Posted April 3rd, 2007 17:49 IPI found this interesting quote on heaven and hell. Didn't realy fit with the old thread so I started a new one.
"There is an ancient Zen scroll that shows heaven and hell. In hell, the hungry ghosts are all sitting at a great banquet table filled with all kinds of delicacies, trying to feed themselves with very long spoons. But no matter how hard they try, they cannot reach their mouths.
"In heaven, the hungry ghosts are sitting around the same banquet table. But these hungry spirits are feeding each other with their long spoons, so that they all can eat.
"This is the way to transform our world from a hell to a heaven. Only when we offer a portion of our food to our fellow hungry ghosts can we satisfy our own deepest hunger."
Posted April 3rd, 2007 18:52 IPalways liked this storey.
laughing yogi
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Posted April 3rd, 2007 19:32 IP Mukluk,
That was a very wise and beautiful quote, Thankyou.
mystic light
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Posted April 3rd, 2007 21:37 IPThat is a great story!
Looked for a few heaven quotes, found many and chose those:
"The Way of Heaven is to benefit others and not to injure.
The Way of the sage is to act but not to compete.
Lao-tzu (604 BC - 531 BC), The Way of Lao-tzu
The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.
G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)
To see a world in a Grain of Sand,
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
William Blake (1757 - 1827)
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963)
Eternity has nothing to do with the hereafter... This is it... If you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere. The experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here's the place to have the experience.
Joseph Campbell (1904 - 1987)
The bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to heaven; the good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth.
Saadi (1184 - 1291)
Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with.
Leighton
Those who enter heaven may find the outer walls plastered with creeds, but they won't find any on the inside.
not heaven, not hell,
nirvana, direct experience of the eternal moment.
came to mind
mystic light
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Posted April 4th, 2007 11:50 IPCool...but is Nirvana tantamount to heaven perhaps? Descriptions of the enlightened mind give such terms as " calm, serenity, highest bliss".
...Heavenly sisters and brothers, what are we doing here? Let's start for heaven! (might have nowhere to go but inside and clean up???)
http://schmuckzauberei.blogspot.com/
ev
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Posted April 4th, 2007 12:10 IPHeaven is full of heaven,
hell is full of hell.
Nirvana is empty of nirvana.
Heaven and hell are both interprations of nirvana?
where as no concept can capture nirvana?
(Edited by ev)
mystic light
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Quote: mystic light wrote:
Hehehe... the harpist...
And heres the other one.....
Hohoho
fivenotesplusseven
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Posted April 11th, 2007 05:00 IPBy dwelling our mind on evil things, hell arises.
By dwelling our minds on good acts, paradise appears.
Hui-Neng
(almost to simple)
mystic light
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Posted April 11th, 2007 07:57 IPNo., 5+7, I think that is perfect! Ever heard the wisdom that everything good is simple, only we make it complicated because we are deluded?
I love this quote.
It reminds me of the story of the two wolfs we have inside. A good one with compassion, joy and love.
A bad one with anger, hate and greed.
The one we feed will grow
http://schmuckzauberei.blogspot.com/
Peter_McWeeter
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Posted April 11th, 2007 14:53 IPYeah anna totally...
The simple things; Food, friends, walking in the countryside, even breathing!
The complicated things: our desires, lusting after girls, after material possessions, war, money, sex, power...
There are essential 'needs': Food, water, shelter, sleep...Isn't everything else inbetween just unnecessary 'wants' (as oppossed to 'needs')?? All superficial, all fabrications, all illusionary...
I think so.
But i'm really trying to transcend the need to describe things in 'good' and 'bad' terms, I think that is terribly dualistic...after all it's all just energy
mystic light
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Posted April 11th, 2007 15:25 IPThe simple things...so wise what you said:
Think of food. In wartimes people often don't have enough.
I still recall the older people talking about how hungry they were. A simple egg catapulted them into bliss, they ate a buttered bread with chives from a farmer who they walked to from the city with tears in their eyes.
Everything was luxury, was appreciated, precious, holy then.
My mom said they didn't have soap to wash them selves. They got a little piece of meat once a week on food marks.
They left the city in the fall to search the fields the farmers had harvested for leftover grains and a few tiny potatoes, marching home dusty and tired after a hot day.
Can you imagine what a revelation it was to eat the potatoes?
It is hard to imagine what the poor are happy about.
Clothes were made out of curtains they took from the windows...
Imagine.
We live in such incredible luxury.
If I were rich I would spend a part of my time where the poorest are to help them. Or donate generously. If only I had so much.
Quote: mystic light wrote:If I were rich I would spend a part of my time where the poorest are to help them. Or donate generously. If only I had so much.
It's discouraging though how most wealthy people have no idea how to use there wealth in the most skillful way.
Look at hollywood, rock/pop stars, etc. So many have cocaine /heroin addictions, psychological problems, yet these are the very people the mass media and society in general idolises. It's scary sometimes...These people sometimes seem like the most miserable and lost, whilst poorer people who lead simpler lives often seem in many ways more fulfilled, more happier...Though of course at the end of the day it has nothing to do with wealth. People in poverty often join gangs and turn to crime because they look at the rich at see what they have, they think; "You know if I was that wealthy and had all that i'd be much happier". But this all-pervading disatisfaction i've been talking about, it knows no bounds, certainly it has nothing to do with class systems or material wealth...Rich, poor, doesn't matter...
I have to laugh. My parents buy about 5 national lottery tickets a week. They get so excited about winning every week. They talk about how they'd buy a house in some exotic country, how they'd buy a flash car and generally they believe it would solve all there problems, bring them infinite happiness. And I tease them for it sometimes (I don't play, never been interested in gambling), yet they can't understand when I explain that being rich often causes an entirely new set of problems for people. Like you have to worry about more bills, you have to worry about people trying to get money off of you, you have to get security, insurance, sort out all the taxes, then you hav eto hire people to sort this out for you, and you have to sort out how much you pay these people too do it...the list is endless! Unless of course you are very wise and understand this point, and use your wealth skillfully, then it'll undoubtedly just cause more problems than it will solve.
I don't want my parents to win the lottery, because I know they for a fact they wouldn't be able to use the wealth to bring others and themselves happiness lol
Again, the national lottery, it's just another reflection of the "everything will be better tomorrow" society.
mystic light
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Posted April 11th, 2007 17:36 IPThe few times I played lottery I lost money I could have used better. So I don't.
I bank on my work with the help of the universe and God. That 's all.
I think I would not have more problems if I had more money. . I would basically continue to live as I do now, only pay my bills as soon as i get them.
http://schmuckzauberei.blogspot.com/
Peter_McWeeter
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Posted April 11th, 2007 17:56 IPBe careful what you wish for, that's all i'm saying
laughing yogi
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Posted April 19th, 2007 10:34 IP
Sorry folks my post seems to have vanished!! I tried to repost but its not there anymore..... so this by way of explanation.
{oh thanks Mystic, I do Love this quote....}
(Edited by laughing yogi)
mystic light
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Posted April 19th, 2007 11:24 IPGoodness. Glad it's back. I hope it wasn't me on the wrong button, I copied it yesterday!
