Daily Buddhist Verses
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"How should this Sutra be explained for others? By not grasping at appearances and being in unmoving thusness. Why? All conditioned dharmas Are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble or a shadow, Like dew or like a lightning flash. Contemplate them thus."
- Buddha Shakyamuni, Diamond Sutra (Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra) -
"“Virtuous man, one who practices Complete Enlightenment of the causal ground of the Tathagata realizes that [birth and extinction] are like an illusory flower in the sky. Thus there is no continuance of birth and death and no body or mind that is subject to birth and death. This nonexistence of [birth and death and body and mind] is so not as a consequence of contrived effort. It is so by its intrinsic nature.
“The awareness [of their nonexistence] is like empty space. That which is aware of the empty space is like the appearance of the illusory flower. However, one cannot say that the nature of this awareness is nonexistent. Eliminating both existence and nonexistence is in accordance with pure enlightenment.
“Why is it so? Because the nature of empty space is ever unmoving. Likewise, there is neither arising nor perishing within the Tathagatagarbha. [8] It is free from conceptual knowledge and views. Like the nature of dharmadhatu, which is ultimate, wholly complete, and pervades all ten directions, such is the Dharma practice [of the Tathagata] of the causal ground."
~ The Sutra of Complete Enlightenment -
Manjusri, you should know
that all Tathagatas,
from their original-arising causal ground,
use wisdom to enlighten
and penetrate ignorance.
Realizing that ignorance is like
a flower in the sky,
they are thus liberated from the continuance
[of birth and death].
Like a person [seen] in a dream who
cannot be found when [the dreamer] awakens,
awareness is like empty space.
It is impartial and equal, and ever unmoving.
When enlightenment pervades all ten directions,
the Buddha Path is accomplished.
There is no place where illusions vanish,
and there is no attainment
in accomplishing the Buddha Path,
for the intrinsic nature is already wholly complete.
By this, bodhisattvas
can give rise to the bodhi-mind.
Sentient beings in the Dharma Ending Age
through this practice will avoid erroneous views.
~ The Sutra of Complete Enlightenment -
View all problems as challenges.
Look upon negativities that arise as opportunities to learn and to grow.
Don't run from them, condemn yourself, or bury your burden in saintly silence.
You have a problem? Great.
More grist for the mill. Rejoice, dive in, and investigate.
~ Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, "Mindfulness in Plain English" -
All meditation must begin with arousing deep compassion.
Whatever one does must emerge from an attitude of love and benefitting others.
~ Milarepa -
The animals of the world exist for their own reasons.
They were not made for humans any more than
black people were made for white, or women created for men.
~ Alice Walker
http://www.acres.org.sg/issues_crueltyfree.html -
Are we interested in exploring this amazing affair of ‘myself’ from moment to moment?
A somber day, isn't it? Dark, cloudy, cool, moist and windy. Amazing, this whole affair of the weather!
We call it weather, but what is it really? Wind. Rain. Clouds slowly parting. Not the words spoken about it, but just this darkening, blowing, pounding and wetting, and then lightening up, blue sky appearing amid darkness, and sunshine sparkling on wet grasses and leaves. In a little while there'll be frost, snow and ice covers. And then warming again, melting, oozing water everywhere. On an early spring day the dirt road sparkles with streams of wet silver. So—what is weather other than this incessant change of earthly conditions and all the human thoughts, feelings and undertakings influenced by it? Like and dislike. Depression and elation. Creation and destruction. An ongoing, ever-changing stream of happenings abiding nowhere. No real entity weather exists anywhere except in thinking and talking about it.
Now, is there such an entity as me or I? Or is it just like the weather—an ongoing, ever-changing stream of ideas, images, memories, projections, likes and dislikes, creation and destruction, that thought keeps calling I, me, Toni, and thereby solidifying what is evanescent? What am I really, truly, and what do I merely think and believe I am?
Are we interested in exploring this amazing affair of myself from moment to moment? Is this, maybe, the essence of this work? Exploring ourselves attentively, beyond the peace and quiet that we are seeking and maybe finding occasionally? Coming upon an amazing insight into this deep sense of separation that we call me and other people, me and the world, without any need to condemn or overcome?
