Great Throughts Treasury

"A healthy self and an empty self are not contradictory; it just appears so because we use the same language to describe two different things. The whole path of meditation is about understanding that the self as an unchanging entity is a fiction, an illusory mental construct."

"Actions rooted in greed, hatred, or ignorance bring unpleasant results."

"All beings are the heirs of their own karma. Their happiness or unhappiness depends on their actions, not upon my wishes."

"An emotion is like a cloud passing through the sky. Sometimes it is fear or anger, sometimes it is happiness or love, sometimes it is compassion. But none of them ultimately constitute a self. They are just what they are, each manifesting its own quality. With this understanding, we can cultivate the emotions that seem helpful and simply let the others be, without aversion, without suppression, without identification."

"An interviewer once asked Mother Teresa what she says to God when she prays. I don?t say anything, she replied. I just listen. Then the interviewer asked her what God says to her. He doesn?t say anything, said Mother Teresa. He just listens. And if you don?t understand that, I can?t explain it to you."

"And one abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world."

"All things arise when the appropriate conditions are present, and all things pass away as conditions change. Behind the process, there is no self who is running the show."

"As an experiment, the next time you are doing an errand, stuck in traffic, or standing on line at the supermarket, instead of being preoccupied with where you're going or what needs to be done, take a moment to simply send loving wishes to all those around you. Often, there is an immediate and very remarkable shift inside as we feel more connected and more present."

"Ask yourself how many of the billions of inhabitants of this planet have any idea of how rare it is to have been born as a human being. How many of those who understand the rarity of human birth ever think of using that chance to practice the Dharma? How many of those who think of practice actually do? How many of those who start continue? . . . But once you see the unique opportunity that human life can bring, you will definitely direct all your energy into reaping its true worth by putting the Dharma into practice."

"As a solid mass of rock is not moved by the wind, so a sage is not moved by praise and blame."

"Finally, my mind just settled into the realization that accidents happen, and a mantra suddenly appeared in my mind, one that has served me well since: anything can happen anytime."

"Aspirations inspire us, while expectations simply lead us into cycles of hope and fear: hope that what we want will happen; fear that it won?t."

"Awareness of motivation plays a central role in the path of liberation."

"Better than one hundred years lived without seeing the arising and passing of things / Is one day lived seeing their arising and passing.2 What does this say about what we value and work for in our lives, and about the liberating effect of seeing directly, in the moment, the truth of change?"

"Consciousness is not a thing that exists, but an event that occurs."

"Distortion of view takes place when we hold so deeply to our viewpoint that not even known facts can sway our beliefs."

"Doubt is very seductive because it comes masquerading as wisdom. We hear these wise-sounding voices in our minds trying to figure out the dilemmas, difficulties, and paradoxes of our experience through thinking about them. But thinking can take us only so far. It's like trying to know the experience of music by reading a book about it or the taste of a good meal by looking at the menu. We need some other way to understand the nature of doubt, so we can address its concerns appropriately."

"Because these moods and mind states are so amorphous and generalized, we often sink into them and become identified with them, and they become the unconscious filter on experience. At these times, we?re looking at the world through colored glasses."

"But there are many times when we are not simply watching thoughts come and go, either because we are lost in them or because we choose to think something through, perhaps as a precursor to action. In both these cases it is crucial for us to discern wholesome from unwholesome thoughts in order to know which to give our energy to, because these thoughts do have a karmic impact; they lead us. From thoughts come actions. From actions come all sorts of consequences. Which thoughts will we invest in? Our great task is to see them clearly, so that we can choose which to act on and which simply to let be."

"Every time we become aware of a thought, as opposed to being lost in a thought, we experience that opening of the mind."

"Generosity, love, compassion, or devotion do not depend on a high IQ."

"I genuinely feel that I know a lot less now than I did twenty years ago. It feels wonderful! It feels like a letting go of mental constructs."

"Guilt is a manifestation of condemnation or aversion towards oneself, which does not understand the changing transformative quality of mind."

"For most of us, the state we're in most of the time is distraction."

"If I were to say, ?God, why me?? about the bad things, then I should have said, ?God, why me?? about the good things that happened in my life."

"Having been through both of those other stages, our mind matures to a place where it is no longer moved: it does not grasp at pleasant things; it is not repelled by unpleasant things. Our mind attains deep, deep balance, like a calm, deep-flowing river. Out of this mature place of equanimity, the conditions arise that open our mind suddenly to the unconditioned, to what is beyond body and mind, to freedom."

"I have no parents I make the heavens and earth my parents I have no home I make awareness my home I have no life or death I make the tides of breathing my life and death I have no divine power I make honesty my divine power I have no friends I make my mind my friend I have no enemy I make carelessness my enemy I have no armor I make benevolence my armor I have no castle I make immovable-mind my castle I have no sword I make absence of self my sword."

