I’m a survivor by nature, but I’ve had help, and I don’t mean success, or money, although I’ve been blessed with both. The help that has been essential my well-being, my joy, and my resilience is my spiritual life. - Tina Turner
The time you practice meditation on your cushion is just an exercise. The real practice is when you are not on the cushion. Sometimes that is called ‘post-meditation,’ but it is real life. The practice that you do on your cushion should imbue how you react, how you do things, and how you carry yourself in your daily life. - Ringu Tulku
Benefit to others is fundamental to the prospect of a consequential life. - Bhikkhu Cintita
The Buddha described the dharma as “come and see,” or “come and investigate,” not “come and believe.” An open, questioning mind is not regarded as a drawback to followers of the buddhadharma. - Tenzim Palmo
Sometimes, when a fruit tree is in bloom, a breeze stirs and scatters blossoms to the ground. Some buds remain and grow into a small green fruit. The wind blows and some of them, too, fall. Still others may become nearly ripe, or some even fully ripe, before they fall.
And so it is with people. Like flowers and fruit in the wind they, too, fall in different stages of life. Some people die while still in the womb, others within only a few days after birth. Some people live for a few years, then die, never having reached maturity. Men and women die in their youth. Still others reach a ripe old age before they die. When reflecting upon people, consider the nature of fruit in the wind: both are very uncertain. - Ajahn Chah Neither we ourselves nor the world around us can be saved unless we learn to see both sides of things, learn to pull as well as push, and learn to maintain a broad and lofty view of the truth. Such is the teaching of the Buddha. - Masahiro Mori
Avoid a teacher whose heart is set on worldly fame or riches.
Avoid those who are harmful to your peace of mind and insight. Seek good friends you can trust and whose views and conduct are like your own. - Gampopa There were so many external circumstances and forces I couldn’t change or control, but my life altering revelation was that I could change my way of responding to these challenges. - Tina Turner
In Vietnam, we used to say, “When a tiger leaves his mountain and goes to the lowlands, he will be caught by humans and killed.” When a practitioner leaves his or her sangha, at some time she will abandon her practice. We have to take refuge in our sangha, our community of practice. We cannot continue our practice very long without a sangha. The art of sangha building is crucial to our practice.
- Thich Nhat Hanh |
Victor M. Parachin ...is aVedic educator, yoga instructor, Buddhist meditation teacher and author of a dozen books. Buy his books at amazon or your local bookstore. Archives
May 2024
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