Change is Constant

“Every cell in the human body regenerates on average every seven years. Like snakes, in our own way, we shed our skin. Biologically, we are brand new people. We may look the same, we probably do. The change isn't visible, at least not in most of us. But we are all changed, completely, forever.”

“When we say things like ‘people don’t change’, it drives scientists crazy, because change is literally the only constant in all of science. Energy, matter, it’s always changing, morphing, merging, growing, dying. It’s the way people try not to change that’s unnatural; the way we cling to what things were instead of letting them be what they are; the way we cling to old memories instead of forming new ones; the way we insist on believing, despite any scientific indication, that anything in this lifetime is permanent. Change is constant. How we experience change, that’s up to us. It can feel like death, or it can feel like a second chance at life. If we open our fingers, loosen our grips, go with it, it can feel like pure adrenalin. Like at any moment, we can have another chance at life. Like at any moment, we can be born allover again.”

-Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 7, Episode 1: With You, I’m Born Again

Living is not Enough

Just living is not enough. 
One must have sunshine, freedom,
and a little flower. 

~Hans Christian Andersen

Native American Wisdom

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers.  So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin.  Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.  If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.  ~Native American Wisdom

Eastern Thought and Compassion

I realized that Eastern thought had somewhat more compassion for all living things.  Man was a form of life that in another reincarnation might possibly be a horsefly or a bird of paradise or a deer.  So a man of such a faith, looking at animals, might be looking at old friends or ancestors.  In the East the wilderness has no evil connotation; it is thought of as an expression of the unity and harmony of the universe.  ~William O. Douglas, Go East, Young Man, 1974

Human Beings and the Universe

A human being is part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole [of] nature in its beauty.  ~Albert Einstein, 1950

The wish to become enlightened

Once the initial wish to become enlightened arises in the mind, something happens unconsciously within us. At first, we may actually work against this wish, and create more suffering for ourselves, but it is through this suffering that we can eliminate many obstacles and wake up. -Tarthang Tulku, Openness Mind.

Open awareness

Open awareness is accessible to all who search for it. It can always be reached by dwelling into the nature of experience. Our experience can take us far beyond our ordinary thinking, seeing and being. It can take us to enlightenment itself. -Tarthang Tulku, Openness Mind.

On Knowledge

Knowledge joins us to every human being who has ever existed on this planet. Although barriers of time and place may separate us, we are never alone. We are brought together by the universal language of the human heart. All people share the same basic needs and desires. - Tarthang Tulku, Knowledge of Freedom

Let There Be Peace on Earth

Mahatma Gandhi quotes

About living and learning

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow.

Learn as if you were to live forever.” 

-Mahatma Gandhi

Full Moon

“See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...we need silence to be able to touch souls.” –Mother Theresa of Calcutta

Imagination

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited.
Imagination encircles the world.

-Albert Einstein

Spiritual Awareness

How we live, what is happening in our lives, how we are affected by our experience – this is the ground of reality and the source of spiritual awareness. We can cultivate our spiritual awareness in every aspect of our lives – in our work, our relationships, and even in our abilities. All of these are potential teachers that we can open to and learn from when we see the possibilities for growth inherent in all we do.

-Tarthang Tulku, Openness Mind (Dharma Publishing).

Balance

Tarthang Tulku - Mandala Gardens

Nature and Spirituality

The power and beauty of the environment create a support for spiritual endeavors. Inner spiritual realities are reflected in the colors, shapes and forms of the outer natural world. This relationship is as a mandala, an aesthetic and symbolic arrangement of elements around a central point. [...] The world of nature speaks to the human heart directly: sustained, nourished and supported by beauty, the heart begins to open like the petals of a flower unfolding. The flower of the heart is the center of the mandala. When the heart opens, we begin to realize the unity of existence and our communion with nature -Tarthang Tulku, Mandala Gardens

Albert Einstein on Buddha, Moses, and Jesus

What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the enquiring and constructive mind. -Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein on Buddhism

Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and the spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. -Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein on the Religion of the Future

The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism. -Albert Einstein

Love yourself

"You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection." - Buddha

Fate and Action

"I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act."

- Buddha

Start Action, Getting Results

"Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it". -Goethe

The Voice within Yourself

Human Beings and the Universe

A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the 
whole of nature in its beauty. ... We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive. -Albert Einstein