Law of Attraction

Law of Attraction abounds, and when it is said to you, “Ask, and it is given,” there is no more powerful statement that is at the basis of what makes things happen than that. Now, how is it that you think you ask? With your words? The Universe doesn’t hear your words. You ask with your desire. The desire that is born out of the contrast. That desire. That wanting. That’s what summons the Life Force. - Abraham

As you perceive something, you give birth to a thought, and this thought now thinks. Now that it exists, now that it has been conjured, now that it has been focused, now it vibrates. Now, by Law of Attraction, other thoughts that are vibrationally same will come to it. So, it begins its expansion immediately. - Abraham

Within the seed of your desire is everything necessary for it to blossom to fulfilment. And Law of Attraction is the engine that does the work. Your work is just to give it a fertile growing place in order to expand. - Abraham

Your prayer causes you to focus, and the Law of Attraction causes everything in the Universe that’s in vibrational harmony with your focus to come to you. - Abraham

Genius. It is just attention to something specific. That’s all it is. Law of Attraction makes it happen, and so anyone who gives attention to any subject for a period of time will evolve in the direction of that understanding. - Abraham

Buddhism

Studying the Buddha way is studying oneself.
Studying oneself is forgetting oneself.
Forgetting oneself is being enlightened by all things.
Being enlightened by all things is to shed the body-mind of oneself, and those of others.
No trace of enlightenment remains, and this traceless enlightenment continues endlessly.
- Dogen Zenji

Our egoistic ideas are delusion, covering our Buddha Nature. - Shunryu Suzuki

Acceptance, in the Buddhist sense of the word, is not passivity. It is not accepting what happens without an active response, merely shrugging one's shoulders and declining to engage. Rather, it is looking clearly and calmly at a situation, seeing it for what it is and working with it as it is. - Gary Hayden

In the gloom and darkness of the night, when there is a sudden flash of light, a person will recognize objects; in the same way, the one with a flash of insight sees according to reality… "This is how sorrow works; this is how it arises; this is how it can come to an end; this is the path leading to that end." - Anguttara Nikaya

faith

Christianity, just as much as Islam, teaches children that unquestioned faith is a virtue. You don't have to make the case for what you believe. If somebody announces that it is part of his faith, the rest of society, whether of the same faith, or another, or of none, is obliged, by ingrained custom, to "respect" it without question; respect it until the day it manifests itself in a horrible massacre like the destruction of the World Trade Center, or the London or Madrid bombings. - Richard Dawkins

If you are right to believe that religious faith offers the only real basis for morality, then atheists should be less moral than believers. In fact, they should be utterly immoral. Are they? Do members of atheist organizations in the United States commit more than their fair share of violent crimes? Do the members of the National Academy of Sciences, 93 percent of whom do not accept the idea of God, lie and cheat and steal with abandon? We can be reasonably confident that these groups are at least as well behaved as the general population. And yet, atheists are the most reviled minority in the United States. - Sam Harris

Mind

A mind that is afraid withers away; it cannot function properly. - Jiddu Krishnamurti

The mind has been likened to a piece of paper that has been folded. Ever afterwards it has a tendency to fold in the same crease–unless we make a new crease or fold, when it will follow the last lines. - William Walker Atkinson

There is no effect in the exterior world that does not spring from an inner source. There is no motion that does not first occur within the mind. - (Seth) Jan Roberts

There are quiet places also in the mind… But we build bandstand and factories on them. Deliberately – to put a stop to the quietness. - Aldous Huxley

What the mind doesn't understand, it worships or fears. - Alice Walker

Within our impure mind the pure one is to be found. - Hui Neng

Your mind will always believe everything you tell it. Feed it hope. Feed it truth. Feed it with love. - Unknown

Your mind is a magnet. If you think of blessings you attract blessings; and if you think of problems you attract problems. Always cultivate good thoughts and always remain positive and optimistic. - Unknown

Your mind is like a garden. Tend it well by filling it with positive, encouraging, and faith-building thoughts throughout the day. Disorder sets in when the garden is not tended to for some time; the same goes for our mind if we neglect it too long. - Unknown

