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

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/31/2007

Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/30/2007

Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/29/2007

The 7 factors of enlightenment: mindfullness, investigation of mental objects, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration and equanimity.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/28/2007

If we are too busy, if we are carried away every day by our projects, our uncertainty, our craving, how can we have the time to stop and look deeply into the situation-our own situation, the situation of our beloved one, the situation of our family and of our community, and the situation of our nation and of the other nations?

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration 1/27/2007

Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/26/2007

The Seven Factors of Awakening are mindfulness, investigation of phenomena, diligence, joy, ease, concentration, and letting go.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/25/2007

When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/24/2007

The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/23/2007

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/22/2007

Our own life is the instrument with which we experiment with the truth.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/21/2007

After one has been in a lowly position, one knows how dangerous it is to climb to a high place, Once one has been in the dark, one knows how revealing it is to go into the light. Having maintained quietude, one knows how tiring compulsive activity is. Having nurtured silence, one knows how disturbing much talk is.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/20/2007

When the rich and well-established, who should be generous, are instead spiteful and cruel, they make their behavior wretched and base in spite of their wealth and position. When the intellectually brilliant, who should be reserved, instead show off, they are ignorant and foolish in their weakness in spite of their brilliance.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/19/2007

Those who have come to an impasse should examine their original intentions; those who have succeeded should note where they are heading.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/18/2007

Think about food on a full stomach and you find you don't care about taste. Think of lust after making love, and you find you don't care about sex. Therefore, if people always reflect on the regret they will feel afterward to forestall folly at the moment, they will be stable and will not err in action.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/17/2007

Conceit and arrogance are acquired states of mind. Conquer acquired states of mind, and basic sanity can unfold. Passion and willfulness are part of false consciousness; erase false consciousness, and true consciousness will appear.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/16/2007

A grub in filth is dirty, but it changes into a cicada and sips dew in the autumn breeze. Rotting plants have no luster, but they turn into foxfire and glow in the summer moonlight. So we know that purity emerges from impurity, and light is born from darkness.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/15/2007

Don't be too severe in criticizing people's faults; consider how much they can bear. Don't be too lofty in enjoining virtue, so people may be able to follow.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/14/2007

There is a true Buddha in family life; there is a real Tao in everyday activities. If people can be sincere and harmonious, promoting communication with a cheerful demeanor and friendly words, that is much better than formal meditation practice.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/13/2007

Those who live simply are often pure, while those who live luxuriously may be slavish and servile. It seems that the will is clarified by plainness, while conduct is ruined by indulgence.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/12/2007

Blessings often give rise to injury, so be careful when things are going your way. Success may be achieved after failure, so don't just give up when you've been disappointed.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/11/2007

Late at night, when everyone is quiet, sit alone and gaze into the mind; then you notice illusion ending and reality appearing. You gain a great sense of potential in this every time. Once you have noticed reality appearing yet find that illusion is hard to escape, you also find yourself greatly humbled.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/10/2007

When you are constantly hearing offensive words and always have some irritating matter in mind, only then do you have a whetstone for character development. If you hear only what pleases you, and deal only with what thrills you, then you are burying your life in deadly poison.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/9/2007

People are considered pure of heart when they do not approach power and pomp; but those who can be near without being affected are the purest of all. People are considered high- minded when they do not know how to plot and contrive; but those who know how yet do not do so are the highest of all.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration 1/8/2007

When you are but slightly involved in the world, the effect the world has on you is also slight. When you are deeply enmeshed in affairs, you machinations also deepen. So for enlightened people simplicity is better than refinement, and freedom is better than punctiliousness.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/7/2007

"It isn't the things that happen to us in our lives that cause us to suffer, it's how we relate to the things that happen to us that causes us to suffer."

~Pema Chödrön

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/6/2007

Consciousness and perception range from shallow to deep. As for profound perceptions, they are pure through the ages. They are the basis to influence and cultivate mind from the first generation of the aspiration for enlightenment until the achievement of buddhahood without falling back.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/5/2007

The essence of mind is formless; This itself is the subtle body of reality. The essence of mind is inherently empty; This itself is the infinite body of space.

