日頃本を読んでいる中で、心に響いた言葉を抜粋して載せてみました。
今後は英語版のものはそのまま載せていく予定です。
仏教本からのもの、英語版のものが殆どですが、あしからず。
＊文字の色は黒＜紫＜オレンジと、心により響いた言葉として区別しています。
（新しいものは上に載せていきます）
「AWAKENING the MIND, LIGHTENING the HEART」 by the Dalai Lama 更新中
From 「AWAKENING the MIND< LIGHTENING the HEART」by the Dalai Lama
<Introduction>
*We can achieve enlightenment only through the practice of meditation;
without it there is no way we can transform our minds. The whole purpose
of reading or listening to Buddhist teachings is to enable us to undertake
the practice properly. Therefore, we should try out best to put what we
understand into practice.
*According to the Buddha's teachings there is no creator god; all phenomena
have arisen in dependence on their own causes and conditions. We have to
analyze what those causes are.
*Pain, pleasure, and suffering are dependent on their own causes and conditions.
Therefore, it is importnat to identify the negative aspects of the mind.,
which give rise to suffering, and try to overcome them. Similarly, we can
improve the positive aspects of the mind, which bring about happiness.
*The more we are able to develop an altruistic attitude, the happier we
will feel and the better the atmosphere we will create around us.
<Motive and Aspiration>
*Compared to physical and verbal activities, mental activity is more subtle
and difficult to control.
*Dharma practice takes place in the mind.
*The real test is how much we truly abide by the words of the Buddha. The
Buddha is our teacher, guide, and spiritual instructor. Therefore, the actions of our bodies, speech, and minds should accord with his teachings...We need to ensure that our daily lives conform with our claim to be Buddhists...There should be harmony between what we say and what we do.
*In order to achieve happiness and gain freedom from misery in life after
life, I have to recognize that the three poisons--the disturbing emotions
of desire, hatred, and ignorance--are my enemies. Ignorance--the belief
that things exist as they appear, independently and autonomously, without
depending on causes--is the root of these delusions. To counteract these
ignorant and self-centered thoughts, I need to generate loving-kindness,
compassion, altruism, and the wisdom understanding emptiness.
*I believe that my destiny lies entirely in my own hands.
*When we are helpful to other people, we are doing a service to the Dharma.
Helping even one peson is valuable.
*Fortunately, there is a power that can fight disturbing emotions. It is
wisdom. This wisdom becomes clearer and sharper when we apply analysis
and examination. It is forceful and enduring. On the other hand, the ignorant
mind, although it can be cunning, cannot withstand analysis. Under intelligent
examination, it collapses.
*Consicousness, by its very nature, has the potential to know everything,
but these defects veil and obstruct the mind from such knowledge.
<Source and Qualities of the Instruction>
*Change should begin with mental transformation.
*When I talk about quality, I am referring to people gaining a proper understanding
of the Dharma and puttting those teachings into practice in their daily
lives.
*All of the extensive teachings given by Buddha Shakyamuni, the collection
of 84,000 teachings, are meant for removing our mistaken attitude, the
misconception of self, and for training our minds to benefit others.
*For great beings such as these, spiritual knowledge was not confined to
mere intellectual understanding. They were more concerned with spiritual
realization than anything else. Neither teacher nor student was under any
of the pressure that is so common these days.
*It is important to analyze whether our self-centered attitude arises from
the misconception of self. Generally, the stronger our misconception of
self, the more tenacious our self-centeredness.
*Although their realization of emptiness has dispelled their ignorance,
due to their lack of courage and willingness to sacrifice themselves for
the welfare of others, that realization is unable to dispel their self-centered
attitude.
*When Buddha Shakyamuni actually appeared in this world the time was already
being described as degenerate. Now the times have degenerated even further.
Sentient beings are preoccupied by disturbing emotions and continually
engage in negative activities. They do not like to see excellence in anyone
but themselves, and when they do see someone successful they are jealous
and their hearts are uneasy. They become bent on harming other sentient
beings physically, verbally, and mentally. At times like these, even the
powerful guardians of Buddhism, the Dharma protectors, those powerful celestial
beings pledged to protect the Buddha's teachings, can do nothing to help
and leave for different realms. Meanwhile, negative spirits multiply and
become stronger. As a result, we encounter many inauspicious experiences,
especially those of us who profess to have entered into the teachings of
the Buddha but who always engage in negative activities. In such a degenerating
era, if you do not engage in a practice like mind training to really transofrm
your mind, there will be no other way to continue your practice of the
doctrine.
*Human happiness is primarily determined by our mode of thinking.
*The Buddha taught that as long as you conceive of true existence and as
long as you are dominated by self-centeredness, you will have no peace
or happiness. These fundamental teachings help you relax when things go
wrong and equip you to face hard times.
*A practitioner who can transform adverse circumstances into favorable
conditions will be affected by nothing.
*Adverse circumstances can actually serve as a stimulus of progress in
our practice.
<The Meditation Session>
*If we train our minds to be virtuous and positive, our conduct will automatically
become more pleasant and wholesome.
*Many of us know from experience that generating a wholesome mental attitude
is not a simple task. It is like rolling a boulder up the hill or pushing
a car that has run out of fuel. On the other hand, negativities arise spontaneously
and as easily as water flowing downhill. What this makes clear is that
we have to make a deliberate effort to cultivate positive thoughts and
avoid negative ones.
*As I have mentioned before, the mind has primacy over the body, and thus
human behavior is determined by the mind. When the mind is not properly
disciplined or controlled, all kinds of problems arise.
*By reflecting on the rarity and potential of life as a free and fortunate
human being, you overcome your obsession with the temporal pleasures of
this life.
*Once a meditator has reached an advanced level, every action that he performs
can become a stimulus for his practice.
*The Buddha taught us to fight the enemy of disturbing emotions within
us and to decrease harmful attitudes such as anger.
*Meditation means creating a continual familiarity with a virtuous object in order to transform your mind.
*Meditation witout prior study is like someone trying to climb a rocky
cliff without hands.
*The reasons for taking refuge include fear of the sufferings of the cycle
of existence, a strong conviction that the Three Jewels have the ability
to protect you from these sufferings, and a strong sense of compassion
for other sentient beings.
*Although sentient beings desire happiness and wish to avoid suffering,
out of ignorance their behavior contradicts their wishes.
*We know that karmic actions leave an imprint on the mindstream or coninuity
of consciousness.
*Things are easy during the actual meditation session because there is
no one to interfiere with you. But once you emerge from your session, you
will encounter many external conditions that may harm your practice. At
such times it is very important to guard your attention without letting
your mind be distracted. Meditation is like recharging your battery. During
the actual session you are recharged, but the purpose of recharging your
battery is to put it to use.
<Creating the Perspective for Practice>
From 「The Essential DALAI LAMA」 by the Dalai Lama
<The Quest for Human Happiness>
*Modern industrial society often strikes me as being like a huge self-propelled
machine. Instead of human beings in charge, each individual is a tiny,
insignificant component with no choice but to move when the machine moves.
<Our Global Family>
*In some countries too much attention is paid to external things and very
little importance is given to inner development. I believe both are important
and must be developed side by side so as to achieve a good balance between
them.
<Universal Responsibility>
*The Indian Buddhist master Nagarjuna said, "It's better not to have
the itching than to have the pleasure of scratching."
<Buddhist Perspectives Introduction>
*Since the suffering we all wish to avoid result from fundamentally mistaken
ways of viewing the world, the way we eliminate them is by cultivating
a correct understanding of the nature of reality.
*Impermanence means that as soon as something comes into being, it has
already started to decay.
<Laying the Groundwork>
*When we do not notice that we were sick in the first place, we can not
notice any longer being sick. One who suffers from a sickness must first
have a consciousness of it.
<The Buddha>
*The way to experience happiness is to identify its causes and cultivate
them, and to identify the causes of suffering and eliminate them.
<Four Noble Truths>
*All experiences, pleasure and happiness within this cycle of existence,
no matter how forceful and how great they appear, end with misery.
<The Bodhisattva Ideal>
*There is not a single sentient being who has not been either our mother
or father or relative in the past.
*We cannot expect the taste of the mind, which is so contaminated with
the sour falvor of delusion, to be instantly changed into the sweet taste
of bodhichitta and compassion just by one or two meditations. Sutained
effort and continuity are really very important.
*We should realize that the purpose of taking birth in this world is to
help others.
*Understand that a self-centered attitude is the source of all suffering,
and concern for others is the source of all happiness and goodness.
<Interdependence>
*You can see that there are no independent causes of one's own happiness.
It depends on many other factors. So the conclusion is that in order to
have a happier future for oneself, you have to take care of everything
which relates to you. That is, I think, quite a useful view.
*Buddha points to the role of afflicitve emotions and thoughts, like anger,
hatred, attachment and so forth, which blind the person's understanding
of the nature of realiy.
<Depenedent Origination>
*Our individual well-being is intimately connected both with that of all
others and with the environemnt within which we live. It also becomes apparent
that our every action, our every deed, word and thought, no matter how
slight or inconsequential it may seem, has an implication not only for
ourselves but for all others too.
<Awareness of Death>
*Being aware of impermanence calls for discipline--taming the mind.
*"I'll die later on, later on." Then, when the time comes, even
if you try to accomplish something worthwhile, you wiil not have the energy.
*There are three major points to remember. These are that death is certain,
that the time of death is unpredictable and that at the time of death nothing
will help except our understanding of the Dharma.
*We are constantly racing toward our death without stopping even for a
moment.
*Even while we are alive, we do not have much time to practice the Dharma.
Half our lives we spend asleep. The first ten years we are merely children,
and after twenty we begin to grow old. Meanwhile, our time is taken up
with suffering, anxiety, fighting, sickness and so forth, all of which
limit our ability to practice.
<Creating the Perspective for Practice>
*Meditation is like training ourselves for the real world.
*I feel that practice after the session is probably more important than
the practice we do during the session. During the session we are actually
refueling or recharging our energy to be able to do the practice after
the session.
<Meditation: A Beginning>
*Although we all naturally aspire to be happy and wish to overcome our
misery, we continue to experience pain and suffering. Why is this? Buddhism
teaches that we actually conspire in the causes and conditions that create
our unhappiness and are often reluctant to engage in activities that could lead to more long-lasting happiness.
<Transforming the Mind through Meditation>
*Our mind, as it is now, is completely scattered to external objects, due
to which it is powerless. Our thought is like water running in every direction.
But just as water, when channelized, becomes powerful, so it is with our
minds.
