2011 April « Rev. Danny Fisher

A Gift of Dharma for 4.30.11

Bob Thurman at Santa Monica's Broad Stage tonight. Photo by the author.

Today’s quote is from Robert A.F. Thurman, who is Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, co-founder and president of Tibet House U.S., prolific author and teacher, and translator. (For me, Thurman’s translation of the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra, The Holy Teaching of Vimalakīrti: A Mahāyāna Scripture, remains one of the richest and most rewarding English translations of, well, anything.) I recently interviewed “Buddha Bob” for Shambhala SunSpace, and I just enjoyed his lecture at Santa Monica College’s Broad Stage (sponsored by InsightLA) tonight. This is it — from his talk tonight (as recorded via “tweet” by Buddhist Geeks):

You’re real. The problem is you aren’t really real.

April 30, 2011

Feel Better, Lama Zopa…

Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly Online has news about the great teacher’s recent stroke, as well as links to prayers, places for updates, and more.

Along with the late, charismatic Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa co-founded the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition. Following Lama Yeshe’s death in 1984, Lama Zopa assumed the primary responsibility of serving as spiritual director of the FPMT.

Lama Zopa’s many books include How to Be Happy, Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion, Transforming Problems into Happiness, The Door to Satisfaction: Heart Advice of a Tibetan Buddhist Master, and Dear Lama Zopa: Radical Solutions for Transforming Problems into Happiness.

Please get well soon, Lama Zopa!

If you are cutting carrots, you should invest one hundred percent of yourself into the business of carrot-cutting. Nothing else. While cutting the carrot, please don’t try to think of the Buddha or anything else. Just cut the carrot in the best way possible, becoming one with the carrot, becoming one with the cutting. Live deeply that moment of carrot-cutting. It is as important as the practice of sitting meditation. It is as important as giving or hearing a dharma talk. When you cut the carrot with all of your being, that is mindfulness. If you can cultivate concentration, and if you can get the insight you need to liberate yourself from suffering, that is because you know how to cut your carrots.