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It is just as easy to make a friend as it is to make an enemy. You generally get back what you give out in a first meeting. Smile, and you can expect a smile in return. If you are hostile you can anticipate a hostile response. - Chuck Norris
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Every kind word, every smile you offer someone who might be having a bad day, comes back to you in ways you’d never expect. - Yongey Mingyur
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I treat my body and mind like a good friend, not as a maid to order around, and never as a slave to do as they’re told. I listen to their advice, respect and trust them. They are my teachers. - Ajahn Brahm
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With permission from the monastery Abbott, a monk borrowed an old boat and rowed out into the middle of a lake for his afternoon meditation session. It was a truly peaceful place to meditate as the boat gently floated.
After more than an hour of undisturbed silence, he felt the bump of another boat bang against his. With eyes still closed, he could feel anger swelling within himself at the careless boatman who didn’t prevent the lake collision.
Upon opening his eyes, all he saw was an empty boat which he realized had obviously become untied from the dock and merely drifted out into the lake bumping up against his. Immediately, the monk experience a flash of enlightenment, one which would serve him well for the rest of his life. “The anger is within me,” he thought to himself. “All anger needs is a bump from the outside to be triggered and provoked out of me.”
From that moment on, whenever another person irritated him and he could feel even the slightest anger rising, he gently reminded himself: “The other person is an empty, floating boat. The anger is within me.”
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Loving kindness and compassion are a prerequisite for truly being human. - Hsing Yun
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The gateway to compassion and lovingkindness is to be able to feel our own pain, and the pain of others. If we are able to open in this way, our hearts can melt, and the healing salve of compassion can anoint all our wounds. - Lama Palden Drolma
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Every now and then it's a good exercise to ask some soul expanding questions of yourself. Here are ten to consider this day. Look them over carefully; pause after each one allowing an immediate intuitive answer to come into your mind.
1. What am I doing to help others?
2. What is worth suffering for?
3. What is holding me back today?
4. Who do I love?
5. Do the people I love know it?
6. What part of my life needs a change?
7. How do I make others feel?
8. What makes me come alive?
9. What can I let go?
10. What can I embrace more fully?
If there are responses you don't like, then view those as areas in your life which need closer attention and adjustment.
1. What am I doing to help others?
2. What is worth suffering for?
3. What is holding me back today?
4. Who do I love?
5. Do the people I love know it?
6. What part of my life needs a change?
7. How do I make others feel?
8. What makes me come alive?
9. What can I let go?
10. What can I embrace more fully?
If there are responses you don't like, then view those as areas in your life which need closer attention and adjustment.
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Each of us too will one day die, and our dead bodies will unite with the earth, and rebirth will take place miraculously or magically for those who wish to understand the interconnectedness of all things or the inter-being of all. (Sivaraksa 287)
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(public domain image from www.pixabay.com)
Always scrutinize your own shortcomings.
Be your own teacher; keep a strict check on yourself.
That is sufficient! - Tulku Urgyen
People often make get a regular physical examination from a health care provider. Buddhism asks us to something similar but instead of a physical, we're challenged to do a personal self examination. Here are the types of questions to ask yourself in order to to a proper self examination:
Always scrutinize your own shortcomings.
Be your own teacher; keep a strict check on yourself.
That is sufficient! - Tulku Urgyen
People often make get a regular physical examination from a health care provider. Buddhism asks us to something similar but instead of a physical, we're challenged to do a personal self examination. Here are the types of questions to ask yourself in order to to a proper self examination:
- How am I using my time?
- Who are my spiritual friends?
- Where do I place my energies?
- Who can help me develop more wisdom?
- Have I made meditation a regular part of my life?
- How can I deepen compassion and lovingkindness?
- What are the best ways to use my experience and talents?
- Which individuals inspire me to be a better version of myself?
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We are what we think,
having become what we thought.
—Dhammapada
having become what we thought.
—Dhammapada