Meditation and Buddism Quotes of wisdom. Presented here are a number of meditation and Buddhism quotes which I have found useful in my own journey.... Continuity of consciousness is achieved by us after the soul has been acknowledged, awakened, liberated and identified with the Whole (enlightenment). A step to achieve enlightenment is to be aware of our thoughts, emotions and actions, the faculty that enables us to be vigilant, observant or to know. -- Universal Laws @ Spiritweb * Meditation is the heart of the Buddist way.. -- Winston King, (One Thousand Lives) You should learn what the Buddha taught. Buddha taught the life is 'dukkha' - suffering or unsatisfactoriness - caused by wanting, desire, craving, clinging, grasping. Birth, illness, old age and death are dukkha. He taght that 'sukkha' - happiness or lack of suffering - is the elimination of all desires, including the desire to cling to life itself. He taught 'anicca' - impermanence - a constant decaying and changing that is common to all things. Happiness does not come from liking or not liking things which are impermanent. To see all this, Buddha taight us to meditate - to clear our minds, to abandon the bad and develop our minds. For example, sound. Think what your mind is doing ; it's hearing. We must develop mindfulness, 'sati'. Sati is memory, it is to be awake, not sleeping; it is to know, to comprehend - opposite of ignorance. The truth comes from one's self. One's self is the big book. -- Abbot of Wat Bovornives, Bangkok (A Meditators Diary) * Do not force meditation, be gentle with your mind! -- Abbot of Wat Bovornives, Bangkok (A Meditators Diary) To develop mindfulness, or sati, we must concentrate [be aware] of air, our breathing, to get the feeling of knowing of sati and to gain memory - mindfulness. There are four places to fix the mind: 1. body 2. feeling 3. mid 4. phenomena. -- Abbot of Wat Bovornives, Bangkok (A Meditators Diary) * Man, even in this life, is never the same, yet ever the result of his pre-existing life. -- G.P. Malalasekera (Aspects of reality as taught by Theravada Buddism) The results of man's past deeds cause his rebirth into one of thirty-one kinds of life - such as the animal class, insect class and the human class; but there are other classes that man could not see. Human begins are considered to be the standard class with four lower forms and twenty-six highter. Sometimes, the beings from the demon and spirit classes would allow man to see them. Various classes of beings exist in world reserved for those with a high degree of spiritual development. The elite class of these beings, referred to by the Thai as the 'phroom' class, is an historical reference to Bhrahama, a supreme Hindu god. ...The Thai Buddhist does not beleive that reaching the phroom state is the ultimate goal, because even in these highest of existances there will be eventual rebirth and more suffering. There is only the attainment of nibbana where there is freedom from rebirth. All beings continue on the ceasless cycle of birth-and-death to be born again and again. If good deeds were practiced, then one might be reborn into a phroom class or into a rich family with many material good things. If less charity were practiced or if evil deeds were done, then the result might be rebirth into a poor family or maybe as some lowly creature. If a good deed is thoughfully planned the resulting effects [kamma] are greater than a good deed done just to get rid of an obligation. -- Wise scholar (A meditators Diary) * ..it is certain that the purely physical fer of death, that horror and utter revulsion that seizes the majority of us at the idea of death, is absent from more Orientals. -- H, Fielding Hall (The soul of a People). It's not true that Southeast Asians consider life valueless. To those Westerners who say that life 'is cheap' and doesn't matter to Orientals, I say that they have neglected to understand a basic Buddist belief. The Oriental views himself and his world differently. He views death and dying with less pure physical fear because he believes that there are many more lives to live. Perhaps the fear for the Theravada Buddhist is that he might be unfortunate enough to suffer a violent and untimely death. According to local beliefs, death caused by violence such as war, childbirth, or in an accident can leave the 'soul' tormented and wandering, unable, for some reason, to be reborn soon. -- Jane Hamilton-Merritt (A meditators Diary). * If you have the opportunity to practise the Insight meditation, even just for a few days or seven days, it would be to your advantage to do so. -- Upasika Naeb Mahairandonda (Development of Insight) Eight Precepts of Wat Muang Mang, North Thailand: 1. To refrain from killing, which includes anything alive such as a mosquito, fly, or red ant. 2. To refrain from taking what is not given. 