Although many things can be said in criticism of religious faith, there is no discounting its power. Millions among us, even now, are quite willing to die for our unjustified beliefs, and millions more, it seems, are willing to kill for them. - Sam Harris
The whole point of religious faith, its strength and chief glory, is that it does not depend on rational justification. The rest of us are expected to defend our prejudices. But ask a religious person to justify their faith and you infringe 'religious liberty'. - Richard Dawkins
People kill and are killed because they cling too tightly to their own beliefs and ideologies. When we believe that ours is the only faith that contains the truth, violence and suffering will surely be the result. - Thich Nhat Hanh
The psychic body is always affected by the physical body that encloses it. We must bear in mind that the physical body is like a shield or an armour that surrounds the psychic body and acts as a neutralizing medium between the psychic body and the cosmic vibrations around us. Therefore, when the psychical body is not well, it affects the physic body and when the physic body is not well, it will affect the physical body.
However, the principal effect upon the psychic body that causes it to get out of harmony with the Cosmic is the influence of our brain and emotions. Thoughts of anger, hatred, enmity, jealousy, or any other unkind, unpleasant or destructive thought, greatly affects the psychic body because the emotional part of our nature is part of the psychic system and very closely connected with it.
In fact, we cannot have any emotional experience without its reaction upon the psychic body. Joyful, pleasant, happy, constructive emotions, or thrills are like tonics to the psychic body. They fill it with strength and help to attune it with the Cosmic. Every time we have a pleasant thrill through doing some altruistic, kind, or loving act for someone else, or even for ourselves, we are toning the psychic body to its highest cosmic pitch. That is why we have to keep cheerful, happy, joyous, and at peace.
When the brain and emotional activities of the human body are at peace, there is a maximum amount of harmony existing between the psychic body and the Cosmic. Emotions that are the reverse of these produce a reverse effect. Five minutes of anger, with the temper and nervous system strained to its utmost, throws the psychic system out of harmony; it is like throwing the balance wheel of a clock off its pivot. The whole machinery of the human system is thus thrown out of balance and there is complete disharmony with immediate actions and reactions that are detrimental.
The worst thoughts and the worst emotional effects are those resulting from concealed or long-harboured enmities and thoughts that do not express themselves outwardly very often but are help deeply in the nature. Usually this deep-seated destructive sensation is one of jealousy or enmity.
It would be far better if the emotion was of an explosive nature and came out in a few minutes of anger and then was done forever. Holding it within the system for days, weeks, months, or years is like holding a slow poison in the system that is constantly doing its damage.
On the other hand, deceitful or wilfully planned acts of injustice or acts lacking mercy and love have their reaction upon the psychic body also. The man who plans to cheat someone out of a small amount of money or out of some just debt or some benefit that should go to another person and succeeds in carrying it out may feel victorious in what he has gained but he has injured his psychic body by it just as though he had fired a revolver shot through the entire psychic system and injured it in a physical sense. The person who tells a falsehood about another and causes him an injury, a loss, a worry, or a pain of a serious nature has injured his own psychic system far more seriously than he has injured the other person.
This is the sort of thing that throws the psychic body out of harmony with the Cosmic, and there is only one way in which the psychic body can be brought back to a normal condition: first, by getting out of the human mind and human emotions any hidden or concealed destructive emotions or thoughts; and second, by changing the attitude to joy and peace, universal love and kindness, and making some compensation for any recent injury that has been done to another.
If the physical body needs purging to get rid of poisons in it, certainly the psychic part needs the same thing, if not more often.
Whatever may be your illness, physical or mental, whatever may be your problem in life, remember that the first step is to get in attunement with the Cosmic. The secondary step should be a true housecleaning of the emotional and psychic part of your nature. Purge yourself of all emotions and thoughts and especially deeply hidden thoughts, that maybe destructive, unkind or inharmonious. Try to get your soul filled with sunshine, with laughter.
