Whether you celebrate Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or another day that is special to you during this time of the year…I pray this for all of us…
May all sentient beings be happy and have the causes of happiness.
May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes if suffering.
May all sentient beings never be separated from the happiness that is free from suffering.
May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free attachment and detachment.
It is important to be free from clinging to the true existence of things. Otherwise, the mind will make distinctions -between good experiences and bad ones, such as afflictive emotions and suffering. You should reach the state in which the mind is unconcerned by good and bad thoughts, like someone who has caught a disease and, having now recovered from it, is no longer concerned about that disease ~ Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
The modern world is such that the interests of a particular country or community can no longer be considered to lie within the confines of its own boundaries. Cultivating contentment is therefore crucial to maintaining peaceful coexistence because discontent breeds a sense of acquisitiveness that can never be satisfied. ~ His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama, 15 Oct 10
When we are lost in the past and future thinking, we are sleepwalking.
The more you wake up to the present moment, the more beauty you will see. ~ Josh Baran
There lived an old farmer who had worked on his fields for many, many years. One day, his horse bolted away. His neighbors dropped in to commiserate with him. “What awful luck,” they tut-tutted sympathetically, to which the farmer only replied, “We’ll see.”
Next morning, to everyone’s surprise, the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How amazing is that!” they exclaimed in excitement. The old man replied, “We’ll see.”
A day later, the farmer’s son tried to mount one of the wild horses. He was thrown on the ground and broke his leg. Once more, the neighbors came by to express their sympathies for this stroke of bad luck. “We’ll see,” said the farmer politely.
The next day, the village had some visitors – military officers who had come with the purpose of drafting young men into the army. They passed over the farmer’s son, thanks to his broken leg. The neighbors patted the farmer on his back – how lucky he was to not have his son join the army! “We’ll see,” was all that the farmer said!
In the seed of a mishap lies the potential tree of good fortune.
A Buddhist's Journey 