IT IS MY EXPERIENCE THAT THE WORLD ITSELF
has a role to play in our liberation. Its very
pressures, pains, and risks can wake us up...
release us from the bonds of ego and
guide us home to our vast true nature."

-- Joanna Macy
from "World as Lover, World as Self"

---

IT REQUIRES A VERY UNUSUAL MIND
to undertake the analysis
of the obvious.

-- Alfred North Whitehead

---

WE NEED TO PAY CLOSE ATTENTION
and be aware of our body and its actions, of our speech and what we say, and of our hearts and minds, and what we think and feel. We must be on the lookout for the slightest negativity and keep asking ourselves such questions as, "Am I happier when my thoughts and emotions are negative and destructive or when they are wholesome?" "What is the nature of consciousness? Does it exist in and of itself, or does it exist in dependence on other factors?" We need to think, think, think. We should be like a scientist who collects data, analyzes it, and draws the appropriate conclusion. Gaining insight into our own negativity is a lifelong task, and one which is capable of almost infinite refinement. But unless we undertake it, we will be unable to see where to make the necessary changes in our life."

-- His Holiness The Dalai Lama
from "Ethics For the New Millennium," page 91
(Riverhead Books of Penguin Putnam, 1999)

---

EVIL IS ANY ABSTRACTION
that enables you to look at someone
and not see the person.

-- Lee Thorn
from the article "Reconciliation"
in Turning Wheel, Fall 2000

---

IF YOU ARE STANDING IN THE MIDDLE
of a dark room and you have no idea
what's around you, when you switch on the light,
you will know what to accept and reject.

-- Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
from "Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of Shambhala"
(Shambhala 1999)

---

THE JHANAS THEMSELVES ARE STATES OF
deep mental unification characterized by a total
immersion of the mind in its object. They result from the
centering of the mind upon a single object with such
a degree of attention that inner verbalization, the
discursive function of thought, is arrested and
eventually silenced, brought to a stop."

-- Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
from "A Critical Analysis of the Jhanas
in Therevada Buddhist Meditation"
doctoral dissertation in philosophy, 1980,
American University Library

---

IF YOU WANT TO BE NO DIFFERENT
from the buddhas and Zen masters,
just don't seek externally.
The pure light in a moment of awareness
in your mind is the Buddha's essence
within you.

-- Linji (d. 867)
from Dec. 11, 2000 www.Daily Zen.com
quote of the day

---

A MAN WHO HAS A VISION
is not able to use the power of it
unless he has performed the vision
on earth for the people to see.

-- Black Elk, Lakota medicine man

---

WE NEED TO LOOK AT THE DEGREE
to which we are willing to make our life
our practice—not just as words but in the actual
choices we make. One of the beautiful things about
the teachings is that the Eightfold Path
is very explicit. It lays out what we need to do.
We have to honestly ask ourselves what our
priority is. Is it awakening? Or is dharma practice
something I do simply to keep me cooled down?

-- Joseph Goldstein
from the article "Empty Phenomena Rolling On"
Tricycle, Winter 1993"

---

ANY EFFORT TO REACH OUR ULTIMATE NATURE
is bound to fail. It may leave us in a pleasurable
state, a samadhi, but since this experience
has a beginning in time, it will also have
an end in time.

-- Frances Lucille
from "The Direct Path: Approaches to Non-Duality"
No. 1, Truespeech Productions

---

THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH
is soft and impressible by the feet of men;
and so with the paths the mind travels.
How worn and dusty, then, must be the
highways of the world, how deep the ruts
of tradition and conformity!

-- Henry David Thoreau

---

THERE ARE SIGNS OF ACCOMPLISHMENT
such as having good health and long life
or becoming famous and influential, but these
belong to the superficial type of accomplishment.
The true, unmistaken signs of accomplishment
as established by the masters of the lineage,
are to possess compassion, devotion and
an acute sense of impermanence.

-- Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
from the article"As the Clouds Vanish,"
Tricycle, Winter 1999

---

BUDDHISM GIVES US
the technology of the sacred. Many times,
Buddhist practice has saved me. In doing
visualizations like these, Buddhism gives us
specific techniques for dissolving our enmity
and for taking a good look at the ways
we can create enemies in our own minds."

-- China Galland
from the article "Fierce Compassion,
in Inquiring Mind, Vol. 15, No. 1, Fall 1998

---

WITH UNFAILING KINDESS
your life always presents
what you need to learn.

Charlotte Joko Beck
from Tricycle, Summer 1998

---

WE MUST ALL LEARN
to rely on ourselves.

-- Achaan Chah
from "A Still Forest Pool"

---

IF YOU KILL, LIE OR STEAL
Commit adultery or drink,
You dig up your own roots.

And if you cannot master yourself,
The harm you do turns against you
Grievously.

The Buddha
from the Dhammapadda
(A Rendering by Thomas Byrom,
Shambhala Pocket Classics, 1993)

---

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