A Flash of Lightning

[mayflow]

These are going to be mostly exerps from the Dalai Lama's book "A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night"

May some find food for thought and or inspiration!

Abandon evildoing;
Practice virtue well;
Subdue your mind:
This is the Buddha's teaching.
Like a star, an optical illusion, or a flame,
A magical illusion, a dewdrop, or a bubble,
Like a dream, a flash of lightning, or a cloud—
So should one consider all compounded things.

By this merit may we attain omniscience
And overcome our enemy, our harmful deeds,
And may beings, buffeted by the waves of birth, old age,
sickness, and death,
Be liberated from the ocean of suffering existence.

Do not rely on individuals, rely on the teachings.
Do not rely on the words, rely on the meaning.
Do not rely on the adapted meaning, rely on the ultimate
meaning.
Do not rely on intellectual knowledge, rely on innate wisdom.

 

[poetrygirl]

I like it.
My favorite weather (I'm not stupid I know the poem wasn't about the weather =) poem:

[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]"I[/FONT][FONT=&quot]T[/FONT][FONT=&quot] struck me every day[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] The lightning was as new[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]As if the cloud that instant slit[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] And let the fire through.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]It burned me in the night,[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] It blistered in my dream;[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]It sickened fresh upon my sight[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] With every morning’s beam.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I thought that storm was brief,—[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] The maddest, quickest by;[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But Nature lost the date of this,[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] And left it in the sky."[/FONT]
~ Emily Dickenson

​

 

[mayflow]

Ahhh, very nice Poetry Girl.

I love thunderstorms, and I've written a few about lightning myself...

I love you more and more my darling
There's nothin' more that I can say
With every dawn I see you smiling
With every night you make my day

The Lightning strikes
so very close now
To my heart, dear,
Though you're many miles away

Thunder quakes my very soul, dear
And Rainbows tell me that it's right
And the hurricanes,
Their sweet winds do blow now

But it's my love for you, sweet honey
That simply blows my heart away...

- This was actually when we were threatened by a Hurricane.

 

[mayflow]

The book is mostly the Dalai Lama's reflections and comments on verses by Shantideva who was an 8th century Buddhist scholar/philosopher and writer.

The nature of mind is clear and luminous,
But obscurations are adventitious.
Stains are adventitious,
Qualities are inherent.

May precious bodhichitta take its birth
In those in whom it has not taken birth.
And where it has been born, let it not cease
But swell and increase ever more and more.

Difficult indeed to find this state of ease and
richness,
Whereby the true significance of being human
May be reaped! If I neglect to turn it to my profit,
How could such a chance be mine again?

 

[1/2 Human]

verryy niiiice bro!!!
thanks!! <3

 

[mayflow]

YAY!! I am so happy if even one person enjoys this.

As when a flash of lightning cleaves the night,
And in its glare shows all the dark, black clouds had
hid,
Likewise rarely, through the Buddhas' power,
Virtuous thoughts rise, brief and transient, in the
world.
See the utter frailty of virtue!
Except the mind of perfect bodhichitta,
There is nothing able to withstand
The great and overwhelming strength of evil.

Which he follows with this offering:

I offer every fruit and flower,
Every kind of healing salve,
All the precious things the world affords,
And all pure waters of refreshment;

Every mountain rich and filled with jewels,
All sweet and lonely forest groves;
The trees of heaven, garlanded with blossom,
And branches heavy, laden with their fruit;

The perfumed fragrance of the realms of gods and
men,
All incense, wish-fulfilling trees, and trees of gems,
All crops that grow without the tiller's work,
And every sumptuous object worthy to be offered;

Lakes and tarns adorned with lotuses,
And plaintive with the sweet-voiced cries of water birds
And lovely to the eyes, and all things wild and free,
Stretching to the boundless limits of the sky. O

I will hold them in my mind, and to the supreme
Buddhas
And their heirs will make a perfect offering.
O think of me with love, Compassionate Lords,
Sacred objects of my gifts, accept these offerings.

Then this little explanation

"The infinite variety of beings and universes
Has been created by the mind."

The Dalai Lama expounds on the explanation thusly:

All universes and beings are the result of karma.
The universe that we inhabit and our shared perception of it
are the results of a common karma. Likewise, the places that we will
experience in future rebirths will be the outcome of the karma that
we share with the other beings living there. The actions of each of
us, human or nonhuman, have contributed to the world in which we
live. We all have a common responsibility for our world and are
connected with everything in it. This is why we can make an offering
of it.

 

[chaotic_lion]

Do not rely on the words, rely on the meaning.
Do not rely on the adapted meaning, rely on the ultimate
meaning.
Do not rely on intellectual knowledge, rely on innate wisdom.

These ones really speak to me.

 

[mayflow]

These ones really speak to me.

Do not go by reports (repeated hearing), by legends, by traditions, by rumours, by scriptures, by surmise, conjecture and axioms, by inference and analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by specious reasoning or bias toward a notion because it has been pondered over, by another's seeming ability, or by the thought, This monk (contemplative) is our teacher.

However, when you yourselves know: Such and such things are unskilful (bad); blameworthy; criticized by the wise; and if adopted and carried out lead to harm and ill and suffering, you need to abandon them.

Overcome and possessed by greed a man takes life, steals or takes what is not given, goes after another person's wife, and tells lies and induces others to do likewise, all of which for long-term harm and suffering. It is likewise with hate and delusion.

So what do you think, friends? Are these things skilful or unskilful (good or bad)? Blameworthy or not? Criticized or praised by the wise? And if undertaken and observed, do these things lead to suffering, harm and ill or not?

When adopted and carried out, such things lead to harm and suffering.

On the other hand, when you know for yourselves that, These and these things are skillful; blameless; even praised by the wise; and lead ot welfare and happiness when taken up and carried out, then you should enter and remain in them.

Great proficiency in living leads to benefit and happiness - equanimity that is free of hate or malice, a hate-free, malice-free, and purified mind. Even in this world, here and now, you should keep yourself free from hatred, free from malice, safe, sound, and happy.

Think of doing evil to none. Abundant awareness is pervading, rests on equanimity, is expansive, may not be measured in every respect, and is linked to inner purity. Hostility goes against it, and vice versa.

said The Buddha, like a lantern in the dark.

 

[1/2 Human]

love this thread bro!
Keep it up man!!

( Glad to see you posting again to )

"[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]What we think, we become." ~Buddha[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

n Bless
Andy

 

[mayflow]

love this thread bro!
Keep it up man!!

( Glad to see you posting again too )

"[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]What we think, we become." ~Buddha[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

n Bless
Andy

May many gracious welcomes garland the doors of your perceptions.

Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,
but to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain,
but for the heart to conquer it.
Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved,
but for the patience to win my freedom.

Shantideva

 

[sumone]

These ones really speak to me.

They stood out to me too.

 

[mayflow]

As it is said in the Treatise on Logic:
If the principal point is reliable,
The rest is secondary.

And the Buddha himself said:
O monks, just like examining gold in order to know its quality,
You should put my words to the test.
A wise person does not accept them merely out of respect.

 

[mayflow]

Anger, lust