The 54th of 108 Gates Of Dharma Illumination

[aprapti]

[Juki]

Juki

[Tairin]

Wisdom : mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgment

I really like this definition of wisdom. It bares a lot of similarity to equanimity which makes sense in a Buddhist context.


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Shokai]

The 63rd of 108 Gates Of Dharma Illumination

Gate Sixty-three
Read the following, place it in your heart and sleep on it. Then, tomorrow, live it until evening when you can leave a brief comment on what you may have received during the process.

The power of belief is a gate of Dharma illumination; for it surpasses the power of demons.

Power of Belief : great or marked ability to have confidence in the truth or existence of something

By “Dharma Gate”, We mean a teaching or practice that can lead to spiritual growth: some kind of positive outcome in terms of our practice. A way to approach the truth.

Koan: "YOU DONT have to feel inadequate; you just have to be. In order to do that, you need to develop an attitude of believing in your basic goodness and you need to practice meditation. When you sit like the Buddha, you begin to realize something called enlightenment. That is just realizing that there is something very straightforward and very sparkling in you. It is not necessarily feeling good. It is much better than feeling good; you have a sense of tremendous buoyancy, upliftedness. You feel healthy and simple and strong. Buddhist tradition teaches the truth of impermanence, or the transitory nature of things. The past is gone and the future has not yet happened, so we work with what is here ; the present situation. This actually helps us not to categorize or theorize. A fresh, living situation is taking place all the time, on the spot. This noncategorical approach comes from being fully here, rather than trying to reconnect with past events. We don’t have to look back to the past in order to see what people are made out of. Human beings speak for themselves, on the spot. Patience (kshanti in Sanskrit) is usually taken to mean forbearance and the calm endurance of pain and hardship. But in fact, it means rather more than that. It is forbearing in the sense of seeing the situation and seeing that it is right to forbear and to develop patience. It has an aspect of intelligence, in contrast, one might say, to an animal loaded with baggage who must go on and on walking along the track until it just drops dead. That kind of patience is patience without wisdom, without clarity. In meditation, we develop patience with clarity, and energy with the eye of understanding. "

-The Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia; Link here

believe only what agrees.jpg

Most note worthy replies :

Belief

Keeps me on my mat, because

Even when I feel the least like going to

The Still Point

Going there illuminates my path

Lessens my burdens

And clears my place of being.

I see belief as an ever-present light that guides us forward,

no matter where we may find ourselves or what we may be facing.

Luminous belief

Dispels all

Our darkest shadows

合掌 仁道 生開 - gassho, Jindo Shokai
stlah

[Anchi]

[aprapti]

"Power of Belief : great or marked ability to have confidence in the truth or existence of something "

maybe it is just a language-thing but i prefer 'faith' instead of 'belief'


aprapti
sat

[Juki]

Juki

[Tairin]

Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Shokai]

Coos; the definition for belief and faith are close. However faith tends to narrow the scope toreligious things as opposed to "any"belief.

Def'n of Faith
1.complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
Similar: trust belief confidence conviction credence reliance

2.
strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.
Similar: religion church ect denomination persuasion religious persuasion religious belief ideology creed teaching dogma doctrine

gassho, Shokai

[Shokai]

The 64th of 108 Gates Of Dharma Illumination

Gate Sixty-four
Read the following, place it in your heart and sleep on it. Then, tomorrow, live it until evening when you can leave a brief comment on what you may have received during the process.

The power of effort is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we do not regress or stray.

Power of Effort : great or marked ability to make an earnest or strenuous attempt

By “Dharma Gate”, We mean a teaching or practice that can lead to spiritual growth: some kind of positive outcome in terms of our practice. A way to approach the truth.

Koan: "Right Effort, sometimes called Right Diligence, is the sixth part of the Eightfold Path of Buddhism. The Buddha taught that the Eightfold Path is the means to realize enlightenment. Right Effort, along with Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration, make up the mental discipline section of the Path. The most basic, traditional definition of Right Effort is to exert oneself to develop wholesome qualities and release unwholesome qualities. As recorded in the Pali Canon, the Buddha taught there are four aspects to Right Effort. Very simply: (1)The effort to prevent unwholesome qualities -- especially greed, anger, and ignorance -- from arising. (2)The effort to extinguish unwholesome qualities that already have arisen. (3)The effort to cultivate skillful, or wholesome, qualities—especially generosity, loving-kindness, that have not yet arisen. and(4) The effort to strengthen the wholesome qualities that have already arisen."

- Barbara O'Brien's Learning Religions; link here

effort2.jpg

Most note worthy replies :

Belief, wisdom, balance, mindfulness, effort...

How much easier, these

Strenuous tasks seem, their

Arduousness laid to rest, when

Taken together as one, in

Right thought and right action.


Not forward or back

Striving hard

To stay where we are

合掌 仁道 生開 - gassho, Jindo Shokai
stlah

[Nengyoku]

[Nengyoku]

[Nengyoku]

[Shokai]

back William

[Anchi]