What makes me fully alive is anything. Really just being alive is enough. Robert Thurman More Quotes by Robert Thurman More Quotes From Robert Thurman The Buddhists think that, because we've all had infinite previous lives, we've all been each other's relatives. Therefore all of you, in the Buddhist view, in some previous life ... have been my mother - for which I do apologize for the trouble I caused you. Robert Thurman buddhistgodmother Live fully each day to the full . . . Robert Thurman each-day If you love your enemy, that means you want your enemy to be happy. Robert Thurman love-youmeanenemy A possession can't make you happy. Robert Thurman make-you-happypossession Enlightenment is not meant to be an object of religious faith. It is an evolutionary goal, something we want to become. Robert Thurman goalreligiousgod Commercial interests with their advertising industry do not want people to develop contentment and less greed. Military interests in economic, political, ethnic or nationalist guises, do not want people to develop more tolerance, nonviolence and compassion. And ruling groups in general, in whatever sort of hierarchy do not want the ruled to become too insightful, too independent, too creative on their own, as the danger is that they will become insubordinate, rebellious, and unproductive in their alloted tasks. Robert Thurman creativityindependentmilitary The worldly person is insane from the point of view of the spiritual person. Robert Thurman insanespiritualviews Within our own society, we jail more prisoners than any other country in the world, 85 percent of them people of nonwhite races — red, black, brown, and yellow. We are one of the few nations that still indulge in the death penalty for increasing numbers of these prisoners. We must become mindful of these negative things, since we need not support these actions of our nation to be affected negatively by their evolutionary impact, unless we mentally, verbally, and ultimately physically, disassociate ourselves from them. Robert Thurman impactracecountry However, because of your interconnectedness with all things, other beings still have a problem, and when you realize that you have no absolute self apart from things, you realize that essentially, you are all the other beings. Robert Thurman realizingproblemself The point is that you free the ego. The ego is only a pronoun. It's a Greek first person pronoun, ergo. When you're in Greece you say, Ergo wants to take a bus, and you don't mean your ego wants to take a bus, like some big entity, you only mean I want to take a bus. Robert Thurman egogreekmean You're more responsible ethically for being there with your interconnection to the world, but the you now is an always changing one, and you're responsible for how you change it. It's very important to understand that whole thing about the ego. Robert Thurman egoimportantworld The tradition of nonviolence, optimism, concern for the individual, and unconditional compassion that developed in Tibet is the culmination of a slow inner revolution, a cool one, hard to see, that began 2,500 years ago with the Buddha's insight about the end of suffering. What I have learned from these people has forever changed my life, and I believe their culture contains an inner science particularly relevant to the difficult time in which we live. Robert Thurman compassiontimebelieve The problem has to be answered by means of art, because you can't blast them with bliss. Tat freaks them out even more. So instead, you have to have an artful way of approaching them. You do a dance for them, you get them to imagine being interconnected, and to imagine being free of their suffering, and not so self involved, through art that draws them out. Then you, and they, are all established in what's called a Buddha-verse, or Buddha-land Robert Thurman landmeanart It isn't the meaning of love where you somehow desire that one or you want them or want them to love you. Robert Thurman wantdesirelove-you I think humans will find their humanity sometime, somehow. Robert Thurman humanshumanitythinking In Buddhist ideology, the conventional self is that which is constructed in a way by the use of the pronoun, and when you realize there is no absolute ego there, no disconnected one, self, or ego, then that actually strengthens your conventional ego. It does so in the sense that then you realize it's a construction, and you can strengthen it in order to help others, or do whatever you're trying to do, it's not like you no longer know who you are. Then you can organize your behavior by using your ego, as it's now the pronoun. Robert Thurman buddhisthelping-othersself Nonviolence against humans cannot take firm hold in society as long as brutality and violence are practiced toward other animals. Robert Thurman brutalityanimallong That love, in the sense of wishing their happiness, will cause your actions to be effective in relation to that person. Robert Thurman causeswishaction This question, Is loving your enemy a life practice?, I like that question. It is a life practice, certainly, for everyone. It relates to Robert Thurman practiceideasthinking The problem in our society is the ego psychology and conventional wisdom about "look out for #1." That conventional wisdom thinks that "love your enemy" is to some a principle no one can ever live by. Robert Thurman psychologylove-youthinking
