Tricycle Daily Dharma June 7, 2013

The Lotus in the Mud Think of the wonderful teaching of the lotus in the mud: It grows from the muck below and blossoms as a beautiful, pristine flower above. All of us have our feet in the stinking mud, and yet there is an opportunity to offer our lives, however imperfect they are, to others. - Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara, "Practice First"

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 6, 2013

In the Smallest Act The bodhisattva ideal begins with the smallest acts motivated by concern for others. This feeling, this wish to be more kind and helpful, is the beginning of the bodhisattva path itself, and the treading of this path—for most of us, for most of our practice-lives—will mainly consist of small acts of kindness and concern, brief moments of putting others before ourselves. - Majushra, "An Everyday Aspiration"

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 5, 2013

Not Judging our Emotions There isn’t any such thing as a negative emotion. There are negative things that we do with our emotions, but our emotions themselves are neither negative nor positive. - Robert Augustus Masters, "From Spiritual Bypassing"

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 4, 2013

Suffering Guaranteed Of course we need to practice compassion in individual thoughts and acts—these are the bread and butter of practice, the real test. But where we see political and economic systems guaranteed to generate tragedy and despair, we must also respond to transform and humanize those systems. - David Edwards, "Life Or Death"

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 3, 2013

The Gifts Along the Way The narratives implicit in spiritual training often contain misdirection of various kinds, under the shadow of which other kinds of change and growth, noticed and unnoticed, may be occurring. In the grand narrative of the voyage from samsara to nirvana, we may tend to overlook all kinds of unsought gifts that befall us along the way. - Henry Shukman, "A Matter of Misdirection"

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 2, 2013

How to Receive The Buddha encouraged us to think of the good things done for us by our parents, by our teachers, friends, whomever; and to do this intentionally, to cultivate it, rather than just letting it happen accidentally. - Ajahn Sumedho, “The Gift of Gratitude”

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 1, 2013

A Practical Perspective on Karma The whole point of karma is to recognize how our actions determine our future, so that we can begin to act properly. It’s not just a cosmological or philosophical matter. It’s entirely practical. The main point is not to get in trouble again. - Matthieu Ricard, "Karma Crossroads"