Inspiring Thoughts

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Johnny Dangerous
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

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LoveFromColorado wrote: Wed Feb 27, 2019 3:40 am
The universe is no narrow thing and the order within it is not constrained by any latitude in its conception to repeat what exists in one part in any other part. Even in this world more things exist without our knowledge than with it and the order in creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze, so that you shall not lose your way. For existence has its own order and that no man's mind can compass, that mind itself being but a fact among others.
- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian

I hesitate to share this quote given the nature of the book which I think is excellent but not for the gentle reader. That said, I'm on my second reading of this book and I keep re-reading this quote. I find it quite inspiring personally.
Great quote, from one of my favorites :thumbsup:
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when afflicted by disease

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when sad

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when you are scared

-Khunu Lama
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

Post by Schrödinger’s Yidam »

All’s well that ends well.
Shakespeare—but it is also applicable to samsara.
1.The problem isn’t ‘ignorance’. The problem is the mind you have right now. (H.H. Karmapa XVII @NYC 2/4/18)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
3. Student: Lama, I thought I might die but then I realized that the 3 Jewels would protect me.
Lama: Even If you had died the 3 Jewels would still have protected you. (DW post by Fortyeightvows)
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

The visions of Eternity, by reason of narrowèd perceptions,
Are become weak Visions of Time and Space, fix’d into furrows of Death;
Till deep dissimulation is the only defence an honest man has left.
William Blake
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

We live in a hyper-partisan age where people no longer really pay attention to the substance of what’s said but as to who says it and what side they’re on and what it’s political ramifications are.
William P. Barr
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
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Grigoris
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

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Nicholas Weeks wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2019 6:20 pm
We live in a hyper-partisan age where people no longer really pay attention to the substance of what’s said but as to who says it and what side they’re on and what it’s political ramifications are.
William P. Barr
I think Mr. Barr will find that partisanship has been an issue for as long as people have held opinions (ie forever).
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Grigoris wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2019 6:25 pm
Nicholas Weeks wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2019 6:20 pm
We live in a hyper-partisan age where people no longer really pay attention to the substance of what’s said but as to who says it and what side they’re on and what it’s political ramifications are.
William P. Barr
I think Mr. Barr will find that partisanship has been an issue for as long as people have held opinions (ie forever).
So you see nothing 'hyper' about people of this age's inability or refusal to 'pay attention to the substance' ?
In either case it is inspiring that the solution is simply to respect and pay close attention. Simple does not mean easy.
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
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Grigoris
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

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Nicholas Weeks wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2019 6:47 pmSo you see nothing 'hyper' about people of this age's inability or refusal to 'pay attention to the substance' ?
No, not really. I figure people have been ignoring substance for a really long time now, which is why we are in the situation we currently find ourselves in.

What makes you believe that people were more interested in the "substance of reason" in the past? What is your evidence for this?
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Grigoris wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2019 7:37 pm
Nicholas Weeks wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2019 6:47 pmSo you see nothing 'hyper' about people of this age's inability or refusal to 'pay attention to the substance' ?
No, not really. I figure people have been ignoring substance for a really long time now, which is why we are in the situation we currently find ourselves in.

What makes you believe that people were more interested in the "substance of reason" in the past? What is your evidence for this?
None - as is the case for your 'figuring' applied to the 'people'. However the growing ignorance of 'educated' folk has been documented over the last 80? years, compared to even the level of high schoolers or college grads at the beginning of the 20th century.

