Happy Birthday, Tenzin Gyatso!

He’s the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, a worldwide icon for peace, and the incarnation of the bodhisattva of compassion.

But Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, prefers to think of himself as a “simple Buddhist monk.” 

 

The Dalai Lama was born 83 years ago today to a farming family in Amdo, a northeastern Tibetan province. He was recognized as an incarnation of the former Dalai Lama when he was 2 years old, and started his monastic schooling four years later. He was awarded his geshe degree—the equivalent of a PhD—in 1959, and later that year was forced to flee to India to escape the Chinese invasion. This year the Dalai Lama, who recently said he expects to live another 15–20 years, will celebrate his birthday in Ladakh. After that, it's back to his typical schedule: up at 3 a.m. for meditation, listening to the BBC while he eats breakfast, and studying Buddhist texts and commentaries.

Via Daily Dharma: Transform Anger into Clarity

Anger is traditionally thought to be close to wisdom. When not projected outward onto others or inward toward the self, it gives us the necessary energy and clarity to understand what needs to be done.

—Thanissara, “Don’t Worry, Be Angry”

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Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - July 4, 2018

 

We can’t mask impurities for very long. When we suppress or repress them, they gain energy. Eventually we all have to deal with our same old karmic obstacles. Maharaji used to enumerate them with regularity: kama, krodh, moha, lobh – lust, anger, confusion, and greed. It’s the spectrum of impulses and desires that condition our interior universe and our view of reality. We have to take care of this stuff, so we can climb the mountain without getting dragged back down.

This clearing out opens the door for dharma, for being in harmony with the laws of the universe on both a personal and social level. If you do your dharma, you do things that bring you closer to God. You bring yourself into harmony with the spiritual laws of the universe. Dharma is also translated as “righteousness,” although that evokes echoes of sin and damnation. It’s more a matter of clearing the decks to be able to do spiritual work on yourself.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Walking the Path to Inner Freedom

It is the inner meditative practice, especially in the midst of outer conditions, that leads to the unification and eventual reconciliation of inner and outer, self and other.

—Stuart Smithers, “Freedom’s Just Another Word”

Via Daily Dharma: Slow and Steady Wins the Race

To recognize our suffering and respond to it with compassion is a gradual process, and it must be done with sensitivity and care.

—Beth Roth, “Family Dharma: Leaning into Suffering”

Via Purple Buddha Project /11 Inspirational Quotes As Mindful Reminders | Motivational & Mindful

Life Quotes of the Day

Many people try to find a spiritual path where they do not have to face themselves but where they can still liberate themselves–liberate themselves from themselves, in fact. In truth, this is impossible. We cannot do that. We have to be honest with ourselves. We have to see our gut, our real shit, our most undesirable parts. We have to see that. That is the foundation of warriorship and the basis of conquering fear. We have to face our fear; we have to look at it, study it, work with it, and practice meditation with it. - Chögyam Trungpa Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. - E.F. Schumacher So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts: Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness. - Herman Hesse The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly—you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you. All the things that truly matter — beaut…y, love, creativity, joy, inner peace — arise from beyond the mind… - Eckhart Tolle When public schools are judged by how much art and music they have, by how many science experiments their students perform, by how much time they leave for recess and play, and by how much food they grow rather than how many tests they administer, then I will be confident that we are preparing our students for a future where they will be creative participants and makers of history rather than obedient drones for the ruling economic elite. - Mark Naison The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing. Ultimately, after endlessly repeated rebuffs, it succeeds. This is one of the few points in which it may be optimistic about the future of mankind, but in itself it signifies not a little. - Sigmund Freud How do you let go of attachment to things? Don’t even try. It’s impossible. Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them. - Eckhart Tolle If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself. If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself or even less in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct and if you have more than one companion you will fall more deeply into the same plight. - Leonardo da Vinci  People think dreams aren’t real just because they aren’t made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes. - Neil Gaiman  We must become so alone, so utterly alone, that we withdraw into our innermost self. It is a way of bitter suffering. But then our solitude is overcome, we are no longer alone, for we find that our innermost self is the spirit, that it is God, the indivisible. And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by its multiplicity, for our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all being. - Hermann Hesse Just fully being skillful involves total lack of inhibition. We are not afraid to be. We are not afraid to live. We must accept ourselves as being warriors. If we acknowledge ourselves as warriors, then there is a way in, because a warrior dares to be, like a tiger in the jungle. ​- Chögyam Trungpa

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Via Daily Dharma: Cultivate an Awakened Mind

Bodhicitta, generally translated as the wish for or spirit of awakening, refers to a state of mind that corresponds to being awakened or that leads to it. It is the intention to attain perfect awakening for the sake of all beings.

—Karma Trinlay Rinpoche, “What We’ve Been All Along”

Via Daily Dharma: The Joy in Effort

Dharma practice is hard. Life is hard. But we find joy in making the effort, in choosing to do something, in action. Here we find dharma joy, in this doing-in-itself.

—Peter Doobinin, “Reclaiming Our Agency”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - July 1, 2018

The transformation that comes through meditation is not a straight-line progression. It’s a spiral, a cycle. My own life is very much a series of spirals in which at times I am pulled toward some particular form of sadhana or lifestyle and make a commitment to it for maybe six months or a year. After this time I assess its effects. At times I work with external methods such as service. At other times the pull is inward, and I retreat from society to spent more time alone. The timing for these phases in the spiral must be in tune with your inner voice and your outer life.

Don’t get too rigidly attached to any one method – turn to others when their time comes, when you are ripe for them. 