<The Nature of the Mind>
*With reference to the present physical body and nonphysical mind, the
substantial cause of the body is the blood and semen produced by the parent,
but the parents' minds can never be the substantial cause of the present
mind. For example, it is possible for a dull and foolish child to be born
to intelligent parents, no matter how educated they are. Therefore, in
reality the mind flowing from a previous life acts as the substantial cause
of this mind, and the blood and semen of our present parents act as the
substantial cause of this body. As a relationship between the two was established
by an action in former lives, a relationship exists between the mind and
body of this life.
<Practice of Calm Abiding>
*It is important to be mindful of the negative aspects of your daily life
and you should be alert to their occurence.
*Distraction should be eliminated and with the rope of mindfulness and
alertness the elephant-like mind should be fastened to the tree of the
object of meditation.
<Generating the Mind of Enlightenment>
*Our spiritual practice depends entirely on others, and our very survival
also depends on others.
*We should think of others as part of our own body.
<Eight Veses for Training the Mind>
*Whenever I associate with others
May I think of myself as the lowest of all
And from the depth of my heart
Hold the others as supreme(Kadampa master Geshe Langri Thangpa)
*We should hold others dear and revere them because they have a capacity
equal to the activities of the Buddhas to grant us happiness and enlightenment.
*Buddha said, "You are your own master." Everything rests on
your own shoulders, depends on yourself.
*Although in the practice of the mind of enlightenment we have to restrain from all negative ways, primarily we must avoid anger. Anger can never produce happiness, whereas attachment can bring about the experience of happiness in certain cases.
*When something unpleasant happens and you get irritated, you are the loser
since irritation immediately destroys your own mental peace and in the
long run brings unwanted results. Yet if someone hurts you and you do not
lose your mental peace, that is a victory.
<Meditation on Emptiness>
*Because they do not accept external objects they have fallen into the
extreme of nihilism; and since they accept a truly existent subjective
mind they have fallen into the extreme of absolutism.
*As I mentioned earlier try to recollect unpleasant situations where, for
example, you were unjustly blamed for something; or pleasant situations
where you were praised. During such experiences you had a very fluctuating
state of mind, and at that time it seemed you could sense that I, that
self, quite clearly.
<Tantra: Deity Yoga>
*If you live as a monk or nun, your conduct has a more sound basis--there
is little danger of excessive distraction.
<Relying on a Spiritual Teacher>
*As we progress along the spiritual path, at some point we will definitely
meet an appropriate and suitable teacher.
<Ethics and Society>
*When we bring up our children to have knowledge without compassion, their
attitude toward others is likely to be a mixture of envy of those in positions
above them, aggressive competitiveness toward their peers, and scorn for
those less fortunate. This leads to a propensity toward greed, presumption, excess and, very quickly, to loss of happiness. Knowledge is important. But much more so is the use toward which it is
put. This depends on the heart and mind of the one who uses it.
<Science and Spirituality>
*Although, in reality, things which depend on causes are impermanent and transient, undergoing constant change, they do appear as though they were permanent and unchanging. Again, something that in its true nature is suffering appears as happiness. And something which is in reality false appears as true.
*As a result of the contradiction between what is and what appears, all
manner of mistakes are made.
*During the process of dying, a person experiences the innermost, subtle
consciousness; the consciousness becomes grosser after death in the intermediate
state, and progressively more gross during the process of birth.
<Buddhist Perspectives on the Teaching of Jesus>
*Shantideva asks, "If you do not practice compassion toward your enemy
then toward whom can you practice it?" The implication is that even
animals show love, compassion and a feeling of empathy toward their own
loved ones. As we claim to be practitioners of spirituality and a spiritual
path, we should be able to do better than animals.
*By developing greater tolerance and patience, it will be easier for you
to develop your capacity for compassion and, through that, altruism.
*The sun shines for all and makes no discrimination. This is a wonderful
metaphor for compassion.
From 「The Universe in a Single Atom」 by the Dalai Lama
<Prologue>
*The great benefit of science is that it can contribute tremendously to
the alleviation of suffering at the physical level, but it is only through the cultivation of the qualities of the human
heart and the transformation of our attitudes that we can begin to address
and overcome our mental suffering. In other words, the enhancement of fundamental
human value is indispensable to our basic quest for happiness. Therefore, from the perspective of human well-being, science and spirituality
are not unrelated. We need both, since the alleviation of suffering must
take place at both the physical and the psychological levels.
*I believe that spirituality and science are different but complementary investigative approaches with the same greater goal, of seeking the truth.
*I hope both science and spirituality may develop to be of better service
to the needs and well-being of humanity.
<Reflection>
*Just as one's fingers can function only in relation to the palm, so scientists
must remain aware of their connection to siciety at large. Science is vitally
important, but it is only one finger of the hand of humanity, and its greatest
potential can be actualized only so long as we are careful to remember
this.
<Encounter With Science>
*Reality, including our own existence, is so much more complex than objective
scientific materialism allows.
<Emptiness, Relativity, and Quantum Physics>
*Whatever the cause may be, from the age of sixteen my engagement with the study of Buddhist philosophy, psychology, and spirituality was qualitatively different. Not only was I wholehearted in my pursuit of these studies but I also came to relate many aspects of what I studied to my own understanding of life and events in the world outside.
*In our naive or commonsense view of the world, we relate to things and events as if they possess an enduring intrinsic reality. We tend to believe that the world is composed of things and events, each of which has a discrete, independent reality of its own and it is these things with discrete identities and independence that interact with one another. We believe that intrinsically real seeds produce intrinsically real crops at an intrinsically real time in an intrinsically real place. Each member in this causal nexus--the seed, time, place, and effect--we take to have solid ontological status. This view of the world as made of solid objects and inherent properties is reinforced further, by our language of subjects and predicates, which is structured with substantive nouns and adjectives on the one hand and active verbs on the other.
*In brief, the principle of dependent origination can be understood in
the following three ways. First, all conditioned things and events in the
world come into being only as a result of the interaction of causes and
conditions. They don't just arise from nowhere, fully formed. Second, there
is mutual dependence between parts and the whole; without parts there can
be no whole, without a whole it makes no sense to speak of parts. This
interdependence of parts and the whole applies in both spatial and temporal
terms. Third, anything that exists and has an identity does so only within
the total network of evertying that has a possible or potential relation
to it. No phenomenon exists with an independent or intrinsic identity.
<The Big Bang and The Buddhist Beginningless Universe>
*Asanga asserts that the origination of the universe must be understood
in terms of the principle of an infinite chain of causation with no transcendence
or preceding intelligence.
*According to Buddhist cosmology, the world is constructed of the five
elements: the supportive element of space, and the four basic elements
of earth, water, fire, and air. Space enables the existence and functioning
of all the other elements...This space element is the basis for the evolution
and dissolution of the four elements, which are generated from it and absorbed
back into it. The process of dissolution occurs in this order: earth, water,
fire, and air. The process of generation occurs in this order: air, fire,
water, and earth.
<Evolution, Karma, and the World of Sentience>
*The entire cosmos and all the matter in it are made from the same stuff,
which is endlessly recycled--according to science, the atoms in our body
once belonged to stars far away in time and space.
<The Question of Consciousness>
*There is a deep question about whether the mind and consciousness are
any more than simply operations of the brain, whether sensations and emotions,
are more than chemical reactions.
*I believe that it is possible for Buddhism and modern science to engage
in collaborative research in the understanding of consiousness while leaving
aside the philosophical question of whether consciousness is ultimately
physical. By bringing together these two modes of inquiry, both disciplines
may be enriched. Such collaborative study will contribute not only to greater
human understanding of consciousness but also to a better understanding
of the dynamics of the human mind and its relation to suffering. This is
a precious gateway into the alleviation of suffering, which I believe to
be our principal task on this earth.
<Toward a Science of Consciousness>
*In our normal state, our mind remains unfocused for most of the time and
our thoughts move from one object to another in a random and dissipated
manner.
*Impermanence is chosen as a worthy object of meditation in Buddhims because, although we may understand it intellectually, we mostly do not behave as though we have integrated this awareness. A combination of analysis and concentration on this topic brings the insight to life so that we appreciate the preciousness of every moment of our existence.
*One approach is to contemplate the complex web of circumstances that keep
us alive, which leads to a deeper appreciation of the fragility of our
continued existence.
*Before one begins formal sitting meditation, one develops a deliberate
intention not to allow the mind to be distracted either by recollections
of past experience or by hopes, anticipations, and fears about future events.
This is done by making a silent pledge that during this meditation session
the mind will not be seduced by thoughts of the past or the future and
that it will remain fully focused on awareness of the present. This is
critical because in our everday normal states we tend to be tied either
to recollections and vestiges of the past or to hopes and fears about the
future. We tend to live either in the past or in the future and very rarely
fully in the present.
*One must simply observe the thoughts. When one does this, just as bubbles
arise and dissolve into water, the discursive thougth processes simply
arise and dissolve within the mind.
*Gradually, in the midst of the internal chatter, one will begin to glimpse
what feels like a mere absence, a state of mind with no specific, determinable
content. At the beginning, such states may be only fleeting experiences.
Nevertheless, as one becomes more experienced in this practice, one will
be able to prolong the intervals in one's normal proliferation of thought.
Once this happens, there is a real opportunity to understand experientially
what is described in the Buddhist definition of consciousness as "luminous
and knowing." In this way a meditator will gradually be able to "grasp"
the basic experience of consciousness and take that as the object of meditative
investigation.
<The Spectrum of Consciousness>
*A key characteristic of these mental states (afflictions) is their effect
in creating disturbance and a loss of self-control. When they arise, we
tend to lose our freedom to act in accordance with our aspirations and
become caught in a distorted mind-set. Given that they are ultimately rooted in a deeply self-centered way of relating to others and
to the world at large, when these afflictions arise, our perspectives tend to become narrow.
*One difference between the afflictive emotions, such as hate, and wholesome
states, such as compassion, is that the afflictions tend to fixate the
mind on a concrete target--a person to whom we become attached, a smell
or sound we want to push away. The wholesome emotions, by contrast, can
be more diffuse, so the focus is not confined to one person or one object.
There is therefore in Buddhist psychology a notion that the more wholesome
mental states have a higher cognitive component than the negative afflictions.
