Dharma

Dharma

Quotes by Zen Master Rama

Dharma is an ancient word for truth.

 

Dharma is another name for existence.  It is existence in its purest form.

 

Dharma is the Truth that all of existence is.  It does not disagree with anything.  It is the perception of existence in its purest formlessness.

 

Dharma is a sanskrit word. It simply means that which is right, that which is correct, that which is the divine law.

 

Everything knows what is best for itself.  That is what the Sanskrit word dharma means. Dharma means the best of all possible actions.

 

Dharma simply means the right thing in the right place, in the right space.

 

There is a dharma for yourself, for someone else, for a family, for a nation, for a universe. There are collective and individual dharmas.

 

Your dharma is what kind of work you should be doing, what kind of people you should associate with, whether you should have a teacher or not. Dharma encompasses all things and it is specific to the individual.

 

When you understand dharma, when you see its perfect perfection, shining both in and beyond all things, you will be freed from all misunderstandings.

 

The first task is to discover the dharma by introspection, by constantly questioning yourself and asking yourself, "What is right?"

 

Start simply everyday by asking yourself,"What is the dharma today? What should I do? What is right? What does the universe want from me?”

 

Naturally, to follow dharma, we have to find out what it is. You have to struggle with it. The answer will not come easily. You will be swayed by your desires, conditioning, and those around you who have ideas about what you should do, what is proper, what is improper.

 

You can lie to yourself and fool yourself and rationalize that the choice you're making is what is right and what is true and what leads to liberation, when it's actually only the fulfillment of desire.

 

When you meditate you can stand back from your desire. When you silence the mind and there is stillness, only then can you tell if a desire is dharma.

 

In the light we can see what is and what is not. We know what is right and what is inappropriate.

 

That which is right is different for each one of us in each situation. There isn't a moral code that I or anyone can lay down that will tell you what your dharma is.

 

It is acceptance of the will of God - waiting, if necessary, forever, happily rising above your desires and above your frustrations to always do what is right. Always do what is right. This is the spiritual study.

 

 

What can be the dharma at one point in your life can totally reverse itself, and suddenly you might be doing something  the opposite or something very new, something you never considered.

 

Dharma doesn't necessarily mean following a mundane and boring life. It means a life of high adventure, not a life of endless, boring repetition.

 

Very often, in order to bring about stillness we have to be tirelessly active in the outer world. You might suppose this would agitate the mind. It will not, if it is the dharma.

 

Love is the bridge that joins all the worlds together. Love permits us to see who and what we are. The only thing that will truly inspire us to find the dharma is love.

 

Meditate well so you can be a good instrument of eternity. You could have a mediocre meditation today, but you're not going to. Today you might run into someone who you might talk to about the dharma.

 

Intent is all-important. Your intent determines what happens to you inwardly, in a karmic sense.

 

Following dharma puts you in a proper field of attention. In a proper field of attention, regardless of what your outer circumstances are, happiness will flow.

 

Human beings are not so in harmony with the dharma. That is why they suffer so much. But you as an individual can reach a plane of attention and can become attention itself.  

 

Success is not success in an individual endeavor. Success is simply to practice the dharma impeccably.

 

Happiness does not come from external objects. It comes from peace of mind. You can be famous; you can be a king, a queen, anything. It does not necessarily bring happiness or peace of mind. It comes about through following dharma.

 

Souls have different journeys. The best thing to know is, not what everybody else does, but what you do. Self-discovery essentially is finding your own dharma, your own rhythm.

 

Wisdom is the ability to realize that everyone has their own dharma, everyone goes their own way. What works for you is not the ultimate good. Know that other people have different way.

 

What we do outwardly will only interrupt the flow of our perfect attention if it is not in harmony with the dharma.

 

To not follow the dharma, either intentionally or through lack of awareness, creates a very low level of attention. In this low level of attention we make all kinds of mistakes and we are unhappy no matter what good fortune befalls us. 

 

When you are following dharma, you will be happy, at peace, still inside. There will be a sense of purpose to your life. Difficulties will not seem unconquerable.

 

When you are not following dharma, then you will not be at peace. You will not be happy. The simplest things will seem to be endless obstacles.

 

Not to follow the dharma leads to disaster. Life will be unhappy.

 

If you are doing that which is within you, what that part of you that is beyond body would like you to do, then you would not experience stress because you would be very fulfilled.

 

Beyond happiness and unhappiness is truth. Truth is not affected by anything in the relative world. Truth is the unifying aspect of existence.

 

Don't worry about techniques. Don't worry about chakras. Instead, concern yourself with finding the dharma and meditate. Then the kundalini will release.

 

It is necessary first in the practice of Kundalini yoga to determine what the dharma is. There is a dharma for yourself.

 

Begin with your daily life. Take your life as a challenge and try to bring yourself into harmony with each thing in your life.

 

Have a wonderful sense of humor, particularly about yourself and your own situation. Yet don't simply laugh. Work to change and improve things even though, at times, it seems impossible.

 

The future is certain for those who follow dharma. Those who don't follow dharma are pushed back again and again into the net of rebirth. They are drawn back to the same planes of attention, or lower. It could happen to you! 

 

To increase the flow of kundalini that will alter our perception, it is necessary to clarify the purpose of one's being. This is to come to understand dharma.

  

Feel the wind. This wind blows from world to world and from life to death. This is the wind of dharma. Be in love with the wind. It is an intimate lover. It enraptures you. It blows you through eternity.

 

You are dharma.  You are a wheel.  And the wheel of dharma spins.

 

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Buddhist Philosophy and Practice

Dr. Frederick Lenz, Zen Master Rama on Buddhism:

"Buddhism is the study of how to be immeasurably happy.

