A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Via Daily Dharma: No Matter What Happens
It doesn’t matter what is happening. What matters is how we are relating to our experience.
—Tara Brach, “Making Room for Desire”
—Tara Brach, “Making Room for Desire”
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”
—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”
—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”
—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”
—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”
—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”
—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”
—Eihei Dogen Zenji, “Tea and Rice”
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Via Daily Dharma: Assessing Your Quality of Mind
Meditation
requires some degree of being aware of awareness itself. We become
cognizant of the quality of the mind, not just of phenomena perceived by
the mind.
—Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, “The Good Shepherd”
—Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, “The Good Shepherd”
Via Ram Dass - Words of Wisdom - April 4, 2018
To
bring to our daily life a quality of awareness, an open-heartedness, a
consciousness that understands the interrelationship of all things,
means that we can begin to hear the way in which we can live on Earth in
harmony with all things
- Ram Dass -
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Via Daily Dharma: Cultivate Contentment
Cultivate
generosity. Delight in giving. Learn to live lightly. In this way, we
can begin to transform what is negative into what is positive.
—Interview with Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo by Lucy Powell, “No Excuses”
—Interview with Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo by Lucy Powell, “No Excuses”
Via Ram Dass \ Words of Wisdom - April 1, 2018
When
you learn to honor everybody you meet as your teacher, you'll see that
there is nothing else you can do but be conscious, for the good of
yourself and your fellow men and women. You begin to see that everything
in your universe becomes your teacher - so your teacher is everywhere.
You don’t have to rush to India because it’s always right where you are.
There are beings who can get as high as any enlightened being ever got, sitting in the middle of Topeka, Kansas or in the middle of New York, or in the middle of anywhere. It depends on your readiness, and that has to do with your karma or your readiness to get on with it.
There are beings who can get as high as any enlightened being ever got, sitting in the middle of Topeka, Kansas or in the middle of New York, or in the middle of anywhere. It depends on your readiness, and that has to do with your karma or your readiness to get on with it.
Ram Dass
Via Daily Dharma: Love Sees Clearly
Boundless
love, in contrast to clinging and attachment, is the wish for everyone
everywhere to have happiness and its causes. It banishes hatred. Love
sees everything without distortion.
—Anne C. Klein, “The Four Immeasurables”
—Anne C. Klein, “The Four Immeasurables”
Saturday, March 31, 2018
Via Daily Dharma: Integrate Meditation into Every Moment
No
matter what we encounter, whether it is possible for us to practice
formally or not, we can still put ourselves in touch with that sense of
simplicity and attentiveness, the basic presence that formal meditation
cultivates—and project that out.
—Judy Lief, “On the Contagious Power of Presence”
—Judy Lief, “On the Contagious Power of Presence”
Friday, March 30, 2018
Via Daily Dharma: Be Consistent, Not Insistent
To
keep your practice consistent, remember what the famous Nike ad says:
“Just do it.” Don’t concern yourself with trying to get to some
particular place or state of mind. Each day’s zazen will be a little
different, just like the rest of life.
—Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, “An Introduction to Zen”
—Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, “An Introduction to Zen”
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