Buddhist Humility - Quotations by Zen Master Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz
Tantric Buddhism
www.ramaqoutes.com
Buddhist Humility:
http://www.ramaquotes.com/html/humility.html
"Humility is my best friend, I've always valued it above all other
spiritual qualities.
Humility is the most important quality in the spiritual life. When it
is lacking spiritual growth stops.
If you have humility you are halfway to God-realization.
The only way you will advance spiritually is through humility.
If you seek eternity and light and luminosity, seek humility first ...
first things first.
Humility is the time that you spend in love with existence.
Your life is pure joy, pure ecstasy, when you live in humility.
You are happiest when you are most humble. You are most miserable when
you are egotistical.
When you're humble it's like wearing a beautiful flower. It inspires
others. It generates energy and power.
Humility has tremendous power. Think of Gandhi. That was humility in
action. He changed the shape of an entire nation.
We prefer humility in others -- and if we prefer it in others -- we
can soon prefer it in ourselves.
Humility doesn't mean hiding in the corner and pretending you are not
strong. Humility means to be what you are.
“The person next to me meditates better than I do. They're purer.” --
This is the ego feeling sorry for itself.
Humility accepts the very nature of a human being is complete,
unadulterated, ecstatic joy.
Have a healthy respect and love for yourself, but don't be taken out
by your ego.
Practice humility constantly. Whenever you start to think well of
yourself, push those thoughts aside. Whenever you think ill of
yourself, push those thoughts aside.
Humility means coming to the root of the matter, honestly looking at
yourself and saying: "This is me for better or for worse."
Humility feels that there is someone, somewhere who can do anything I
can do better -- except one thing: no one can be better at being me.
Humility is courage, the open acceptance of your own perfection.
Humility is the conscious awareness and acceptance of eternity as your
body.
I must play my role, great or small -- that is humility, without self-
importance, without self-indulgence.
We're blind, deaf and dumb. It is only that Self, which is our life
force that makes who and what we are. The realization of that is self-
realization.
Humility accepts that God places us in the right place at every single
moment, not a moment to soon and not a moment too late.
Humility means freedom. It provides growth and takes you out of the
cycle of change that you are currently in, which is stagnation.
The fact that you see a manifold world with different times, places
and conditions --this exists only because of a lack of humility.
Only the ego can fear, experience hate, lust and jealousy. Humility
experiences none of these things -- it merges into the transcendental
awareness of perfection.
It's very easy for us to be humble when no one else is around. There
is no reason for us to demonstrate our superiority, because no one
challenges it.
When we interact with others the ego manifests. We have to show that
we're superior or that we know more, are more spiritual, evolved -- or
that we're the worst, everyone is better.
You can be in a crowd full of friends and be miserable because you're
alienated. The ego alienates.
Ego synthesized is selfhood, the sense of self-importance, that you
really matter ... nothing could be further from the truth.
The ego seeks fame and fortune. Humility doesn't seek at all -- it
accepts.
Everyone will admire you when you do well. What a horrible thing to do
to someone.
Whenever anybody does well spiritually, I usually ignore them. It's
the greatest compliment I can pay them.
When you realize that the ego is making you miserable you don't
identify with it. You identify with your soul's humility and the ego
dissolves.
When someone compliments you, listen, but don't believe it. Praise or
blame are immaterial. You know what you are.
People who are humble don't talk too much; they listen.
You stop growing when you stop listening.
Don't stand out. Be in a room and remain unnoticed.
Humility means you're willing to give someone a bigger slice of the
pie.
Let someone else take your place in line, Let someone else be first.
Let someone else achieve realization before you.
Real humility is something that no one else will see. No one will know
about your humility, if it's real.
Humility can give everything to God. Everything comes from the source,
everything returns to the source.
Humility means realizing that it's fun to give everything away,
particularly the things that you are most attached to.
It's an exciting adventure to give those things that you've always
held onto.
Meditation is humility -- the absence of thought, doubt, and ego.
In meditation the mind stops, thought ceases. When thought stops, the
world stops. When the world stops, perception stops. When perception
stops, the sense of "I" as a perceiver falls away.
Every day work on your humility through your meditation, giving more
of yourself, giving those things you don't want to give.
