Rev. Danny Fisher

Just a Buddhist Minister Trying to Benefit Beings

Month: February, 2011

February 27, 2011

A Gift of Dharma for 2.27.11

Today’s quote is from Sharon Salzberg, the great teacher of insight and lovingkindness meditation who (along with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein) founded the Insight Meditation Societyand the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, which are both located in Barre, MA. Salzberg’s many popular books include A Heart as Wide as the World: Stories on the Path of Lovingkindness, Voices of Insight, Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, The Force of Kindness: Change Your Life with Love and Compassion, and the brand new Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation – A 28-Day Program. This is it – from my recent interview with Sharon for Shambhala Sun Space:

Well, I think it’s always interesting to look at it when we cast someone else as “the other,” and why. I see it as a great experiment…We tend to feel stronger when we’re strident. Where is real strength? Does it come from that burst of momentary anger, or does it come from a different kind of sense, like compassion? What is going to keep us going for the long haul? The changes many of us hope to see in society do not seem to be happening overnight, and so we need a power of endurance and sustainability that really is a power and not just make-believe that everyone gets along. I think we need to see that we can stand on principle and take very, very forceful action without this kind of hatred and intense demonizing of the other that is going on.

February 26, 2011

Bob Thurman Talks Thangkas

February 26, 2011

A Gift of Dharma for 2.26.11

Today’s quote is yet another from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, whom I first quoted and wrote a short biography for in this post. This is it — from the Insight from the Dalai Lama 2011 Calendar:

When passing a neutral person in a crowd, think: This person does not seem to have any relation to me in this lifetime, but over the continuum of lives has definitely been my mother, father, child, or closest friend. In this way you will slowly develop the feeling that all sentient beings are your friends.

February 25, 2011

Check Out My Interview with Sharon Salzberg for Shambhala Sun Space!

Please check out my conversation with the great and fabulous Sharon Salzberg – Buddhist teacher extraordinaire, and founder (along with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein) of both the Insight Meditation Society and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies – over at Shambhala Sun Space. Here’s a sample:

…When things like the national conversation we’re having right now in the aftermath of the horrible shooting attack in Tucson happen, it seems to highlight the crucial importance of the kind of work you and others do. Faith, lovingkindness, happiness—these things all seem very basic and simple and sufficiently discussed, and yet it also seems like an open question how well we’re doing embodying these virtues as a culture.

Yeah, on a lot of levels, we’re not doing that well! I often say that we — not everybody and not always, but by and large — live in a time of blunted aspiration. We don’t imagine that well how things can be better or the lovingkindness we’re capable of or the power of compassion. We often tend to cast them as a kind of weakness, or weak response to something. So one of my hopes in focusing on the virtues is that it might help us open just even the scope of what we believe is possible and what we’re capable of—and I mean “possible” not in an abstract way. We are capable of these forces and understanding that can make a very big difference in our lives.

Read the rest here.

February 25, 2011

A Gift of Dharma for 2.25.11

Today’s quote is from the late, great Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (1920-1996), one of the most remarkable Kagyu/Nyingma masters of the last century, as well as father of renowned Buddhist masters Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche and Mingyur Rinpoche. He died fifteen years ago today. This is it:

Most of us come to the teachings from a place of dissatisfaction. Underlying our experience is a subtle uneasiness that we are unable to pinpoint. We have not totally bought into prevalent attitudes about the way things are. Instead, we are seeking to redirect our energy and revaluate our lives according to a different standard. We see so many levels and types of suffering, both physical and mental, and we wish for some way to alleviate this pervasive anguish, as well as our own discomfort.

If we are fortunate enough to follow these feelings all the way through, we will meet with a genuine teacher and a spiritual discipline that includes truthful self-examination, meditation and other skillful practices to disperse habitual negative patterns and assist the growth of positive ways of being.

An open mind and a willingness to seek alternative answers means we have moved in the right direction. We should enhance this approach by studying the histories and theories of these practices. We then carefully investigate the aspects of the different cycles of teachings to determine our particular path. Eventually, though, to bring about results, we need to embark on the training directly.