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This image is from day day one of the Bhutan Photography Expedition I am co-leading with my wife over the next fortnight. We have a great group of who are curious and enthusiastic travellers as well as photographers. This image is from a small nunnery who generously allowed us to photography their afternoon meditation and chanting. My Bhutan Site is www.bhutanheartland.com
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As Buddha said: “What you are is what you have been, what you will be is what you do now.” Padmasambhava went further: “If you want to know your past life, look into your present condition; if you want to know your future life, look at your present actions.
— Sogyal Rinpoche with thanks to Rigpa Glimpse of the Day. (via crashinglybeautiful)
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We have bigger houses but smaller families;
more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense;
more knowledge but less judgement;
more medicines but less healthiness.
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,
but have trouble in crossing the street to meet the new neighbours.
We have built more computers to hold more information,
to produce more copies than ever,
but we have less communication;
We have become long on quantity,
but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;
Tall man but short character;
Steep profits but shallow relationships.
It is a time when there is much in the window
But nothing in the room.
more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense;
more knowledge but less judgement;
more medicines but less healthiness.
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,
but have trouble in crossing the street to meet the new neighbours.
We have built more computers to hold more information,
to produce more copies than ever,
but we have less communication;
We have become long on quantity,
but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;
Tall man but short character;
Steep profits but shallow relationships.
It is a time when there is much in the window
But nothing in the room.
—
The Paradox of Our Age by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
quote
However many holy words you read,
However many you speak,
What good will they do you
If you do not act upon them?
However many you speak,
What good will they do you
If you do not act upon them?
— the Buddha
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Kokuzo Bosatsu (Akasagarbha) (絹本著色虚空蔵菩薩像), kenpon choshoku kokuzo bosatsuzo). Hanging scroll, 132.0 cm x 84.4 cm. Color on silk. 12th century. Courtesy of artemisdreaming.
Bodhisattva of Wisdom & Memory
Kokūzō is especially important to Japan’s Shingon sect of Esoteric Buddhism (Mikkyō 密教). Kokūzō symbolizes the “vast and boundless” Buddha wisdom that permeates the universe. Believers pray to Kokūzō to grant them wisdom on their quest toward enlightenment. In Japan, people also pray to Kokūzō to improve their memory, technical skills, and artistic talents.
(Source: wikipedia)
via Crashingly Beautiful.
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If in the land of Buddha, there remains the distinction between the beautiful and the ugly, I do not desire to be a Buddha of such a land
— Buddha
quote
When you meditate, breathe naturally, just as you always do.
Focus your awareness lightly on the out breath. When you breathe out, just flow out with the out breath. Each time you breathe out, you are letting go and releasing all your grasping. Imagine your breath dissolving into the all-pervading expanse of truth.
Each time you breathe out, and before you breathe in again, you will find that there is a natural gap, as your grasping dissolves.
Rest in that gap, in that open space. And when, naturally, you breathe in, don’t focus especially on the in breath but go on resting your mind in the gap that has opened up.
Focus your awareness lightly on the out breath. When you breathe out, just flow out with the out breath. Each time you breathe out, you are letting go and releasing all your grasping. Imagine your breath dissolving into the all-pervading expanse of truth.
Each time you breathe out, and before you breathe in again, you will find that there is a natural gap, as your grasping dissolves.
Rest in that gap, in that open space. And when, naturally, you breathe in, don’t focus especially on the in breath but go on resting your mind in the gap that has opened up.
— Sogyal Rinpoche, Glimpse of the Day, 30 Oct 2010 (via sharanam)
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The modern world is such that the interests of a particular country or community can no longer be considered to lie within the confines of its own boundaries. Cultivating contentment is therefore crucial to maintaining peaceful coexistence because discontent breeds a sense of acquisitiveness that can never be satisfied.
— The Dalai Lama
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If you’re determined to think of yourself as limited, fearful, vulnerable, or scarred by past experience, know only that you have chosen to do so. The opportunity to experience yourself differently is always available.
— ~ Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
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Sometimes I tease people and ask: “What makes you so adamant that there’s no life after death? What proof do you have? What if you found there was a life after this one, having died denying its existence?” Those of us who undertake a spiritual discipline—of meditation, for example—come to discover many things about our own minds that we did not know before. For as our minds open more and more to the extraordinary, vast, and hitherto unsuspected existence of the nature of mind, we begin to glimpse a completely different dimension, one in which all of our assumptions about our identity and reality, which we thought we knew so well, start to dissolve, and in which the possibility of lives other than this one becomes at least likely. We begin to understand that everything we are being told by the masters about life and death, and life after death, is real.
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To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.
— Buddha (via reluctantbuddha)
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There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth…not going all the way, and not starting.
— Buddha (via reluctantbuddha)