*The primary purpose of Buddhist contemplative practice is to alleviate suffering. Science, as we have seen, has contributed greatly to the lessening of suffering, particularly in the physical realm. This is a wenderful pursuit that I hope we will all conotinue to benefit from. But as science advances further, there is more at stake. Science's power to affect the environment, indeed to change the course of the human species as a whole, has grown great. As a result, for the first time in history, our very survival demands that we begin to consider ethical responsibility not just in the application of science but in the direction of research and development of new realities and technology as well. It is one thing to use the study of neurobiology, psychology, and even Buddhist theory of mind to try to become happier, to change our minds through deliberate cultivation of positive states of mind. But when we begin manipulating genetic codes, both of ourselves and of the natural world in which we live, how much is too much? This is a question that must be considered as well as the public at large.
<Ethics and the New Genetics>
*If we examine the philosophical basis underlying much of human ethics,
a clear recognition of the principle that correlates greater knowledge
and power with a greater need for moral responsibility serves as a key
foundation.
*The rapid increase of human knowledge and the technological possibilities
emerging in the new genetic science are such that it is now almost impossible
for ethical thinking to keep pace with these changes.
*In my native Tibet, the value of a person rests not on physical appearance,
not on intellectual or athletic achievement, but on the basic, innate capacity
for compassion in all human beings.
*It is not adequate to adopt the position that our responsibility as a
society is simply to further scientific knowledge and enhance our technological
power.
*Education needs to provide not only training in the empirical facts of
science but also an examination of the relatiohship between science and
society at large, including the ethical questions raised by new technological
possibilities.
*In a nutshell, our ethical response must involve the following key factors.
First, we have to check our motivation and ensure that its foundation is
compassion.
*The image of a blue planet floating in deep sapce, glowing like the full
moon on a clear night, brought home powerfully to me the recognition that
we are indeed all members of a single family sharing one little house.
<Conclusion： Science, Spirituality, and Humanity>
*In essence, science and spirituality, though differing in their approaches,
share the same end, which is the betterment of humanity. At its best, science
is motivated by a quest for understanding to help lead us to greater flourishing
and happiness. In Buddhist language, this kind of science can be described
as wisdom grounded in and tempered by compassion. Similarly, spirituality
is a human journey into our internal resources, with the aim of understanding
who we are in the deepest sense and of discovering how to live according
to the highest possible idea. This too is the union of wisdom and compassion.
From 「Violence and Compassion 」 by the Dalai Lama
<This World Where We Live>
*Expect everything from yourselves.
*We give less and less importance to nationalities, to frontiers. The unification
of a large part of Europe, the disappearance, for example, of the horrible
battles between the French and the Germans, the increasing number of marriages
between women and men of different countries, of different languages and
cultures--all that seems positive to me. A global view of things is developing,
don't you think?
<Education and Contamination>
*Suffering comes from desire. That was the second truth. Such desire is
like a fire inflaming the one who desires. Everything is on fire, the Buddha
says again. the eye is on fire, what it sees is on fire, what the ear hears
is on fire, everything that touches the senses is on fire. Illusion devours
us like a permanent flame. And this fire of life, ignited by lust, anger,
and ignorance, must be extinguished
*We may think ourselves happy, we may sing at the top of our lungs that
life is beautiful, we may believe we know something about the world, even
presume to teach others about it. But as long as the internal awakening,
the fruit of a strictly personal experience, has not been granted us, we
will be living in ignorance. It is our nature and our prison, and everything
must be done to destroy it.
*Immobility is an illusion, and our body serves as the best example of
that. It never ceases, every split second, to break down.
*Everything composite is vowed to destruction.
*Education, from the Buddhist viewpoint, begins with the notion of interdependence.
Everything depends on everything else.
*This shared awareness is essential if we want to improve, however little,
our own attitude toward the world, our own relationship with it. We must
overcome the isolation of our mind, we must renew our ties with the rest
of the universe. Otherwise we are lost. Lost because separate. We have
to show people, indefatigably, that our interest is the interst of others.,
that our future is the future of others. And when I say "others,"
I'm not thinking just of human beings, who are evidently the sanme as us.
I'm thinking of all the other forms of life, on this earth and outside
this earth.
<Not Me, Not God>
*The very architecture of modern Western Law is based princi;ally on the
individual as distinct from the mass, as both precious and threatned: a
perceptible and definable individual. Buddhism stubbornly tells us that
the opposite is true. (Carriere)
*If an individual has a sufficient spiritual base, he won't let himself
be overwhelmed by the lure of technology and by the madness of possession.
He or she will know how to find the right balance, without asking for too
much, and how to say: I have a camera, that's enough, I don't want another.
The constant danger is to open the door to greed, one of our most relentless
enemies. It's here that the real work of the mind is put into practice.
*Those who lack this balance, which is born of reflection, of a tranquil
working of the mind, are the perfect slaves of technology and greed.
They even get to the point of believing that the real work of the mind
is to produce mechanical objects. They see in them the the triumph of thought,
our loveliest work. They hand out diplomas to themselves and medals at
contests; they collect their benefits, they're satisfied.
*In a way, the universal invasion of technology, everywhere it goes, lessens
the life of the mind.
*There is a drunkenness from the power that we give ourselves over things. That drunkenness leads us to stop controlling our appetites. We want more, and still more. Instead of quelling the fire, we reignite it. Instead of seeking inner disarmament, the only kind that counts, we perfect ourselves, we multiply our tools of conquest. And we even forget to check whether the fulfillment of our desire is really the one we had wished for.
*Looking at the West, Christianity is now nothing but a surface, a kind
of obligation or social decoration. (Carriere)
<Toward a Science of The Mind>
*The further we are away from the world,
The realer it seems to us;
The closer we get to it, the less visible it becomes
And, like a mirage, becomes without a sign.
(Nagarjuna, One of the founders of Mahayana)
*The body is condemned to decrepitude, and we can't do anything about it.
Buddhist authors almost seem to enjoy dwelling on the loss of our hair,
the weakening of our vision, the growing heaviness of our limbs. By contrast,
if our body inevitably declines, we can constantly beautify our mind, up
until our last hour. It has even been said that at the moment of death,
if we are well prepared, we can finally receive the essential revelations.
*"The mind is produced and dispersed in a perpetual process of change,"
Sakyamuni said. "Just as an ape cavorting in the forest seizes one
branch, then lets go of it to seize another, and then still others, so
what you call mind, thought, knowledge, is ceaselessly formed and dissolved."
*If only for selfish purposes. Because the compassion that I practice does
me good in return. It is the best protection, and I am the first beneficiary
of it. It assures me inner peace, a healthy body, happy days, a long life.
Not to mention the lives to come.
*We say that our natural agitation leads us astray, that no real relationship
can be established with the world if we don't get to peace of mind.
*"Outside activities will then traverse the mind's calm as a flock
of birds traverses a windless space."(Sri Aurobindo)
*Our enemy offers us a precious opportunity--to better ourselves.
*All activities that benefit others are acts that reinforce the mind.
*"In your view, does thought/consciousness exist outside the underpinning
of the body?"
"At a certain level, yes. Without a doubt. It is independent of the
physical particles."
*Human nature is contaminated. The relationship we have with what we call
reality has been warped. We must always return to this point: that this
relationship is fundamentally erroneous, that it rests on an illusion--those
are facts we can't admit unless we escape from this very illusion.
<Between Exile and the Kingdom>
*In the Buddhist conception of action, no event can be isolated, nor produced
without a chain of causes, conditions, and consequesnces. And so we stubbornly
seek for the conditions, which are easier to detect than the causes, which
are often far removed from the event.
<The Big Bang and Reincarnation>
*The mind can't be born from anything except mind.
*If we want to die well, we must learn to live well.
<And Finally, the Void>
*The void, sunyata, among the four fundamental Buddhist notions (the three
others being impermanence, interdependence, and suffering) is certainly
the most mysterious and hart do grasp.
*We are empty, the matter that composes us is, so to speak, empty.
*All things depend on other things. Nothing exists separately...on account
of the influences they receive, things appear, exist, and disappear. Unceasingly.
But they never exist by themselves.
*Form is "empty,"that is to say, nonseparate, nonindependent.
This form depends on a multitude of other factors. It is relative reality.
*One thing can't be doubted, the "possibility of a quality" is
within us. It is called prajna. we can deny everything, except that we
have the possibility of being better.
Simply reflect on that.
From 「How to meditate」by Kathleen McDonald
<Why Meditate?>
*The problem is that we see things like relationships, possessions, and
adventures as having some intrinsic ability to satisfy us, as being the
cause of happiness. But they cannot be--simply because they do not last.
Everything by nature constantly changes and eventually disappears: our
body, our friends, all our belongings, the environment. Our dependence on impermanent things and our clinging to the rainbow-like
happiness they bring cause only disappointment and grief, not satisfaction
and contentment...This does not mean that we should give up our friends
and possessions in order to be happy. Rather. what we need to give up are our misconceptions about them and our unrealistic
expectations of what they can do for us.
*Our mistaken idea is deeply ingrained and habitual; it colors all our
relationships and dealings with the world. We probably rarely question
whether the way we see things is the way they actually exist, but once
we do it will be obvious that our picture of reality is exaggerated and
one-sided; that the good and bad qualities we see in things are actually
created and projected by our own mind.
<What is Meditation?>
*Meditation's ultimate aim is to awaken a very subtle level of consciousness
and to use it to discover reality, directly and intuitively. This direct,
intuitive awareness of how things are, combined with love and compassion
for all beings, is known as enlightenment and is the end result of Mahayana
Buddhist practice. The purpose of reaching it--and the driving force behind
all practice--is to help others reach it too.
*Lama Yeshe said, "Each of us should know our own mind; you should
become your own psycologist." When we have a problem or we feel emotionally
upset, we can sit down and make our mind calmer with a few minutes of meditation
on the breath. Then, taking a step back from our thoughts and emotions,
we can try to understand what's going on. "What kind of thoughts are
going through my mind? What emotions are arising?" Withiin the calm,
clear space of meditation, it will be easier to recognize where our thinking
is erroneous and to adjust it by bringing in more realistic and beneficial
ideas that we have learned from our spiritual study and practice.
<Advice for Beginners>
*You can relax mentally by firmly deciding to leave behind all problems,
worries and involvements of the external world and immerse yourself in
your innder world.
*When the time is right you will meet the person who can guide you successfully.
<The Meditation Session>
*Don't forget to bring the good experiences of the meditation into your
daily acitivities. Instead of acting and reacting impulsively and following
your thoughts and feelings here and there, watch your mind carefully, be
aware, and try to deal skillfully with problems as they arise. If you can
do this ever day, your meditation has been successful.
