Where is anger for one freed from anger,
Who is subdued and lives perfectly equanimous,
Who truly knowing is wholly freed,
Supremely tranquil and equipoised?
He who repays an angry man in kind
Is worse than the angry man;
Who does not repay anger in kind,
He alone wins the battle hard to win.
He promotes the weal of both,
His own, as well as of the other.
Knowing that the other man is angry,
He mindfully maintains his peace
And endures the anger of both,
His own, as well as of the other,
Even if the people ignorant of true wisdom
Consider him a fool thereby.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Friday, October 1, 2010
Death and Dying
In our busy modern lives, we may not give much thought to death. We fear that thinking about death will take the joy out of living. But in reality, when we actively think about death and prepare for it, we find peace, fulfillment, and happiness in our current lives and our fear of death disappears.
life always happy, but not the usual kind of hallucinated happiness which is excited with desire, pride, and so on. As soon as you investigate the nature of this kind of hallucinated happiness, you discover that it is only suffering. Here we are talking about real inner peace and happiness, which bring satisfaction and fulfillment, and make your life meaningful.
" The essence, therefore, is to have accumulated merit and done purification in everyday life in your relationship with sentient beings; with a sincere heart, loving kindness, and compassion to have served others; and to have done the hard work to benefit them. Practicing the good heart, bodhichitta, during your life purifies so much negative karma, and it stops one from creating more. It is negative karma that makes the mind experience fear of death. And it is bodhichitta especially that stops suffering rebirths. " As quoted by –Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Developing compassion
How is it possible to achieve this? For this mental continuum to become omniscient mind? You can figure this out even from this simple example: When you memorize anything, in the beginning your mind is completely ignorant. In the very beginning, you do not even know the alphabet; but with the help of a teacher and by applying effort, you gradually begin to learn. As you continue, you learn more and more. It is the nature of the mind that understanding can be developed. The mind has the power to understand gross phenomena, and even subtle existence if you attempt to do this correctly.
You have compassion for some beings now, even though you do not have fully developed compassion, which means compassion towards every living being. However, you can develop your present small compassion for these beings so that it becomes greater and greater. You can increase your compassion for these beings. By understanding the teachings and practicing meditation, you can also generate compassion for the other beings for whom you do not feel compassion at the moment. In this way compassion can be developed.
With the compassion you already have for others, with your present understanding of their wishes and the methods to fulfill them, you have some capacity to help others. Even at this present time, with this human body, with the understanding and compassion that you have, you have some power to help others. As your understanding of and compassion for all living beings develop through actualizing the remedy of the path within your mind, your obscuration will gradually become less and less, and you will gain more and more understanding. When this process is completed, you will have complete and perfect power to guide other beings.
You have compassion for some beings now, even though you do not have fully developed compassion, which means compassion towards every living being. However, you can develop your present small compassion for these beings so that it becomes greater and greater. You can increase your compassion for these beings. By understanding the teachings and practicing meditation, you can also generate compassion for the other beings for whom you do not feel compassion at the moment. In this way compassion can be developed.
With the compassion you already have for others, with your present understanding of their wishes and the methods to fulfill them, you have some capacity to help others. Even at this present time, with this human body, with the understanding and compassion that you have, you have some power to help others. As your understanding of and compassion for all living beings develop through actualizing the remedy of the path within your mind, your obscuration will gradually become less and less, and you will gain more and more understanding. When this process is completed, you will have complete and perfect power to guide other beings.
The ultimate meaning of life by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
You do not do meditation courses and spiritual practice to have a healthy body, and not even to have temporary peace of mind; you do spiritual practice to have everlasting mind-peace, with ultimate liberation from mental afflictions, or disturbing thoughts. At this time you have a precious human body. Using this to obtain even the ultimate happiness of everlasting liberation from all problems and their causes—disturbing thoughts and action-result, or karma—is still not the ultimate purpose of your having this precious human body. The real purpose of taking this precious human body at this time is to avoid giving harm to other sentient beings; and on the basis of that, to benefit all other sentient beings, each of whom wants happiness and does not want suffering.
Having this pure attitude of wishing to avoid harm to others in the very depths of your heart, you then act to benefit them without discrimination. You do not recognize some beings, such as relatives and friends, as close and help them, but others as enemies and not help them—or even harm them. Rather than these discriminating thoughts, you have a pure attitude of loving kindness, thinking to benefit all sentient beings equaling the extent of infinite space. With the attitude of loving kindness and compassion towards all living beings, you should also act to benefit them equally. This is the main purpose for which we have taken this precious human body. This is the ultimate meaning of life.
