The circumstances of everyone’s life will include unpleasant experiences. But these are not in themselves what the Buddha meant by dukkha [unsatisfactoriness or suffering]. It’s the aversion to the unpleasantness that is dukkha. Three Kinds of Dukkha Eplained ~ Toni Bernhard
Category: Quotes
Quote for the Week
The Buddha began his most central teaching, the Four Noble Truths, not with a claim about our true nature, but with the plain truth that pain, loss, dissatisfaction, and disappointment are part of what we get in this human life. Famously called “the great physician,” the Buddha’s formulation of the problem of suffering and his… Continue reading Quote for the Week
Quote for the Week
It is helpful to appreciate that empathy, caring, attention, and wisdom occur not only because we consciously decide to have them occur, but also because conditions are in place to activate them. When we practice the Dharma we create the conditions for our best qualities to function. The Dharma and the Path of Harmlessness ~ Gil… Continue reading Quote for the Week
Quote for the Week
In Buddhist psychology, your path to well-being begins with understanding the values and intentions you want to live by. ~ Phillip Moffitt Core Values and Essential Intentions
Quote for the Week
Active Hope is waking up to the beauty of life on whose behalf we can act. We belong to this world. The web of life is calling us forth at this time. We’ve come a long way and are here to play our part. With Active Hope we realize that there are adventures in store,… Continue reading Quote for the Week
Quote for the Week
Natural awareness is a way of practicing in which your focus is on awareness itself, rather than on the things you are aware of. It is generally relaxed, effortless, and spacious, and it can elicit a profound sense of well-being. The term natural awareness invites you to notice or rediscover the awareness that already exists… Continue reading Quote for the Week
Quote for the Week
When we look with kindness and benevolence at ourselves, others, and the world; when we cultivate the way of seeing that is metta, love with no strings attached, we loosen the sense of self and tune our ability to see its fabricated nature. The arrows of love and emptiness fly both ways. Dreaming Together ~… Continue reading Quote for the Week
Quote for the Week
The birds have vanished down the sky. Now the last cloud drains away. We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains. ~ Li Po Zazen on Ching-t’ing Mountain
Quote for the Week
People want karma to explain everything, but the Buddha did not want karma to explain everything. What the Buddha was trying to do was to point to the tremendous impact that our motivations, our intentions, have on our lives. In looking at the choices that we have to make, the Buddha said that it is… Continue reading Quote for the Week
Quote for the Week
When Avalokita says that our sheet of paper is empty, he means it is empty of a separate, independent existence. It cannot just be by itself. It has to inter-be with the sunshine, the cloud, the forest, the logger, the mind, and everything else. It is empty of a separate self. But, empty of a… Continue reading Quote for the Week