January 2011
161 posts
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Foundations of (Buddhist) Mindfulness Practice →
Listened to this excellent talk by Joseph Goldstein on the Buddha’s foundations of mindfulness last night. Thanks to Dharmaseed.org and the speaker.
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“Doctrines, scriptures, sutras, essays, are not to be regarded as systems to be...”
– Wei Wu Wei (via parkstepp)
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“The purpose of awareness is to bring recognition to what is naturally unfolding...”
– Hor Tuck Loon, in “Hold Until One Wakes Up”, a practitioner and teacher in Malaysia, who also happens to be my Dhamma brother (i.e., we have the same teacher)… (via sharanam)
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“Belief draws conclusions while faith flowers in openness.”
– Joseph Goldstein; “One Dharma” p. 48
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“What we are looking for is what is looking.”
– Wei Wu Wei
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“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and...”
– Goethe
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“Confident faith allows blessings to enter you. Whenever you have no doubt,...”
– Padmasambhava
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“When I returned to practice in Ajahn Chah’s community following more than a year...”
– Jack Kornfield in “Enlightenments” which appears in the Fall 2010 issue of Inquiring Mind
Reposting because it’s really good. It’s worth reading the whole article! (via sharanam)
Agreed - a brilliant article and I really like this part
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“The real does not die, the unreal never lived. Set your mind right and all will...”
– Nisargadatta Maharaj (via bodymindandsoul)
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“I would like to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own...”
– John O’Donohue (via crashinglybeautiful)
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“Though the wave of words is forever upon us, our depth is forever silent.”
– Kahlil Gibran (via saturnrising & bluejaysings)
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“All the scriptures tell us one thing: “Know thyself.” If you have known...”
– Swami Satchidananda
(via anarchyofthemind)
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The healing music of "Sulis"
Sulis (formerly known as Chameleon) was founded in 1996 by a group of professional musicians who became interested in the power of music to alleviate stress and pain. (Sulis was a Celtic goddess of healing waters.)
All Sulis’ music has been composed with this aim in mind by harpist Celia Harper. Celia writes specifically for the individuals within the group: counter-tenors Robin Blaze and...
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“Learn from the book of Life. Watch yourselves and your reactions to externals....”
– Yogaswami of Jaffna, from Yoga Swami the Image-Breaker, by Sam Wickramasinghe (via noornalini)
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“The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.”
– Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(thanks to @silence_silent)
jcl2011 asked: Are you the photographer, Jean-Claude Lejeune, if you don't mind me asking?
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Absolutely!
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Absolutely!
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“To become one with everything, you need one of...
:-D
In American culture where everything becomes fodder for the engines of consumption, even Buddhist themes are up-for-grabs. Goldstein describes an automobile advertisement that has an attractive couple standing in front of a new car surrounded by all the latest goodies. The caption reads: “To become one with everything, you need one of everything.”
From a review of “One Dharma”...
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“The Dharma is nobody’s property. It belongs to whoever is interested”
– Tibetan Proverb
Agree with the sentiment but not sure about “belongs” - prefer “available to”.
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“The Buddha did not teach Buddhism. He taught the Dharma, a Sanskrit word that...”
– Joseph Goldstein; “One Dharma” p. 16
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“No Buddhist, no Christian, no Hindu. Deeply religious people have no religion....”
– Yogaswami of Jaffna (via noornalini)
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I'm listed in Tumblweeds under buddhism,...
I’m listed in Tumblweeds, a user-generated community directory that rates Tumblr bloggers by their number of followers. Find me listed in #buddhism, #meditation
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UGC 97. The seed of everything is this... →
sharanam:
Why do you want to get yourself involved in all these concepts? Even if they are concepts, whatever anybody tells you, it can only be according to the concepts which arise in the consciousness. Whatever you can think about, whatever questions you can ask, whatever curiosity you have is only since this consciousness arose. It is only when you are conscious that anything can happen. So...
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“Is there a world outside (of) your knowledge? Can you go beyond what you know?...”
– Prior to Consciousness - Nisargadatta - 6 Jan 1980 | Urban Guru Cafe (via sharanam)
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On meditation ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“….To meditate means first of all to be there, to be on your cushion, to be on your walking meditation path. Eating also is a meditation if you are really there, present one hundred per cent with your food. The essential is to be there. ….If you struggle during your sitting meditation or walking meditation, you are not doing it right. The Buddha said, “My practice is the...