Most human beings take it for granted that I am me, and that me is this body, this mind, this knowledge and sense of myself that feels so obviously distinct and separate from other people and from the nature around us. The language in which we talk to ourselves and to each other inevitably implies separate me's and you's all the time. All of us talk I-and-you talk. We think it, write it, read it, and dream it with rarely any pause. There is incessant reinforcement of the sense of me, separate from others. Isolated, insulated me. Not understood by others. How are we to come upon the truth if separateness is taken so much for granted, feels so commonsense?
The difficulty is not insurmountable. Wholeness, our true being, is here all the time, like the sun behind the clouds. Light is here in spite of cloud cover.
What makes up the clouds?
(What Is This Me? by Toni Packer) -
Though one should live a hundred years not seeing the Truth Sublime,
yet better, indeed, is a single day's life of one who sees the Truth Sublime.
~ Buddha -
Reverend Mahakasyapa, the Maras who play the devil in the innumerable universes of the ten directions are all bodhisattvas dwelling in the inconceivable liberation, who are playing the devil in order to develop living beings through their skill in liberative technique. - Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra
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Why are you unhappy?
Because 99.9 per cent
Of everything you think,
And of everything you do,
Is for yourself —
And there isn't one.
— Wei Wu Wei, Ask The Awakened -
"Always recognize the dreamlike qualities of life and reduce attachment and aversion. Practise good-heartedness toward all beings. Be loving and compassionate, no matter what others do to you. What they will do will not matter so much when you see it as a dream. The trick is to have positive intention during the dream. This is the essential point. This is true spirituality."
~ CHAKDUD TULKU ~ -
Support beings with all your heart and protect them like your own body. Indifference towards beings must be avoided like poison. Though some Buddhists obtain a lesser enlightenment due to indifference, the bodhi of Perfect Buddhas is obtained by not abandoning living beings.
Nagarjuna, Bodhicittavivarana 82-83 -
"All things, material and spiritual, originate from one source and are related as if they were one family. The past, present, and future are all contained in the life force. The universe emerged and developed from one source, and we evolved through the optimal process of unification and harmonization."
- Morihei Ueshiba, The Founder of Aikido -
Non-duality/No-Self:
All there is is this. All there is is what's happening. And what is happening is not happening to anyone, what is happening is simply happening.... there is no one in this room.
~ Tony ParsonsThere is only a subjective happening, never an action done by any entity.
~ Ramesh BalsekarIf I could teach the world a lesson it would be, no matter what you experience always remind yourself, “There is no experiencer, there is no observer.” If you do this long enough and often enough you will one day know what's going on. When that day comes you will realize nothing has changed, yet everything has changed. It is a feeling and a knowing. An inescapable falling away of untruth. If you think you know it then you don’t. When you know it, you do. And when you do know it, no one can take it away from you.
~ Steven NorquistI ask people this all the time and really piss them off, "Why do you meditate? What are you trying to accomplish? Why do you watch your breath?" I have never met anyone that has given me the correct answer.
The reason they don't know is because they are not enlightened. If they were, then they might not even meditate anymore, or they might, it would make no difference. You see, the simple truth that is missed by almost every meditator is this, the act of sitting there watching your breath is enlightenment. That is all. You are not doing something to gain something, just sitting there is enlightenment. That still state with calmed mind, just that is enlightenment, yet that annoying gossip over there interrupting your meditation, just that is enlightenment and that guy flipping you off in commuter traffic, just that is enlightenment. There is no doer, no experiencer, no one who acts. Manifestation emerges, actless, mindless and just that is enlightenment.
~ Steven Norquist (see: "What is enlightenment, no, I mean really, like what is it?")When every single moment is purely nothing but the unfolding of total presence under differing conditions, there is only chirping birds, drum beats, foot steps, sky, mountainÂ…there never was a Witness hiding anywhere!
There is no mirror reflecting
All along manifestation alone is.
The one hand claps
Everything IS!
For the purpose of discussion, I would like to introduce you one concept, it is the "seed of pre-conscious propensities";. It is a layer of ‘bond’ that prevents us from ‘seeing’ something…it is very subtle, very thin, very fine…it goes almost undetected. What this ‘bond’ does is it prevents us from ‘seeing’ what “WITNESS” really is and makes us constantly fall back to the Witness, to the Source, to the Center . Every moment we want to sink back to Witness, to the Center, to this Beingness, this is an illusion. It is habitual and almost hypnotic.
