When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything. When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything. ~Shunryu Suzuki
Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone. ~Alan Watts
The noble-minded are calm and steady. Little people are forever fussing and fretting. ~Confucius
One loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them. ~Masanobu Fukuoka
The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands. ~Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. ~Bruce Lee
To escape the world means that one’s mind is not concerned with the opinions of the world. ~ Dogen Zenji
Video documentary on Samatha and Vipassana meditation at Wat Kiryvongsa Bopharam, Peace Meditation Center. Monday the 14th Waxing Moon of Jeṭṭha B.E.2562, May 28, A.D.2018 Year of the Dog
Many people try to find a spiritual path where they do not have to face themselves but where they can still liberate themselves ~ liberate themselves from themselves, in fact. In truth, this is impossible. We cannot do that. We have to be honest with ourselves. We have to see our gut, our most undesirable parts. We have to see that. That is the foundation of warriorship and the basis of conquering fear. We have to face our fear; we have to look at it, study it, work with it, and practice meditation with it. ~ Chögyam Trungpa
As long as you accept and practice these four truths (all compounded things are impermanent, all emotions are pain, all things have no inherent existence, nirvana is beyond concepts) you are a “practicing Buddhist.” You might read about these four truths for the sake of entertainment or mental exercise, but if you don’t practice them, you are like a sick person reading the label on a medicine bottle but never taking the medicine. On the other hand, if you are practicing, there is no need to exhibit that you are Buddhist. As a matter of fact, if it helps you to get invited to some social functions, it is totally fine to hide that you are a Buddhist. But keep in mind that as a Buddhist, you have a mission to refrain as much as possible from harming others, and to help others as much as possible. This is not a huge responsibility, because if you genuinely accept and contemplate the truths, all these deeds flow naturally. ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
