Living Skillfully Quotes

“Equanimity is the learned capacity to experience pain without added suffering.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“Dualism is an isolating sense of separation, a feeling of being fully on one's own in life, unconnected to others, to the natural world, to the whole of reality. Overcoming dualism is the cure for suffering.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“Although bodhisattva vows may all aim in the same direction, the particular intentions of each bodhisattva would inevitably vary. We all work out of our own background, our own genealogy and family heritage, our own dispositions, characters, and problems. No one can just start from scratch wherever they choose. We have no choice but to begin right where we are, with all of the trajectories and all of the issues that have already shaped our lives.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“Enlightenment is is the point of practice, but if you cling to any conception of enlightenment too rigidly that idea and that clinging will at some point stand in the way of its attainment.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“The universe is largely indifferent to us and when it rages, anyone in its path will suffer.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“For Vimalakirti, everything—every encounter, every problem, frustration, and issue—is an opportunity for practice.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“If the contemplative practices of meditation are ultimately for active life, then long-term monastic retreat from active life might not be the best way to deepen its effects, at least not always or for everyone.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“One of the implications of this sutra is not only that ordinary lay life is an acceptable role for dedicated Buddhists but also that this form of life is well positioned for a range of practices inspired by the bodhisattva vow of wise, compassionate involvement in the world.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“Desires are the source of drive and aspiration in human life. They provide the energy for a whole range of human accomplishments, including the spiritual quest for awakening. Bodhicitta, the thought of enlightenment for all living beings, evolves in the minds of bodhisattvas to become the primal desire, the deepest source of energy.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“True justice demands deep understanding, and neither self-righteous anger nor revenge can bring that about.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“We respond badly to fear, overindulge in emotions of loss, and fall into despairing surrender far too easily. Living skillfully requires that we work in advance to examine our response patterns under such pressures, and that we transform the counterproductive ways we face up to all the difficulties of life.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“Buddhist teachings on the capacity for tolerance are related to the realization that human suffering is an inevitable factor in our lives and that everything depends on how we respond to the impact of pain, threats, and a whole range of difficulties.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“The Sanskrit word kṣānti, frequently translated as "tolerance," means being "able to endure," "able to withstand," "unaffected by" situations in the world that would overwhelm and undermine the rest of us. It indicates a deep composure and strength of character that allow the bodhisattva to face enormous difficulties without collapsing under the pressures of fear and anxiety.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“The sutra pictures Vimalakirti living his bodhisattva vow, that is, caring as much about the well-being of others as he does about his own. He lives selflessly, as though he has or is "no isolated self," because his sense of identity now encompasses his relations with others. The self/other dichotomy has been transformed in the paramita of morality. The boundaries that once defined his identity in opposition to others have been enlarged to include others. That is a significant dimension of what it means to live selflessly. Although Buddhist texts routinely refer to this as an experience of "no-self," it could just as easily be described as an expansion of the self, an enlargement empowered by a profound reverence for the whole of life.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“Rules are social conventions that generalize what would be good to do in situations of a certain kind. Although these rules are a convenient standard against which to judge the quality of our actions, the variety and uniqueness of moral situations require a fine-tuned sense of perception and judgment to determine when and how the rules apply to particular circumstances.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“Working past deeply embedded habits of self-absorption is extremely difficult, precisely because these habits are so much a part of our cumulative character, the result of literally millions of unconscious acts generated out of concern for our own safety and well-being. For this reason, the Vimalakīrti Sūtra insists that practices of generosity must be accompanied by skillfully honed wisdom and that we should always be on the lookout for false forms of generosity.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“What is the basis of freedom and why is it so satisfying? Vimalakirti says that in an authentic moment of giving we are "free of the habits of 'I' and 'mine'" (32), that the feeling derives from being "without grasping," "without attachment" (32), and "free of the habitual notion of possession" (25). He says further than in a generous act we are "joyful and without regret" because the weight of our "selves" has been momentarily lifted. That sense of exhilarating selflessness is what generates "the great joy of the bodhisattva" (57). In being able to give, we feel some degree of elation, a sense of being lifted out of ourselves into an experience of liberation that is buoyant and joyful, even if momentary.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“Acts of self-promotional generosity are nonetheless still acts of giving. In most cases that is better than no giving at all.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“The motives for giving are numerous, each rationale showing us something basic about who we really are behind the act of giving.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“The Vimalakīrti Sūtra names generosity as an essential feature of Buddhist enlightenment. The Buddha and enlightened bodhisattvas are pictured as generous above all else. They give themselves—their time, their resources, their wisdom, and their compassionate action—to all living beings. As with other human virtues, though, their generosity is not innate. It "arises dependent" upon specific causes and conditions that need to be cultivated. Bodhisattvas' ability to give is the result of a discipline of mental training. They have trained their minds to respond to others in a spirit of open generosity by visualizing the plight of suffering beings and all of the ways that they might help alleviate their suffering. Meditating repeatedly on possible acts of giving, they strive to internalize deep feelings of generosity so that when real opportunities for giving appear, generosity comes forth naturally and spontaneously.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“To renounce active life in the world rather than one's own grasping and clinging is to forgo the chance to awaken.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“The point of bodhisattva practice is to cultivate a life that is physically, mentally, and spiritually passionate in its encounter with all dimensions of human experience.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“A truly meditative life seeks to be more thoroughly exposed to the world rather than sealed off from it.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“The bodhisattva vow is to be there with us and for us, not above us or beyond us.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“Vimalakirti's aim was to live in accordance with his vow of compassion for all living beings, and he is described as doing that in every conceivable context. So if we're businesspeople, we see what it would mean to be principled in our pursuit of profit. If we're landlords, we get a model of a relationship to tenants that is fair and respectful. If we're Buddhist meditators who shun loud, complicated urban settings, we are given an image of someone who maintains mindfulness even in the most troubling, complex circumstances.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“The bodhisattva's practice is aimed not at the suppression of desire but at its reorientation to a purpose larger than individual gain and personal pleasure.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“While the elders are mostly set in their mental ways, and while the middle-aged folks are busy scratching out a living, the children can be remarkably flexible of mind. They are often able to envision ways of being that are fundamentally different and occasionally better than the customs and habits of their families and communities.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“Different generations think and speak differently and crossing those cultural barriers takes wisdom and empathetic rapport.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“Vimalakirti's solitude is a state of mind rather than a living arrangement.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra

“Either you live the life of a layperson or you live a monastic life― one or the other. That was the standard assumption. Yet Vimalakirti is pictured as a layperson who at least in certain respects lives like a monk.”
― Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra