Saturday, March 28, 2009

My kind of run-on sentence

"[Satipatthana] has the depth and the breadth, the simplicity and the profundity for providing the foundation and the framework of a living dhamma for all, or at least, for the vast, and still growing, section of humanity that is no longer susceptible to religious or pseudo-religious sedatives, and yet feel, in their lives and minds, the urgency of fundamental problems of a non-material kind calling for solution that neither science nor the religions of faith can give."

Nyanaponika Thera "The Heart of Buddhist Meditation"

Friday, March 6, 2009

In Touch With Ourselves

When we are well with ourselves, then whatever happens, it really doesn't matter, because we have equilibrium and stability. We don't feel any lack of confidence. If not, we're always on edge, waiting to see how someone reacts to us, what people say to us or think about us. Our confidence hangs on what people tell us about how we are, how we look, how we behave. When we are really in touch with ourselves, we know ourselves beyond what others may tell us. So these three qualities - a good heart, stability, and spaciousness - these are really what you could call basic human virtues.

-Sogyal Rinpoche Tricycle Summer 2008