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Post by t-bob on Dec 21, 2019 9:06:48 GMT -5
The Blessings of New Beginnings
Life moves in circles, goes through cycles, regenerates, starts over. Every 24 hours the sky goes dark and night comes and we sleep and the next morning sunshine pours in and we are given another chance to begin anew.
—Taylor Plimpton, “Starting Over, Again”
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Post by t-bob on Dec 22, 2019 14:37:07 GMT -5
Create Light with Your Actions
Just as fire can be used for beneficial purposes or for destruction, our actions can create either happiness or suffering.
—Beth Roth, “Family Dharma: The Sacred and the Ordinary”
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Post by t-bob on Dec 23, 2019 10:54:50 GMT -5
Can Solitude Include Connection?
For me, solitude is not loneliness, but a space where I can be fully aware of the myriad ways that all things, myself included, are connected.
—Lauren Krauze, “Not Alone During the Holidays”
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Post by t-bob on Dec 24, 2019 15:13:31 GMT -5
A Generous Love
Imagine loving one hundred percent. Imagine acknowledging someone one hundred percent, with no thought of getting something in return.
—Roshi Nancy Mujo Baker, “On Not Being Stingy”
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Post by t-bob on Dec 25, 2019 9:59:42 GMT -5
Everything Is Given and Received
In the end, it’s not so important who gives and who receives. What matters is cultivating the openhandedness that takes us beyond clinging to our separation and into an awareness that all is given and received.
—Hai An (Sister Ocean), “The Dance of Reciprocity
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Post by t-bob on Dec 26, 2019 13:46:42 GMT -5
Building Strength in Trying Times
In times of trial, one must learn to endure whatever may come and thereby strengthen and improve oneself. After all, it is only the person who has experienced the cold of winter who can savor and enjoy fully the warm sunshine of spring.
—Daisaku Ikeda, “On Hardship & Hope”
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Post by t-bob on Jan 3, 2020 8:24:15 GMT -5
Look Toward What Is Good
A powerful light can illuminate a cave that had always been dark, and there are beacons of pure goodness whose luster can sustain us and give us the strength to carry on.
—Pamela Gayle White, “A New Year’s Wish for Light”
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Post by t-bob on Jan 13, 2020 9:58:00 GMT -5
How Faith Leads to Action
Faith reminds us that there is a transcendent force for good at work behind the scenes, and it also tells us that the task of creating a better world begins with the effort to change ourselves.
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Post by t-bob on Jan 14, 2020 13:04:25 GMT -5
Learning to Rest in Unease
Chaos is distressing and the tendency is to bring about order as fast as possible, by whatever means necessary. The trick, of course, is to be at ease with unease.
—Alex Tzelnic, “(Meta)Physical Education”
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Post by t-bob on Jan 15, 2020 9:17:46 GMT -5
What Is Nonviolence?
Buddhist practice and the work of nonviolence can never be separated. They are fused together with spiritual insight and dedicated action.
—Wendy Johnson, “An Alchemy for Regeneration”
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Post by t-bob on Jan 17, 2020 9:13:35 GMT -5
Train Your Brain
With dedication, we can slowly build healthy mental tendencies, for awareness and wisdom, for kindness and compassion. That’s why we practice.
—Wendy Hasenkamp, “Brain Karma”
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Post by t-bob on Jan 18, 2020 10:34:20 GMT -5
Spreading Support
Because you recognize that people need support in order to practice the dharma, you can aspire to provide for others the same kind of support system that you yourself have benefited from.
—Judy Lief, “Train Your Mind: Take on the Three Principle Causes
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Post by t-bob on Jan 26, 2020 9:43:03 GMT -5
How to Respond Thoughtfully
By witnessing how we are, in our body, heart, and mind, we become armed with the necessary information needed to respond thoughtfully and with care
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Post by t-bob on Jan 28, 2020 10:33:37 GMT -5
Be Grateful for Nothing
Here’s our challenge: to allow our hearts and minds to be touched by gratitude without the presence of a hurricane. To appreciate life and the grace by which we wake up each day and go to sleep in safety
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Post by t-bob on Jan 29, 2020 11:07:45 GMT -5
The Power of Simple Acts
Simply by turning on the light, you can instantly destroy the darkness. Likewise, even a rather simple analysis of ego-clinging and afflictive emotions can make them collapse
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Post by t-bob on Feb 2, 2020 9:37:20 GMT -5
Converting Anger for a Positive Result
Through chanting we’re able to elevate the condition of Buddha in our lives, … so that even if we are in the world of anger, we have the ability, through our practice, to access Buddha rather than anger and even to turn the anger from something negative into something that can be used for a positive result
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Post by t-bob on Feb 4, 2020 11:45:50 GMT -5
Return to Kindness
We can use our “little deaths”—those moments when we see that we’re being petty, unkind, or unforgiving—to remind us that the most important thing is to live from the gratitude and kindness of the awakening heart.
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Post by t-bob on Feb 5, 2020 10:18:35 GMT -5
Sustaining Patience
[The Buddha’s] patience is not the patience of a water buffalo who simply endures the work and punishments imposed on it. Instead, it’s the patience of a warrior who, despite wounds and setbacks, never abandons the desire to come out victorious
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Post by t-bob on Feb 11, 2020 23:50:55 GMT -5
Feeling Close with Every Creature - me: everyone is not a friend. They are human beings
For compassion to develop toward a wide range of persons, mere knowledge of how beings suffer is not sufficient; there has to be a sense of closeness with regard to every being.
—Jeffrey Hopkins, “Everyone as a Friend”
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Post by t-bob on Feb 22, 2020 9:37:06 GMT -5
What Does a Mindful Life Look Like?
To be mindful means to remember to let go of compulsive reactivity and realize a nonreactive way of life.
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