Rebel Buddha: On the Road to Freedom by Dzogchen Ponlop

All quotes from Dzogchen's book

Drama is illusion that acts like truth and dharma is truth itself -- the way things are, the basic state of reality that does not change from day to day according to fashion or our mood or agenda.  To change dharma into drama, all we need are the elements of any good play: emotion, conflict, and action -- a sense that something urgent and meaningful is happening to the characters involved. 

Your awakened mind is always a good mind; it's never dull or confused.  It's never distressed by the doubts, fears, and emotions that so often torture us.  Instead, your true mind is a mind of joy, free from all suffering.  That is who you really are.  That is the true nature of your mind and the mind of everyone.

Ironically, what blocks your view of your mind's true nature -- your buddha mind -- is also your own mind, the part of your mind that is always busy, constantly involved in a steady stream of thoughts, emotions, and concepts.  This busy mind is who you think you are.

In our ordinary life, we're like dreamers believing that the dream we're having is real.

Buddhism is primarily a study of mind and a system for training the mind.  It is spiritual in nature, not religious.  The goal is self-knowledge, not salvation; freedom, not heaven.  It relies on reason and analysis, contemplation and meditation, to transform knowledge about something into knowledge that surpasses understanding.

A spiritual path can exist within or outside a religious context.  Religion and spirituality can be complimentary or separate practices and experiences.

From the Buddhist point of view, there not only no savior, there is no one to be saved.

If we believe that our senses and our conceptual mind are giving us a true and complete picture of the world and who we are in it, we're just fooling ourselves.  We need to expand our understanding beyond our sense perceptions and concepts, which are nothing but tiny windows through which we see only a partial reality.

Genuine faith is simply confidence and trust in ourselves, in our own intelligence and understanding, which then extends to the path we're travelling. 

Because truly direct experiences of the world are not often present in our ordinary life, we find ourselves living either in concepts or in an emotional world of past or future.

We go so quickly from perception to concept to emotion, and from there, it's just one more step to value judgments, concepts so solidified that they've grown impervious to doubt and questioning.

We may think that our exhaustion comes from our job or our family, but in many cases, it's not the job or family itself -- it's our mind.  What's exhausting us is how we relate to our life conceptually and emotionally.

The question you should ask yourself is, "What am I clinging to?"

We may not be conscious of it, but the reality of our aloneness is with us all the time, and we feel it in different ways.  We might experience it as a sense of dissatisfaction or restlessness, or we may feel undercurrents of anxiety or depression.  Whenever we are or whatever we're doing in a given moment,  it never seems to be quite enough.

Suffering is a problem for us only when we can't see any possibility of freeing ourselves from it.  When we're willing to work with our pain, it becomes a productive experience. 

The key thing to remember is that when an emotion arises, it's just a simple thought in the beginning -- nothing more.  But then we take it further.

When your relationship with your mind is based on trust instead of ignorance, fear, and hopelessness, your mind becomes calm, clear, and open.

Discipline goes beyond just following a set of rules, it requires genuine discrimination, empathy, and honesty.  Still it's your own discipline you're developing.  You're the one on the road, making your way to your own freedom.

It may come as a surprise to us, but by studying our mind, we discover our heart; by freezing our mind, we open our heart.

Instead of seeking to protect ourselves from confusion and chaos, we begin to appreciate that confusion as being full of opportunities to train our mind further.

A mind of anger, whether overt or hidden, always cuts off communication and makes us insensible to the feelings of others.

If we think that the … view of practicing compassion is going around saving the unenlightened, then that's no different from the view of the religious sects whose members knock on our doors.

No matter how bad it looks or how horrible it may feel at times, this mind we have right now is our only hope for awakening.  … Whatever we've been depositing into the bank account of our mind over the course of our lifetime has been drawing interest to the point where we're now pretty rich with it, whatever it may be.

A meeting of minds or hearts is never about just one person; it's like a chemical reaction, and alchemy that can transform both.

You don't need a new or better heart.  You need only to recognize the heart you have and work with it, believe in it, and challenge it. 

It is in the arena of our own life that you become a warrior and win your freedom.

How far are you willing to go from your baseline of opinion and values to reach out to someone who's confused and suffering?

It's often in our efforts to help others in their confusion that we can experience some kind of liberation of our own confusion.