~Ta-chu (8th cent)

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/4/2006

Know the essence of mind. Its intrinsic essence is pure clarity. It is essentially the same as a Buddha. Know the functions of the mind. Its functions produce the treasure of teachings. When its activity is always silent, myriad illusions become suchness. Constantly be aware, without stopping. When the aware mind is present, it senses the formlessness of things. Constantly see your body as empty and quiet, inside and outside communing sameness. Plunge the body into the realm of reality, where there has never been any obstruction. Keep to unity without shifting. With constant presence, whether active or still, the student can see the Buddha nature clearly.

~Tao-hsin (580-651)

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/3/2007

To know that the one good is balance and yet not to reach balance, to know all phenomena are mind and yet not to understand mind; this is confusion. To know the matter of birth and death is serious and yet not to realize birthlessness, to know impermanence is swift and yet not to realize there is fundamentally no speed; this is confusion.

~Records of the Lanka

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/2/2007

The eternal is not born nor does it die. We confound appearance with Reality. Appearance carries its end in itself. What is it that appears anew? If you cannot find it, Surrender unreservedly to the Substratum of appearances; Then Reality will be what remains.

~Ramana Maharshi

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 1/1/2007

When one comes to the Essence of Being The shining Wisdom of Reality Illumines all like the cloudless sky.

~Milarepa

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/31/2006

All those who suffer in the world do so Because of their desire for their own happiness. All those happy in the world are so Because of their desire for the happiness of others.

~Santideva

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/30/2006

Empty yet aware, the original light shines spontaneously; tranquil yet responsive, the great function manifests. A wooden horse neighing in the wind does not walk the steps of the present moment; a clay ox emerging from the sea plows the springtime of the eon of emptiness. Understand? Where a jade man beckons, even greater marvel is on the way back.

~Hung-chih

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/29/2006

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 - 12/28/2006

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 - 12/27/2006

Relief, Peace, well-being, joy and better relations with others will be possible if we practice mndfulness in our everyday life. I am convinced that everybody can practice mindfulness, even politicians, political parties, even the Congress. This is a body that holds the responsibility for knowing the nation's situation well, and knowledge of this kind requires the practice of looking deeply. If our elected officials are not calm enough, do not have enough concentration, how can they see things deeply?

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/26/2006

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 - 12/25/2006

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves - slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future; Live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/24/2006

To meditate does not mean to fight with a problem. To meditate means to observe. Your smile proves it. It proves that you are being gentle with yourself, that the sun of awareness is shining in you, that you have control of your situation. You are yourself, and you have acquired some peace.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/23/2006

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 - 12/22/2006

Smiling is very important. If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace. It is not by going out for a demonstration against nuclear missiles that we can bring about peace. It is with our capacity of smiling, breathing, and being peace that we can make peace.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/21/2006

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/20/2006

The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/19/2005

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/18/2006

Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos - the trees, the clouds, everything.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/17/2006

Every day we do things, we are things that have to do with peace. If we are aware of our life..., our way of looking at things, we will know how to make peace right in the moment, we are alive.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/16/2006

The terms Sunyata (or Shunyata), void and emptiness are synonyms in Buddhist philosophy. They are ways of expressing the sense that all we see, feel and observe is relative, in fact non-essential and not self-sustaining. This insight is called prajna paramita. To find the essential, that is the challenge that Tibetan Buddhism offers us. One clue can be given: compassion, insight and calmness in the mind are part of the essence of things.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/15/2006

We really have to understand the person we want to love. If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love. If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our own needs and ignore the needs of the other person, we cannot love.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/14/2006

When we come into contact with the other person, our thoughts and actions should express our mind of compassion, even if that person says and does things that are not easy to accept. We practice in this way until we see clearly that our love is not contingent upon the other person being lovable.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/13/2006

“If we are too busy, if we are carried away every day by our projects, our uncertainty, our craving, how can we have the time to stop and look deeply into the situation-our own situation, the situation of our beloved one, the situation of our family and of our community, and the situation of our nation and of the other nations?”

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/12/2006

"Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred.”

