Like the little stream
Making its way
Through the mossy crevices
I, too, quietly
Turn clear and transparent
The wind has settled, the blossoms have fallen;
Birds sing, the mountains grow dark --
This is the wondrous power of Buddhism.
- Ryokan
The sound of the water
says what I think.
- Chuang Tzu
Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful. --Buddha
Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.
~Lao Tzu
Acquire the courage to believe in yourself. Many of the things
that you have been taught were at one time the radical ideas
of individuals who had the courage to believe what their own
hearts and minds told them was true, rather than accept the
common beliefs of their day.
~ Ching Ning Chu
"If you understand,
things are just what they are.
if you do not understand,
things are just what they are."
"The world is ruled by letting things take their course.
- Lao-Tzu"
We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Albert Einstein
A human being is a part of a whole, called by us 'universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
“The Law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to beg in the streets, sleep in the parks or to steal bread”.
Anatole France
Musica
This is my daughters band and it's the greatest in the world:-)
I have an eclectic taste, or rubbish as my daughter calls it, Nirvana, G4, Silverchair, Foo Fighters, Billy Joel, Radiohead, Barry Manilow, Blues Band with Paul Jones.
Film
I don't have a long enough attention span for films, but some I have liked include, Arthur, with Dudley Moore, Titanic, and The Green Mile. I will update this if I ever watch another film:-)
Televisione
Reality, soaps, they give my brain a rest:-) I like cookery programmes, although I don't much like cooking, Master Chef, and Ramsey, especially if he takes his shirt off. Programmes with Ben Fogle are also good, Extreme Dreams was brilliant.
Here are two favourites of mine, singing sweetly, Craig and Anton, aren't they sweet:-)
Buddha simply means "one who is awakened." Gautam Buddha is the most famous awakened person. There haven been many buddhas before him and there have been many buddhas after him-- and as long as every human being can become a buddha, new buddhas will go on springing up in the future. Everyone has the potentiality...it is only a matter of waiting for the right time. Some day, tortured by the outside reality, in despair of having seen everything and found nothing, you are bound to turn inward.
In Buddhist terminology, 'Buddha' is equivalent to 'truth'. Buddhists don't talk much about truth; they talk much more about the Buddha. When you become a Buddha, you become awakened, so why talk about truth? Just ask what awakening is. Just ask what awareness is, because when you are aware, truth is there; when you are not aware, truth is not there.
A Buddha is one who lives from moment to moment, who does not live in the past, who does not live in the future, who lives in the here and now. Buddhahood is a quality of being present - and it is not a goal, you need not wait, you can become a buddha just here and now.
Buddha says the greatest joy in life is freedom: freedom from all prejudices, freedom from all scriptures, freedom from all concepts and ideologies, freedom from all desires, freedom from all possessiveness and jealousy, freedom from all hatred, anger, rage, lust...
In short, freedom from everything, so that you are just a pure consciousness, unbounded, unlimited. That is the greatest joy, and it is possible -- it is within everybody's grasp. You just have to grope for it a little. The groping will be in the dark, but it is not far away. If you try, if you make an effort, you are bound to find it. It is your birthright.
- Osho
Meditation is not concentration
MEDITATION is not concentration. In concentration there is a self concentrating and there is an object being concentrated upon. There is duality. In meditation there is nobody inside and nothing outside. It is not concentration .
There is no division between the in and the out. The in goes on flowing into the out, the out goes on flowing into the in. The demarcation, the boundary, the border, no longer exists. The in is out, the out is in; it is a no-dual consciousness.
Concentration is a dual consciousness; that's why concentration creates tiredness; that's why when you concentrate you feel exhausted. And you cannot concentrate for twenty-four hours, you will have to take holidays to rest. Concentration can never become your nature.
Meditation does not tire, meditation does not exahaust you. Meditation can become a twenty-four hour thing - day in, day out, year in, year out. It can become eternity. It is relaxation itself.
Concentration is an act, a willed act. Meditation is a state of no will, a state of inaction. It is relaxation. One has simply dropped into one's own being, and that being is the same as the being of All.
In Concentration the mind functions out of a conclusion: you are doing something. Concentration comes out of the past. In meditation there is no conclusion behind it. You are not doing anything in particular, you are simply being. It has no past to it, it is pure of all future, It what Lao Tzu has called wei-wu-wei, action through inaction.
It is what Zen masters have been saying: Sitting silently doing nothing, the spring comes and the grass grows by itself.
Remember, 'by itself - nothing is being done. You are not pulling the grass upwards; the spring comes and the grass grows by itself. That state - when you allow life to go on its own way. When you don't want to give any control to it, when you are not manipulating, when you are not enforcing any discipline on it - that state of pure undisciplined spontaneity, is what meditation is.
Meditation is in the present, pure present. Meditation is immediacy. You cannot meditate, you can be in meditation. You cannot be in concentration, but you can concentrate. Concentration is human, meditation is divine.
All that you are attached to, all that you Love,
all that you know, someday will be gone.
Knowing this, and that the world is your mind
which you create, play in, and suffer from,
is known as discrimination.
Discriminate between the real and the unreal.
The known is unreal and will come and go
so stay with the Unknown, the Unchanging Truth.
All which appears and disappears is not real,
and no nectar will come from it so don't cling to it,
and once you let go do not turn back to it.
Stay as Eternity in your own Being.
- Papaji
'The Truth Is'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bodhi tree under which the Buddha achieved enlightenment.
I love my family!!
I love books!! I love animals!! I love learning!! I love some people!!
What I don't love, and what I've been astounded to see on some profiles, are the words, 'no gays or freaks'!! These kinds of comments are usually found on um Christian?? peoples pages. Says a lot about the religious type, I think. So please, don't ask to be added to my page if you're in any way a bigot. Life is too wonderful to be spoiled by such people.
' ' ' ' The best things in life, aren't things! ' Everything happens for a reason, it's up to us to change our behavior, thoughts, action, and reactions to life.
Hello Lady :o) How have you been? I hope all is going well. I'll bet those grands are growing fast. Stop by the cafe'. We miss you. We need to chat about what's been goin on with life. Take care xxx
Happiness comes from spiritual wealth, not material wealth... Happiness comes from giving, not getting. If we try hard to bring happiness to others, we cannot stop it from coming to us also. To get joy, we must give it, and to keep joy, we must scatter it ~~John Templeton
♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥ xo ♥
send this to 10 people you just LOVE to death... as a friend or more. and see how many you get back.......♥
"I want to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a sort while."
~~Don Juan
Even if we are still here tomorrow, only good will have been done by offering our love today. Be positive, brighten up the room, let your positiveness radiate from you. Let it shine from your core!!
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