Tricycle Daily Dharma May 31, 2012 ~ Learning to Let Go

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 31, 2012

Learning to Let Go

In the West, you have the expression that you wouldn’t wish something on your worst enemy. From a spiritual standpoint, we can adopt a similar point of view. If you experience loss, you can pray that your loss may substitute for the loss of others, so that even your worst enemy may not have to suffer. This is a good way of letting go.
 
- Gehlek Rimpoche, "An Interview with Gehlek Rimpoche"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/31/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Dangerous consequences will follow when politicians and rulers forget moral principles. Whether we believe in God or karma, ethics is the foundation of every religion. - His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 30, 2012 ~ Breaking Through Resistance

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 30, 2012

Breaking Through Resistance

Thinking and talking about practice are easy substitutes for the real effort that a practice life requires. We resist facing life as it is because that would mean abandoning our views of how we think it should be. The most basic form of resistance is wanting life to be other than it is.
 
- Ezra Bayda, "Breaking Through"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/30/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	It is not proper to watch other people. This will not help your practice. If you are annoyed, watch the annoyance in your own mind. If others' discipline is bad or they are not good monks, this is not for you to judge. You will not discover widsom watching others. Monks' discipline is a tool to use for your own meditation. It is not a weapon to use to criticize or find fault. No one can do your practice for you, nor can you do practice for anyone else. Just be mindful of your own doings. This is the way to practice. - Ajahn Chah, "Bodhinyana"

Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/29/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	The Five Precepts 1. For the purpose of training I vow to refrain from taking life. 2. For the purpose of training I vow to refrain from taking what is not given. 3. For the purpose of training I vow to refrain from sexual misconduct. 4. For the purpose of training I vow to refrain from false speech. 5. For the purpose of training I vow to refrain from intoxicants which lead to carelessness. - translated by Gil Fronsdal

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 29, 2012 ~ The World Unfolding

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 29, 2012

The World Unfolding

Time can only disclose or unfold itself in our now, and as it does, all of time and all the world unfolds too.
 
- Adam Frank, "Time & Again"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/28/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	You can confront the prospect of your own death and try to analyze it and, in so doing, try to minimize some of the inevitable sufferings it causes. Neither way can you actually overcome it. However, as a Buddhist, I view death as a normal process of lifeKnowing that I cannot escape it, I see no point in worrying about it. - His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 28, 2012 ~ Sowing the Seeds of Freedom

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 28, 2012

Sowing the Seeds of Freedom

When we practice meditation, we sacrifice inner objects—unskillful thoughts and mental states—and make our minds solid, sovereign, and pure.
 
- Ajaan Lee, "Sowing the Seeds of Freedom"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma May 27, 2012 ~ Shoulder to Shoulder, Hand to Hand

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 27, 2012

Shoulder to Shoulder, Hand to Hand

In a sense, all of Buddhist practice takes place here, in this most intimate realm: here, in the family, shoulder to shoulder with fellow workers, beside each other on the cushion. We meet each other face to face, and so have all our teachers and ancestors met each other. In this way have all the Buddhas taught. Hand to sweating hand.
 
- Sallie Tisdale, "Washing Out Emptiness"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/26/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	The one who is very attached to the cave of the body, that one finds detachment very difficult. Those who constantly crave for pleasure are hard to liberate and certainly cannot be liberated by others, only by themselves. Sometimes it is only death that brings a realization of endings, and then the sensual person, deeply immersed in the body, will shout: "What will happen to me after death?" The way toward liberation is to train yourself to live in the present without any wanting to become anything. Give up becoming this or that, live without cravings, and experience this present moment with full attention. Then you will not cringe at death nor seek for repeated birth. - Sutta Nipata

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 26, 2012 ~ Riding the Waves

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 26, 2012

Riding the Waves

The ebb and flow of life is not unlike the sea. Sure, sometimes it’s calm and serene, but at other times the waves can be so big that they threaten to overwhelm us. These fluctuations are an inevitable part of life. But when you forget this simple fact, it’s easy to get swept away by strong waves of difficult emotions.
 
- Andy Puddicombe, "10 Tips for Living More Mindfully"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma May 25, 2012 ~ To Give Without Bargaining

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 25, 2012

To Give Without Bargaining

The body breaks, things change, life ends. Only when impermanence is fully apprehended do we really have the chance to serve, to give without bargaining.
 
- Bonnie Myotai Treace, Sensei, "The Sword Disappears in the Water"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/24/2012

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	All the delightful things of the world--sweet sounds, lovely forms, all the pleasant tastes and touches and thoughts--these are all agreed to bring happiness if they are not grasped and possessed. But if you regard them merely as pleasures for your own use and satisfaction and do not see them as passing wonders, they will bring suffering. - Sutta Nipata

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 24, 2012 ~ Our Full Expression

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 24, 2012

Our Full Expression

When we are fully expressed from moment to moment, we are transparent.
 
