Foods for Nirvana

Truth

noreply@blogger.com (jnana) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 05:04:00 +0000

Once upon a time, there was a monk who got the Enlightenment.
He argued that anybody could be a Buddha without the Enlightenment.
But, that kind of argument was very shocking and unacceptable at the time,
he was expelled from the temple and had to study alone in a mountain.
Since there was nobody listening to his teachings about Buddhism, he used to
do lectures before a group of stones and rocks. When he asked them about whether
his teachings were right, they gave him a nod of approval.

What is true anywhere is true everywhere.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fate

noreply@blogger.com (jnana) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 02:11:00 +0000

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.
- Carl Jung

Sometimes I am wondering if some the disasters, dissatisfaction , unhappiness I have encountered so far were actually what I wanted in some way before it happened. That feeling is very wiered and unreasonable, but I get that feeling some time after the bad things are gone out of my sight. Haven’t you got that feeling?

Self delusion

noreply@blogger.com (jnana) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 01:18:00 +0000

Once upon a time in China, there living a farmer, who was raising pigs for his living. One day he found one of his pigs gave birth to a young pig with a white head. Never seen a pig with a white head, he thought it would be very precious one. It could be presented to the king to please him. So he departed for the capital of the county with the pig with white head. After couple of days of travel, he reached another town. Surprisingly, he found all the pigs there have a white head. Now he reallized his newly-born, white-headed pig is nothing but a common pig.

The risk is not in what he does not know.

but in what he thinks he knows.

- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Love of self

noreply@blogger.com (jnana) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 22:47:00 +0000

The Movie, “Defending your life” is one of the most interesting and thought-provoking movies regarding the life after death. In this movie, Albert Brooks dies of a car accident and wakes up in a “judgment city”, where some kind of judgment about previous life of the dead people is taking place. The “judgment” is not a type of jurisdiction occurring on the earth. The dead people were given a chance to review his/her life and to proceed to more advanced or newer circumstances based on what he/she has done.

One of the interesting scene of the movie was Albert’s dinner with his reviewer, Michael Durrell. Michael was curious about what his life looked like. To quote:

Michael: Did you give a lot to the charity?
Albert: What do you mean a lot?
Michael: A lot of money, donate thing. This isn’t a good or bad thing. It’s just really out of curiosity.
Albert: I gave a lot to people on the street but never did get a receipt.
Michael: There is really one person you were really cheap with. Over and over again. I wish you were more generous with him.
Albert: Who?
Michael: YOU!

What makes us free?

noreply@blogger.com (jnana) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:44:00 +0000

Knoledge is an antidote to fear.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Truth will set you free.

- Jesus Christ

image: Korean National Treasure #83, http://chang256.new21.net/board/board.php?db=582&no=425&page=1&sm=

Happiness vs Success

noreply@blogger.com (jnana) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:33:00 +0000

Success is getting what you want.
Happiness is wanting what you get.

- Dale Carnegie

image credit: http://exposedplanet.com/index.php?showimage=17

Happy new year. Happy new ear!

noreply@blogger.com (jnana) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 03:13:00 +0000

New year so we will have new ear for what Buddha has said.

"Rely not on the teacher or person, but on the teaching.

Rely not on the words of the teaching, but on the spirit of the words.

Rely not on theory, but on experience.Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.

Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. Do not believe anything because it is spoken and rumored by many.

Do not believe in anything because it is written in your religious books.

Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and the benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."

- Buddha

Path vs Goal

noreply@blogger.com (jnana) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 01:02:00 +0000

Once upon a time, someone bumped into a man heading northbound in a horse carriage hastily. Wondering why, he asked him why he was making such a haste. The man in the carriage said he was going to a country locating somewhere in the south.

The first man then asked, “Why do you go to the north even though the country is at South?”

The man in the carriage said, “My horse is a good runner so there shouldn’t be no problem”

Embarrassed to what he has heard, the first man said “Even if your horse is good, you cannot get the country if it leads you to South.”

Then the man said “No, my horse is good. My driver works well. So I will get the destination eventually.”

"Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, Few in pursuit of the goal. "
- Friedrich Nietzsche.

Photo from http://www.summitpost.org/images/original/83372.JPG

Cat buddha in meditation

noreply@blogger.com (jnana) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 00:31:00 +0000

Sleeping is the king of meditation.

Calmness

noreply@blogger.com (jnana) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 00:05:00 +0000

When the waves and surfs on the surface of a lake subside, a true view of whole park appears.
Similarly, our true being emerges from the bottom as our emotion, impression and thoughts subsided.

The word “Emotion” came from a Latin, “Emovere” which means “displacing, moving”. Understanding and controlling of the emotion is starting point for the road to a Buddha.

- Photo: Russel State Park, Georgia, USA

Buddha around us

noreply@blogger.com (jnana) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 22:26:00 +0000

“At a desk on one side of the room sat a person. I couldn’t tell whether it was male or female; the face and body structure could be either….

But it was the radiation that stunned me. It was like standing in bright spring that was filled with every human emotion that ever existed. It was equally balanced. One moment it was male, then I was sure it was female. A true equal- a He/She. HeShe!”

-- from “Ultimate Journey” by Robert Monroe.