Via Daily Dharma: What Is Self-Liberation?

The liberation of Buddhism is liberation from self, not liberation of self.

—Dharmavidya David Brazier, “Performing the Ritual of Life”

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Via Daily Dharma: Recommit to Your Practice

Peace and clarity arrive through understanding patterns and the underlying nature of our minds, rather than through stopping our thoughts, achieving some special state, or having a particular experience. When we remember and trust this, letting go of our expectations and ideas, we can find more space to refocus and recommit to our daily practice.

—Oren Jay Sofer, “Why Can’t I Get to the Cushion?”

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Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - November 13, 2019 💌

"The curriculum of Seva (service) provides us with information about our strengths, and we discover how these contribute to genuinely helpful service. Each time we drop our masks and meet heart-to-heart, reassuring one another simply by the quality of our presence, we experience a profound bond which we intuitively understand is nourishing everyone. Each time we quiet our mind, our listening becomes sharp and clear, deep and perceptive; we realize that we know more than we thought we knew, and can reach out and hear, as if from inside, the heart of someone's pain. Each time we are able to remain open to suffering, despite our fear and defensiveness, we sense a love in us which becomes increasingly unconditional."

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Treat Your Emotions with Kindness

When feelings of fear or discomfort arise in the practice, as they sometimes do, we treat them [by] experiencing the feelings in a nonattached way, surrounding them with mindfulness and lovingkindness, and realizing that they are not ultimately a part of us.

—Bodhipaksa, “What You’re Made Of”

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Via Daily Dharma: The Experience of Lineage

In a lineage, what is it that is passed on? The answer to this question becomes incredibly complex and articulated over time as one participates with the teacher and other human beings in dharma practice and just plain ordinary life. The experience becomes so multifaceted and nuanced that it is inexpressible.

—Sandy Boucher, “Rivers of Constant Movement”

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Via Daily Dharma: The Two Sides of Hope and Fear

The Buddha’s teaching says that hope is just the flip side of fear, and fear the flip side of hope. The best thing is just to stay awake and watch it, watch yourself, and feel everything as it is right now.

—Kaz Suzuki, “A Caregiver’s Story: Kaz Suzuki”

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Via Daily Dharma: Living in Community

Perhaps that’s the clue about the happiness inherent in caring connections: The frightened “I” who struggles is replaced by the “we” who do this difficult life together, looking after one other.

—Sylvia Boorstein, “Riding the Wave”

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Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - November 17, 2019 💌

"After a while, you come to appreciate that what you can offer another human being is to work on yourself to be a statement of what it is you have found in the way you live your life. One of the things you have found or will find is the ability to appreciate what is, as it is, in equanimity and compassion and love that isn't conditional; that is, you don't love a person more because they are happier the way you think they should be.

What you cultivate in yourself is the garden in which they can grow, and you offer your consciousness and the spaciousness to hear it."

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: What is Nonself?

What is the meaning of nonself? Infinity.

—Guo Jun, “The Calligrapher’s Apprentice”

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Via Daily Dharma: An Enduring Love

In this world where everyone dies, where every song ends, where every achievement is undone, where every treasure is lost, all of us are left behind. All of us leave. But everywhere and always there is the hum of continuing. Though always incomplete, always there is the sound of love, forever and at the core unfinished.

—Douglas Penick, “On the Departure of a Beloved Brother”

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Via Daily Dharma: Benefitting the World

By the time it gets to war, violence is already way down the line. But in the same way love can also start right here, in the home in each one of us. We need to learn ways of expressing the pure energy of our feelings—anger and hate feelings especially—in a healthier direction that’s beneficial to the world.

—Interview with Maxine Hong Kingston by Trevor Carolan, “Helping Veterans Turn War into Art”

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Via Daily Dharma: Change Your Mind to Change Your Life

Your problems won’t change; only you can change. That’s the point.

—Gento Steve Krieger, “Growing Ground”

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Via Daily Dharma: Can We All Practice Nonviolence?

Nonviolence is not some exalted regimen that can be practiced only by a monk or a master; it also pertains to the way one interacts with a child, vacuums a carpet, or waits in line.

—Kenneth Kraft, “Meditation in Action”

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Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - November 10, 2019 💌

"You are existing at many planes simultaneously at this moment. The only reason you don’t know of your other identities is because you’re so attached to this one. But this one or that one; don’t get lost, don’t stick anywhere. It’s just more stuff. Go for broke, awake totally. "

- Ram Dass -

Gratedão!

Via Daily Dharma: Transforming Suffering into Wisdom

Buddhism is a method of transforming the deep misunderstanding of the world that causes unhappiness into a wisdom that recognizes the impermanent, changing nature of everything we grasp—most significantly our selves.

—David Patt, “Who’s Zoomin’ Who? The Commodification of Buddhism in the American Marketplace”

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Via Daily Dharma: A Precious Opportunity

Gratitude, the simple and profound feeling of being thankful, is the foundation of all generosity…Generosity requires that we relinquish something, and this is impossible if we are not glad for what we have.

—Sallie Tisdale, “As If There is Nothing to Lose”

Via Daily Dharma: Center in the Present Moment

The mundane aspects of everyday life can serve as a kind of god or beacon. These are the daily reminders that can center us in the present moment, and that help us to remember the ways in which we are all connected.

—Caitlin Van Dusen, “The Essence of Absence”

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Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - November 6, 2019 💌

"There is no best or right kind of experience in meditation; each session is as different and unique as each day of your life. If you have ideas of what should happen, you can become needlessly disappointed if your meditation doesn’t conform to these expectations. At first meditation is likely to be novel, and it’s easy to feel you are changing. After a while, there may be fewer dramatically novel experiences. You may be making the most progress when you don’t feel anything particularly significant is going on—the changes you undergo in meditation are often too subtle to detect accurately. Suspend judgment and let whatever comes come and go. "

- Ram Dass -