The absolute desire of 'having more' encourages the selfishness that destroys communal bonds among the children of God. It does so because the idolatry of riches prevents the majority from sharing the goods that the Creator has made for all, and in the all-possessing minority it produces an exaggerated pleasure in these goods.
Archbishop Oscar Romero

Where the mind is without fear and the head held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Rabindranath Tagore

I guess it's Presidents day

Only Love. Only the holder the flag fits into, and wind. No Flag.

Rumi

Perspective

‘He abused me, he struck me, he overcame me, he robbed me’

— in those who harbor such thoughts hatred will never cease.

‘He abused me, he struck me, he overcame me, he robbed me’

— In those who do not harbor such thoughts hatred will cease.

(Dhammapada 1.3-4; trans. Radhakrishnan)

Dhammapada

Verse 37:

45. A striver-on-the path shall overcome this earth, this realm of Yama and this sphere of men and gods. The striver-on-the-path shall bring to perfection the well-taught path of wisdom, as an expert garland-maker would his floral design.

What is The Dhammapada?
The Dhammapada is part of the Khuddaka Nikaya in the Pali Canon.
Source: From The Dhammapa: The Buddha's Path of Wisdom, translated from the Pali by Acharya Buddharakkhita, with an Introduction by Bhikkhu Bodhi (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1985). Transcribed from the print edition in 1996 by a volunteer under the auspices of the DharmaNet Transcription Project, with the kind permission of the BPS.
Copyright c 1985 Buddhist Publication Society.
Access to Insight edition c 1996

Rumi

This quest is blessed; your seeking destroys the obstacles on the way of God. Your seeking is the key to what you seek, this quest is your army and the victory of your banners.

M III 1442/1443

On Buddhism and Homosexuality

From Buddhanet

Buddhism teaches to, and expects from, its followers a certain level of ethical behaviour. The minimum that is required of the lay Buddhist is embodied in what is called the Five Precepts (panca sila), the third of which relates to sexual behaviour. Whether or not homosexuality, sexual behaviour between people of the same sex, would be breaking the third Precept is what I would like to examine here.

Read More...

Really?

Ummm

2 Good Lessons on Karma

Tricycle's Daily Dharma

What Does Karma Mean?
In simple terms, what does karma mean? It means that whatever we do, with our body, speech, or mind, will have a corresponding result. Each action, even the smallest, is pregnant with its consequences. It is said by the masters that even a little poison can cause death, and even a little seed can become a huge tree. And as Buddha said: "Do not overlook negative actions merely because they are small; however small a spark may be, it can burn down a haystack as big as a mountain." Similarly he said: "Do not overlook tiny good actions, thinking they are of no benefit; even tiny drops of water in the end will fill a huge vessel." Karma does not decay like external things, or ever become inoperative. It cannot be destroyed "by time, fire, or water." Its power will never disappear, until it is ripened. - Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying from Everyday Mind, a Tricycle book edited by Jean Smit

The Light of the World
The Buddha identified karma as a volitional activity. That is, each volition in the mind is like a seed with tremendous potential. In the same way that the smallest acorn contains the potential of a great oak tree, so too each of our willed actions contains the seed of karmic results. The particular result depends on the qualities of mind associated with each volition. Greed, hatred, and delusion are unwholesome qualities that produce fruits of suffering; generosity, love, and wisdom are wholesome factors that bear fruits of happiness. The Buddha called the understanding of this law of karma, the law of action and result, the "light of the world," because it illuminates how life unfolds and why things are the way they are. The wisdom of this understanding allows us the freedom to make wise choices in our life. - Joseph Goldstein, Insight Meditation from Everyday Mind, ATricycle book edited by Jean Smith

Once the temple flag was blowing in the wind.
Two monks were arguing about it.
One said: "The flag is moving."
The other said: "The wind is moving."
Thus they argued back and forth, reaching no agreement.
Then the Patriarch [Master Huineng] said:
"It is not the wind that's moving; it's not the flag that's moving -
it's your mind that's moving."