People who enjoy humour and have a keen sense of humour are usually free of any deeply concealed or destructive emotions. They are usually ready to laugh and smile at even the person who injures them. They never express resentment and they see the happy, sunshiny, glorious side of life that is as full of fun and laughter as it can be. Let sunshine fill your soul and you will keep yourself cosmically attuned; then any illness or physical abnormality that may come to your physical body because of any momentary inharmonious condition will be wiped out by the next moment’s abundance of cosmic attunement.
- Source Unknown
If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete. - Siddhartha Gautama
Compassion is silent but does not remain secluded. It goes out at the sight of trouble, sin, and need. - E. M. Bounds
Compassion is the basis of all truthful relationship: it means being present with love – for ourselves and for all life, including animals, fish, birds, and trees. - Ram Dass
Compassion is the basis of morality. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Compassion is the religion of the heart. - Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati
Compassion is the sense of our own misfortunes in those of another. - L. M. Stretch
Compassion is the signature of Higher Consciousness. Non-violence is the tool to evolve into the Higher Consciousness. - Amit Ray
Compassion makes you a lotus. You start rising above the muddy world of desires, greed, anger. Compassion is a transformation of your energies. - Osho
Compassion will no longer be seen as a spiritual luxury for a contemplative few; rather it will be viewed as a social necessity for the entire human family. - Duane Elgin
Compassion – that's the one thing no machine ever had. Maybe it's the one thing that keeps man ahead of them. - D. C. Fontana
Once you stop clinging and let things be, you’ll be free. You’ll transform everything. And you’ll be at peace wherever you are. - Bodhidharma
Do not let the behaviour of others destroy your inner peace. - Dalai Lama
The poor long for riches, the rich long for heaven, but the wise long for a state of tranquility. - Swami Rama
Keep peace in your heart. - Unknown
Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace. - Robert J. Sawyer
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Peace has never come from dropping bombs. Real peace comes from enlightenment and educating people to behave more in a divine manner. - Carlos Santana
Peace is not an absence of war; it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, and justice. - Baruch Spinoza
Have you got the habit of hoarding useless objects, thinking that one day, who knows when, you may need them?
Have you got the habit of accumulating money and not spending it because you think that in the future you may in want of it?
Have you got the habit of storing clothes, shoes, furniture, utensils and other home supplies that you haven’t used already for some time?
And inside yourself…? Have you got the habit to keep reproaches, resentment, sadness, fears and more?
Don’t do it! You are going against your prosperity. It is necessary to make room, to leave an empty space in order to allow new things to arrive in your life.
It is necessary that you get rid of all the useless things that are in you and in your life in order for prosperity to arrive.
The force of this emptiness is one that will absorb and attract all that you wish.
As long as you are materially or emotionally holding the old and useless feelings, you won’t have room for new opportunities.
Goods must circulate: clean your drawers, the wardrobes, the workshop the garage. Give away what you don’t use any longer.
The attitude of keeping a heap of useless stuff ties your life down.
It’s not the objects you keep that stagnate your life… but rather the attitude of heaping. When we keep in store, we consider the possibility of wanting, of penury.
We believe that tomorrow we may lack, and that we won’t be able to fulfil those necessities. With that idea, you are sending two messages to your brain and to your life. That you don’t trust tomorrow, and you think that the new and better are not for you.
For this reason, you cheer yourself up by holding on to old and useless stuff.
Get rid of what lost its colour and brightness. Let the new enter your home, your life and yourself.
- Author Unknown
Nirvana
Until you experience the supreme state of Bliss, you can only speculate what it really is. The text suggests that Nirvana is a supra-mundane state of unalloyed happiness.
When that ultimate state is attained, you will fully understand this worldly life for which you now crave. This world will cease to be an object of your desire. You will realise the sorrow and impermanence and impersonality of all that lives and that does not live.
