February 28, 2014

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/28/2014


"Then, of course, other things happen. You have thoughts, you have feelings. You might have a pain, an ache, visions, memories, reflections. All these things arise, but instead of applying yourself to them and getting entangled in them, you just bear witness to it, let it go, come back to the breathing and the body, and what happens is you release a whole lot of stuff in yourself. A whole new process comes into being that would not have been there if you were always fixing and choosing and doing and making. This way you're allowing something to take place within your heart."


~Norman Fischer


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February 26, 2014

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/26/2014


"This doesn't work by thought and will. It doesn't disregard thought and will, but thought and will are not the engine that makes this go. The engine that makes this go is taking a step back and trusting the body, trusting the breath, trusting the heart. We're living our lives madly trying to hold onto everything, and it looks like it might work for awhile but in the end it always fails, and it never was working, and the way to be happy, the way to be loving, the way to be free is to really be willing to let go of everything on every occasion or at least to make that effort."


~Norman Fischer


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February 25, 2014

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/25/2014


"If we look like Buddhists and talk like Buddhists and sit on a cushion like the other Buddhists, then we think we are automatically followers of the Buddha's teachings. But all these concepts are cutting us off from the utter simplicity of the Buddha's example and message. We do wheat we do simply to wake up, simply to be free. Any form we use is only a support of accomplishing that purpose. We could be perfect in the performance of a thousand rituals, and they could all be empty of all meaning or benefit if we don't connect with our heart. If we're not developing our awareness in our everyday life, then we're missing the point."


~Ponlop Rinpoche


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February 24, 2014

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/24/2014


"The nature of mind is free, yet we are binding it every minute. That is the problem: we want it to be free, but we won't let it be free."


~Ponlop Rinpoche


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February 23, 2014

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/23/2014


"Compassion or altruism is not about being perfect or just doing good; It's about this daring heart that cherishes others and life itself."


~Ponlop Rinpoche


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February 22, 2014

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/22/2014


"Whenever we put hope in something, we get fear: it's a package deal whether we like it or not."


~Ponlop Rinpoche


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February 21, 2014

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/21/2014


"The mistaken ideas about the essence arise from fixated attachment that solidifies the present mind as being negative. You believe that noble and positive wisdom will be attained only if present mind is relinquished. This is a mistaken idea in the Mahamudra tradition, because there is no wisdom higher than present mind itself."


~Ponlop Rinpoche


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February 19, 2014

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/19/2014


"Since we are already Buddhas, happy and suffering Buddhas, wise and confused Buddhas, we are already Buddha."


~Joan Halifax Roshi


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February 16, 2014

February 14, 2014

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/14/2014


"The wondrous thing is that people are dying all around us and we do not realize that it can happen to us."


~Joan Halifax Roshi


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February 13, 2014

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/13/2014


"We live in a time when science is validating what humans have known throughout the ages: that compassion is not a luxury; it is a necessity for our well-being, resilience, and survival."


~Joan Halifax Roshi


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February 11, 2014

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/11/2014


"The mind thinks thoughts that we don't plan. It's not as if we say, 'At 9:10 I'm going to be filled with self-hatred."


~Sharon Salzberg


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February 10, 2014

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/10/2014


"There is nothing more evil than hate. Long years of good work can go to waste because of a single spasm of hate. You may have spent a long time cultivating a relationship, and one day you become confused and perceive that friend is an enemy to your happiness. You suddenly explode in anger, lose control, and hurt your friend verbally or physically. We hear about this every day in circumstances ranging from domestic violence to all-out war. Enemy: when you look closely, you see that this person is not filled with intrinsic hatefulness. You realize that this man was the helpless pawn of his greed; that this man was trapped in his fear; and hence he acted out toward you. But you should not hate him in return; you should feel compassion for him."


~Robert Thurman


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February 08, 2014

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/8/2014


"The tradition of nonviolence, optimism, concern for the individual, and unconditional compassion that developed in Tibet is the culmination of a slow inner revolution, a cool one, hard to see, that began 2,500 years ago with the Buddha's insight about the end of suffering. What I have learned from these people has forever changed my life, and I believe their culture contains an inner science particularly relevant to the difficult time in which we live."


~Robert Thurman


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February 07, 2014

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/7/2014


"To become enlightened is not just to slip into some disconnected euphoria, an oceanic feeling of mystic oneness apart from ordinary reality. It is not even to come up with a solution, a sort of formula to control reality. Rather, it is an experience of release from all compulsions and sufferings, combined with a precise awareness of any relevent subject of knowledge. Having attained enlightenment one knows everything that matters, and the precise nature of all that is."


~Robert Thurman


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February 06, 2014

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/6/2014


"Imagine a culture in which everything is geared toward helping all individuals become the best human beings they can be; in which individuals are driven to devoting their lives to becoming enlightened by the natural flood of compassion for others that arises from their wisdom."

 
~Robert Thurman


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February 02, 2014

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/2/2014


"You can experience yourself as the other beings when you see through the delusion of being separated from them. When you do that, you're forced to feel what they feel."


~Robert Thurman


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February 01, 2014