When our mind is calm, it reflects reality accurately, without distortion. Breathing, sitting, and walking with mindfulness calms disturbing mental formations such as anger, fear, and despair, allowing us to see reality more clearly. - Thich Nhat Hanh

Spiritual

The sun shines down, and its image reflects in a thousand different pots filled with water. The reflections are many, but they are each reflecting the same sun. Similarly, when we come to know who we truly are, we will see ourselves in all people. - Ammachi

The main thing is that we are part of the reality in ourselves to perfect one’s power of discovery and that leads to the discovery of our organic ourselves without fear of immersing ourselves in the earth, the sea, fire or air. - Pierre Alechinsky

The man who will not give up his passions, who clings to anger, unkindness, sensuality, pride, vanity self-indulgence, for the momentary pleasure which their gratification affords him is a spiritual miser; he cannot have any spiritual comforts. - James Allen

Religion

Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by a difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. - George Washington

People have a peculiar pleasure in making converts, that is, in causing others to enjoy what they enjoy, thus finding their own likeness represented and reflected back to them. - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Most religions believe that by crying, "Lord, Lord!" often enough, they can contrive to enter the kingdom of heaven. A flock of trained parrots could just as readily cry the same thing, with just as little chance of success. - Grandier

Zen Sayings

The snow falls, each flake in its appropriate place. - Zen Saying

Knock on the sky and listen to the sound! - Zen Saying

Breathe deep and let go. - Zen Saying

Let go or be dragged. - Zen Saying

Old ways won’t open new doors. - Zen Saying

The obstacle is the path. - Zen Saying

There is nothingness, where comes the dust? - Zen Saying

This is it. But if you fixate on it, It isn’t anymore. - Zen Saying

What was never lost can never be found. - Zen Saying

The bird of paradise lands only on the hand that does not grasp. - Zen Proverb

Desires and expectations are the sources of disappointment. Don’t cling to them. Do your work, walk your way. - Zen Saying

Taoism

When we look at things in the light of Tao, nothing is best, nothing is worst. Each thing, seen in its own light stands out in its own way. It can seem to be "better" than what is compared with it on its own terms. But seen in terms of the whole, no one thing stands out as "better" ... All creatures have gifts of their own... All things have varying capacities. Consequently, he who wants to have right without wrong, order without disorder, does not understand the principles of heaven and earth. He does not know how things hang together. Can a man cling only to heaven and know nothing of earth? They are correlative: to know one is to know the other. To refuse one is to refuse both. - Chuang Tzu

You never find happiness until you stop looking for it. My greatest happiness consists precisely in doing nothing whatever that is calculated to obtain happiness: and this, in the minds of most people, is the worst possible course... If you ask, "what ought to be done" and "what ought not to be done" on earth in order to produce happiness, I answer that these questions do not have an answer. There is no way of determining such things. Yet at the same time, if I cease striving for happiness, the "right' and the "wrong" at once become apparent all by themselves. Contentment and well-being at once become possible the moment you cease to act with them in view, and if you practice non-doing (wu wei), you will have both happiness and well-being. - Chuang Tzu

You train your eye and your vision lusts after color. You train your ear, and you long for delightful sound. You delight in doing good, and your natural kindness is blown out of shape. You delight in righteousness, and you become righteous beyond all reason. You overdo liturgy, and you turn into a ham actor. Overdo your love of music, and you play corn. Love of wisdom leads to wise contriving. Love of knowledge leads to faultfinding. If men would stay as they really are, taking or leaving these eight delights would make no difference. But if they will not rest in their right state, the eight delights develop like malignant tumors. The world falls into confusion. Since men honour these delights, and lust after them, the world has gone stone-blind. When the delight is over, they still will not let go of it… - Chuang Tzu

The Four Noble Truth

The Four Noble Truths are a tenet of Buddhism.

The Noble Truth of Suffering,
The Noble Truth of Arising of Suffering
The Noble Truth of The Cease of Suffering
The Noble Truth of The Approach to the Ceasing of Suffering.

