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”

Tricycle Daily Dharma September 30, 2013

Every Moment Foundational Everything we encounter is fully and completely itself. Nothing is merely a means to an end, nothing is merely a step on the path to somewhere else. Every moment, everything, is absolutely foundational in its own right. Zazen, defined in the narrow sense as seated meditation, is but one of an infinite number of possible paradigms for this state, yet at the same time it is the unique expression of the coming together of human nature and buddhanature. - Barry Magid, “Uselessness”

Tricycle Daily Dharma September 29, 2013

When is the Performance? Practice, practice, practice, Buddhists are always talking about practice. What I want to know is: When is the performance? - Robert Thurman, "Straight Outta Kapilavastu"

Tricycle Daily Dharma September 28, 2013

We Don't Start with a Clean Slate When we first sit down to meditate—and later when we return to the cushion—we can immediately recognize that we are not starting with a clean slate. Whatever the previous day, week, month, year, decade have brought—it is immediately clear that our minds are already in motion, already have movement and momentum in a particular direction before we sit down. Our experience when we sit down to meditate—whether we’ve been sitting for 30 minutes or 30 years—will often reflect our previous physical and mental 'training.' - Gaylon Ferguson, "Fruitless Labor"