Having this pure attitude of wishing to avoid harm to others in the very depths of your heart, you then act to benefit them without discrimination. You do not recognize some beings, such as relatives and friends, as close and help them, but others as enemies and not help them—or even harm them. Rather than these discriminating thoughts, you have a pure attitude of loving kindness, thinking to benefit all sentient beings equaling the extent of infinite space. With the attitude of loving kindness and compassion towards all living beings, you should also act to benefit them equally. This is the main purpose for which we have taken this precious human body. This is the ultimate meaning of life.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
The King is My Religion
The King is My Religion
I am Buddhist
A Buddhist’s end objective is goodness
Benefit as many as possible – all sentient beings
But I am just one human being
Limited by intelligence, resources and human boundaries
How do I become an effective Buddhist?
Serve the King – I serve the source of all goodness in the country
Serve the King – I serve 600,000 people at once
Serve the King – my parents’ happiness is complete
Serve the King – my life has purpose beyond imagination
Serve the King – I overcome all human limitations
Rich or poor, humble or powerful
Genius or otherwise
Anyone can serve the King
And even if there are those who do not serve
The King will care for everyone
The King is my religion because I want to be a good human being
Monday, January 26, 2009
Life's Choices
Life's Choices
Life is full of choices
Make sure you pick the right one
Don't listen to the voices
Hear only yours and you have won
Many people will tell you
You need to change your looks
Don't take to heart their view
Fabulous bods are found only in books
There is only one voice
That you should listen to
It will help make the right choice
That is perfect just for you
Your looks are your own
Someone will always love you
You will never be alone
Look in the mirror and you'll see who.
Life is full of choices
Make sure you pick the right one
Don't listen to the voices
Hear only yours and you have won
Many people will tell you
You need to change your looks
Don't take to heart their view
Fabulous bods are found only in books
There is only one voice
That you should listen to
It will help make the right choice
That is perfect just for you
Your looks are your own
Someone will always love you
You will never be alone
Look in the mirror and you'll see who.
POLITICS FOR DUMMIES
POLITICS FOR DUMMIES
DEMOCRAT
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
You push for higher taxes so the government can provide cows for everyone.
REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?
SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.
COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pours the milk down the drain.
AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one. You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows.
You are surprised when one cow drops dead.
You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses.
Your stock goes up.
FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch and drink wine.
Life is good.
JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains.
Most are at the top of their class at cow school.
GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour.
Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.
ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows but you don't know where they are.
You break for lunch.
Life is good.
RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have some vodka.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You have some more vodka.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.
TALIBAN CORPORATION
You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two.
You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts.
You get a $40 million grant from the US government to find alternatives to milk production but use the money to buy weapons.
IRAQI CORPORATION
You have two cows.
They go into hiding.
They send radio tapes of their mooing.
POLISH CORPORATION
You have two bulls.
Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.
BELGIAN CORPORATION
You have one cow.
The cow is schizophrenic.
Sometimes the cow thinks she's French, other times she's Flemish. The
Flemish cow won't share with the French cow.
The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow's milk.
The cow asks permission to be cut in half.
The cow dies happy.
FLORIDA CORPORATION
You have a black cow and a brown cow.
Everyone votes for the best looking one.
Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally vote for the black one.
Some people vote for both.
Some people vote for neither.
Some people can't figure out how to vote at all.
Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think is the best-looking cow.
CALIFORNIA CORPORATION
You have millions of cows.
They make real California cheese.
Only five speak English.
DEMOCRAT
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
You push for higher taxes so the government can provide cows for everyone.
REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?
SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.
COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pours the milk down the drain.
AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one. You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows.
You are surprised when one cow drops dead.
You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses.
Your stock goes up.
FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch and drink wine.
Life is good.
JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains.
Most are at the top of their class at cow school.
GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour.
Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.
ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows but you don't know where they are.
You break for lunch.
Life is good.
RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have some vodka.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You have some more vodka.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.
TALIBAN CORPORATION
You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two.
You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts.
You get a $40 million grant from the US government to find alternatives to milk production but use the money to buy weapons.
IRAQI CORPORATION
You have two cows.
They go into hiding.
They send radio tapes of their mooing.
POLISH CORPORATION
You have two bulls.
Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.
BELGIAN CORPORATION
You have one cow.
The cow is schizophrenic.
Sometimes the cow thinks she's French, other times she's Flemish. The
Flemish cow won't share with the French cow.
The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow's milk.
The cow asks permission to be cut in half.
The cow dies happy.
FLORIDA CORPORATION
You have a black cow and a brown cow.
Everyone votes for the best looking one.
Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally vote for the black one.
Some people vote for both.
Some people vote for neither.
Some people can't figure out how to vote at all.
Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think is the best-looking cow.
CALIFORNIA CORPORATION
You have millions of cows.
They make real California cheese.
Only five speak English.
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