Suicide
Suicide is a foolish act, a wastage of a useful life. Being born as human beings we are given an excellent opportunity to serve our fellow men and gradually work out our total deliverance from the 'States of Sorrow'. That opportunity will be lost and the 'Circle of Life' is lengthened.
Suicide is foolish as it does not help the person at all to solve the problems that he wanted to avoid. Death is not the end of life, other lives will follow; and there the problems will be more complicated.
Homosexuality
Buddhist texts do not mention anything on homosexuality. So long as a relationship is warm and caring, there is no reason why homosexuality should not be treated on equal terms as heterosexuality.
Buddha had included in his embrace the likes of murderers and prostitutes. Homosexuals, surely would not be below them?
Buddha said all sentient beings are equal and should be treated with compassion. If we can treat animals with compassion, surely we can also treat homosexuals with compassion?
The goal of all Buddhists is to achieve Nirvana. Anyone who's serious about achieving enlightenment should not waste time on sensual pursuits.
Sin
In Buddhism, there is no sin. When a person does something morally or ethically wrong, Buddhism points out that it is only an unskilful act. He acted wrongly and unthoughtfully out of ignorance. Sin comes in when there are commandments.
Freedom
To be free, people will have to look within their own minds and work towards freeing themselves from the chains of ignorance and craving. Freedom in the truest sense is only possible when a person uses the Dharma to develop his character through good speech and action and to train his mind so as to expand his mental potential and achieve his ultimate aim of enlightenment.
To seek truth requires one to ask the right questions. Those void of truth never ask about anything because their ego and arrogance prevent them from doing so. Therefore, they will always remain ignorant. Those on the right path to Truth are extremely heart-driven and childlike in their quest, always asking questions, always wanting to understand and know everything – and are not afraid to admit they don't know something. However, every truth seeker does need to breakdown their ego first to see Truth. If the mind is in the way, the heart won't see anything. - Suzy Kassem
The real does not die, the unreal never lived. Set your mind right and all will be right. When you know that the world is one, that humanity is one, you will act accordingly. But first of all you must attend to the way you feel, think and live. Unless there is order in yourself, there can be no order in the world. - Nisargadatta Maharaj
Refuse to think in terms of this or that. The mind is nothing else but the self. Assumption obscures reality without destroying it. All separation, every kind of estrangement and alienation is false. Your being a person is due to the illusion of space and time. The mind creates time and space and takes its own creations for reality. - Nisargadatta Maharaj
To expound and propagate concepts is simple, to drop all concepts is difficult and rare. A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. - Nisargadatta Maharaj
There is nothing to practise. To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that. Just be. Let your true nature emerge. Don't disturb your mind with seeking. - Nisargadatta Maharaj
As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does Self-awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady Self-awareness, inner energies wake up and work miracles without any effort on your part. - Nisargadatta Maharaj
A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does Self-awareness effect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady Self-awareness inner energies wake up and work miracles without effort on your part. - Nisargadatta Maharaj
Mind, body and spirit - they are all intricately linked and each must be nurtured and supported if we wish to attain or maintain our whole self in the best possible state of health. This more or less sums up the meaning of the term “Holistic Healing’. - Unknown
If you see yourself in the correct way, you are all as much extraordinary phenomena of nature as trees, clouds, the patterns in the running water, the flickering of fire, the arrangement of the stars, and the form of a galaxy. You are all just like that. - Alan Watts
Life has left her footprints on my forehead. But I have become a child again this morning. The smile, seen through leaves and flowers, is back to smooth away the wrinkles, as the rains wipe away footprints on the beach. Again, a cycle of birth and death begins. - Thich Nhat Hanh
Light, like circulating blood, which returns to the heart, is supposed to return to the sun, after having performed the functions for which it was emitted from that body; even so will the soul, our intellectual light, return to its Divine Source, when released from the body, to whose earthly purpose it has administered. - Chatfield
There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. - C. G. Jung
We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instils morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid. - Christopher Hitchens