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/11/2006

"When we are caught in notions, rituals, and the outer forms of the practice, not only can we not receive and embody the spirit of our tradition, we become an obstacle for the true values of the tradition to be transmitted. We lose sight of the true needs and actual suffering of people, and the teachings and practice, which were intended to relieve suffering, now cause suffering. Narrow, fundamentalist, and dogmatic practices always alienate people, especially those who are suffering. We have to remind ourselves again and again of our original purpose, and the original teachings and intention of Buddha, Jesus, and other great sages and saints."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/10/2006

"No single tradition monopolizes the truth. We must glean the best values of all traditions and work together to remove the tensions between traditions in order to give peace a chance. We need to join together and look deeply for ways to help people get re-rooted. We need to propose the best physical, mental, and spiritual health plan for our nation and for the earth. For a future to be possible, I urge you to study and practice the best values of your religious tradition and to share them with young people in ways they can understand. If we meditate together as a family, a community, a city, and a nation, we will be able to identify the causes of our suffering and find ways out. . . . For us to achieve results, our enlightenment has to be collective."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/9/2006

An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.

~Thomas Paine

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/8/2006

The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions.

~Robert Lynd

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/7/2006

What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage.

~Marcus Tullius Cicero

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/6/2006

Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.

~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/5/2006

Our children are not born to hate, they are raised to hate.

~Thomas della Peruta

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/4/2006

The chain reaction of evil--wars producing more wars -- must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/3/2006

Let yourself be open and life will be easier. A spoon of salt in a glass of water makes the water undrinkable. A spoon of salt in a lake is almost unnoticed.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/2/2006

Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 12/1/2006

As the fletcher whittles and makes straight his arrows, so the master directs his straying thoughts.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/30/2006

Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/29/2006

The thought manifests as the word. The word manifests as the deed. The deed develops into habit. And the habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care. And let it spring from love, born out of concern for all beings.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/28/2006

Through zeal, knowledge is gotten, through lack of zeal, knowledge is lost; let a man who knows the double path of gain and loss thus place himself that knowledge may grow.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/27/2006

Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/26/2006

All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/25/2006

May all that have life be delivered from suffering.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/24/2006

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/23/2006

There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/22/2006

There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/21/2006

There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/20/2006

Decay is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/19/2006

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/18/2006

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/17/2006

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those that hustle.

~Abraham Lincoln

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/16/2006

You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.

~Buddha

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/15/2006

People get into a heavy-duty sin and guilt trip, feeling that if things are going wrong, that means that they did something bad and they are being punished. That's not the idea at all. The idea of karma is that you continually get the teachings that you need to open your heart. To the degree that you didn't understand in the past how to stop protecting your soft spot, how to stop armoring your heart, you're given this gift of teachings in the form of your life, to give you everything you need to open further.

~Pema Chodron

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/14/2006

Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us.

~Pema Chodron

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/13/2006

A further sign of health is that we don't become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that it's time to stop struggling and look directly at what's threatening us.

~Pema Chodron

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/12/2006

When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space.

~Pema Chodron

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/11/2006

We habitually erect a barrier called blame that keeps us from communicating genuinely with others, and we fortify it with our concepts of who's right and who's wrong. We do that with the people who are closest to us and we do it with political systems, with all kinds of things that we don't like about our associates or our society. It is a very common, ancient, well-perfected device for trying to feel better. Blame others. Blaming is a way to protect your heart, trying to protect what is soft and open and tender in yourself. Rather than own that pain, we scramble to find some comfortable ground.

~Pema Chodron

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/10/2006

Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live.

~Pema Chodron

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/9/2006

There's a reason you can learn from everything: you have basic wisdom, basic intelligence, and basic goodness.

~Pema Chodron

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/8/2006

If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.

~Pema Chodron

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/7/2006

We feel we're supposed to be better than we are in some way. But with this practice you take yourself completely as you are. Then ironically, taking in pain - breathing it in for yourself and all others in the same boat as you are - heightens your awareness of exactly where you're stuck.

~Pema Chodron

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/6/2006

When we start out on a spiritual path we often have ideals we think we're supposed to live up to.

~Pema Chodron

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/5/2006

We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves.

~Pema Chodron

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/4/2006

The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.

~Pema Chodron