some articles and quotes
A different perspective of ethics versus profits…
Shows that compassion and ethics versus bottom lines and profits for a succesful business need not be mutually exclusive!
Vipassana changes the spirit of business
Though the following refers to India, anyone who has experienced pure love would know the irrelevance of the international borders that appear to divide us – and I hope a golden age spreads to the whole world…!!
In India, the return of the ‘golden age’
A firsthand account of someone’s experience in Igatpuri:
Prisoners of Our Own Device by Ajit Harisinghani on Sulekha
Some quotes…
“To meet everything and everyone through stillness instead of mental noise is the greatest gift you can offer to the universe. I call it stillness, but it is a jewel with many facets: that stillness is also joy, and it is love.”
— Eckhard Tolle
“It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must
work at it.”— Eleanor Roosevelt
(1884-1962, American First Lady, Columnist, Lecturer, Humanitarian)
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When I came across those two quotes, I felt that one would while trying to walk the path of dhamma, in a modest way, would end up living them.
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To think you can’t practice as a layman is to lose track of the path completely. Why is it people can find the incentive to do other things? If they feel they are lacking something they make an effort to obtain it. If there is sufficient desire people can do anything. Some say, “I haven’t got time to practice the Dhamma.” I say, “Then how come you’ve got time to breathe?” Breathing is vital to people’s lives. If they saw Dhamma practice as vital to their lives they would see it as important as their breathing.
— Venerable Ajahn Chah (Living Dhamma)
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This last one is one of my favorites, and though I understand it intellectually, unifying thought and action is still under construction 🙂
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NEVER FORGET HOW SWIFTLY this life will be over, like a flash of summer lightning or the wave of a hand. Now that you have the opportunity to practice dharma, do not waste a single moment on anything else.
— Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche from Tricycle, Fall 1997
on the importance of Maitri!! (kindness and compassion)
When people start to meditate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline, they often think that somehow they’re going to improve, which is a sort of subtle aggression against who they really are. It’s a bit like saying, “If I jog, I’ll be a much better person.” “If I could only get a nicer house, I’d be a better person.” “If I could meditate and calm down, I’d be a better person”…
But loving-kindness – maitri – toward ourselves doesn’t mean getting rid of anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy after all these years. We can still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to change ourselves. Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That’s the ground, that’s what we study, that’s what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.
– Pema Chodron, The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness
bridging practice and routine life
The most important moment in meditation is the instant you leave the cushion.
– By Ven. Henepola Gunaratana
see also:
the great journey within