October Read/2

Title: The Best Buddhist Writing 2013
Call Number: 294.3 B561 2013
Book Description from amazon.com:
An eclectic and thought-provoking collection of Buddhist and Buddhist-inspired writings on a wide range of issues published in North America during 2012.
The collection includes writings by Pema Chödrön, Thich Nhat Hanh, Joseph Goldstein, Natalie Goldberg, Sylvia Boorstein, Dzongsar Khyentse, Sakyong Mipham, Norman Fischer, Philip Moffitt, Karen Miller, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Kay Larson, and Lodro Rinzler, among others.  Selected by the editors of the Shambhala Sun, North America's leading Buddhist-inspired magazine, this anthology offers an entertaining mix of writing styles and reflects on a wide range of issues from a Buddhist point of view.
My Read:
Page 72-"The Three Marks of Existence: impermanence, suffering, and emptiness"
Page 168-"There is an old Chinese saying that describes the Buddhist path: First there is a mountain; then there is no mountain; then there is a mountain again."
Page 176-"We can't really understand that there are no mountains and no rivers until we understand mountains and rivers. We can't really understand mountains and rivers until we understand that there are no mountains and rivers."
Page 33-"Q: What is Tao?
                A: It is one's everyday mind.
                Q: What is one's everyday mind?
                A: When tired, you sleep; when hungry, you eat."
Page 115-"The less you try to hold onto whatever virtue you have as your little treasure, the more there seems to be."
Page 117-"Instead of looking for recognition from outside, we develop the confidence to trust the action itself for feedback."
Page 187-"Laughing at others' misfortune is a kind of expression of our own anger."
Page 188-"All we need is the space between trigger and reaction to mindfully look within."
Page 190-"When anger arises, it is pointing to something. Our anger is a clue to our underlying beliefs about ourselves. It can help to reveal our constructed sense of self-identity."
I like the following saying about practice on page 192:
We're going to keep getting angry. It's going to come up. It has come up in our lives before, and it will come up again. this practice is about becoming more mindful, becoming aware of how we are getting stuck. With care and work, we find ways to get unstuck. But we also know that the moment we get unstuck, we're going to get stuck again. That's why it's called a practice--we never arrive.
Also, somewhere in the book it says: Life is just as it is. Well, yes life is just as it is.