Daily Wisdom-Eastern Philosophy-Part lll

[Shirleypal]

It is my belief that whereas the twentieth century has been a century of war and untold suffering, the twenty-first century should be one of peace and dialogue. As the continued advances in information technology make our world a truly global village, I believe there will come a time when war and armed conflict will be considered an outdated and obsolete method of settling differences among nations and communities.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

[Shirleypal]

The victorious ones have said
That emptiness is the relinquishing of all views.
For whomever emptiness is a view,
That one will accomplish nothing.

Nagarjuna

[Shirleypal]

Explaining many profound dharmas is easy; living them yourself is hard.

Adept Godrakpa

[Shirleypal]

If you can only rid yourselves of conceptual thought, you will have accomplished everything.

Huang Po, "Zen Teaching of Huang Po"

[Shirleypal]

The world's end can never be reached
by means of traveling through the world,
Yet without reaching the world's end
there is no release from suffering.

Therefore, truly, the world-knower, the wise one,
gone to the world's end, fulfiller of the holy life,
having known the world's end, at peace,
longs not for this world or another.

Buddha

[Shirleypal]

There is no pleasure without some degree of pain.
There is no pain without some amount of pleasure.

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

[Shirleypal]

The threshold between right and wrong is pain.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

[Shirleypal]

"The entire universe is a great theater of mirrors, a set of hieroglyphs to decipher; everything is a sign, everything harbors and manifests mystery. The principles of contradiction, of excluded middle, and of linear causality are supplanted by those of resolution, of included middle, and of synchronicity. --Alice A. Bailey"

[Shirleypal]

The mighty ocean has but one taste, the taste of salt. Even so, the true way has but one savor, the savor of freedom.

Majjhima Nikaya

[Shirleypal]

There are two kinds of happiness. There is that of the uncommitted life of sensual pleasures, and there is that of the committed life, one of going forth to a new consciousness. Of these, the happiness of going forth is greater.

Anguttara Nikaya

[Shirleypal]

Unless we practice loving feelings toward everyone we meet, day in, day out, we're missing out on the most joyous part of life. If we can actually open our hearts, there's no difficulty in being happy.

Ayya Khema

[Shirleypal]

What people expect to happen is always different from what actually happens. From this comes great disappointment; this is the way the world works.

Sutta Nipata

[Shirleypal]

When you ride in a boat and watch the shore, you might assume that the shore is moving. But when you keep your eyes closely on the boat, you can see that the boat moves. Similarly, if you examine myriad things with a confused body and mind you might suppose that your mind and nature are permanent. When you practice intimately and return to where you are, it will be clear that nothing at all has unchanging self.

"Actualizing the Fundamental Point" by Zen Master Dogen
From "Teachings of the Buddha,"

[Shirleypal]

We should quickly seize enlightenment while we still have the chance. In much less than a century all of us will be dead. We cannot be sure that we will be alive even tomorrow. There is no time to procrastinate. I who am giving this teaching have no guarantee that I will live out this day.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

[Shirleypal]

It is not that anger and desire are inherently evil or that we should feel ashamed when they arise. It is a matter of seeing them as the delusions that they are: distorted conceptions that paint a false picture of reality. They are negative because they lead to unhappiness and confusion.

Kathleen McDonald, "How to Meditate"