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@Ghost-of-a-Duke

Why?
Spirituality - probably interested in truth ?

I am not hijacking. I am just contributing as others are contributing.

@rookie54

The heart of Buddhism
Nothing whatsoever should be clung to
As "I" or "mine."
- Buddhadasa Bhikkhu (1906-1993)

Is it good Buddhism for the Buddhist monks of Tibet to cling to a hope for the liberation of their country from China ?

@sonship

i do not know that the monks are clinging to anything...
i have been taught that the 'clinging' is the obstacle to understanding...

what is it you cling too???
when yer mind observes that thing that you desire,
and you realize this,
you will achieve a new level of understanding...

Our mind is like a cloudy sky, in essence, clear and pure but overcast by the clouds of delusions. Just as the thickest clouds eventually disperse, so too even the heaviest delusions can be removed from our mind. Delusions such as hatred, greed, and ignorance are not an intrinsic part of the mind. If we apply the appropriate methods they can be completely eliminated, and we shall experience the supreme happiness of full enlightenment.


Geshe Kelsang - 'Eight Steps to Happiness'.

In...Out
Deep...Slow
Calm...Ease
Smile...Release
Present Moment...Wonderful Moment

-Thich Nat Hahn

There is no particular pathway into it, no gap through which to see it: Buddhism has no East or West, South or North; one does not say, “You are the disciple, I am the teacher.” If your own self is clear and everything is It, when you visit a teacher you do not see that there is a teacher; when you inquire of yourself, you do not see that you have a self.

When you read a scripture, you do not see that there is a scripture there. When you eat, you do not see that there is a meal there. When you sit and meditate, you do not see that there is any sitting. You do not slip up in your everyday tasks, yet you cannot lay hold of anything at all.

When you see in this way, are you not independent and free?

- Foyan (1067–1120)

Bring all of yourself to His door:
bring only a part
and you’ve brought nothing at all.
-Hakim Sanai

THE PROGRESS OF MAN

First he appeared in the realm inanimate;
Thence came into the world of plants and lived
The plant-life many a year, nor called to mind
What he had been; then took the onward way
To animal existence, and once more
Remembers naught of what life vegetive,
Save when he feels himself moved with desire
Towards it in the season of sweet flowers,
As babes that seek the breast and know not why.
Again the wise Creator whom thou knowest
Uplifted him from animality
To Man's estate; and so from realm to realm
Advancing, he became intelligent,
Cunning and keen of wit, as he is now.
No memory of his past abides with him,
And from his present soul he shall be changes.
Though he is fallen asleep, God will not leave him
In this forgetfulness. Awakened, he
Will laugh to think what troublous dreams he had.
And wonder how his happy state of being
He could forget, and not perceive that all
Those pains and sorrows were the effect of sleep
And guile and vain illusion. So this world
Seems lasting, though 'tis but the sleepers' dream;
Who, when the appointed Day shall dawn, escapes
From dark imaginings that haunted him,
And turns with laughter on his phantom griefs
When he beholds his everlasting home.
-rumi
translation- R. A. Nicholson

'Persian Poems', an Anthology of verse translations
edited by A.J.Arberry, Everyman's Library, 1972

If only I could
divide myself,
not miss a single tree,
see the blossoms at their best
on all ten thousand mountains.

- Saigyo

Daily activity is nothing
Other than harmony within.
When each thing I do is
Without taking or rejecting,
There is no contradiction anywhere.
For whom is the majesty
Of red and purple robes?
The summit of the inner being
Has never been defiled by the dust of the world.
- P’ang Yun

Buddha said, if you want to
know the realm of buddhahood,
you must make your mind
as clear as empty space
and leave false thinking
and all grasping far behind,
causing your mind to be
unobstructed wherever
it may turn.
- Ta Hui (12th c)

Ibn Ata’llah


A feeling of discouragement when you slip up
is a sure sign that you put your faith in deeds

Your desire to withdraw from everything
when Allah has involved you in the world of means
is a hidden appetite

Your desire for involvement with the world of means
when Allah has withdrawn you from it
is a fall from a high aspiration

Give yourself a rest from managing!
When Someone Else is doing it for you,
don’t you start doing it for yourself!

Your striving for what is guaranteed
and your laxness in what is required
are evidence that your understanding is dull

Bury your existence in obscurity
If something sprouts before it is fully buried
it will never bear fruit

If you make demands on Him, you doubt Him
If you seek Him, you are absent from Him
If you seek other-than-Him, you are shameless before Him
If you make demands on other-than-Him, you are distant from Him

Better to keep company of an ignorant man
who seeks self-improvement
than a man of knowledge who is satisfied with himself

As for me, I delight
in the everyday Way,
among mist-wrapped
vines and rocky caves.
Here in the wilderness
I am completely free,
with my friends,
the white clouds, idling forever.
There are roads,
but they do not reach the world;>BR? since I am mindless,
who can rouse my thoughts?
On a bed of stone
I sit, alone in the night,
while the round moon
climbs up Cold Mountain.
- Han Shan

The realm of buddhahood
is not some external world
where there is a formal "Buddha":
It’s the realm of the wisdom
of a self awakened sage.

- Ta Hui (12th c)

Light rain –the mountain
forest is wrapped in mist,
slowly the fog changes
to clouds and haze.
Along the boundless
river bank, many crows.
I walk to a hill overlooking
the valley to sit in zazen.
- Ryokan (1758-1831)