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Post by t-bob on Apr 17, 2020 8:05:17 GMT -5
Let Go of What You Cannot Change
Why be unhappy about something If it can be remedied? And what is the use of being unhappy about something If it cannot be remedied?
—Shantideva,“Shantideva Patience”
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Post by t-bob on Apr 18, 2020 8:35:52 GMT -5
How Mindfulness Can Benefit Your Life
When the Buddha taught mindfulness, he always taught it as part of a whole. He never said, “Pay attention to your breath and you will be free of suffering.” More like, “Pay attention to your breath as a way of steadying the mind, and then look at your life.”
—Craig Hase and Devon Hase,“In Brief”
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Post by t-bob on Apr 23, 2020 8:40:53 GMT -5
Listening to Silence ⭐️
[When] you simply listen without attachment to sound, to silence, or to the contrast between the two, there’s no attachment at all … You will eventually reach a point when listening still occurs, but it no longer has an object. In other words, there is still awareness, but that which you are aware of is empty.
—Dharma Master Hsin Tao,“Listening to Silence”
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Post by t-bob on Apr 30, 2020 9:29:48 GMT -5
Filling with Silence 👍🏻
Silence can be an emptiness that is, paradoxically, full. You do not occupy this silence; it occupies you.
by McKoan —Mark C. Taylor,“Hearing Silence”
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Post by t-bob on May 2, 2020 8:05:27 GMT -5
An Antidote to Fear
[One] way to think about lovingkindness is as the absence of fear, because when we think of times when lovingkindness is not our first impulse … usually fear is present.
—Vanessa Zuisei Goddard,“The Four Immeasurables: A Science of Compassion”
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Post by t-bob on May 4, 2020 8:48:57 GMT -5
Anchoring in a Web of Connection
Religious traditions—at least ones that are vital—anchor individuals in a meaningful collective life. They provide a framework that links individual spiritual aspirations to communities extending deep into the past, far into the future, and outward into the long present.
—Andrew Cooper,“The Lotus of the Wonderful Law”
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Post by t-bob on May 8, 2020 9:52:36 GMT -5
Dealing Mindfully with Difficult Emotions ⭐️
We can be angry, jealous, or scared without having to act on those emotions or let them take over our lives. We can experience joy or love without becoming attached to the object that we think is the cause of our joy.
—Tsoknyi Rinpoche,“Allow for Space”
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Post by t-bob on May 9, 2020 8:51:35 GMT -5
The Ethics of Self-Care
We can’t live ethically without caring about ourselves as well as others.
—Winton Higgins,“Treading the Path with Care”
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Post by t-bob on May 11, 2020 9:32:55 GMT -5
Find the Solution That Is Here Now
If there’s one lesson that runs through pretty much every Buddhist tradition, it’s this: there are no magic solutions. Our belief in magic solutions that may happen some day in the future keeps us from doing what we really need to do right here and right now.
—Brad Warner,“A Minty Fresh Mind”
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Post by t-bob on May 16, 2020 9:41:43 GMT -5
Becoming Silence Itself
In order to be in relationship with the sacred, we must be willing to become still and quiet. We must be willing to be, if only for a short while, silence itself.
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Post by t-bob on May 17, 2020 8:50:39 GMT -5
How Presence Leads to Freedom ⭐️
With presence, every moment offers a choice. Sometimes the moment of choice races by like a road sign while we are doing 75 miles per hour on the freeway. … This is where mindfulness comes in.
—Oren Jay Sofer,“When to Speak and When to Listen
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Post by t-bob on May 18, 2020 12:18:37 GMT -5
PRACTICAL HOPE
As the weeks of this pandemic have turned into months it’s easy for the heart to sink. There’s enough bad news to feed our anxieties and worst fears. In the face of so much hardship and uncertainty, it can feel naïve to hope. Yet the alternate seems even bleaker: giving up, feeling hopeless, or falling into despair—none of which is useful. In times like these, we’re called to examine our understanding of hope, and to find a more grounded, reliable source of energy.
This is practical hope.
It’s a stable outlook that starts where we are, recognizes that we're not in control, and still chooses to engage. We assess not only the reality of what’s happening around us, but also our own internal resources and capacities. When we include both our external and internal reality, we can begin to respond effectively. From all signs and predictions, we’re in this for the long haul.
Sure, we won’t be locked in our homes forever, but physical distancing, masks, and a certain level of hypervigilance around health and proximity are most likely here to stay for a while. Instead of placing your hopes on “things going back to normal,” or berating yourself about what you “should be doing,” how would it be to ask yourself, “What’s possible right now?” What can you do today that will lift your spirits or orient you in a useful direction? In this sense, practical hope is something that we do, more than something we have. It’s a way of engaging our hearts so that we align ourselves with what’s most important to us, and live in line with our values. All of us have been called to change and adapt our lives during this pandemic. That begins by recognizing what is possible, and taking a small step in that direction. Then, regardless of the outcome, we can be at ease knowing that we’re acting with integrity and playing our small part.
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Post by t-bob on May 20, 2020 8:44:48 GMT -5
An Ever-Renewing Present
All experience arises in the present, does its dance, and disappears. Experience comes into being only tentatively, for a little time in a certain form; then that form ends and a new form replaces it moment by moment.
—Jack Kornfield,“No Self or True Self?”
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Post by t-bob on May 22, 2020 9:02:21 GMT -5
The Most Meritorious Act
Buddhism emphasizes love’s beneficial power. Because its nature is joy and because it always brings about happiness and well-being, to love is the most meritorious action.
—Karma Trinlay Rinpoche,“What We’ve Been All Along”
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Post by t-bob on May 23, 2020 8:45:23 GMT -5
Concentrate Your Effort
Intelligence or lack of it does not matter; between the dull and the sharp-witted there is no distinction. If you concentrate your effort single-mindedly, that in itself is negotiating the Way.
—Eihei Dogen Zenji,“The Principles of Zazen”
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Post by t-bob on May 24, 2020 9:06:19 GMT -5
Extend Compassion Toward Yourself
Compassion for oneself ... is the basis of an authentic and openhearted life.
—Aura Glaser,“Into the Demon’s Mouth”
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Post by t-bob on May 25, 2020 8:26:55 GMT -5
Imagine the War Being Over
Victory is no balm for loss. Any of us may celebrate a moment, but we live a long time, and finality is not what we need, compassion is what we need. Let the future think about the war being over, because then it will be.
—George Evans,“A Walk in the Garden of Heaven”
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Post by t-bob on May 26, 2020 9:14:22 GMT -5
How to Unearth Natural Freedom
Exposed to the lucidity of simple awareness, practice dissolves into a practice of no practice (which is not the same thing as abandoning practice) where no one is doing or not doing anything, and natural freedom, no longer yearned for, naturally prevails.
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Post by t-bob on May 30, 2020 9:32:14 GMT -5
The Accomplishment of Slowing Down
Choosing to slow down and not accomplish anything is a revolution in itself.
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Post by t-bob on Jun 1, 2020 9:29:28 GMT -5
Get to Know Yourself
The more comfortable we are with ourselves, the more comfortable we are with others. We need to know ourselves fully and authentically, which requires work, before we can start to understand the absolute truth of non-self.
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