Inspiring Words

[Nicholas Weeks]

In the beginning, before there was any division of subject and object, there was one existence, Brahman alone, One without a second. That time is called the Krita yuga, or the golden age, when people skilled in knowledge and discrimination realized that one existence … Men had but one caste, known as Hamsa. All were equally endowed with knowledge, all were born knowers of Truth; and since this was so, the age was called Krita, which is to say, ‘Attained’.

Srimad Bhagavatam, XI. xvii & xi

[Nicholas Weeks]

I see Buddha in mind as if by eye
And spend the night in praising him;
Thus it is I am never away from him.

Sutta Nipata 1142

[Nicholas Weeks]

Sutta Nipata 3.2 lists Demon Mara's tenfold army:

436. “Sensual pleasures are your first army;
the second is called discontent.
Hunger and thirst are the third;
the fourth is called craving.
437. “The fifth is dullness and drowsiness;
the sixth is called cowardice.
Doubt is your seventh;
your eighth, denigration and pride.
438. “Gain, praise, and honor,
and wrongly obtained fame [is ninth];
[the tenth is when] one extols oneself
and looks down at others.

439. “This is your army, Namucī,
the squadron of the Dark One.
A weakling does not conquer it,
but having conquered it, one gains bliss."

Bhikkhu Bodhi translation.

[Nicholas Weeks]

James Allen free library is chock full of inspiration!

http://james-allen.in1woord.nl/

Our mission:

The James Allen Free Library aspires to make all the works of inspirational writer James Allen (1864-1912) available online, to anyone, for free, in both English and Dutch.

First of all, we thank everyone who helped us find copies of James Allen’s writings.

James Allen daily shows today’s entries from James Allen’s book of meditations for every day in the year and Morning and evening thoughts.

[Nicholas Weeks]

Love is not complete until it is lived by man.

May Fifteenth.
EVERY precept of Jesus demands the unconditional sacrifice of some selfish, personal element, before it can be carried out. Man cannot know the Real whilst he clings to the unreal ; he cannot do the work of Truth whilst he clings to error. Whilst a man cherishes lust, hatred, pride, vanity, sell-indulgence, covetousness, he can do nothing, for the works of all these sinful elements are unreal and perishable. Only when he takes refuge in the Spirit of Love within, and becomes patient, gentle, pure, pitiful, and forgiving, does he the works of Righteousness, and bears the fruits of Life. The vine is not a vine without its branches, and even then it is not complete until those branches bear fruit.

Daily practising love towards all in heart and mind and deed, harbouring no injurious or impure thoughts, he discovers the imperishable Principles of his being.

Man’s only refuge from sin is sinless Love.

Before a man can know Love as the abiding Reality within him, he must utterly abandon all those human tendencies which frustrate us perfect manifestation.

[Nicholas Weeks]

Devoid of purity, good conduct and truth, and having no faith in God or a higher Reality
beyond this visible world, man degenerates into a two-legged beast of ugly character and cruel
actions, and sinks into darkness. Such a person becomes his own enemy and the destroyer of the
happiness of others as well as his own. Caught in countless desires and cravings, a slave of sensual
enjoyments and beset by a thousand cares, his life ultimately ends in misery and degradation.
Haughtiness, arrogance and egoism lead to this dire fate. Therefore, a wise person, desiring success,
must eradicate vice and cultivate virtue.

Swami Sivananda

[Nicholas Weeks]

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

Booker T. Washington

[Nicholas Weeks]

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most fools do.

Dale Carnegie

[Nicholas Weeks]

Therefore, Ānanda, do not be judgmental regarding people. Do not pass judgment on people. Those who pass judgment on people harm themselves. I alone, or one like me, may pass judgment on people.

AN 6:44 -- Bhikkhu Bodhi translation

[Nicholas Weeks]

Man without mysticism is a monster.

Whittaker Chambers

[Kusala]

[Nicholas Weeks]

Our world is not divided by race, color, gender, or religion. Our world is divided into wise people and fools. And fools divide themselves by race, color, gender, or religion.

Mohamad Safa

[Nicholas Weeks]

A worldling can easily be known from the way in which he dislikes matters religious. He objects to the chanting of the name of the Lord and to listening to the singing of His glory. He prevents the others from taking to the path of religion. Religious institutions are condemned by him. He openly ridicules the holy men and the holy orders. Such behaviour is the mark of the man steeped in worldliness.

Sri Ramakrishna

[Nicholas Weeks]

The awakened one, the Buddha, said:
Here, O, Monks, a disciple lets his mind pervade
one quarter of the world with thoughts of
unselfish joy, and so the second, and so the third,
and so the fourth. And thus the whole wide
world, above, below, around, everywhere and
equally, he continues to pervade with a heart of
unselfish joy, abundant, grown great,
measureless, without hostility or ill will.

Is Unselfish Joy Practicable?
by Nyanaponika Thera

The virtue of muditā, [1] i.e., finding joy in the happiness and success of others, has not received sufficient attention either in expositions of Buddhist ethics, or in the meditative development of the four sublime states (brahma-vihāra), of which muditā is one. It was, therefore, thought desirable to compile this little book of essays and texts...

[1] Usually rendered by unselfish, sympathetic, or altruistic joy

[Nicholas Weeks]

More on Mudita:

It has been rightly stated that it is relatively easier for man
to feel compassion or friendliness in situations which
demand them, than to cherish a spontaneous feeling of
shared joy, outside a narrow circle of one’s family and
friends. It mostly requires a deliberate effort to identify
oneself with the joys and successes of others. Yet the
capacity of doing so has psychological roots in man’s nature
which may be even deeper that his compassionate
responses. There is firstly the fact that people do like to feel
happy (with—or without—good reason) and would prefer
it to the shared sadness of compassion. Man’s gregarious
nature (his “sociability”) already gives him some familiarity
with shared emotions and shared pleasure, though mostly
on a much lower level than that of our present concern.