<Common Problems>
*At times during a meditation session the mind is very restless and our
attention is continually distracted by other things. These can include
external objects like sounds, but also internal distractions such as memories
of the past, fantasies about the future, or incessant chatter about what's
happening in the present. Such thoughts are often accompanied by disturbing
emotions, such as attachment (grasping at pleasant experiences); anger
or hatred (obsessing over what someone did that hurt or irritated us);
fear; doubt; jealousy; or depression. Normally we just let the mind run like this without trying to control it,
so mental wandering has become a deeply ingrained habit.
It is not easy to give up habit, but we should recognize that this one--this
mental excitement, as it's called--is the very opposite of meditation.
As long as we are busy running in circles on the surface of the mind we
will never penetrate to its depths and never develop the concentration
we need for perceiving reality.
*Observe whatever thoughts and feeligns arise without getting involved
in them; recall that they are just waves of your mind rising and falling.
*Most of us have never in our lives tried to understand our mind or control
our thoughts and feelings. Old habits are not easy to break.
<Meditation on the Breath>
*Clouds come an go in the sky--they do not stay long, nor do they alter
the natural stillness and spaciousness of the sky. In the same way, thoughts
come and go in the clear space of your mind; they are transient, momentary.
<Meditation on the Clarity of the Mind>
*The feeling of dislike toward the "bad person" may still arise
throught habit, but we have the space to recall, "This is a projection
of my thought, which is clear and transitory. It rises like a wave in my
mind and soon will pass. The object does not exist in the way I see it.
*Our intrinsic nature is clear and pure and is with us twenty-four hours
a day. The negativities that rise and fall like waves on the ocean of our
consciousness are temporary and can be eliminated.
<Meditation on the Coninuity of the Mind>
*Thoughts and feelings arise and quickly disappear, but they leave imprints
that are carried on the mindstream.
*Our personality and experiences of this life are shaped by the imprints
carried on the mind from past lives. Likewise, whatever we do and think
now determines our future experiences.
<Appreciating Our Human Life>
*When we look at ourselves deeply, carefully, we find that most of our
day-to-day problems are quite trivial. It is only our projections and conceptions
that complicate them and allow them to grow out of all proportion.
*There are many people who are physically and mentally healthy, are materially
well-off and have the freedom and opportunity to learn spiritual teachings,
but are simply not interested. Their interests lie elsehwere: accumulating
wealth, property, and possessions, acquiring worldly knowledge or skills,
or in simply experiencing as muach pleasure as they can. They never consider
that all these things will be left behind when they die--like a dream that
vanishes as soon as we wake up--and that only their mind will continue
to the next life.
<Death Awareness Meditation>
*Time never stands still--it is continuously passing. Seconds become minutes,
minutes become hours, hours become days, days become years, and as time
is passing in this way, you travel closer and closer toward death. Imagine
an hour-glass, with the sand running into the bottom. The time you have
to live is like the grains of sand continuouly running out..Hold your awareness
for a while on the experience of this uninterrupted flow of time carrying
you to the end of your life.
If you were to fall from an airplane without a parachute you would be fully
aware of death's approach. Imagine this is actually happening to you, and
check what thoughts and feelings pass through your mind.
The reality of your situation in life is not so different: you are constantly
moving toward death and can do nothing to avoid or pospone it.
*You should be able to develop the determination to use your life wisely
and mindfully.
*No matter how much we have acquired or developed throughout our life--in terms of family and friends, wealth, power, travel, experiences, and so on--none of it goes with us at death. Only our stream of consciousness continues, carrying imprints of all that we have thought, felt, said, and done. It is vital that when we die we have as many positive imprints--the cause of good experiences--and as few negative imprints--the cause of suffering--on our mind as possible. Also, we should aim to die at peace with ourselves, feeling good about how we lived our life, and not leaving behind any unresolved conflicts with people.
The only things that will truly benefit us at the time of death are positive
states of mind such as faith, non-attachment and calm acceptance of the
changes that are taking place, loving-kindness, compassion, patience, and
wisdom. But in order to be able to have such states of mind at the time
of death, we need to make ourselves familiar with them during the course
of our life--and this is the essence of spiritual practice. Realizing this
will give us the incentive to start doing spiritual practice now, and to
practice as much as we can while we still have time.
<Meditation on Karma>
*It is important to refrain from even small negative actions like telling
"little white lies," and to not overlook opportunities to do
even small positive actions, like giving ten cents to a homeless person
or bread crumbs to some birds.
*Wishing to be happy and successful but not creating the right causes would
be like wishing for flowers or vegetables to grow in our garden but not
doing the work of planting the seeds, watering the small shoots, removing
the weeds, and so on.
*When we do an action--physical, verbal, or mental--an imprint, like a
seed, is planted in our mind. Unless we do something to conteract that
karmic seed, it will remain in the mind, even for many lifetimes, until
we encounter the right causes and conditions for it to ripen in the form
of experiences, good or bad. The Buddha said in the Dhammapada:
If you have done something wrong
Or are involved in wrong
And run away hoping to hide the fact,
It is no use; there is no escape.
There exists no place at all,
But what you have done will follow you,
In the oceans, through the skies,
Or far off in mountain caves....
Whether it was good or bad,
The power of any action
Once performed is never lost;
The results arise accordingly.
<Purifying Negative Karma>
*Whatever problems and unwanted experiences we've had in this life are
the results of negative actions we did in the past, and the negative actions
we do now are the cause of future suffering.
<Meditation on Suffering>
*It is not reasonable to cling to any person or object as a means of finding
lasting satisfaction, and that clinging, instead, bring the very opposite
result.
*Lacking a direct, intuitive insight into the true nature of things, we
think, speak, and act under the control of delusions, our habitual negative
tendencies. We are thus in a bind: on the one hand, we experience in every
moment the effects of previous karma and delusions and, on the other, we
create every moment the causes for future effects. this very moment of
existence is both the effect of past suffering and the cause of suffering
in the future.
The situation of being stuck in this cycle, this complex web of problems,
is itself all-pervading suffering. It can be compared to being in a prison,
locked in by our karma and delusions. In prison there can be terrible expereinces
like being attacked by other prisoners or sadistic guards--these are like
the sufferings of suffering. Sometimes there are pleasant experiences,
such as watching a good movie, or getting a visit from a loved one--these
are like the suffering of change. But no matter what experiences, pleasant
or unpleasant, one is stuck in prison and not free to go where one wants
or do as one likes, and this is like all-pervading suffering.
Let your mind absorb this idea. Generate a strong feeling for the self-perpetuating dilemma that is your existence.
Then contemplate how there are countless living beings caught up in this seemingly endless cycle, just as you are.
*The final antidote is to develop the right understanding of the nature
of reality and thus cut through our confusion and our habit of following
the ego's whims.
In the meantime, we can use our life and energy in positive ways: helping
others with love and generosity, and increasing the positive thoughts and
attitudes in our mind. And by refraining from negative actions and counteracting
harmful attitudes in our mind as they arise, we avoid creating further
causes of suffering. As our understanding of reality grows, so too does
our detachment from ordinary, transient things, and our web of confusion
gradually untangles. Finally, this understanding becomes a direct, intuitive
perception of emptiness, which eliminates, once and for all, the very root
of suffering.
*Awareness of suffering gives us the energy we need to penetrate the nature
of reality.
<Meditation on Compassion and Tonglen (Giving and Taking)>
*Recognize that everything you do in your life is motivated by the wish
to be happy and to avoid problems. The same is true for all other beings.
<Dealing with Negative Energy>
*As mindfulness develops we become increasingly sensitive to our thoughts
and feelings, including negative states of mind such as anger, irritation,
pride, depression, desire and so forth. Why are these considered "negative"?
It is not that anger or desires are inherently evil or that we should feel
ashamed when they arise. They are negative because they are delusions--distorted
conceptions that patint a false picture of reality--and because they lead
to unhappiness, confusion, confusion, and problems. But with the right
understanding and the right tools, every experience that arises in our
mind, negative as well as positive, can be a constructive step on the path.
The root cause of negative emotions is the false notion of inherent, graspable,
solid existence that we impute onto everything. This misconception gives
rise to attachment to whatever appears pleasant, aversion or anger toward
whatever is unpleasant or painful, and an uncaring ignorance about everything
else. Thus our mind divides everyone and evertying in the world around
us into friend, enemy, and stranger. And these three mental toxins in turn
branch out into all our other negative states of mind.
*To want something and not want to be separated from it: very broadly,
this is attachment, also known as desire.
*Attachment is concerned with my needs, my happines, while love is an unselfish attitude, concerned with the needs and happiness of others. Most of the time our love is mixed with attachment because we do not feel adequate or secure on our own, and try to find wholeness through another.
*Remember that your mind is a stream of different experiences--joyful,
unhappy, positive, negative--all of the same clear, immaterial nature.
These experiences appear and dissolve like waves on the ocean, lasting
only a short time.
*Familiarizing ourselves with the reality of how we, othes, and the things in the world around us are changing all the time and will eventually disappear enables us to gradually become more accepting and less fearful.
*The Dalai Lama often says that a very effective way to instill courage
and confidence in yourself is to generate an altruistic motivation for
the things you do.
<Simple Purification Meditation>
*Peace of mind is achieved by cultivating what is positive and abandoning
what is negative.
Anger and the other mental disorders arise from our misconceptions about
the way things exist, while positive states of mind are realistic and arise
from right understanding. When we recognize this and develop a correct
view of reality, our negativities gradually lessen and eventually disappear
altogether. As our wisdom develops, our spontaneous good feelihngns grow
and our personaility gradually transforms. At the end of this path is enlightenment,
the perfection of all beneficial qualities--a state of great clarity and
loving compassion.
<Meditation on Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of Compassion>
*Dalai Lama has said, "If you want others to be happy; practice loving-compassion;
if you want yourself to be happy, practice loving-compassion.
*Whoever has an uncontrolled mind necessarily has suffering.
<About Devotion>
*As human beings, we have the potential to develop unlimited love, compassion,
and wisdom and to free ourselves from all negative energy--in other words,
to reach the same level as a buddha.
*We do need help to travel the path to inner awakening, but we need to
chek carefully the qualifications of the teachers we meet and the effectiveness
of their methods, not just follow the advice of anyone with a nice vibration
or a charismatic personality.
<Explanation of the Prayers>
*Purifying the mind of negative imprints and accumulating merit, that is,
positive energy and insights.
*Seeds for our growth on the path to enlightenment are planted in our mind
throught hearing or reading the teachings.
