To be able to continue to be polite to those who are rude is a peak in good character that we should all be working towards. ~Mufti Ismail Menk
If I were a flower
I would be a sunflower.
To always follow the sun,
Turn my back to darkness,
Stand proud, tall and straight
Even with my head full of seeds.
~Pam Stewart
“Letting go” actually means this: It’s as if we’re carrying a heavy rock. As we carry it, we feel weighed down but we don’t know what to do with it, so we keep on carrying it. As soon as someone tells us to throw it away, we think, “Eh? If I throw it away, I won’t have anything left.” So we keep on carrying it. We aren’t willing to throw it away.
Even if someone tells us, “Come on. Throw it away. It’ll be good like this, and you’ll benefit like that,” we’re still not willing to throw it away because we’re afraid we won’t have anything left. So we keep on carrying it until we’re so thoroughly weak and tired that we can’t carry it anymore. That’s when we let it go.
Only when we let it go do we understand letting go. We feel at ease. And we can sense within ourselves how heavy it felt to carry the rock. But while we were carrying it, we didn’t know at all how useful letting go could be. ~Ajahn Chah
The sun shines by day, the moon shines by night. The warrior shines in armor, the holy man shines in meditation. But the Buddha shines resplendent all day and all night. Because he has discarded evil, he is called a holy man.
Because he is serene in conduct, he is called a recluse. And because he has renounced his impurities, he is called a renunciate. ~Buddha, The Dhammapada
It is clear that faults never lie exclusively on one side of a relationship. For this reason, if we are serious about forging relationships that work, we must also recognize our own faulty attitudes, and work on them. When we commit to identifying our own faults and transforming our own mind, then and only then are healthy relationships possible. ~ 17th Karmapa
Observe how your mother has become your child. Before you were her child, now she has become yours. She has become older and older until she has become a child again. Her memory goes, her eyes don’t see well and her ears aren’t so good. Sometimes she garbles her words. Don’t let it upset you. You who are nursing the sick must know how to let go also. Don’t hold onto things, just let her have her own way. When a young child is disobedient sometimes the parents let it have its own way just to keep the peace, just to make it happy. Now your mother is just like that child. Her memories and perceptions are confused. Sometimes she muddles up your names, or asks you to bring a cup when she wants a plate. It’s normal, don’t be upset by it. ~Ajahn Chah
It’s crucial for us to become good people. If we are not, then how could we say we’re Buddhist? We need to reflect: What kind of person am I? If you’re making a golden vase, first you have to see if the material is real gold. If it’s brass, then you’re not making a gold vase. To become a good Buddhist, you have to become a good human being. It doesn’t mean that you have no anger or jealousy, for example, but that you have decreased the negative emotions. Otherwise, it’s a shame: you have the name of a Buddhist, but have not transformed yourself. Nobody can change us. We have to talk to and instruct ourselves about the right way, then change will happen. ~ 17th Karmapa
The moment we stop letting greed make us chase after what we do not have and take for granted all that we do have, we can feel a deep and joyful sense of appreciation. We truly have everything we need already. ~ 17th Karmapa
Red Tail Hawk Circling Me! Photo credit: Randy Neufeldt
Contentment is a wealth that gives the highest satisfaction, and we can gain it simply by mining our own mental resources, and knowing our own mind. We can cultivate the perspective that what we have is enough. We can see that we do not actually need more than we already have, and can be completely satisfied with that. ~17th Karmapa
The priority we give to material goods in our life is up to each of us to determine. This is also part of deciding how we want to define ourselves. If we are looking to our jobs and to material things to tell us how we are, what we are worth, and where we fit in the world, this is a sign that we have become profoundly confused about the order of things. It shows we have missed the point about how we human beings stand in relation to the material world. ~ 17th Karmapa
