Dhamma Quotes

[lannarebirth]

Our modern Western culture only recognises the first of these, freedom of desires. It then worships such a freedom by enshrining it at the forefront of national constituitions and bills of human rights. One can say that the underlying creed of most Western democracies is to protect their people's freedom to realise their desires, as far as this is possible. It is remarkable that in such countries people do not feel very free. The second kind of freedom, freedom from desires, is celebrated only in some religious communities. It celebrates contentment, peace that is free from desires.

Ajahn Brahm (Opening the Door of Your Heart)

[Nudee]

The citta that is sent outside is Samudaya. (Cause)

The result from sending the citta outside is Dukkha. (Suffering)

Citta seeing citta is Magga. (The Way)

The results of citta seeing citta are Nirodha. (Cessation)

------

Luang Pu Dun

[camerata]

If you know all about Buddhism but don't know about you, you've missed the whole point.

- Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath.

[BigSnake]

Food for thought.

[Austhaied]

"Read yourself, not books. Truth isn't outside, that's only memory, not wisdom. Memory without wisdom is like an empty thermos bottle - if you don't fill it, it's useless."

Phra Ajahn Chah...

[himachal]

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

HHDL

Thank you once again, YH !

I read a poem many years ago that I have never forgotten. It is so short and simple, yet seemed so poignant to me. (I think it was translated from the Tripitakka, whatever that is!!!)

"Thus shall ye think of all this fleeting world:

A shooting star, a bubble in a stream,

A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,

A flickering lamp, a phantom and a dream."

Peace to all..........

[Austhaied]

Intelligent people know others.

Enlightened people know themselves.

[IMA_FARANG]

Thoughts of Ajahn Chah

Ajahn Chah belong to the forest tradition re-established in Thailand in the beginning of this century, by Luang Pu Waen and then Ajahn Mun (who was the teacher of Ajahn Chah). They followed strict monastic rules lived mostly by themselves in the forest for intensive meditattion. They also practiced the tradition of Dutangha (Du Ta(ng), going from one place to another on foot in several months of the year. Ajahn Mun had trained many famous meditation monks - some still alive, some died recently: Ajahn Chah, Buddhadassa Bikkhu, Ajahn Maha Buawa (still alive), Ajahn Thaet, Ajahn Pannananda (still alive), ... The Thai word "Ajahn" (A-cha`n) - from the Pali "Acarya" - means master, teacher.

Ajahn Chah died a few years ago, but he had many branch monasteries in Thailand as well as in England, Australia and New Zealand. The overseas monasteries and meditation centres are run by his Western disciples (including the one in Perth).

Someone once asked Ajahn Chah if he was an arahant. He said, "I am like a tree in a forest. Birds come to the tree, they sit on its branches and eat its fruits. To the birds, the fruit may be sweet or sour or whatever. The birds say sweet or they say sour, but from the tree's point of view, this is just the chattering of birds."

Where does rain come from? It comes from all the dirty water that evaporates from the earth, like urine and the water you throw out after washing your feet. Isn’t it wonderful how the sky can take that dirty water and change it into pure, clean water? Your mind can do the same with your defilements if you let it. Ajahn Chah

Metta

[IMA_FARANG]

Be mindful and let things take their natural course, then your mind will become quiet in any surroundings. It will become still like a clear forest pool and all kinds of wonderful and rare animals will come to drink from it. Then you will clearly see the nature of all things in the world. You will see many wonderful and strange things come and go. But you will be still. This is the happiness of the Buddha.

Ajahn Chah

[MagicaLight]

"A madman and an arahant both smile, but the arahant knows why while the madman doesn't."

- Ajahn Chah

[sabaijai]

"[Meditation] is the process of steadily bringing ourselves out of distraction."

-- from Diamond Mind: A Psychology of Meditation by Rob Nairn

[MagicaLight]

"We don't meditate to see heaven, but to end suffering."

~ Ajahn Chah

[MagicaLight]

"On a trip a man should travel with a companion of equal mind or one who has a better mind; one had better travel alone than to travel with a fool".~Sacred sayings

[Shotime]

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

Regards.

Foggy Dew

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can let alone.

Is mindfulness the understanding and awareness of "what is what?"

"In the past centuries there have been many learned Teachers who have laid down various paths to show the Truth. Among these, Buddhism is one, and according to it my opinion is that except for the differences in the names and forms of the various religions the Ultimate Truth is the same."

The Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso (I'm not sure if this is GW's fellow traveler)

"On a trip a man should travel with a companion of equal mind or one who has a better mind; one had better travel alone than to travel with a fool".~Sacred sayings

"Treat each human friend by thinking that he is under the power of defilements like us, hence he sometimes errs"

Buddhadasa Inapanno

[MagicaLight]

'Imagine I told you that a certain fruit tasted sour and invited you to try some of it. You would have to take a bite from it to taste the sourness. Some people would willingly take my word for it if I told them the fruit was sour, but if they simply believed that it was sour without ever tasting it, that belief would be useless (mogha), it wouldn't have any real value or meaning. If you described the fruit as sour, it would be merely going by my perception of it. Only that. The Buddha didn't praise such belief. But then you shouldn't just dismiss it either: investigate it. You must try tasting the fruit for yourself, and by actually experiencing the sour taste, you become your own internal witness. Somebody says it's sour, so you take it away and, by eating it, find out that it really is sour. It's like you're making double sure - relying on your own experience as well as what other people say. This way you can really have confidence in the authenticity of its sour taste; you have a witness who attests to the truth.

Venerable Ajahn Mun referred to this internal witness that exists within the mind as sakkhibhūt'.

[camerata]

"Our suffering stems from our likes and dislikes rooted in the false sense of self."

- gist of the Buddha's First Sermon on Asarnha Bucha Day.

[camerata]

"The law that all things are devoid of self is the teaching that all things in this world, without exception, are related to one another. There is nothing that leads an isolated existence, that is wholly separated from other things."

- from Basic Buddhist Teachings of the Rissho Kosei-kai organization.

[camerata]

"The man enmeshed in delusion will never be purified through the mere study of holy books, or sacrifices to gods, or through fasts, or sleeping on the ground, or difficult and strenuous vigils, or the repetition of prayers. Neither gifts to priests, nor self-castigation, nor performance of rites and ceremonies can work purification in him who is filled with craving. It is not through the partaking of meat or fish that man becomes impure, but through drunkenness, obstinacy, bigotry, deceit, envy, self-exaltation, disparagement of others and evil intentions — through these things man becomes impure."

- the Buddha.

[camerata]

"As most people go through life they are influenced by their families, societies and other features of their environments to the degree that they become products of their environments. As a result, the development of their personalities is largely a matter of chance. The purpose of Buddhism is to guide and direct the development of one's personality so that such development is no longer a matter of chance."

- Mahidol University web site.

[camerata]

"Doubting is natural. Everyone starts out with doubts. You can learn a great deal from them. What is important is that you don't identify with your doubts: that is, don't get caught up in them. This will spin your mind in endless circles. Instead, watch the whole process of doubting, of wondering. See who it is that doubts. See how doubts come and go. Then you will no longer be victimized by your doubts. You will step outside of them and your mind will be quiet. You can see how all things come and go. Just let go of what you are attached to. Let go of your doubts and simply watch. This is how to end doubting."

- Ajahn Chah.

[sabaijai]

From: 'Zen Teaching of Instantaneous Awakening' Hui Hai, Trans.

John Blofeld

A monk enquired, 'How are we to interpret correctly all names,

forms, speech and silence in order to integrate them and realize

a state that is neither anterior nor posterior?'

M: When a thought arises, fundamentally there is neither form

nor name; how can you speak in terms of before and after?

Failure to understand the essential purity of all that has name

and form is the cause of your mis- takenly reckoning everything

in those terms. People are locked in by these names and forms,

and, lacking the key of wisdom, they are unable to unlock

themselves. Those clinging to the Middle Way suffer from Middle

Way psychosis; those grasping at extremes suffer from a dualist

psychosis. You do not comprehend that that which mani- fests

itself right now is the unequalled Dharmakaya. Delusion and

awakening, as well as gain and loss, pertain to the worldly way.

The rising (of the thought) of creation and destruction leads to

the burial of true wisdom; both the cutting off of defilements

(klesha) and the search for bodhi are in direct opposition to

wisdom.'

[Burr]

This site may be of interest to you all.

http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/cate.../daily-buddhism

I get a daily newsletter from them and I sure like it.

I also have other sites if anyone is interested.

[ff978472]

"When you stop seeing other people's fault and start seeing your own fault, that's when you know the path"

My own thought

[sabaijai]

"When you stop seeing other people's fault and start seeing your own fault, that's when you know the path"

My own thought

[ff978472]

Regardless of what Einstien said, time does not really exist; it appears only when you desire something.

Time starts when you desire something and it ends when you got what you desire,..

so does selfness.

[sabaijai]

“Thousand of candles can be lighted by one candle. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” -- Cambodian saying attributed to Buddha

[camerata]

"The Buddhist task involves trying to figure out how we were programmed (by parents, teachers, friends, the government, and so on...) and to reprogram ourselves."

- Prawase Wasi

[B Fuddled]

O Nobly Born, O you of glorious origins, remember your radiant true nature, the essence of mind. Trust it. Return to it. It is home. - The Tibetan Book of the Dead

Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in the eyes of the Divine. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed...I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worshiop each other. -Thomas Merton

- Discovering Our Nobility: A Psychology of Original Goodness - Jack Kornfeild

[sabaijai]

Attention is living; inattention is dying.

The attentive never stop; the inattentive are dead already.

The Buddha, Dhammapada 21

[camerata]

Buddhist teachings are not a religion, they are a science of mind.

- The Dalai Lama