From ‘A Heart Full of Peace’ by Joseph Goldstein are many thought-provoking quotes, with elaborations on what their significance. Below are some personal reflections on those which especially resonated with me.
The only thing I can rely on
is my sincere motivation. – The Dalai Lama
Comments: All we can be truly sure of is the integrity of our intentions,
and to ensure we have the best ones for benefiting one and all.
Love your crooked neighbour
with all your crooked heart. – W.H. Auden
Comments: All we can do is to love the imperfect best we can,
even if our own love is imperfect, while trying to perfect it by practice.
Our practice is not to follow the heart;
it is to train the heart. – Ajahn Sumedho
Comments: Only the heart well-trained in compassion
and well-guided by wisdom is worth following.
To receive compassion and love,
one must be willing to open to one’s vulnerability. – Anon
Comments: If we think we are invulnerable,
we are either very enlightened or very vulnerable.
Try to be at peace with yourself
and help others to share that peace. – The Dalai Lama
Comments: Not making peace with yourself,
you can never make peace with the world.
Compassion is a verb. – Thich Nhat Hanh
Comments: Compassion only thought and talked about is not genuine enough.
It must be put in action.
The idea that some lives matter less
is the root of all that’s wrong with the world. – Paul Farmer
Comments: When even an ant’s life becomes dear,
we truly realise the preciousness of every life.
In the cherry blossom’s shade,
there’s no such thing
as a stranger. – Issa
Comments: Nature embraces all, though it can wreck lives too.
Buddha-nature embraces all, and it realised will heal all.
If my mind doesn’t go out to disturb the noise,
the noise won’t disturb me. – Ajahn Chan
Comments: We disturb the environment more than it disturbs us…
till it truly disturbs us in the most disturbing ways.
Our highest motivation enlarges
our sense of what we can accomplished. – Anon
Comments: When we aim high, the possibilities increase,
and so does nobility and goals based on them.
Oh that my monk’s robes were wide enough
to gather up all the people
in this floating world. – Ryokan
Comments: Without the genuine wish to embrace all suffering,
how can we even help relieve the suffering of one thoroughly?
Suffering is nothing
but experience enslaved to ignorance. – The Dalai Lama
Comments: Greed and hate are nothing
but expressions of ignorance.
Genuine happiness does not come
from accumulating pleasant feelings. – Anon
Comments: True Happiness comes from walking and sharing
the path to True Happiness with others.
Try not to become a person of success.
Rather become a person of value. – Albert Einstein
Comments: A person of true success
is a person of true value.
Wanting great insights without a grounding in moral action
is like putting tremendous effort into rowing across a river,
without untying the boat from the dock. – Anagarika Munindra
Comments: Goodness must come before truth,
because truth without goodness can become evil.
There is one thing we always need,
and this is the watchman named Mindfulness. – Tulku Urgyen
Comments: Mindfulness, the Buddha declared, is useful everywhere.
In fact, it is essential for every moment we are awake.
Unnoticed, thoughts have great power. – Anon
Comments: Thoughts shape the karma of our speech and actions,
which shape our universe and how we perceive it.
The real voyage of discovery consists
not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes. – Marcel Proust
Comments: When we see Samsara as it truly is,
Nirvana is truly realised.
Some of the worst things in my life never happened. – Mark Twain
Comments: Sometimes we worry too much,
but sometimes we are not well-prepared for the worst that may happen too.
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