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

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