Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - February 21, 2018

  Did you ever have a bad day? Everything seems to go wrong and you are completely lost in anger, frustration and self-pity. It gets worse and worse, until the final moment when, say, you have just missed the last bus. There is some critical point where it gets so bad that the absurdity of it all overwhelms you and you can do nothing but laugh. At that moment you uplevel your predicament, you see the cosmic joke in your own suffering.

Humor puts things in perspective. There are many levels of humor - there is a humor of survival, a humor of sex and gratification, a humor connected with power. Beyond all these there is a humor that is filled with compassion. It is reflected in the tiny upturn in the mouth of the Buddha, for he sees the humor in the universal predicament: All beings are lost in illusion, yet he knows that they will awaken from that illusion for they are, at heart, already enlightened. He knows that what seems so hard for them is, from another perspective, their own path to liberation.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Don’t Go It Alone

The sangha speaks to the idea that self-reliance can manifest only when we ourselves are in good health—we aren’t meant to go at it alone.

—Elizabeth Zach, “Health Care for All Beings”

Via Daily Dharma: A Living Tradition

We now have a choice, even if we want to insist on cleaving to Buddhist tradition. Do we emphasize the more authoritarian parts of the tradition, or the more democratic ones?

—James Kierstead, “Democratic from the Start”

Via Daily Dharma: Buddhist Politics

A Buddhist would not hesitate to vote for legislation and political candidates devoted to peace, to undoing injustice, reducing duhkha in its myriad manifestations, healing society’s wounds, and preserving individual freedoms and the environment.

—Charles Johnson, “Accepting the Invitation”

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

Every religion is the product of the conceptual mind attempting to describe the mystery. 

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Everyday Presence

Presence need not be confined to the time spent sitting on our meditation cushion. Every single moment provides an opportunity to relax the tension in the body and unconscious thought patterns in the mind.

—Will Johnson, “Full Body, Empty Mind”

Via Daily Dharma: The Source of Equanimity

Equanimity? In the end, it seems to be like dignity: only you can provide it for yourself.

—RJ Eskow, “Above the Fray”

Via Daily Dharma: Cherishing and Releasing

Bringing order to clutter, I begin to see, is not just about putting my spices in alphabetical order. On a deeper level, it’s about balancing the twin poles of spiritual life: cherishing life and holding it sacred, while knowing that it will pass away.

—Anne Cushman, “Clearing Clutter”

Via 12 of 29 Daily Dharma: Nothing Is Hidden

Nothing is hidden. We can find it in books. We can find it in the sutras. We can find it by asking. And, most important, we can find it simply by looking into ourselves.

—John Loori, “Asking to Exhaustion”

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

 

The universe is made up of experiences that are designed to burn out our reactivity, which is our attachment, our clinging, to pain, to pleasure, to fear, to all of it. And as long as there are places where we’re vulnerable, the universe will find ways to confront us with them. That’s the way the dance is designed...

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: For Whom Do You Practice?

If we wish to live well in the world, not just amble along through life without any examination of our being, then we must engage in the effort to find meaning in our lives. In order to do this, we have to find a way to balance our own interiority with an empathic recognition of others.

—Eido Frances Carney, “The Way of Ryokan”

Via Daily Dharma: Let Yourself Be

Everything in nature has a physical body, yet a rock doesn’t call itself a rock or a flower call itself a flower. Only humans are stuck on how they should be. The healthiest way of being is to have no need to explain our being, but for it to manifest naturally.

—Shodo Harada Roshi, “Finding Our Essence of Mind”

Via 4 of 27 Daily Dharma: One Step at a Time

It is extremely difficult to accomplish an important task all at once, but even the hardest can be accomplished by undertaking it gradually, like the case of an ant and its nest.

—Drogön Chögyal Phagpa, “Brief Teachings”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - February 14, 2018

Demanding as that sounds, it is what, in the spiritual sense, we are all here for, and compassionate action gives us yet one more opportunity to live it. It is an opportunity to cooperate with the universe, to be part of what the Chinese call the great river of the Tao.

It is not a coincidence that Hanuman, who in the Hindu cosmology is called the “embodiment of selfless service,” is the son of the wind god. When we give ourselves into becoming fully who we are by doing fully what we do, we experience lightness, we are like kites in wind, we are on the side of the angels, we are entering lightly.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Love’s Embodiment

I couldn’t flourish as a human being as long as I saw myself as the passive recipient of love. (There’s an awful lot of waiting in that position, and then damage control when it doesn’t work out, and also numbness.) But I could certainly flourish as love’s embodiment.

—Sharon Salzberg, “Why We Are All Capable of Indestructible Love”

Via Daily Dharma: Courageous Restraint

To forbear is indeed an act of courage and not a symbol of cowardice. It takes great effort and resolution to endure pain and hardship. It requires tremendous confidence to bear insult and disgrace without a hint of retaliation or self-doubt.

—Master Hsing Yun, “Don’t Get Mad, Don’t Get Even”

Via Daily Dharma: Practice First, Ask Questions Later

Someone sitting for the first time can learn more about meditation in thirty real-time minutes than any experienced meditator can explain to them in that same amount of time.

—Barry Evans, “Meditation 101: Less is More”

Via Daily Dharma: On Love and Attention

People become more desirable when we are attentive to them. Their most lovable qualities reveal themselves to us only after we have begun to love them.

—Nicole Daedone, “Love Becomes Her”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - February 7, 2018

  

One dies as one lives. What else can better prepare you to die than the way you live? The game is to be where you are – honestly, consciously, and as fully as you know how. Once you have awakened, you can’t fully go back to sleep. Regardless of what happens in the world, I’m still going to follow Maharaji’s instructions every day – to love everyone, serve everyone, and remember God – love, serve, remember. 

- Ram Dass -