- Ram Dass -

From: The Death of Democracy, Benjamin Carter Hett

Via Daily Dharma: The Subtle Forms of Generosity

Generosity is not limited to the giving of material things. We can be generous with our kindness and our receptivity. Generosity can mean the simple giving of a smile or extending ourselves to really listen to a friend.

—Gil Fronsdal, “Generosity and Greed”

Via Daily Dharma: Savoring Life’s Warmth

When you encounter something positive and healing, pause with it, lighting the lamp of your mindfulness to savor and appreciate it.

—Thomas Bien, “Water the Flowers, Not the Weeds”

Via Purple Buddha Project / 11 Quotes of the Day to Help You Get Through the Day

Life Quotes of the Day

Paradoxical as it may seem, the purposeful life has no content, no point. It hurries on and on, and misses everything. Not hurrying, the purposeless life misses nothing, for it is only when there is no goal and no rush that the human senses are fully open to receive the world.

- Alan W. Watts

“Whether our action is wholesome or unwholesome depends on whether that action or deed arises from a disciplined or undisciplined state of mind. It is felt that a disciplined mind leads to happiness and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering, and in fact it is said that bringing about discipline within one’s mind is the essence of the Buddha’s teaching.”

- Dalai Lama XIV

Try to find pleasure in the speed that you’re not used to. Changing the way you do routine things allows a new person to grow inside of you. But when all is said and done, you’re the one who must decide how you handle it.

- Paulo Coelho

In the way that a gardener knows how to transform compost into flowers, we can learn the art of transforming anger, depression, and racial discrimination into love and understanding. This is the work of meditation.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

The most important thing in all human relationships is conversation, but people don’t talk anymore, they don’t sit down to talk and listen. They go to the theater, the cinema, watch television, listen to the radio, read books, but they almost never talk. If we want to change the world, we have to go back to a time when warriors would gather around a fire and tell stories.

- Paulo Coelho

There are people who are generic. They make generic responses and they expect generic answers. They live inside a box and they think people who don’t fit into their box are weird. But I’ll tell you what, generic people are the weird people. They are like genetically-manipulated plants growing inside a laboratory, like indistinguishable faces, like droids. Like ignorance.

- C. JoyBell C.

The most important thing in all human relationships is conversation, but people don’t talk anymore, they don’t sit down to talk and listen. They go to the theater, the cinema, watch television, listen to the radio, read books, but they almost never talk. If we want to change the world, we have to go back to a time when warriors would gather around a fire and tell stories.

- Paulo Coelho

As a child I was taught that to tell the truth was often painful. As an adult I have learned that not to tell the truth is more painful, and that the fear of telling the truth — whatever the truth may be — that fear is the most painful sensation of a moral life.

- June Jordan

You’re going to meet many people with domineering personalities: the loud, the obnoxious, those that noisily stake their claims in your territory and everywhere else they set foot on. This is the blueprint of a predator. Predators prey on gentleness, peace, calmness, sweetness and any positivity that they sniff out as weakness. Anything that is happy and at peace they mistake for weakness. It’s not your job to change these people, but it’s your job to show them that your peace and gentleness do not equate to weakness. I have always appeared to be fragile and delicate but the thing is, I am not fragile and I am not delicate. I am very gentle but I can show you that the gentle also possess a poison. I compare myself to silk. People mistake silk to be weak but a silk handkerchief can protect the wearer from a gunshot. There are many people who will want to befriend you if you fit the description of what they think is weak; predators want to have friends that they can dominate over because that makes them feel strong and important. The truth is that predators have no strength and no courage. It is you who are strong, and it is you who has courage. I have lost many friends over the fact that when they attempt to rip me, they can’t. They accuse me of being deceiving; I am not deceiving, I am just made of silk. It is they who are stupid and wrongly take gentleness and fairness for weakness. There are many more predators in this world, so I want you to be made of silk. You are silk.

- C. JoyBell C.

Don’t bother trying to explain your emotions. Live everything as intensely as you can and keep whatever you felt as a gift from God. The best way to destroy the bridge between the visible and invisible is by trying to explain your emotions.

- Paulo Coelho

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

- Mahatma Gandhi

Via Daily Dharma: The Basic Fuel for Practice

Awareness of the truth of suffering and impermanence always provides fertile ground for spiritual practice.

—Pamela Gayle White, “Who Are We Without Our Memories?”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - June 27, 2018

As I have explored my own and others’ journeys toward love, I’ve encountered different types of happiness. There’s pleasure, there’s happiness, and then there’s joy. Addiction, even in the broad sense of just always wanting more of something, gives only pleasure. Pleasure is very earthbound when you’re getting it from sensual interaction, and it always has its opposite; also, the need for satisfaction is never ending.

Happiness is emotional, and emotions come and go. It may play into the complex of other emotional stuff that we all carry. But there is also spiritual happiness, which gets very close to joy. As it becomes less personal, spiritual happiness becomes joy. Joy is being part of the One. It’s spiritual, the joy-full universe, like trees are joyful. It’s bliss, or ananda. It’s all those things. The difference is that it comes from the soul.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Creating Our Karma

The law of karma is one of the fundamental natural laws through which we create vastly different realities. It is as though we are all artists, but instead of canvas and paint, or marble or music, as our medium, our very bodies, minds, and life experience are the materials of our creative expression.

—Joseph Goldstein, “Cause and Effect”

Via Daily Dharma: Come Back To Who You Really Are

Zazen [Zen meditation] practice continually reminds us to unhook from our projects, which always reflect in some way a desire to be elsewhere. We are continually invited to come back to “just this,” to come back to who we really are.

—Julie Nelson, “Sick and Useless Zen”