Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/28/2007

The Heart Sutra

The Heart Sutra is believed to have been written about the first century BCE. Although this is a very short text - about a page in length - it has been enormously influential. Essentially it expounds the concept of 'emptiness' (sunyata), a key term in Mahayana philosophy. In short, sunyata refers to the absence of self or essence in all conditioned phenomena: 'form is emptiness and emptiness is form'. The world is seen as a complex of ever-changing, fluctuating elements (dharmas): 'Here, O Sariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness'. The texts culminates with the mantra: 'Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all-hail!'.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/27/2007

The Lotus Sutra

The Saddharma-pundarika, or 'Lotus of the True Dharma' is written in Sanskrit and has become one of the most influential of Mahayana scriptures. Analysis suggests that it was written between 100BCE and 200C. In the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha in the form of Sakyamuni speaks to a vast audience of assembled saints, monks, nuns and bodhisattvas. One of the key Mahayana concepts to be found in the Lotus Sutra is that of skill-in-means (upaya). This is the idea that the Buddha has adapted his teachings to suit the level of his audience. Thus, Theravada and Mahayana are parts of a single path (Ekayana).

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/26/2007

"When man becomes aware of the movement of his own thoughts he will see the division between the thinker and thought, the observer and the observed, the experience and the experiencer. He will discover that this division is an illusion. Then only is there pure observation which is insight without any shadow of the past or of time. This timeless insight brings about a deep radical mutation in the mind."

~J. Krishnamurti

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/25/2007

Acceptance does not mean inaction. We may need to respond, strongly at times. From a peaceful center we can respond instead of react. Unconscious reactions create problems. Considered responses bring peace. With a peaceful heart whatever happens can be met with wisdom. Peace is not weak, it is unshakable.

~Pete "The Turtle" Johnson

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/24/2007

Better than a thousand useless words is one useful word, hearing which one attains peace.

~Dhammapada 100

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/23/2007

You are your own master, you make your future. Therefore discipline yourself as a horse-dealer trains a thoroughbred.

~Dhammapada 380

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/22/2007

Make an island of yourself, make yourself your refuge; there is no other refuge. Make truth your island, make truth your refuge; there is no other refuge.

~Digha Nikaya, 16

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/21/2007

Just as a mountain of rock, is unwavering, well-settled, so the monk whose delusion is ended, like a mountain, is undisturbed.

~Udana III, 4

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/20/2007

Think not lightly of good, saying, "It will not come to me." Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good.

~Dhammapada 122

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/19/2007

Irrigators direct the water, Fletchers fashion the shaft, Carpenters bend the wood, The wise control themselves.

~Dhammapada 80

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/18/2007

Be capable, upright, & straightforward, easy to instruct, gentle, & not conceited, content & easy to support, with few duties, living lightly, with peaceful faculties, masterful, modest, & no greed for supporters. Do not do the slightest thing that the wise would later censure.

~Sutta Nipata I, 8

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/17/2007

Live without covetous greed, fill your mind with benevolence. Be mindful and one-pointed, inwardly stable and concentrated.

~Anguttara Nikaya II, 29

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/16/2007

One who has crossed over the mire, crushed the thorn of sensuality, reached the ending of delusion, is a monk undisturbed by bliss & pain.

~Udana III, 2

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/15/2007

Difficult to detect and very subtle, the mind seizes whatever it wants; so let a wise man guard his mind, for a guarded mind brings happiness.

~Dhammapada 36

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/14/2007

Mind precedes all things; mind is their chief, mind is their maker. If one speaks or does a deed with a mind that is pure within, happiness then follows along like a never departing shadow.

~Dhammapada 1

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/13/2007

Consort only with the good, come together with the good. To learn the teaching of the good gives wisdom like nothing else can.

~Samyutta Nikaya I, 17

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/12/2007

In every virtue all-accomplished, with wisdom full and mind composed, looking within and ever mindful- thus one crosses the raging flood.

~Sutta Nipata 174

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/11/2007

By love they will quench the fire of hate, by wisdom the fire of delusion. Those supreme ones extinguish delusion with wisdom that breaks through to truth.

~Itivuttaka 93

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/10/2007

How short this life! You die this side of a century, but even if you live past, you die of old age.

~Sutta Nipata IV, 6

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/9/2007

Wisdom springs from meditation; without meditation wisdom wanes. Having known these two paths of progress and decline, let a man so conduct himself that his wisdom may increase.

~Dhammapada 282

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/8/2007

If by renouncing a lesser happiness one may realize a greater happiness, let the wise one renounce the lesser, having regard for the greater.

~Dhammapada 290

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/7/2007

Entangled by the bonds of hate, he who seeks his own happiness by inflicting pain on others, is never delivered from hatred.

~Dhammapada 291

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/6/2007

To be at peace with ourselves is a true blessing, to be at peace with those that are not at peace with themselves is a true discipline.

~Pete Johnson

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/5/2007

If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/4/2007

We must not be attached to a view or a doctrine, even a Buddhist one. . . . The Buddha said that if in a certain moment or place you adopt something as the absolute truth, and you attach to that, thenyou will no longer have any chance to reach the truth. Even when the truth comes and knocks on your door, and asks you to open the door, you won't recognize it. So you must not be too attached to dogma--to what you believe, and to what you perceive.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/3/2007

You who are journalists, writers, citizens, you have the right and duty to say to those you have elected that they must practice mindfulness, calm and deep listening, and loving speech. This is a universal thing, taught by all religions.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/2/2007

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/1/2007

If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.

~Thich Nhat Hanh