Adverse conditions

Adverse conditions are spiritual friends.

Devils and demons are emanations of the victorious ones.

Illness is the broom for evil and obscurations.

Suffering is the dance of what is.

-- Jamgon Kongtrul Lödro Thaye, The Great Path of Awakening

Who is wise

Who is wise,
The eloquent or the quiet man?
Be quiet,
And loving and fearless.



--Buddha Shakyamuni, The Dhammapada, Shambhal

Intention

Intention is the karma of the mind.

­ Gunaprabha, The Treasury of Abhidharma

If the creator of the world entire

If the creator of the world entire / they call God, of every being be the Lord / Why does he order such misfortune / And not create happiness but only discord?

If the creator of the world entire / They call God, of every being be the Lord / Why prevail deceit, lies and ignorance / And he such inequity and injustice create?

If the creator of the world entire / they call God, of every being be the Lord / Then an evilmaster is he, (O Aritta) / Knowing what's right did let wrong prevail!

And hence the Buddha demonstrates that the three most common attributes of God; omnipotence, omniscience and benevolence are obviously incompatible with the existential fact of dukkha (dissatisfaction and suffering.)

--Buddha Shakyamuni, from: The Bhuridatta Jataka

More on this at the link below:http://www.khandro.net/doctrine_distinction.htm

You can appreciate your life.

You can appreciate your life, even if it is an imperfect situation. Perhaps your apartment is run down and your furniture is old and inexpensive. You do not have to live in a palace. You can relax and let go wherever you are. Wherever you are, it is a palace.

-- Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior

Advanced ideas and descriptions....

Advanced ideas and descriptions of spiritual experiences, only exploit the weaker aspects of human nature, our expectations and desires to see and hear something colorful, something extraordinary. If we begin our study with these dreams of extraordinary, "enlightening" and dramatic experiences, then we will build up our expectations and preconceptions so that later, when we are actually working on the path, our minds will be occupied largely with what--will be rather than with what--IS.

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, CUTTING THROUGH SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM

The way to be daring

In the practice of meditation, the way to be daring, the way to leap, is to disown your thoughts, to step beyond your hope and fear, the ups ad downs of your thinking process. You can just be, just let yourself be, without holding on to the constant reference points that the mind manufactures.

-- Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior

Poetry by the Education President

This is a poem made up entirely of actual quotations from George W.Bush, arranged for "aesthetic" purposes, by The Washington Post writerRichard Thompson. A wonderful poem like this is too good not to share. Ah, yes! A testament to literacy in the age of Every Child LeftBehind!

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER!

I think we all agree, the past is over.

This is still a dangerous world.

It's a world of madmen and uncertainty

And potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked

Is our children learning?

Will the highways of the Internet

Become more few?

How many hands have I shaked?

They misunderestimate me.

I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.

I know that the human being

And the fish can coexist.

Families is where our nation finds hope,

Where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!

Knock down the tollbooth!

Vulcanize society!

Make the pie higher!

Make the pie higher!

Samaya of Body

The samaya of body involves always regarding one's basic phenomenal situationas an expression of sacredness. We do not doubt the sacredness of our world.

--Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Heart of the Buddha

On the bodhisattva path we take chances

Often our sense of vulnerability, our feeling that we need to protect ourselves, acts as an obstacle to any sense of warmth. But on the bodhisattva path we take chances, extending ourselves without reservation for the sake of others. And it is the discovery of our own wakefulness, or bodhicitta, that creates the trust that allows us to take such chances.

--Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Heart of the Buddha

The Actual Meaning Of A Warrior

Everyone has to die, so there is no need to destroy someone we think of as an enemy who is subject to death anyway. This is not really being a warrior. The actual meaning of a warrior in the Dharmic sense is subduing the enemy of the mind so as to remove the root of suffering.

--Thrangu Rinpoche