When the mind is calm, it is easier to distinguish between real and imagined problems. You will find a way either to change the circumstances or to change your thinking about the source of your problem. - Chuck Norris
A good meditation has little or nothing to do with ‘extra-sensory perceptions’ or escaping temporarily from suffering. A walk, a nap, a vacation, or a warm bath can be more effective for such purposes. If we continue to harbor the same prejudices, the same irritability, and the same indifference toward the suffering of others when we rise from the cushion, it does not matter how many divine lights we see or how many celestial sounds we hear, our meditation is a farce. If we rise from the cushion with more patience, more love, and more compassion, our meditation has been good. - Tashi Nyima
Never give up too soon. No matter what other people tell you you can always push yourself a little farther, and that short distance may prove to be more than enough. - Chuck Norris
Try making a commitment to getting into the meditation posture at least once a day. You don’t have to sit for any particular length of time, just get on the cushion. A lot of times, the hardest part is getting there. Once you’re sitting down, you think, ‘I might as well sit for a few minutes,’ and more often than not, you’re getting full sessions in. —Insight Meditation Society co-founder Joseph Goldstein
If a little water is kept in an earthenware vessel, it will evaporate quickly. If it is poured into the Ganges, it will unite harmoniously in one taste with the river and never dry up.In this same way, once we have returned our lives, transient with the defilement of death, and taken refuge in Boundless Life, nonarising and nonperishing, there is no birth and death.
̶ Ippen Shonin A Hindu system of philosophic meditation and asceticism designed to effect the reunion of the devotee's soul with the universal spirit."
Commenting on that definition of yoga, F. Yeats Brown, author of Yoga Explained, adds: "Yoga is a discipline whereby the disciple attempts to harmonize the rhythms of the Self with those of the God it can apprehend, a God who grows greater as the human consciousness expands. It is a method of self-realization, in which spirit and matter are seen to merge in the universal." I agree with this understanding and definition but that's not the way yoga is presented or taught, especially in gyms and fitness centers. There is too much focus solely upon asana (the poses) separated from the concept that yoga is a practice of union - unifying the lower self with the Higher self, the human self with the Divine self. A Buddha statue is only a guide. When we bow to a Buddha statue, we are actually bowing to the Buddha in our intrinsic nature. - Hsing Yun
Despite many years of suffering, the women of Afghanistan only became "visible" after world media focused on the plight of their nation as a whole. The common understanding is that war is a man's game. - Azza Karam
Don’t give in to worry. Worrying and fretting are wrong. They waste energy and clog your creativity, making it impossible for you to see your problems clearly. - Chuck Norris
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Victor M. Parachin ...is aVedic educator, yoga instructor, Buddhist meditation teacher and author of a dozen books. Buy his books at amazon or your local bookstore. Archives
July 2024
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