365 Buddha PA - Jeff Schmidt [22]
DHAMMAPADA 121-122
249.
The king said: ‘Is ordination a good thing?’
‘Yes, a good thing and a beautiful [thing].’
‘But did the Buddha obtain it, or not?’
‘Great king, when the Blessed One attained omniscience at the foot of the tree of Knowledge, that was to him an ordination. There was no conferring of ordination upon him at the hands of others—[not] in the way that the Blessed One laid down regulations for his disciples, never to be transgressed by them their lives long!’
‘Very true, Nāgasena!’
MILINDAPAÑHA 76
250.
He who knows that all things are his mind,
That all with which he meets are friendly,
Is ever joyful.
HUNDRED THOUSAND SONGS OF MILAREPA
251.
If in the end the law of entire destruction (is exacted) what use is there in indolence and pride? Covetous desire (lust) is the greatest (source of) sorrow, appearing as a friend, in secret ’tis our enemy.
FO-SHO-HING-TSAN-KING 1813
252.
There is, O monks, a realm, where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind, neither the sphere of boundless consciousness, nor the sphere of nothingness, nor the sphere of neither-perception-nor-nonperception, neither this world nor the next world, nor both together, nor moon and sun. This, O monks, I call neither a going, nor a coming, nor a standing, nor dying, nor being born. It is without a foothold, without a beginning, without a foundation. This indeed is the end of suffering.
UDĀNA 8.1
253.
I like to walk alone on country paths, rice plants and wild grasses on both sides, putting each foot down on the earth in mindfulness, knowing that I walk on the wondrous earth. In such moments, existence is a miraculous and mysterious reality. People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.
THICH NHAT HANH; MIRACLE OF MINDFULNESS
254.
When Ts’ao-shan left Tung-shan, Tung-shan asked him, “Where are you going?”
Ts’ao-shan said, “To an unchanging place.”
Tung-shan retorted, “If it is an unchanging place, how can there be any going?”
Ts’ao-shan replied, “The going is also unchanging.”
TUNG-SHAN; FIVE HOUSES OF ZEN
255.
At Sāvatthi, we are told, on a certain great Fast-day, five hundred women took upon themselves the obligations of Fast-day and went to the monastery. Visākhā approached the oldest women of the company and asked, “Women, for what purpose have you assumed the obligations of Fast-day?” They replied, “Because we seek a heavenly reward.” When she put the question to the women who had reached middle life, they replied, “To obtain release from the power of our husbands.” When she asked the young women, they replied, “That we may conceive a child as soon as possible.” Finally she asked the maidens, who replied, “That we may obtain husbands while we are still young.”
When Visākhā had heard the replies of all, she then went to the Teacher, taking the women with her, and told him each of the replies in order. The Teacher listened to the replies and then said, “Visākhā, in the case of living beings here in the world, birth, old age, sickness, and death are like cowherds with staves in their hands. Birth sends them to old age, and old age to sickness, and sickness to death; they cut life short as though they cut with an axe. But despite this, there are none that desire absence of rebirth; rebirth is all they desire.”
DHAMMAPADA COMMENTARY TO VERSE 135
256.
The pain of birth, old age, disease, and death press heavily upon the world, but adding “passion” to the score, what is this but to increase our foes when pressed by foes?
But rather, seeing how the world is