365 Buddha PA - Jeff Schmidt [12]
Although he recites few sacred texts, if he puts the Dhamma into practice, forsaking lust, hatred, and delusion, with true wisdom and emancipated mind, clinging to nothing in this or any other world—he, indeed, partakes of the blessings of a holy life.
DHAMMAPADA 19-20
122.
Men are afraid to forget their minds, fearing to fall through the Void with nothing to stay their fall. They do not know that the Void is not really void, but the realm of the real Dharma.
HUANG PO; ZEN TEACHING OF HUANG PO
123.
Just as a mother would protect with her life her own son, her only son, so one should cultivate an unbounded mind towards all beings,
and loving-kindness towards all the world. One should cultivate an unbounded mind, above and below and across, without obstruction, without enmity, without rivalry.
Standing, or going, or seated, or lying down, as long as one is free from drowsiness, one should practice this mindfulness. This, they say, is the holy state here.
SUTTA NIPĀTA 149-151
124.
Like covering over with a false surface a hole full of fire, slipping thro’ which the body is burnt, so is the fire of covetous desire. The wise man meddles not with it.
FO-SHO-HING-TSAN-KING 868
125.
Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred.
THICH NHAT HANH; MIRACLE OF MINDFULNESS!
126.
Disastrous, bhikkhus, are gain, honor and fame, a bitter, severe danger to the attainment of unsurpassed security from bondage. Therefore, bhikkhus, you should train yourselves thus:
‘When gain, honor and fame have arisen we will renounce them and will not let them establish a hold over our hearts.’
SAṂYUTTA NIKĀYA XVII. 1, 1
127.
Do not choose bad friends.
Do not choose persons of low habits.
Select good friends. Be discriminating.
Choose the best.
DHAMMAPADA 78
128.
Actually this practice is just about the mind and its feelings. It’s not something that you have to run after or struggle for. Breathing continues while working. Nature takes care of the natural processes—all we have to do is try to be aware. Just to keep trying, going inwards to see clearly. Meditation is like this.
AJAHN CHAH; TASTE OF FREEDOM
129.
By realizing that all forms are self-awareness,
I have beheld my consort’s face—the true Mind Within.
HUNDRED THOUSAND SONGS OF MILAREPA
130.
Now suppose a cowherd wanted to tame a wild calf that had been reared on a wild cow’s milk, he would take it away from the cow and tie it up apart with a rope to a stout post dug into the ground; then the calf might dash to and fro, but being unable to get away, it would eventually sit down or lie down by the post, so too, when a bhikkhu wants to tame his own mind which has long been spoilt by being reared on visible data, etc., as object for its food and drink, he should take it away from visible data, etc., as object and bring it into the forest or to the root of a tree or to an empty place and tie it up there to the post of in-breaths and out-breaths with the rope of mindfulness. And so his mind may then dash to and fro when it no longer gets the objects it was formerly used to, but being unable to break the rope of mindfulness and get away, it sits down, lies down, by that object under the influence of access and absorption.
BUDDHAGHOSA; VISUDDHIMAGGA 268-269
131.
I now will seek (he said) a noble law, unlike the worldly methods known to men, I will oppose disease and age and