Quotations Search Results
We found 673 matching quotes
B. Alan Wallace, The Four Immeasurables
Just as a beggar or a needy person is an aide to the cultivation of our generosity and openheartedness — if you don't have anybody who needs you, how can you be generous? — likewise people who bring us adversity are another indispensable ingredient for awakening. They are aides to the cultivation of something we absolutely need: wisdom, forbearance, and the integration of these. In that specific sense we may even feel gratitude there.
Aides in cultivation of ourselves
His Holiness The Dalai Lama, The Path to Bliss
Generosity is of three types: giving material aid, giving dharma, and protecting from fear.
Generosity is of three types
Matthew Flickstein, Swallowing the River Ganges
To cultivate a generous heart we must begin by recognizing the depth of our attachments and by realizing what makes us resistant to opening our hearts in this way.
To cultivate a generous heart
Two Shoes
"One day Gandhi stepped aboard a train as it started to move, and one of his shoes slipped off and dropped on the tracks. Unable to retrieve it, he calmly took off his other shoe and threw it back along the track to land close to the first. When an amazed passenger asked why he had done that, Gandhi smiled and said, 'The poor man who finds the shoe lying on the track will now have a pair he can use.' With the eyes of his imagination, Gandhi saw a man with bare feet, saw him coming across a lone shoe and desperately searching for the other, and saw the disappointment on his face when he didn't find it; seeing these things, Gandhi did what he could to help."
To Practice: Always be on the lookout for ways to imaginatively practice compassion and kindness.
A teaching story about Gandhi's imagination-induced act of generosity.
His Holiness The Dalai Lama, The Path to Tranquility
While you are engaging in the practice of giving you should do so with great happiness and radiance on your face. One should practice giving with a smile and with mental uprightness.
Give with great happiness and radiance
Hospitality - The Sacred Art
Generosity: Nurturing The Self
"Generosity is the completion of the cycle of hospitality. It is made up of our actions toward those whom we are welcoming — an outflow of physical, spiritual, and emotional care and nurture. Generosity involves giving a little bit more than we think we can, but in hospitality to the self this doesn't mean giving it away. This is the paradox of offering 'out' to the inner self — generosity in this case means deeply taking in the nurturance that will make us whole. This is how we offer the generosity of hospitality to the self.
"While this nurturance often comes through specifically spiritual practices such as prayer or mantra repetition, meditation or chanting and singing, it also comes through very physical, practical practices. Generosity is based on the outward actions we take toward ourselves and others. Being generous toward ourselves in a physical way — by honoring our bodies and taking care of them — is a wonderful way to bring the practice of hospitality to ourselves full circle and revere the holy in us."
Nanette Sawyer on nurturing the self.
The Buddha's Wish for the World
"In Buddhism there is the phrase, 'the seven gifts that require no possessions.' The seven gifts are:
"1. The gift of gentle eyes, looking at others kindly.
"2. The gift of a smile and kind expressions.
"3. The gift of words, speaking kindly to others.
"4. The gift of the physical body. Acting properly yourself, and treating others with respect.
"5. The gift of heart, touching others with a heart full of love.
"6. The gift of a resting place, offering others a place to sit and rest.
"7. The gift of shelter and lodging, providing others with a room or warm place to stay.
"These seven gifts do not require any money or goods in the least. Of course, we cannot live the way the Buddha did. However, we can emulate the Buddha. When we do so, we can better appreciate what a truly wonderful heart the Buddha must have had in order to accomplish what he did."
Monshu Koshin Ohtani on seven gifts that require no possessions.
Wrapped in a Holy Flame
"A man comes to the Maggid of Koznitz saying he wants to discuss a spiritual problem. The Maggid says, 'Never mind the spiritual problem, what do you eat for breakfast?' And the man says, 'Just a little bit of gruel.' 'And what do you have for lunch?' 'A little thin soup.' Now this man was a very rich person — Shlomo Carlebach, of blessed memory, would have called him 'a millionaire.' And he talks about how he hardly eats anything. So the Maggid of Koznitz says to him, 'If you would like me to help you dealing with the matter of your soul and your spirit, I'll do this gladly. But first, you have a task to fulfill. Every day you must have a good goose for dinner, or a steak, and a really good wine.' And he tells him that he should eat a luxurious breakfast and so on.