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On Sangha building ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“A Sangha may start small, it can be a Sangha of two. If even just two people create a Sangha and an atmosphere of mindfulness, the peace and harmony around you will grow and soon your Sangha will grow too”
From “Happiness” p.71 by Thich Nhat Hanh
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"Just stay with this non-dual awareness ... "~...
“So let go, put everything down, everything except the knowing. Don’t be fooled if visions or sounds arise in your mind during meditation. Put them all down. Don’t take hold of anything at all. Just stay with this non-dual awareness. Don’t worry about the past or the future, just be still and you will reach the place where there’s no advancing, no retreating and no...
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The Buddha's advice to a novice ~ a parable
PARABLE 0143: THE MIDDLE WAY
“ONE EVENING A NOVICE WAS RECITING THE SUTRA OF BEQUEATHING THE TEACHING BY KASHYAPA BUDDHA. HIS MIND WAS MOURNFUL AS HE REFLECTED REPENTANTLY ON HIS DESIRE TO RETREAT.
THE BUDDHA ASKED HIM: ‘WHEN YOU WERE A HOUSEHOLDER IN THE PAST, WHAT DID YOU DO?’ HE REPLIED: ‘I WAS FOND OF PLAYING THE LUTE.’
THE BUDDHA SAID: ‘WHAT HAPPENED...
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The conflict of the opposites/duality ~...
“Being caught in the process of becoming, of acquisition, and realizing its strife and pain, the desire to get out of it gives birth to the conflict of duality. Gain always engenders fear, and fear gives birth to the conflict of opposites - the overcoming of what is and transforming it into that which is desired. Does not an opposite contain the germ of its own opposite? Is virtue the...
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“Whatever comes up, see the thing as it is, at this moment, without liking or...”
– Anagarika Munindra-ji (from: Living This Life Fully, by Mirka Knaster)
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Trusting in awareness
[in the west we tend to]”…see ourselves through the critical mind, which is the thinking mind - about good and bad, right or wrong …or whatever we think we are. You cannot trust any of that but trusting this awareness - first you have to recognise it - you are not asked to trust in something abstract: “You should be trusting awareness” - then you grasp at it...
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Awareness and the conflict within ~ Krishnamurti
“Most of us give up the effort to be free of conflict and allow ourselves to drift, thereby making the mind dull; and if the pain of conflict becomes too great, we resort to a belief in God, hoping in this way to find peace, but sooner or later that too becomes a source of conflict. Or, being afraid that if we had no conflict we would vegetate, become dull, satisfied, we maintain the...
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“This journey that I am proposing we take together is not to the moon or even to...”
– J. Krishnamurti, Madras, 7th Public Talk, December 13th, 1959, Collected Works, Vol. XI, p. 243 (from Choiceless Awareness)
Brilliant
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“To undertake a genuine spiritual path is not to avoid difficulty but is to learn...”
– Jack Kornfield (via hypnoticyogi)
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“Like a lovely flower,
Bright and fragrant,
Are the fine and truthful words
Of...”
– From the Dhammapada part 4 as translated by Thomas Byrom
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“Everything you see has its roots in the unseen world.
The forms may change, yet...”
– Jelaluddin Rumi
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“Being is desirable because it is identical with Beauty, and Beauty is loved...”
– —Plotinus (ca. AD 204/5–270) via Parabola magazine newsletter
Was Plotinus a Buddhist? :-)
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Simplicity comes only through self-knowledge ~...
“Our problems - social, environmental, political, religious - are so complex that we can solve them only by being simple, not by becoming extraordinarily erudite and clever. Because, a simple person sees much more directly, has a more direct experience, than the complex person. And, our minds are so crowded with an infinite knowledge of facts of what others have said that we have become...
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Poem for Humankind by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu →
sharanam:
. We should behave toward our fellow human beings as if they… Were born, and will grow old, suffer and die, like us Enduring the wheel of existence, of samsara Living under the power of attachments, like us Subject to desire, rage, and delusion, and Careless in their ways, like us …
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Being fully conscious of one's whole process of... →
sharanam:
Question: Does awareness mean a state of freedom, or merely a process of observation?
Krishnamurti: This is really quite a complex problem. Can we understand the whole significance of what it is to be aware? Do not let us jump to any conclusions. What do we mean by ordinary awareness? I see you,…
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“You must always keep in mind that a path is only a path. Each path is only one...”
– Carlos Castaneda, Anthropologist / Author (1925 - 1998). From The Tao of Photography. (via crashinglybeautiful)
I have always been struck by the wise phrase “follow the path with heart” from reading Castenada years ago. This is a timely reminder. Thanks