Tricycle Daily Dharma October 12, 2013

Recognizing Love As adults, we need to become newly aware of the love that has infused our lives all along, to turn our attention to it afresh with the eyes of a child. To do so is to become conscious of the tremendous capacity for love that even now permeates our being—to open to it, to be healed by its life-giving energy, and to participate in its power to renew our world. We can awaken to the deepest goodness in ourselves and others. We can learn to recognize and commune with the blessings that have always been pouring forth. - John Makransky, “Love Is All Around”

Tricycle Daily Dharma October 11, 2013

We Can Change The principle of conditionality is not tantamount to an irreversible determinism. The exercise of human will is critical to its operation, and this should give us hope. With the right view, right intention, and right action, we can change our trajectory. - Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, "Preserving the Fecundity of the Earth"

Tricycle Daily Dharma October 10, 2013

Devotional Practice In Asia, laypeople generally relate to Buddhism devotionally. But in America, when laypeople engage in these traditions they most often want to relate to them solely as a yogic path, beyond devotion. The problem is that they have all of the problems that lay Buddhists have always had. Trying to force yourself into the yogic path while living with all of the distractions, complications, and follies of the lay life may not always work so well. - Mark Unno, “The Buddha of Infinite Light and Life”

Tricycle Daily Dharma October 9, 2013

Faith in Mind Reject existence and you fall into it, Pursue emptiness and you move away from it. With many words and thoughts You miss what is right before you. Cutting off words and thought Nothing remains unpenetrated. - Jianzhi Sengcan, "Faith in Mind"

Tricycle Daily Dharma October 8, 2013

A Serious Engagement When we engage seriously with the Buddhist tradition we learn other ways of construing the world, other stories we can tell about the way things are, and these can be cogent, coherent, and compelling in their own way. This is not to argue for a naive acceptance of Buddhist epistemology and cosmology. But we won't see what Buddhism has to offer if, at the outset, we twist it out of shape to make it conform to contemporary norms. - Robert Sharf, "Losing Our Religion"

Tricycle Daily Dharma October 7, 2013

Spacious Mind Noticing the space around people and things provides a different way of looking at them, and developing this spacious view is a way of opening oneself. When one has a spacious mind, there is room for everything. When one has a narrow mind, there is room for only a few things. - Ajahn Sumedho, “Noticing Space”

Tricycle Daily Dharma October 6, 2013

Forgive Forgiveness is really not about someone’s harmful behavior; it’s about our own relationship with our past. When we begin the work of forgiveness, it is primarily a practice for ourselves. - Gina Sharpe, “The Power of Forgiveness”

Tricycle Daily Dharma October 5, 2013

Life is Sacred Life is possible. Situations are possible. And anybody can start to gain some kind of insight and appreciation of their lives. That’s what we call 'sacred.' It doesn’t mean something dramatic, but something very simple. There’s a sacredness to everyone’s life. - Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, “A New Place, A New Time”

Tricycle Daily Dharma October 3, 2013

Letting Go Letting go of fixation is effectively a process of learning to be free, because every time we let go of something, we become free of it. Whatever we fixate upon limits us because fixation makes us dependent upon something other than ourselves. Each time we let go of something, we experience another level of freedom. - Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, “Letting Go of Spiritual Experience”

Tricycle Daily Dharma October 2, 2013

The Art of Living Vipassana teaches the art of dying: how to die peacefully, harmoniously. And one learns the art of dying by learning the art of living: how to become master of the present moment. - S. N. Goenka, "S. N. Goenka, Pioneer of Secular Meditation Movement, Dies at 90"

Tricycle Daily Dharma October 1, 2013

Immediate Gratification When you analyze it, the motivation to 'just feel good right now' is really just indulging our desires. The motivation to immediately gratify desire is what has driven most of our actions throughout our beginningless sojourn in samsara—all it has accomplished is to perpetuate our confusion, pain, and habitual inability to pull ourselves out of this mess. This is precisely the problem that Buddhism was invented to solve. - David Patt,“Who’s Zoomin’ Who? The Commodification of Buddhism in the American Marketplace”