365 Buddha PA - Jeff Schmidt [27]
AJAHN CHAH; TASTE OF FREEDOM
305.
“Look how he abused me and beat me,
How he threw me down and robbed me.”
Live with such thoughts and you live in hate.
“Look how he abused me and beat me,
How he threw me down and robbed me.”
Abandon such thoughts, and live in love.
In this world
Hate never yet dispelled hate.
Only love dispels hate.
This is the law,
Ancient and inexhaustible.
DHAMMAPADA 3-5
306.
In becoming an enlightened being, this does not destroy the living being, or take it away, or lose it; nevertheless, it does mean having shed it.
DŌGEN; RATIONAL ZEN
307.
Without relation to ‘good’ there is no ‘bad’, in dependence on which we form the idea of ‘good’. Therefore ‘good’ is unintelligible.
There is no ‘good’ unrelated to ‘bad’; yet we form our idea of ‘bad’ in dependence on it. There is, therefore, no ‘bad’.
As ‘good’ is non-existent how can there be desire? As ‘bad’ is non-existent how can there be aversion?
NĀGĀRJUNA; MŪLAMADHYAMAKA-KĀRIKĀ XXIII, 10-12
308.
The bliss of lusts and heaven-world equal not One sixteenth of the bliss of craving’s ending.
UDĀNA 2.2
309.
Where there is great hatred, are the fetters of hell.
Where there is great avarice, are the fetters of the tortured spirits.
Where there is great ignorance, are the fetters of the beasts.
Where there is great lust, are the fetters of man.
Where there is great envy, are the fetters of the demigods.
Where there is great pride, are the fetters of the gods.
These are the six fetters of non-liberation.
HUNDRED THOUSAND SONGS: SELECTIONS FROM MILAREPA,
POET-SAINT OF TIBET
310.
Erroneous views keep us in defilement
While right views remove us from it,
But when we are in a position to discard both of them
We are then absolutely pure.
THE SUTRA OF HUI NENG
311.
What is the Sound of the Single Hand? When you clap together both hands a sharp sound is heard; when you raise the one hand there is neither sound nor smell.
HAKUIN; ZEN MASTER HAKUIN
312.
If men but knew their own nature, they would not dwell (indulge) in sorrow; everything that lives, whate’er it be, all this is subject to destruction’s law;
I have already told you plainly, the law (nature) of things “joined” is to “separate”; the principle of kindness and of love is not abiding, ’tis better then to reject this pitiful and doting heart.
All things around us bear the stamp of instant change; born, they perish; no self-sufficiency; those who would wish to keep them long, find in the end no room for doing so.
FO-SHO-HING-TSAN-KING 1860-1862
313.
What is laughter, what is joy, when the world is ever burning? Shrouded by darkness, would you not seek the light?
DHAMMAPADA 146
314.
Develop the mind of equilibrium. You will always be getting praise and blame, but do not let either affect the poise of the mind: follow the calmness, the absence of pride.
SUTTA NIPĀTA 702
315.
In extinguishing the three realms, arahants don’t fly up into the realms of sensuality, form and formlessness. They stay right where they are. The same was true of the Buddha: When he extinguished the three realms, he was sitting in one spot, under the Bodhi tree. He didn’t fly up into the three realms. He extinguished them at the mind—for right there in the mind is where the three realms exist.
Those who aim at extinguishing the three realms should thus extinguish them in their own hearts. Only then will they obliterate activity—the act of supposing—from the heart, leaving just activityless-ness. This is the primal heart, the primal Dhamma, which knows no death.
AJAAN MUN; HEART RELEASED
316.
Dig the pond, don’t wait for the moonlight; when the pond is complete, the moonlight will naturally be there.
HUNG-CHIH; FIVE HOUSES OF ZEN
317.
We should always live in the dark empty sky. The sky is always the sky. Even though clouds and lightning come, the sky is not disturbed. Even if the flashing of enlightenment