Quotes (Page 4 of 7)

If you can’t swim in it, canoe across it. Find a way to connect to it. When the lake is too ruined to swim or to eat from it, then that’s where the healing ceremonies come in, because you can still do ceremonies with it.

If a river is threatened, it’s the end of the world for those fish. It’s been the end of the world for somebody all along.

The frustrating thing about our life is that there is no control over these emotions. That’s why there’s no fun. The whole purpose of Buddhism is to have fun, isn’t it? And in order to have fun you have to have control.

Also, you should not limit your meditation to only in the morning or only in the evening: you should do it any time, all the time. Practice time is always now—it’s never in the future.

You don’t have to meditate for the sake of attaining enlightenment. If you are not interested in enlightenment, you can practice shamatha to be natural—to not be so swayed by circumstances.

“You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to look at the graphs and know things are going wrong,” said Newsome. “But it is not too late.” The scientists identify some encouraging signs, including decreasing global birth rates, increasing solar and wind power and fossil fuel divestment.

Do not just look for what you want to see,
that would be futile.
Do not look for anything,
but allow the insight to have a chance to come by itself.
That insight will help liberate you – Nhat Hanh

Imagine what an understanding of the first noble truth could do to this world of increasing consumerism, where entire societies are premised on the belief that pain can be eliminated through ever greater accumulation of money, possessions and power. What would be the impact of a recognition that all of this is a losing battle, that no matter what lengths we go to, we can never really solve the basic human dilemma of suffering?

We see that by risking everything, by taking our suffering seriously, by looking at it and contemplating it, by entering our awareness into it and experiencing it fully, some fundamental, surprising, even shocking transformation can occur.

In explaining the power of meditation, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche makes the interesting observation that as long as we feel we can escape from the present situation, we won’t notice very much about it. Only when we feel that “this is it,” and that there is no escape will our perceptions, our feelings, and our intelligence really come alive.