Every person whose heart is moved by love and compassion, who deeply and sincerely acts for the benefit of others without concern for fame, profit, social position, or recognition expresses the activity of Chenrezig.
Bokar RinpocheRead
Understanding that everything is impermanent, that happiness is transformed into suffering, and that all phenomena are lacking reality in themselves and are only projections of our mind, will permit us to counteract the first hindrance to meditation, that is, our attachment to this world.
Interpretation
Recognizing the impermanence of everything helps in overcoming attachment, which is essential for effective meditation.
This quote emphasizes the Buddhist understanding of impermanence and the illusory nature of reality. By realizing that happiness and suffering are transient and that our perceptions are merely mental projections, we can begin to detach ourselves from worldly attachments, thus facilitating a deeper and more meaningful meditation practice.
In practice
During a meditation retreat, one could use this quote to remind participants of the nature of their thoughts and feelings.
Every person whose heart is moved by love and compassion, who deeply and sincerely acts for the benefit of others without concern for fame, profit, social position, or recognition expresses the activity of Chenrezig.
Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?
Learning to weep, learning to keep vigil, learning to wait for the dawn. Perhaps this is what it means to be human.
I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written. I believe this because the source of our strength in the quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual. And because it knows no limitation, it must terrify and ultimately triumph over those who would enslave their fellow men.
My soul, be satisfied with flowers, with fruit, with weeds even; but gather them in the one garden you may call your own.
People? People are chaotic quiddities living in one cave each. They pass the hours in amorous grudge and playback and thought experiment. At the campfire they put the usual fraction on exhibit, and listen to their own silent gibber about how they're feeling and how they're going down. We've been there. Death helps. Death gives us something to do. Because it's a fulltime job looking the other way.
Theology moves back and forth between two poles, the eternal truth of its foundations and the temporal situation in which the eternal truth must be received.
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