Tao Te Ching
Sacred World
Normally, people think of the placebo effect as a kind of joke, a laughable con that makes us believe that something ineffective and neutral has important powers of healing, and in scientific experiments, a kind of failure. Now though, in the scientific world, there is a greater respect and appreciation for the physical results our brain activity can create, the neurotransmitters, endorphins, and dopamine it uses for therapeutic benefits. The Sacred World practices in the Vajrayana tradition have a similar function in the psychological/spiritual realm. As Dzongsar Khyentse said, they’re “a temporary solution, a placebo to be used until emptiness is understood.”
Given the foundational perspective that the sacred world isn’t anything that we create but rather the basic nature of reality, something we discover; the practice of “seeing all beings as Buddhas, all sounds as Mantra, and all thoughts as Wisdom” becomes—not any kind of self-imposed delusion; but rather, a skillful means to realizing who and what we really are. As Chögyam Trungpa said, “you practice first, and you figure out what you are doing afterward.”
Quotes (115)
“Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you’d think the mere fact of existing would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise.”
“The world is imprisoned in its own activity, except when ation are performed as worship of God. Therefore, you must perform every action sacramentally and be free from all attachment to result.”
“Each new dawn is a miracle; each new sky fills with beauty. Their testimony speaks to the whole world and reaches to the ends of the earth.”
“The glorious heaven stretches itself to its widest and the multitudinous stars sparkle
Gladdening the hearts of the toil-wearied shepherds
While champing, war-wearied horses close by their chariots wait the coming of gold-throned dawn.”
“No holy place existed without us then, no woodland, no dance, no sound… I prayed one word: ‘I want.’”
“Tampering makes thing worse because life is sacred just as it it.”
“The earth flows with milk, flows with wine, flows with nectar of bees;
Possessed, ecstatic, he leads their happy cries;
Run, dance, delirious, possessed! Sing for joy, praise Dionysus, god of joy!”
“All of us with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory and are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory”
“Never would the eye have perceived the sun if it had not first taken the form of the sun; likewise, every person must make themselves beautiful and divine in order to attain the sight of beauty and divinity.”
“Every being entering into the ineffable sanctuary of its own nature finds there a symbol of the Father of All.”
“Deluded, we call pearls broken piece of pottery; awakened we see them as pearls.”
“Why do I live among the green mountains?
I laugh and answer not, my soul is serene;
It dwells in another heaven and earth belonging to no man.
The peach trees are in flower and the water flow on.”
“When the mind is polluted it is ordinary mind. When the mind is unpolluted then it is sacred.”
“Above, below, and around you, all is spontaneously existing, for there is nowhere which is outside the Buddha-Mind.”
“When I realized that Buddha is my original nature, the Buddha became the experience of every moment.”
“My king is the naturally radiant nature of being who defeats the hostile powers of duality—innate, spontaneously arising awareness.”
“Moving straight ahead, totally let go... respond with brilliant light to such unfathomable depths as the waters of autumn or the moon stamped in the sky.”
“The Word is living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity. This Word manifests itself in every creature.”
“A fine day under the blue sky! Don't foolishly look here and there.
If you still ask, 'What is Buddha?' It is like pleading your innocence while clutching stolen goods.”
“Your surroundings don't matter. God is with you everywhere -- in the market place as well as in seclusion or in the church. If you look for nothing but God, nothing or no one can disturb you.”
“Are we to look at cherry blossoms only in full bloom, the moon only when it is cloudless? To long for the moon while looking on the rain, to lower the blinds and be unaware of the passing of the spring - these are even more deeply moving. Branches about to blossom or gardens strewn with flowers are worthier of our admiration.”
“My God is the green tide in the spring leaves, the redness of cherries high in the air, the song of birds in summer branches, the sunrise on a winter's morning, the name of everything we don't understand...”
“Amazed at the heights of mountains, the ocean’s wideness, the power of nature, and the distance of stars; ourselves we consider not.”
“Days and dates are pristine; months, years, and eons are pristine. One thing is pristine; everything is pristine. The spiritual and the nonspiritual are pristine.”
“Meditate focusing your attention on the pure radiant light. Contemplate the deities of the vast Mandalas in which they (and you) reside. Feel the pride of being divine like them.”
“Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world.”
“The more clearly you understand yourself and your emotions, the more you become a lover of what is.”
