You are born as human being, and that cannot change until death. all else - whether you're educated or uneducated, young or old, rich or poor - is secondary
We must keep in mind that too much involvement in the superficial aspects of life will not solve our larger problem of discontentment. Love, compassion, and concern for others are real sources of happiness.
If you nurse hatred, however, you will not be happy even in the lap of luxury.
Only through kindness and love can peace of mind be achieved.
Self-defeating attitudes arise not of their own accord, but out of ignorance.
Love and compassion are beneficial both for you and for others. Through kindness toward others, your mind and heart will open to peace.
Rather than working solely to acquire wealth, we need to do something meaningful, something seriously directed toward the welfare of humanity.
...focuses on valuing our enemies because they provide us with unique opportunities to practice patience, tolerance, and forbearance
By extending ordinary feelings of love and concern beyond their usual biased limits, love is freed from counterproductive attachment
Emotional problems do not reside in the mind's essence; such counterproductive attitudes are temporary and superficial and can be removed.
We get angry at what fails our desires. Anger is fomented by the misconception that the object and yourself are established this way (as enemy and victim) in and of themselves. Hatred is not part of the mind's foundation.
Lust, hatred, and jealousy all depend upon the initial mistaken belief that objects exist as independent entities
Non-virtuous attitudes such as hatred and pride - no matter how strong they are - are generated only with the assistance and support of ignorance
Suffering i caused and permitted by an untamed mind
Acquiring more things once you have what is necessary cannot lead to contentment
Happiness comes through taming the mind; without taming the mind there is no way to be happy
Even while generating a great many good and bad conceptions such as desire, hatred, and bewilderment, the diamond mind itself is free from the corruptions of these defilements, like sky throughout clouds
At present you find it unbearable that your friends suffer, but you are pleased that your enemies suffer, and you are indifferent to the suffering of neutral persons
Pure compassion is not biased or partial, it is thoroughly imbued with equanimity and encompasses both friend and foe
Once you have generated an attitude of equality toward all, then it will be possible to view not just friends, but neutral beings and even enemies with great endearment
Lust, hatred, and indifference must be neutralized
Realize that, like yourself, all of these people want happiness and do not want pain, and in this important way, they are equal.
Looking forward to the future, there is no reason why an enemy must remain an enemy and a friend must remain a friend. Friends, enemies, and neutral people are equal because they may shift interchangeably from one role to the next.
When negative thoughts and motivations such as hatred or anger are present, even a friend is seen as an enemy, but when negative thoughts toward an enemy disappear, the enemy becomes a friend.
We live in dependence upon those who have no special motivation to help us.
Only when forced with the work of enemies can you learn real inner strength.
When things go smoothly, life can easily become like an official ceremony in which protocol, like how you walk and how you speak, is more important than content. But at a time of crisis, these things are pointless - you have to deal with reality and become more practical.
Without the appreciation of kindness, society breaks down
If you become overwhelmed by mental discomfort, external things will not help at all. However, if internally there is love, warmth, and kindheartedness, external problems can be accepted and faced more easily
When we encounter human suffering, it is important to respond with commiseration rather than to question the politics of those we help. Instead of asking whether their country is enemy or friend, we must thing - there are human beings, they are suffering, and they have a right to happiness equal to their own.
As long as desire, hatred, attachment, jealousy, or ignorance are present, crime is possible.
It is difficult to think of a pleasurable experience, that, if overindulged in, does not have an inner nature of pain
In turning away from attachment, you need not ignore essential needs such as food, shelter, and sleep. Rather you should separate yourelf from superficial distractions that elicit such explanations such as "I must have this!" When you give your life over to such thoughts, finery and money become more attractive than spiritual development; distressing emotions increase, leading to trouble, disturbing yourself and those around you, while you figure out ways to satisfy these emotions, causing yet more trouble.
Attachment is built on this mis-perception and will always cause more pain.
