If you find a man who is constant, awake to the inner light, learned, long suffering, endowed with devotion, a noble man - follow this good and great man even as the moon follows the path of the stars.
The Dhammapada, Verse 208
Post by Daily Dharma. 28 August 2006
Entirely fused with the dharma
We've heard the story of the dharma in its travels across the Asian continent, how at each stop it blended and mixed with the culture at hand. We've heard that within each country the dharma then emerges as a unique expression of the individual. Look at Tibetan and Thai Buddhism - although related in underlying beliefs, they are now far distant cousins in form. And so it is in each of us; as the dharma enters our bodies and minds, it gets mapped in new and unique ways, merging with our inner landscapes. It blends and swirls into what is already inside; it falls into cracks and excavates and chips away. And ultimately our own personal geography becomes so entirely fused with the dharma that the end product is a melded terrain where the features are uniquely our own.
Diana Winston - Socially Engage Buddhism Inside Out From Blue Jean Buddha (Wisdom Publications 2001)
Post by Daily Dharma. 25 August 2006
Laying down the burden
There is a story about two monks on pilgrimage when they come to the ford of a stream. A young woman, dressed in all her finery, was standing there wanting to cross over but afraid to try in case she gets her very expensive clothes wet. She asks the two monks for help and one picks her up in his arms and carries her across. Putting her down on the other side she offers her sincere gratitude and goes on her way. The two monks continue their journey but the second monk is strangely quiet until a couple of miles further down the road he can contain himself no more and berates the other for his deed as the monk's rules forbid a monk to touch a woman.
When the second monk gets to the end of his tirade the first replies, " I put her down on the other side of the ford but it appears you are still carrying her".
Venerable Sochu The Buddhist Society
Post by Daily Dharma. 24 August 2006
This to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Shakespeare: Hamlet Post by Daily Dharma. 23 August 2006
Sacred Clown
"True creativity can only come from silence, from not knowing. If we meet our fears as they are and don't try to change the outside situation or want something different, then there is the potential for transformation. In that attitude we come to essence by simply engaging from a true emotional response to what is there. We discover the ability to play with everything, sadness, joy, depression, wanting to hide in a corner. The clown is about restoring the full picture. It is expressing opposite energies. It is the ability to touch on what is not expressed, on the repressed, to bringback to life and to mirror the society that has been forgotten. We are touching innocence, which means spontaneous, unprepared actions. If we can just really enjoy a flower or the movement of dust through the air. We are free to perceive the hidden magic in the smallest of things. Developing mindfulness into an art form is a wonderful gift."
Didier Danthois in Living Lightly on the earth. Issue 25, Autumn 2003.
www.sacred-clown-as-healer.co.uk
Post by Daily Dharma. 22 August 2006
Compassionately embrace yourself
"When your goal is to compassionately embrace yourself on all levels of your being, your very existence begins to have a healing impact on others."
Rolf T Steiner
Post by Daily Dharma. 21 August 2006
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
Mahatma Ghandi, Indian political and spiritual leader. Post by Daily Dharma. 18 August 2006
Nothing to attain
"Life is not a task. There is absolutely nothing to attain except the realisation that there is absolutely nothing to attain.
No amount of effort will ever persuade oneness to appear. All that is needed is a leap in perception, a different seeing, already inherent but unrecognised."
Tony Parsons. The Open Secret. (Open Secret Publishing 2000)
Post by Daily Dharma. 17 August 2006
Mountain Falling Flowers
We accept the graceful falling Of mountain cherry blossoms, But it is much harder for us To fall away from our own Attachment to the world.
Rengetsu, Buddhist Nun
Post by Daily Dharma. 16 August 2006
The truth in distant places
If you speak delusions, everything becomes a delusion; If you speak the truth, everything becomes the truth. Outside the truth there is no delusion, But outside delusion there is no special truth. Followers of the Buddha's Way! Why do you so earnestly seek the truth in distant places? Look for delusion and truth in the bottom of your own hearts.
Ryokan, Zen Poet.
