Great Throughts Treasury

"Mindfulness also works to balance what the Buddha called the five spiritual faculties: faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom."

"Mind is the forerunner of all things. Speak or act with an impure mind, suffering follows as the wagon wheel follows the hoof of the ox. Mind is the forerunner of all things. Speak or act with peaceful mind, happiness follows like a shadow that never leaves."

"Mindfulness practice begins to open up everything. We open our mind to memories, to emotions, to different sensations in the body. In meditation this happens in a very organic way, because we are not searching, we are not pulling or probing, we are just sitting and watching."

"Mindfulness, the Root of Happiness ."

"Munindra-ji, one of my first Dharma teachers, used to say that in spiritual practice, time is not a factor. Practice cannot be measured in time, so let go of the whole notion of when and how long. The practice is a process unfolding, and it unfolds in its own time. It is like the flowers that grow in the spring. Do you pull them up to make them grow faster?"

"Most people believe that we are the thoughts that come through our mind. I hope not, because if we are, we are in big trouble! Those thoughts coming through have clearly been conditioned by something: by different events in our childhood, our environment, our past lives, or even some occurrence that has happened two minutes before."

"Nothing at all can prevent the universal process of birth, growth, decay, and death."

"On a boat in the middle of a great storm, one wise, calm person can bring everyone to safety. The"

"No deed is good that one regrets having done."

"Not Seeing Dukkha Is Dukkha."

"One of the great misconceptions we often carry throughout our lives is that our perceptions of ourselves and the world are basically accurate and true, that they reflect some stable, ultimate reality. This misconception leads to tremendous suffering, both globally and in our personal life situations."

"On the deepest level, problems such as war and starvation are not solved by economics and politics alone. Their source is prejudice and fear in the human heart; and their solution also lies in the human heart."

"Our mind becomes more spacious, more open, and happier as we move past our avoidance and denial to see what is true."

"Once a visiting teacher asked me to check out the most gruesome videos I could find for him. Although I found the request rather strange, he said the videos provided a way for him to consciously put himself in a disturbing situation to see if he could stay free within them. Rightly done, this could be a very strong practice in developing equanimity."

"Our progress in meditation does not depend on the measure of pleasure or pain in our experience. Rather, the quality of our practice has to do with how open we are to whatever is there."

"One of the most radical, far-reaching, and challenging statements of the Buddha is his statement that as long as there is attachment to the pleasant and aversion to the unpleasant, liberation is impossible."

"'Skillful means' is a phrase often found in Buddhist literature referring to the particular methods and practices used to help people free themselves from the bonds of ignorance. As skillful means we can employ whatever is useful, whatever is truly helpful. For each of us at different times, different traditions, philosophical constructs, and methods may serve us, either because of temperament, background, or capacities. For some the language of emptiness may be as dry as the desert, while for others it may reveal the heart-essence of liberation."

"So it is very helpful to begin to recognize this comparing mind, this conceit of I?m better than or I?m worse than someone else. When we do not see it clearly, it becomes the source of much suffering. It makes us feel separated and apart from others; we reinforce the contraction of self."

"Spiritual ardency is the wellspring of a courageous heart. It gives us the strength to continue through all the difficulties of the journey. The question for us is how to practice and cultivate ardency, so that it becomes a powerful and onward-leading force in our lives."

"That the value of an action is measured not by its success or failure, but by the motivation behind it."

"The Buddha commented that we carry our parents on our shoulders for the rest of their lives and still not repay the gift of our precious human birth. Although our culture doesn't value parental respect to the degree that Eastern cultures do, cultivating gratitude opens many doors in the relationship."

"The commitment to morality, or non-harming, is a source of tremendous strength, because it helps free the mind from the remorse of having done unwholesome actions. Freedom from remorse leads to happiness. Happiness leads to concentration. Concentration brings wisdom. And wisdom is the source of peace and freedom in our lives."

"The Buddha?s teaching is never about blind belief, but about the wisdom of our own inquiry."

"The great discovery in our practice is that, on one level, birth and death, existence and nonexistence, self and other are the great defining themes of our lives. And on another level, it?s all just a dance of insubstantial appearances, what the Buddha called the magic show of consciousness."

"The only things that can be said to truly belong to us are our actions and their results;"

"The emphasis in meditation is very much on undistracted awareness: not thinking about things, not analyzing, not getting lost in the story, but just seeing the nature of what is happening in the mind. Careful, accurate observation of the moment?s reality is the key to the whole process."

"The greatest communication is usually how we are rather than what we say."

"The meditative journey is not about always feeling good. Many times we may feel terrible. That?s fine. What we want is to open to the entire range of what this mind and body are about. Sometimes we feel wonderful and happy and inspired, and at other times we deeply feel different aspects of suffering."