<A Short Meditation on the Graduated Path to Enlightenment>
*Seeking samsaric pleasures is the door to all suffering: they are uncertain
and cannot be relied upon. Recognizing these shortcomings, please bless me to generate the strong
wish for the bliss of liberation.
*Just as I have fallen into the sea of samsara, so have all mother migratory beings. Please bless me to see this, train in supreme bodhichitta, and bear the responsibility of freeing migratory beings.
<Meditation on the Buddha>
*The fundamental nature of the mind is pure, clear, and free of the clouds
of disturbing conceptions and emotions that now obscure it.
*Of course, our problems are very deep and complex, but they are not as
real or as solid as we think.
<Meditation on the Healing Buddha>
*According to the Tibetan medical system, based on teachings of the Buddha,
the three "poisonous" states of mind--attachment, anger and ignorance--are
at the root of all disease.
*May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment and
anger that hold some close and others distant.
<Meditation on the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation>
*In fact, just about every time we are unhappy or uneasy it is because
we are overly concerned with me...Ego's appetite is insatiable--trying
to fulfill its wishes is a never-ending job. No matter how much we have,
ego continuously grows restless and looks for more.
*In all actions I will examine my mind and
The moment a delusion arises,
Endangering myself and others,
I will confront and avert it witout delay.
This verse stresses the importance of mindfulness. Throughout the day,
in everything we do--working, talking, watching television, meditating--we
should be aware of what is happening in our mind. Whenever a negative thought
like anger, jealousy, or pride arises, we should take note of it and deal
with it as soon as possible. If we do not practice like this, delusions
remain in the mind, grow stronger, and pollute our every feeling and perception.
*When our motivation for doing something involves any of the eight worldly
concerns--attahcment to pleasure, praise, gain, and fame, and aversion
to pain, blame, loss, and notoriey--the action is non-dharma, non-spiritual.
By realizing the illusory, dream-like nature of all things and all situations,
we naturally learn to let go and cling less tightly to such concerns.
<Vajrasattva Purification>
*The negative karma I have accumulated throughout beginningless time is
as extensive as the treasury of a great king. Although every negative action
leads to countless eons of suffering, it seems that I am constantly striving
to create nothing but negative actions. Even though I am trying to avoid
nonvirtue and practice positive acts, day and night without respite negativities
and moral downfalls come to me like rainfall. I lack the ability to purify
these faults so that no trace of them remains; with these negative imprints
still in my mind, I could suddenly die and find myself falling to an unfortunate
rebirth. What can I do? Please, Vajrasattva, with your great compassion,
guide me from such misery!
<The Eight Mahayana Precepts>
*By consciously avoiding negative actions we naturally cease creating more
hindrances and purify those of the past, thus clearing our mind for the
attainment of realizations.
From 「Advice on Dying」by the Dalai Lama
<Awareness of Death>
*Of life's one hundred years, the early portion is spent as a child and
the final portion is spent in old age, often just like an animal feeding
and sleeping. In between, there might be sixty or seventy years to be used
meaningfully. As Buddha said: "Half of the life is taken up with sleep.
Ten years are spent in childhood. Twenty years are lost in old age. Out
of the remaining, twenty years, sorrow, complaining, pain, and agitation
eliminate much time, and hundreds of physical illnesses destroy much more.
*Because persons, minds, and all other caused phenomena change moment by
moment, this opens up the possibility for positive development.
*Contemplating impermanence not only motivates your practice, but also
fuels it.
*Once you are intent on the fineries of this life, your afflictive emotions increase, which in turn necessarily bring about more bad deeds. These counter-productive emotions only lead to trouble, making yourself
and those around you uncomfortable. Even if you briefly learn how to practice
the stages of the path to enlightenment, you acquire more and more material
things and get involved with more and more people to the point where you
are, so to speak, practicing the superficialities of this life, meditatively
cultivating desire for friends and hatred for enemies and trying to figure
out ways to fulfill these afflictive emotions,. At that point, even if you hear about real, beneficial practice, you are apt to feel,
"Yes, that is so, but..." One "but " after another. Indeed, you have become accustomed to afflictive emotions throughout your
beginningless cyclic existence, but now you have added on the very practice
of superficility. This makes the situation even worse, turning you away
from what will really help.
Driven by such lust, you will find no comfort. You are not making others
happy---and certainly not yourself. As you become more self-centered--"my
this, my that," "my body, my wealth"--anyone who interferes
immediately becomes an object of anger. Although you make much out of "my
friends" and "my relatives, " they cannot help you at birth
or at death; you come here alone, and you have to leave alone.
*The problem is that so much energy is being expended on concern for a
level no deeper than the superficial affairs of this life.
*It is better to decide from the very beginning that you will die and investigate
what is worthwhile.
<Liberation from Fear>
*Good actions stem from a tamed mind, and bad actions stem from an untamed
mind.
*They describe how to make use of this precious situation by reflecting
on the impermanence of the present in order to undermine our exessive attachment
to fleeting experiences.
*Always adjust your motivation toward helping others as much as possible.
At least try to do no harm.
<Preparing to Die>
*It is necessary not only to achieve many powerful constructive causes
but also to avoid contrary forces that would cause those beneficial causes
to degenerate.
*Common beings like us have been accustomed to an untamed mind since beginningless
time. Given this predisposition, we can conclude that actions performed
with an untamend mind are more powerful for us and actions performed with
a tamed mind are weaker.
*Once the body depends on the four elements of earth, water, fire , and
wind, which themselves oppose each other , physical happiness is just an
occasional balance of these elements, not an enduring harmony.
*Our bodies are sources of great trouble and complications ; physical happiness
is merely the temporary absence of such problems.
*The nature of the body is to disintegrate. Right from conception, the
body is subject to dying.
*The root of your own happiness and welfare rests with a peaceful and tamed mind. In terms of others, when you have a peaceful and tamed mind, life is more pleasant for your friends, spouse, parents, children, and acquaintances.
*May we realize that there is no time to waste, Death being definite but
the time of death indefinite. What has gathered will separate, what has
been accumulated will be consumed without residue, At the end of a resing
comes descent, the finality of birth is death.
*From beginningless time we have been under the influence of an illusion
of permanence, so we think there is always lots of time remaining. This
puts us in great danger of wasting our lives in procrastination. To counteract
this tendency, it is important to meditate on impermanence, on the fact
that death might come at any moment.
*Since our attitudes of permanence and self-cherishing-held in our hearts
as if they were the center of life--are what ruin us, the most fruitful
meditations are on impermanence, the emptiness of inherent existence, and
compassion. Without these, long-life rituals and the like will not help.
This is why Buddha emphasized that the two wings of the bird flying to
enlightenment are compassion and wisdom. These two are the ways to oppose
attitudes of permanence and self-cherishing, which, since beginningless
time, have undermined our aims for happiness.
*Death will definitely come and cannot be avoided.
*Our lifespan cannot be extended and diminishes unceasingly.
*It is the nature of cyclic existence that what has gathered will eventually
disperse--parents, children, brothers, sisters, and friends. No matter
how much friends like each other, eventually they must separate. Gurus
and students, parents and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and
wives, and friends--no matter who they are--must eventually separate.
*A practitioner who, early on, thinks about impermanence is much more courageous
and happy while dying.
<Removing Obstacles to a Favorable Death>
*People and things appear to exist under their own power, and ignorance
accepts this false appearance, giving rise to the afflictive emotions of
lust, hatred, and more bewilderment. These afflictive emotions in turn
pollute actions of body, speech, and mind, perpetuating the process of
cyclic existence. Understand that you live in a city of misconception.
*These three poisons-lust, hatred, and ignorance--are the strongest internal
obstacles to virtuous practie.
<Gaining Favorable Conditions for the Time of Death>
*That I experience suffering in cyclic existence is due to self-cherishing;
the root of self-cherishing comes from conceiving that beings and things
inherently exist, whereas they do not.
<Meditating While Dying>
*After conception a process of formation proceeds from subtler to grosser,
but at death there is a dissolution from grosser to subtler. The phenomena
that dissolve consist of the four elements--earth (the hard substance of
the body), water (fluids), fire (heat), and wind (energy, movement).
*Every moment that we engage in actions motivated by ignorance contributies
to living in cyclic existence.
*The pooled influence of the karmas of many beings shape the very world-system
we inhabit.
<The Inner Sturucture>
*The fundamental cause of suffering is ignorance--the mistaken conception
that living beings and objects inherently exist. All faulty states of mind
have this mitake at their root. A principal aim of the spiritual path is
to counteract and remove ignorance through wisdom. A wise consciousness,
grounded in reality, understands that living beings and other phenomena
do not inherently exist.
*As soon as the "I "appears, along with it the inherent existence
that is to be refuted appears, so what you need is the realization that
the "I " that appears upon oberving mind and body does not exist.
This " I " does not exist.
<The Clear Light of Death>
*The cornerstone of my own practice is reflection on the four basic teachings
of impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and selflessness.
<Taking a Positive Rebirth>
*Remember, the ultimate goal of Buddhist practice is to serve others, and
for the most effective state of service it is necessary to achieve pure
mind and body. The aim is to be able to help a vast number of sentient
beings through myriad means.
<Daily Reflection on the Poem>
*May we extract the meaningful essesnce of this life support
Without being destracted by the senseless affairs of this life,
Since this good foundation, hard to gain and easy to disintegrate,
Presents and opportunity of choice between profit and loss, comfort and
misery.
<Outline of the Poem and Summary Advice>
*Physical happiness is just an occasional balance of elements in the body, not a deep harmony. Understand the temporary for what it is.
*Realize that the root of your own happiness and welfare rests with a peaceful
and tamed mind. It is also a great benefit to those around you.
*Reaize that no matter how wonderful a situation may be, its nature is
such that it must end.
*Do not think that there will be time later.
From 「Transforming the Mind 」by The Dalai Lama
<The Basis of Transformation>
*Why is that we don't succeed in enjoying the lasting happiness that we
are seeking? And why are we so often faced with suffering and misery instead?
Buddhism explains that our normal state of mind is such that our thoughts
and emotions are wild and unruly, and since we lack the mental discipline
needed to tame them, we are powerless to control them. As a result, they
control us. And thoughts and emotions, in their turn, tend to be controlled
by our negative impulses rather than our positive ones. We need to reverse
this cycle, so that our thoughts and emotions are freed from their subservience
to negative impulses, and so we ourselves, as individuals, gain control
of our own minds.
*Whatever forms of meditation you practice, the most important point is
to apply mindfulness continuously, and make a sustained effort. It is unrealistic
to expect results from meditation within a short period of time. What is
required is continuous sustained effort.