Your attachment to the feeling of pleasure itself draws you into distressing actions and thereby into cyclic problems.
There are two types of desire - unreasonable and reasonable. The first is an affliction founded on ignorance, but the second is not. All human development comes out of desire, and those aspirations do not have to be affliction.
Counterproductive desire is unreasonable attachment to things. This inevitably leads to lack of contentment. Ask yourself if you really need most of those things and the answer is no. This type of desire has no limit, no way to satisfy itself, it leads ultimately to suffering. You must put a brake to this desire.
Attachment is one-sided, narrowly focused on yourself for just the short term; the more attached you become, the more biased and narrow you become.
Love thrown into bias by lust and hatred eventually must be stopped. Love influenced by afflictive desires necessarily brings with it hatred at what opposes it, and along with that comes jealousy and all sorts of problems.
Actions are secondary, since they are sometimes positive or negative - always changing - whereas there is never any change in the fact that beings want happiness and do not want suffering.
The main point is not whether a particular person is good or bad to you but the fact that the person is the same as you in wanting happiness and not wanting suffering
I do not concentrate on that person's bad behavior but reflect on the fact that this is a human, who, like myself, wants happiness and does not want suffering, but is voluntarily bringing pain to himself and intentionally destroying his own happiness.
No amount of wealth can buy an extension n your life. On the day of death, nothing you have accumulated can help, you have to leave it behind.
It is crucial to understand that there is no point in being attached to the pleasant appearances or angered by the unpleasant ones.
You need a strong will to achieve the good to make a wish that you will become able to help all beings throughout space. You need a strong self
Contentment is necessary for happiness, so try to be satisfied with adequate food, clothing, and shelter.
All the troubles on this earth are ultimately due to egotism and self-cherishing.
Without enemies you could not fully engage in the practice of patience - tolerance and forbearance. From the viewpoint of training in altruism, an enemy is really your guru, your teacher; only an enemy can teach you tolerance.
Without patience, you could not develop true love and compassion because you would be subject to irritation
Tragic circumstances help you develop inner strength, the courage to face them without emotional breakdown.
There are different levels of happiness and different kinds of suffering. Material things usually correspond to physical happiness, whereas spiritual development corresponds to mental happiness. Since our "I" has two aspects - physical and mental - we need an inseparable combination of material progress and internal spiritual progress.
The kind of selfishness that leads to fighting, killing, stealing, and using harsh words - forgetting other peoples' welfare, always thinking about yourself - I, I, I - will result in your own loss. Others may speak nice words in front of you, but behind your back they will not speak so nicely.
When there is a will there is a way, is indeed true. When we get entangled in a difficult situation, if our will, or courage lessens, if we fall into laziness or feel inferior to the task, thinking that we could not possibly undo this difficulty, his diminishment of will cannot protect us from suffering and will likely make more.
We must generate courage equal to the size of difficulties we face.
As compassion grows stronger, so does the willingness to commit yourself to the welfare of all beings, even if you have to do it alone.
As long as you have compassion, you will be free of the deepest anxiety.
Anger needs to be controlled, but not hidden from yourself. Recognize your reactions; do not deny them. If you do, your compassion will be superficial
Giving your anger the instrument of words and actions is like giving a child a pile of straw and a box of matches. Once lit, anger feeds off the air of exposure and can rage out of control.
When you are ill or suffer an unfortunate event, imagine "may this illness or misfortune serve as a substitute for the suffering of sentient beings".
If you can do something without a problem, do it; if it is impossible, worry is useless
As your activities of body, speech, and mind become more and more directed to the benefit of others, you develop a profound sense of love and commitment
The impermanence of this present life will force you to leave behind all wealth, but by giving it away, you can take it with you as good karma.
Just as deficient children are punished out of a wish to make them competent, so punishment should be carried out with compassion, not through hatred, not desire for wealth. Even those whom they have rightfully fined, bound, punished, and so forth, you being moistened with compassion, should always be caring.
No comments:
Post a Comment