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If you harm a pure and innocent person, you harm yourself, as dust thrown against the wind comes back to the thrower.
a well-trained mind needs no prodding from the world to be good.
very basis of the Hindu faith: that at the core of every creature is a divine Self (Atman) which is not different from the transcendent reality (Brahman) and is therefore utterly beyond the world of change and death.
Depending on the context, the Sanskrit word atman can mean self in the conventional sense of “myself” and “yourself,” or it can refer to the transcendent Self of the Upanishads.
the Buddha prompts us to plunge deep in meditation and see for ourselves what we discover.
the human will, the only self worthy of strengthening and cultivation.
158Learn what is right; then teach others, as the wise do.
Before trying to guide others, be your own guide first. It is hard to learn to guide oneself.
Don’t follow wrong laws; don’t be thoughtless; don’t believe false doctrines. Don’t follow the way of the world.
infinite compassion, unqualified good will for all creatures in all circumstances.
body, Buddhists would say, the nirmanakaya
second form: the sambhogakaya, literally the “body of intense joy,”
Third and most abstract of the Buddha’s forms is the dharmakaya, the “body of dharma.”
Do not find fault with others, do not injure others, but live in accordance with the dharma. Be moderate in eating and sleeping, and meditate on the highest. This sums up the teaching of the Buddhas.
To try to hold on to anything – a thing, a person, an event, a position – merely exposes us to its loss. Anything that changes, the Buddha concluded, anything in our experience that consists of or is conditioned by component sensations – the Buddha’s word was samskaras – produces sorrow, not joy.
duhkha from duh, a prefix meaning something wrong or evil, and kha, empty space.
Once we know for certain what cannot give joy, we are ready for nirvana, the highest joy (203).
When the mind is stilled through meditation, one drinks the joy of dharma, which lies beyond the scope of anything conditioned (205).
Conquest breeds hatred, for the conquered live in sorrow. Let us be neither conqueror nor conquered, and live in peace and joy.
we never really experience the world; we experience only our own nervous system.
All the dualities of human experience – pleasure and displeasure, praise and blame, success and defeat – produce suffering if we cannot face them with equanimity:
Selfish desires give rise to anxiety; selfish desires give rise to fear. Be unselfish, and you will be free from anxiety and fear.
Give up anger, give up pride, and free yourself from worldly bondage. No sorrow can befall those who never try to possess people and things as their own.
Injuring no one, self-controlled, the wise enter the state of peace beyond all sorrow.
three basic kinds of impurity: greed, hatred, and infatuation.
If we do nothing to remove impurities from our character, the habits they foster will grow stronger. Eventually they cannot help outstripping our will,
Resentment and fixation on others’ faults is a perfect example of how a heady ashrava can brew in the unconscious until a person reels under its influence, losing control whenever a situation or person provokes him.
Light the lamp within; strive hard to attain wisdom. Become pure and innocent, and live in the world of light.
Make your mind pure as a silversmith blows away the impurities of silver, little by little, instant by instant.
But when one keeps dwelling on the faults of others, his own compulsions grow worse, making it harder to overcome them.
One is not noble who injures living creatures. They are noble who hurt no one.
Guard your thoughts, words, and deeds. These three disciplines will speed you along the path to pure wisdom.
Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.
Don’t try to build your happiness on the unhappiness of others. You will be enmeshed in a net of hatred.
Hell in Buddhism really is educative, not vengeful, and it is not the sentence of a wrathful deity but the natural, unavoidable result of actions that violate dharma.
No animal can take you to nirvana; only a well-trained mind can lead you to this untrodden land.
It is better to be alone than to live with the immature. Be contented, and walk alone like an elephant roaming in the forest. Turn away from evil.
the desire for sense pleasure (kama-trishna), the desire for birth in a world of separateness (bhava-trishna), and the desire for extinction (vibhava-trishna).
Any craving for an experience that one thinks will add to personal pleasure, comfort, or happiness is an expression of kama-trishna,
Bhava-trishna is the urge to go on upholding and strengthening one’s individuality, in pursuit not only of wealth, fame, and power but also of beliefs, opinions, and dogmas.
Trishna has no self-limiting principle; the more it is fed, the higher it will flame. It cannot be terminated just by satisfying the desires of one lifetime.
According to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, these desires remain in consciousness at death. Because of their power, they condition the choice of a new context for another life,
The third kind of selfish desire, vibhava-trishna, is the craving to end existence, the very opposite of the drive to go on experiencing and self-building. But this is far from the desire for nirvana, the release from the cycle of birth and death.
Vibhava-trishna, by contrast, is the oppressive desire for self-oblivion or self-destruction, prompted in Buddhist psychology by the revulsion with life that comes as the fruits of selfishness turn rotten or bitter.
Meditate deeply, discriminate between the pleasant and the permanent, and break the fetters of Mara.
He is a true bhikshu who follows the dharma, meditates on the dharma, rejoices in the dharma, and therefore never falls away from the dharma.
That one I call a brahmin who does not hurt others with unkind acts, words, or thoughts. Both body and mind obey him.
That one I call a brahmin who is never hostile to those who are hostile toward him, who is detached among those who are selfish and at peace among those at war.
Brahmins have reached the end of the way; they have crossed the river of life. All that they had to do is done: they have become one with all life.