The greatest con job every perpetrated on humanity is religion. It has caused untold misery around the worked and is nothing more than a business model for separating vulnerable and stupid people from what little money they may have. - Rupert
Isn’t it a remarkable coincidence. Almost everyone has the same religion as their parents? And it always just Happens to be the right religion. Religions run in families. If we’d been brought up in ancient Greece we would all be worshipping Zeus and Apollo. If we have been born Vikings we would be worshipping Wotan, and Thor. How does this come about? Through childhood indoctrination. - Richard Dawkins
I do not concern myself with gods and spirits either good or evil nor do I serve any. - Lao Tzu
Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Non-being is the greatest joy. - Lao Tzu
Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. - Lao Tzu
Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity. - Lao Tzu
Because clarity and enlightenment are within your own nature, they are regained without moving an inch. - Lao Tzu
At the centre of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. - Lao Tzu
Empty yourself of everything. Let the mind become still. The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return. They grow and flourish and then return to the Source. Returning to the Source is stillness, which is the way of nature. - Lao Tzu
If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you can give is that of your self-transformation. - Lao Tzu
Acting without design, occupying oneself without making a business of it, finding the great in what is small and the many in the few, repaying injury with kindness, effecting difficult things while they are easy, and managing great things in their beginnings: this is the method of Tao. - Lao Tzu
The Four Sublime States
The Four Sublime States are Love, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity. The article is quite long. So, I will separate it into four parts.
First Sublime State – Love
Love, without desire to possess, knowing well that in the ultimate sense there is no possession and no possessor – this is highest love.
Love, without speaking and thinking of “I”, knowing well that this so-called “I” is a mere delusion.
Love, without selecting and excluding; knowing well that to do so means to create Love’s own contrasts: dislike, aversion, and hatred.
Love, embracing all beings: small and great, far and near, be it on earth, in the water, or in the air.
Love, that is a sublime nobility of heart and intellect which knows, understands and is ready to help.
Love, embracing impartially all sentient beings, and not only those who are useful, pleasing, or amusing to us.
Love, embracing all beings, be they noble minded or low-minded, good or evil. The noble and the good are embraced because Love is flowing to them spontaneously. The low and evil-minded are included because they are those who are most in need of Love. In many of them the seed of goodness may have died merely because warmth was lacking for its growth, because it perished from coldness in a loveless world.
Love, embracing all beings, knowing well that we all are fellow wayfarers through this round of existence – that we all are overcome by the same Law of Suffering.
Love, but not the sensuous fire that burns, scorches, and tortures; that inflicts more wounds than it cures flaring up now, at the next moment being extinguished, leaving behind more coldness and loneliness than there was felt before.
Rather Love that lies like a soft but firm hand on the ailing beings, ever unchanged in its sympathy, without wavering, unconcerned with any response it meets. Love that is comforting coolness to those who burn with the fire of suffering and passion; that is life-spending warmth to those abandoned in the cold desert of loneliness; to those who are shivering in the frost of a loveless world; to those whose hearts have become as if empty and dry by the repeated calls for help, by deepest despair.
Love, that is strength and gives strength, this is highest Love.
Love, which by the Enlightened One was named “The Liberation of the Heart”, “The most sublime beauty”, this is the highest Love.
And what is the highest manifestation of Love?
To show to the world the Path leading to the End of Suffering, the Path pointed out, trodden, and realized to perfection by Him, the Exalted One, the Buddha.
Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different; enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes (which it will): being with the unpleasant without fearing it will always be this way (which it won’t). - James Baraz
Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing your awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. This approach to life leads you to a state of inner peace and greater understanding. - Unknown
When we are mindful, deeply in touch with the present moment, our understanding of what is going on deepens, and we begin to be filled with acceptance, joy, peace and love. - Thich Nhat Hanh
Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn’t more complicated than that. Practice Mindfulness. - Unknown
Mindfulness means being a wake. It means knowing what you are doing. - Jon Kabat Zinn
In mindfulness, one is not only restful and happy, but alert and awake. - Unknown
Philosophers and mystics have realized for themselves that nothing is permanent or changeless except the law of change itself.
