Tricycle Daily Dharma March 31, 2013

The Truth about Pleasure The truth is, we don’t really want to be free from desire or to admit that clinging to the pleasures of the senses—the taste of delicious food; the sound of music, gossip, or a joke; the touch of a sexual embrace—ends unavoidably in disappointment and suffering. We don’t have to deny that pleasant feelings are pleasurable. But we must remember that like every other feeling, pleasure is impermanent. - Bhante Gunaratana, "Desire and Craving"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 30, 2013

The Sound of Silence Silence is something that comes from your heart, not from outside. Silence doesn’t mean not talking and not doing things; it means that you are not disturbed inside. If you’re truly silent, then no matter what situation you find yourself in you can enjoy the silence. - Thich Nhat Hanh, “The Heart of the Matter”

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 29, 2013

Experiencing Impermanence Every sensation shares the same characteristic: it arises and passes away, arises and passes away. It is this arising and passing that we have to experience through practice, not just accept as truth because Buddha said so, not just accept because intellectually it seems logical enough to us. We must experience sensation’s nature, understand its flux, and learn not to react to it. - S. N. Goenka, “Finding Sense in Sensation”

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 28, 2013

Born Each Instant When you maintain the straightforward frankness of your own mind as it comes to life each instant, even without effort, even without training, you are beautifully born each instant. You die with each instant, and go on to be born again, instant by instant. - Soko Morinaga Roshi, “One Chance, One Encounter”

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 27, 2013

At Your Service Among all the different forms of life and creatures great and small, we were born as human beings. As such, we are innately endowed with goodness and the consciousness to use it for others. It’s in our very nature as human beings to want to use that goodness for the sake of others, to be of help and service. - Shinso Ito, “Unconditional Service”

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 26, 2013

Changing our Approach to Life In Buddhism, the point is not simply to be accomplished meditators but to change our whole approach to life. Meditation is not merely a useful technique or mental gymnastic, but part of a balanced system designed to change the way we go about things at the most fundamental level. - Judy Lief, "Is Meditation Enough?"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 25, 2013

Living Fully The problem with our life does not lie in the individual circumstances or occurrences of our day-to-day existence. It’s not that they’re inherently meaningless and boring. The problem is that we make them meaningless and boring; because we are so invested in maintaining our own sense of self, we actually don’t relate to anything in a direct way. Unwilling to fully live the life that is arriving in our bodies moment by moment, we find ourselves left with no real life at all. - Reggie Ray, "Touching Enlightenment"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 24, 2013

Trust the Breath Mindfulness of breathing is a practice of learning to harmonize your attention with what is, in this moment. Short, long, deep, shallow are all fine breaths. Trust your body; it knows what is needed. - Christina Feldman, "Meditation Q&A"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 23, 2013

Deep Engagement It is a misunderstanding to think that enlightenment is some sort of final escape from life and that the doctrine of the unsatisfactory nature of samsara obviates any need for involvement with other beings or social responsibility. Because nirvana is selfless, there is no self that enjoys a state of being beyond the world. Wisdom and compassion are ultimately inseparable, wisdom being the complete knowledge of ultimate selflessness and compassion being the selfless commitment to the happiness of others. - Robert Thurman, "The Politics of Enlightenment"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 22, 2013

Taking Risks In order to practice, we have to surrender, we have to take a risk. Otherwise what we’re doing is standing back in order to judge, in order to feel superior. Often the obstacle is fear: we don’t think we’ll ever succeed. And so we’d rather stand apart and be cynical, to feel protected in that way, not having to try. - Sharon Salzberg, "Sitting on the Fence"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 21, 2013

The Potency of the Present Once we abandon the belief that there is a more spiritually useful moment than the one we are in, we have embraced our life and infused it with the energy for awakening. - Rodney Smith, "Undivided Mind"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 20, 2013

