BIRTHDAYS. JUNE 17
Ajahn Chah: “Food for the Heart” “A Taste of Freedom”
WHEN the heart truly understands, it lets go of everything.
THE serene and peaceful mind is the true epitome of human achievement.
You are your own teacher. Looking for teachers can’t solve your own doubts. Investigate yourself to find the truth — inside, not outside. Knowing yourself is most important.
SOME PEOPLE ARE AFRAID OF GENEROSITY. They feel they will be taken advantage of or oppressed. In cultivating generosity, we are only oppressing our greed and attachment. This allows our true nature to come out and become lighter and freer.
KNOW AND WATCH YOUR HEART. It’s pure but emotions come to color it. So let your mind be like a tightly woven net to catch emotions and feelings that come, and investigate them before you react.
ANYTHING which is troubling you, anything which is irritating you, THAT is your teacher.
IF you let go a little you will have a little happiness. If you let go a lot you will have a lot of happiness. If you let go completely you will be free.
THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF SUFFERING. There is the suffering you run away from, which follows you everywhere. And there is the suffering you face directly, and so become free.
HAPPINESS OR SUFFERING do not depend on being poor or rich, they depend on having the right or wrong understanding in our mind.
If you want a chicken to be a duck, and a duck to be a chicken, you will suffer.
TRY TO BE MINDFUL, and let things take their natural course. Then you mind will become still in any surroundings, like a clear forest pool. All kinds of wonderful, rare animals will come to drink at the pool, and you will clearly see the nature of all things. You will see many strange and wonderful things come and go, but you will be still. This is the happiness of the Buddha.
WHEN does peace arise? Peace arises whenever we let something go.
DO NOT TRY to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. do not be a mediator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. what you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing.
HOLDING ON TO ANGER AS A PERSONAL POSSESSION will cause suffering. If anger really belonged to us, it would have to obey us. If it doesn’t obey us, that means it’s only a deception. Don’t fall for it. whenever the mind is happy or sad, don’t fall for it. Its all a deception.
WHEN WE SEE beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness. And when we stop clinging, we can begin to be happy.
THERE ARE PEOPLE who are born and die and never once are aware of their breath going in and out of their body. That’s how far away they live from themselves.
THE FOREST IS PEACEFUL, why aren’t you? You hold on to things causing your confusion. Let nature teach you. Hear the bird’s song then let go. If you know nature, you’ll know truth. If you know truth, you’ll know nature.
YOU SHOULD THINK about your own death 3 times per day at the very least.
IF IT SHOULDN’T HAPPEN, IT WOULDN’T HAPPEN.
WISDOM is in yourself, just like a sweet ripe mango is already in a young green one.
JOHN WESLEY. 1703-1791 Theologian “The Works of John Wesley”
WHAT one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.
DO ALL THE GOOD YOU CAN, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.
LET your words be the genuine picture of your heart.
I have never known more than fifteen minutes of anxiety or fear. Whenever I feel fearful emotions overtaking me, I just close my eyes and thank God that He is still on the throne reigning over everything and I take comfort in His control over the affairs of my life.
WE SHOULD BE RIGOROUS in judging ourselves and gracious in judging others.
PEOPLE who wish to be offended will always find some occasion for taking offense.
THOUGH we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences.
LET ME do all the good can, to all the people I can, as often as I can, for I shall not pass this way again.
IF DOING A GOOD ACT IN PUBLIC will excite others to do more good, then ‘Let your light shine to all.’ Miss no opportunity to do good.
HUMILITY and patience are the surest proofs of the increase of love.
YOU have one business earth — to save souls.
SINGING is as much the language of holy joy as praying is of holy desire.
DO NO HARM. DO GOOD. STAY IN LOVE WITH GOD.
NOTHING short of God can satisfy your soul.
PRAYER IS WHERE THE ACTION IS.
I JUDGE ALL THINGS ONLY by the price they shall gain in eternity.
A PLANET OF PEACE