What is good? It is the opposite to what we consider to be bad. Can we describe or experience good without knowledge of its opposite condition? Try to realize any positive concept without consideration of its opposite! We cannot because of the law of duality, the manifestation of which is the operation of the law of change. It is the constant and permanent swing of the pendulum between positive and negative or the eternal opposites.
The law is timeless but its manifestation is transiency.
Once we have understood the law of change we can and should develop hope, aspiration, tolerance, and patience. Remember, nothing is, but everything is becoming. The severe tests and disappointments of today are actually the preparatory stages for our blissful and rewarding moments of tomorrow – if we realize and accept them as such today. The vast majority of us, lacking vision and perspective, resent and reject our negative cycles as being some undeserved punishment inflicted upon us. And so we prolong or intensify our unpleasant experiences unnecessarily. We, too, must change according to the law.
Admittedly, accepting the negative or ‘down’ side of life is not always easy. Probably it is intended to be thus, for the very unpleasantness of it give birth to hope and aspiration, visualization and planning to change conditions toward the positive cycle. We are never subjected to more of the negative conditions than we can withstand. Whenever physical suffering becomes more than the body and mind can tolerate, nature has provided us with blessed unconsciousness. When mental torment becomes unbearable, nature induces a psychological block to conceal the source of aggravation from our objective and reasoning mind.
Take comfort in the fact that there can be no positive unless there is a negative; there is no good, except as compared with evil. How can we recognize happiness unless we have experienced sadness? We reach or attain success from what? The pendulum must swing. The swinging is timeless; the extremes of the swing are transient.
In striving toward self-mastery we would do well to ponder upon certain basic and fundamental principles. Time is a man-made invention or concept. Certainly, it is a great convenience in regulating our lives so long as we do not permit time to control us. Time is relative to the situation in which we measure it. If we are waiting, it drags; if we are very busy, it races. Actually, it does neither except as we measure it against our activity.
In a similar manner we measure our happy and pleasurable moments in life as being very brief and our less happy, learning, and adjusting periods in life as being very long and tedious. They are neither except as we measure them and experience them. Our consolation is the inevitable law of change. Whatever conditions we experience – good or bad – life will change. With sufficient evolvement and accumulated wisdom we will realize that the duality of experience is all-beneficent in the long run
If we remember that the law of change functions in both directions we shall be able to maintain equilibrium and tranquillity in our lives. Realize that the positive and negative are simply two aspects of the same thing. Monotony would be a curse. The law of change blesses us with its timeless transiency.
Extracted from the article Times Transiency by Chris. R Warnken
Compassion is that species of affection which is excited either by the actual distress of its object, or by some impending calamity, which appears inevitable; it is a benevolent sorrow for the sufferings or approaching misery of another. - Charles Buck
Be kind to people whether they deserve your kindness or not. If your kindness reaches the deserving, good for you. If your kindness reaches the undeserving, take joy in your compassion. - James Fadiman
Compassion is a lifetime business. You can’t say something like, “I will have compassion on Monday, Thursdays and Fridays only. But for the rest, I will be cruel”. That is hypocrisy. - Israelmore Ayivor
Compassion is not just a feeling; it is a response to pain that is deeply rooted in wisdom. It is a commitment to alleviating suffering and the cause of suffering in all its forms. - Christina Feldman
Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things. - Thomas Merton
A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal. - Steve Maraboli
Compassion crowns the soul with its truest victory. - Aberjhani
Compassion is a mixed passion, composed of love and sorrow. - Noah Webster
So long as the bee is outside the petals of the lily, and has not tasted the sweetness of its honey, it hovers around the flower emitting the buzzing sound; but when it is inside the flower, it noiselessly drinks the nectar. So long as a man quarrels and disputes about doctrines and dogmas, he has not tasted the nectar of true faith; when he has tasted it, he becomes quiet and full of peace. - Sri Ramakrishna