The Dance of Person and Place by Thomas M Norton-Smith

All quotes from Thomas' book

The real interest of the old Indians,” Deloria conveys, “was not to discover the abstract structure of physical reality but rather to find the proper [moral and ethical] road along which, for the duration of a person’s life, individuals were supposed to walk”. … it does not look at the world as an inert natural resource and ask, “How can I predict, manage or defeat this?”  Instead, it sees a living community in which human beings participate and asks, “How should I behave?” .

Guilt is the Teacher, Love is the Lesson by Joan Borysenko

All quotes from Joan's book

Grace comes unearned and unsought.

The Western mind is ill-equipped for emptying the mind of concepts and waiting in Silence for experience.  If experience does come, we want to reference.  We want to know what it means.  Easterners are less concerned about meaning.  To be is quite enough.  

Meditations from the Mat by Rolf Gates

All quotes from Rolf's book

All of us are set on a trajectory by the circumstances of our birth, gender, class, family, and life experiences.  The sum total of all these forces in our lives, and the choices we make concerning those forces, is our karma.  Most of us simply enact our karma.  Privilege begets privilege, disadvantage begets disadvantage.

The spiritual journey can be likened to waking up one day to find oneself mindlessly floating down a river.  The first step is to acknowledge that we are in a river.  The second step is to understand that we have a choice about it.

Dharma is a gift from God inscribed upon the heart.

Dharma is what makes you you.

Plants of Power by Alfred Savinelli

All quotes from Alfred's book

Our intention or motivation becomes the spine of the ceremony.

We choose elements of our rituals: appropriate time, space, power objects, participants, colors and costume, all of which live in symbolic resonance with our intent.

In the formless time, we lived as pure mind, but this wasn’t enough.  We chose limitation, incarnation, in order to learn things of the heart through touching. 

Yoga Vasistha: The Art of Self-Realization by Sage Valmiki

All quotes from Sage Valmiki's book

Rooted in equanimity, doing whatever happens to be the appropriate action in each given situation. 

Whatever comes, let it come; whatever goes, let it go.

Due to the delusion of mind the wave which belongs to the ocean identifies itself as a wave.

The seer does not see himself as he sees the object: the seer sees himself as the object, and therefore does not see.

The subject exists because of the object, and the object is but a reflection of the subject: duality cannot be if there is not one, and where is the need for the notion of “unity” if one alone exists?

When thus real knowledge is gained by means of right enquiry and understanding, only that remains which is not expressible in words.  Of that is cannot be said that it is one or that it is many.  It is neither seer nor seen, neither subject nor object, neither this nor that.  Neither unity nor diversity can be established as the truth: forever, thesis gives rise to antithesis.  Yet, one is not different from “the other”: just as the wave is not other than water, bracelet is not different from gold.  Even so, division is not a contradiction of unity!

In essence, even as the ramifications of the tree (with its leaves, flowers, fruits, etc) extend from the seed in which there is no such diversification, the universe of diversity extends from the infinite consciousness.

As long as words are used to denote a truth, duality is inevitable; however, much duality is not the truth.  All divisions are illusory.

When desire ends, the individual self drops its self-limitation.

Ignorance is not dispelled by half-knowledge, even as there is no relief from cold when one sits near a painting of fire.  The ignorant sees the world as a physical reality, the wise as consciousness.

Inquiry alone is the best remedy for the long-lasting illness known as samsara (repeated births).

Consciousness minus conceptualization.

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy

All quotes from Joseph's book

Your subconscious mind is the builder of your body and can heal you.

The suggestions and statements of others have no power to hurt you.  The only power is the movement of your own thought.  You have the power to choose how you will react.

You have the power to choose.  Choose health & happiness.  You can choose to be friendly, or you can choose to be unfriendly.  Choose to be cooperative, joyous, friendly, lovable, and the whole world will respond.

You build a new body every 11 months.  Change your body by changing your thoughts and keeping them changed.

Your future is in your mind now, based on your habitual thinking and beliefs.

The future of a country is in the collective subconscious of its people.

You must choose happiness.  Happiness is a habit.

Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and The Courage to Stand Alone by Brene Brown

All quotes from Brene's book

Even in the context of suffering -- poverty, violence, human rights violations -- not belonging in our families is still one of the most dangerous hurts.  That's because it has the power to break our heart, our spirit, and our sense of self-worth.

Sometimes the most dangerous thing for kids is the silence that allows them to construct their own stories -- stories that almost always cast them as alone and unworthy of love and belonging.

Belonging to ourselves means being called to stand alone -- to brave the wilderness of uncertainty, vulnerability, and criticism, and with the world feeling like a political and ideological combat zone, this is remarkably tough.

