Philosophy 05 (Aug 25 - Dec 26)

[winston]

The Time for Compassion

When you begin to get a real taste of the teachings, glimpse egolessness, and can finally look up from your own suffering to see the suffering of others, it’s time to talk about compassion.

- Laurie Fisher Huck, “Has Mindfulness Made Me a Bitch?”

[winston]

Separate Breath and Mind

The breath is an element, part of the wind element.

Awareness of the breath is something else.

So you’ve got two things that have come together.

Now, when you can separate them—through realizing the breath’s true nature as an element—the mind can stand on its own.

Ajaan Fuang Jotiko, “Realization”

[winston]

Choosing Safety

Locating safety doesn’t mean avoiding the world’s problems.

It means meeting them from a place where our choices are not hijacked by fear.

- Kathy Cherry and Josh Korda, “Safety Resources for Discordant Times”

[winston]

Our Perception of Others

When we act from a perception of others’ evil, we evoke the evil in them.

When we act from a perception of others’ dignity and positive potential, we reinforce that in them.

- John Makransky and Paul Condon, “Using Compassion for Institutional and Social Change”

[winston]

Learning to Fly

You take wisdom and you take compassion, and with these two wings, each of us can learn to fly and make a difference in the world.

- Tencho Gyatso

[winston]

Be Mindful of Self-View

Approaches focused on mindfulness invite a wonderful attention to the body, here and now but often miss directing attention toward our dependent, selfless nature.

Without this insight, we miss how the processes of craving and suffering, are bound up with self-view.

- Devin Ashwood

[winston]

Own Your Faults

Disowning our faults or even just disparaging them, only piles separation onto separation, which creates disorder not only in our local community but in the whole world.

- Nancy Mujo Baker

[winston]

Interpersonal Possibilities

When the mind object drops away, even for an instant, all kinds of latent interpersonal possibilities emerge — for connection, empathy, insight, joy and dare we say, love.

- Mark Epstein, “People Are Like Koans”

[winston]

Strive for Nothing

Only when you do not seek anything will you find it and only when you do not strive for enlightenment will you have it.

- Shunryu Suzuki, “Just Sit as Yourself”

[winston]

Engage with the World

Our entire biological structure is designed for engagement with the world.

Every sense organ is a gateway for encounter and through this exchange, we achieve a greater definition of who we are.

- Francis Weller, “The Refuge of Place”