Nowhere does there exist the one who is the cause of mental activity. And yet, since activity exists, how can you say that such activity does not arise? Since merely allowing thoughts to settle into their own conditions, without trying to modify them in any way, is sufficient, how can you say that you are not able to remain in a calm state? - (Padmasambhava)
Joy is an attitude; it is the presence of love – for self and others. It comes from a feeling of inner peace, the ability to give and receive, and appreciation of the self and others. It is a state of gratitude and compassion, a feeling of connection to your higher self. - Unknown
The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the centre of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this centre is really everywhere, it is within each of us. - Black Elk
Peace comes within the soul of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its power. - Black Elk
What you feel about another person, what you think or say about another person, what you do to another person – you do to you. Give judgment and criticism and you give it to yourself. Give love and appreciation to another person or anything, and you give it to yourself. - Rhonda Byrne
Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value into your life. - Northrup Christiane
Grateful souls focus on the happiness and abundance present in their lives and this in turn attracts more abundance and joy towards them. - Stephen Richards
Like attracts like. Whatever the conscious mind thinks and believes, the subconscious identically creates. - Brian Adams
Nothing can prevent your picture from coming into concrete form except the same power which gave it birth – yourself. - Genevieve Berhrend
The presence of an active, energetic, successful man, or set of men, in a place, will permeate the place with positive vibrations that will stimulate all who abide there. - William Walker Atkinson
The wonderful thing to understand here is that the energy that you radiate or send out attracts other situations, events, persons, etc. which are in harmony with your internal energy field. - Unknown
When you concentrate your energy purposely on the future possibility that you aspire to realize, your energy is passed on to it and makes it attracted to you with a force stronger than the one you directed towards it. - Stephen Richards
Looking at life, we notice how it changes and how it continually moves between extremes and contrasts. We notice rise and fall, success and failure, loss and gain; we experience honour and contempt, praise and blame; and we feel how our hearts respond to all that happiness and sorrow, delight and despair, disappointment and satisfaction, fear and hope.
These mighty waves of emotion carry us up, fling us down, and no sooner we find some rest, then we are carried by the power of a new wave again. How can we expect a footing on the crest of waves? Where shall we erect the building of our life in the midst of this ever-restless ocean of existence?
This is a world where any little joy that is allotted to beings, is secured only after many disappointments, failure and defeats. This is a world where scanty joy grows amidst sickness, desperation and death. This is a world where beings who a short while ago were connected with us by sympathetic joy are at the next moment in want of our compassion. Such a world as this needs equanimity. This is the nature of the world where we live with our intimate friends and the next day they become our enemies to harm us.
The Buddha described the world as an unending flux of becoming. All is changeable, continuous transformation, ceaseless mutation, and a moving stream. Everything exists from moment to moment. Everything is a recurring rotation of coming into being and then passing out of existence. Everything is moving from birth to death. Life is a continuous movement of change towards death. The matter of material forms in which life does or does not express itself, are also a continuous movement or change towards decay.
This teaching of the impermanent nature of everything is one of the main pivots of Buddhism. Nothing on earth partakes of the character of absolute reality. That there will be no death of what is born is impossible. Whatever is subject to origination is subject also to destruction. Change is the very constituent of reality.
The world is a passing phenomenon. We all belong to the world of time. Every written word, every carved stone, every painted picture, the structure of civilization, every generation of man, vanishes away like the leaves and flowers of forgotten summers. What exists is changeable and what is not changeable does not exist.
