5th of June 2013
“
If, bhikkhus, others speak in dispraise of me, or in dispraise of the Dhamma, or in dispraise of the Sangha, you should not give way to resentment, displeasure, or animosity against them in your heart.
For if you were to become angry or upset in such a situation, you would only be creating an obstacle for yourselves. If you were to become angry or upset when others speak in dispraise of us, would you be able to recognize whether their statements are rightly or wrongly spoken?”
“Certainly not, Lord.”
“If, bhikkhus, others speak in dispraise of me, or in dispraise of the Dhamma, or in dispraise of the Sangha, you should unravel what is false and point it out as false, saying: ‘For such and such a reason this is false, this is untrue, there is no such thing in us, this is not found among us.’
“And if, bhikkhus, others speak in praise of me, or in praise of the Dhamma, or in praise of the Sangha, you should not give way to jubilation, joy, and exultation in your heart. For if you were to become jubilant, joyful, and exultant in such a situation, you would only be creating an obstacle for yourselves.
If others speak in praise of me, or in praise of the Dhamma, or in praise of the Sangha, you should acknowledge what is fact as fact, saying: ‘For such and such a reason this is a fact, this is true, there is such a thing in us, this is found among us.’
”—
The Discourses of the Buddha;
Digha Nikaya; Sutta 1
“The All-embracing Net of Views”
Digha Nikaya; Sutta 1
“The All-embracing Net of Views”
Take this and apply it to life. You’re more beautiful for being broken because you’ve stayed so strong for so long.
(via halcyon-ia)
9th of May 2013
“
There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over. ”
—
Arthur Schopenhauer
1st of May 2013
“
According to the Buddha, all of our morally-determinate volitional actions are subject to an inescapable law of retribution [‘re + tribuere,’ lit. ‘assigned again’].
Our deeds leave behind, in the ongoing stream of consciousness, a potential to produce results (vipāka), to bring forth fruits (phala), which appear when the accumulated action (kamma) meets with external conditions congenial to its germination. ”
Our deeds leave behind, in the ongoing stream of consciousness, a potential to produce results (vipāka), to bring forth fruits (phala), which appear when the accumulated action (kamma) meets with external conditions congenial to its germination. ”
—
Nyaponika Thera & Hellmuth Hecker;
“Great Disciples of the Buddha”
25th of April 2013
MN 10; v. 31
31. “In this way he abides contemplating the body as a body internally;
or he abides contemplating the body as a body externally;
or he abides contemplating the body as a body both internally and externally.
Or else he abides contemplating in the body its nature of arising;
or he abides contemplating in the body its nature of vanishing;
or he abides contemplating in the body its nature of both arising and vanishing.
Or else mindfulness that ‘there is a body’ is simply established in him to the extent necessary for bare knowledge and mindfulness.
And he abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world.
That too is how a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body.
EXCERPT FROM
The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha
Bhikkhu Nanamoli & Bhikkhu Bodhi
Category: Buddhism
12 Ratings
Bhikkhu Nanamoli & Bhikkhu Bodhi. “The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha.” Perseus, 2010-07-28. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.
23rd of April 2013
“
Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretence. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true. ”
—
“
We live in illusion, and the appearance of things. You’ve only ever known the shadows of shadowed reflections. We spend our whole lives in our mind; fabricating an existence from start to finish.
A great emptiness, called substantial. A great joke, lost on us.
”16th of April 2013
Your Choice
In Buddhist and Hindu mythology, Yama, King of Death, holds a mirror in his left hand— in which all who depart from the world must gaze. In that mirror, one sees reflected back the good or evil they have done; and from that image, they themselves come to know their own causal fate.
Yama neither exults nor damns anyone. It is you, yourself, who decide your fate; by the reflection of the decisions you have made.
15th of April 2013
“I love you not as something private and personal, which is my own, but as something universal and worthy of love which I have found.”
—Henry David Thoreau
(Source: mycolorbook, via psyphi-noetics)
14th of April 2013
Hyperrealistic Animals Created by Painting on Layers of Resin
Wait…those…aren’t real? What.
Fuck. So impressive.
(Source: unicorn-meat-is-too-mainstream, via psyphi-noetics)
“
People cleave to their worldly possessions and selfish passions so blindly, as to sacrifice their own lives for them. ”
Seasons of the Universe
Buddhist cosmology uses the life-cycle of the universe as a standard of time known as an “eon.” Each cycle has 4 seasons— Creation, Sustained Creation, Destruction, and Sustained Destruction. From the season of Sustained Destruction, the season of Creation arises; starting the next Eon, and the universe, over again. Ad infinitum.
13th of April 2013
Søren Kierkegaard: A Website Course
Dear Reader.
Around the world many arrangements are made in the name of Kierkegaard. But who was he, and what did he do ?
Here is for you the opportunity of a free course in the work of Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55).
You can follow his life and thought by short day-to-day readings of a choice of Kierkegaard’s texts, set in the framework of his biography and his philosophical system.
The course is progressive in chronology and in the philosophical development of Kierkegaard. Still texts are sometimes inserted out of time sequence, in order to better illustrate his work.
There is great interest in Kierkegaard here and abroad. But many people are a bit afraid of approaching his work, because they find it very difficult. This I have tried to get around, and long teaching experience to different publics has shown that people can grasp Kierkegaard’s thoughts when these are presented plainly and properly.
If you are not a Quaker, then Kierkegaard was not either. If you are, you will find related thoughts in his work.
Kierkegaard was not only a deep and great philosopher, but also an artist with a keen observation and a wonderful command of language, its words and rythm. I have tried, in translating, to preserve that rythm. So sometimes you will find the language form a bit strange, until you get used to it. The lengthy, uninterrupted periods are his. He thought, and wrote, like that.
It is unwise to try to rush him, skim or jump. Kierkegaard wrote in a different age, with another, more leisurely tempo. He recommends that he be read aloud, or at least slowly.
You will tolerate that some names and words are given in Danish (with translation or in obvious context). So the name Copenhagen is rightly spelt København. Denmark is Danmark. All person names of course are Danish. They hopefully add to the atmosphere, along with the portraits inserted in appropriate places.
The course has been prepared by me, Hans Aaen, an M.A. of Nordic Literature and Philology, and a member of the Danish Quaker YM. The translation has been done for this Website course. I am sole responsible for any errors.
(Source: sunrec)
(Source: nathandewhurst, via gnostix1)
