2025: Index R

 Ram Dass, Baba see Dass, Baba Ram

Ramakrishna

"The mind will take the color you dye it with.  It is like white clothes just returned from the laundry."  (01/12/2024)

Rilke, Rainer Maria

"A billion stars go spinning through the night,

blazing above your head.

But in you is the present that will be,

when the stars are dead."

Rinpoche, Chagdud Tulku

"Time is very precious.  Do not wait until you are dying to understand your spiritual nature.  If you do it now, you will discover resources of kindness and compassion you didn't know you had.  It is from this mind of intrinsic wisdom and compassion that you can truly benefit others ... Moment by moment, we should look at life as if it were a dream unfolding ... In this relaxed, more open state of being, we have the opportunity to gain the infallible means of dying well, which is recognition of our absolute nature."

Rinpoche, Chogyam Trungpa

"The practice of meditation does not involve discontinuing one's relationship with oneself and looking for a better person or searching for possibilities of reforming oneself and becoming a better person.  The practice of meditation is a way of continuing one's confusion, chaos, aggression, and passion -- but working with it, seeing it from the enlightened point of view."  (01/18/2022) 

Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse

"At present, the outer universe -- earth, stones, mountains, rocks, and cliffs -- seem to the perception of our senses to be permanent and stable, like the house built of reinforced concrete which we think will last for generations.  In fact, there is nothing solid to it at all; it is nothing but a city of dreams."

"Meditation could be said to be the Art of Simplicity: simply sitting, simply breathing and simply being."  (03/18/2023)

Rinpoche, Dzogchen Ponlop

"In the end, we have nothing to lose by opening our hearts." (10/05/2022)

Rinpoche, Nyoshul Khenpo

"Buddha-nature, the essence of awakened enlightenment itself, is present in everyone.  Its essence is forever pure, unalloyed, and flawless.  It is beyond increase or decrease.  It is neither improved by remaining in nirvana nor degenerated by straying into samsara.  Its fundamental essence is forever perfect, unobscured, quiescent, and unchanging.  Its expressions are myriad."  (04/26/2022)

Rinpoche, Yongey Mingyur

"Every technique of Buddhist meditation, ultimately, generates compassion.  Whenever you look at your mind, you can't help but recognize your similarity to those around you.  When you see your own desire to be happy, you can't avoid seeing the same desire in others.  And when you look clearly at your own fear, anger, or aversion, you can't help but see that everyone around you feels the same fear, anger, and aversion.  This is wisdom."  (10/14/2022)

"Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them."  (11/06/2022)

Rinzai

"The truly religious man has nothing to do but go on with his life as he finds it in the various circumstances of this worldly existence.  He rises quietly in the morning, puts on his dress and goes out to his work.  When he wants to walk, he walks; when he wants to sit, he sits. He has no hankering after Buddhahood ... How is this possible?" (07/07/06)

The Rinzai Teachings

"You must not be artful.  Be your ordinary self ... You yourself as you are -- that is Buddha Dharma.  I stand or I sit; I array myself or I eat; I sleep when I am fatigued.  The fool will mock me but the wise man will understand."

Robertson, Frederick William

"Truth is given, not to be contemplated, but to be done.  Life is an action, not a thought."  (06/24/2023)

Roethke, Theodore

"I learn by going where I have to go."  (08/22/2022)

Rogers, Carl R. 

"The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change."  (10/09/2022)

Roshi, Robert Aitken

"Everything is contingent upon everything else ....

"People, animals, and other plants flourish, and give themselves in turn.  The Buddha suggested that human beings can get along best by following this natural way of things.  Giving creates happiness; greed creates misery."  (05/05/2022) 

Rumi

"Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop."  (08/18/2022)

"Don't turn away.  Keep your gaze on the bandaged place.  That's where the light enters you."  (10/04/2022)

"Only from the heart can you touch the sky."  (06/27/2022)

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"Soul of all souls, life of life -- you are That.

"Seen and unseen, moving and unmoving -- you are That.

"The road that leads to the City is endless; 

"Go without head or feet

"And you'll already be there.

"What else could you be? -- you are That."  (12/06/2022)

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"There is a voice that doesn't use words.  Listen."  (01/14/2023)

"When you eventually see through the veils to how things really are, you will keep saying again and again, "This is certainly not like we thought it was."  (10/27/2022)

Ruskin, John

"Curiosity is a gift, a capacity of pleasure in knowing ..." (04/07/2022)

"There is no wealth but life."