Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/31/2006

The living meaning of Zen is beyond all notions. To realize it in a phrase is completely contrary to the subtle essence; we cannot avoid using words as expedients, though, but this has limitations. Needless to say, of course, random talk is useless. Nonetheless, the matter is not one-sided, so we temporarily set forth a path in the way of teaching, to deal with people.

What you think upon grows...

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/30/2006

When you're deluded, every statement is an ulcer; when you're enlightened, every word is wisdom.

What you think upon grows...

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/29/2006

One single still light shines bright: if you intentionally pursue it, after all it's hard to see. Suddenly encountering it, people's hearts are opened up, and the great matter is clear and done. This is really living, without any fetters -- no amount of money could replace it. Even if a thousand sages should come, they would all appear in it's shadow.

What you think upon grows...

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/28/2006

Just think of the trees: they let the birds perch and fly, with no intention to call them when they come and no longing for their return when they fly away. If people's hearts can be like the trees, they will not be off the Way.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/27/2006

Externally keep yourself away from all relationships, and internally have no pantings in your heart; when your mind is like unto a straight-standing wall, you may enter into the Path.

What you think upon grows...

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/26/2006

"Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it."

What you think upon grows...

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/25/2006

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."

What you think upon grows...

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/24/2006

"We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves."

What you think upon grows...

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/23/2006

"To understand everything is to forgive everything."

What you think upon grows...

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/22/2006

"A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker."

What you think upon grows...

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/21/2006

"The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart."

What you think upon grows...

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/20/2006

"You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger."

What you think upon grows...

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/19/2006

"Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little."

What you think upon grows...

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/18/2006

A Zen master once said to me, "Do the opposite of whatever I tell you." So I didn't.

What you think upon grows...

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/17/2006

"I gained nothing at all from Supreme Enlightenment, and for that very reason it is called Supreme Enlightenment."

~Gotama Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/17/2006

"I gained nothing at all from Supreme Enlightenment, and for that very reason it is called Supreme Enlightenment."

~Gotama Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/16/2006

"The only people who believe that samsara and nirvana are the same are those that haven't meditated enough."

~Ajahn Chah

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/15/2006

"I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around chinatown."

~Woody Allen

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/14/2006

"When I first started reading about Buddhism, I said this emptyness is really heavy!"

~Rev Ryunyo King

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/13/2006

Buddhism cannot strictly be called a religion because it is neither a system of faith and worship, nor "the outward act or form by which men indicate their recognition of the existence of a God or gods having power over their own destiny to whom obedience, service, and honor are due.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/12/2006

In Buddhism there is not, as in most other religions, an Almighty God to be obeyed and feared. The Buddha does not believe in a cosmic potentate, omniscient and omnipresent. In Buddhism there are no divine revelations or divine messengers. A Buddhist is, therefore, not subservient to any higher supernatural power which controls his destinies and which arbitrarily rewards and punishes. Since Buddhists do not believe in revelations of a divine being Buddhism does not claim the monopoly of truth and does not condemn any other religion. But Buddhism recognizes the infinite latent possibilities of man and teaches that man can gain deliverance from suffering by his own efforts independent of divine help or mediating priests.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/11/2006

"Prayers take the character of private communications, selfish bargaining with God. It seeks for objects of earthly ambitions and inflames the sense of self. Meditation on the other hand is self-change." -- Sri Radhakrishnan.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/10/2006

However much we may pray to the Buddha we cannot be saved. The Buddha does not grant favors to those who pray to him. Instead of petitional prayers there is meditation that leads to self-control, purification and enlightenment. Meditation is neither a silent reverie nor keeping the mind blank. It is an active striving. It serves as a tonic both to the heart and the mind. The Buddha not only speaks of the futility of offering prayers but also disparages a slave mentality. A Buddhist should not pray to be saved, but should rely on himself and win his freedom.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/9/2006

"I see nothing more grand in this world than the image of the Buddha. It is an absolutely perfect embodiment of spirituality in the visible domain."

~Count Kevserling

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/8/2006

Buddhists do not worship an image expecting worldly or spiritual favors, but pay their reverence to what it represents. An understanding Buddhist, in offering flowers and incense to an image, designedly makes himself feel that he is in the presence of the living Buddha and thereby gains inspiration from his noble personality and breathes deep his boundless compassion. He tries to follow the Buddha's noble example.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/7/2006

A Buddhist does not seek refuge in the Buddha with the hope that he will be saved by his (i.e. the Buddha's own) personal purification. The Buddha gives no such guarantee. It is not within the power of a Buddha to wash away the impurities of others. One could neither purify nor defile another. The Buddha, as teacher, instructs us, but we ourselves are directly responsible for our purification. Although a Buddhist seeks refuge in the Buddha, he does not make any self-surrender. Nor does a Buddhist sacrifice his freedom of thought by becoming a follower of the Buddha. He can exercise his own free will and develop his knowledge even to the extent of becoming a Buddha himself.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/6/2006

Buddhism does not demand blind faith from its adherents. Here mere belief is dethroned and is substituted by confidence based on knowledge, which, in Pali, is known as saddha. The confidence placed by a follower on the Buddha is like that of a sick person in a noted physician, or a student in his teacher. A Buddhist seeks refuge in the Buddha because it was he who discovered the path of deliverance.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/5/2006

"My teaching is not a philosophy. It is the result of direct experience... My teaching is a means of practice, not something to hold onto or worship. My teaching is like a raft used to cross the river. Only a fool would carry the raft around after he had already reached the other shore of liberation."

~The Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/4/2006

"Thus we could say that the Buddha's Dharma is, as experience and as a way to practical realization, a religion; as the intellectual formulation of this experience, a philosophy; and as a result of self- observation and analysis, a psychology. Whoever treads this path acquires a norm of behaviour that is not dictated from without, but is the result of an inner process of maturation and that we - regarding it from without - can call morality."

~Lama Anagorika Govinda

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/3/2006

Rely on the teaching, not on the person;
Rely on the meaning, not on the words;
Rely on the definitive meaning, not on the provisional;
Rely on your wisdom mind, not on your ordinary mind.
~The Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/2/2006

One day a young Buddhist on his journey home, came to the banks of a wide river. Staring hopelessly at the great obstacle in front of him, he pondered for hours on just how to cross such a wide barrier. Just as he was about to give up his pursuit to continue his journey he saw a great teacher on the other side of the river. The young Buddhist yells over to the teacher, "Oh wise one, can you tell me how to get to the other side of this river?" The teacher ponders for a moment looks up and down the river and yells back, "My son, you are on the other side."

"hi - have you got any quick quotes on rekindling close friendships with
people? "

"Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend's forehead."- Chinese Proverb

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/1/2006

The main disciples of the Buddha are also known as the Great Arhants: Shariputra, known for his understanding of the Abidharma teachings; Maudgalyayana, known for his psychic powers; Mahakashyapa, the great ascetic; and Ananda, the personal attendant of the Buddha who recalled every word the Buddha spoke.