The Truth of Suffering

Everybody knows there is sorrow and suffering in the world; even a hungry street-dog knows that. It is a truism. But the Buddha and He alone of all thinkers of all times points out that everything is sorrow-fraught. He shows that not lonely Death is sorrow, but even birth a necessary condition from which all sorrows spring, and life itself is but a process of change. For it is in change that lies Disharmony which is the root of sorrow. The very fact of striving for better, for rest, for satisfaction, proves the existence of evil, of unrest of dissatisfaction. And that is found in everything because everything which is composed tends by it very nature to decompose. In the permanent nature of a process of change is found the reason of sorrow and Disharmony.

The first truth of the universality of 'suffering' teaches us in short, that all forms of existence are of necessity subject to suffering. The cause of feeling of sorrow is 'selfishness.'

The Truth about the origin of Suffering

All suffering is rooted in selfish "craving " and "ignorance". Nothing in the world can come into existence without reason and cause; not only all our latent tendencies, but our whole destiny, all weal and woe result from causes which we have to seek partly in this, partly in former states of existence. The future life, with all its weal and woe must result from the seeds sown by this and former lives.

The cause of sorrow, therefore is that craving which gives rise to re-birth and, bound up with greed for pleasure, seeks ever fresh delights. It is the sensual craving, that craving for individual existence, the craving for temporal happiness.

The Truth about the path leading to cessation of sorrow

Our desires beget discontentment. The only way to remove that discontentment or disharmony is, by means of the removal of its cause, namely, craving. The cessation of Craving will produce the end of sorrow.

The Truth about the path leading to cessation of sorrow

It is the Noble Eightfold Path which shows the way or means by which the goal is reached. It is the middle path avoiding all extremes of self-indulgent materialism and self-mortifying idealism. It is a path of understanding and practice, a culture of intellect and will.

Pilgrims in this Middle Way, avoiding the two extremes, who weary of the "fretful fever" life, have seriously set their faces away from its illusions towards the freedom and the silence of Nirvana.

Explanation of The Four Noble Truth in the next post.

Prayers

To pray to god is to flatter oneself that with words, one can alter nature. - Francois Voltaire

Enlightenment

To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him. - Buddha

Don’t think you can attain total awareness and whole enlightenment without proper discipline and practice. This is egomania. Appropriate rituals channel your emotions and life energy toward the light. Without the discipline to practice them, you will tumble constantly backward into darkness. - Lao-tzu

It is paradoxical, yet true, to say, that the more we know, the more ignorant we become in the absolute sense, for it is only through enlightenment that we become conscious of our limitations. Precisely one of the most gratifying results of intellectual evolution is the continuous opening up of new and greater prospects. - Nikola Tesla

Knowing others is wisdom; Knowing the self is enlightenment; Mastering others requires force; Mastering the self needs strength. - Lao Tzu

Everybody wants to get enlightened but nobody wants to change. - Andrew Cohen

Enlightenment must come little by little – otherwise it would overwhelm. - Idries Shah

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment. - Dogen

A New Way of Life

Extracted from the article A New Way of Life By Robert Daniels

The cause of the suffering and pain pervading human life today is its total absorption in the material way of life. The soul of man is pushed into the background as if it did not exist.

This absorption with life as it is today has brought nothing but despair and disappointment. Those who have pursued the material way of life to its highest point have found it empty and wanting. They have come to realize that life has a deeper meaning, and the spirits and hearts of men have cried out for a release from the burden which they have place upon themselves.

What the world needs now is a new way of life which will lead to a deeper and more meaningful understanding of all that life is and can be. The spiritual nature of man must be released from within and allowed a free and natural expression of its being.

The burden of life which millions have to bear is one of the absence of spiritual awareness – the absence of the deeper and real meaning of what life really is.

Every individual should seek the real self within, the discovery of which would set men and women free of their addiction to the materialistic way of life.

Life, which can be so beautiful, is often a burden difficult to bear because our thoughts are turning on a spiral of self-interest. We think of our own needs, our own feelings, and our own desires. Such thoughts bring little, if any, comfort. Yet when we turn our thoughts within, and express our love for family and friends, we will find that suddenly our thoughts are uplifted and a new awareness has begun to awaken in our heart and mind. We will no longer be so concerned about our own desires and our problems; rather we will find satisfaction in sending and thinking good thoughts about others.

