The first function of meditation – shamatha – is to stop.
Whether we are happy or whether we suffer depends largely on our perceptions. It is important to look deeply into our perceptions and recognize their source.
Nothing exists by itself alone. We all belong to each other; we cannot cut reality into pieces.
You have the right to pursue economic growth, but not at the expense of life.
El mundo necesita nuestra felicidad.
Enlightenment is when the wave realizes that it is the ocean.
I think, therefore I am really not there.
Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice nonattachment from views in order to be open to receive others’ viewpoints.
To live, we must die every instant. We must perish again and again in the storms that make life possible.
Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise, what’s the use of seeing?
We have the impression that our family, place of work, and society rob us of all our time.
It is my prayer that nations will no longer send their young people to fight each other, not even in the name of peace. I do not accept the concept of war for peace, nor of a ‘just war,’ in the same way that I cannot accept the concepts of ‘just slavery,,’ ’just hatred, or ’just racism.
1. Tell the truth. Don’t lie or turn the truth upside down. 2. Don’t exaggerate. 3. Be consistent. This means no double-talk: speaking about something in one way to one person and in an opposite way to another for selfish or manipulative reasons. 4. Use peaceful language. Don’t use insulting or violent words, cruel speech, verbal abuse, or condemnation.
Sorrow, fear, and depression are all a kind of garbage. These bits of garbage are part of real life, and we must look deeply into their nature. You can practice in order to turn these bits of garbage into flowers. It is not only your love that is organic; your hate is, too. So you should not throw anything out. All you have to do is learn how to transform your garbage into flowers.
You cannot remain yourself.
I urge you to write this phrase down on a card and put it up on the wall of your room: “Are you sure of your perceptions?
Certain wondrous phenomena respond to the human need to know the infinite, truth, beauty, goodness. Others, deliberately enigmatic, remain inaccessible to our brains and hearts. Humans are much too accustomed to penetrating the universe with a narrow and limited mind, ignoring the eighty-thousand doors that are always open, at our disposal.
But the path back home is not long. Home is inside us. Going home requires only sitting down and being with yourself, accepting the situation as it is. Yes, it might be a mess in there, but we accept it because we know we have left home for a long time. So now we’re home. With our in-breath and our out-breath, our mindful breathing, we begin to tidy up our homes.
Make the practice pleasant, that is what I beg you to do.
If we stop being joyful and stop singing, we are caught in a kind of prison. The stars in the sky never build prisons.