True belonging is not passive.  It's not the belonging that comes with just joining a group.  It's not fitting in or pretending or selling out because it's safer.  It's a practice that requires us to be vulnerable, get uncomfortable, and learn how to be present with people without sacrificing who we are.  We want true belonging, but it takes tremendous courage to knowingly walk into hard moments. 

True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.

Our world is in a collective spiritual crisis. 

Loneliness as "perceived social isolation".  We experience loneliness when we feel disconnected…. At the heart of loneliness is the absence of meaningful social interaction.

As members of a social species, we don't derive strength from our rugged individualism, but rather from our collective ability to plan, communicate, and work together.

The brain's self-protection mode often ramps up the stories we tell ourselves about what's happening, creating stories that are often not true or exaggerate our worst fears and insecurities. Unchecked loneliness fuels continued loneliness by keeping us afraid to reach out. 

Our natural conversation is centered on "what should we fear?" and "who should we blame?"

Our lack of tolerance for vulnerable, tough conversations is driving our self-sorting and disconnection.

If we can find a way to feel hurt rather than spread hurt, we can change. 

When we are in pain and fear, anger and hate are our go-to emotions.

We must never tolerate dehumanization -- the primary instrument of violence that has ben used in very genocide recorded throughout history.

All lives matter, but not all lives need to be pulled back into moral inclusion. Not all people were subjected to the psychological process of demonizing and being made less than human so we could justify the inhumane practice of slavery.

I've come to the conclusion that the way we engage with social media like fire --- you can use them to keep yourself warm and nourished, or you can burn down the barn.  It all depends on your intentions, expectations, and reality-checking skills.

The foundation of courage is vulnerability -- the ability to navigate uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.

Vulnerability is not weakness; it's our most accurate measure of courage.

The key to joy is practicing gratitude.

Foundation of Buddhist Meditation by Kalu Rinpoche

All quotes from Rinpoche's book

Resolve to dismiss all worldly work, which is great activity for little purpose, and don’t deceive oneself or pretend that one understands Dharma or that one can meditate.

Impermanent is like a continual waterfall; something else similar arises.

Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development by Editor Miriam Jorgensen

All quotes from Miriam's book

"Our nations are built on ceremonies, and our nations are built on understanding our relationships with the earth". Intro Chapter by Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper

"That's the instruction given to our peoples -- to be responsible.  To be grown up and act like grown-ups, and to take responsibility to look out for the future of our children". Intro Chapter by Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper

"The Peacemaker told us, "When you sit and you counsel for the welfare of the people, think not of yourself, nor of your family, nor even your generation".  He instructed us to make our decisions on behalf of seven generations coming -- those faces that are looking up from the earth, each layer waiting its time, coming, coming, coming".  Intro Chapter by Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper

"Engaging in what Marshall Shalins calls "the assimilation of the foreign in the logics of the familiar", Indigenous peoples have long been expert at integrating new forms of organization, activity, and technology into their own cultural schemes".  Manley A Begay et al, Chapter: Development, Governance, Culture: What Are They and What Do They Have To Do with Rebuilding Native Nations?

"One way to think of culture is to imagine it as embracing at least three intimately related dimensions of human life.  One is cognitive: how people think, what they value, and the understandings they have of themselves and the world around them.  Another is behavioral: how people behave, what they do, and the relationships they enter into and sustain.  A third dimension is material: the objects -- from houses to art -- that people make and use as they solve practical life problems and celebrate or symbolize themselves and the world they live in".  Manley A Begay et al, Chapter: Development, Governance, Culture: What Are They and What Do They Have To Do with Rebuilding Native Nations?

"One could not have spoken, with any accuracy, of some monolithic "Indian culture" at the time of European contact, and if some kind of pan-Indian culture, or at least consciousness, has emerged in North America today, it coexists with multiple tribal ones". Manley A Begay et al, Chapter: Development, Governance, Culture: What Are They and What Do They Have To Do with Rebuilding Native Nations?

"Innovation and adaptation are among the great traditions of Native North America.  Long before Europeans arrived, trading networks moved not only goods and materials but ideas and technological innovations from place to place as peoples learned from each other, taking up ideas or techniques that served their interests and ignoring ones that did not". Manley A Begay et al, Chapter: Development, Governance, Culture: What Are They and What Do They Have To Do with Rebuilding Native Nations?

