“The initial response the Buddha intends to arouse in us is an ethical one. By calling our attention to our bondage to old age and death, he seeks to inspire in us a firm resolution to turn away from unwholesome ways of living and to embrace instead wholesome alternatives.”
― In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon
― In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon
“Both the worldling and the noble disciple experience painful bodily feelings, but they respond to these feelings differently. The worldling reacts to them with aversion and therefore, on top of the painful bodily feeling, also experiences a painful mental feeling: sorrow, resentment, or distress. The noble disciple, when afflicted with bodily pain, endures such feeling patiently, without sorrow, resentment, or distress. It is commonly assumed that physical and mental pain are inseparably linked, but the Buddha makes a clear demarcation between”
― In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon
― In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon
“The importance of right view can be gauged from the fact that our perspectives on the crucial issues of reality and value have a bearing that goes beyond mere theoretical convictions. They govern our attitudes, our actions, our whole orientation to existence. Our views might not be clearly formulated in our mind; we might have only a hazy conceptual grasp of our beliefs. But whether formulated or not, expressed or maintained in silence, these views have a far-reaching influence. They structure our perceptions, order our values, crystallize into the ideational framework through which we interpret to ourselves the meaning of our being in the world.”
― The Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering
― The Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering
“What's past is prologue.”
― The Tempest
― The Tempest
“The teaching begins by calling upon us to develop a faculty called yoniso manasikāra, careful attention. The Buddha asks us to stop drifting thoughtlessly through our lives and instead to pay careful attention to simple truths that are everywhere available to us, clamoring for the sustained consideration they deserve”
― In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon
― In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon
志昌’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at 志昌’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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