When we look at the quality of life today, we see that the majority of people are seeking to improve their material welfare. However, this is a never-ending chain of disappointment, for only when we look at life and our daily circumstances from the point of view of man’s spiritual self, do we begin to realize man’s great possibilities and where his true happiness lies. There are so many opportunities for man when he begins to see things from the higher view of the spirit. The limitations of the materialistic ideals are soon realized when we see things in comparison with the infinite possibilities of the spiritual self.

The time has come for man to seek a new and better way of life, one that will bring real satisfaction and peace of mind. It has always been close at hand and readily available to seek all who would within. But only the few have chosen to travel this path to a greater realization of the meaning of life. The fascination of the pursuit of pleasure has been the tempter which kept the masses of people from ever seeking that which was their natural birthright. However, there is a new trend to be seen throughout the world today, a new rhythm and change of emphasis in the minds of many people. On the one hand, the decadence of materialism has reached a high point, bringing despair and an empty heart for many, and on the other hand, we can see a new interest of the part of many young people who are not in sympathy with the traditional search for wealth and fame. They are seeking more meaningful values and share a concern for the welfare of their fellow men and the environment in which they live. The traditional values of wealth, position, and property are no longer given first priority, as in the past.

Their realization of a greater and more significant meaning of life’s values is a refreshing change on the world scene. It reveals a growth of spiritual consciousness in the lives of increasing numbers of people who have come to see the fallacy and limitations of the pursuit of materialism. Organizations devoted to self-improvement and the search for a meaning to life are to be found everywhere, and while many only cater to the casual seeker, others help the sincere student to set his feet on the path of self-discovery.

We are now witnessing a change of values in the lives of many people and it is significant that this change is happening throughout the world. The important and interesting point to notice is that many who are changing their outlook are more mature people as well as those young in years. There is a growing realization that life’s great values must be more enduring than the empty satisfaction which the material life brings.

This change in the emphasis on more enduring values will grow stronger and become more important in the lives of many people. Once the trend becomes an accepted way of life, it will strongly influence the rest of humanity. This is what is needed today. Our interest in the mystical life can have an influence in the lives of others if we learn to radiate love, harmony, and peace of mind in our thinking. And if we set a high standard for our own behaviour at all times, it will prove to be a great blessing to all those with whom we come in contact.

Let it be our task that in the months and years to come we will make the greatest effort to set our feet firmly on the path to a new and better way of life, and that we will resolve to have harmony and peace radiate from our consciousness at all times. May we always endeavour to seek a deeper understanding of life and of our fellow human beings to the end that we may truly reflect the wisdom and love, the idealism and the practical knowledge of the Cosmic.

With this resolve our lives will become richer and more successful, and our influence for good in the lives of others will bring real satisfaction and the knowledge that we are all growing to ward a true brotherhood of man.

Compassion

Compassion is not a quality to be cultivated in isolation, aloof from life. It is easy to be compassionate from a distance, when your heart is undisturbed. When you are surrounded by those who love and care for you, when you have built a world where pain is repressed or ignored, you can easily immerse yourself in thoughts of love and tolerance. Yet that is a fragile world, built on foundations that will always crumble. Compassion speaks of the willingness to engage with tragedy, loss, and pain. Its domain is not only the world of those you love and care for, but equally the people who threaten you, the countless people you don't know, the homeless person you meet on the street, and the situations of anger and hatred you recoil from. It is here that you learn about the depths of tolerance and understanding that are possible for each one of us. It is here that you learn about dignity, meaning, and greatness of heart. - Christina Feldman

Meditation is a flower and compassion is its fragrance. Exactly like that it happens. The flower blooms and the fragrance spreads on the winds in all directions, to be carried to the very ends of earth. But the basic thing is the blooming of the flower. Man is also carrying a potentiality for flowering within him. Until and unless the inner being of man flowers, the fragrance of compassion is not possible. Compassion cannot be practiced. It is not a discipline. You cannot manage it. It is beyond you. If you meditate, one day, suddenly, you become aware of a new phenomenon, absolutely strange – from your being, compassion is flowing towards the whole of existence. Undirected, unaddressed, it is moving to the very ends of existence. - Osho