When there's nothing but humility, there's nothing but spiritual
oneness.
If you wish to cultivate humility, then you should associate with
those who are humble.
When you admire others, you become one with them and the world loves
you.
Without humility you can't love. Love means looking beyond the self to
the other.
If you suffer in love, if you have problems in love, it's because you
don't have enough humility.
If you really have humility when you love, there is only one thought:
"What can I do for my beloved?"
Humility does not live in the prison of illusion that says that this
world is a dark and terrible place. Those perceptions are phantoms;
everything is eternity, God, divine.
There is nothing that isn't perfect, the only reason we don't see that
perfection constantly is because we lack humility.
Humility means that you have the courage to accept that you are
eternity itself.
Accept that you are that -- you are the matchless, eternal reality.
That's true seeing, true humility."
- Zen Master Rama
Julian
> Zen Master Rama:
Julian
> Zen Master Rama:
norbu_tragri
wrote:
> Zen Master Rama:www.ramaqoutes.com
>
> Buddhist Humility:http://www.ramaquotes.com/html/humility.html
>
"Zen Master Rama" id est Fredric Lenz killed his dogs, his "girl
friend" (brainwashed
disciple) and he took an overdose and went out to drown rather than
relating with
the rest of the world. Fred lived his life abusing others, lying,
misleading, and
getting rich by abusing others until his abuses came home to haunt
him...
He poisoned his dogs, his ditzy girlfriend, and then ODed and drowned
himself in
a drugged haze.
So go sell your cult somewhere else where people know nothing about
that.
or post here again to get an education on all the abuses Freddy
heapped on people while
he was getting his cult going...maybe you don't know about them ?
anyway, it's off-topic for a tibetan buddhist group, as Freddy wasn't
anything such.
- n.
American Buddhist Monk
norbu => against the buddha's teachings
"To be attached to a certain view
and to look down upon others' views as inferior,
this the wise men call a fetter."
- Buddha
norbu => fettered (and hate-filled)
Julian
norbu_tragri
First let's note that "Tantic Buddhism" posted with Windows NT 6.0...
User-Agent: G2/1.0
X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US)
AppleWebKit/525.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/1.0.154.53 Safari/
525.19,gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe)
You post as "American Buddhist Monk" but your footprint is the same:
User-Agent: G2/1.0
X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US)
AppleWebKit/525.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/1.0.154.53 Safari/
525.19,gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe)
So why the name change?
>
> norbu => against the buddha's teachings
You make that claim and give a partial quote of Walpola's Rahula's
*paraphrase*
of the sutta-nipatta text without noting that W.R. noted it as a
paraphrase.
Here is the full text without paraphrase:
Snp 4.5
PTS: Sn 796-803
Paramatthaka Sutta: Supreme
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
© 1994–2009
Alternate translation: Ireland
When dwelling on views as "supreme,"
a person makes them the utmost thing in the world,
&, from that, calls all others inferior
and so he's not free from disputes.
When he sees his advantage in what's seen, heard, sensed,
or in precepts & practices,
seizing it there he sees all else as inferior.
That, too, say the skilled, is a binding knot:
that in dependence on which you regard another as inferior.
So a monk shouldn't be dependent on what's seen, heard, or sensed,
or on precepts & practices;
nor should he conjure a view in the world in connection with
knowledge
or precepts & practices;
shouldn't take himself to be "equal";
shouldn't think himself inferior
or superlative.
Abandoning what he had embraced,
abandoning self,
not clinging,
he doesn't make himself dependent even in connection with knowledge;
doesn't follow a faction among those who are split;
doesn't fall back on any view whatsoever.
One who isn't inclined toward either side —
becoming or not-,
here or beyond —
who has no entrenchment when considering what's grasped among
doctrines,
hasn't the least preconceived perception with regard to what's seen,
heard, or sensed.
By whom, with what, should he be pigeonholed here in the world? —
this brahman who hasn't adopted views.
They don't conjure, don't yearn,
don't adhere even to doctrines.
A brahman not led by precepts or practices,
gone to the beyond —
Such —
doesn't fall back.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.4.05.than.html
The "views" in question here were "Is the World eternal? - not
eternal?"
Is the body one thing, self another? and so on, as examined in other
suttas,
which it seems you have not read. Those are the "views" refered to in
this quote.
