Monday, November 8, 2021
Sunday, November 7, 2021
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H.H. The 16th KARMAPA, RANGJUNG RIGPE DORJE
You Are Always With Your Practice
I would like to say is that people definitely have to work and support themselves. When you have the enlightened attitude you have a responsibility to the people around you, to your country. You care about them. You are always with your practice. You are inseparable from it. You seize opportunities to benefit others and you will benefit others in whatever way you can.
You have been in this country. You were born in this country. Many people who will read this, are from families that have been here for generations. This country has been an important place for you. You have to offer respect for your grandparents and you must live a decent life, a dignified life that upholds the traditions of your ancestors, that meets the approval of society, your parents and yourself. If you are really going to serve this country and help its people, this seems like a reasonable way, rather than belonging to this party and that party, and getting involved in this competition and that competition, and all kinds of politics. As practitioners of the Dharma we don’t have to deny politics and reject politics, but we don’t have to play those games, either. It is not necessary. It is not important. It is not needed.
If you are working, may be in a hospital, you can see how you might have the opportunity and responsibility to help people. In the same way, what ever work you have taken, there are definitely people that you can benefit. So you should serve your people, serve your country, not expecting your country to serve you. And that’s the part of the practice of the Dharma. Not working is not taking responsibility.
If you are practitioner of the Mahayana teachings, that means you have something to be proud of, something to be worthy of, something to be descent for. But many people go around like some kind of outcast, in rags, with long hair, unwashed, as if you are a drug addict or something. This is not the proper way to present yourself. You are not maintaining your respect, you are not respecting Dharma that you are practicing, and you are not creating the proper outlook that the excellent Dharma is worthy of.
This is the message to the practitioners of Dharma that they must be dignified internally as well as externally, and their internal dignity must reflect outwardly also. We are not some drug addicts. Wearing the descent clothes, and being a descent human being, and serving your country, your people, serving the Dharma, and also yourself, being a self-respectful person is the Dharma path. How are you to benefit beings by looking as if you are completely discarded from the society?
By exposing that appearance, you are not taking the responsibility or you are not reflecting the enlightened attitude. If you are practicing the enlightened attitude, you should naturally be able to attract people so that when people see you, they might think, “Yes, these people definitely seem to be descent people, I think I could relate to them, and could ask something of these people. They might even be able to help me.” So in this way, you appear capable of giving help, or, at least capable of giving some directions to them for the help.
We are proud of ourselves as examples of the Dharma. If you are going around in rags, not taking care of your body, and going in the world like a misfit, it makes a very bad impression of that Dharma Center that you are involved with, and also as a person of this country, which means that you bring disrespect and a bad impression to this country and it’s people.
These are certain points that before I leave, I would like to offer to people so that they can use it. I hope that whoever hears these words, whether you are a Dharma practitioner or not, or whether you have entered into Buddhism or not, I hope that it will make some sense to you. It comes sincerely and truly, not with any put-on, or masquerade or diplomacy, but truly-straight and clean.
With integrity and sincerity you can serve beings, and as you work in the Dharma, you will serve many beings. And that is the greatness of the Mahayana teachings and practice. You don’t have to be a drop out from the country, the society or family. You are not. Cause, you have dignity.
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MACHIG LABDRÖN
“If there is destruction of hope, there is freedom from gods [lha]; if there is destruction of fear, there is freedom from spirits ['dre, demons].”
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SHUNRYU SUZUKI RINPOCHE
“When you accept everything, everything is beyond dimensions. The earth is not great nor a grain of sand small. In the realm of Great Activity picking up a grain of sand is the same as taking up the whole universe. To save one sentient being is to save all sentient beings. Your efforts of this moment to save one person is the same as the eternal merit of Buddha.”
Via Tricycle // The New Tradition of Early Buddhism
The New Tradition of Early Buddhism
By Bernard Font-Clos
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Via Daily Dharma: The Greatest Happiness
The Buddha said peace is the greatest happiness. We might call it a quiet joy, and that quiet joy can be underneath all the waves, because there will be waves—the ups and downs, times of exuberance and times when we’re feeling low.
—Joseph Goldstein, “Joseph Goldstein on Easing Self-Judgement and Finding Joy”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - November 7, 2021 💌
...You look at decay, and it is beautiful. Laura Huxley, who is a very
dear friend, in her kitchen has these jars over the sink, and she takes
old beet greens and orange peels and things and sticks them in the water
in these long, beautiful pharmaceutical jars. Then they slowly start to
mold and decay, and there are these beautiful decaying formation of
mold. It’s really garbage… it’s garbage as art. We look at it and it’s
absolutely beautiful. There’s absolute beauty in that.
I’ve begun to expand my awareness to be able to look at the universe as
it is, and see what is called the horrible beauty of it. I mean, there’s
horror and beauty in all of it, because there is also decay and death
in all of it. I mean, we’re all decaying – I look at my hand and it’s
decaying. It’s beautiful and horrible at the same time, and I just live
with that. And also with it, I see and live with the beauty of it.
So we’re talking about appreciating what is. Not loving yourself, as
opposed to not liking yourself, but allowing yourself. As you allow, it
changes. I think that gets behind the polarities. I think that’s what’s
important.
- Ram Dass -
Saturday, November 6, 2021
Via Tricycle // Freedom from Illusion
Freedom from Illusion
By Pema Düddul
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Via Tricycle // When America Met Thich Nhat Hanh
When America Met Thich Nhat Hanh
By Jim Forest
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Via Daily Dharma: Rising From Failure
Failures are not just inevitable, but are a necessary part of the process. A good mother is not one whose baby never cries, but one who knows how to respond and soothe her crying baby.
Friday, November 5, 2021
Thursday, November 4, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Plant the Right Seeds
The
effects of our actions extend through space and time like ripples on a
pond, influencing not only our future selves but also our surroundings.
If we wish to be a certain kind of person and live in a certain kind of
world, we need to be heedful about the seeds we cultivate.
Wednesday, November 3, 2021
Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - November 3, 2021 💌
There are many levels at which you relieve suffering; you relieve
suffering at one level by giving food. You relieve suffering at another
level by giving the food in such a way that is draws people out of the
pain of their own separateness. This involves the idea of respect for
the people you’re serving, and dignity and really seeing.
You must be driven to work on yourself all of the time, so that your
acts of caring for other human beings are not toxic. If you want to help
other people, I would say, just look around, check out the bulletin
board at your local laundromat. It doesn’t matter where you plug into
the system; the issue is the quality of the behavior when you plug into
the system.
It’s not just doing the act, it’s the combination of doing the act with
the exercise of using the act to see the ways in which you’re ripping
off the act for your own psycho-dynamic needs. Without putting yourself
down for it, just appreciating the humanity of it, but also getting to
the next level of it, where you’re just doing it because you’re a part
of the dance, and you’re on the side of the angels. Gandhi said, “When
you surrender completely into God, you find yourself in the service of
all that exists.”
- Ram Dass -
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Finding “You,” Now
Any
story you have about yourself is not the same as the unfolding reality
of what you are: the ongoing life of your senses, the tenderness of your
heart, the consciousness that right now is seeing or hearing these
words.
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