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Dale S. Wright Biography

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“Desires are the source of drive and aspiration in human life. They provide the energy for a whole range of human accomplishments, including the spiritual quest for awakening. Bodhicitta, the thought of enlightenment for all living beings, evolves in the minds of bodhisattvas to become the primal desire, the deepest source of energy.”

DesireEnergyBodhicitta
Book:Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra
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“What is the basis of freedom and why is it so satisfying? Vimalakirti says that in an authentic moment of giving we are "free of the habits of 'I' and 'mine'" (32), that the feeling derives from being "without grasping," "without attachment" (32), and "free of the habitual notion of possession" (25). He says further than in a generous act we are "joyful and without regret" because the weight of our "selves" has been momentarily lifted. That sense of exhilarating selflessness is what generates "the great joy of the bodhisattva" (57). In being able to give, we feel some degree of elation, a sense of being lifted out of ourselves into an experience of liberation that is buoyant and joyful, even if momentary.”

GivingSelfFreedom
Book:Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra
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“While the elders are mostly set in their mental ways, and while the middle-aged folks are busy scratching out a living, the children can be remarkably flexible of mind. They are often able to envision ways of being that are fundamentally different and occasionally better than the customs and habits of their families and communities.”

ChildrenFlexibility Of Mind
Book:Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra
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“Although we all begin our transformative practice, if we begin at all, focused entirely on all the good it will do for us as individuals, the long-term effect of these practices is to loosen that inevitable self-absorption and help us to see that liberation is not so much for the self as it is from the self.”

PracticeSelf Absorption
Book:Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra
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“Working past deeply embedded habits of self-absorption is extremely difficult, precisely because these habits are so much a part of our cumulative character, the result of literally millions of unconscious acts generated out of concern for our own safety and well-being. For this reason, the Vimalakīrti Sūtra insists that practices of generosity must be accompanied by skillfully honed wisdom and that we should always be on the lookout for false forms of generosity.”

GenerositySelf AbsorptionVimalakirti Sutra
Book:Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra
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“The sutra pictures Vimalakirti living his bodhisattva vow, that is, caring as much about the well-being of others as he does about his own. He lives selflessly, as though he has or is "no isolated self," because his sense of identity now encompasses his relations with others. The self/other dichotomy has been transformed in the paramita of morality. The boundaries that once defined his identity in opposition to others have been enlarged to include others. That is a significant dimension of what it means to live selflessly. Although Buddhist texts routinely refer to this as an experience of "no-self," it could just as easily be described as an expansion of the self, an enlargement empowered by a profound reverence for the whole of life.”

No SelfBodhisattva VowVimalakirti Sutra
Book:Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra
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“One of the implications of this sutra is not only that ordinary lay life is an acceptable role for dedicated Buddhists but also that this form of life is well positioned for a range of practices inspired by the bodhisattva vow of wise, compassionate involvement in the world.”

Bodhisattva VowVimalakirti SutraLay Life
Book:Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra
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