Universe

I like to experience the Universe as one harmonious whole. Every cell has life. Matter, too, has life; it is energy solidified. The tree outside is life… The whole of nature is life… The basic laws of the universe are simple, but because our senses are limited, we can’t grasp them. There is a pattern in creation. - Albert Einstein

I seem, like everything else, to be a center, a sort of vortex, at which the whole energy of the universe realizes itself. Each one of us, not only human beings but every leaf, every weed, exists in the way it does, only because everything else around it does. The individual and the universe are inseparable. - Alan Watts

The Law of Attraction

Law of attraction is a tenet of mysticism and spirituality.

The law of attraction is the law of creation. Quantum physicists tell us that the entire Universe emerged from thought!

As you think of yourself living in abundance, you are powerfully and consciously determining your life through the law of attraction.

Decide what you want to be, do, and have, think the thoughts of it, emit the frequency, and your vision will become your life.

If you can think about what you want in your mind, and make that your dominant thought, you will bring it into your life.

Through this most powerful law, The Law of Attraction, your thoughts become things in your life.

You can purposefully use your feelings to transmit an even more powerful frequency, by adding feeling to what you are wanting.

Your thoughts determine your frequency, and your feelings tell you immediately what frequency you are on.

The only reason why people do not have what they want is because they are thinking more about what they don’t want than what they do want.

Way of Buddha, Way of Waking Up

Examine for yourself what is really the truth. What is the reason for the misery and pain every living being undergoes? What is the cause of samsara’s delusion?

It is nothing other than lacking the experience of our enlightened essence. We ignore what is primordially present within us: our buddha nature. Instead, immersed in confused emotions, we chase illusory aims that endlessly result in more deluded experience.

That’s called samsara. We have already done that for countless lifetimes, life after life, death following rebirth. Unless you now take this opportunity, while you are still a human being, to realize what is fully possible, you will continue in the future in the same deluded way.

Please understand that the buddha nature is present within everyone. Nobody lacks this potential, not even a single person in this world. Unless you learn how to bring it into your personal experience, train in that and realize it, you remain deluded.

Delusion never disappears by itself. Spinning around on the rim of samsara’s vicious wheel, on the twelve links of dependent origination, you will continue life after life. We all die, are reborn, and die again, countless times.

But, in this present life, you can learn to experience your enlightened essence, and if you do that, you can, before passing away, attain the perfectly and fully awakened state of a buddha.

The method to transform this human body into rainbow light at the moment of death is only through recognizing and realizing our buddha nature; there is no other possible way. The instruction for how to do that is still available.

Place your trust in the three jewels: the precious Buddha, dharma and sangha. Receive this teaching from someone who holds an unbroken lineage; this lineage is still intact...

Everything in the world changes; nothing remains the same, nothing is permanent, nothing lasts. If you want to be successful, if you really want to take care of yourself --recognize your enlightened essence.

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Tibetan Dzogchen teacher, Pointing out instructions, Dzogchen

Bible

Buy a bible, never read it and you’re a good Christian. Buy a bible, read parts of it and you become a pious sonofabitch. Buy a bible, study it thoroughly and you become an atheist, hated by every Christian. - Hellbroke Lucy

The Mind

Since everything is a reflection of our minds … everything can be changed by our minds. - The Buddha

Sit in reverie and watch the changing colour of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. - Thomas Huxley

The MIND has first to be attuned to the Unconscious. - D.T. Suzuki

The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included. - Bodhidharma

The mind is unstable and flighty. It wanders wherever it desires. Therefore, it is good to control the mind. A disciplined mind brings happiness. - Buddha

The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark - Thomas Paine

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude. - Aldous Huxley

The only prison we need to escape from is the prison of our own minds. - Unknown

The treacherous, unexplored areas of the world are not in continents or seas; they are in the minds and hearts of men. - Unknown

Spiritual

Leave the problems of God to God and karma to karma. Today you’re here and nothing you do will change that. Today you are alive and here and honored and blessed with good fortune. Look at this sunset, it’s beautiful, neh? This sunset exists. Tomorrow does not exist. There is only now. Please look. It is so beautiful and it will never happen ever again, never, not this sunset, never in all infinity. Lose yourself in it, make yourself one with nature and do not worry about karma, yours, mine, or that of the village. - James Clavell