- Unknown
Control of the mind is the key to happiness. It is the kind of virtue and the force behind all true achievement. It is owing to lack of control that various conflicts arise in man’s mind. If he is to control them, he must learn not to give free rein to his longings and inclinations and should try to live a self-governed, pure and calm life. - K. Sri Dhammananda
It is in our own mind and not in exterior objects that we perceive most things; fools know scarcely anything because they are empty, and their heart is narrow; but great souls find in themselves a number of exterior things; they have no need to read or to travel or to listen or to work to discover the highest truths; they have only to delve into themselves and search, if we may say so, their own thoughts. - Luc de Clapiers
Our different existences are based on one subtle mind. The subtle mind is the holder of all good and bad karma. When we act/produce/react, it becomes a form of imprint on our mind which is the subtle mind. Actually, the main goal is to go deeper into our subtle mind. Meditate with the subtle mind, that is our goal. - Dagyab Rinpoche
Somewhere along the line, we have to stop mistrusting. We have to let go of the suspicion and doubt, which are supposed to protect us but never work, and only end up hurting us even more than what they are supposed to defend us from. - Sogyal Rinpoche
Spend your brief moment according to nature's law, and serenely greet the journey's end as an olive falls when it is ripe, blessing the branch that bare it, and giving thanks to the tree that gave it life. - Marcus Aurelius
A spiritually optimistic point of view holds that the universe is woven out of a fabric of love. Everything that is happening is ultimately for the good if we're willing to face it head-on and use our adversities for soul growth. - Joan Borysenko
By choosing your thoughts, and by selecting which emotional currents you will release and which you will reinforce, you determine the quality of your light. You determine the effects that you will have upon others, and the nature of the experiences of your life. - Gary Zukav
Each one of us has our own evolution of life, and each one of us goes through different tests which are unique and challenging. But certain things are common. And we do learn things from each other’s experience. On a spiritual journey, we all have the same destination. - A. R. Rahman
Religion has treated knowledge sometimes as an enemy, sometimes as a hostage; often as a captive, and more often as a child: but knowledge has become of age; and religion must either renounce her acquaintance, or introduce her as a companion and respect her as a friend. - Charles Caleb Colton
Religion is a system of wishful illusions together with a disavowal of reality, such as we find nowhere else but in a state of blissful hallucinatory confusion. Religion's eleventh commandment is "Thou shalt not question." - Sigmund Freud
Religion is the organization of spirituality into something that became the hand maiden of conquerors. Nearly all religions were brought to people and imposed on people by conquerors, and used as the framework to control their minds. - John Henrik Clarke
It is hard for many people to give up the religion in which they were born; to admit that their fathers were utterly mistaken, and that the sacred records of their country are but collections of myths and fables. - Robert Green Ingersoll
The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days. - Lao Tzu
To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. - Lao Tzu
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. - Lao Tzu
Without stirring abroad, one can know the whole world; Without looking out of the window, one can see the way of heaven. The further one goes, the less one knows. - Lao Tzu
The career of a sage is of two kinds: He is either honoured by all in the world, like a flower waving its head, or else he disappears into the silent forest. - Lao Tzu
The highest truth cannot be put into words. Therefore, the greatest teacher has nothing to say. He simply gives himself in service, and never worries. - Lao Tzu
The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness. - Lao Tzu
One cannot reflect in streaming water. Only those who know internal peace can give it to others. - Lao Tzu
Great indeed is the sublimity of the Creative, to which all beings owe their beginning and which permeates all heaven. - Lao Tzu
Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. - Lao Tzu
No thought, no action, no movement, total stillness: only thus can one manifest the true nature and law of things from within and unconsciously, and at last become one with heaven and earth. - Lao Tzu
If you have truly attained wholeness, everything will flock to you. - Lao Tzu
Metta, in short, is somewhat like the affectionate attitude of mind that a good mother has towards her child while protecting him even at the risk of her own life. If you can cultivate such an attitude of mind towards all, breaking down all barriers of caste, colour, creed, sex, etc, then you have cultivated Metta in full. It is not of course easy for anyone to attain this high standard at once, unless one had such past experience in this ‘round of rebirth’ called Samsara. However, anyone can acquire this standard by following a graduated course of meditation and conscious application of the principle in everyday life.
