Buddhist in Training

"#Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive."

"I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: Everyone has a self-image, an ego. You have one, I have one, Nishijima has one, Dogen, Nagarjuna, and Gautama Buddha had one too. The difference is the way a Buddhist views his or her self-image. When a person who understands Buddhism uses the word I, the word is just a convenient way of locating something. The word I is used by Buddhists in the same way people use any other designating phrase, the phrase Les Paul guitar for instance. You don’t have any really strong attachment to the guitar (well, if it’s a Les Paul, you may- but that’s not what I’m talking about); you know it’s just a bunch of wood held together with screws, and that the wood had its origins as parts of trees, and that the tuning keys, frets, and screws were once parts of rocks in the ground. The guitar will come apart eventually (and it’ll come apart really quick if you take to a hardcore gig at a redneck bar in Ohio). But none of its components will ever really disappear. They just change form. And though they don’t disappear, there comes a time when they can no longer be called a guitar. After this point you can never reassemble that Les Paul guitar no matter how hard you try. The thing that the word I refers to is just like that."

"To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance."

"To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself."

"Whatever your difficulties—a devastated heart, financial loss, feeling assaulted by the conflicts around you, or a seemingly hopeless illness—you can always remember that you are free in every moment to set the compass of your heart to your highest intentions. In fact, the two things that you are always free to do—despite your circumstances—are to be present and to be willing to love."

"Because you are alive, everything is possible."

"Sit, be still, and listen
because you’re drunk
and we’re at
the edge of the roof."