Posts tagged "suffering"
67
"The difference between theism and nontheism is not whether one does or does not believe in God… Theism is a deep-seated conviction that there’s some hand to hold: if we just do the right things, someone will appreciate us and take care of us… Nontheism is relaxing with the ambiguity and uncertainty of the present moment without reaching for anything to protect ourselves."
- Pema Chödrön
437
"Let me tell you about the middle path. Dressing in rough and dirty garments, letting your hair grow matted, abstaining from eating any meat or fish, does not cleanse the one who is deluded. Mortifying the flesh through excessive hardship does not lead to a triumph over the senses. All self-inflicted suffering is useless as long as the feeling of self is dominent.
You should lose your involvement with yourself and then eat and drink naturally, according to the needs of your body. Attachment to your appetites - whether you deprive or indulge them - can lead to slavery, but satisfying the needs of daily life is not wrong. Indeed, to keep a body in good health is a duty, for otherwise the mind will not stay strong and clear."
- Buddha
28
Reblogged from Here to Go There.
"May all beings be happy,
May all beings know peace,
May all being be free from suffering."
- Guanyin 
87
"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional."
- Unknown Author
58
"The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life."
- Eckhart Tolle
24

Do you think it’s possible to reach a state of total bliss and happiness? Is it possible to remove attachment and suffering from your life? How do you think you can do that?

7
"Thoroughly understanding the Dhamma
and freed from longing through insight,
the wise one rid of all desire
is calm as a pool unstirred by wind."
- Itivuttaka 3.92
14
"Any sensual bliss in the world,
any heavenly bliss,
isn’t worth one sixteenth-sixteenth
of the bliss of the ending of craving."
- Udāna 2.12
21
"Just as a tree, though cut down,
sprouts up again if its roots remain uncut and firm,
even so, until the craving that lies dormant is rooted out,
suffering springs up again and again."
- Dhammapada 24.338
146
"Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life…You give them a piece of you. They didn’t ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn’t your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like ‘maybe we should be just friends’ turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It’s a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love."
- Neil Gaiman

(Source: thinkexist.com)

32
"If one, longing for sensual pleasure,
achieves it, yes, one’s enraptured at heart.
The mortal gets what one wants.
But if for that person — longing, desiring —
the pleasures diminish,
one’s shattered, as if shot with an arrow."
- Gautama Buddha
45
"Let no one deceive another
or despise anyone anywhere,
or through anger or irritation
wish for another to suffer."
- Gautama Buddha
45

The Old Man Who Lost His Horse

…That evening the neighbors gathered to commiserate with him since this 
was such bad luck. He said, “Maybe.”

The next day the horse returned, but brought with it six wild horses, and 
the neighbors came exclaiming at the good fortune. He said, “Maybe.”

And then the following day, his son tried to saddle and ride one of the wild 
horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. Again the neighbors came to offer 
their sympathy for the misfortune. He said, “Maybe.”

The day after that, conscription officers came to the village to seize young 
men for the army, but because of the broken leg the farmer’s son was 
rejected. When the neighbors came in to say how fortunate everything had 
turned out, he said, “Maybe.”

24
"At death a person abandons
what one construes as mine.
Realizing this, the wise
shouldn’t incline
to be devoted to mine."
- Gautama Buddha
17
"Know this, O good one:
evil things are difficult to control.
Let not greed and wickedness
drag you to protracted misery."
- Gautama Buddha