To dwell in the here and now does not mean you never think about the past, or responsibly plan for the future. The idea is simply not to allow yourself to get lost in regrets about the past or worries about the future. Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. - Thich Nhat Hanh

For me, spirituality includes the belief in things larger than ourselves, an appreciation of nature and beauty, a sensitivity to the world, a feeling of shared connection with other living things, a desire to help people less fortunate than ourselves. All of these things can occur with or without God. I do not believe in the existence of God, but I consider myself a spiritual person in the manner I have just described. I call myself a spiritual atheist. I would imagine that many people are spiritual atheists. - Alan Lightman

Religion

When a man has once brought himself to accept uncritically all the absurdities that religious doctrines put before him and even to overlook the contradictions between them, we need not be greatly surprised at the weakness of his intellect. - Sigmund Freud

Man is a Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion – several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbour as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t straight. - Mark Twain

Religion is mostly a secular phenomenon, contaminated by limiting thinking (dogma) and, most importantly, lacking in spiritual practice that leads to the direct experience of God. In the name of spirituality, religion encourages empty ritual and outdated worldviews, and, therefore, outdated ideas, ideologies and laws. Genuine spiritual teachings with their orientation toward a rational approach to living, authentic spiritual practice, love and service are too threatening for religious mentality, which is based on fear and hunger for power (such as proselytizing in the name of service). - Unknown

Zen Sayings

Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. - Zen Saying

If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are. - Zen Saying

If you have no feelings about worldly things, they are all Buddhism; if you have feelings about Buddhism, it is a worldly thing. - Zen Saying

In studying the way, realizing it is hard; once you have realized it, preserving it is hard. When you can preserve it, putting it into practice is hard. - Zen Saying

Learning Zen is a phenomenon of gold and dung. Before you understand it, it's like gold; after you understand it, it's like dung. - Zen Saying

Let go over a cliff, die completely, and then come back to life – after that you cannot be deceived. - Zen Saying

Chuang Tzu

Tao is obscured when men understand only one pair of opposites, or concentrate only on a partial aspect of being. Then clear expression also becomes muddled by mere wordplay, affirming this one aspect and denying all the rest. The pivot of Tao passes through the center where all affirmations and denials converge. He who grasps the pivot is at the still-point from which all movements and oppositions can be seen in their right relationship. Abandoning all thought of imposing a limit or taking sides, he rests in direct intuition. - Chuang Tzu

The man in whom Tao acts without impediment harms no other being by his actions yet he does not know himself to be "kind", to be "gentle"… (He) does not bother with his own interests and does not despise others who do. He does not struggle to make money and does not make a virtue of poverty. He goes his way without relying on others and does not pride himself on walking alone. While he does not follow the crowd, he won't complain of those who do. Rank and reward make no appeal to him; disgrace and shame do not deter him. He is not always looking for right and wrong, always deciding "Yes" or "No." The ancients said, therefore: The man of Tao remains unknown. Perfect virtue produces nothing. "No-Self" is "True-Self". And the greatest man is Nobody. - Chuang Tzu

The true men of old were not afraid when they stood alone in their views. No great exploits. No plans. If they failed, no sorrow. No self-congratulation in success… The true men of old knew no lust for life, no dread of death. Their entrance was without gladness, their exit, yonder, without resistance. Easy come, easy go. They did not forget where from, nor ask where to, nor drive grimly forward fighting their way through life. They took life as it came, gladly; took death as it came, without care; and went away, yonder. Yonder! They had no mind to fight Tao. They did not try by their own contriving, to help Tao along. These are the ones we call true men. Minds free, thoughts gone. Brows clear, faces serene. - Chuang Tzu

The Buddha's Teachings

The Buddha's teachings, also known as The Dharma, are the Doctrine of Reality. It is a means of Deliverance from suffering and deliverance itself. Whether the Buddha's arise or not, the Dharma exists. It lies hidden from the ignorant eyes of men, till a Buddha, an Enlightened One, realizes and compassionately reveals it to the world.

