Hell's Bells

Going through hell is not going to hell forever.
We only pass through.
Terrible as it might be, it is only part of the long learning process;
the long detour taken on the way to Enlightenment.
Your personal hell is not a personal punishment;
it is an urgent wake-up call.
It is spiritual training - which is only as tough as it is necessary for you, in the name of your personal karma.

Mind Garden

Two people wait for a late bus. One is frustrated, while the other takes it easy...
Thus, the source of frustration cannot be the bus.
Is there an evil bus-driver out there to be angry at?
The seed of anger lies within.
The "late buses of life" are only conditions which ripen our anger. In the end, it is you who cause your state of mind.
The causes of (un)happiness are within your mind.
Take care of your mind then. It is a garden - you decide what seeds to plant and nurture.

Well-be it when I see it

There is nothing outside us that can offer true well-being at work – indeed, in our lives. No paycheck, no retirement fund, no promotion, and no sympathetic boss – no circumstance can give us the confidence and well-being we are seeking.
We tend to amass confirmations to give us a sense of security, and while none of them are mistaken, relying on them to confirm who we are is.

Swiss Bliss

Any sensual bliss in the world,
any heavenly bliss,
isn't worth one sixteenth-sixteenth
of the bliss of the ending of craving.

-Udana

I boring

Boredom...
is a disease subtle that eats away time and life.
We escape it by filling up the gaps of our life with essentially empty and meaningless activities- the eternal search for new external stimulus of the six senses... hear music, see a show, go shopping, eat a snack, chit a chat, surf the net...
 
But boredom returns again and again.
I suspect life after life. And we escape from boredom again, life after life.
And we are reborn again, life after life. Not knowing that rebirth itself is "boring," that it is of the very substance of the things we do day in and out.

Sit down.
Meditate... look at your state of boredom...
See its roots.
Suddenly, you see them,
Sharp and clear... and all boredom disappears, and the world is seen in fresh clean light.
 
Boredom is the anticipation of the vague future,wanting something pleasing to happen. Boredom is the attaching to the gone past, wanting something pleasing to return. It is the inability to be rooted in the here and now. And meditation is the key to bring us back.
 
Lose this moment of here now, is no other than to lose your real life, and to be reborn again and again, always looking for happiness in the wrong place and time.

she'll be coming around the mountain when she comes......

Romanticism of the spiritual life is the dreaming of a lofty renounced life, up and away in the mists of a lonely mountain,meditating to attain Enlightenment.

Realistic-ness is the realisation that one only needs to be a stronghold, a mountain firm in faith and practice,a lamp upon oneself...
Then all living is lofty already,wherever you are.
 
You are to be the mountain of steadfastness and mindfulness,ever rooted, and at ease in the eternal here and now, for there is no other place and time.

That has got to be the underlying meaning to the imagery of the mountain that keeps coming to our minds-the real magic of the mountain.

I can handle the truth.........

Never assume, be proud of, when you realise a certain truth, that you alone had arrived at a unique spiritual insight. The Truth is not patented. There is only one reality and there are countless Buddhas who had realised it already.

Be glad that you are one step closer and continue stepping forward. Do not think that you are one step ahead of others-that is your ego playing tricks-you are not out to win others in attaining Enlightenment first. Your Enlightenment is for the others-we are all one body. Your one big step to your personal Enlightenment might be just a small step to the Enlightenment of all.