"The disciples hear the Maggid talking to this man, and they can't believe their ears. A sinner is trying to atone for his sins, and the Maggid tells him to eat like that! So afterward they say to him, 'Rebbe, what kind of prescription is that?' And Maggid says, ' If he eats a little gruel in the morning, what do you think he gives to a poor person? If he eats well, he will give bread to the poor. But if he eats like the poor, he'll give them stones.' The real healing, the true penance, for this person was to help others as the prophet Isaiah (58: 6-8) declares: 'This is the way I want to fast: break bread with the poor, the downtrodden beggar take into your home; when you notice one who has nothing to wear, give him clothes.'
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi's tale about the spiritual practice of imagination.
Happiness and the Human Spirit
Abraham Twerski has been inspiring people for decades as one of this generation's most eminent psychiatrists, focusing on the area of self-improvement. He is a rabbi, an author, a frequent speaker on spirituality and self-esteem, and the founder and medical director of Gateway Rehabilitation Center. In this book he identifies a malaise which afflicts many people: Spiritual Deficiency Syndrome (SDS). Its main symptom is chronic discontent. It lies behind the frantic search for a relief from discomfort — people turning to alcohol, mood-altering drugs, sex, shopping, and eating to escape from the meaninglessness of their lives. Twerski believes that happiness consists in "becoming the best human beings we can be."
In chapters on being self-aware, being humble, choosing, being patient, making the most of circumstances, having perspective, having a purpose, and searching for truth and changing, and other abilities, he guides the reader through pathways that meet the demands of the human spirit. Twerski has many wise things to say about human imperfections, narcissism, addiction, and perfectionism. He also shares some touching stories, like this one kindness:
"A rabbi was once sitting with several of his students. He said to one student, 'Could you please bring me a cup of coffee with two spoons of sugar?' The student brought the coffee, and the rabbi sipped it slowly, continuing his discourse with the students.
"A bit later, the rabbi went into the kitchen himself for coffee, and just as he was about to put the sugar in the coffee, his wife said, 'Don't do that! That's salt, not sugar.' It turned out that the student had mistaken the salt for sugar and had put two spoons of salt into the rabbi's coffee.
" 'How could you drink the coffee with all that salt in it?' the rabbi's wife asked.
" 'What else could I have done?' the rabbi asked. 'If I had refused to drink it, that would have embarrassed the student who made the mistake.'
"This rabbi was a spiritual person."
In the last section of Happiness and the Human Spirit, the author presents ten steps to happiness, including these:
• "I realize that changing my character traits is a slow process, but I am willing to persist. I'm going to work on my character defects, one by one.
• "I am going to look for ways to overcome my negative character traits.
• "I will laugh more.
• "I will work to keep setbacks from discouraging me.
• "I realize there is never an end to spiritual growth."
It's great to see Twerski's praise practice as the way to spiritual growth.
A probe of the connection between happiness and spirituality.
Four Feet, Two Sandals
Workers in a relief truck in a refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, throw a pile of clothing on the ground and the people rush forward to grab what they can get. Lina, a ten year-old girl, retrieves one sandal, and another girl, Feroza, finds its match. The two decide to share the sandals, each wearing them every other day. Both girls have suffered: Lina's father and sister were killed in the war in Afghanistan; Feroza's only living relative is her grandmother. Grief and memories of the past are heavy burdens for little girls to carry. That is why sharing is a gift of God that blesses them both.
This edifying and emotionally resonant book by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammad salutes the courage and resiliency of refugees around the world, which now number 20 million people. The illustrations by Doug Chayka are perfectly attuned to the spiritual messages of the book, which is recommended for children ages 7 through 10.
A touching and edifying account of the friendship forged between two young girls in a refugee camp in Pakistan