365 Buddha PA - Jeff Schmidt [11]
FO-SHO-HING-TSAN-KING 1442
110.
Enemies such as greed and hate lack hands and feet and other limbs. They are not brave, nor are they wise. How is it they enslave me?
Lodged within my own mind, it is me that they strike down, themselves unshaken. Yet I do not boil with rage at this. Oh, such ill-placed forbearance!
ŚĀNTIDEVA; BODHICARYĀVATĀRA 4.28-4.29
111.
Therefore the practice is like a key, the key of meditation. If we have the right key in our hand, no matter how tightly the lock is closed, when we take the key and turn it the lock falls open. If we have no key we can’t open the lock. We will never know what is in the trunk.
AJAHN CHAH; LIVING DHAMMA
112.
What the great Buddha has praised as pure, the state that is called immediate, there exists nothing equal to that state.
SUTTA NIPĀTA 226
113.
If you think, “I breathe,” the “I” is extra. There is no you to say “I.” What we call “I” is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no “I,” no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door.
SHUNRYU SUZUKI; ZEN MIND, BEGINNER’S MIND
114.
The mind, indeed, is never seen by any one,
And therefore, whether it can know or cannot know itself,
Just like the beauty of a barren woman’s daughter,
This merely forms the subject of a pointless conversation.
ŚĀNTIDEVA; BODHICARYĀVATĀRA 9.22
115.
He who treads the Path in earnest
Sees not the mistakes of the world;
If we find fault with others
We ourselves are also in the wrong.
THE SUTRA OF HUI NENG
116.
The king said: ‘What is the distinction, Nāgasena, between him who is full of passion, and him who is void of passion?’
‘The one is overpowered by craving, O king, and the other not.’
‘But what does that mean?’
‘The one is in want, O king, and the other not.’
‘I look at it, Sir, in this way. He who has passion and he who has not—both of them alike—desire what is good to eat, either hard or soft. And neither of them desires what is wrong.’
‘The lustful man, O king, in eating his food enjoys both the taste and the lust that arises from taste, but the man free from lusts experiences the taste only, and not the lust arising therefrom.’
‘Well answered, Nāgasena!’
MILINDAPAÑHA 76-77
117.
Not associating with fools, but associating with the wise, and honoring those who deserve honor—this is supreme good fortune.
SUTTA NIPĀTA 259
118.
Have you ever seen flowing water? . . . Have you ever seen still water? . . . If your mind is peaceful it will be just like still, flowing water. Have you ever seen still, flowing water? There! You’ve only ever seen flowing water and still water, haven’t you? But you’ve never seen still, flowing water. Right there, right where your thinking cannot take you, even though it’s peaceful you can develop wisdom. Your mind will be like flowing water, and yet it’s still. It’s almost as if it were still, and yet it’s flowing. So I call it ‘still, flowing water’. Wisdom can arise here.
AJAHN CHAH; LIVING DHAMMA
119.
By giving, merit grows, by restraint, hatred’s checked.
He who’s skilled abandons evil things.
As greed, hate and folly wane, Nibbāna’s gained.
DĪGHA NIKĀYA ii 136
120.
So much fear and desire come from that commitment to ‘I am’—to being somebody. Eventually they take us to anxiety and despair; life seems much more difficult and painful than it really is.
But when we just observe life for what it is, then it’s all right: the delights, the beauty, the pleasures, are just that. The pain, the discomfort, the sickness, are what they are. We can always cope with the way life moves and changes. The mind of an enlightened human being is flexible and adaptable. The mind of the ignorant person is conditioned and fixed.
AJAHN SUMEDHO; SEEING THE WAY
121.
Although he recites many sacred texts, if he does not