Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - April 18, 2018


Ramana Maharshi said that God, guru, and the Self are the same. The guru, the true guide, awakens our own deeper being, or ātman, which is God itself. Ramana Maharshi realized that Self directly. His view from the Arunachala mountain, his darshan, his teaching, pointed directly at the ātman, at Self-realization. That unity of God, guru, and Self is the higher truth, and if your veil of attachment is very thin, you may be able, like Ramana, to penetrate directly to that essence in the heart.

But most of us, to get through our busy human incarnation and the profusion of forms we find in our lives, need guidance and help. Seeing the guru as separate from oneself is a way to approach it in steps of lesser truths. It’s a first step toward becoming the One. The reality of the guru or guide as separate from oneself is a method or vehicle for coming to God. It’s using a relationship with a separate entity, dualism, to get to the One, to the reality that the guru is identical with your inmost being.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: The Joy of Giving

At its most basic level, dana [generosity] in the Buddhist tradition means giving freely without expecting anything in return.

—Gil Fronsdal, “The Joy of Giving

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Via Daily Dharma: The Self Will Surprise You

The realization of no self is not at all nihilistic. It simply means that the self is something different from what we habitually assume it to be.

—Guo Jun, “The Calligrapher’s Apprentice

Monday, April 16, 2018

Via Daily Dharma: Let the World Be Your Teacher

When you forget all your dualistic ideas, everything becomes your teacher, and everything can be the object of worship.

—Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, “Bowing

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - April 15, 2018


How would I like to enter my own death? With a feeling of, I don't know, but wow! It's going to be interesting.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Be a Lamp Unto Yourself

A teacher, out of compassion and love, seeing that somebody is suffering, gives a path. But each individual has to walk on the path.

—Interview with S. N. Goenka by Helen Tworkov, “Superscience

Via Daily Dharma: Are You Truly Alive?

To acknowledge that you are dying is to recognize that you are alive.

—Dean Rolston, “Memento Mori

Friday, April 13, 2018

Via Daily Dharma: Happiness Is Right Here

When we believe that happiness should take a particular form, we fail to see the opportunities for joy that are right in front of us.

—Thich Nhat Hanh, “Cultivating Compassion

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Via Daily Dharma: Transforming Hatred

Hatred brings more hatred, and violence only brings more violence. What we must do is stop this cycle here and now by transforming anger and hatred into compassion.

—Nawang Gehlek Rimpoche, “The Real Enemy

Via Ram Dass/ Words of Wisdom - April 11, 2018

 
What I used to do is wait in line and I’d do mantra or breathing. I’d go into my Vipassana meditation. But now I’m interested in whether waiting in line at the bank can itself be the thing. I notice my impatience, notice the feeling in my feet as I am standing there, notice the different levels of reality of the people I’m looking at. Am I seeing a bank teller or am I seeing the Divine Mother as a bank teller? I allow myself to play with the moment more, still dealing with the stuff of the moment rather than going away.

-Ram Dass -

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Via Daily Dharma: The Pleasure Paradox

The odd thing about pleasure is that instead of fully enjoying what is here, being able to be fully present with it, we are busy looking for more. We miss the true depth of pleasure by being intoxicated with the possibility of more.

—Roshi Nancy Mujo Baker, “The Non-use of Intoxicants

Via Daily Dharma: Shine the Light of Insight

Simply by turning on the light, you can instantly destroy the darkness. Likewise, even a rather simple analysis of ego-clinging and afflictive emotions can make them collapse.

—Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, “An Investigation of the Mind

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Via Daily Dharma: Why We Change

We ourselves and everything in our world arise and pass away because the conditions supporting our existence are constantly changing.

—Winton Higgins, “Treading the Path with Care

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - April 8, 2018


It’s interesting that the purer one’s heart becomes, the more the tiniest act is that which resonates in an appropriate fashion to bring a deeper harmony, a deeper way back into the Tao—as if one ever left it.  
 
-Ram Dass-

Via Daily Dharma: What Mindfulness Can Teach Us

Mindfulness practice isn’t meant to eliminate thinking but aims rather to help us know what we’re thinking when we’re thinking it, just as we want to know what we’re feeling when we’re feeling it.

—Sharon Salzberg, “Mindfulness and Difficult Emotions

Friday, April 6, 2018

Via Daily Dharma: The Value of Trustworthy Friends

If you really want to become skillful in your thoughts, words, and deeds, you need a trustworthy friend to point out your blind spots.

—Thanissaro Bhikkhu, “The Power of Judgment

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Via Daily Dharma: Nobody to Be, Nothing to Strive For

To study the way of enlightenment is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.

—Eihei Dogen Zenji, “Tea and Rice