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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
David Michie
Read between
June 30 - July 16, 2019
I have lived with several Zen masters—all of them cats. ECKHART TOLLE, AUTHOR OF THE POWER OF NOW
Mind is the forerunner of all actions.
“Pain is inevitable,” the Dalai Lama continued. “Suffering is optional.
The stress isn’t coming from ‘out there.’ Mainly it is coming from our mind.”
“All of us have to start somewhere. Where you start is unimportant. What matters is where you finish.”
We can turn our suffering into the cause of extraordinary growth.”
Mindfulness is when we focus on the present moment, instead of being caught up in our thoughts.”
we define love as ‘the wish to give happiness to others.’ If we practice love, then compassion arises quite naturally, for it is ‘the wish to free others from suffering.’
the countless other nonhuman semchens, or sentient beings? Don’t they seek happiness, too? And the avoidance of suffering? Are their lives not as important to them as my life is to me?
to cultivate compassion for others, first we begin with ourselves.
we can allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good.
All is cause and effect. Action and reaction.”
Energy is not created or destroyed. Because consciousness is energy, it, too, is never destroyed. It changes form, yes, but it’s always there and always has been there.
“Buddhism is about understanding our own true nature. What and who we really are.
“Generally speaking, motivation always comes first,
If one speaks or acts with a serene mind, happiness follows, as surely as one’s shadow.’”
“No matter how far we travel, we can never escape from ourselves,”
“The mind is like a garden,” he told me. “You choose what to grow: weeds or flowers.”
“The Buddhist definition of mind as ‘a formless continuum of clarity and cognition’ is very much in keeping with quantum science theories that matter and energy are two aspects of the same reality.
Thoughts and feelings manifest in the bodies of felines as much as in humans.
when I really paid close attention, when my mind was open and my senses acute, I was able to find intense joy in the simplest of things.
“Sometimes we need to be reminded what we’re capable of.
May all beings find their highest purpose and be an inspiration to others.