Post by Daily Dharma. 15 August 2006
The Four Elements
The first noble truth says simply that it's part of being human to feel discomfort. We don't even have to call it suffering anymore; we don't even have to call it discomfort. It's simply coming to know the fieriness of fire, the wildness of wind, the turbulence of water, the upheaval of earth, as well as the warmth of fire, the coolness and smoothness of water, the gentleness of the breezes, and the goodness, solidness, and dependability of the earth. Nothing in its essence is one way or the other. The four elements take on different qualities; they're like magicians. Sometimes they manifest in one form and sometimes in another. . . .The first noble truth recognizes that we also change like the weather, we ebb and flow like the tides, we wax and wane like the moon.
Pema Chodron, Awakening Loving Kindness. Post by Daily Dharma. 14 August 2006
Truth
Truth is like all beautiful things in this world: it reveals its attractiveness only to those who have first felt the influence of falsehood.
The Prophet Khalil Gibrain
Post by Daily Dharma. 10 August 2006
Little people
If many little people In many little places Do many little deeds They can change the face of the EARTH
African Proverb
Post by Daily Dharma. 09 August 2006
Taking on one another.
My heart has been broken by the sheer intensity of another person's predicament. I'm sure yours has, too. Sometimes from this the feeling of taking on has arisen spontaneously, without the slightest trace of calculation, out of the vastness of the unthinking Heart-Mind. In those moments there is nothing "to take on" and no one to do any "taking." Yet there is an unmistakable fragrance, a falling away of separation that is at once intimate and universal. The world stops. The passing sense of the present vanishes. When this happens in the pesence of thirty people participating in a clinic class, an intimacy envelops all of us. Sometimes we are left speechless, swept into the mystery of the moment. At these times we have all "taken on one another."
Saki Santorelli, Heal Thy Self, Lessons on Mindfulness in Medicine. (Bell Tower 1999)
Post by Daily Dharma. 08 August 2006
WHO SAYS WORDS WITH MY MOUTH
All day I think about it; then at night I say it Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere; I'm sure of that And I intend to end up there. This drunkenness began in some other tavern When I get back around to that place I'll be completely sober. Meanwhile, I'm like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary The day is coming when I fly off, But who is it now in my ear, who hears my voice? Who says words with my mouth? Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul? I cannot stop asking If I could taste one sip of an answer I could break out of this prison for drunks I didn't come here of my own accord; and I can't leave that way Let whoever brought me here take me back This poetry, I never know what I'm going to say I don't plan it, when I'm outside the saying of it, I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.
Rumi
Submitted to The Daily Dharma by Iris Holloway
Post by Daily Dharma. 07 August 2006
Shine, as children do.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves: "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all children of God and are meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
Nelson Mandela, From his Inaugural Speech 10th May 1994
Post by Daily Dharma. 04 August 2006
Don't forget that..................
Submitted to the Daily Dharma by Rosie at DoodleHut.com Post by Daily Dharma. 03 August 2006
Emptiness
The idea of emptiness is so deeply inscribed in Buddhism that it can provoke both competitive debate and comedy. A recent symposium of many Buddhist denominations put on the same panel a venerable Korean Zen master and a wise, white-haired Tibetan. The Korean, a good deal of a showman, began proceedings by taking out from his costume an orange, which he carefully and slowly displayed to the audience. Then he turned to the Tibetan and asked, "What is this?" The Tibetan looked nonplussed. So the Korean master repeated peremptorily "What is this?", expecting a learned disposition about the way the fruit combined appearance with emptiness. The Tibetan, who spoke no English, conferred sotto voce for a while with one of his monk-attendants, who was also his translator. After some minutes the translator said soothingly and apologetically to the Zen master, "Rinpoche wishes me to ask you: is this really the first time you've ever seen an orange?"
Peter J Conradi, Going Buddhist, Panic and emptiness, the Buddha and me. Short Books 2004
Post by Daily Dharma. 02 August 2006
The Maturing of Motivation
At fifteen, I set my heart upon learning. At thirty, I had planted my feet firmly on the ground. At forty, I no longer suffered from perplexities. At fifty, I knew what were the biddings of heaven. At sixty, I heard them with a docile ear. At seventy, I could follow the dictates of my own heart; for what I desired no longer overstepped the boundaries of right.
