Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - August 27, 2017

You couldn’t possibly be lonely, because where could you go? Do you think if I go in my bathroom and lock the door I can be lonely? I can’t be. It’s always one thought away: The living spirit, the community of our consciousness, that guru inside, is always one thought away.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: A Pinch of Generosity

When you are practicing generosity, you should feel a little pinch when you give something away. That pinch is your stinginess protesting.

—Gelek Rimpoche, “Generosity (and Greed) Introduction”

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Via Daily Dharma: How Self-judgment Can Be Skillful

Joy is what healthy shame and honor are for: to help you see for yourself the well-being that comes from mastering higher levels of skill and harmlessness in your actions.

—Thanissaro Bhikkhu, “Why Shame Gets a Bad Rap”

Via Daily Dharma: Willing to Experiment

We do not need to be afraid of our mind. We can go on a journey of discovery and experiment.

—Martine Batchelor, “Meditation, Mental Habits, and Creative Imagination”

Via Daily Dharma: What Can You Give Up?

The spiritual path is about what we give up, not what we get.

—Tim Olmsted, “The Great Experiment”

Via Ram Dass / 25 of 34 Words of Wisdom - August 23, 2017

Since love is a state of being, and a Divine state at that, the state to which we all yearn to return, we wish to possess love. At best we can try to possess the key to our hearts, our Beloved, but sooner or later we find that even that is impossible. To possess the key is to lose it. 

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: The Ultimate All-Inclusive Sangha

Everyone I meet is in my sangha. I don’t know if that’s the proper definition, but that’s the way I’m going to hold it in my mind.

—Jeff Bridges, “The Natural”

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Via Daily Dharma: Realizing Goals Requires a Routine

The key to development along the Buddhist path is repetitive routine guided by inspirational vision.

—Bhikkhu Bodhi, “Vision and Routine”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - August 20, 2017

One of the big traps we have in the West is our intelligence, because we want to know that we know. Freedom allows you to be wise, but you cannot know wisdom.
You must be wisdom.

When my guru wanted to put me down, he called me ‘clever.’ When he wanted to reward me, he would call me ‘simple.’ The intellect is a beautiful servant, but a terrible master. Intellect is the power tool of our separateness. The intuitive, compassionate heart is the doorway to our unity. 

-- Ram Dass --

Via Daily Dharma: The Many Varieties of Belief

 We all believe in something: self, nonself, an omnipotent creator, karma, science, reality, emptiness, dragons, elves...  When we see that belief gives color to every stratum of our experience of reality, we can embrace others as kindred believers, regardless of the shades we tend to favor.

—Pamela Gayle White, “Real Belief”

Via Daily Dharma: Getting Our Effort "In Tune"

If effort isn’t balanced, the Buddha says, we’ll produce an untoward result, in the same way that a stringed instrument, if not tuned properly, will produce a dissonant sound.

—Peter Doobinin, “Skillful Effort”

Via Buddha Power / FB

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Via Daily Dharma: Clear Intention Comes First

Meditation practice flourishes when it is supported by clear intention.

—Gil Fronsdal, “Evaluate Your Meditation”

Via Barack Obama / FB:

The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up & do something. 

Don't wait for good things to happen to you. 

If you go out & make some good things happen you will fill the world w/hope...and you will fill yourself w/hope.

- Barack Obama

Carpenters - Superstar (Live at the BBC) English/Español Subtitles (CC)

Via Daily Dharma: The Mind's Natural Tranquility

When we begin to win the struggle to free ourselves from the waves of afflictive emotions, the mind will become like a calm and vast lake. This peaceful state, the natural tranquility of mind, will lead to deep samadhi [concentration], which is the pacification of wandering, deluded thoughts.

—Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, “An Investigation of the Mind”