You Are IT

How may you seek the kingdom of heaven? By providing the kingdom of heaven to others. By being the kingdom of heaven, in which others may find refuge and strength. By bringing the kingdom of heaven, and all its blessings, to all those whose lives you touch. For what you give, you become.

– Neale Donald Walsch

We have to cultivate contentment with what we have. We really don’t need much. When you know this, the mind settles down. Cultivate generosity. Delight in giving. Learn to live lightly. In this way, we can begin to transform what is negative into what is positive. This is how we start to grow up.

– Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo

In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions:

When did you stop dancing?
When did you stop singing?
When did you stop being enchanted by stories?
When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?

~ Gabrielle Roth

In Japan we have the phrase, "Shoshin," which means "beginner’s mind." Our "original mind" includes everything within itself. It is always rich and sufficient within itself. This does not mean a closed mind, but actually an empty mind and a ready mind.

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything. It is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.

~ Shunryu Suzuki-roshi (1905 – 1971)

When challenges or obstacles arise for us, we don’t have to get so intimidated; we can say, “Yes, it’s an obstacle, but it is not intrinsically bad; it’s not going to destroy me.”

To create a relationship with the obstacle, learn about it, and finally overcome it is going to be a helpful thing to do. It gives us a chance to cultivate wisdom and skillful means. It gives us confidence.

– Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

The first three practices of the eightfold path are right view, right intention, and right speech. These make right conduct possible, and when there is right conduct, there can be meditation practice and mindfulness, which lead to wisdom, thereby reinforcing right view.

So from the first, the Buddha saw that our language conditions our spirituality through our views, intentions, and uttered words, and that training in an increased awareness of this process has to be the starting point for spiritual practice.

– Zoketsu Norman Fischer

Treat your anger with the utmost respect and tenderness, for it is no other than yourself.

Do not suppress it—simply be aware of it. Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.

When you are aware that you are angry, your anger is transformed. If you destroy anger, you destroy the Buddha, for Buddha and Mara are of the same essence.

Mindfully dealing with anger is like taking the hand of a little brother.

– Thich Nhat Hanh

There’s a stillness at the center of our hearts, a space where we have no enemy. We may name it Christ, Buddha, Shiva, Allah, Wakan Tanka or Mother Divine, but what matters is to stop looking For that place and start looking From that place.

– Fred Lamotte

The Bishop asks the kids if they had any questions at the end of service. I stood up, and I’m only 9 years old. I said that my father was a welder, and asked if I would be able to burn an angel with the torch. The Bishop said no, because it takes wood and other materials to create fire. He said fire is a physical thing and can’t burn an angel because an angel is spirit. Then I said, why should I be so worried about going to hell and burning if you can’t burn a spirit? The Bishop told me to shut up and sit down.

~ Jordan Maxwell

What we call "world" is only an opinion…. Take away your opinion, your condition, situation—then your mind is clear like space… clear like a mirror. A mirror reflects everything: The sky is blue, tree is green, sugar is sweet. Just be one with truth. If your mind is clear like space, then you see clearly, hear clearly, smell clearly—everything is clear. That is dharma. That is truth.

— Seung Sahn