"Hatred never ceases by hatred; it only ceases by love."

"Generosity, morality, respect, service, listening to the Dharma, and meditation ? these are actions for the good. Each one is a practice that can be cultivated and further refined, becoming the causes for our own happiness and the happiness of others. These acts for the good become our gift to the world."

"I like the image of the mind as a mirror. The mirror has the capacity to reflect precisely whatever comes before it without any discrimination."

"If we try to practice meditation without the foundation of goodwill to ourselves and others, it is like trying to row across a river without first untying the boat; our efforts, no matter how strenuous, will not bear fruit. We need to practice and refine our ability to live honestly and with integrity."

"If we use faith to push doubt aside, we construct a defensive wall to keep out any unsettling questions, to keep from having to acknowledge our own fears and uncertainties. The inclusiveness of faith lets us be with whatever arises, investigating the very nature of doubt itself and whatever other difficulties arise. By embracing doubt skillfully we strengthen faith."

"If we work with them, hindrances will enrich our lives. They have been called manure for enlightenment, and some teachers speak of them as 'mind weeds,' which we pull up and bury near the plant to give it nourishment. Our practice is to use all that arises within us for the growth of understanding, compassion, and freedom."

"If we?re more accepting, more peaceful, less judgmental, less selfish, then the whole world is that much more loving and peaceful, that much less judgmental and selfish."

"If you tell the truth you don?t have to remember anything."

"Imagine holding on to a hot burning coal. You would not fear letting go of it. In fact, once you noticed that you were holding on, you would probably drop it quickly. But we often do not recognize how we hold on to suffering. It seems to hold on to us. This is our practice: becoming aware of how suffering arises in our mind and of how we become identified with it, and learning to let it go. We learn through simple and direct observation, seeing the process over and over again until we understand."

"In Buddhist psychology conceit has a special meaning: that activity of the mind that compares itself with others. When we think about ourselves as better than, equal to, or worse than someone else, we are giving expression to conceit. This comparing mind is called conceit because all forms of it?whether it is I?m better than or I?m worse than, or I?m just the same as?come from the hallucination that there is a self; they all refer back to a feeling of self, of I am."

"In the second training, we develop energy, concentration, and mindfulness. These are the meditative and life tools that enable us to awaken. Without them we simply act out the patterns of our conditioning."

"In India, I was living in a little hut, about six feet by seven feet. It had a canvas flap instead of a door. I was sitting on my bed meditating, and a cat wandered in and plopped down on my lap. I took the cat and tossed it out the door. Ten seconds later it was back on my lap. We got into a sort of dance, this cat and I... I tossed it out because I was trying to meditate, to get enlightened. But the cat kept returning. I was getting more and more irritated, more and more annoyed with the persistence of the cat. Finally, after about a half-hour of this coming in and tossing out, I had to surrender. There was nothing else to do. There was no way to block off the door. I sat there, the cat came back in, and it got on my lap. But I did not do anything. I just let go. Thirty seconds later the cat got up and walked out. So, you see, our teachers come in many forms."

"In the One Dharma of emerging Western Buddhism, the method is mindfulness, the expression is compassion, the essence is wisdom. Mindfulness, the method, is the key to the present. Without it, we simply stay lost in the wanderings of our minds. Mindfulness serves us in the humblest ways, keeping us connected to brushing our teeth or pouring a cup of tea."

"It feels to me like we're in such a privileged time in terms of the availability of the dharma and the availability of practice. We never know when conditions might change."

"Is enlightenment gradual or is it sudden? Whole schools of Buddhism have grown up around this issue. But it has always seemed to me that liberation is both sudden and gradual, that there is no polarity between the two."

"Just as the light of a single candle can dispel the darkness of a thousand years, the moment we light a single candle of wisdom, no matter how long or deep our confusion, ignorance is dispelled."

"Let the breath draw the mind down to its own level of subtlety. It is like listening to someone playing a flute as they walk off into the distance."

"It?s always helpful to have a sense of humor about one?s own mental foibles. By"

"Love, compassion, and peace ? these words are at the heart of spiritual endeavors. Although we intuitively resonate with their meaning and value, for most of us, the challenge is how to embody what we know: how to transform these words into a vibrant, life practice."

"It is the truth that liberates, not your efforts to be free."

"It's not the right effort to gain something. It really is the right effort to break the habit of our identification and fixation, which is very very strong."

"Meditation has to do with opening what is closed in us, balancing what is reactive, and exploring and investigating what is hidden. That is the why of practice. We practice to open, to balance, and to explore."

"Love, compassion, and peace do not belong to any religion or tradition. They are qualities in each one? of us, qualities of our hearts and minds.."