- Sensei Nancy Mujo Baker, "On Not Being Stingy"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/23/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	If we can reach the understanding of what we actually are, there is no better remedy for eliminating all suffering. This is the heart of all spiritual practices. - Kalu Rinpoche, "Luminous Mind"

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 23, 2012 ~ Like a Mountain

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 23, 2012

Like a Mountain

The practitioner’s mind is likened to a mountain that the winds can’t shake; he’s neither tormented by the difficulties he may come across nor elated by his successes. But that equanimity is neither apathy nor indifference. It’s accompanied by inner jubilation, and by an openness of mind expressed as unfailing altruism.
 
- Matthieu Ricard, "One Blood, Two Lineages"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/22/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	You should do the work yourself, for buddhas only teach the way. - Dhammapada

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 22, 2012 ~ Seeing Clearly

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 22, 2012

Seeing Clearly

What does seeing clearly mean? It doesn’t mean that you look at something and analyze it, noting all its composite parts; no. When you see clearly, when you look at a flower and really see it, the flower sees you. It’s not that the flower has eyes, of course. It’s that the flower is no longer just a flower, and you are no longer just you.
 
- Maurine Stuart, "Our One and Only Commandment"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/21/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	It is crucial to know when it is appropriate to withdraw our attention from things that disturb our mind. However, if the only way we know how to deal with certain objects is to avoid them, there will be a severe limit as to how far our spiritual practice can take us. - Lama Thubten Yeshe, "Introduction to Tantra"

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 21, 2012 ~ Integrity

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 21, 2012

Integrity

Without your integrity, you are merely a succession of meaningless moments, always vanishing.
 
- Franz Metcalf and BJ Gallagher, "Mindful Work"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma May 20, 2012 ~ A New Way of Observation

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 20, 2012

A New Way of Observation

It is because our way of observing things is deeply rooted in our self-centered ideas that we are disappointed when we find everything has only a tentative existence. But when we actually realize this truth, we will have no suffering.
 
- Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, "The Heart Sutra: Translations and Commentary"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma May 19, 2012 ~ Zen Management

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 19, 2012

Zen Management

You deal with your shit in Zen by sitting with it. By breathing right into it. You don’t try and ignore it with pleasant thoughts or lofty ideas, and you don’t try and bury it with solutions. You deal with it, you work with it, one breath at a time.
 
- Steve Krieger, "Growing Ground"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/18/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	The mind is the nucleus of samsara and nirvana. - Lama Thubten Yeshe, The Bliss of Inner Fire

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 18, 2012 ~ Sitting Still

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 18, 2012

Sitting Still

If we watch our breathing without desiring calmness and without resenting the tension arising from breathing in and out, and experience only the impermanence, the unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness of our breath, our mind becomes peaceful and calm.
 
- Henepola Gunaratana, "Sitting Still"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/17/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	If you think you see both Destruction and becoming, Then you see destruction and becoming Through impaired vision. - Nagarjuna, "Mulamadhyamaka-Karika"

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 17, 2012

Allegiance to Life

Our pain for the world, and our power to take part in the healing of our world, both come from the same place.
 
- Joanna Macy, "Allegiance to Life"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma May 16, 2012 ~ Buddhanature Mind

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 16, 2012

Buddhanature Mind

What is the Buddha-nature? It is a mind that is open and completely unencumbered. It is empty. And it gives birth to warmth and compassion for other people.
 
- Reginald Ray, "The Power of Solitude"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/16/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Regard him as one who points out treasure, the wise one who seeing your faults rebukes you. Stay with this sort of sage. For the one who stays with a sage of this sort, things get better, not worse. - Dhammapada, 6, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 13, 2012

The Safety of our Buddhanature

Love and compassion make us feel safe because they express the safety of their source—the deep buddhanature within us, the unchanging inner space of primal awareness that cannot be harmed.
 
- John Makransky, "Aren't We Right to Be Angry?"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/12/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Do not underestimate your ability. - Geshe Chekawa, "In Advice From a Spiritual Friend"

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 12, 2012 ~ Revolutionary Practice

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 12, 2012

Revolutionary Practice

True dharma practice is a revolutionary activity, and you can't do it in a comfortable way. You really have to challenge the whole identity of your life.
 
- Jack Kornfield, "The Sure Heart's Release"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma May 11, 2012 ~ The Path of Optimism

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 11, 2012

The Path of Optimism

Buddhism is a path of supreme optimism, for one of its basic tenets is that no human life or experience is to be wasted or forgotten, but all should be transformed into a source of wisdom and compassionate living.
 
- Taitetsu Unno, "Number One Fool"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/10/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Don't associate with bad friends. Don't associate with the low. Associate with admirable friends. Associate with the best. - Dhammapada 78, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 10, 2012 ~ Practicing Nonviolence

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 10, 2012

Practicing Nonviolence

Nonviolence is a conscious way of acting that is based on the connectedness of all life. Violence against another is violence against one's own being, so it is futile.
 
