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