But what exactly is this “witness” we are talking about? It is the manifestation itself! It is the appearance itself! There is no Source to fall back, the Appearance is the Source! Including the moment to moment of thoughts. The problem is we choose, but all is really it. There is nothing to choose.
There is no mirror reflecting
Manifestation alone IS.
From blinking your eyes, raising a hand...jumps...flowers, sky, chirping birds, footsteps...every single moment...nothing is not it! There is just IT. The instantaneous moment is total intelligence, total life, total clarity. Everything Knows, it's it. There is no two, there is one.
There is no invisible witness hiding anywhere. Whenever we attempt to fall back to this “an invisible transparent image “, it is again the mind game of thought. It is the ‘bond’ at work.
~ ThusnessAll appearance is source. All that apparently manifests in the hypnotic
dream of separation the
world, the life story, the search for home, is one
appearing as two the nothing appearing as everything, the absolute
appearing as the particular.
~ Tony ParsonsNo watcher needed, the process itself knows and rolls as Venerable Buddhaghosa writes in the Visuddhi Magga.
~ Thusness -
(continued from previous post)
Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
This open being is not something to be practiced methodically. Toni points out that it takes no effort to hear the sounds in the room; it's all here. There's no "me" (and no problem) until thought comes in and says: "Am I doing it right? Is this 'awareness?' Am I enlightened?" Suddenly the spaciousness is gone—the mind is occupied with a story and the emotions it generates.
~ Joan Tollifson (Toni = Toni Packer)All there is is
this. Oneness is being this . . . whatever is apparently
happening . . . reading these words, breathing, blood coursing through the
body, sounds being heard, thoughts coming and going and feelings in the
body the
sense of sitting on a seat maybe. Here is oneness being
aliveness as this.
No effort is needed for that aliveness to be. Nobody is doing aliveness. Is
anybody doing sitting on a chair? Thinking is oneness thinking "I don't get
where this is going", or "this is too simple". All is simply aliveness,
oneness, being. It cannot be taught or achieved. Who is apart from being
to achieve being? Who can lose or gain this when this is all there is?
Resisting oneness is oneness resisting. Seeking oneness is oneness seeking
itself.
Aliveness is oneness apparently happening. Aliveness is being alive. There
is only being and the nature of that being is emptiness and fullness,
nothing and everything, movement and repose.
In that wholeness arises the idea "I am a separate individual". This seems
to be the beginning of a dream called "me being someone in a world with
which I have to negotiate".
Here in this separation is the root of all fear and feeling of disquiet coming
out of a sense of loss. Again it is the appearance of oneness, and in that appearance we embark on a journey in which we meet parents, teachers,
maybe priests, bosses and lovers, and learn how to get what we think we
want seemingly through personal choice and effort. The pursuit of
pleasure and the avoidance of pain generate transient experiences of
gratification and disappointment. The whole manifestation that we call
life is simply the drama of oneness looking for itself, for all desire is the
longing for oneness.
~ Tony Parsons...As stated earlier, a helpful concept here is compassion, a heart aspect of the practice and reality related to kindness. You see, wherever there is desire there is suffering, and wherever there is suffering there is compassion, the desire for the end of suffering. You can actually experience this. So obviously there is some really close relationship between suffering, desire and compassion. This is heavy but good stuff and worth investigating.
We might conceive of this as compassion having gotten caught in a loop, the loop of the illusion of duality. This is sort of like a dog’s tail chasing itself. Pain and pleasure, suffering and satisfaction always seem to be “over there.” Thus, when pleasant sensations arise, there is a constant, compassionate, deluded attempt to get over there to the other side of the imagined split. This is fundamental attraction. You would think that we would just stop imagining there is a split, but somehow that is not what happens. We keep perpetuating the sense of a split even as we try to bridge it, and so we suffer. When unpleasant sensations arise, there is an attempt to get away from over there, to widen the imagined split. This will never work, because it doesn’t actually exist, but the way we hold our minds as we try to get away from that side is painful. When boring or unpleasant sensations arise, there is the attempt to tune out all together and forget the whole thing, to try to pretend that the sensations on the other side of the split are not there. This is fundamental ignorance and it perpetuates the process, as it is by ignoring aspects of our sensate reality that the illusion of a split is created in the first place...
