SuttaCentral
A subhāṣitam (a verse of wisdom):
āpadāṃ kathitaḥ panthā indriyāṇāmasaṃyamaḥ ।
tajjayaḥ saṃpadāṃ mārgo yeneṣṭaṃ tena gamyatām ॥
The unrestrained enjoyment of the senses is said to be the route to disaster
Control over the senses is said to be the way to good fortune.
You can however choose the path you’d like to travel on.
heart generating mettā in all directions
or
impermanence
or
both
No one has ever been able to control his thinking, although people may tell the story of how they have. I don’t let go of my thoughts-I meet them with understanding. Then they let go of me."
The only thing you fear is the unreality that you yourself have invented.
Reality - the way that is, exactly as it is, in every moment - is always kind. It’s our story about reality that blurs our vision, obscures what’s true, and leads us to believe that there is injustice in the world. I sometimes say that you move totally away from reality when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to suffer.
When we question our thoughts, we see that the craziness was never in the world, but in us.
Nothing outside you can ever give you what you’re looking for.
As long as you think that the cause of your problem is “out there” - as long as you think that anyone or anything is responsible for your suffering - the situation is hopeless. It means that you are forever in the role of victim, that you’re suffering in paradise.
When they attack you and you notice that you love them with all your heart, your Work is done.
I love what I think, and I’m never tempted to believe it. Thoughts are like the wind or the leaves on the trees or the raindrops falling. They’re not personal, they don’t belong to us, they just come and go. When they’re met with understanding, they’re friends.
It’s not the darkness that people fear; it’s what they imagine into the darkness.
Since the past is unreal and the future is unreal, all your thoughts are about nothing.
No one has ever been angry at
another human being-we’re only angry at
our story of them.
If you think the cause of your problem is ‘out there,’ you’ll try to solve it from the outside. Take the shortcut: solve it from within.
Hurt feelings or discomfort of any kind cannot be cause by another person. No one outside me can hurt me. That’s not a possibility. It’s only when I believe a stressful thought that I get hurt. And I’m the one who’s hurting me by believing what I think. This is very good news, because it means that I don’t have to get someone else to stop hurting me. I’m the one who can stop hurting me. It’s within my power.
~ Byron Katie
2 posts were split to a new topic: Byron Katie’s work (off-shoot of “Could be Buddhist…”)
"If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same; "
or, a somewhat earlier version;
“lābhammi je a sumaṇo
alābhe eva dummaṇo
se hu seṭhe maṇussāṇaṃ
devāṇaṃ va sayakkaū”
From the chapter 43 of the book of the radiant sayings of the wise, or “Isibhasiyaim”, Jameṇa on self control:
in gain not overjoyed
in loss not overwhelmed
that one indeed is supreme amongst men
like the gods are the self controlled
thus spoke the arahant Jameṇa.
_
Isibhasiyaim 43 jamaṇṇāṃ ajjhayaṇaṃ:
lābhammi je a sumaṇo
alābhe eva dummaṇo
se hu seṭhe maṇussāṇaṃ
devāṇaṃ va sayakkaū
jameṇa arahatā isiṇā buitaṃ.
_
lābhammi je a sumaṇo (8 akṣarāṇi, 12 mātrāḥ)
alābhe eva dummaṇo (8 akṣarāṇi, 13 mātrāḥ)
se hu seṭhe maṇussāṇaṃ (8 akṣarāṇi, 14 mātrāḥ)
devāṇaṃ va sayakkaū (8 akṣarāṇi, 13 mātrāḥ)
anuṣṭubh
_
| Prakrit | English |
|---|---|
| lābhammi | in gain |
| je | who |
| a | not |
| sumaṇo | joyful |
| . | |
| alābhe | in loss |
| eva | also/even |
| dummaṇo | sorrowful |
| . | |
| se | that (one) |
| hu | indeed |
| seṭhe | supreme |
| maṇussāṇaṃ | among men |
| . | |
| devāṇaṃ | among gods |
| va | like |
| sayakkaū | self-controlled |
_
Metta
When a problem comes along (you must whip it)
Before the cream sets out too long (you must whip it)
When something’s going wrong (you must whip it)
Now whip it into shape
Shape it up, get straight
Go forward, move ahead
Try to detect it, it’s not too late
To whip it, whip it good
"Life’s but a walking shadow,
A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more:
It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5
So many lay people are practicing corpse contemplation in my country right now. It’s confounding 
! (If only they truly were.)
He fell in love with himself at first sight, and it is a passion to which he has always remained faithful.
—Anthony Powell
I feel like you test the limits of what this thread can bear and in that spirit I feel like the opening to The Unique and Its Property by Stirner would suit, but i will need to hunt down the passage
Well, apophthegmata above indeed is slightly ironic, and irony perhaps isn’t really very Buddhist, but in essence it is perfectly within the message of the Buddha:
“There is no affection like that for oneself,
SN 1: 13
