cherydactyl

As we strive to develop compassion for ourselves, it’s important to avoid making “letting go of desire” or “developing compassion for yourself” into new objects of compulsive desire. Becoming obsessive about quickly seeing big results from our efforts is a sign that deluded desire rather than compassion is driving our efforts. Real progress derives from honest introspection, and we cannot analyze our minds carefully when we’re hurried. Transforming our hearts is a gradual, organic process, and successfully cultivating compassion for ourselves necessitates a mature and steady approach.

–Lorne Ladner, from The Lost Art of Compassion (HarperSanFrancisco)
Tricycle's Daily Dharma for May 22, 2009

Have confidence in your own spiritual potentiality, your ability to find your own unique way. Learn from others certainly and use what you find useful, but also learn to trust your own inner wisdom. Have courage. Be awake and aware. Remember too that Buddhism is not about being a Buddhist; that is, obtaining a new identity tag. Nor is it about collecting head-knowledge, practices and techniques. It is ultimately about letting go of all forms and concepts and becoming free.

--John Snelling, Elements of Buddhism, from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

It is not doing the things we like to do, but liking the things we have to do that makes life blessed.

-Goethe

If we take a motor car, we feel quite sure about what we have . . . until we start taking it apart. But once we have . . . taken out the gearbox and transmission, removed the wheels and so on--what's left? We don't have a car any more, just a set of spare parts.

It is the same with a person. That too can be stripped down to its basic components . . . the so-called skandhas or "groups." There is 1. the category of the physical, which includes the body and its five senses; 2. that of feeling; 3. perception; 4. mental formations (impulses and emotions); and 5. consciousness or mind. When these groups of components come together in proper working order, the right conditions exist for the illusion of a self and a person to arise. But once they break down and go their separate ways--as at physical death, for instance--then that self or person cannot be found.

--John Snelling, in Elements of Buddhism, from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith
Tricycle's Daily Dharma for August 17, 2008

Beings are owners of their actions. . . heirs of their actions; they originate from their actions, are bound to their actions, have their actions as their refuge. It is action that distinguishes beings as inferior and superior.

--Culakammavibhanga Sutta, from The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi
from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith

The theory of karma should not be confused with so-called "moral justice" or "reward and punishment." The idea of moral justice, or reward and punishment, arises out of the conception of a supreme being, a God, who sits in judgment, who is a law-giver and who decides what is right and wrong. The term "justice" is ambiguous and dangerous, and in its name more harm than good is done to humanity. The theory of karma is the theory of cause and effect, of action and reaction; it is a natural law, which has nothing to do with the idea of justice or reward and punishment. Every volitional action produces its effects or results. If a good action produces good effects and a bad action bad effects, it is not justice, or reward, or punishment meted out by anybody or any power sitting in judgment on your action, but this is in virtue of its own nature, its own law. This is not difficult to understand. But what is difficult is that, according to the karma theory, the effects of a volitional action may continue to manifest themselves even in a life after death.

--Walpola Rahula in What the Buddha Taught, from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith
Tricycle's Daily Dharma for July 23, 2008

Rather than dividing thoughts into classes like good and bad, Buddhist thinkers prefer to regard them as skillful versus unskillful. An unskillful thought is one connected with greed, hatred, or delusion. These are the thoughts that the mind most easily builds into obsessions. They are unskillful in the sense that they lead you away from the goal of Liberation. Skillful thoughts, on the other hand, are those connected with generosity, compassion, and wisdom. They are skillful in the sense that they may be used as specific remedies for unskillful thoughts, and thus can assist you toward Liberation.

- Henepola Gunaratana, "Mindfulness in Plain English," from Everyday Mind

Seeing the suffering in the world around us and in our own bodies and minds, we begin to understand suffering not only as an individual problem, but as a universal experience. It is one of the aspects of being alive. The question that then comes to mind is: If compassion arises from the awareness of suffering, why isn't the world a more compassionate place? The problem is that often our hearts are not open to feel the pain. We move away from it, close off, and become defended. By closing ourselves off from suffering, however, we also close ourselves to our own wellspring of compassion. We don't need to be particularly saintly in order to be compassionate. Compassion is the natural response of an open heart, but that wellspring of compassion remains capped as long as we turn away from or deny or resist the truth of what is there. When we deny our experience of suffering, we move away from what is genuine to what is fabricated, deceptive, and confusing.

- Joseph Goldstein, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom, from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith
Tricycle's Daily Dharma: February 17, 2008

My comments:
Though I think by definition enlightened beings no longer suffer, because they no longer try to sidestep pain, if I understand correctly. Neither do they need empathy about suffering as impetus for compassion anymore. Though enlightenment is kind of like infinity in that it's more like a limit than an actuality in my opinion. :)

Most of the time we go through the day, through our activities, our work, our relationships, our conversations, and very rarely do we ground ourselves in an awareness of our bodies. We are lost in our thoughts, our feelings, our emotions, our stories, our plans.

A very simple guide or check on this state of being lost is to pay attention to those times when you feel like you are rushing. Rushing does not have to do with speed. You can rush moving slowly, and you can rush moving quickly. We are rushing when we feel as if we are toppling forward. Our minds run ahead of ourselves; they are out there where we want to get to, instead of being settled back in our bodies. The feeling of rushing is good feedback. Whenever we are not present, right then, in that situation, we should stop and take a few deep breaths. Settle into the body again. Feel yourself sitting. Feel the step of a walk. Be in your body.

The Buddha made a very powerful statement about this: Mindfulness of the body leads to nirvana. Such awareness is not a superficial practice. Mindfulness of the body keeps us present.

-Joseph Goldstein, "Transforming the Mind, Healing the World" from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith
Tricycle's Daily Dharma for February 12, 2008