If we take your misreading of "views" as meaning any view at all, then
we could
not say Nazi's held a bad view, that the Soviet Gulags were bad, that
the genocide
in Somali was bad, that crashing jetliners into skyscapers is
bad...Pedophiles- just
a view...Murders - just a view.
You quote a paraphrase out of context:
> "To be attached to a certain view
> and to look down upon others' views as inferior,
> this the wise men call a fetter."
> - Buddha
again note the actual text:
"A person who associates himself with certain views, considering them
as best and making them supreme in the world, he says, because of
that, that all other views are inferior; therefore he is not free from
contention (with others). In what is seen, heard, cognized and in
ritual observances performed, he sees a profit for himself. Just by
laying hold of that view he regards every other view as worthless.
Those skilled (in judgment) say that (a view becomes) a bond if,
relying on it, one regards everything else as inferior.
Therefore a bhikkhu should not depend on what is seen, heard or
cognized, nor upon ritual observances.
He should not present himself as equal to, nor imagine himself to be
inferior, nor better than, another.
Abandoning (the views) he had (previously) held and not taking up
(another), he does not seek a support even in knowledge. Among those
who dispute he is certainly not one to take sides. He does not [have]
recourse to a view at all.
In whom there is no inclination to either extreme, for becoming or
non-becoming, here or in another existence, for him there does not
exist a fixed viewpoint on investigating the doctrines assumed (by
others). Concerning the seen, the heard and the cognized he does not
form the least notion. That
brahmana who does not grasp at a view, with what could he be
identified in the world?
"They do not speculate nor pursue (any notion); doctrines are not
accepted by them. A (true) brahmana is beyond, does not fall back on
views."
- Sutta Nipata IV.5, Paramatthaka Sutta, title: "On Views" (Sutta
Nipata vv. 796-803)
And you, ironically then post:
>
> norbu => fettered (and hate-filled)
- claiming and clinging to superiority to me,
wanting to push the view you are attached to.
What i posted were the facts of Mr.Lenz killing his dogs, convincing
his girlfriend to commit suicide, and his OD/self-drowning. i didn't
post a view about the self being one or many,
a view about karma, i didn't hold up a doctrine, etc etc. i certainly
didn't state that i
was superior, equal to, or inferior to Fred Lenz, you, or anyone, nor
did i say that
i hated Mr.Lenz' girlfriend, his dogs, him, you, or anyone - that's a
fiction on your part.
Fred Lenz had some insights, just as everyone has, and had his own
path to work out...
Broke away from his teaher Chinmoy, etc etc
It's the incidents of exploitation (6 million a year extracted from
followers, sex with
young female students, drug abuse, sending body-guards to beat-up a
reporter from the L.A.
Weekly newspaper) that need to be noted along with his golden words to
put it in perspective.
This is just noting what happened, it is not putting forth a view such
as "karma persists vs karma can be worn out by intentional suffering",
nor is it hatred. Please read the suttas
before you quote paraphrases you find on-line.
Some followers of Lenz want to put on the Pope hat and find new
students without dealing
with what happened, denying what happened. That is what is meant by
"taking up a view, clinging
to a view". Trying to shout down history and demonize those who bring
it up, acting
Holier-Than-Thou...
There are now recruits waiting in the wings here on these NGs, just a
few grey haired folks
who have seen lots of movements, hopes, implosions, reworkings, etc,
who have read suttas,
sutras, agamas, tantras, upadesas, bhasyas, etc etc, buddhist, hindu,
jain, taoist, shinto,
navaho, hopi, sufi, etc etc...and actually studied and practiced with
lots of folks...
and mellowed out and learned to look at life without dogma...The naive
starry-eyed teens are
not here.
So the question of Patimoksa vows from Sarvastivadin or Theravadin
etc need not arise,
refuge vows or bodhisattva vows, let alone samaya vows, root and
branch, etc...
wishing you happiness, ease, freedom, wonder, etc, all the best,
- n.
- no dogma
norbu_tragri
neeters typo:
"There are now recruits waiting in the wings here on these NGs"
shud have read:
"There are no recruits waiting in the wings here on these NGs"
all funny and sad, peace, friendship, etc to all
- n. :)