https://plumvillage.org/podcast/the-eight-realizations-of-great-beings-part-one-episode-82
“When we talk about non-self in Buddhism, it is to understand that we cannot exist by ourselves. That is non-self in a nutshell.”
“Those things we might hold on to as important are also impermanent. In this realization we’re touching both the good news and the challenge: the good news of impermanence and the challenge of impermanence. So those things that are causing great injustice, hardship, suffering, fear, and despair: they are impermanent. That can give us some relief when we really look into the broad scale of things and the broad scale of time. But, also, things we cherish are impermanent. The house that we saved up to build, to renovate, to take care of – where will that house be in two thousand years’ time? In twenty thousand years’ time? We can pour our whole heart into a project – but where will that project be in ten thousand years? And this is an important contemplation, because it’s one of the unlocking keys in Buddhism. Everything is a formation, made of other parts, but we grasp on to and we hold on to these things and we sacrifice our life and our happiness, our present moment, and our relationships chasing after those things, investing in those things – and we lose the wonders of the present moment.”
“If you look at the global situation, it can be quite easy to despair. But if you look at your local community and what you can do, that can be very empowering.”
“What gets me up and what continues to motivate me is that we are developing and nurturing the continued spiritual tradition that we have received.”
“In Buddhism we have this line, ‘The mind is a field to be cultivated.’ There are seeds and we have to take care of the ones that come up as weeds and the ones that will come up as good things that can nourish us.”
“You are the guardian of this body; you better be careful how you handle all those impulses, because, left unhandled, they lead to this impulsive, short-sighted behavior which is the root of suffering and injustice in the world. So both our body and mind are something for us to take care of.”
“The mind is an organ. It’s an uncultivated organ until we become really familiar with it and learn how to take care of it with a lot of compassion and understanding.”
“All hardships in daily life arise from greed and desire. Those with little desire and ambition are able to relax their body and mind, free from entanglement.”
“You can lose your practice in your monastic life very easily if there is no deeper desire to have the impact of change, of compassion, of love, and of transformation.”
“We’re always picking up what’s going on outside, but often not actually listening at all to what’s going on inside.”
“If we generate joy inside of ourselves it naturally flows into the world.”
“The fourth realization is the awareness that indolence is an obstacle to practice.”
“What I love about Buddhism is that Buddhism loves lists. We often say this. And we also love repetition.”
“There are things that we think are important but actually aren’t, and they’re taking our time and energy from a deep pursuit of something inside that can really unlock understanding of suffering, can really unlock insight and help us live a deeper, more meaningful, healing, and loving life.”
“The main point here is: guard your mind and feed your mind good things, and apply effort every day, every week.”
“The fire of birth and death is raging; this is something we are bearing witness to as humans on this planet. And simply how I consume and take that in is a cultivation of the mind – so I don’t want to have a lazy mind, an indolent mind, when I’m reading the news. It’s not that the news is happening to me.”
“When we say that we observe what is happening in the mind, this mere recognition is already a power, because we’re saying, ‘I am more than this thing’.”
