Imagine that one person wakes up from a dream in which he experienced a hundred years of happiness and another wakes up from one in which he experienced only a brief moment of happiness. For both of these people their happiness will never return…
Texts
Buddhist Texts.
Breakthrough Sermon by Bodhidharma
Those who understand the mind reach enlightenment with minimal effort. Those who don’t understand the mind practise in vain. Everything good and bad comes from your own mind. To find something beyond the mind is impossible…
Maha Prajnaparamita Sutra – Tangut Manuscript
The Buddha: Without mark is this perfection of wisdom. Just as the element of space and the element of air cannot be approached by the mark of the total reality of any dharma, just so the perfection of wisdom.
The Questions of Suvikrantavikramin. Perfect Wisdom: The Short Prajnaparamita.
Suffering does have its good points, by Acarya Shantideva
If life were based upon what we liked, then not a single one of us would suffer, because nobody wants to be in pain…
Vimalakirti Sutra
At that time, out of this very skill in liberative technique, Vimalakirti manifested himself as if sick. To inquire after his health, the king, the officials, the lords, the youths, the aristocrats, the householders, the businessmen, the townfolk, the countryfolk, and thousands of other living beings came forth from the great city of Vaisali and called on the invalid. When they arrived, Vimalakirti taught them the Dharma…
There is no evil comparable to hatred, by Acharya Shantideva
The causes of happiness rarely occur, whereas the causes for suffering are abundant. Yet without suffering, there is no renunciation. Therefore, mind, stay firm!
Awareness — Always delight in silence, by Acharya Shantideva
Never forsake, even at the cost of one’s life, those spiritual friends who understand the meaning of the great way and personify the bodhisattva’s practice…
Awareness — If I manage to restrain my mind, by Acharya Shantideva
Troublesome beings are like space; it is impossible to destroy them all. But if angry thoughts alone are overcome, it is equivalent to conquering all one’s enemies…