"Indigenous peoples, like most other peoples, have long been opportunistic developers of their own cultures -- analyzing their choices, developing new ways of doing things, and engaging and adapting other peoples' technologies, materials, practices, and ideas to increase freedom of action or efficiency, to solve problems, and satisfy aesthetic or spiritual values within their own understandings of the world". Manley A Begay et al, Chapter: Development, Governance, Culture: What Are They and What Do They Have To Do with Rebuilding Native Nations?

"For decades, Canadian policies have treated First Nation governments as little more than branch offices of the federal establishment". Manley A Begay et al, Chapter: Development, Governance, Culture: What Are They and What Do They Have To Do with Rebuilding Native Nations?

Rebuilding Indian nations may require both restoration and innovation, drawing on past principles and practices and, at the same time, on the adaptive skills that Native peoples have long employed as they adjusted to new ecosystems, new trade opportunities, alien cultural influences, and unexpected problems. Stephen Cornell, Chapter: Remaking the Tools of Governance: Colonial Legacies, Indigenous Solutions.

The legacies of colonialism have been destructive, undermining cultural continuities, rupturing relationships, and belittling -- if not outright prohibiting -- many Indigenous ideas and practices.  Stephen Cornell, Chapter: Remaking the Tools of Governance: Colonial Legacies, Indigenous Solutions.

"Contemporary Indigenous leaders face daunting challenges.  They are expected to defend and expand the powers of their nations. They are expected to protect the interests of future generations.  They are in frequent negotiations with federal, state, or provincial agencies. They have to track, interpret, and address the actions of national legislatures and courts.  They have to deal with  pressing daily issues, from meeting payroll to addressing the concerns and complaints of individual citizens. They are expected to find solutions to language loss, health problems, housing issues, resource management challenges, unemployment, and a hundred other things". Manley A Begay Jr et al, Chapter: Rebuilding Native Nations: What Do Leaders Do?

"The continued existence of Native nations today is itself a powerful testament to the skills that generations of Native leaders have exercised in the face of invasion, conflict, and colonialism".  Manley A Begay Jr et al, Chapter: Rebuilding Native Nations: What Do Leaders Do?

"In the late 1990s, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma discovered that it had almost no fluent Cherokee language speakers under the age of forty-five.  This discovery precipitated an intense discussion within the nations that eventually led to a declaration of national emergency". Manley A Begay Jr et al, Chapter: Rebuilding Native Nations: What Do Leaders Do?

"There are no one-size-fits-all solutions for the challenges Native nations face.  Nations vary; their cultures vary; their circumstances vary". Manley A Begay Jr et al, Chapter: Rebuilding Native Nations: What Do Leaders Do?

Relying on leaders as the key to the future demands that we always choose outstanding leaders.

8 Habits of Love by Ed Bacon

All quotes from Ed's book

Chronic fear overshadows each of our more loving human traits, making us reactive and closeminded. 

Any time we dehumanize, demonize, or too readily categorize any person, we cut ourselves off from the foundation of our own humanity.

Being a victim or a hero leads us to be closed minded, whereas when we are a learner we are open hearted – recognizing that we may need correction or illumination.

Truth seeks to rearrange the life of the individual so there is more compassion, justice, sustainability, and peace for all.

Truth is a constantly unfolding series of insights, understandings, revelations, and epiphanies about ourselves and how the world works.

Salvation had nothing to do with escaping hell.

Into the Gray Zone: A NeuroScientist Explores the Border Between Life & Death by Dr Adrian Owen

All quotes from Adrian's book

Being "intelligent" depends on much more than memorization. It depends on what we do with what we remember, how to make what we remember useful in a variety of ways and that has to do with the way we lay down memories, the way we organize and catalog them, and how easy it then is for us to retrieve them efficiently.

Flourishing by Maureen Gaffney

All quotes from Maureen's book

Finding value in suffering is the core of post-traumatic growth.

Acceptance is an active word.

Become aware of the self-defeating “if-then” rules you are using. [if you do ___, then I will ___ ].

Since many of [our] mental processes are happening below the level of consciousness, we are often unaware of how we are thinking or responding, and so we make up stories to explain ourselves.

Part of the experience of being at your best is the realization that there is as much to be learned – and sometimes more—from the setbacks in your life as from the successes.

To flourish, people need to make a connection between the practical things they are doing and some deeper value that motivates them.

Positive emotions broaden, build and transform us.

If you feel good, you are more likely to do good.

To flourish in your life, to build flourishing relationships, teams – and, indeed, a flourishing society – it pays to take happiness seriously.