I figure that deep concentration & meditation on matters of high import has always been a minority practice, but wonder if, in this era, the percentage is even smaller than 100 or 200 years ago.
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

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None - as is the case for your 'figuring' applied to the 'people'.
Actually there is plenty of evidence for this. I recommend you go read some Diogenes of Sinope. Even at the tail end of the Golden Age (Ancient Greece falls in this period) you can see that people were not interested in the substance of reason and thought. Look at Ancient Egypt. Historically Ancient Egyptian culture falls in the Golden Age and yet you had war, intrigue, slavery, etc...
Nicholas Weeks wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2019 8:12 pmHowever the growing ignorance of 'educated' folk has been documented over the last 80? years, compared to even the level of high schoolers or college grads at the beginning of the 20th century.
You have a source for this "evidence"?
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

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Grigoris wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2019 9:09 pm
None - as is the case for your 'figuring' applied to the 'people'.
Actually there is plenty of evidence for this. I recommend you go read some Diogenes of Sinope. Even at the tail end of the Golden Age (Ancient Greece falls in this period) you can see that people were not interested in the substance of reason and thought. Look at Ancient Egypt. Historically Ancient Egyptian culture falls in the Golden Age and yet you had war, intrigue, slavery, etc...
Nicholas Weeks wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2019 8:12 pmHowever the growing ignorance of 'educated' folk has been documented over the last 80? years, compared to even the level of high schoolers or college grads at the beginning of the 20th century.
You have a source for this "evidence"?
Your evidence is correct and timeless - when applied to the 'people' - the vast majority.

As for my evidence of recent fall off in knowledge, not to mention wisdom... There have been comparative studies, cannot recall where I found them online. One fact I recall is that many schools in the 19th & early 20th c., (before college) taught Greek & Latin. Does not the dropping of Western Civilization texts (save at U. of Chicago) suggest something to you?

How about this?
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/1912-eig ... _n_3744163
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

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Nicholas Weeks wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2019 9:18 pmAs for my evidence of recent fall off in knowledge, not to mention wisdom... There have been comparative studies, cannot recall where I found them online. One fact I recall is that many schools in the 19th & early 20th c., (before college) taught Greek & Latin.
In the time leading up to the fall of the Byzantine Empire, all major European texts were written in Ancient Greek and Latin. So all learning institutions taught Ancient Greek and Latin. But times have changed. There is a new empire in town and it does not use Ancient Greek or Latin. Nobody writes in Ancient Greek or Latin any more. Most major Ancient Greek and Latin texts have been translated into modern languages. So there is not much of a call for teaching these languages, broadly. The fact that they are not taught broadly does not signal a lack of depth, nor does it prove that people are no longer interested in the substance of reason.

Post Modernism and Post Structuralism tried to shift the emphasis from substance to appearance, but they were short lived philosophical currents and pretty much limited to academia, I don't think they had much of an influence on "the masses".
How about this?
Curricula have changed over time. In Greece, for example, where English is taught as a second language, they use grammar tools from the Greek language (which is highly structured), to teach English. Sometimes I am asked for help from students being examined for lower level proficiency, they present with questions like: what is the past continuous tense of the verb "run". I have graduated from two Australian universities, 18 years of education. I was NEVER taught grammar in this manner. I could not answer this question. And yet my grasp of the English language...

The example does not show that tests were harder in the past, it shows that the teaching curriculum had a different emphasis.
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

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Inspiring Thoughts

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Saadi Shirazi

From his book of aphorisms (in Persian prose) titled Bustan:
saadi.png
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"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, is itself a frightful despotism.
George Washington
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

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Contentment makes poor men rich,
Discontent makes rich men poor.
Benjamin Franklin
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

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Colonialism and slavery made Benjamin Franklin rich.
Grigoris
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

Post by Rinchen Dorje »

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it. – Thomas Sowell
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money. – Margaret Thatcher
"But if you know how to observe yourself, you will discover your real nature, the primordial state, the state of Guruyoga, and then all will become clear because you will have discovered everything"-Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche
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Inspiring Thoughts

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Saadi Shirazi

From his book of aphorisms (in Persian prose) titled Bustan:
Saadi.png
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"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
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Re: Inspiring Thoughts

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We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.
C. S. Lewis
The Abolition of Man
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Saadi Shirazi

From his book of aphorisms (in Persian prose) titled Bustan:
Untitled.png
Untitled.png (27.75 KiB) Viewed 2021 times
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
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