You could be a millionaire or you could only have a few dollars in your pocket...

"You could be a millionaire or you could only have a few dollars in your pocket. None of it matters! No matter how successful you are, no matter how big your house is , how recent your car is, or how big your bank account is, our graves will always be the same size. Always stay humble and kind."

Richard Gere

Thank you for all the great work you do Mr. Gere for Tibet and human rights in general!

Cautionary future for America

I came across this powerful passage below by Carl Sagan recently in some research I was doing on economics and found it particularly visionary given the current distribution of wealth and power in America nowadays.

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…”

Carl Sagan

Arthur Schopenhauer quotes

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self evident.”

“Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.”

“The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.”

“Compassion is the basis of morality.”

“Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.”

Lama Atisha Wisdom

1. The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.
2. The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.
3. The greatest effort is not concerned with results (such as success or failure).
4. The greatest patience is humility.
5. The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.
6. The greatest generosity is non-attachment.
7. The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.
8. The greatest action is not conforming to the world’s ways.
9. The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything.
10. The greatest precept is continual awareness.
11. The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.
12. The greatest worth is self-mastery.
13. The greatest achievement is selflessness.

Lama Atisha

The greatness of a nation

“The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

Gandhi

Below is a powerful and thoughtful documentary movie on this issue. Not for the faint of heart, but when is reality ever an easy watch when doing the right thing demands sharp dramatic change?

Earthlings movie

228 remembered

228 and The White Terror inside Taiwan. May freedom, dignity, justice and real peace reign in the beautiful island nation of formosa Taiwan.

“A government that is evil has no room for good men and women except in its prisons”

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

“Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear and punishment.”

Gandhi

The Eight Worldly Concerns

༄༅། །འཇིག་རྟེན་ཆོས་བརྒྱད་སྤོང་བའི་གདམས་པ། །
༄༅། །འཇིག་རྟེན་ཆོས་བརྒྱད་སྤོང་བའི་གདམས་པ་ནི། ཨ་ཧོ། སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་ཅན་སྐྱེས་མཆོག་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་གསོན། །རྙེད་དང་མ་རྙེད་བདེ་དང་མི་བདེ་བའི། །སྙན་དང་མི་སྙན་བསྟོད་དང་མ་བསྟོད་བཞི། །དེ་ལ་འཇིག་རྟེན་ཆོས་བརྒྱད་ཟེར་བ་ཡིན། །བཟང་ངན་གཉིས་འཛིན་དགའ་སྡུག་ཅན་དེ་ལ། །གཉིས་མེད་རང་གྲོལ་བྱ་བའི་མིང་ཡང་མེད། །ཆོས་བརྒྱད་ཞེན་པའི་སྒྲོག་གིས་འཆིང་བ་ཡིན། །བཟང་ངན་དགའ་སྡུག་རྣམ་པ་ཅི་བྱུང་ཡང་། །སྒྱུ་མའི་དཔེ་བཅུ་བཞིན་དུ་ཤེས་པར་གྱིས། །སྨྲ་བསམ་བརྗོད་བྲལ་བློ་འདས་རྫོགས་པའི་ངང་། །རེ་དོགས་མཐའ་བྲལ་ལྟ་བའི་ཀློང་དུ་ཞོག །ཅེས། འཇིག་རྟེན་ཆོས་བརྒྱད་སྤོང་བའི་གདམས་པ་འདི། །སློབ་མའི་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་ཡང་ཡང་བསྐུལ་བའི་ངོར། །སྤྲང་རྒན་པདྨའི་མིང་གིས་བཀོད་པ་ཡིས། །རྗེས་འཇུག་བྱང་ཆུབ་བསྒྲུབ་པའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་ལ། །འཇིག་རྟེན་ཆོས་བརྒྱད་བདུད་ཀྱིས་བསླུ་བ་དེ། །ཡིད་ལ་དྲན་པ་ཙམ་ཡང་མེད་པར་ཤོག །

by Nyala Pema Dündul

A ho! Listen well, all you fortunate, supreme disciples of excellent karma!

Gain and loss, happiness and unhappiness,
Fame and insignificance, praise and blame—
These are what we call “the eight worldly concerns.”

Those who cling to the duality of good and bad, and feel pleasure and frustration,
Can not even be called practitioners of non-dual self-liberation!
They are bound by the chains of attachment to the eight worldly concerns.

Whatever happens, whether it appears good or bad, pleasurable or painful,
Recognize it to be just like the ten similes of illusion!
And, in a state of perfection, transcending the ordinary mind, and beyond words, thought and description,
Rest in the expanse of the view, beyond the limitations of hope and fear!

This advice on abandoning the eight worldly concerns,
Was put together by the old beggar called Padma,
For a group of students who had requested it repeatedly.

Through this, may my followers, yogis intent upon enlightenment,
Be free from even so much as a single thought
That is deceived by the māra of the eight worldly concerns!

On nature

"All has been consecrated.

The creatures in the forest know this,

The earth does, the seas do,

the clouds know as does the heart full of love.

Strange a priest would rob us of this knowledge

and then empower himself with this ability

to make holy what already was..."

Saint Catherine of Siena

True

Interdependence

“A human being is an animal, a part of nature. But we single ourselves out from the rest of nature. We classify other animals and living beings as nature, as if we ourselves are not part of it. Then we pose the question, “How should I deal with Nature?” We should deal with nature the way we deal with ourselves…! Harming nature is harming ourselves and vice versa.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

Winter Crows

So proud they come on sleek black wings,

Filling the sky like circling black specks gently floating downwards upon a winter’s frosty sparkle snow,

They come again,

Always wakeful and never quiet,

Always just one more step ahead of the sleeping eyes who see,

They are the protectors and the observers of things more ancient than words could ever know,

They walk triumphantly in our midsts with loud ruckus calls to unseen forms that suddenly now dare not raise their troublesome heads to bother those in the worlds of beasts and men.

by, Howard G. Fass