The Buddha's Teaching and message have had their effect on all people for thousands of years whether they believe in religion or not. His message is for all. It is not only meant for monks in monasteries. His Teachings are also meant for ordinary men and women living at home with their families.

When we recognize that all phenomenal things are transitory, are subject to suffering and are void of any essential reality, we will be convinced that true and enduring happiness cannot be found in material possessions and worldly achievement, that true happiness must be sought only through mental purity and the cultivation of wisdom.

The Buddha did not teach from theories. He always taught from a practical standpoint based on His understanding, His Enlightenment, and His realization of the Truth. His intention was to point out the futility of the worldly life and to show the correct, practical Path to salvation that He discovered.

The Buddha said, "Wise men give no credence to passing theories. They are past believing everything they see and hear."

The practical nature of Buddha's teaching is revealed in the fact that not everyone is expected to attain exactly the same goal in one lifetime, since the mental impurities are deeply rooted. Some people are spiritually more advanced than others and they can proceed to greater heights according to their state of development. But every single human being has the ultimate potential to attain the supreme goal of Buddhahood if he has the determination and will to do so.

The Buddha has said that it is because we fail to understand The Four Noble Truths that we have continued to go round in the cycle of birth and death.

His approach to the problems and suffering of mankind is straightforward and direct. His teaching illuminates The Way for mankind to cross from a world of darkness, hatred, and suffering, to a new world of light, love and happiness. Often, we only praise His Teaching and respect Him, but do not try to practice what He preached.

A sign board at partings of roads, for instance, indicates directions and it is left to the way farer to tread along the way watching his steps. The board certainly will not take him to his desired destination.

A doctor diagnoses the ailment and prescribes; it is left to the patient to test the prescription. The attitude of the Buddha towards his followers is like that of an understanding and compassionate teacher or physician.

For the Buddha, the entire teaching is just the realization of the unsatisfactory nature of all phenomenal existence or conflicts of life and the cultivation of the path leading away from this unsatisfactoriness. This is his philosophy. His sole intention and aim was to explain in all its detail the problem of suffering or unsatisfactoriness, the universal fact, to make people feel its full force and to convince them of it.

Buddha also taught that all existence is subject to the law of karma, that re-birth is the lot of man and that suffering is due to attachment - beliefs.

The Buddha emphasized the practical aspects of his teaching, the application of knowledge to life - looking into life and mot merely at it. Wisdom gained by understanding and development of the qualities of mind and heart is wisdom par excellence.

Humour

Enlightenment

Enlightenment is a destructive process, the crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing through the facade of pretence. It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true. All that is necessary to awaken to yourself as the radiant emptiness of spirit is to stop seeking something more or better or different, and to turn your attention inward to the awake silence that you are. The truth is that you already are what you are seeking. - Adyashanti

According to Vedanta, (Schools of Hindu philosophy), there are only two symptoms of enlightenment, just two indications that a transformation is taking place within you toward a higher consciousness. The first symptom is that you stop worrying. Things don’t bother you anymore. You become light-hearted and full of joy. The second symptom is that you encounter more and more meaningful coincidences in your life, more and more synchronicities. And this accelerates to the point where you actually experience the miraculous. - Deepak Chopra

The Way Within

To many people, life is a series of ceaseless conflicts and difficulties, involving the trial of personal adjustment, and for many the spiritual path provided the only real escape from these continuous problems.

But problems of one kind or another will always cross our paths until we have come to realize their true value to us and how we may rise above them. These conflicts in life are very real and never too far from anyone. Millions spend large amounts of money, time, and effort in finding a certain elusive happiness which they hope will take them away from their difficulties and the problems they face each day.

Our problems, however, are really blessings in disguise, if we see them in their true perspective. Mystical ascension means that through facing our daily problems with insight and composure, we learn to raise our consciousness to a higher level of understanding, permitting a greater and more detached view of our daily situations so that we see how best to deal with them. Accepting the circumstances of our present life and of the universe in which we live is imperative to the mystical student. We so often try to place the responsibility for our own problems upon others blaming them for all our difficulties and for the restrictions which have been placed upon our so-called freedom.

