Early Morning Buddhist Inspirations

 
"If you can see yourself as an artist, and you can see that your life is your own creation, then why not create the most beautiful story for yourself?"
 
  ~Don Miguel Ruiz 
 

Fires of Venus: A Mahayana Buddhist Perspective

Love is not actually mind. Love is experienced. Love has nothing to do with concept or thought. So the only way that we can experience love--boundless love, love as devotion, love as compassion, love as joy--the only way we can experience that level of love, that bodhichitta, is by going beyond our own mind.

Anam Thubten Rinpoche, "Always Question Your Mind"


...we can connect with the very best of ourselves and help others to do the same. Bodhichitta is a basic human wisdom that can drive away the sorrows of the world. Bodhi means "awake": free from ordinary, confused mind, free from the illusion that we're separate from one another. Chitta means "heart" or "mind".

...At this point we might ask why bodhichitta has such power. Perhaps the simplest answer is that it lifts us out of self-centeredness and gives us a chance to leave dysfunctional habits behind. Moreover, everything we encounter becomes an opportunity to develop the outrageous courage of the bodhi heart.

When we get hit hard, we look outward and see how other people also have difficult times. When we feel lonely or angry or depressed, we let these dark moods link us with the sorrows of others.

We share the same reactivity, the same grasping and resisting. By aspiring for all beings to be free of their suffering, we free ourselves from our own cocoons and life becomes bigger than "me". No matter how dark and gloomy or joyful and uplifted our lives are, we can cultivate a sense of shared humanity.

This expands our whole perspective. Trungpa Rinpoche used to say, "The essence of the mahayana is thinking bigger".

This opportunity to awaken bodhichitta is so precious and rare. To experience something that liberates us from the narrow-mindedness of our biases and preconceptions is...truly wondrous. What's more, there is no one who cannot experience this, if they're willing to give it a try.

Pema Chodron, "No Time to Lose"

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If someone asked me, today, "What is the central goal of Fires of Venus?" I would show them these passages and say, "At its best, FoV offers us an opportunity to practice thinking bigger".

Coming to peace with teachers and gurus

For years I secretly scoffed at the images of teachers and gurus I saw on Buddhist and Hindu altars. "How could anyone worship a person?" I thought to myself, scandalized. Later, when I knew a little bit more and realized that these photos weren't being worshipped, I still thought it was weird. That kind of veneration seemed...creepy. Sometimes, when I see others venerating a living human person, I still get uncomfortable inklings of that creepy feeling.

But a few years ago, something happened that changed my perspective.
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Writer's Block: Blast to the past

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You will have love; you will be loved.