The Daily Enlightenment

From BuddhaNet

There are many things we have to learn. But there are not "too many" things-the number is just right despite it being astronomical. This is because what we ought to learn, we ought to learn. It is crucial then, that we live sharply and mindfully, moving quickly through the school of life, learning lessons properly and promptly, paying attention to the details going through the mind, being honest and undefensive to oneself and the world. Life is short. This makes learning quickly and moving on quickly important. This is where the practice of effort and energy comes in. For example, if you know you have a bad temper, read about it, meditate on it... ask others about it. Do the following:

1. Truly recognise the state of anger.
2. Truly recognise its causes.
3. Truly recognise what angerlessness is-peace and calm.
4. Truly recognise the path that leads to angerlessness and walk it.

Sometimes, the anger returns-but if you are able to recognize it each time, resolving it becomes easier and faster. That, if you had noticed, is the formula according to the structure of the Four Noble Truths-it is the universal problem-solving approach. It is possible for us to train ourselves such that we can quickly run through this formula within our minds within seconds when anger arises. As soon as anger arises, it can diminish into non-existence. Don't believe it? Here's a scenario:

1. Someone blames you for something.
2. You hear it and anger arises. (takes 1/2 second to be recognised if mindful enough)
3. You recognise its cause. (takes 1/2 second)
4. You remember how you should be-angerless and calm (takes 1/2 second)
5. You search for the yourself there and then and realise that there is no one "person" angry-there is just an attachment to an unreal self. (takes 2 seconds)

You see? Took only 3.5 seconds. It can be done. Pretty soon if you mastered this, you can hardly get angry generally. The only difficult part is being mindful-extinguishing the volcano of anger before it erupts.

In Memoriam - Heath Ledger

From Tricycle

The Buddha described what we call self as a collection of aggregates elements of mind and body that function interdependently, creating the appearance of woman or man. We then identify with that image or appearance, taking it to be I or mine, imagining it to have some inherent self-existence. For example, we get up in the morning, look in the mirror, recognize the reflection, and think, Yes, thats me again. We then add all kinds of concepts to this sense of self: Im a woman or man, Im a certain age, Im a happy or unhappy person the list goes on and on.

When we examine our experience, though, we see that there is not some core being to whom experience refers; rather it is simply empty phenomena rolling on. It is empty in the sense that there is no one behind the arising and changing phenomena to whom they happen. A rainbow is a good example of this. We go outside after a rainstorm and feel that moment of delight if a rainbow appears in the sky. Mostly, we simply enjoy the sight without investigating the real nature of what is happening. But when we look more deeply, it becomes clear that there is no thing called rainbow apart from the particular conditions of air and moisture and light.

Each one of us is like that rainbow an appearance, a magical display, arising out our various elements of mind and body. --Joseph Goldstein, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review,/i>, Vol. VI, #3
from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

Lao-Tzu

He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know.

Socrates

I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, I am a mischievous person.

Whoever follows the Dhamma
Should take no drink or encourage others to drink,
Knowing that intoxication is the result.
Because of intoxication,

The fool commits evil deeds
And makes others negligent too.
So, avoid this root of wrong,
This folly loved only by fools.

Vs. 22 Buddha Vacana

Martin Luther King Jr.

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

A person with the tendency to respond will succeed in all walks of life; a person who is not responsive will become disappointed in all affairs of life. Responsiveness comes by interest, also by concentration, also by power of one's mind. ... Responsiveness may be explained as faith, trust, concentration, singlemindedness, a living interest, contemplation, and love. To respond means to give full attention and not divided attention but single attention. Responsiveness is focusing one's whole being to something of interest. When a person, even in his interest in worldly affairs, has so developed his faculty of responsiveness, then it becomes easy for him to respond to the call of the Spirit.

The mystery of responsiveness is that the responsive one must forget himself in order to respond; and the same mystery may be called the path to perfection. A person who is not capable of forgetting himself, however good, pious, or spiritual, will always prove imperfect in his life. All misery comes from the consciousness of the self. The one who does not forget is constantly called by his own limited life, which enslaves him constantly. The one who forgets himself receives the call of God.

~~~ "Sangatha II, Tasawwuf ", by Hazrat Inayat Khan (unpublished)

Hazrat Inayat Khan

Reason is the illusion of reality