“The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth then hold no opinion for or against. The struggle of what one likes and what one dislikes is the disease of the mind.”
― Hsin Hsin Ming
― Hsin Hsin Ming
“Oh, noble child, everything is severing the mind. As for the mind, it is severing pride. There is nothing whatsoever that is not included in pride. If one simply understands that it is merely the production of pride, then, for example, one is like a thief in an empty house: by simply recognizing [the situation], grasping is impossible. Having correctly understood, there is no practice with an intentional objective. Because it crushes any hesitations (mi phod), it is explained as Chöd.”
― Making the Old New Again and Again: Legitimation and Innovation in the Tibetan Buddhist Chöd Tradition
― Making the Old New Again and Again: Legitimation and Innovation in the Tibetan Buddhist Chöd Tradition
“Approach what you find repulsive, help the ones you think you cannot help, and go places that scare you. ”
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“Without discursive thought it is just dharma practice. Hope together with aim obscures. One does not cut through pride by meditatively cultivating the desire for happiness. If there is hope, even the hope for buddhas, it is a negative force. If there is apprehension, even apprehension about hells, it is a negative force.”
― Making the Old New Again and Again: Legitimation and Innovation in the Tibetan Buddhist Chöd Tradition
― Making the Old New Again and Again: Legitimation and Innovation in the Tibetan Buddhist Chöd Tradition
“If there is destruction of hope, there is freedom from gods [lha]; if there is destruction of fear, there is freedom from spirits ['dre, demons].”
― Making the Old New Again and Again: Legitimation and Innovation in the Tibetan Buddhist Chöd Tradition
― Making the Old New Again and Again: Legitimation and Innovation in the Tibetan Buddhist Chöd Tradition
Joseph’s 2025 Year in Books
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