sayuri

a sense of unity beyond suffering

nobody@vox.com(Sujatin) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:49:11 +0100

The great Indian teacher Nisargadatta Maharaj once said, "Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. Between the two my life flows." "I am nothing" does not mean that there is a bleak wasteland within. It does mean that with awareness we open to a clear, unimpeded space, without center or periphery - nothing separate. If we are nothing, there is nothing at all to serve as a barrier to our boundless expression of love. Being nothing in this way, we are also, inevitably, everything. "Everything" does not mean self-aggrandizement, but a decisive recognition of interconnection; we are not separate. Both the clear, open space of "nothing" and the interconnectedness of "everything" awaken us to our true nature. This is the truth we contact when we meditate, a sense of unity beyond suffering. It is always present; we merely need to be able to access it.

~ Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness

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one's motivation

nobody@vox.com(Sujatin) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:16:13 +0100

Devotion, scholarship, and meditation can all be empty rituals, and whether these devotional acts or any other practices are in fact Dharma depends solely upon one's motivation. . . . Our initial attempts at spiritual practice tend to be very self-conscious. We want to overcome the distortions of our minds and cultivate such wholesome qualities as kindness, insight, mindfulness, and concentration; but as we engage in practices designed to cultivate these, at first they appear to be only mental exercises. Dharma seems separate, something adopted from outside. But as we go deeper into the practice, this sense of separation begins to disappear; our minds become the very Dharma we seek to cultivate.

~ B. Alan Wallace, Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up

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avoid the extremes

nobody@vox.com(Sujatin) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:13:48 +0100

The core of Dharma practice is freeing oneself from the attachments of this life. It focuses on the deeper issue of gaining complete release from discontent by means of freeing our minds from the afflictions of confusion, attachment, and anger. In a broader sense, Dharma practice is concerned with serving others, in terms of both their temporary and ultimate needs. Does this mean that one who is committed to Dharma suddenly renounces all worldly enjoyments - no more vacations, no entertainment, no sensory pleasures? No. If one tries that approach it usually results in spiritual burnout; and the common rebound is equally extreme sensual indulgence. For this reason, the practice of Buddhist Dharma is often called the Middle Way because it seeks to avoid the extremes of sensual indulgence and severe asceticism. The former leads to perpetual dissatisfaction and the latter damages one's physical and mental health.... The Middle Way is a sensitive exertion of effort that is neither lax nor aggressive, and from this practice there ultimately arises an increasing satisfaction and delight in virtuous activity that is a result of our spiritual transformation.

~ B. Alan Wallace, Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up

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balance

nobody@vox.com(Sujatin) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:11:56 +0100

While we may concentrate on one particular aspect of the path at a time, it is important to have an overall balance between the different aspects. Meditation should progress hand in hand with study, without either one being neglected. Having cleared away doubts intellectually, we should integrate our understanding with the experience of meditation. In this way our practice will be balanced and complete.

~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama, A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night

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the pope urges us to save the earth

nobody@vox.com(Sujatin) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:02:50 +0100

Pope Benedict called on Thursday for the earth to be protected for future generations, saying the world had been "scarred" with erosion and deforestation and its oceans squandered to fuel an insatiable consumption.

::link

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giving

nobody@vox.com(Sujatin) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:09:59 +0100

A single act of giving has a value beyond what we can imagine. So much of the spiritual path is expressed and realized in giving: love, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity; letting go of grasping, aversion, and delusion. To give is powerful. That is why the Buddha said that if we knew as he did, the power of giving, we would not let a single meal pass without sharing some of it.
Sharing food is a metaphor for all giving. When we offer someone food, we are not just giving that person something to eat; we are giving far more. We give strength, health, beauty, clarity of mind, and even life, because none of those things would be possible without food. So when we feed another, this is what we are offering: the substance of life itself.

~ Sharon Salzberg

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engaging in compassion

nobody@vox.com(Sujatin) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:06:15 +0100

Training in compassion is a mental activity. But our mind should also be brought to the level where every action we take is influenced by compassion. That means engaging ourselves in compassion in action.

~ Gehlek Rinpoche

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that which is called i

nobody@vox.com(Sujatin) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:19:07 +0100

As wax melts near a lit wick and burns, it emits light near the tip of the candle. For the most part, this place from which light is emitted remains the same and appears as a fixed shape; it is this seemingly unchanging shape that we refer to as flame. That which is called I is similar to the flame. Although both body and mind are an unceasing flow, since they preserve what seems to be a constant form, we refer to them as I. Therefore, actually there is no I existing as some substantial thing; there is only the ceaseless flow.... That there is this seemingly fixed form based on various conditions is interdependence.

~ Kosho Uchiyama, Opening the Hand of Thought

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not-self

nobody@vox.com(Sujatin) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:09:35 +0100

Central to the Buddha's teaching is the doctrine of anatman: "not-self." This does not deny that the notion of an "I" works in the everyday world. In fact, we need a solid, stable ego to function in society. However, "I" is not real in an ultimate sense. It is a "name": a fictional construct that bears no correspondence to what is really the case. Because of this disjunction all kinds of problems ensue. Once our minds have constructed the notion of "I," it becomes our central reference point. We attach to it and identify with it totally. We attempt to advance what appears to be its interests, to defend it against real or apparent threats and menaces. And we look for ego-affirmation at every turn: confirmation that we exist and are valued. The Gordian Knot of preoccupations arising from all this absorbs us exclusively, at times to the point of obsession. This is, however, a narrow and constricted way of being. Though we cannot see it when caught in the convolutions of ego, there is something in us that is larger and deeper: a wholly other way of being.

~ John Snelling, Elements of Buddhism

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bob geldof vs. the war on terror

nobody@vox.com(Sujatin) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:58:46 +0100

Don't you just love him?

Bob Geldof's editorial against the new British law that suspends habeas corpus by making it possible for the authorities to lock us up for 42 days without charging us with anything ( (even more than the old law that suspended habeas corpus by letting them do it for 25 days) really nails it:
Still today, 800 years later, Magna Carta resonates: "To no man will we deny, To no man will we delay, Justice and Right." Is that not grand, worthy of your vote? Is habeas corpus to be traduced in one sad moment of political expediency? Do we not clearly deny and delay Justice and Right when we imprison a person for 42 days without charge?
What existential threat do we face greater than those of the past 800 years? What great terror exists today that not civil war, not world war, nor recent other terrorisms could make our forefathers change the fundamental basis of this state? What is so dangerous that our oldest statutes could be upended for such a ha'p'orth of momentary panic?

::via the wonderful Cory Doctorow of boing boing

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