Buddhism is simply a methodology, a way of becoming one with the part of ourselves that is happy.

The Buddhist message is a message not of the negation of life, but one of affirmation.

From my own personal encounters and studies with both Tantric and Zen Buddhist monks, I have found them to be humorous, warm, charming, and compassionate.

Humor enables us to deal with and overcome many of the most painful and difficult situations in our lives.

The essence of all practice is to be cool. Life is not worth getting excited about because whatever you perceive is an illusion.

The essential premise of Buddhism is that there is enlightenment, there is nirvana. Beyond this world, beyond all worlds, there's something radiant, perfect and eternal.

Even though it's not perceivable to the mind or senses, it's there and enlightenment is absolute freedom.

Buddhism isn't about temples, and incense, and shaved heads, and robes. It's not about church. There are aspects of Buddhism that involve that. People enjoy that, it helps them, it strengthens their practice.

A time comes when it isn't enough to read about Buddha, we wish to have that happen to ourselves. That's when we move from the exoteric to the esoteric, from religion to mysticism.

Real Buddhism is about meditation.

Buddhism is yoga. Yoga started, who knows when? A long time ago, when the first person found that they could still their thoughts and experience eternity and access the higher planes of mind.

Buddhism has existed forever, just like we have, and occasionally it's codified; it's put together into a system by someone who likes to codify.

Buddhism suggests there are no elect. Everything rests upon your own self-effort, which is the good news because that means you don't have to wait around for some nebulous God to help you.

The thing about Buddhism is that it stresses attainment of something ineffable, that is where it differs from other religions in that it's more correct. We live in a world with promises of paradise.

The realms of light exist everywhere forever. But it is up to an individual to raise their mind to a level of stillness at which they can perceive these most beautiful realms of light.

Any individual is capable of realizing the truth at any time. No tradition is necessary, no chain, no lineage. Once you have realized the truth, once you have become consciousness itself, then you go beyond all such distinctions.

Buddhists believe that you are who you are today is because of who you have been in all your past lives.

Buddhism is the study of changing who we are, modifying or perhaps totally restructuring ourselves as perceivers.

Buddhism is the study of power initially. It takes a certain amount of power to even know your potential - to have the sense that you can change the way you perceive.

Life is the power to perceive. Without perception, there is no life. Buddhism is the study of perception, and what is most endemic to perception is power.

Buddhism is perception, gaining control of the mind and directing one's attention, to raise the kundalini energy so that it flows with such volatility and force that we simply perceive life correctly.

Behind the transient reality, there is something else. It is a deeper, more permanent and unchanging reality that we Buddhists call nirvana.

It is the Buddhist belief that all things, experiences and people are inherently empty. That is a simple way of saying that all physical and nonphysical things have another side.

In the Far Eastern languages we have many different words to describe the varying degrees of reality that a thing, a state of mind or plane of being may have.

All of the universes are but phantoms, mirages, and while they have their own essence, their own pantomime -- they pass forgotten.

Everything goes through the cycle of birth, growth, maturation, decay and death. But all of this is an illusion. Everything we see is an illusion. Even our perceptions of truth are illusory, illusory in the sense they're not complete.

Buddhism leads you to the awareness that all things are holy. Everything is holy. The dark has its own light, in other words.

In Buddhism we don't really believe in sin and salvation as Westerners would define them. We believe in the limitless possibilities of the present and of future moments.

What is evil? There is no such thing. In Buddhism we don't recognize evil and therefore we don't give it any power over us.

Everything aids everything because all things are a reflection of the Buddha mind or the mind of enlightenment.

The days of infinity are endless. Its hours cannot be counted or found on a clock. There is no north, south, east, or west. These are just concepts. Infinity is forever, everywhere all at once. And that's all there is.

Things are not necessarily logical. Logic is a secondary source reference. Everything is what it is. We have decided to apply rationale to things. It makes us feel better.

Human beings have become so afraid of the unknown, themselves, and each other that they deprive themselves of that innate ecstasy and love of life which comes with a human body, mind and spirit by hiding behind the empty shell of their ego.

Self discovery doesn't not seek to bring you answers about your personal life or philosophically comfort you about life and death. What it does is bring you into reality as perception itself.

The Buddhist mindset seeks to eliminate the self. That is to say, what we want to experience is life, not self. When there's less self and more life, we're very content, and when there's more self and less life we're quite unhappy.

The dialectical change of mind that occurs in Buddhism is not simply the assimilation of a new philosophical basis or religious basis for viewing and interpreting experience. Rather it is the complete structural revision of that which is.

The purpose of all our explanations is not to have you understand anything, but for you to snap from the understanding of the intellect to the understanding of pure spirit. All our explanations work backwards.

Buddhism is the study of the way the mind works. One has to be able to hold a large number of relational concepts simultaneously in the mind. It is necessary to grid, to literally unlock realities and dimensions with the power of your mind.

Knowledge of the Enlightenment Cycle, of the ways that inner dimensions and nirvana work, lifts you far above the transient sorrows, pains, pleasures and joys that the unenlightened masses experience.

The pathway to enlightenment is beautiful. There are a lot of wonderful things that happen along the way. Win or lose, you just keep going, and it happens eventually.

The planes of light, are happiness. They are all different and are all endless. They border the shores of nirvana, which is beyond discussion - a condition of perfection that cannot be expressed.

Beyond learning and unlearning is awareness, and beyond awareness is consciousness, and beyond consciousness is immortality, and beyond immortality is dharma and beyond dharma is nirvana."

- Zen Master Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz
www.ramaquotes.com