The practice of Metta is the very essence of the Buddhist way of life. It is a positive quality of the mind which promotes an ethical attitude. The man, who attends to his fellow-beings the love and affection which a mother reserves for her only son, and says with conviction and feeling, “May all beings be happy,” finds no place in his mind for malice, jealously, envy or pettiness.
By the very practice of loving kindness, he becomes incapable of killing, stealing, lying slandering or using harsh language. Not only does he avoid doing harm to others whether by deed, word or thought, but also develops the tendency to engage himself in the task to make his neighbours happy, to help them in times of difficulty, to care for the sick and the old and to look after the welfare of the poor and the destitute.
He that practice Metta lives the sublime life. Free from malice and jealously, he looks upon all with equanimity.
Most outstanding characteristics of Metta are the absence of its opposites – hatred, anger, ill-will etc. They are two opposites that are inter-related in this manner, one reducing the other, or one’s presence causing the other’s absence. Therefore, the first step in the meditation of developing Metta is to reduce the opposite tendencies of hatred and ill-will.
According to the Buddha, war and peace begin in the minds of men. Therefore, most of His Teachings, if not all, are directed towards understanding, developing and controlling the mind, eventually leading to perfect purity of conduct, perfect peace of mind, and perfect wisdom. Metta is only one such method prescribed by the Buddha for the purpose of this mind culture. If you develop Metta, your attitude of mind will change for the better and that will in turn change your whole personality.
If you have adequate patience to continue this meditation regularly at least for a few minutes each day and maintain the consequent attitude of mind throughout your waking life, you will realize how happy and pleasant you are. This is the cumulative and collective benefit of practicing Metta.
Anyone who practices Metta even a few minutes a day or a short time, will be rewarded in proportion to the sustained effort and the sincerity of purpose. One need not wait long to see the result of such elementary practice. The meditator himself will feel the difference resulting from the presence of Metta as a dominant part of the content of his psychological field.
The Buddha urged that we love unconditionally – love that is non-possessive, non-seeking, unselfish love.
The Bible is historically inaccurate, factually incorrect, inconsistent, contradictory, unscientific and immoral. Therefore, no reasonable human being in this day and age should believe in it or live their life by it. - Unknown
Sometimes, the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of [another]. - Harper Lee
Pinched this from a page I am following on Facebook. I am sure they don’t mind.
The Chinese character 念 is composed of two parts, the top 今 meaning "now; this" and bottom 心 signifying "heart; mind."
Mindfulness is the quality and power of mind that is aware of what's happening — without judgment and without interference. It is like a mirror that simply reflects whatever comes before it. It serves us in the humblest ways, keeping us connected to brushing our teeth or having a cup of tea. It keeps us connected to the people around us, so that we're not simply rushing by them in the busyness of our lives.
We can start the practice of mindfulness meditation with the simple observation and feeling of each breath. Breathing in, we know we're breathing in; breathing out, we know we're breathing out. It's very simple, although not easy. After just a few breaths, we hop on trains of association, getting lost in plans, memories, judgments and fantasies.
This habit of wandering mind is very strong, even though our reveries are often not pleasant and sometimes not even true. As Mark Twain so aptly put it, "Some of the worst things in my life never happened." So we need to train our minds, coming back again and again to the breath, simply beginning again.
Slowly, though, our minds steady and we begin to experience some space of inner calm and peace. This environment of inner stillness makes possible a deeper investigation of our thoughts and emotions. What is a thought — that strange, ephemeral phenomenon that can so dominate our lives? When we look directly at a thought, we see that it is little more than nothing. Yet when it is unnoticed, it wields tremendous power.
Notice the difference between being lost in a thought and being mindful that we're thinking. Becoming aware of the thought is like waking up from a dream or coming out of a movie theater after being absorbed in the story. Through mindfulness, we gradually awaken from the movies of our minds.
- Joseph Goldstein
