There is no meditative absorption
Without wisdom.
There is no wisdom
Without meditative absorption.
With both,
One is close to Nirvana.
~Dhammapada 372
April 30, 2008
April 29, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/29/2008
Wisdom arises from [spiritual] practice;
Without practice it decays.
Knowing these paths to gain and loss,
Conduct yourself so that wisdom grows.
~Dhammapada 282
April 28, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/28/2008
"All things are impermanent."
Seeing this with wisdom,
One becomes disenchanted with suffering.
This is the path to purity.
~Dhammapada 277
April 27, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/27/2008
One is not wise
Only because one speaks a lot.
One who is peaceful, without hate, and fearless
Is said to be wise.
~Dhammapada 258
April 26, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/26/2008
As a deep lake
Is clear and undisturbed,
So a sage becomes clear
Upon hearing the Dharma.
~Dhammapada 82
April 25, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/25/2008
As a solid mass of rock
Is not moved by the wind,
So a sage is not moved
By praise and blame.
~Dhammapada 81
April 24, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/24/2008
Irrigators guide water;
Fletchers shape arrows;
Carpenters fashion wood;
Sages tame themselves.
~Dhammapada 80
April 23, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/23/2008
Like someone pointing to treasure
Is the wise person
Who sees your faults and points them out.
Associate with such a sage.
Good will come of it, not bad,
If you associate with one such as this.
~Dhammapada 76
April 22, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/22/2008
A fool conscious of her foolishness
Is to that extent wise. But a fool who considers himself wise
Is the one to be called a fool.
~Dhammapada 63
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/21/2008
Wisdom is the opposite of greed, hate and delusion is so far as greed, hate and delusion create blindness, while knowledge restores sight.
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/20/2008
Great compassion and skilful means (directed toward liberation) are conditions for the perfections. Skilful means is the wisdom which transforms giving (and the other nine perfections) into requisites for awakening. Through wisdom a bodhisattva brings him or herself across (the stream of suffering), through compassion he or she leads others across. Through wisdom one understands the suffering of others, through compassion one strives to alleviate their suffering. Through wisdom one destroys all attachments, but because of compassion, one never desists from activity that benefits others. Through wisdom one is free from "I-making" and "mine-making," through compassion one is free from lethargy and depression. Through wisdom and compassion one becomes one's own protector and the protector of others.
April 19, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/19/2008
Wisdom is mentioned immediately after renunciation: a) because renunciation is perfected and purified by wisdom; b) to show that since concentration is the proximate cause of wisdom, there is no wisdom in the absence of meditation (which requires renunciation or letting go).
April 18, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/18/2008
Wisdom has the characteristic of penetrating the real specific nature (of phenomena) like the penetration of an arrow shot by a skilful archer; its function is to illuminate the field of experience, like a lamp; its manifestation is non-confusion, like a guide in a forest; concentration, or the Four (Noble) Truths, is its proximate cause.
April 17, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/17/2008
Wisdom is the chief cause for the practice of the other perfections. Without wisdom, giving and so forth do not become purified and cannot perform their functions. Without wisdom there is no achievement of vision, and without the achievement of vision there can be no accomplishment of virtue. One lacking in virtue and vision cannot achieve concentration, and without concentration one cannot even secure one's own welfare, much less the lofty goal of providing for the welfare of others.
April 16, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/16/2008
The more successful you become, the more the demands of your ego will increase. In the beginning, you simply want to succeed, but your ego will not be satisfied. When you become a little more successful your ego wants to kill your competition. And when you become even more successful, it wants to make you the universal king. There's no telling what ego wants because our desire doesn't have any limit; therefore, its demands continually increase.
~Gehlek Rinpoche
April 15, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/15/2008
That's the ego talking. But it's not the real you. You are a good and wonderful person. You are kind. You have a compassionate nature.
~Gehlek Rinpoche
April 14, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/14/2008
Ego's trick is to make us lose sight of our interdependence. That kind of ego-thought gives us a perfect justification to look out only for ourselves. But that is far from the truth. In reality we all depend on each other and we have to help each other. The husband has to help his wife, the wife has to help the husband, the mother has to help her children, and the children are supposed to help the parents too, whether they want to or not.
~Gehlek Rinpoche
April 13, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/13/2008
The ego prevents us from helping ourselves by presenting a false notion of what it really means to help ourselves.
~Gehlek Rinpoche
April 12, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/12/2008
If we only practice compassion on the mind level, we run a great risk of our compassion being just talk. As we know, talk is cheap. To develop true compassion we have to put our money where our mouth is.
~Gehlek Rinpoche
April 11, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/11/2008
Training in compassion is a mental activity. but our mind should also be brought to the level where every action we take is influenced by compassion. That means engaging ourselves in compassion in action.
~Gehlek Rinpoche
April 10, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/10/2008
"When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world we lose connection with one another - and ourselves."
~Jack Kornfield
April 09, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/9/2008
Forgiveness is primarily for our own sake, so that we no longer carry the burden of resentment. But to forgive does not mean we will allow injustice again.
~Jack Kornfield
April 08, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/8/2008
If grief or anger arises, Let there be grief or anger. This is the Buddha in all forms, Sun Buddha, Moon Buddha, Happy Buddha, Sad Buddha. It is the universe offering all things to awaken and open our heart.
~Jack Kornfield
April 07, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/7/2008
If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.
~Jack Kornfield
April 06, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/6/2008
When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another - and ourselves.
~Jack Kornfield
April 05, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/5/2008
"When we come into the present, we begin to feel the life around us again, but we also encounter whatever we have been avoiding. We must have the courage to face whatever is present / our pain, our desires, our grief, our loss, our secret hopes our love / everything that moves us most deeply."
~Jack Kornfield
April 04, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/4/2008
"To live fully is to let go and die with each passing moment, and to be reborn in each new one."
~Jack Kornfield
April 03, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/3/2008
Without consciousness, Time and space do not exist; They appear within Consciousness. But have no reality of their own. It is like a screen on which All this is cast as pictures and move As in a cinema show. The Absolute Consciousness Alone is our real nature.
~Ramana Maharshi
April 02, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/2/2008
Careful! Even moonlit dewdrops, If you're lured to watch, Are a wall before the Truth.
~Sogyo (1667-1731)
April 01, 2008
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/1/2008
Are you quiet? Quiet your body. Quiet your mind. By your own efforts Waken yourself, watch, And live joyfully. Follow the truth of the way. Reflect upon it. Make it your own. Live it.
~Buddha from the Dhammapada
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