Rest In Peace Rick James...

the original super freak...

The teaching of those
who live in the Dhamma,
worthy ones, noble:
whoever maligns it
--a dullard
inspired by evil view--
bears fruit for his own destruction,
like the fruiting bamboo.

-Dhammapada, 12, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

The supreme Understanding transcends all this and that. The supreme Action embraces great resourcefulness without attachment. The supreme Accomplishment is to realize immanence without hope.

-Translation by Garma C.C. Chang

We who are like senseless children
Shrink from suffering, but love its causes.
We hurt ourselves; our pain is self-inflicted!
Why should others be the object of our anger?

-Santideva, Bodhicaryavatara

Ch’eng-t’ien was asked, ‘How should I apply my mind twenty-four hours a day?’ He replied, ‘When chickens are cold, they roost in trees; when ducks are cold, they plunge into water.’ The questioner said, ‘Then I don’t need cultivated realization, and won’t pursue Buddhahood or Zen mastery.’ Ch’eng-t’ien responded, ‘You’ve saved half my effort.’

A man named Liu Shiyu asked Yangshan, ‘May I hear the principle of attaining mind?’

Yangshan said, ‘If you want to attain mind, then there’s no mind that can be attained. It is this unattainable mind that is known as truth.’

-Zen’s Chinese Heritage

As a Buddhist monk my concern extends to all members of the human family and, indeed, to all sentient beings who suffer. I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their own happiness or satisfaction.

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, Oslo, December 1989

Those with initiative,
mindful,
clean in action,
acting with due consideration,
heedful, restrained,
living the Dharma:
their glory
grows.

Through initiative, heedfulness,
restraint, & self-control,
the wise would make
an island
no flood
can submerge.

-Dhammapada, 2, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

As a blind man feels when he finds a pearl in a dustbin, so am I amazed by the miracles of awakening rising in my consciousness. It is the nectar of immortality that delivers us from death, the treasure that lifts us from death, the treasure that lifts us above poverty into the wealth of giving to life, the tree that gives shade to us when we roam ( Read more... )

Who would have thought that all things are the manifestation of the Essence of Mind!

-The Sutra of Hui Neng