"The Pali word parami refers to ten wholesome qualities in our minds and the accumulated power they bring to us: generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, resolve, lovingkindness, and equanimity."

"The ten unwholesome actions, then, are three of body: killing, stealing, sexual misconduct; four of speech: lying, harsh words, gossip, and useless talk; and three of mind: covetousness, ill will, and wrong view. The Buddha highlighted these for us out of his compassion and care. They are dangers. They do harm, causing suffering to others and having a deleterious effect on our own happiness. Reading the Buddha's admonitions to refrain from these actions is like coming across a sign on the beach saying, Danger. Strong Undertow. We were walking along the beautiful beach about to dive into the inviting ocean when we encountered the life-saving warning. This is the Buddha as lifeguard, putting up the notices."

"The perception of solidity also comes from observing things from a distance. When we look at an ordinary object like a chair or a table, it appears quite solid. Yet if we put that same object under a powerful microscope, whole new worlds emerge. When we look at trees from a distance, we just see an undifferentiated mass of color. But as we get closer, we can distinguish individual leaves, and even the small distinct parts of the leaves."

"The results of our actions follow us like a shadow, or, to use an ancient image, like the wheel of the oxcart following the foot of the ox."

"The thought of your mother is not your mother. The thought of your mother is just a thought."

"The tremendous danger is that this belief - that genuine happiness comes only from pleasant feelings - becomes a strong motivation to stay closed to anything unpleasant. But by staying closed to all unpleasantness, we also stay closed to our own wellspring of compassion."

"The value of an action is measured not by its success or failure, but by the motivation behind it."

"The wonderful paradox about the truth of suffering is that the more we open to it and understand it, the lighter and freer our mind becomes. Our mind becomes more spacious, more open, and happier as we move past our avoidance and denial to see what is true. We become less driven by compulsive desires and addictions, because we see clearly the nature of things as they are."

"The world is like that boat, tossed by the storms of greed and hatred and fear."

"There are many ways in which we cling: attachment or reaction or judgment or aversion or whatever."

"There are some classical Buddhist teachings about hindrances, one of which is called sloth and torpor. This hindrance is not simply sleepiness, dullness, or tiredness. It is a deep tendency to retreat from difficulties rather than advancing into them. We can use our sense of unworthiness as an excuse to retreat from life, from advancing in human maturity and spiritual progress. At one point in my practice, I reminded myself to 'Choose the difficult.' This mantra helped me to work with this particular hindrance of sloth or laziness."

"This quintessential Zen statement: There is no right and no wrong, but right is right and wrong is wrong."

"Understanding no-self does not come from destroying something we call self or ego. The great awakening or discovery of the Buddha revealed that there was no self, no permanent I, to begin with. So if there is nothing we have to get rid of, then understanding selflessness very simply comes from careful awareness of what actually is happening moment to moment."

"This attachment to the body also deeply conditions our fear of death. The more we cling, the harder it is to let go."

"True humility is the absence of anyone to be proud. Humility is not a stance; it is simply the absence of self. In the same way, relationship is the absence of separation, and it can be felt with each breath, each sensation, each thought, each cloud in the sky, each person that we meet. And being nothing, you are everything. That is all."

"This wisdom opens up to us the possibility of simplicity in our lives, of what the Buddha called 'the greatest gain' ? contentment. We are so conditioned to want more, to think that we will be happier if we accumulate more money or possessions, more honor, fame, power, sex, and so forth, that we burden ourselves with acquisitions, both material and psychological. The underlying rationale of this wanting mind is that fulfillment will make us happy. If we stop to reflect upon our situation, we can see that the attitude of wanting more simply leads to greater craving and frustration."

"This is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the disappearance of pain and grief, for the attainment of the true way, for the realization of nibb?na?namely the four foundations of mindfulness."

"Unless a practice cools the fires of greed, aversion, and ignorance it is worthless."

"We can also strengthen the quality of ardor by reflecting on the transiency of all phenomena. Look at all the things we become attached to, whether they are people or possessions or feelings or conditions of the body. Nothing we have, no one in our lives, no state of mind is exempt from change. Nothing at all can prevent the universal process of birth, growth, decay, and death."

"Until we're fully enlightened, there's ignorance in the mind. So of necessity a view is going to be skewed."

"We all know people who become strongly identified with, and attached to, their intelligence. It can become a big ego trap, harmful to oneself or others. Intelligence can also be a great blessing, providing invaluable clarity."

"We can then see for ourselves the obvious truth that when we cling or hold on to that which changes, we suffer."