Break the Spell—Reality’s Worth It

Sometimes people feel that recognizing the truth of suffering conditions a pessimistic outlook on life, that somehow it is life-denying. Actually, it is quite the reverse. By denying what is true, for example, the truth of impermanence, we live in a world of illusion and enchantment. Then when circumstances change in ways we don’t like, we feel disappointed, angry, or bitter. The Buddha expressed the liberating power of seeing the unreliability of conditions: “All that is subject to arising is subject to cessation. Becoming disenchanted one becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion the mind is liberated.”

It’s telling that in English “disenchanted,” “disillusioned,” and dispassionate” often have a negative connotation. But looking more closely at their meaning reveals their connection to freedom. Becoming disenchanted means breaking the spell of enchantment, waking up into a greater and fuller reality. This is the happy ending of so many great myths and fairy tales. Being disillusioned is not the same as being disappointed or discouraged. It is a reconnection with what is true, free of illusion. And “dispassionate” does not mean indifference or lack of vital energy for living. Rather, it is the mind of great openness and equanimity, free of grasping.

— Joseph Goldstein, from One Dharma (HarperSanFrancisco)

Choose Your Words Carefully

In Master Linji [Rinzai]'s time, some Buddhist terms were used so often they became meaningless. People chewed on terms like "liberation" and "enlightenment" until they lost their power. It's no different today. People use words that tire our ears. We heat the words "freedom" and "security" on talk radio, telelvision, and in the newspaper so often that they've lost their effectiveness or their meaning has been distorted. When words are overused, even the most beautiful words can lose their true meaning. For example, the word "love" is a wonderful word. When we like to eat hamburger, we say, "I love hamburger." So what's left for the meaning of the word "love"?

–Thich Nhat Hanh, Tricycle Fall 2007

One Thing at a Time

It is wonderful to learn to do one thing at a time. When we do formal zazen, we just sit; this means we do not add to the sitting any judgments such as how wonderful it is to do zazen, or how badly we are doing at it. We just sit.

When we wash the dishes, we just wash dishes; when we drive on the highway, we just drive. When pain comes, there is just pain, and when pleasure comes, there is just pleasure. A Buddha is someone who is totally at one with his experience at every moment.

- Francis Dojun Cook, How to Raise an Ox, Wisdom Publications

What Really Matters

The Buddha refused to deal with those things that don't lead to the extinction of dukkha (suffering). He didn't discuss them. Take the question of whether or not there is rebirth after death. What is reborn? How is it reborn? What is its “karmic inheritance”? These questions don't aim at the extinction of dukkha. That being so, they are not the Buddha's teaching nor are they connected with it. They don't lie within the range of Buddhism. Also, the one who asks about such matters has no choice but to believe indiscriminately any answer that's given, because the one who answers won't be able to produce any proofs and will just be speaking according to his own memory and feeling. The listener can't see for himself and consequently must blindly believe the other's words. Little by little the subject strays from dharma until it becomes something else altogether, unconnected with the extinction of dukkha.

- Buddhadasa Bhikkhu from "A Single Handful," Tricycle Winter 1996

The Virtues of Patience

In daily life we experience suffering more often than pleasure. If we are patient, in the sense of taking suffering voluntarily upon ourselves, even if we are not capable of doing this physically, then we will not lose our capacity for judgment. We should remember that if a situation cannot be changed, there is no point in worrying about it. If it can be changed, then there is no need to worry about it either, we should simply go about changing it.

–His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, from The Dalai Lama’s Little Book of Inner Peace (Element)

The Real Reason

The Korean Zen master Hyunoong Sunim was holding a discussion at San Francisco Zen Center. A student asked him the reason human beings persist in habits that cause them harm, sometimes long after they have ceased to be pleasurable.

"In Christianity," answered Hyunoong Sunim, "this is known as original sin. In Buddhism, we call it delusion." He looked around the room. "Why is there delusion?"

He shrugged his shoulders and lifted both hands into the air. "No reason!"

At this he laughed heartily.

- Sean Murphy, One Bird, One Stone, (Renaissance Books)

Tricycle

For great inspirational quotes I would seriously recommend Tricycle: Buddhist Review. I have a Daily Dharma subscription (some of which I will re-post here) and a subscription on twitter.

Tricycle can be found at http://www.tricycle.com/