Everyone post some favorite quotes!

[FmAm]

“As human beings, not only do we seek resolution, but we also feel that we deserve resolution. However, not only do we not deserve resolution, we suffer from resolution. We don't deserve resolution; we deserve something better than that. We deserve our birthright, which is the middle way, an open state of mind that can relax with paradox and ambiguity.” - Pema Chödrön

[C T]

“Maybe that’s enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom...is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go." ~ --- ~ Anthony Bourdain, Celebrity Chef

[Friend]

"What comes will go we can`t force it to stay." Tang Priest Journey to the West 1996.

[Protector]

Some fine words to live by

 

[C T]

Compassion is not the mere practice of being kind and giving and learning to accept things as they are -- its these, and much, much more -- reaching out to pick up a glass of water and drinking it when its needed is also an act of compassion. It appears there is motive, yes, thirst, one might say, but one must also see that the hand is not thirsty, nor the water has to give of itself, yet without their participation, its not possible to quench one's thirst. The whole process is one birthed from compassion, nothing else.

 

Compassion is simply the fulfillment of the wisdom of natural sequence, the unalterable yet ever-evolving play of nature itself . It underlies and oversees all of existence, and all of the associated movements and recessions of beings and also non-beings... it is always impartial, always in accord with prior causes, and always effecting the next set of causes.

 

Only when this is fully grasped does being kind, giving and accommodating become enriching, self-replenishing engagements 'n experiences. Partial understandings will only lead to feelings of inadequacy and depletion of energies, of the constant feeling of helplessness and not being able to do enough nor have enough. This plants seeds of discontent and puts money in gurus' pockets. Strangely enough, such feelings arise also from within the sphere of impartial compassionate energy. From such feelings, one eventually learns, even if it takes lifetimes, that the wisest thing to do is to simply allow for the movement of compassion to fulfill its own mysterious purpose. No amount of philosophy nor analysis can hope to unravel how this noble principle never, ever fails to deliver on time, every time.

 

 

In actuality, there is really nothing for one to do or not do.

 

Stop encroaching on your own potential.

 

Let it be.

 

Be.

 

 

~ . me . ~

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

"Dad, dad? I'm straight!"


"Dad? I'm Mom!"

[Tibetan_Ice]

Time flies like an arrow

Fruit flies like a banana

[FmAm]

Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber? Well, here we are, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.

 

- Kurt Vonnegut

[rex]

Don't know if there are any Dinotopia fans here but here is the Code of Dinotopia:

 

Survival of all or none.
One raindrop raises the sea.
Weapons are enemies, even to their owners.

Give more, take less.
Others first, self last.
Observe, listen and learn.
Do one thing at a time.

Sing every day.
Exercise imagination.
Eat to live, don't live to eat.
Don't put out the light.

[Apech]

"Mom, Dad. I'm Gay."

~lots of people.

 

"Dad and Dad ... I'm straight!"

~ hardly anyone.

[三江源]

.

Edited September 28, 2015 by 三江源

[Wu Ming Jen]

post reminds me of the shining mind of tao always present and then how this can "sink" as self mind "rises" takes over.The host becomes the guest and the internal government is set out of order. Self mind is like a cruel general ordering things around from a distance. The shining mind is like an enlightened leader. one mind is just a tool and should be put away when not needed but loves the lead role. Light up the dark mind of self then that which sinks out of consciousness floats to the surface of awareness that which floats to the surface sinks now internal government is set in order and there is peace.

 

 

Edit forgot to mention all the awesome stuff written on this thread glad I stumbled on it. I love to read yes attachment and addicted to learning two major mistakes along the way.

Edited April 16, 2013 by Wu Ming Jen

[C T]

"Personally, i'd be perfectly happy to just call it a day and f@%& off to the nearest hammock and a frosty boat drink with an umbrella in it." -- Anthony Bourdain

Edited April 18, 2013 by C T

[Protector]

Breaking the rules

 

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

The Break Rulings.

[Grigory]

Nice thread... I won't flood it by posting all of my favorites, but here's a select few:

 

"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."
Arthur C. Clarke

 

"Money is neither my god nor my devil. It is a form of energy that tends to make us more of who we already are, whether it's greedy or loving."
Dan Millman

 

"Silence is not only golden, it is seldom misquoted."
Bob Monkhouse

[Grigory]

Ah, what the hell - I figured I'll just dump the rest of my favorites here:\

 

“We are afraid of the known and afraid of the unknown. That is our daily life and in that there is no hope, and therefore every form of philosophy, every form of theological concept, is merely an escape from the actual reality of what is. All outward forms of change brought about by wars, revolutions, reformations, laws and ideologies have failed completely to change the basic nature of man and therefore of society.”

Thomas Jefferson

"The way to live a long time — oh, a thousand years or more — is something between the way a child does it and the way a mature man does it. Give the future enough thought to be ready for it — but don’t worry about it. Live each day as if you were to die next sunrise. Then face each sunrise as a fresh creation and live for it, joyously. And never think about the past. No regrets, ever.”