“Taking hold of the not-thought that lies in thoughts, in their every act they hear the voice of Truth… As the Truth reveals itself in its eternal tranquility, this very earth is the Lotus-Land of Purity, and this body is the body of the Buddha.”
“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.”
“And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.”
“Educate the senses to see the ordinary as extraordinary, the familiar as strange, the mundane as sacred, the finite as infinite.”
“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”
“Be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels , not of trade, but of thought.”
“Love both the whole and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of light. Love the animals, love the plants, love each separate thing. and you will perceive the mystery of God in all until you come at last to love the whole world with a love that will then be all-embracing and universal.”
“Life is paradise, and we are all in paradise, but we refuse to see it.” “Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in all things.”
“I have seen a radiance upon the face of those who were worshiping the divine either in art or nature—in picture or statue—in field or cloud or sea—in man, woman, or child—but mention the word divinity, and our sense of the divine is clouded.”
“Looking up at the sky, I saw a beautiful, somber thundercloud, a flight of snow-white cranes flew over-head in front of it. It created such a beautiful contrast that... lost to outward sense, I fell down, and the puffed rice was scattered in all directions. Some people found me and carried me home”
“The buildings, the temple and all vanished leaving no trace; instead there was limitless, infinite, shining ocean of consciousness or spirit. As far as the eye could see, its billows were rushing toward me from all sides”
“I have seen thoughts rising on my horizon, the like of which I have never seen before... crying tears of joy... Six thousand feet above men and Time... Calm and peace spread over the mountains and the forests.”
“Beauty is simply reality seen with the eyes of love.”
“To the one who knows how to look and feel, every moment of this free wandering life is an enchantment.”
“with work which you despise, which bores you, and which the world does not need — this life is hell.”
“the great painters initiate us into a knowledge and love of the external world… our eyes are opened… their charm and wisdom coats our most modest moments by initiating us into the life of still life.”
“Hold fast the time! Guard it, watch over it, every hour, every minute!... Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfillment.”
“I felt that I had passed through the valley of diamonds, but I could convince no one—not even myself, when I looked at them more closely—that the specimens I had brought back were not mere pieces of gravel.”
“A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.”
“I daily weigh up my whole life and continue in the fiery brilliance of a sacred world far higher than the suicidal ashes of rationality.”
“It is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration and respect.”
“By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, penetrates us, and molds us. We imagine it as distant and inaccessible, when in fact we live steeped in its burning layers.”
“her look, passing through all that time and that emotion, reached him doubtfully; settled on him tearfully; and rose and fluttered away, as a bird touches a branch and rise and flutters away. Quote simply she wiped her eyes.”
“In the particular is contained the universal.”
“These are my two drops of rain
Waiting on the window-pane…
All the best and all the worst
Comes from which of them is first…
John is there, and John has won!
Look! I told you! Here's the sun!”
“the highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe!”
“I become a child again to enable myself to view the world always for the first time with virgin eyes... This is what keeps my mind untouched by wastage, keeps it from withering and running dry.”
“God changes his appearance every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises.”
“Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face... eternity gazing at itself in a mirror... you are eternity and you are the mirror.”
“Without being aware of it, we carry omnipotence within us... Every living thing is a workshop where God, in hiding, processes and transubstantiates clay. This is why trees flower and fruit, why animals multiply, why the monkey managed to exceed its destiny and stand upright on its two feet.”
“In all things I saw the passion of life for growth and greatness, the drama of everlasting creation.”
“in the presence of a mother tending her child, or of a genius giving order to chaos, meaning to matter, nobility to form or thought, we feel as close as we shall ever be to the life and mind and law that constitute the unintelligible intelligence of the world.”
“Like Confucius of old, I am absorbed in the wonder of earth, and the life upon it, and I cannot think of heaven and the angels. I have enough for this life... a faith in the human heart and its power to grow toward the light, I find here reason and cause enough for hope and confidence in the future of mankind.”
“That is what you are, that is what I am, that is what everything in the universe is – beginningless, endless life, infinite, boundless, eternal Life.”
“if you are susceptible to good poetry, your heart may skip a beat or you may grow cold and numb... He will show you a pebble, an iceman, a book agent and unravel for you the inner mystery and beauty of pulsating life beneath the surface of our everyday existence.”
“Let us love for a while, for a year or so, you and me. That's a form of divine drunkenness that we can all try. There are only diamonds in the whole world, diamonds and perhaps the shabby gift of disillusion.”