- Paul Hawken, "Upsurge"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/9/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	For whom, in name & form in every way, there's no sense of mine, & who doesn't grieve for what's not: he's deservedly called a monk. - Dhammapada, 25, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 9, 2012 ~ What's True For You?

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 9, 2012

What's True For You?

Some people are afraid, 'If I meditate, will I have to quit my university life or end my marriage?' I don’t know. I think it shows you what’s true for you, and then it’s up to you to live that or betray it.
 
- Larry Rosenberg, "The Art of Doing Nothing"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma May 8, 2012 ~ Saving Yourself from Anger

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 8, 2012

Saving Yourself from Anger

When you give in to aversion and anger, it’s as though, having decided to kill someone by throwing him into a river, you wrap your arms around his neck, jump into the water with him, and you both drown. In destroying your enemy, you destroy yourself as well.
 
- Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, "Putting Down the Arrow"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/8/2012

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Trust has nothing to do with moral courage. It occurs when we have nowhere else to turn, when we reach the end of our need to control. - Rodney Smith, "Lessons From the Dying"

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 7, 2012 ~ The Wise Investigator

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 7, 2012

The Wise Investigator

You always need to check the quality of mind; only if the quality is good are you practicing in the right way. This is how the quality of practice should be measured; not by posture or by the number of hours of sitting, walking, or standing meditation you do.
 
- Sayadaw U Tejaniya, "The Wise Investigator"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/7/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	As kusa grass, wrongly grasped, Only cuts ones hand, So the ascetic life, wrongly taken up, Drags one down to hell. - "Connected Discourses of the Buddha"

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 6, 2012 ~ Joyful Energy

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 6, 2012

Joyful Energy

We can get greater energy out of love and joy than out of hatred. Hatred is so off balance. You blow your adrenals in one minute, then you're shaky and weak. But if you're joyful, you'll get an endless source of energy.
 
- Robert Thurman, "Rising to the Challenge: Cool Heroism"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma May 5, 2012 ~ How Do You Practice?

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 5, 2012

How Do You Practice?

I used to think that to become free you had to practice like a samurai warrior, but now I understand that you have to practice like a devoted mother of a newborn child. It takes the same energy but has a completely different quality. It's compassion and presence rather than having to defeat the enemy in battle.
 
- Jack Kornfield, "The Question"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma May 4, 2012 ~ Don't Get Mad, Don't Get Even

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 4, 2012

Don't Get Mad, Don't Get Even

If we want to succeed in life and bring about a more peaceful world, we must learn to control our emotions and not to be affected by a moment of anger.
 
- Master Hsing Yun, "Don't Get Mad, Don't Get Even"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/4/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	So much fear and desire come from that commitment to 'I am'--to being somebody. Eventually they take us to anxiety and despair; life seems much more difficult and painful than it really is. But when we just observe life for what it is, then it's all right: the delights, the beauty, the pleasures are just that. - Ajahn Sumedho, "Seeing the Way"

Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 4/3/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	If you turn your light inwardly, you will find what is esoteric within you. - The Sutra of Hui Neng

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 3, 2012 ~ The First Glimpse of Prajna

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 3, 2012

The First Glimpse of Prajna

It is as if we were entering a school to study a certain discipline with great, wise, learned people. The first self-conscious awareness we would have is a sense of our own ignorance, how we feel extraordinarily stupid, clumsy, and dumb. At the same time, we begin to get wind of the knowledge; otherwise, we would have no reference point to experience ourselves being dumb. The first glimpse of prajna is like that.
 
- Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, "A Very Practical Joke"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma May 2, 2012 ~ Maintaining Not Knowing Mind

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 2, 2012

Maintaining Not Knowing Mind

As soon as we think we know something, then we become rigid and unresponsive. You know the famous phrase: 'For the beginner there are many possibilities, but for the expert there are few.' Maintaining a mind of 'not knowing' allows us to respond to situations with openness, freshness, and joy.
 
- Gerry Shishin Wick Roshi, "Give and Take: On Studying Koans"

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Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 4/2/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Ajita asked: "What is it that smothers the world and makes it so hard to see? What is it that pollutes the world and seems to threaten it?" The Buddha answered: "It is ignorance that smothers, and it is carelessness and greed that make it invisible. The hunger of craving pollutes the world, and the pain of suffering causes the greatest fear." - Sutta Nipata

Daily Buddhist Wisdom ~ 5/1/2012

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	I believe in justice and truth, without which there would be no basis for human hope. - His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 1, 2012 ~ Finding Your Place

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 1, 2012

Finding Your Place

When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point; for the place, the way, is neither large nor small, neither yours nor others’. The place, the way, has not carried over from the past, and it is not merely arising now.
 
- Eihei Dogen Zenji, "Finding Your Place"

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