*Why, despite our deep desire to be happy, are we constantly confronted
with suffering and pain instead?
From the Buddhist point of view, the reason is that we have certain fundamentally
flawed ways of perceiving and relating to ourselves and to the world. At
the root of this lie what Buddhism indentifies as four false views. The
first is to view things and events which are in reality impermanent and
transient, as eternal, permanent and unchanging. The second is to view
things and events which are actually sources of dissatisfaction and suffering
as pleasurable and as true sources of happiness. The third false view is
that we often tend to apprehend as pure and desirable things which are
in reality impure. And the fourth false view is our tendency to project
a notion of real existence upon events and things which in reality lack
any such autonomy.
*All things that arise from causes and conditions are impermanent, and
are in a process of continual flux.
*Many of our negative thoughts and emotions have their root in our fundamentally flawed way of understanding the reality of the world and of ourselves. Then we find that insight into emptiness counters such misperception.
*For a Buddhist practitioner, especially for a Mahayana practitioner, it
is vital to have deep admiration for the Buddha, and that admiration must
be grounded in a profound understanding of the essence of this teaching,
the Dharma. The understanding of Dharma should itself be based on the understanding
of selflessness or emptiness that I mentioned earlier.
*The suffering that noe of us wishes to experience comes about as a result
of afflictive thoughts and emotions, which in turn have their roots in
false views. The four main false views are holding things to be permanent,
believing impermanent things will bring happiness, holding things to be
desirable, and believing that things enjoy independent existence. These
views can all be eliminated, and this is done by developing insight into
the true nature of reality. As you cultivate this insight and enhance it,
false views are gradually eradicated along with their derivative thoughts
and emotions. This process requries discipline. It is through such a process
that transformation takes place.
*Generally, for practitioners like ourselves, it is far more important
to be an effective member of society, someone who makes a positive social
contribution and intergrates spiritual practice as much as possible into
daily life.
<Transforming Through Altruism>
*Lama Tsongkhapa explains in his Great Exposition of the Path to Enlightenment
(Lam rim chen mo), bodhichitta is such that while one engages in fulfilling
the wishes of others, the fulfillment of one's own self-interest comes
as a by-product. This is a wise way of benefitting both oneself and others.
In fact I think bodhichitta is really and truly wonderful. The more I think
of helping others, and the stronger my feeling for taking care of others
becomes, the more benefit I reap myself. That is quite extraordinary.
*If one is able to cultivate these spiritual qualities within oneself then, as Chandrakirti writes very poetically in his Entry to the Middle way, with one wing of altruistic intention and another wing of insight into emptiness, one can traverse the whole of space and soar beyond the state of existence to the shores of fully enlightened buddhahood.
*Now the question is how we can train ourselves to develop bodhichitta.
The two aspeces of bodhichitta that we spoke about earlier, the aspirtaion
to be of help to others and the aspiration to attain enlightenment oneself,
have to be cultivated separately through separate trainings. The aspiration
to be of help to others has to be cultivated first.
The wish to bring about the welfare of others can, of course, include relieving
them from their very obvious sufferings and physical pain, but this is
not what is meant in this context. Bringing about others' welfare really means helping them attain liberation.
We must therefore begin with an understanding of what is meant by liberation.
This relates back directly to what I described earlier, namely the understanding
of emptiness, because nirvana as defined by the Buddhist teachings has to be understood
in terms of emptiness. So, according to Buddhism, without some understanding
of emptiness it is not really possible to understand what true liberation
is; and without that, a strong aspiration to attain liberation will not
arise.
The second aspiration, to attain full enlightenment, is also direclty related
with one's understanding of emptiness.
*True cessation has two dimensions: one is total freedom from mental pollutants,
and the other is the total negation of inherent existence.
*Once you have plowed a fertile field and leveled the ground, you water
the soil with the moisture of love, and then you can plant the seed of
compassion. If you nurture it continuously then the young shoot of bodhichitta,
the altruistic intention, will naturally grow.
*We are continually sufferigng, we are continually experiencing negative thoughts and emotions, so our self-cherishiing hasn't really got us very far. Also, if we shift our focus from ourselves to others and to the wider world, and if we turn our attention to all the crises in the world, all the difficulties and the sufferings and so on, we will see that many of these problems are direct or indirect consequences of undisciplined negative states of mind. And where do these come from? From this powerful combination of self-centeredness and the belief in our independent existence.
*I think one of the major features of violence is that it is very unpredicatble,
so once you commit it, it may create many complications or side-effects
that were originally unforeseen.
<Transforming Through Insight>
*All too often what may seem like a pleasurable experience, and what may
initially seem like happiness, when pursued, changes at a certain point
into suffering and leads to frustration and so on.
*What we perceive as the external reality of matter is simply a projection
of our mind.
*It is generally said that for beginners, prevention is far more effective
than confrontation, and I think this is very true. From expereince you
can get a sense of the kind of circumstances that can lead you to outbursts
of strong negative emotions, and you can do your utmost to avoid these.
However, when strong negative emotions like anger or hatred do actually
arise in you, you might find a way of dealing with them if they have not
fully exploded, but if they have, there may not really be much you can
do. In that case, perhaps the best thing is just to scream your head off!
<The Eight Verses on Transforming the Mind>
*As a means to enhance our practice it is advised that we should constantly
apply it in our daily life, and to our behavior as a whole---physical,
verbal, and mental.
*There are particular ways in which one can practice viewing oneself as lower than others. To take a simple example, we all know from experience that when we focus on a particular object or individual, according to the angle from which we view it, we will have a different perspective. This is, in fact, the nature of thought. Thoughts are capable of selecting only isolated characteristics of a given object at a particular time, human thought is not capable of comprehensively viewing something in its entirety. The nature of thought is to be selective. When you realize this, you can view yourself as lower than others from a certain point of view, even in comparison to a tiny insect.
*Although all of us, as spiritual practitioners, wish to overcome our negative impulses, thoughts and emotions, owing to our long habituation to negative tendencies, and to our lack of diligence in applying the necessary antidotes to them, afflictive emotions and thoughts do occur in us spontaneously and quite powerfully... We should constantly chek ourselves and take note when negative tendencies arise in us, so that we can catch them as they arise. If we do this then we will not give in to them; we will be able to remain on our guard and keep a certain distance from them. In this way we won't reinforce them, and we will be spared from undergoing an explosion of strong emotion and the negative words and actions to which that leads.
*May I gladdened when someone belittles me, and may I not take pleasure when someone praises me. If I do take pleasure in praise then it immediately increases my arrogance, pride, and conceit; whereas if I take pleasure in criticism, then at least it will open my eyes to my own shortcomings.
*May I, recognizing all things as illusion, devoid of clinging, be released
from bondage.
*The whole point of meditating on the ultimate nature of reality is to
ensure that you are not fooled by appearances, and that you appreciate
the gap between how things appear to you and how they really are. Buddhism
explains that appearances can often be deluding. With a deeper understanding
of reality, you can go beyond appearances and relate to the world in a
much more appropiate, effective, and realistic manner.
*When the text refers to viewing all phenomena as illusions, it is suggesting
that the illusion-like nature of things can only be perceived if you have
freed yourself from attachment to phenonmena as independent discrete entities.
Once you have succeeded in freeing yourself from such attachment, the perception
of the illusion-like nature of reality will automatically arise.
<His Holiness the Dalai Lama>
*Time is moving on. Year by year, month by month, day by day, hour by hour,
minute by minute, even second by second, it is always moving and never
stands still. No force can stop that; it is beyond our control. All we
can do is use time properly and constructively.
*I would like to say that the most important thing is transforming our
minds, so that we have a new way of thinking, and a new outlook. I think
that we should make an effort to develop a new inner world. For centuries,
and for generations, humanity has invested all its effort into develping
society in terms of material facilities, on the basis of science and technology.
I think today the world at large, and particularly the Western nations,
have achieved very high living standards, yet a lot of problems remain,
especially in the field of crime and violence. In England, America and
elsewhere, some young people are even shooting others without much reason.
And in the field of international relations, I often feel that nations
which cherish freedom, democracy, and liberty very highly---even nations
like America or Western European countires---in fact still rely very much
on force.
I think these are old concepts. In the past, national interests were more
or less independent of each other, and communities were largely self-sufficient
even at the village level. In such circumstances, the concepts of war and
military activity were quite relevant: if there is victory on our side,
there will be defeat for the enemy on the other side. But today that situation
has completely changed. Not only villages but nations and even continents
are heavily interdependent, especially economically. Under these circumstances,
to destroy your neighbor is actually to destroy yourself. So I think that
we can now say that the old ways of thinking, and the policies that went
with them, are outdated.
*Some of the problems that we are facing are not problems that have developed
overnight; they have develped over decades, and in some cases over generations.
I feel that in the initial stages, when there was more chance of chnaging
the situation and cooling it down, people did not pay much attention. They
ignored the problem, thinking maybe that it would not be so serious, or
that the people directly involved ought to take care of it. Then later,
when things became critical, it was too late. Once human emotions are out
of control, they are very, very difficult to handle. In fact, according
to the Buddhist understanding, when causes and conditions have freely for
a long period of time they reach a point when the process can no longer
be reversed.
I feel that many of our problems develop in this way.
*Modern education is very good, but it seems to be based on a universal
acceptance of the importance of developing the brain, that is, on intellectual
education. Insufficient attention is given to the development of the person
as a whole, in the sense of becoming a good person or developing a warm
heart. I think that a separate educational institution was established
in Europe about a thousand years ago, and at that time it was the Church
and the family that took care of moral education and the nurturing of human
warmth. In that way, education was quite balanced. But as time went on,
the influence of the Church decreased, and family life sometimes became
unstable or problematic, so that in recent times this important aspect
of children's upbringing has been neglected. It seems as if there is no
particular institution that has special responsibility for taking care
of the heart.
I think it's quite clear that education or knowledge is like an instrument,
and whether that instrument is put to use in a constructive or destructive
way depends on each person's motivation. An education system that cultivates
smart brains alone can sometimes create more problems, and from the individual's
point of view, having too many clever thoughts and too much imagination
can even lead to a nervous breakdown.
If a child with a good intellectual education happnes to have parents with
a warm heart, and a sense of responsibility for both caring and discipline,
then these can go together well and be very constructive. It is my hope
that in future, the educational system will pay more attention to the development
of human warmth and love. I think that's necessary. Right from kndergarten
up to university, I think it is important to address moral questions related
to the whole life of the individual, including his or her role in society
and in the family. Without that, you can't be a happy person, you can't
have a happy family, and so you can't have a happy society. Parents, too,
have a special responsibility in this area. And I hope that in future there
will be fewer divorces, particularly between couples who have children.
