Category Archives: Spirituality
In a Holy Nutshell
Excerpted from Life of Pi by Yann Martel, © 2001: But religion is more than rite and ritual. There is what the rite and ritual stand for. Here too I am a Hindu. The universe makes sense to me through Hindu eyes. There is Brahman, the world soul, the sustaining frame upon which is woven, …
Karma
“If we throw a rock up in the air, then what will fall on our head will be a rock. If we throw a flower up in the air, then what will fall on our head will be a flower.” ~Tai Situ Rinpoche
Strangers to Us
“We need to get to know our emotions. Right now, they are strangers to us. When we come across them, sometimes we react as if we were being confronted by a bandit. Instead, we should make their acquaintance, and then gradually make friends with them or create a wholesome relationship with them. In the end, …
Experience the Weird
“Don’t expect to practice hard and not experience the weird. Hard practice that evades the unknown makes for a weak commitment. So an ancient once said, ‘Help hard practice by befriending every demon.’” ~Kyong Ho
Sweet Ripe Mango
“Dhamma is in your mind, not in the forest. Don’t believe others. Just listen to your mind. You don’t have to go and look anywhere else. Wisdom is in yourself, just like a sweet ripe mango is already in a young green one.” ~Ajahn Chah
Do not worry too much.
“We shouldn’t get carried away. We shouldn’t get lost when things happen to us. Getting lost in good things is as bad as getting lost in bad things. We should not get lost in anything. We should always be aware and mindful. We should always follow the path no matter whether we are taking baby …
Getting the Knack
“To stay with that shakiness– to stay with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with the feeling of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge– that is the path of true awakening. Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic– this is the spiritual path.” …
Severe and Ruthless Toward Ourselves
I like the quote below by the late Thubten Yeshe. Most people have had the experience of starting a diet, then slipping and eating a cookie and just giving up. Or beginning a New Year’s Resolution, only to abandon it when the results didn’t come quickly. It’s good to be reminded to take it easy, …
Change the World
“When we are training in the art of peace, we are not given any promises that, because of our noble intentions, everything will be okay. In fact, there are no promises of fruition at all. Instead, we are encouraged to simply look deeply at joy and sorrow, at laughing and crying, at hoping and fearing, …
A New Loveliness
“You cannot live without dying. You cannot live if you do not die psychologically every minute. This is not an intellectual paradox. To live completely, wholly, every day as if it were a new loveliness, there must be dying to everything of yesterday; otherwise you live mechanically, and a mechanical mind can never know what …
I rush
I am near to the thought of My servant as he thinks about Me, and I am with him as he remembers Me. And if he remembers Me in his heart, I also remember him in My Heart, and if he remembers Me in assembly I remember him in assembly, better than his (remembrance), and …
Contrast
“Mindfulness should guide all your actions and your spiritual endeavors. Whatever you do, always apply three essential points: undertake the action with the intention of doing so for the good of all beings; execute it with perfect concentration, free of attachment to concepts of subject, object, and action; and, finally, dedicate the merit you have …