But these problems when viewed from an ascension of consciousness, are clearly seen to be of our own making, even if by association, because we share in the karma of those around us. Once we accept the conditions of our own lives we can then more readily adjust to the lessons they try to teach.

One of the causes of many of our daily problems is the rigid and inflexible attitude we hold regarding many of our daily circumstances. The lesson of life teaches that we must learn to adjust to all events and conditions confronting us. This is not to suggest that we must bend the way the wind blows, but it does mean that by holding an open mind and a loving heart we will see all the more wisely how to act and respond in any circumstance.

We are constantly influenced by others on the material plane, and as we aspire to the mystical life and follow its teachings, we become more conscious of, and sensitive to the influence of the sufferings of others. Now, if we are inflexible and become antagonistic to these influences, which can take many forms, we will experience more problems and become more entangled in the world of material affairs.

Ascension of consciousness which comes about by mystical aspiration and the study and practice of its teachings allows us to rise above these influences. We can never be indifferent to them or be totally free from the turmoil of life, because that is our destiny in this incarnation. Our only escape is to aspire even higher in consciousness, where these influences can no longer have any power over us, so that we become not indifferent to them but impersonally detached from them. Should we try to ignore them, we will be trust back into their influence, because life is a school of discipline – a temporary school which prepares us for the real and greater life of service, and only by living life to the full, experiencing all of its problems and rising above them, can we attain mastership.

The cosmic influence always brings change in the upward spiral of evolution. We are a part of the Cosmic and must become receptive to its beneficent influences. With a flexible and open mind, and a sensitive and loving heart, we can grow in consciousness and understanding in preparation for the greater life that awaits us.

The dedicated heart opens the door to mystical revelations in its aspirations to the highest envisaged ideals. Life is the school where we learn these lessons necessary to our own individual progress and it is the arena where we give back to the world and express the love and the spiritual benediction granted us.

Extracted from the article The Way Within by Robert E. Daniels.

Compassion

I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics. - Albert Schweitzer

True benevolence, or compassion, extends itself through the whole of existence and sympathizes with the distress of every creature capable of sensation. - Joseph Addison

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity. - Pema Chodran

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind. - Albert Schweitzer

Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil within us. Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless. - Eric Hoffer

The Universe

There is no reason that the universe should be designed for our convenience. - John D. Barrow

There is nothing waste, nothing sterile, nothing dead in the universe; no chaos, no confusions, save in appearance. - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

We are taught by great actions that the universe is the property of every individual in it. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself. - Brian Cox

We live in a changing universe, and few things are changing faster than our conception of it. - Timothy Ferris

When one tugs at a single thing in Nature, he finds it hitched to the rest of the Universe. - John Muir

You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing. - Alan Watts

You create your own universe as you go along. The stronger your imagination, the more variegated your universe. When you leave off dreaming, the universe ceases to exist. - Winston Churchill

You must either learn to carry the Universe or be crushed by it. - Andrew Boyd

When your intent is in accordance with the Universe, things start happening. - Unknown

Truth

Buddhism

The Buddhist scriptures are quite vast and multifarious dealing with the physical and meta-physical to the path of the spiritual. On one hand, you can simply take the teachings of the Buddha as a philosophy, i.e. a way of life, and be totally dogmatic. That is an extremely valid path, as these teachings are the central core of Buddhism.

Buddhist texts have plenty of references to gods. Note the use of the word god in small letter, and pluralized. The god concept in Buddhism does not refer to an all-powerful divine Lord, as the Christians and Muslims know it. In Buddhism, god simply refers to a state of being, another form of rebirth, on a higher plane of existence.

Regarding incense sticks and fruits placed before the images of Buddha, just look beyond the physical here, and consider the representation. Another act of representation is bowing; it instils humility.

The image? This is basically a human phenomenon. People need physical representation, for various purposes - could be for focus and concentration, could be for relief. People need representation of their faith and belief.

Science

Science doesn’t set out to refute religion; science sets out to discover what is true. Religion is collateral damage. - Unknown

Science is corrosive to religious belief. - Steven Weinberg

At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes – an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless sceptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. - Carl Sagan