3. To refrain from sexual activity. 4. To refrain from false speech which includes not only lying but harch speech , back-biting, and idle gossip. 5. To refrain from fermented and distilled liquors and from drug which confuse the mind. 6. To refrain from taking food after noonuntil dawn of the next day. 7. To refrain from seeing shows, attending dances, or becoming involved in any kind of entertainment. 8. To refrain from sleeping on a soft and luxurious bed. -- (A Meditators Diary) * Do not forget that we pay homage to the Buddha because he has shown us the method of mental development for the attainment of nibbana; namely the application of mindfulness which all other teachers in the world could not teach. -- Upasika Naeb Mahairandonda (Development of Insight) Four Foundations of Mindfulness 1. Body (Kaya), Rightness (right step, left step, rising, falling) 2. Feeling (Vedana), Pain, sickness, happiness, unhappiness, suffering. 3. Mind (Citta), Thinking, restless mind 4. Teaching (Dhamma), Likes, disklikes, sleepiness, restfulness, doubts, phenomena, awareness of movements, fleeting mind. -- Abbot of Wat Muang Mang, North Thailand (A meditators Diary) [on Vipassana].. When you see things think - seeing, seeing, seeing. Practise sitting and walking meditation for five or ten minutes or whatever time you can. Make a conscious effort to lift the foot and bring it down again, and bring the mind to the stomach [rising and falling]. Be aware of every movement, every muscle, every touch - all the time. Even when you are eating, be aware of tasting. Be aware constantly - be mindful. -- the abbot of Wat Muang Mang (A Meditators Diary). * You must learn from experience. You Westerners are handicapped in your pursuit of truth. Westerners are born with books: Thais are born with experience. -- Interpreter at Wat Muang Mang (A meditators Diary) * Man struggles to find life outside himself, unaware that the life he is seeking is within him. -- Kahlil Gibran Knowing the mundane tasks of eating, for example, led to a discovery of another kind of awareness. Eating became a chawing, grinding, moving - a slow-motion movement that is not just eating but a process that is minute, systematic, and controlled. How different eating in an aware fashion is from eating while talking, reading, or day-dreaming - the way that I had been accustomed to eating. ... I repeatedly thought that meditation would be a boon for dieters, for the awareness of the eating process seems to eliminate the focus on food itself and places the mind's attention on the functions of the person eating it. -- Jane Hamilton-Merritt (A Meditators Diary) Over the past months, my struggles to understand mindfulness has been a constant harassment. I had continued to imagine that suddenly one day I would capture the realization of the concept of mindfulness which I conceived to be of some intellectual magnitude, but I did not and it was not. Knowing mindfulness was subtle, uncomplicated, and profoundly significant. --Jane Hamilton-Merritt (A Meditators Diary) * Following others and succeeding in bookish learning will leave you in chains. It is far better to forget the big questions and go to some quiet place to meditate. But that takes work! -- Paul Wienpahl (The Matter of Zen) Being mindful can be done while walking, riding the train to work, doing routine work like raking leaves, pulling weeds, washing dishes, scrubbing floors. One can watch the breath at any time, thus keeping the ability to concentrate by constantly training the mind. --Jane Hamilton-Merritt (A Meditators Diary) * A teacher is there when the student is ready -- proverb To understand Buddhism and meditation it is important not to distrust, not to dissect, not to be cynical, and above all not to encounter Busshist thought with a 'hard' mind. The Thais say that to understand, one must posses a 'soft' mind so that things can flow through it unhindered. It is often preconceived frames of reference and windows of logic that prevent us of the West from comprehending. --Jane Hamilton-Merritt (A Meditators Diary) * Understanding meditation is experiential. --Jane Hamilton-Merritt (A Meditators Diary) Where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection. Where the mind is led forward by... ever widening thoughts. Into that heaven of freedom let me awake... -- Rabindranath Tagore