Via Helpful Words

We Need Not be Defined by How we Feel

‘There’s an old koan about a monk who went to his master and said, “I’m a very angry person, and I want you to help me.” The master said, “Show me your anger.” The monk said, “Well, right now I’m not angry. I can’t show it to you.” And the master said, “Then obviously it’s not you, since sometimes it’s not even there.” Who we are has many faces, but these faces are not who we are.’

- Charlotte Joko beck, Everyday Zen.

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Via Acharya Buddhadasa / 30 Second Explanation of Buddhism

Let me explain Buddhism in this way:

The universe is God, the divine - called the Dharmakaya in Philosophical Buddhism and personified as Amida Buddha in the Pure Land Tradition.

Everything is part of the universe and so part of God.

Everything is Divine, including ourselves.

Everything has a divine nature, Buddhists call this the Buddha-nature.

This Divine is our true nature and real identity.

We are Buddha, the ego/self is just a character we are role-playing as the Divine Universe expresses itself.

Mindfulness of the Buddha, through the chanting of mantras, is simply Mindfulness of the Divine and our own divine nature, and thus liberation from the illusion of Self.

Namo Amitabhaya 🙏🏻

buddhist buddha buddhism amida pure land amitabha zen zazen theravada tantra taoism tao meditation mindfulmeditation vipasanna advaita pantheism enlightenment esoteric insight paganism pagan wiccan wicca witchcraft witch druid illumination

Via Acharya Buddhadasa

Buddhist Practice

Sila: keep the precepts

Samadhi: practice meditation

Prajna: study the teachings

Via Daily Dharma: Unlikely Teachers

Both our pain and our suffering are truly our path, our teacher. While this understanding doesn’t necessarily entail liking our pain or our suffering, it does liberate us from regarding them as enemies we have to conquer.

—Ezra Bayda, “When It Happens to Us”

Via Daily Dharma: Experience Emotions with Equanimity

We can be angry, jealous, or scared without having to act on those emotions or let them take over our lives. We can experience joy or love without becoming attached to the object that we think is the cause of our joy.

—Tsoknyi Rinpoche, “Allow for Space”

Via spiritualwarrior

“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

Via thecalminside

Throw away holiness and wisdom, and people will be a hundred times happier. Throw away morality and justice,and people will do the right thing. Throw away industry and profit, and there won’t be any thieves. If these three aren’t enough, just stay at the center of the circle and let all things take their course.

- Lao Tzu

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Via thecalminside

“Express yourself completely, then keep quiet. Be like the forces of nature: when it blows, there is only wind; when it rains, there is only rain; when the clouds pass, the sun shines through.”

- Lao Tzu

Via Daily Dharma: Spring Cleaning for Your Mind

If I view [everyday chores] as tasks to rush through on the way to something more important, they become a crushing waste of time. But from the perspective of Buddhist teachings, each of these activities is a golden moment, an opportunity for full awakening.

—Anne Cushman, “Clearing Clutter”

Via Calm in Side

“If you want to become whole, let yourself be partial.
If you want to become straight, let yourself be crooked.
If you want to become full, let yourself be empty.
If you want to be reborn, let yourself die.
If you want to be given everything, give everything up.”

Lao Tzu

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Via Daily Dharma: Agree to Disagree

It is inevitable that there will be a wide range of beliefs, opinions, practices, and behaviors in this large and diverse world. It is not inevitable that people must hate one another on account of this.

—Andrew Olendzki, “Advice for Conflict”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - May 9, 2018

Within the spiritual journey you understand that suffering becomes something that has been given to you to show you where your mind is still stuck. It’s a vehicle to help you go to work. That’s why it’s called grace.

- Ram Dass -

Via / Daily Dharma: Focus on Giving, Not Getting

On the spiritual path, there’s nothing to get, and everything to get rid of. Obviously, the first thing to let go of is trying to “get” love, and instead to give it. That’s the secret of the spiritual path. One has to give oneself wholeheartedly.

—Ayya Khema, “What Love Is”

Via Tricycle / Unpacking Bodicitta

The sudden lightning glares and all is clearly shown,
Likewise rarely, through the Buddhas’ power,
Virtuous thoughts rise, brief and transient, in the world.

Virtue, thus, is weak; and always
Evil is of great and overwhelming strength.
Except for perfect bodhichitta,
What other virtue is there that can lay it low?

 

—The Way of the Bodhisattva

Via Daily Dharma: The Path of Understanding

Bodhicitta is the path of understanding who you are in the fathomless nature of infinite contingency, and then developing the skills to navigate this reality—your life—in a way that is awakening for both yourself and for others.

—Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel, “Nurturing the Intelligent Heart”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - May 6, 2018

When I meditate I sit quietly, I withdraw the awareness of my ears hearing, my eyes seeing. I don’t move around much. I sit quietly and I go deep inside. What happens when you grow old? You lose your hearing, you lose your sight, you can’t move around very much. What an ideal time for doing inner work.

Aging has its own beauty. It is a beautiful stage for doing inner work. You have a chance to not be so dependent on social approval. You can be a little more eccentric. You can be more alone. And you can examine loneliness and boredom instead of being afraid of them. There is such an art and a possibility of aging...

- Ram Dass - 

Via Daily Dharma: The Power of Simplicity

The principle of renunciation is not to encourage a state of lack, but to establish as complete a state of simplicity as possible. In that simplicity you can more clearly see those patterns of wanting, not wanting, fearing, hoping, as they take shape.

—Interview with Venerable Ajaan Amaro by Mary Talbot, “Just Another Thing in the Forest”

Via Daily Dharma: Embrace Uncertainty

We have a choice. We can spend our whole life suffering because we can’t relax with how things really are, or we can relax and embrace the open-endedness of the human situation, which is fresh, unfixated, unbiased.

—Pema Chödrön, “The Fundamental Ambiguity of Being Human”

Via Daily Dharma: Buddhahood Is Within You

Some people think that one can become a buddha through meditation. This is wrong. The potential for Buddhahood is within your own nature.

—Master Sheng-Yen, “Being Natural”