More Dharma

 Maybe another post on the Dharma. Once more just quotes, or words I have myself found to be good guides in this sometimes terrible and fragile world.

The first few come from Ajah Chah, of the Thai Forest Tradition of Theravada Buddhism. Quite a few westerners have practiced under him and since returned to the West to share what their mind/hearts have learnt.

Do everything with a mind that lets go. Don't accept praise or gain or anything else. If you let go a little you will have a little peace; if you let go a lot you will have a lot of peace; if you let go completely you will have complete peace.


The Buddha is to be found right in the most simple things in front of you, if you're willing to look. And the essence of this is finding the balance which doesn't hold and which doesn't push away.


Speak simply, work simply - simplify everything you do so you will be able to see clearly. If you arrive at wisdom, it will be because you've learned to understand your own body and mind. To know the world means to understand the body/mind processes and vice versa......If you don't know yourself, you don't know the world........if you don't understand the nature of the world, then you do not understand yourself.

And finally, a link to my own Pure Land path.....this again from Ajahn Chan.....

Do not worry about enlightenment. When growing a tree, you plant it, water it, fertilize it, keep the bugs away; and if these things are done properly, the tree will naturally grow. How quickly it grows, however, is something you cannot control.


What a wonderful description of the "spiritual" life.......
keeping the bugs away! As the Gospel of Mark says:- "For the earth brings forth fruit of herself."

Another fine Dharma teacher is Pema Chodron, a westerner but much into Tibetan ways and means.

A few of her words...

To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest



As long as our orientation is toward perfection or success, we will never learn about unconditional friendship with ourselves, nor will we find compassion



Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognise our shared humanity.

We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

That's all for now folks!