Meditation with Cherry-Blossom & Dewdrops on Spiderweb

 

 

 

 

 

Like a frontier fortress,
guarded inside & out,
guard yourself.
Don't let the moment pass by.
Those for whom the moment is past
grieve, consigned to hell.

-Dhammapada, 22

 

 

 

 

Actions motivated by attachment, aversion, or ignorance,

regardless of any external appearances,

are simply not Buddhist practices.

-Lorne Ladner, "Wheel Of Great Compassion"

 

 

 

 

Loosened & oiled
Are the joys of a person.
People, bound by enticement,
looking for ease:
to birth & aging they go.

-Dhammapada, 341

 

 

 

 

  

Afflictions have reasons based on mind;

when mindless, where can afflictions abide?

If you do not bother to discriminate and grasp appearances,

you will attain the way naturally in an instant.

While dreaming, you act in dreams;

when you awaken, dreamland doesn’t exist.

If you think back to waking and dreaming,

they are not different from deluded dualism.

-Pao-chih

 

 

 

 

Not to do any evil,
To cultivate good,
To purify one's mind--
This is the advice of the Buddhas.

-Dhammapada

 

 

 

  

Do not choose bad friends.
Do not choose persons of low habits.
Select good friends. Be discriminating.
Choose the best.

-Dhammapada 78

 

 

 

 

 

A man approached the Blessed one

and wanted to have all his philosophical questions answered

before he would practice.

In response, the Buddha said,

“It is as if a man had been wounded by a poisoned arrow

and when attended to by a physician were to say,

‘I will not allow you to remove this arrow

until I have learned the caste,

the age, the occupation, the birthplace,

and the motivation of the person who wounded me.’

That man would die before having learned all this.

In exactly the same way,

anyone who should say,

‘I will not follow the teaching of the Blessed one

until the Blessed one has explained

all the multiform truths of the world’

-that person would die

before the Buddha had explained all this.”

-from the Majjhima Nikaya

 

 

 

 

 

He whose 36 streams,
flowing to what is appealling, are strong:
the currents--resolves based on passion--
carry him, of base views, away.

They flow every which way, the streams,
but the sprouted creeper stays
in place.
Now, seeing that the creeper's arisen,
cut through its root
with discernment.

-Dhammapada, 24

 

 

 

 

 

As a blind man feels when he finds a pearl in a dustbin,

so am I amazed by the miracles of awakening rising in my consciousness.

It is the nectar of immortality that delivers us from death,

the treasure that lifts us from death,

the treasure that lifts us above poverty into the wealth of giving to life,

the tree that gives shade to us when we roam about scorched by life,

the bridge that takes us across the stormy river of life,

the cool moon of compassion that calms our mind when it is agitated,

the fun that dispels darkness,

the butter made from the milk of kindness by churning it with the dharma.

It is a feast of joy to which all are invited.

-adapted from the Bodhicharyavatara by Shantideva

 

 

 

 

As all things are buddha-dharma,

there is delusion and realization, practice, and birth and death,

and there are buddhas and sentient beings.

As the myriad things are without an abiding self,

there is no delusion, no realization, no buddha,

no sentient being, no birth and death.

The buddha way is, basically,

leaping clear of the many and the one;

thus there are birth and death, delusion and realization,

sentient beings and buddhas.

Yet in attachment blossoms fall,

and in aversion weeds spread.


-Dogen, "Actualizing the Fundamental Point"

 

 

 

 

Even royal chariots
well-embellished
get run down,
and so does the body
succumb to old age.
But the Dhamma of the good
doesn't succumb to old age:
the good let the civilized know.

-Dhammapada, 11

 

 

 

 

As free human beings

we can use our unique intelligence

to try to understand ourselves and our world.

But if we are prevented from using our creative potential,

we are deprived of one of the basic characteristics of a human being.

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

 

 

 

   

Buddha’s teachings are so simple and straightforward.

If you find them complicated,

it is only because you have made them so.

You may think,

“I have a Ph.D. and have amassed all this knowledge,

yet I still can’t figure out how to begin practicing Dharma.”

The remedy is to take a good look at your own mind.

-Lama Thubten Yeshe, in "Wisdom Energy"

 

 

 

 

A man was rowing his boat upstream on a very misty morning.

Suddenly, he saw another boat coming downstream, not trying to avoid him.

It was coming straight at him.

He shouted, "Be careful! Be careful!"

but the boat came right into him, and his boat was almost sunk.

The man became very angry, and began to shout at the other person,

to give him a piece of his mind.

But when he looked closely, he saw that there was no one in the other boat.

It turned out that the boat just got loose and went downstream.

All his anger vanished, and he laughed and he laughed.

-Thich Nhat Nanh, "Being Peace"

 

 

  

 

 

All the faults of our mind

– our selfishness, ignorance, anger, attachment, guilt,

and other disturbing thoughts

– are temporary, not permanent and everlasting.

And since the cause of our suffering

– our disturbing thoughts and obscurations

– is temporary, our suffering is also temporary.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche, "Ultimate Healing:

 

 

 

 

Everything comes to pass, nothing comes to stay.

-Matthew Flickstein, "Journey To The Center"

 

 

 

 

Because we all share this planet earth,

we have to learn to live in harmony

and peace with each other and with nature.

This is not just a dream, but a necessity.

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

 

 

 

 

Be loving, be kind
And follow the ways of goodness.
Committed, and longing for the goal,
Always keep going with courage.
To dally and delay will not help you.
But to be ardent is sure and safe.
When you see it, cultivate the path,
So you will touch and make your own
The Deathless Way.

-Psalms of the Early Buddhists

 

 

 

 

 

When a person has lived properly and acted generously,

he grasps the way things are.

He is not dependent on attachments;

he is free from anger and aversions;

what he does becomes perfect action.

The pureness of perfectly balanced action based on

seeing the way things are

--this is freedom and the ending of ignorance.

-Sutta Nipata

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Tears

by Ernesto Cortazar