Skillful Desire The notion of a skillful desire may sound strange, but a mature mind intuitively pursues the desires it sees as skillful and drops those it perceives as not. Basic in everyone is the desire for happiness. Every other desire is a strategy for attaining that happiness. - Thanissaro Bhikkhu, "Pushing the Limits"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 19, 2013

The Haven of Meditation Meditation is a haven away from the ubiquitous world of self-improvement. It's not just that there's no such thing as 'bad' meditation, but there's no such thing as 'good' meditation either. It is what it is. - Barry Evans, "The Myth of the Experienced Meditator"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 18, 2013

Breaking the Chain of Suffering Our suffering was not caused by our parents or grandparents. It was merely passed down. We are social animals. We grow through modeling. We teach what we have learned. We act as we have been acted upon. A person who is not loving has not experienced love. It is not his fault. Realizing this gives rise to forgiveness. And in Chan we vow that suffering will stop with us. We will not pass it down. - Guo Jun, "A Special Transmission"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 17, 2013

Our Capacity for Joy Joy is not something we have to manufacture. It is already in us when we come into the world. We need only release the layers of contraction and fear that keep us from it. - James Baraz, “Lighten Up!”

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 16, 2013

Being Grateful for our Mistakes It’s only our mistakes that bring us to the place where we should have been all along. - Pico Iyer, "My Bad"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 15, 2013

Keep Your Balance Just as a person mired in quicksand cannot help another until he has himself reached firm ground, our ability to help others depends chiefly on keeping our own balance. - Andrew Olendzki, "Keep Your Balance"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 14, 2013

Recognizing Yourself in Others Compassion is not condescension, but a leveling of the playing field, a recognition of yourself in others and an acceptance that their stress is your stress, that their happiness is your own. The gulf between us all is imaginary, born of insecurity and fear. - Stephen Schettini, "What to Expect When You're Reflecting"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 13, 2013

The One Teaching The Buddha declared that to have heard this teaching is to have heard all teachings, to have put it into practice is to have done all practices, and to have reaped the fruits of that practice is to have reaped all fruits: Nothing whatsoever should be clung to as 'I' or 'mine.' - Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, "A Single Handful"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 12, 2013

Rising to the Challenge We’re all prisoners of life and death. The question is: What kind of prisoners do we want to be? - Bonnie Myotai Treace, "Rising to the Challenge: Filling the Well with Snow"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 11, 2013

No Easy Answers People come to Buddhism looking for answers, but Buddhism is not about giving you some easy formula. It’s all about you needing to question yourself. When you think you’ve got it, that’s when you especially need to question it—and if you don’t question it right away, you’ll run into situations that will make you question it, if you’re fortunate. Life is always throwing monkey wrenches into the machinery of your calculating mind. - Reverend Patti Nakai, "Get Real"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 9, 2013

What Emotions Reveal When we meditate with the idea of getting rid of our emotions, we are actually empowering the very forces that we seek to escape. On the other hand, when we can use the arising of emotion to examine our underlying sense of identification, we tap the transformative potential of sublimation. - Mark Epstein, "Shattering the Ridgepole"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 8, 2013

Strength from Love People are afraid that if they let go of their anger and righteousness and wrath, and look at their own feelings—and even see the good in a bad person—they're going to lose the energy they need to do something about the problem. But actually you get more strength and energy by operating from a place of love and concern. You can be just as tough, but more effectively tough. - Robert Thurman, "Rising to the Challenge: Cool Heroism"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 7, 2013

Warm Heart, Clear Mind It's as if everyone who has ever been born has the same birthright, which is enormous potential of warm heart and clear mind. The ground of renunciation is realizing that we already have exactly what we need, that what we have already is good. - Pema Chödrön, "Renunciation"

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 6, 2013

How We Speak to Ourselves The Buddha saw that we are always engaged in relationships, starting with that most significant relationship: the one with ourselves. On the cushion we notice how we speak to ourselves—sometimes with compassion, sometimes with judgment or impatience. Our words are a powerful medium with which we can bring happiness or cause suffering. - Allan Lokos, "Skillful Speech"