Random Dharma

This is one long page of quotes, snippets and random bits of Dharma that I find in various sources. You will need to scroll down to see them all. They are all on this one page.

A Pledge for Grateful Living
by Bro. David Steindl-Rast O.S.B.

• In thanksgiving for life, I pledge
  to overcome the illusion of ENTITLEMENT
  by reminding myself that everything is gift
  and, thus, to live GRATEFULLY.
• In thanksgiving for life, I pledge
  to overcome my GREED,
  that confuses wants with needs,
  by trusting that enough for all our needs is given to us
  and to share GENEROUSLY
  what i so generously receive.
• In thanksgiving for life, I pledge
  to overcome APATHY
  by waking up to the opportunities
  that a given moment offers me
  and so to respond CREATIVELY to every situation.
• In thanksgiving for life, I pledge
  to overcome VIOLENCE
  by observing that fighting violence by violence
  leads to more violence and death
  and, thus, to foster life by acting NON-VIOLENTLY.
• In thanksgiving to life, i pledge
  to overcome FEAR which is the root of all violence
  by looking at whatever i fear as an opportunity
  and, thus, COURAGEOUSLY to lay the foundation
  for a peaceful future. Offered at Thanksgiving Square, July 2008

Pema Chodron

Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live.

Pema Chodron