THE PAIRS --- Dhammapada

T I T L E (1) :

Mind foreruns all mental conditions,

Mind is chief, mind-made are they;

If one speak or acts with a wicked mind,

Then suffering follows him

Even as the wheel the hoof of the ox.

T I T L E (2) :

Mind forerunr all mental conditions,

Mind is chief,mind-made are they;

If one speaks or acts with a pure mind,

Then happiness follows him

Even as the shadow that never leaves.

T I T L E (3) :

'He abused me, he beat me,

He defeated me, he robbed me;

In those who harbour such thoughts

Hatred never ceases.

T I T L E (4) :

'He abused me, he beat me,

He defeated me, he robbed me'

In those who harbour not such thoughts

Hatred finds its end.

T I T L E (5) :

At any time in this world,

Hatred never ceases by haterd,

But through non-hatred it ceases,

This is an eternal law.

T I T L E (6) :

The common people know not

That in this Quarrel they will perish,

But those who realize this truth

Have their Quarrels calmed thereby.

Sabbe satta marisanti, maranantam hi jivitam.

All beings will die, for life ends in Death.

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

A monk was walking down the steet feeling sorry that he had no shoes until he saw another monk with no feet.

I'm merging this thread with the ' Dhamma Thought For The Day' topic pinned at the top of this subforum.

Two monks were arguing over a flag in the wind. One said that the flag moved. The other said that the wind moved. They went to see a Zen master who told them that they were both wrong. The mind moved. Then a Theravada forest monk came along and said that all three of them had missed the point. The problem was that their mouths moved!

- Ajahn Brahm, Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond

By Thich Nhat Hanh, HOU, p3

(Meditations on a sheet of paper)

If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. "Interbeing" is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix "inter-" with the verb "to be", we have a new verb, inter-be. Without a cloud, we cannot have paper, so we can say that the cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are (p.3)

The fact is that this sheet of paper is made up only of "non-paper elements." And if we return these non-paper elements to their sources, then there can be no paper at all. Without "non-paper elements," like mind, logger, sunshine and so on, there will be no paper. As thin as this sheet of paper is, it contains everything in the universe in it (p.5)

Edited January 10, 200719 yr by Grover

Dukkham eva hi, na koci dukkhito,

kārako na, kiriyā 'va vijjati.

Dukkha certainly is, but no-one suffering dukkha,

there's no doer, but the deed is found.

- Visuddhimagga XVI 90

Hi all,

I recently heard this saying and thought it summed up a lot of the Buddhist philosophy. Have you got any similar quotes / sayings?

"Man’s happiness consists not in the multiplicity of his possessions but in the fewness of his wants."

Regards.

Foggy Dew

This is excellent. Although surely it applies to all (most?) philosophies?

replace "happiness" with "not suffering" and it would be a little closer to Buddhism.

This is excellent. Although surely it applies to all (most?) philosophies?

definitely not the modern materialistic philosophy of get-spend-have !

Right from the moment of our birth,

we are under the care and kindness of

our parents and then later on in our life when

we are oppressed by sickness and become old,

we are again dependent on the kindness of

others. Since at the beginning and end

of our lives we are so dependent on others’

kindness, how can it be that in the middle

we neglect kindness towards others?

Source: The Dalai Lama

"Behold, O monks, this is my last advice to you. All phenomena in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation."

- Lord Buddha's final words.

"Faith" in the Buddhist context means faith in the ability of your actions to lead to a direct experience of the end of suffering.

- Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Faith in Awakening.

... ordinary beings cannot hope to keep the precepts perfectly; rather they abide by the precepts as rules of training in order to curb the grosser forms of bad conduct. At a deeper level there is also perhaps a sense in which no one, not even a buddha, can hope to live in the world and cause absolutely no harm to any living being. That is, it is almost impossible to isolate and disassociate oneself absolutely from activities that indirectly cause harm to living creatures. That this is so is an aspect of the deepest level of the first noble truth: the world, samsara, is by its very nature an imperfect place, a place where suffering is always lurking in one form or another. The question of acting ethically then becomes one of where to draw the line.

- Rupert Gethin, The Foundations of Buddhism

To be aware of a single shortcoming

within oneself is more useful than

to be aware of a thousand in somebody else.

Rather than speaking badly about people

and in ways that will produce friction and

unrest in their lives,

we should practise a purer perception of them,

and when we speak of others, speak of their good qualities.

If you find yourself slandering anybody,

first imagine that your mouth is filled with excrement.

It will break you of the habit quickly enough.

- The Dalai Lama

Edited April 6, 200719 yr by Bakuteh

If nibbana could be reached by endurance alone, chickens would be enlightened!

- Ajahn Chah.

Human happiness and human satisfaction

must ultimately come from within oneself.

It is wrong to expect some final satisfaction

to come from money or from a computer

- The Dalai Lama

Edited April 10, 200719 yr by Bakuteh

As rain penetrates an improperly shingled roof, so passion overwhelms a confused mind.

-Buddha

One should first establish oneself

In what is proper,

And then instruct others.

A wise man who acts in this way

Shall never get defiled.

Dhammapada

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.

Watch your actions, for they become habits.

Watch your habits, for they become character.

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

- Unknown

We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

If the creator of the world entire

They call God, of every being be the Lord

Why does he order such misfortune

And not create concord?

If the creator of the world entire

They call God, of every being be the Lord

Why prevail deceit, lies and ignorance

And he such inequity and injustice create?

If the creator of the world entire

They call God, of every being be the Lord

Then an evil master is he,

Knowing what's right did let wrong prevail!

Bhuridatta Jataka

Ehipassikadhamma means to come and see, to turn towards or go to the Dhamma. It means to look, to be aware. It is not that we pray to the Dhamma to come, or wait for it to tap us on the shoulder; we have to put forth effort. It is like Christ’s saying, ‘Knock on the door and it shall be opened.’ Ehipassiko means that we have to put forward that effort, to turn towards that truth.

- Ajahn Sumedho, Now is the Knowing.

DOWNFALL

When the mind decays,

through immoral acts,[1]

one's whole life too decays,

one's own roots are uprooted.

and the the journey begins,

towards one's downfall.

[1] Constantly going outside the boundaries of the five precepts.

Steady and unruffled sure is he

Whose mind rests as a mighty hill,

Removed from things arousing thirst

By those that provoke rage unhurt

Refined when his mind thus,

How can suffering make a fuss?

Diligent and devoted to the higher mind,

A safe, in wisdom's ways trained

Sorrows none afflict the stable one

Who is forever mindful and calm".

Mindfulness is the way to peace, happiness and

the state of human perfection

May you be well, happy, and peaceful!

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles.

Dhammapada

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.

HHDL

From Be good, be happy:

“Kindness is part of goodness. Because, as the Buddha once told His son Rahula, whatever is harmful to another person and harmful to yourself, is what is unvirtuous. Whatever is helpful to another person and helpful to yourself, that is called virtuous, good Kamma. So it is obviously being kind to yourself, is to be virtuous, to be good. There is no difference being kind and being good. Immoral people are unkind to themselves and unkind to others,” he said.

Looking outside the self is comparing, discriminating. You will not find happiness that way. Nor will you find peace if you spend your time looking for the perfect man or the perfect teacher. The Buddha taught us to look at the Dhamma, the truth, not to look at other people.

- Ajahn Chah