1. You can always get what you want, as long as you only want one thing

2. The existence of the divine is an unfalsifiable proposition

3. We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.

4. The past and the future are purely fictional concepts.

Tags: buddha

Hm. A fair amount of fudging and negotiation going on here. "It's nearly sunset. That's not bread it's a crumpet. I've given up alcohol not sweets, cakes and chocolate".

Which is not as it should be. It's not in The Spirit of the Thing. Either I do or I don't. There is no "try".

My Buddhist class this evening brought back to my awareness how dangerous it is to set up things in life which hold out the promise of providing happiness at some point in the future; of making serenity and pleasure contingent on something external.

Tags: buddha, lent

Hello, I am Schrödinger, and this is my box. It contains a cat, and also some slow acting poison, or slow fuse bomb, or something like that. The cat might be dead or alive, I really don't know. I have equanimity about that. It could be male or female, who knows?! At the moment, due to my non-attachment to the animal, I can conjure and entertain parallel and opposite myth sets. The cat could be alive, it could be happy, I could be a fantastic pet-owner and relish the thought of stroking its fuzzy ears. Or, it could be dead, flea-ridden, a rabid pest which I captured in my back garden, ensuring the continued survival of an entire season of frogs. Currently I am indetermined, floating, free, able to choose my identity and the nature of the world around me in the Endless Now. 

Of course, I could open this old shoebox and look. But that would mean allowing a desirous attachment to take hold of me, a cherishing of the eventual outcome, and a wish to have certainty about my relationship to this feline, and thus own and possess it.  Luckily, I am a Buddhist Master and therefore entirely equanimous. It's possible that my feelings about the little tiger are unfriendly, that the delusion of hatred moved me to imprison the thing together with substances which generally induce death after some given time interval. That might be one supposition. But if the delusion of hatred has some hold on me, I shall choose to selectively ignore it, to withhold from it the inappropriate attention it craves in order to thrive. I'm just not going to think about it! And if this cat is the object which gives rise to that delusion, for the moment I think I'll invest in dogs. Or budgies. Maybe later when I have a grip on my scientific experiments, I'll see if I can approach the box and entertain the notion of lifting the lid, all the while observing the minds which arise to see if they are minds which give rise to happiness, harmony and general state of loveliness. Or not. 

[Editorial note: at this point I would embed a jpg of Schrodinger's cat in a box. But some things prevent me: (1) I don't know how to embed stuff in LJ; (2) I can't be bothered to browse for suitable cartoons; (3) I am far too equanimous having been to meditation class. Sorry. ]
 

Tags: buddha, schrödinger

We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.

Speak or act with an impure mind
And trouble will follow you
As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.

We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with a pure mind
And happiness will follow you
As your shadow, unshakable.
"Look how he abused me and hurt me,
How he threw me down and robbed me."
Live with such thoughts and you live in hate.
"Look how he abused me and hurt me,
How he threw me down and robbed me."
Abandon such thoughts, and live in love.
In this world
Hate never yet dispelled hate.
Only love dispels hate.
This is the law,
Ancient and inexhaustible.
You too shall pass away.
Knowing this, how can you quarrel?

How easily the wind overturns a frail tree.
Seek happiness in the senses,
Indulge in food and sleep,
And you too will be uprooted.
The wind cannot overturn a mountain.
Temptation cannot touch the man
Who is awake, strong and humble,
Who masters himself and minds the dharma.

Look into your heart.
Follow your nature.
An unreflecting mind is a poor roof.
Passion, like the rain, floods the house.
But if the roof is strong, there is shelter.
.
However many holy words you read,
However many you speak,
What good will they do you
If you do not act upon them?
Are you a shepherd
Who counts another man's sheep,
Never sharing the way?
Read as few words as you like,
And speak fewer.
But act upon the dharma.
Give up the old ways -
Passion, enmity, folly.
Know the truth and find peace.
Share the way.

Tags: buddha