

--Chan Khong
(from "Fierce Compassion," an interview
in "Inquiring Mind," Vol. 15, No. 1, Fall 1998)

The ultimate measure of a person is not where one stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where one stands in times of challenge and controversy.

- Martin Luther King

IF YOU DO NOT get it from yourself,
where will you go to get it?

-Zen saying
 
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.  ~Krishnamurti
 
WHAT DOES IT MATTER,
the new year, the old year?
I stretch out my legs and all alone have a quiet sleep.
Don't tell me the monks aren't getting their instruction.
Here and there the nightingale is singing;
the highest Zen.

--Bankei

"Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on or use for entertainment.' ................
 
Ingrid E Newkirk
 

BETTER THAN A THOUSAND useless words is one useful word, hearing which ones attains peace.

-- The Buddha
('The Thousands' in the Dhammapada)

THE WHOLE WORLD IS YOU
yet you keep thinking there is something else.

--Hsueh-Feng

YOU WILL LIVE or you will die.
Both are good  

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

 

THERE IS A WAY between voice and presence where information flows. In disciplined silence it opens. With wandering talk it closes.

-- Rumi
from "The Essential Rumi"
translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
(Harper SanFrancisco, 1995

 

ALL THE VARIOUS TYPES of teachings and spiritual paths are related to the different capacities of understanding that different individuals have. There does not exist, from an absolute point of view, any teaching which is more perfect or effective than another. A teaching's value lies soley in the inner awakening which an individidual can arrive at through it. If a person benefits from a given teaching, for that person that teaching is the supreme path, because it is suited to his or her nature and capacities. There's no sense in trying to judge it as more or less elevated in relation to other paths to realization.

-- Namkhai Norbu
from "Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State"
Arkana 1989

 

WE HAVE TO BE GENUINE, which means not having aggression and being true to oneself. In that way, we can build an enlightened society. Enlightened society cannot be built and cannot develop on the level of dreams or concepts. Enlightened society has to be real and good, honest and genuine. A lot of us feel attacked by our own aggression and by our own misery and pain. But none of that particularly presents an obstacle to creating an enlightened society. What we need to begin with, is to develop kindness toward ourselves and then to develop kindness toward others. It sounds very simpleminded, which it is. At the same time, it is very difficult to practice."

-- Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
from "Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of Shambhala"
(Shambhala 1999

You don't respond to what happens in the world
You respond to what you say to yourself about what happens in the world.
Dr Phil McGraw

VIOLENCE IS ESSENTIALLY WORDLESS, and it can begin only where thought and rational communication have broken down. Any society which is geared for violent action is by that very fact systematically unreasonable and inarticulate. Thought is not encouraged and the exchange of ideas is eschewed as filled with all manner of risk. Words are kept at a minimum, at least as far as their variety and content may be concerned, though they may pour over the armed multitude in cataracts: they are simply organized and inarticulate noise destined to arrest thought and release violence, inhibiting all desire to communicate with the enemy in any other way than by destructive impact.

-- Thomas Merton
from "Ghandi and the One-Eyed Giant," 1964

DO YOU HAVE THE PATIENCE to wait till your mind settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?

-- Lao-Tzu

"Never in this world is hate appeased by hatred;
it is only appeased by love. This is the eternal law."


--From the Dhammapada (Buddhist scriptures)

 

WHEN I DESPAIR, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of this always.

-- Mahatma Gandhi

 

ALL TREMBLE AT VIOLENCE; life is dear to all. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.

One who, while himself seeking happiness, oppresses with violence other beings who also desire happiness, will not attain happiness hereafter.

One who, while himself seeking happiness, does not oppress with violence other beings who also desire happiness, will find happiness hereafter.

-- No. 130-132 from "Violence," chapter 10

 

 

YOU WANT TO BE NO DIFFERENT
from the buddhas and Zen masters,
just don't seek externally.
The pure light in a moment of awareness
in your mind is the Buddha's essence
within you.

-- Linji (d. 867)
from Dec. 11, 2000 www.Daily Zen.com
quote of the day

 

THERE ARE SIGNS OF ACCOMPLISHMENT
such as having good health and long life
or becoming famous and influential, but these
belong to the superficial type of accomplishment.
The true, unmistaken signs of accomplishment
as established by the masters of the lineage,
are to possess compassion, devotion and
an acute sense of impermanence.

-- Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
from the article"As the Clouds Vanish,"
Tricycle, Winter 1999

 
Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil.
Plato
Greek author & philosopher in Athens (427 BC - 347 BC)

 We often think of peace as the absence of war; that if the powerful countries would reduce their arsenals, we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the weapons, we see our own minds – our prejudices, fears, and ignorance. Even if we transported all the bombs to the moon, the roots of war and the reasons for bombs would still be here, in our hearts and minds, and sooner or later we would make new bombs.

Seek to become more aware of what causes anger and separation, and what overcomes them. Root out the violence in your life, and learn to live compassionately and mindfully. Seek peace. When you have peace within, real peace with others will be possible.

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist, and prolific author. He founded Plum Village Buddhist Center, a meditation community in the south of France.
Thich Nhat Hanh
 

 

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