“The feeling of awe and sense of wonder arises from the recognition of the deep mystery that surrounds us everywhere, and this feeling deepens as our knowledge grows.”
“The divine is inherent in the universe, and as humans are not different from it, the divine is inherent in them as well.”
“He talks to the plants and they answer him. He listens to the voices of all those who move upon the earth, the animals. He is as one with them. From all living beings, something flows into him all the time, and something flows from him.”
“accept everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given to a Buddha.”
“For those who have a religious experience all nature is capable of revealing itself as sacred world.”
“still struggling against the wall that separated him from the secret of all life, wanting to go farther, to go beyond, and to discover, discover before dying, discover at last in order to be, just once to be, for a single second, but forever.”
“nature may appear to move from simple to complex; it may appear to progress and advance from imperfection toward perfection. This, at any rate, is what Darwin's theory of evolution implies. But of course, such is not the true state of nature... Nature is fundamentally perfect. Both spiritually and materially, nature is replete with the greatest possible wealth. It is a paradise where joy and contentment reign.”
“Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you would think the mere fact of existence would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise. We are alive against the stupendous odds of genetics, infinitely outnumbered by all the alternates who might, except for luck, be in our places.”
“Without attention, the human sense of wonder and the holy will stir occasionally, but to become a steady flame it must be tended”
“Jesus—the best, the smartest, the most loving, the least sentimental, the most unimitative master— realized there is no separation from God... who in the Bible besides Jesus knew—knew—that we're carrying the Kingdom of Heaven around with us, inside, where we're all too goddam stupid and sentimental and unimaginative to look?”
“all we do our whole lives is go from one little piece of Holy Ground to the next.”
“Everything is holy! everybody's holy! everywhere is holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman's an angel!”
“Our mind is like a clear glass of water. If we put salt into water, it becomes salt water; sugar, it becomes sugar water, shit, it becomes shit water. But originally the water is clear.”
“But these are all thoughts, feelings, labels… what is the real thing? — this instant of not expecting anything!”
“All of us live in the unfathomable mystery and infinitude of the universe.”
“Poets feel that we are cut off from meaning by a thick, lead wall, and that sometimes for no reason we can understand the wall seems to vanish and we are suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of the infinite interestingness of things.”
“There's a blaze of light in every word. It doesn't matter which you heard, the holy or the broken hallelujah”
“America is the fact, the symbol and the promise of a new beginning. And in human life, this possibility is among the most sacred aspects of existence.”
“One can appreciate and celebrate each moment — there’s nothing more sacred. There’s nothing more vast or absolute. In fact, there’s nothing more!”
“When you experience total sacred outlook... the forms you see in the outer world are seen as the heavenly realm of the deities; speech is experienced as mantra; and the psychology of the world is experienced as awakened clarity.”
“the only way to grow up and mature further is through further openness to the world… this is realization of the sacredness of the universe and of yourself.”
“You special, miraculous, unrepeatable, fragile, fearful, tender, lost, sparkling ruby emerald jewel, rainbow splendor person.”
“Sacred vision is the all-important practice, seeing the whole environment as a pure land and ourselves and all the other beings in it as deities.”
“The Iliad of Homer... one of the most deeply religious books ever composed... is an enduring statement of the living tradition of polytheism. Immortal and powerful, the gods of Homer are nonetheless strikingly human in their greed, arrogance, jealously, and promiscuity. However, far from being simplistic or childish, the gods of Homer are testimony to a profound effort to understand the meaning of life.”
“Praise for the singing, praise for the morning, praise for them springing fresh from the world”
“We fail to see 99% of the glories of nature, for to do so would require vision that is simultaneously telescopic and microscopic.”
“the excruciating ache of the awakening love for wisdom… the sacred origin not just of religion but also everything else, of science, technology, education, law, medicine, logic architecture, ordinary daily life”
“Every once in a while, I find myself in the presence of purity—purity of spirit and love—and I always cry. It always just reaches in and grabs me.”
“Each would understand Mahavira in their own language. The lion would sit down with lamb, and the king with the beggar. Each would respect the other. For they could see a living soul, and not just a body, in their neighbor.”
“If we try to complicate our lives, developing clever plans and ambitions, we lose sight of the way in which small, insignificant things actually hold the key to what we seek.”
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