365 Buddha PA - Jeff Schmidt [15]
DHAMMAPADA 69
160.
If anyone whose mind is not harmonized and controlled through methodical meditative training should take a close look at his own everyday thoughts and activities, he will meet with a rather disconcerting sight. Apart from the few main channels of his purposeful thoughts and activities, he will everywhere be faced with a tangled mass of perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and casual bodily movements showing a disorderliness and confusion which he would certainly not tolerate in his living-room. Yet this is the state of affairs that we take for granted within a considerable portion of our waking life and our normal mental activity.
NYANAPONIKA THERA; POWER OF MINDFULNESS
161.
For there is suffering, but none who suffers;
Doing exists although there is no doer;
Extinction is but no extinguished person;
Although there is a path, there is no goer.
BUDDHAGHOSA; VISUDDHIMAGGA 513
162.
If resistance to meditation is a common feature of your practice, then you should suspect some subtle error in your basic attitude. Meditation is not a ritual conducted in a particular posture. It is not a painful exercise, or period of enforced boredom. And it is not a grim, solemn obligation. Meditation is mindfulness. It is a new way of seeing and it is a form of play. Meditation is your friend. Come to regard it as such and resistance will disappear like smoke on a summer breeze.
HENEPOLA GUNARATANA; MINDFULNESS IN PLAIN ENGLISH
163.
[E]vil words will be repeated far and wide by the multitude, but there are few to follow good direction. . . .
FO-SHO-HING-TSAN-KING 1640
164.
A person getting enlightened is like the moon reflecting in the water. The moon does not get wet, the water is not disturbed. Though it is a great expanse of light, it reflects in a little bit of water; the whole moon and the whole sky reflect even in the dew on the grass; they reflect even in a single drop of water. Enlightenment not disturbing the person is like the moon not piercing the water. A person not obstructing enlightenment is like the dewdrop not obstructing the heavens.
DŌGEN; FLOWERS FALL (SHŌBŌGENZŌ GENJŌKŌAN)
165.
Just as deer and birds caught in the hunter’s snare will eventually be killed, under the influence of delusion beings are enmeshed in the net of saṃsāra. Don’t you see that in the past all beings have been devoured by the Lord of Death and that you too will come to the same end? Regardless of their age, health or any other consideration, the Lord of Death is systematically slaughtering all those around you. If you realize this, why don’t you practice the dharma instead of pursuing worldly desires and indulging in sleep? You are like the buffalo who stupidly continues to eat his grass unconcerned that all around him are being taken to slaughter.
ŚĀNTIDEVA; BODHICARYĀVATĀRA 7.4-7.6
166.
The fool who thinks he is a fool is for that very reason a wise man;
But the fool who thinks he is a wise man is rightly called a fool.
DHAMMAPADA 63
167.
Wisdom is but Self-awareness,
Beyond all words and talk!
HUNDRED THOUSAND SONGS OF MILAREPA
168.
From pure behavior comes self-power, which frees a man from (many) dangers; pure conduct, like a ladder, enables us to climb to heaven.
FO-SHO-HING-TSAN-KING 1806
169.
We may shout, “Let there be peace!” but this won’t really bring peace. Peace will appear in the world around us only when each individual learns to tame the disturbances arising within his or her own mind. Then, peace will come automatically.
CHÖKYI NYIMA RINPOCHE; UNION OF
MAHAMUDRA AND DZOGCHEN
170.
O you who wish to guard your minds,
I beseech you with folded hands;
Always exert yourselves to guard
Mindfulness and alertness!
People who are disturbed by sickness
Have no strength to do anything (useful),
Likewise those whose minds are disturbed by confusion
Have no strength to do anything (wholesome).
ŚĀNTIDEVA; BODHICARYĀVATĀRA 5.23-5.24
171.
For one road