#buddhism

First of all, Buddhism is neither pessimistic nor optimistic. If anything at all, it is realistic, for it takes a realistic view of life and the world. It looks at things objectively (yathābhūtam). It does not falsely lull you into living in a fool's paradise, nor does it frighten and agonize you with all kinds of imaginary fears and sins. It tells you exactly and objectively what you are and what the world around you is, and shows you the way to perfect freedom, peace, tranquility and happiness. ↗

— Walpola Rahula

#buddhism #middle-path #middle-way #objectivism #objectivity

All the repetitions in the pattern were superficial; the moment was always new. It had to be lived, and then the next moment embraced as it arrived. ↗

— Kim Stanley Robinson

#change #inspirational #change

The meditative mind sees disagreeable or agreeable things with equanimity, patience, and good-will. Transcendent knowledge is seeing reality in utter simplicity. (146) ↗

— Jean-Yves Leloup

#equanimity #knowledge #meditation #mind #reality

O snail Climb Mount Fuji But slowly, slowly! ↗

— Kobayashi Issa

#haiku #persistence #struggle #buddhism

Man is an onion made up of a hundred integuments, a texture made up of many threads. The ancient Asiatics knew this well enough, and in the Buddhist Yoga an exact technique was devised for unmasking the illusion of the personality. The human merry-go-round sees many changes: the illusion that cost India the efforts of thousands of years to unmask is the same illusion that the West has labored just as hard to maintain and strengthen. ↗

— Hermann Hesse

#east #hesse #west #change

We don’t need any sort of religious orientation to lead a life that is ethical, compassionate & kind. ↗

— Sharon Salzberg

#compassion #inspirational #change

Excerpt from "The Long Road from Perdition" for the day: "...I've always been drawn to the ocean. It is here that I now feel peaceful and can lose my thoughts while immersed in the deafening sounds of waves crashing around me. The spray and mist of the ocean's past seem to be a living, breathing yet wounded animal. The fury of the waves never settled and the spew of the foam touched all that dared to sit near it. There is no reason to flinch as the waves spray and crash against the shore. It is a natural progression I have learned to endure. However, it is the rescinding of the waves and fluid release of fury that I struggle to understand and coexist with peacefully. I hope one day to master it. ↗

— J.R. Stone

#inspirational #spiritual #inspirational

The means and the results, the good and the bad, are within all of us who are aware and care. ↗

— Suman Jyoty Bhante

#buddhist-quotes #dhamma #inspirational #religion #science

Suffering usually relates to wanting things to be different from the way they are. ↗

— Allan Lokos

#health #inspiration #inspirational #mindfulness #suffering

Pain is not wrong. Reacting to pain as wrong initiates the trance of unworthiness. The moment we believe something is wrong, our world shrinks and we lose ourselves in the effort to combat the pain. ↗

— Tara Brach

#buddhist #inspirational #radical-acceptance #inspirational