If a Man Speaks With a Pure Mind - The Buddha

Written on June 1, 2008 by Tom Stine


What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind.

If a man speaks or acts with an impure mind, suffering follows him as the wheel of the cart follows the beast that draws the cart.

What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind.

If a man speaks or acts with a pure mind, joy follows him as his own shadow.



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Posted in: Guru Quotes
10 comments

Comments

MarkNo Gravatar  said
on June 2nd, 2008 at 12:48 am


Tom
I like this one.If we could only keep those pure thoughts it would make life just that little bit easier wouldn’t it? It’s when you let garbage in that we can produce garbage to come out.

How do we keep the garbage out. Maybe not watch so much tv. I guess that would be a good start.

Mark’s last blog post..Justa moving and a groovin

Mags | Woo-Woo WisdomNo Gravatar  said
on June 2nd, 2008 at 3:28 am


I love this. It really is our choice as to whether we drag a heavy burden behind us, or something that follows us as lightly and easily as a shadow.

Mags | Woo-Woo Wisdom’s last blog post..Developing A Relationship With Your Spirit Guides (Part 2)

Tom StineNo Gravatar  said
on June 2nd, 2008 at 8:14 am


@Mark A suggestion: don’t worry about keeping your mind pure. Instead, just don’t believe the impurity. That helps to straighten the garbage out. Oh, and throw the TV out the window. :-D
@Mags The Buddha got it right, didn’t he? I’m all in favor of the light and easy shadow.

MarkNo Gravatar  said
on June 2nd, 2008 at 8:34 am


If it was just me I would throw the Tv out. But if I did that Momma would throw me out. Actually I do limit my watching quite a bit.I agree with no believing the impurity.

Mark’s last blog post..Justa moving and a groovin

Chris KirkNo Gravatar  said
on June 2nd, 2008 at 2:22 pm


Thanks Tom. I really like this teaching and believe it to be very true. As one who works with adolescents on a daily basis, I wish to find better ways to communicate this truth to them, helping them realize the power inherent in the moment they have been given.

Chris Kirk’s last blog post..My Inner Snob

DavidyaNo Gravatar  said
on June 2nd, 2008 at 2:44 pm


Nice, Tom.
In a way, pure mind is no mind. Not that mind is not there, but mind simply processes what moves through us into words. Rather than jumping in and judging and making wrong or right and muddying the waters, it simply flows.

Then creativity, insight, and clarity are tops.

Davidya’s last blog post..Forms of Resistance

DavidyaNo Gravatar  said
on June 2nd, 2008 at 2:46 pm


Oh, and joy is our shadow (laughs)

Alex KayNo Gravatar  said
on June 3rd, 2008 at 1:35 am


Funny how mankind has evolved drastically in the last couple of hundred (and thousand) years… But still we’re just humans. It’s like we keep on “improving” with all kinds of technicalities to cover the fact that we ARE JUST humans. Emotions, feelings, feeling joy, feeling sad, it’s all human.

Fantastic quote(s) Tom :)
Alex Kay’s last blog post..Why Gifts and Flowers don’t work for Creating Attraction - Only for Amplifying it

Tom StineNo Gravatar  said
on June 3rd, 2008 at 10:59 am


@Mark Repeat after me: don’t throw the TV out the window. Living on the street wouldn’t be so hot. :-D
@David I agree with your assessment of pure mind. Yes, it is a no mind kind of thing.

Tom StineNo Gravatar  said
on June 3rd, 2008 at 11:02 am


@Chris You are most welcome. If you discover a good way to teach this stuff to adolescents, please share. Although, if you really get down and dirty with them, they are far more receptive, at times, to some of this “out there” stuff than we can imagine. Their egos are in a tremendous state of flux at that age, and so they can be open. Sometimes. ;-)
@Alex I love doing the quotes. There really isn’t a time limit on great teachings. 2000 years or 200 minutes, great teachings are invaluable. Because, as you say, we are still human.


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Guru Quotes

Behind most spiritual practices is the belief that you have to get someplace you’re not- a destination called realization or enlightenment. But realization isn’t someplace else; it’s the naturally occurring human state. It doesn’t belong to anybody. It’s who we all are. Spiritual practices also set up many pictures of what this state looks like. For example, when I described how much fear was present, people told me the fear meant that something must be wrong, because fear was an indication that I wasn’t in the proper state. But fear is just what it is, and it’s there too in the vastness of who we are.

In spiritual life there is no room for compromise. Awakening is not negotiable; we cannot bargain to hold on to things that please us while relinquishing things that do not matter to us. A lukewarm yearning for awakening is not enough to sustain us through the difficulties involved in letting go. It is important to understand that anything that can be lost was never truly ours, anything that we deeply cling to only imprisons us.

Those who awaken never rest in one place.
Like swans, they rise and leave the lake.
On the air they rise and fly an invisible course.
Their food is knowledge.
They live on emptiness.
They have seen how to break free.
Who can follow them?

We always want someone else to change so that we will feel good. But has it ever struck you that even if your wife changes or your husband changes, what does that do to you? You’re just as vulnerable as before; you’re just as idiotic as before; you’re just as asleep as before. You are the one who needs to change, who needs to take medicine. You keep insisting, “I feel good because the world is right.” Wrong! The world is right because I feel good. That’s what all the mystics are saying.

What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind.

If a man speaks or acts with an impure mind, suffering follows him as the wheel of the cart follows the beast that draws the cart.

What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind.

If a man speaks or acts with a pure mind, joy follows him as his own shadow.