Buddhism

"...the key to the kingdom is within..."

The lotus and the buddha

Some sayings and teachings that help:

When we reach out to what is unknown to us, we let go of the notion that we can control what we experience.

Gratitude, the simple and profound feeling of being thankful, is the foundation of all generosity.

If you know a view as a view, you can be free of that view. If you know a thought as a thought, you can be free of that thought.

Liberation is only found here and now, the direct experience of freedom, beyond the concepts of nirvana or enlightenment

To use your mind in a natural way means to avoid trying to control it. The more you try to control your mind, the more stray thoughts will come up to bother you.

The dharma—the truth, if you like—speaks through the roshi when he is no longer self-consciously trying to do anything. He doesn’t even know that he’s using his tongue.

The most basic Buddhist prayer is “may all beings find peace,” which expresses the positive mental state of loving kindness. It is not a prayer directed to some higher power outside the meditator, but the articulation of an attitude; at a deeper level, an aspiration; and at a still deeper level, a commitment.

Repetition is what allows something brand new to occur. Repetition, like the lapping of ripples against a rock, gently shifts the ground on which we tread, and so alters our relationship to the things we experience.

By opening, by dropping our self-conscious grasping, we see not only the surface of an object, but we see the whole way through.

The essence of our consciousness is already love and wisdom. Karma, concepts, and emotional patterns are only temporarily preventing our consciousness from unfolding its enlightened nature.