Robert Heinlein

"Markets are living things with bi-polar personalities prone to enormous temper tantrums, but in the end, they always come to their senses. All they need is time-out. But whatever we do, don’t lose faith in them, we’re warned. Their wrath will rival a vengeful God."

Rudolf Kerkhoven

"Most people overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in ten."

Nigel Marsh

"He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it."

Douglas Adams

"I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?"

Ernest Hemingway

“A thorough reading and understanding of the Bible is the surest path to atheism”

Donald Morgan

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."

Stephen Roberts

"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography."

Ambrose Bierce

"We are a fountain of shimmering contradictions, most of us. Beautiful in the concept, if we're lucky, but frequently tedious or regrettable as we flesh ourselves out."

— Gregory Maguire

"I am very optimistic about humanity, and very pessimistic about humans."

Rudolph Henkel

“So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”

Morrie Schwartz

"I knew a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the day he killed himself."

Johnny Carson

"The first man to raise a fist is the man who's run out of ideas".

H.G. Wells

"The greatest tragedy in life is to spend your whole life fishing only to discover that it was not fish you were after."

Henry David Thoreau

"Why do we try to define people as simply good or evil? Because no one wants to admit that compassion and cruelty can live side by side in one heart, and that anyone is capable of anything."

Anonymous

"A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it."

GK Chesterton

"Everyone has a right to be an idiot. Some people abuse the privilege."

Joseph Stalin

"If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments."

Earl Wilson

“I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.”

Jerome K. Jerome

"Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals."

Oscar Wilde

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."

Mark Twain

"Money is not the most important thing in the world. Love is. Fortunately, I love money."

Jackie Mason

"Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant filled with odd little waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like."

Daniel Handler

"Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell."

Frank Borman

"As a group, lemmings have a rotten image, but no individual lemming has ever received bad press."

Warren Buffett

"Modern man drives a mortgaged car over a bond-financed highway on credit-card gas."

Earl Wilson

"At what age do you tell a highway it was adopted?"

Zach Galifianakis

"If you're falling off a cliff, you might as well try to fly."

Anonymous

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."

Oscar Wilde

“There’s nothing to match curling up with a good book when there’s a repair job to be done around the house.”

Joe Ryan

"Some people would rather die than think. In fact, they do."

Bertrand Russell

"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right."

Isaac Asimov

"There are very few jobs that actually require a penis or vagina. All other jobs should be open to everybody."

Florynce Kennedy

"Man’s mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions."

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

“The human foot is a work of art and a masterpiece of engineering.”

Leonardo Da Vinci

"The boldness of asking deep questions may require unforeseen flexibility if we are to accept the answers."

Brian Greene

"I asked a Burmese why women, after centuries of following their men, now walk ahead. He said there were many unexploded land mines since the war."

Robert Mueller

“Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.”

Henry Miller

“The belief that there is only one truth, and that oneself is in possession of it, is the root of all evil in the world.”

Max Born

“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”

Albert Einstein

"If you want to make enemies, try to change something."

Woodrow Wilson

“I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud.”

C.G.Jung

"The only reason I survive is because of the common folk superstition that it's bad luck to kill a journalist. Walking under ladders, breaking mirrors, killing journalists - all very bad luck."

Robert Stacy McCain

“People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than for being right.”

J.K. Rowling

"Being broke is a very efficient educational agency."

Edwin Lefevre

"Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting, and self-stopping, self warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it"

Ralph Ellison

"It's the simple things in life that are extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them"

Paul Coelho

“Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.”

Seneca

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."

Albert Einstein

"When others demand that we become the person they want us to be, they force us to destroy the person we really are. It's a subtle kind of murder. The most loving parents and relatives commit this murder with smiles on their faces."

Jim Morrison

"Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack."

George Patton

"I find television very educating. Every time someone turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."

Groucho Marx

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in a world they have been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact; It is an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration; It is a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing."

Richard Bullock

"If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done."

Peter Ustinov

“The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.”

Kurt Vonnegut

“Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those, who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear, which is inherent in a human condition”

Graham Greene

“The human brain is a wonderful organ. It starts to work as soon as you are born and doesn't stop until you get up to deliver a speech.”

George Jessel

“You are the same today that you are going to be in five years from now except for two things: the people with whom you associate and the books you read.”

Charles Jones

"Think wrongly, if it pleases you, but in all cases think for yourself"

Doris Lessing

"The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it."

Ernest Hemingway

"The best intelligence test is what we do with our leisure time."

Laurence J. Peter

"Never confuse movement with action."

Ernest Hemingway

"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life... I think that what we're really seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we can actually feel the rapture of being alive."

Joseph Campbell

"You become what you think about."

Earl Nightingale

"Every man's memory is his private literature."

Aldous Huxley

"The really tough choices ... don't center upon right versus wrong. They are genuine dilemmas precisely because each side is firmly rooted in one of our basic, core values."

Rushworth Kidder

"We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance."

Japanese proverb

"I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them. If I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do."

Robert A. Heinlein

[zerostao]

mark twain> "the secret of getting ahead is getting started"

 

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."

