samsara

Samsara: entangled, ensnared, enamored.

(with apologies to Nietzsche)

who overcomes himself his freedom finds Goethe

All force strives forward to work far and wide
To live and grow and ever to expand;
Yet we are checked and thwarted on each side
By the world's flux and swept along like sand:
In this eternal storm and outward tide
We hear a promise, hard to understand:
From the compulsion that all creatures bind,
Who overcomes himself, his freedom finds.

Goethe

Aung San Suu Kyi Q&A On Buddhism

On beliefs and virtues:

where you stumble

It is by going down into the abyss
that we recover the treasure of life.
Where you stumble,
there lies your treasure.

Joseph Campbell

first time i ever saw your face

The first time ever I saw your face
I thought the sun rose in your eyes
And the moon and stars were the gifts you gave
To the dark and the empty skies, my love,
To the dark and the empty skies.

The first time ever I kissed your mouth
And felt your heart beat close to mine
Like the trembling heart of a captive bird
That was there at my command, my love
That was there at my command.

And the first time ever I lay with you
I felt your heart so close to mine
And I knew our joy would fill the earth
And last till the end of time my love
It would last till the end of time my love

The first time ever I saw your face, your face,
your face, your face

Sung by Roberta Flack

desire and suffering

Desire and dukkha — are inseparable concomitants. At the moment desire springs up it creates in us a sense of lack, the pain of want. To end this pain we struggle to fulfill the desire. If our effort fails, we experience frustration, disappointment, sometimes despair. But even the pleasure of success is not unqualified. We worry that we might lose the ground we have gained. We feel driven to secure our position, to safeguard our territory, to gain more, to rise higher, to establish tighter controls. The demands of desire seem endless, and each desire demands the eternal: it wants the things we get to last forever. But all the objects of desire are impermanent. Whether it be wealth, power, position, or other persons, separation is inevitable, and the pain that accompanies separation is proportional to the force of attachment

Desire breeds fear and sorrow. Renunciation gives fearlessness and joy.


Bhikkhu Bodhi

John Steinbeck on love

There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you—of kindness and consideration and respect—not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable.

John Steinbeck

Albert Nobbs Trailer Official 2012 [HD] - Glenn Close, Mia Wasikowska

I Ching

Contemplation of the divine meaning underlying the workings of the universe gives to the man who is called upon to influence others the means of producing like effects. This requires that power in inner concentration which religious contemplation develops in great men of faith. It enables them to apprehend the mysterious and divine laws of life, and by means of profoundest inner concentration they give expression to these laws in their own persons. Thus a hidden spiritual power emanates from them, influencing and dominating others without their being aware of how it happens.

I Ching, Wilhelm

The Dalai Lama's Talk to Westerners at the Kalachakra in Bodh Gaya

Pico Iyer on the joy of quiet

None of this is a matter of principle or asceticism; it’s just pure selfishness. Nothing makes me feel better — calmer, clearer and happier — than being in one place, absorbed in a book, a conversation, a piece of music. It’s actually something deeper than mere happiness: it’s joy, which the monk David Steindl-Rast describes as “that kind of happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.” - Pico Iyer

the superior man

The superior man sets his life in order
And examines himself.

I Ching