Tricycle Daily Dharma July 31, 2013

Right Lying If I’m torn between truth and falsehood, I have to ask myself if the choice I’m leaning toward would be self-serving or selfless, harsh or kind, harmful or harmless. Only then can I know what’s best to do. - Lin Jensen, "Right Lying"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 30, 2013

Work and Play The key to maintaining your inspiration in the day-to-day work of meditation practice is to approach it as play—a happy opportunity to master practical skills, to raise questions, experiment, and explore. - Thanissaro Bhikkhu, "The Joy of Effort"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 29, 2013

Unconditional Love We do not radiate the unconditional love that we read about in holy texts ourselves, but, inadvertently, we often reflect it. All the little loves that make our life what it is are sparks that fly off from a cosmic wheel that is much greater than ourselves. We do live in the midst of an unconditional love that we can never fully comprehend. We can be grateful for that. - Dharmavidya David Brazier, "Unconditional Love"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 28, 2013

The Principles of Zazen Eat and drink moderately. Cast aside all involvements and cease all affairs. Do not think good or bad. Do not administer pros and cons. Cease all the movements of the conscious mind, the gauging of all thoughts and views. Have no designs on becoming a buddha. Zazen has nothing whatever to do with sitting or lying down. - Zen Master Dogen, "The Principles of Zazen"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 27, 2013

Make the First Move Usually we are in a stalemate with our world: 'Is he going to say he is sorry to me first, or am I going to apologize to him first?' But in becoming a bodhisattva we break that barrier: we do not wait for the other person to make the first move; we have decided to do it ourselves. - Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, "The Bodhisattva Vow: Eight Views"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 26, 2013

Facing Ourselves without Looking Away When we touch something unlovely in ourselves—fear, anger, jealousy, shame, disgust—we tend to withdraw emotionally and direct our attention elsewhere. But denying how we feel, or projecting our fears and faults onto others, only drives a wedge between us and the people we yearn to be close to. - Christopher K. Germer, "Getting Along"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 25, 2013

The Need for Peace One must cultivate peace to be compassionate. Without this, what you do, even as an 'engaged Buddhist' is just a lot of activity with no good purpose. - Sulak Sivaraksa, "In Exile from Siam"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 24, 2013

Practicing with Loss Loss is a fact of life. Impermanence is everywhere we look. We are all going to suffer our losses. How we deal with these losses is what makes all the difference. For it is not what happens to us that determines our character, our experience, our karma, and our destiny, but how we relate to what happens. - Lama Surya Das, "Practicing with Loss"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 23, 2013

Equality We are not born equal, are not created equal. We are born different, and live different, and die different, because of our different karma. But there are certain areas where things become equal. There is no difference in the attainment of enlightenment. When we attain nirvana, we all are equal. - Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, "Going Upstream"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 22, 2013

Our Way of Observing Things 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"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 21, 2013

No Reason to be Unhappy Whether we are suffering at present or have suffered in the past, there is no reason to be unhappy. If we can remedy it, then why be unhappy? And if we cannot, there's no use in being unhappy about it—it's just one more thing to be unhappy about, which serves no purpose at all. - H.H. the Dalai Lama, "Enduring the Fires"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 19, 2013

Dealing with Shit 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"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 18, 2013

Deep Acceptance Implicit in Buddhist compassion is a genuine awareness and deep acceptance of things as they truly are, painful as that may be. From this soil of clarity and connection, compassion is said to arise of itself. - Allan Hunt Badiner, "Is the Buddha Winking at Extinction?"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 17, 2013

The Time is Now Awareness practice is like any other skill-building activity. It is not meant to be casual, or occasional, or reserved for only when convenient. - Les Kaye, "The Time is Now"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 16, 2013

Seeing Through Suffering Shakyamuni Buddha taught that all suffering can be overcome by understanding its true nature. This is a profound and subtle process. It can take a while. - Patricia Anderson, "Good Death"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 15, 2013

Beware the Dailiness of Life One of the mighty illusions that is constructed in the dailiness of life in our culture is that all pain is a negation of worthiness, that the real chosen people, the real worthy people, are the people that are most free from pain. - bell hooks, "Agent of Change"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 14, 2013

The Pursuit of Happiness It’s our nature to want happiness and not want suffering. Thus, Buddhists do not ask that one give up the pursuit of happiness, but merely suggest that one become more intelligent about how happiness is pursued. - Jeffrey Hopkins, “Equality”

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 13, 2013

Get Yourself Out of the Way The more we can get the self out of the way, the more clearly we can see the effect of our thoughts, words, and action upon ourselves and others. - Andrew Olendzki, “Moral Health”

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 12, 2013

Not Self-Help Buddhism asks us to go beyond the self, not to perfect the self. - Dharmavidya David Brazier, “Living Buddhism”

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 11, 2013

The In-between State Anxiety, heartbreak, and tenderness mark the in-between state. It's the kind of place we usually want to avoid. The challenge is to stay in the middle rather than buy into struggle and complaint. The challenge is to let it soften us rather than make us more rigid and afraid. - Pema Chodron, “The In-between State”

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 10, 2013

No Return The solution does not lie in ‘returning to nature.’ We cannot return to nature, because we have never left it. - David Loy, “Healing Ecology”

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 9, 2013

Giving Up Getting We need to give up something. We can’t have it all. We can’t try to layer wisdom on top of confusion. The spiritual path is about what we give up, not what we get. - Tim Olmsted, “The Great Experiment”

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 8, 2013

Using Technology Wisely Technology’s value is the value we give it as a society and as individuals, in millions of large and small decisions that are made every day. It reshapes our world into something that can seem unfamiliar and even strange. But we are still in human territory—territory we can navigate with human wisdom and insight, should we choose to do so. - Richard Eskow, "My Technology, My Self"

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 7, 2013

Distinguishing Genuine Dharma We reassure ourselves that the changes we’ve made in Buddhism are all for the best—that Buddhism has always adapted itself to every culture it enters, and we can trust it to adapt wisely to the West. But this treats Buddhism as if it were a conscious agent—a wise amoebic force that knows how to adapt to its environment in order to survive. Actually, Buddhism isn’t an agent, and it doesn’t adapt. It gets adapted—sometimes by people who know what they’re doing, sometimes by people who don’t. Just because a particular adaptation survives and prevails doesn’t mean that it’s genuine dharma. It may simply appeal to the desires and fears of its target audience. - Thanissaro Bhikkhu, “Lost in Quotation”

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 6, 2013

The Power of Presence Presence has no measurable product except positive feelings, feelings of support, intimacy, and happiness. When we stop being busy and productive and switch to just being still and aware, we ourselves will also feel support, intimacy, and happiness, even if no one else is around. - Jan Chozen Bays, “The Gift of Waiting”