[A 2005 study] concluded that about 50% of happiness is inheritable.  Some life circumstances – being married, having a good job and an adequate income, being healthy, being religious—each matter to happiness but, added all together, they account for just 10% of overall happiness.  The remainder, a full 40% of happiness, derives from our intentional activities.

The only way to eat an elephant is bite by bite.

We can all too easily become trapped in a blur of “busyness” that is disconnected from any vital purpose or intention, or we may feel trapped by inertia.

Our experiences of the day are not the things that happen to us.  Rather, our experiences are what we create and recreate by how we direct our attention and our thinking throughout the day.  As the days pass, those accumulated experiences becomes our life.

Emotions carry with them a certain perception of centre that may not reflect your actual control, or lack of it, in reality.  Unless you are aware of it, you will assume that your perception of control equates to real control.

The brain is “an anticipation machine”, always readying itself for the next moment.

Your brain directs your attention not just to what you can do now, but to what you could do next.

Moods are more free-floating, diffuse, hovering at the back of your mind.  While emotions demand immediate attention and action, moods are more subtle, not associated with any particular urge to do anything.

Moods are provoked by an emotional reaction to an event…. Moods are not just watered-down feelings. While both may be instigated by the same event, they are very different processes and serve different psychological needs. Emotions alert us threats and opportunities; they are the generals calling for action. Moods … are in charge of the supply line.

Moods… give you a constant read-out of how resourceful or depleted you feel.

Mood is a big, big factor in how you express your portfolio of strengths and weaknesses.

Negative emotions are reactions to threats of any kind…. Positive emotions are our first reactions when confronted with opportunities…. The more unexpected the opportunity or threat, the stronger the emotion.

When you develop a habit of gratitude, you notice other people’s generosity.

People in flow report feeling relaxed, at ease, energetic.  Their concentration is so complete that they no longer think of themselves as separate from what they are doing.  They no longer have to think about what to do next; each action carries them forward effortlessly.

There are always choices in how we interpret what is happening to us and how we respond.

What you prioritize – the things you choose to spend your time and energy on – reflect your true hierarchy of values, not what you say your values are.

The Essential Yoga Sutra with Geshe Michael Roach and Christie McNally

All quotes from Michael and Christie's book

Pain is real – yes – and it really hurts people.  But we can only stop it if we can stop misunderstanding where it comes from.

Stop seeing things the wrong way.

Most of our perceptions during the day are triggered by some outside object: seeing an apple is set off by the apple --- in a sense the seeing depends on, or hinges upon, the apple.

We begin with a daily inner practice.  It will always include three essential elements: being careful never to hurt others; learning to pray or meditate; and relentlessly exploring the question of where things really come from.

We very much come from how we treat others.

Meditation is a serious tool.  We need to use it to fix ourselves and the world, forever.  Using meditation only to feel good for a while is like a surgeon taking the anesthesia himself, leaving the patient to die on the operating table.

Awareness is to be present: to be here now, not wrapped up in what’s happened or might happen.

The highest form of awareness is to keep our mind on where the things that happen to us are really coming from.

If a young child falls into a fire, her mother moves quickly.  People having a normal life in this world are in much more danger than the child.

The things around us are a product of the seeds within our own minds and so are the people.

True yoga is the search for a worldview that actually works to bring people happiness.

Our world is a product of the seeds within our own minds.  Just wanting to help a single other person alters these seeds drastically.

Don’t be naïve and believe that thoughts stop just because the body stops.

Money karma can be amazing.  Money isn’t made at a federal facility somewhere.  The  value of the world economy – every single cent of it – is created by respecting other people’s things.

It’s no surprise that, karmically speaking (which is the only way that works any way), we can get the kind of relationship we want with someone… only by being very careful not to damage other people’s relationships.

The habit of watching out for possible angels among us graduates into direct encounters with these beings.

It really is true that there is no school like being put into difficult situations and learning to excel because of them.

If we are doing our yoga exercises correctly then, inside channels open up, which actually causes us to think more clearly and kindly.  If you’re not getting this effect with your yoga, then you’re not doing it properly.

To make meditation perfect, it’s not enough to simply mentally stare at something like our breath for a long time.  The mind even then is making its constant, deadly error, and we must fix it or come to the end of our life unfulfilled. As we meditate we need to strive to see that one thing that is simply… missing, clear gone.  We need to realize that nothing is anything; that is, even the hotness of a fire never belonged to it. It is I who make the fire hot.