[madMUHHH]

 

"We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance."

Japanese proverb

 

 

That's awesome!

[Grigory]

That's awesome!

I'm glad you liked it.

[Wells]

 

• „Imagine your internal vibration as a fragile little spark. The more you practice and take care of your spark, the more it grows. Someday it can be a torch. Take care of your spark and someday your spark will take care of you.“

  „When you start cultivating jing, you take your chi and start 'cooking' it. It's the difference between boiling your rice in water and boiling your rice in water in a pressure cooker with the lid on it. The steam that shoots out of the release valve on the top of the pressure cooker is like your jing.“

  ~Gary J. Clyman~

• „We want to cook something! An oven is useless until we add fire! That fire is the power of our focused, calm meditative mind. When we add the high frequency power of mind to our Taichi form through moving meditation, we are adding fire to the oven. Then we can cook something! We can make a 'quality change'.“

  „But the highest level some of those old masters achieved is what they called 'daytime ascending'. They could raise their energy so high that they could dissolve even their bodies into pure energy and just vanish and turn into a 'saint'. You can see this sort of event recorded in the old legends or notes of this sort of master turning up from time to time in the official records.“

  ~Waysun Liao, "Tao-The Way Of God"~

• „It takes a long time to develop Jing (Internal Power). The Yi (Mind) must completely fuse to the Chi so that the Jing Signal can be amplified and accelerated. Then you will understand how to put a Message into that Signal. If you don't know how, you don't yet have Jing. Keep Practicing.

  Understand that although Jing can be used to produce Power in martial arts or other special applications, the Ultimate Purpose for the development of Jing is to Transform and Enlighten yourself. In the Tai Chi Moving Meditation Practice, the Chi is exercised and begins to Purify as the Mind gains an extremely sharp awareness of this. Eventually, the body, breath, Mind and Chi move together as One. When this process is further Purified, the Mind and Chi fuse together to generate Jing. This is a completely new kind of Energy within yourself that was not there before. The ingredients were always there, but the Process must be properly engaged in order to Transform Mind and Chi into Jing. This is very much like forging steel from raw iron using heat. Once the iron is heated to a very high temperature, it becomes malleable and can be hammered thin, folded into itself, and ultimately purified and strengthened. After many, many repetitions of being heated, hammered, folded, and then rapidly cooled in water, the iron totally transforms into a new kind of material we call steel. In other words, although the heat, water, and raw iron were already present, a significant and skillful process must be engaged in order to transform the iron into steel. Likewise, the Jing takes time and sincere, dedicated effort to generate.

  Once Jing is generated, it is your choice how to use it. But it is a waste if you use it only for simple tricks like making light in your hands, etc. Instead, Recycle the Jing Signal back Inward into itself through the Cyclic Moving Meditation Practice so as to Purify it further, generate a great surplus of Energy, and use this very Pure, very Powerful Jing Energy to Transform again to Realize and Ignite the Shen Energy (Spirit). Then further Purify the Shen Energy to Realize the Te––the Ultimate No-Self, the "piece of Tao inside." We then use Te to Connect to Tao.

  So the order of things is: Chi, Yi (Mind), Jing, Shen, Te. There is no particular exercise that will develop Jing faster than another. Correct understanding and practice of the Taichi Tao system as a whole is the process that develops the Connection to Tao.“

  ~Gregory James~

• „More and more impurities will be removed and more Qi will be freed up to grow. So, in a sense, the Qi will grow, but not from an external source, but from within the system (this is my understanding). I know there are systems of thought where Qi can be pulled in from external sources. But based on what I've been taught, Qi cannot be added to -- we have to make do with what we have. This makes it all the more essential to keep our system clean (like a well oiled machine).

  I just got back from a class today. My teacher [George Bolger] said that all the exercises that claim to "pull in" Qi from outside actually allow the Qi to pass through and "tune" our own Qi to their vibrational frequency. We cannot store that "external" Qi, but can let it flow through us and tune us up, so to speak.“

  ~dwai~

[林愛偉]

"So you're enlightened, great. Tell me what you enlightened to, and then kill yourself."

 

“I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my father, not screaming and terrified like his passengers.” — Bob Monkhouse

 

“If I am reading this graph correctly, I would be very surprised.” — Stephen Colbert

 

“‘The crows seemed to be calling his name,’ thought Caw.” — Jack Handey

 

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” — Groucho Marx

 

“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing — after they’ve tried everything else.”- Winston Churchill

 

Some cause happiness wherever they go. Others — whenever they go.

Edited June 13, 2013 by 林愛偉

[Mandrake]

“If I am reading this graph correctly, I would be very surprised.” — Stephen Colbert

Hahaha, love the double meenings of that one!

[Mandrake]

"Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get.
But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."

 

Conan O'Brien (from his farewell speech)

[C T]

That which is Reality is beyond all form and yet intrinsic to it.

Let form reveal its own nature -- there is no need to seek it.

The actual essence of form is formlessness, as paradoxical as

that may sound. --- David R Hawkins