~ Dharma DanWhy are you unhappy?
Because 99.9 per cent
Of everything you think,
And of everything you do,
Is for yourself —
And there isn't one.
— Wei Wu Wei, Ask The AwakenedParadoxical though it may sound:
There is a path to walk on,
there is walking being done,
but there is no traveller.
There are deeds being done, but there is no doer.
There is a blowing of the air, but there is no wind that does the blowing.
The thought of self is an error
and all existences are hollow as the plantain tree
and as empty as twirling water bubbles.
~ Buddha -
If you are always aware, Mogharaja, you will look at the world and see its emptiness. If you give up looking at yourself as a soul, then you will have given yourself a way to go beyond death. Look at the world like this and the King of Death (Mara) will not see you. (Sutta Nipata 1119)
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He should develop the perception of inconstancy (impermanence) so as to uproot the conceit 'I am.' For a monk perceiving inconstancy, the perception of no-self is made firm. One perceiving no-self attains the uprooting of the conceit 'I am'—Unbinding in the here and now. (Meghiya Sutta)
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"Luminous, monks, is the mind.1 And it is defiled by incoming defilements." {I,v,9}
"Luminous, monks, is the mind. And it is freed from incoming defilements." {I,v,10}
"Luminous, monks, is the mind. And it is defiled by incoming defilements. The uninstructed run-of-the-mill person doesn't discern that as it actually is present, which is why I tell you that — for the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person — there is no development of the mind." {I,vi,1}
"Luminous, monks, is the mind. And it is freed from incoming defilements. The well-instructed disciple of the noble ones discerns that as it actually is present, which is why I tell you that — for the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones — there is development of the mind." {I,vi,2}
~ The Buddha -
The Luminous Mind
I gave a simile to a monk the other night. Imagine an Emperor who is wearing a long pair of trousers and a big tunic. He's got shoes on his feet, a scarf around the bottom half of his head and a hat on the top half of his head. You can't see him at all because he's completely covered in five garments. It's the same with the mind. It's completely covered with sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. So people don't know it. They just know the garments. When they see the Emperor, they just see the robes and the garments. They don't know who lives inside them. And so it is no wonder they're confused about what is life, what is mind, who is this inside of here, were did I come from? Why? What am I supposed to be doing with this life? When the five senses disappear, it's like unclothing the Emperor and seeing what is actually in here, what's actually running the show, who's listening to these words, who's seeing, who's feeling life, who this is. When the five senses disappear, you're coming close to the answer to those questions.
What you're seeing in such deep meditation is that which we call "mind," (in Pali it's called Citta). The Buddha used this beautiful simile. When there is a full moon on a cloudy night, even though it's a full moon, you can hardly see it. Sometimes when the clouds are thin, you can see this hazy shape shining though. You know there is something there. This is like the meditation just before you've entered into these profound states. You know there is something there, but you can't quite make it out. There's still some "clothes" left. You're still thinking and doing, feeling the body or hearing sounds. But there does come a time, and this is the Buddha's simile, when the moon is released from the clouds and there in the clear night sky you can see the beautiful full disc of the moon shining brilliantly, and you know that's the moon. The moon is there; the moon is real, and it's not just some sort of side effect of the clouds. This is what happens in meditation when you see the mind. You see clearly that the mind is not some side effect of the brain. You see the mind, and you know the mind. The Buddha said that the mind released is beautiful, is brilliant, is radiant. So not only are these blissful experiences, they're meaningful experiences as well.
