A well written post….and worth reading it all. I was thinking the other day of how one can never know what is inside someone else unless one peers inside. Outside appearances rarely show the inner you or the inner ‘others’.
Be well and om mani padme hum…have compassion with yourself.
/|\ Debra
Deutsch: Om mani padme hum (Tibetisches Mantra) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (July 23-26 2008) (Photo Credit: The Aspen Institute)
Practice with the bodhisattva attitude every day. People can’t see your mind; what people see is a manifestation of your attitude in your actions of body and speech. So pay attention to your attitude all the time. Guard it as if you are the police, or like a parent cares for a child, like a bodyguard, or as if you are the guru and your mind is your disciple. ~ Lama Zopa Rinpoche
”Actions that give harm to other sentient beings aren’t those of a bodhisattva. In Buddhism, there’s no such thing as a holy war. You have to understand this. It’s impossible to equalize everybody on earth through force.” –Lama Thubten Yeshe
Image via Wikipedia
”If you cannot free yourself from being obsessed by your body, your attachment and negative emotions can only increase. Consider your body as an illusion, a form in a dream. Give whatever care is needed to keep it in good health, and devote all your attention to your spiritual practice.”
– Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche –
Image via Wikipedia ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Boundless joy is the joy you should feel when you see gifted and learned beings who are happy, famous or influential. Instead of feeling uneasy and envious of their good fortune, rejoice sincerely, thinking, “May they continue to be happy and enjoy even more happiness!” Pray too that they may use their wealth and power to help others, to serve the Dharma and the Sangha, making offerings, building monasteries, propagating the teachings and performing other worthwhile deeds. Rejoice and make a wish: “May they never lost all their happiness and privileges. May their happiness increase more and more, and may they use it to benefit others and to further the teachings.”
Pray that your mind may be filled with boundless equanimity, loving-kindness, compassion and joy–as boundless as a Bodhisattva‘s. If you do so, genuine bodhichitta will certainly grow within you.
The reason these four qualities are boundless, or immeasurable, is that their object–the totality of sentient beings–is boundless; their benefit–the welfare of all beings–is boundless; and also their fruit–the qualities of enlightenment–is boundless. They are immeasurable like the sky, and they are the true root of enlightenment.(p.49)
–from The Excellent Path to Enlightenment, by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
A Buddhist's Journey 