“Whenever we get angry we should realize that the strength we feel is not the strength of the charioteer. It is the strength of the runaway horse. We should immediately try to put the charioteer back in control. If we can do this, we are masters. If we cannot, we are slaves.
~ Ananda Pereira from “Escape to Reality: Buddhist Essays,” Wheel Publication No. 45/36
“The wisdom that shatters craving and release the mind from suffering is not some esoteric, fortuitous inspiration but the gradual, built-up, practical understanding of the experience that flies through the senses. Liberation is obtainable – so taught the Buddha. There is a means, a path available to all who will exert themselves properly. We have head of such a thing, have heard that it lasted down through the riotous, forgetful centuries and survives even now, powerful and free.
~ from “Longing for Certainty: Reflections on the Buddhist Life” by Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano. See longer excerpt here
Even if, bright as a flash of lightning,
Death were to strike you today,
Be prepared to die without sorrow
Or regret, giving up attachment to
What you are leaving behind.
Without ever ceasing to recognize
The authentic view of the real,
Leave this life like the eagle
That soars into the blue sky.
~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991). See related post: ‘Is My Meditation Correct?”
“AS WE WILLING ENTER each place of fear, each place of deficiency and insecurity in ourselves, we will discover that its walls are made of untruths, of old images of ourselves, of ancient fears, of false ideas of what is pure and what is not.“ ~ Jack Kornfield
“IT IS MY EXPERIENCE that the world itself has a role to play in our liberation. Its very pressures, pains, and risks can wake us up…release us from the bonds of ego and guide us home to our vast true nature.” ~ Joanna Macy from “World as Lover, World as Self“
“MANY YEARS AGO IN THAILAND the local villages surrounding our monastery held a party. The noise from the loudspeakers was so loud that it seemed to destroy the peace of our monastery. So we complained to our teacher, Ajahn Chah, that the noise was disturbing our meditation. The great master replied, ‘It is not the noise that disturbs you, it is you who disturbs the noise!’“ ~ Ajahn Brahm, from “Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond: A Meditator’s Handbook” (Wisdom, 2005) Continue reading Quotes