For children especially I think it is very important for the parents to
have a long-lasting happy marriage; that way, through their own practice
and example, they will introduce their children to the benefits of love,
kindness, and a warm heart.
*The moment we think about others our mind becomes broader and more open,
and then our personal problems appear insignificant. On the other hand,
if you think just about "me, me, me," your whole mental focus
becomes very narrow and closed, and even tiny problems seem huge.
*According to my own little experience, the more I meditate on compassion
and think about the infinite number of sentient beings who are suffering,
the more I have an immense feeling of inner strength. Then the problems
I may have, here and there, don't matter so much. The more we have inner
strength and self-confidence, the more this reduces fear and doubt, and
this automatically makes us more open. Then we can communicate with our
human brothers and sisters everywhere much more easily, because when you
are open, others will respond accordingly.
*The more attahcment we have, the more likely we are to get angry.
*If you feel loving-kindness is useful, then you can try to increase it
as a counter-measure against hatred and anger. If the number of these thoughts
increases, then the number of their opposing thoughts will be reduced.
That's the way to train your mind.
From 「The Joy of Living and Dying in Peace」 by The Dalai Lama
<Introduction>
*It is the general way of people that unless they pay special attention,
they are not able to understand their own faults. This is why we normally
claim that we have done nothing wrong. So it is extremely important to
check yourself.
<The Awakening Mind>
*Compassion focusing on sentient beings and wisdom focusing on enlightement.
*It also makes a great difference when compassion is supported by the wisdom
realizing the emptiness of intrinsic existence. In general, by focusing
on one helpless sentinet being, we generate a strong wish that he or she
be free from suffering because we are unable to bear his or her suffering.
But if we analyze more deeply, we will be able to see where that suffering
comes from. We will understand the possibility of removing its causes and
the possibility of cultivating antidotes within that person. We will be
able to see all these possibilities within that person, but also that he
or she is really confused about the way things exist and does not know
how to cultivate such positive antidotes. We can see not only that the
person is currently encountering suffering, but moreover that he or she
engages in many negative activities. He or she is dominated by faults that
will lead to the experience of unceasing suffering in the future.
*Whatever is produced through cause and effect is subject to momentary
change and disintegration.
*We will understand that so long as we are not freed from the bondage of
the disturbing emotions, it is impossible to obtain real and secure happiness.
This is the way to train our minds.
*Even when we are trying to pursue our own interests, the more we cultivate
a mind wishing to benefit others, the more quickly our own purposes will
be fulfilled.
*The more we cultivate a mind wishing to benefit other sentient beings,
the greater will be the peace and happiness within ourselves.
*We have a saying in Tibet that engaging in virtuous practice is as hard as pulling a tired donkey up a hill, but engaging in negative, destructive activities is as easy as rolling a boulder down a steep slope. Our tendency is to engage in negative activities even while thinking that we should not. Whether we think of ourselves as a fully ordained monk or a great tantric
practitioner or simply as a Dharma practitioner, it is so often the case
that either our motivation is not good in the beginning, or that our actual
practice of visualization and meditation is not good in the middle, or
that our conclusion is not good. All of our virtuous practices are interrupted
by negative thoughts, so they remain weak and frail. A flash of lightning on a dark and cloudy night allows us to see our surroundings
for just a moment. Likewise, this opportunity to meet and practice the
Buddha's teachings is rare and short-lived. Our virtuous qualities are weak because our motivation, actual practice,
and conclusion are weak, while our negative deeds are powerful and unending.
Therefore, it is important to make a special effort to cultivate fresh
positive qualities.
*At an ordinary level we are unable to become omnicient or enlightened
because of certain obstructions and hindrances. As soon as we remove these
hindrances and obstructions our minds will be aware of all phenomena.
*If all sentient beings want happiness and do not want suffering, we might
ask why we cannot let them work hard for their own happiness and to remove
their own suffering. The answer is that even though sentient beings desire to remove suffering, they run continuously
toward it. And even though they want happiness, becaue of their ignorance
and confusion they continuously destory thier own peace and happiness.The awakening mind brings peace and happiness to those deprived of othem.
There is no virtue comparable to the awakening mind.
<Dying in Peace>
*The more we have made our lives meaningful, the less we will regret at
the time of death. The way we feel when we come to die is thus very much
dependent on the way we have lived.
*We cannot live alone in isolation. We need sufficient food, clothing,
and shelter, all of which come about due to the efforts of many other people.
Our basic happiness is dependent on others. Living in accordance with this
reality is a meaningful way to spend our lives. Since others are the objects on whom our peace and happiness depend, it
is proper for us to take care of them. But we tend to think that we have
achieved evertying by ourselves.
*My wil to live is equal to my excitement about facing death.
*Eventually you can become master of your mind, which is the main purpose
of meditation.l
*We are like someone who has decided to settle down in a certain place.
Such a person naturally becomes involoved in the affairs of the world,
amassing wealth, constructing buildings, planting crops, and so forth.
On the other hand, the person who is more concerned about his or her lives
after death is like a person who wants to travel. A traveler makes preparations
to meet every eventuality and successfully reach his or her destination.
As a result of death meditation, a practitioner becomes less obsessed with
the affairs of this life: name and fame, possessions, social status.
*There are peopole who receive vows and recite their prayers daily. But
because their awareness of death is weak, they behave like ordinary people
in times of crisis, becoming excessively angry, attached, or jealous. There
is a saying in Tibetan: "When you are well fed and enjoying the sunshine, you look like a
practitioner. But when faced with a crisis you reveal your true nature."
*If you forget that you will die, you will think mainly about how to lead
a prosperous life.
*We all have many lives to come, whihc are completely dark to us and about
which we have no idea. When you forget these circumstances, you will be
inclined to pursue destructive activities.
*Recollecting death is like using a hammer to destroy all negative tendencies
and disturbing emotions.
*Our life-spans are ticking away no matter where or who we are. With every
twenty-four hours another day is gone. With every thirty days a month is
gone, and with twelve months a year is complete. This is how our lives
will come to an end.
*The strange thing is that although our physical bodies soon get sick,
old, and worn out, the disturbing emotions within us remain fresh.They
never age. Sexual deisre may diminish as we grow old, but the rest of the disturbing
emotions remain strong.
*We all know death will come one day. The problem is that we always think
it will be some time in the future. We are always busy with our worldly
affairs. Therefore, it is essential to meditate on death's unpredictability.
*In the face of death, your wealth and possessions, friends, and relatives,
and even your own body can do you no good. The only thing that can help you face the unknown is the virtue you have
planted on the stream of your consciousness. This is why spiritual practice can help you make your life meaningful.
*What goes on in the mind of the dying? After you have been sick and bedridden
for a long time, the power of your mind becomes slack. You may have been
an active and sharpwitted person, but now your brain has become dull and
you suffer lapses of memory. There are times when you cannot remember even
the names of the people around you. At times the pain is so excruciating
you are not able to say even a little prayer. Under such depression you
begin to lose hope, which directly affects your will and determination
to live. Then you also begin to wonder if there is no cure and why you
should suffer such pain and misery. You decide you have no other option
but to die. Your family and friends lament that you are neither dying not
getting better. It becomes increasingly diffucult to attract anyone's attention.
Gradually your body loses its heat and becomes as stiff as a log. As great
teachers of the past have said, your last meal is some blessed pills or
medicines you can hardly swallow. Thelast words you hear may be the chanting
of scriptures or cries of lamentation. There are no good words to say.
If you have been wealthy, you might still be worrying about your estate;
your mind might be filled with worries about the money people owe you or
the ways of dividing your wealth among your relatives and friends. You
are filled with inexpressible anxiety and pain. You try to utter a few
last words. which are barely audible. By the time your power of speech
has failed, only your lips can be seen to twitch. The very sight is sad
and pitiable.
Under these deplorable circumstances, the elements of your body gradually
start to fail. You are haunted by various hallucinations. You may feel
as if you were being submerged under the earth or falling from a height,
or you may have sensations of burning. As the liquid element fails, your
eyes and nose become depressed and pinched. Your tongue becomes dry. As
the solid element fails, your body becomes thin. As the heat element fails,
your body becomes cold. As your energy fails, you lose the ability to move
and you find it hard to breathe. You begin to pant short and fast, until
with a long exhalation you release your last breath like a violin string
breaking. The heart stops, and within a matter of minutes, the brain too
cease to function. You are now considered clinically dead.
*The path is our guide for traveling to an unknown place. In ordinary life
too, if we want to go somewhere we have not been before, we are careful
to seek the guidance of someone who has been there. We take a map with
us. We plan where to stop, where to stay, and what to take for the journey.
But when it comes to going to the unknown place called the next life,
the ordinary experiences we have gathered in this life are of little use.Our
only guide is our practice. That does not mean that we carry a lot of scriptures
along with us, but that our minds should be thoroughly prepared and transformed.
What kind of practice will help us when we travel to that unknown place?
Positive deeds are somthing we can trust forever. The useful method here
is to observe the ten virtuous qualities and refrain from the ten unwholesome
deeds.
*Whether your experience at the time of death is positive or negative is
very much dependent on how you have practiced during your life.
<Living With Purpose>
*This precious life as a free and fortunate human being can be obatined
just once. Even though we have had countless lives in the past, we have
never yet been able to put such a precious human life to proper use. Today,
we are fortunate to have found a life in which our mental and physical
faculities are intact, and we have some interest in practicing the Dharma.
Such a life is unique.
*Meditation is a means of familiarizing ourselves with positive aspects
of the mind. And in this way we try to tame our unruly disobedient minds.
*If you think that you will be able to practice only after you have completed
a particular project or you have gotten everything else out of the way,
the time will never come. It is said that the more worldy activities you
start, the more there are, like unceasing waves on the sea. Would it be
better just to stop and begin to practice the Dharma?
*Death is definite but the time of death is indefinite---it can strike
us at any time, therefore do not procrastinate.
*Death may snatch away our lives while we are unprepared.
*Life is fleeting and unreliable. We have to leave behind our relatives
and our possessions. Unaware of this, we have accumulated negative deeds,
physically, verbally, and mentally, in relation to those who are close
to us and those who are not so close. Whether they are friendly or unfriendly,
they too will soon disappear. Our so-called enemy will also die. Our so-called
friends will also die. This is certain. Not only that: we, who have accumulated
an abundance of positive and negative deeds in relation to such friends
and enemies, will also disappear. Our friends and relatives, our enemies
and wealth---everything is transient, impermanent, and will all finally
disappear. A time will come when we will be unable to see them or hear
them. When we think about them they will be just something we remember.