How many people may have heard about rebirth but still don't really believe it? How can rebirth happen? Certainly the body doesn't get reborn. That's why when people ask me where do you go when you die, "one of two places" I say "Fremantle or Karrakatta" that's where the body goes! [3] But is that where the mind goes? Sometimes people are so stupid in this world, they think the body is all there is, that there is no mind. So when you get cremated or buried that's it, that's done with, all has ended. The only way you can argue with this view is by developing the meditation that the Buddha achieved under the Bodhi tree. Then you can see the mind for yourself in clear awareness - not in some hypnotic trance, not in dullness - but in the clear awareness. This is knowing the mind.When you know that mind, when you see it for yourself, one of the results will be an insight that the mind is independent of this body. Independence means that when this body breaks up and dies, when it's cremated or when it's buried, or however it's destroyed after death, it will not affect the mind. You know this because you see the nature of the mind. That mind which you see will transcend bodily death. The first thing which you will see for yourself, the insight which is as clear as the nose on your face, is that there is something more to life than this physical body that we take to be me. Secondly you can recognise that that mind, essentially, is no different than that process of consciousness which is in all beings. Whether it's human beings or animals or even insects, of any gender, age or race, you see that that which is in common to all life is this mind, this consciousness, the source of doing.
~ Ajahn Brahmavamso
notes: pls note that "mind" here does not refer to "thinking", but certain luminous aspect of our buddha nature.. but relating more to the thought level, not necessarily non dual -
We all came to know abt Buddha via history and words from the old? How sure can we be that buddha really exist? Or rather in general all other saints? How do we know they exist? No offence. I used to offer prayer and josstick to the buddha at home and visit temple. But after alot of incident happen, that lead to me losting the faith.. I questioned myself.. Do christ exist? Do buddha exist? Do all other saint exist? Or r we juz living in a self delusion world..
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Pls continue this discussion at: My sincere apology if any offence takenOriginally posted by oldbandit:We all came to know abt Buddha via history and words from the old? How sure can we be that buddha really exist? Or rather in general all other saints? How do we know they exist? No offence. I used to offer prayer and josstick to the buddha at home and visit temple. But after alot of incident happen, that lead to me losting the faith.. I questioned myself.. Do christ exist? Do buddha exist? Do all other saint exist? Or r we juz living in a self delusion world.. -
7 ItÂ’s Possible
Is it possible that humanity never again kill, steal, rape and lie?
Can humanity never again fight for political causes?
Is it possible that humanity never again makes weapons and kills one another in war?
Is it possible that humanity never again mistreats and kills animals?
Can humanity never again pollute the rivers and oceans?
Can humanity never again fell the forests and destroy the environment?
Can humanity never again fall into materialistic thinking?
Â… Can humanity never againÂ…
It is impossible for humanity.
I see human kind is insignificant and powerless.
But although this is so,
Humanity still has hope,
Because the original nature of human kind is pure.
As long as we abide in peace
And let our hearts be at peace,
Love will arise,
To transform the human race,
Slowly returning it to its bright original nature.
And then,
Everything will become possible.
~ http://www.nanhua.co.za/chanlin/Ch'an%20Poems%206-10.htm -
In the journey of life, one must stand firm and face up to tests. One must be responsible for one's own thoughts, speech and wishes. Life is about different experiences and one must keep exploring the possibilities. When one is down in the dumps, be unruffled. When one is successful, be cool. Treat others kindly and one will be transcendent in one's actions.
__ Venerable Shi Fazhao -
For a practioner of love and compassion, an enemy is one of the most important teachers. Without an enemy you cannot practice tolerance,and without tolerance you cannot build a sound basis of compassion. So in order to practice compassion, you should have an enemy.
When you face your enemy who is going to hurt you, that is the real time to practice tolerance. Therefore an enemy is the cause of the practice of tolerance; tolerance is the effect or result of an enemy. So those are cause and effect. As is said, "Once something has the relationship of arising from that thing,one cannot consider that thing from which it arises as a harmer; rather ir assists the production of the effect."
___A Guide To The Boddhisattva Way Of Life by The indian scholar-Shantideva -
* Adopt a positive attitude in the face of difficulty. Imagine that by undergoing a difficult situation with grace you are also preventing worse karmas that you would otherwise have to experience in the future.
* Regularly evaluate the possible negative and positive effects of feelings such as lust, anger, jeolousy, and hatred. When it become obvious that their effects are very harmful, continue your analysis. Gradually your conviction will strenghten. Repeated reflection on the disavantages of anger, for example, will cause you to realize that anger is senseless. This decision will cause your anger to diminish gradually.
~ How to Practise by the Dalai Lama