We will feel as if all these things happened in a dream. All conditioned
phenomena, the whole environment, and whatever you have enjoyed, all wil
be just something vaguely remembered.
However, the unwholesome deeds we have accumulated will remain behind.
Even though many of our friends and enemies have died, the negative deeds
we accumulated in relation to them will always abide in our minds as long
as we do not adopt antidotes to purify and remove them. The disturbing
emotions and the negative deeds they gave rise to will remain fresh in
our minds until we purify them.
*The day will not wait, the night wil not wait. Minute by minute, second
by second, time is being consumed and our lives are ebbing away. Our lives
are constantly approaching their ends.
*"Unconscientiously, carelessly, unaware of such a frightening state
as this, being attracted and deceived by fleeting pleasures, I have done countless
negative deeds for the sake of this fleeting impermanent life. I have wasted
my life in meaningless activity."
*All the troubles, suffering, and uneasiness that we experience in this
world are due to disturbing emotions. All excellent qualities, all happiness,
result from this mind wishing to benefit other people.
*We need to be cautious that we do not give rise to the eight worldly concerns:
gain and loss, pleasure and pain, praise and blame, fame and disrepute.
*As you begin each new day, you should generate a strong motivation, thinking,
"From now until I die I will try my best to be useful, to be beneficial
to other people. At least I will not harm them. I will try to do that until
I die, and at least that is what I will do today."Then before you
close your eyes at night, you should think back on how you spent your day.
If you find that your conduct was useful and beneficial, you can rejoice
and make a further determaination to spend the rest of your life this way.
If you find that you behaved negatively, that you bullied someone or said
something nasty or harmful, you must openly admit it. Recollect the kindness
of the Buddhs and bodhisattvas and confess your mistake and make a determination
not to do the same again. This is the real way to practice the Dharma.
*When we compare ourselves to other sentient beings we must try to appreciate
their positive qualities. And when we look at ourselves we should try to
recognize our faults and reduce them.
*Sentient beings are like travelers wandering endlessly on the paths of
the cycle of existence.
<The Mindful Life>
*Because of strong attachment and anger we lose our discriminative awareness.
*You must understand the disturbing emotions as the source of all sufferings
and problems.
*The best means for sustaining attention is to examine your physical, verbal,
and mental behavior and to remain watchful all the time.
*You need mindfulness, which is like a rope in all your activities, whether
they be physical, mental, or verbal. With the rope of mindfulness tie the
elephantlike mind to the pillar of the object of your meditation. In other
words, tie your mind to virtuous qualities and do not let it wander toward
unwholesome topics.
*Unruly sentient beings are as infinite as the extent of space. However, once you control your own mind, it is as if you had destroyed
all external enemies. If your mind is calm, even though the whole environment is hostile, you
will not be disturbed.
*If you want to protect the mind, you must make an effort to maintain mindfulness.
When you do not pay attention and your mindfulness degenerates, the merit
you accumulated in the past will be lost as if it had been stolen by thieves.
Consequently, you will fall into an unfavorable state of existence. The
disturbing emotions are like robbers and thieves. They are always alert,
looking for an opportunity. If they find it, they take it and rob you of
virtue. They take the life of our happy existence. Therefore, never allow
your mindfulness to weaken. If you occasionally lose your mindfulness,
restore it by remembering the endless sufferings in the cycle of existence.
*If you are mindful, when one of these defects is about to arise you will
be able to restrain yourself. For example, it may be that while you are
talking to someone else you begin to get angry. Your mindfulness will prompt
you either to stop the conversation or to change the subject. Think to
yourself that even though the other person is being unreasonable and using
provocative words, there is no use in retaliating in kind. Instead of dwelling
on this situation, turn your mind to the other person's good points. This
will also help reduce your anger.
The elephantlike mind is intoxicated by the disturbing emotions, so you
should bind it to the great pillar of spiritual practice. With all your
effort examine your mind, and try not to let it wander even for a moment.
Watch what it is about to do and what it is doing.
*If you want to go somewhere or you want to say something, first determine
whether it is proper or not. When attachment is about to arise within you,
or you feel like getting angry with someone, do not do anything, do not
speak, do not think---remain like a piece of wood. If you find yourself
inclined to break into meaningless laughter, or you want to brag about
something, or you want to discuss the faults of others, or you want to
decieve others, or you want to say somethinhg improper or to make sarcastic
remarks, or you want to praise yourself and criticize or scold others,
at that time remain like a piece of wood. If you find you want to obtain
possessions, respect, fame, and renown or you want to gather a coterie
of followers around you, remain like a piece of wood. If you find that
you are inclined to neglect the purposes of others but aspire to fulfill
your own purpose and , what is more, you want to talk about it, remain
like a piece of wood. When you are inclined to become impatient, lazy,
or despondent, or you want to make presumptuous remarks, or you are inclined
to become self-satisfied, remain like a piece of wood.
*Human beings should be able to use their intelligence, their discriminating awareness, to contribute to the welfare of all sentient beings. That is how to make life meaningful. That is the way to bring about peace, both temporarily and in the long run. There is nothing amazing about being highly educated; there is nothing amazing about being rich. If we have no compassion or feeling for other sentient beings, whatever material facilities or education we may have will be of no meaning and of no use. Therefore, we should use our human body to preserve our human intelligence in order to be able to engage in virtuous practice.
Try to gain control of yourself and realize that helping other sentient
beings is the purpose of life.
*The most important thing is that whatever you do should benefit other people; it should have the effect of fulfilling the wishes of other people.
*If you say that others' insults will hinder your prosperity, the response
is that material goods have to be given up sooner or later anyway. If you
say that it is proper to get angry in order to obtain certain goods, the
response is that however good something may be you will not keep it longer
than this life. But the fruit of the anger that you have expressed to obtain
it will stay witn you for many lives.
*People who worry about a decline in their name and fame are like those small children who work hard to construct a sand castle and cry the moment it collapses. Therefore, when someone praises you, do not feel too happy. Name has no essence; fame has no meaning. Attraction to name, fame, and respect will distract you from virtuous activities.
*While we labor under the burden of disturbing emotions and negative actions,
why do we need the additional burden of respect and reputation? Rather
than getting angry with those people who would free us from the bondage
of respect and reputation, we should value them.
*Patience is possible only because of your enemy. For example, the presence
of a beggar provides an opportunity for us to give. How could we call a
beggar an obstruction to the practice of generosity?
There are many beggars in the world, so it is easy to practice generosity.
But enemies and people who do us harm are generally rare. because if we
do not harm other people, they will not normally harm us. This makes the
circumstances for practicing patience quite rare.
*It is like removing a huge stone that has been blocking the flow of water
in a canal. Once you remove the stone, the water immedately starts to flow.
Similarly, once you are able to cultivate loving-kindness and compassion
toward your enemy, you will easily be able to cultivate loving-kindness
and compassion toward all sentient beings.
*By pleasing sentient beings we will not only be able ultimately to attain
Buddhahood; even in this life we will earn a good reputation and find peace
and happiness.
<Creating Self-Confidence>
*Whether you are concerned with spiritual practice or the work of ordinary
life, you must maintain confidence.
*When your motivation is pure and the cause is good, wealth and power have
a role to play. They can certainly help you achieve your goals. The important
factor is your attitude.
*There is no end to the sufferings you encounter in the cycle of existence.
<The Meditator's Practice>
*As bees extract honey from flowers without being attached to the flowers
or their colors, you should just take what is necessary for your spiritual
practice and remain detached from worldly concerns.
*Sooner or later you will die and your body will be carried away by four pallbearers while your friends and relatives lament and suffer around you. If at that time you regret having been unable to do positive things and
having done many negative things, it will be far too late. Therefore, before
things reach that point, retire to the forest and practice. In the stories
of the great adepts of the past, those who attained high realizations always
stayed in peaceful isolated places. There are not many accounts of people
who attained great realization in a city or town.
*In this world and beyond, desire brings distraction. Whether you desire
some object or simply fame and good reputation, your desire can become
a cause for you to lose your life. It can result in your imprisonment in
this life and in your living in hell in future lives.
*Buddha Shakyamuni himself has said that whether you are rich or poor,
leading a household life is like being afflicted with disease.
*It is with thoughts like these that those who become ordained as monks
and nuns leave the household life. The purpose of leaving the household
life is not to do business or start a new project or deceive people. The
only purpose is sincere spiritual practice. If you do that and do not worry
much about your food, clothing, and possessions, but engage mainly in the
practice of meditation, the life of an ordained person is just wonderful.
You can get up early in the morning because you do not have to depend on
anyone. If you want to sleep you can sleep. On a superficial level, you
do not have to get engaged with ordinary, meaningless affairs. From a broader
perspective you can devote your whole life to attaining Buddhahood. In
the short term you can lead a very satisfactory life if you are sincere
in your practice. There is a verse that says, "If you sincerely practice, even if you
stay and lead the life of a householder, nirvana will be yours. But if
you do not practice, even if you remain in the mountains for years, hibernating
like a marmot, you wil not achieve anything."
*When you scratch a rash you feel some kind of relief, but instead of enjoying
that relief it would be better not to have a rash at all. Nobody wants
to have rash in order to have the pleausre of scratching it. Similarly,
when you desire something there is some momentary pleasure to be had from
obtaining it, but it would be better to have no desire or attachment at
all.
*You should see yourself as riddled with faults and others as possessing
oceanlike qualities. This means that self-centeredness should be seen as
a fault, while concern for other sentient beings is the source of oceanlike
qualties.
<Wisdom>
*Our experiences of happiness and suffering arise only in dependence on
specific causes. Since we want happiness, we should discover its causes
and implement them in practice. Since we do not want suffering, we should
discover its causes and eliminate them. That is the meaning of the teaching
of the Four Noble truths.
*What we actually want is happiness. The happiness we experience while
we are still wandering in the cycle of existence is undoubtedly a kind
of happiness, but it is not stable. What we really desire is lasting happiness.
Total separation from suffering is a stable and reliable form of happiness.
That is the object we wish to achieve, and waht will help us achieve it
is the path.
*When it comes to more profound aspects of the nature of the object, the process of moving from misconception to knowledge is gradual. For instance, we might start out in a state of total misconception, single-mindedly holding a vie