Brian Liem

My Weekly Quote

on December 30, 2012December 30, 2012 By Yoga With Brian

When old words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart; and where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders. -Rabindranath Tagore

My Weekly Quote

on December 23, 2012December 23, 2012 By Yoga With Brian

The tragedy in the lives of most of us is that we go through life walking down a high-walled land with people of our own kind, the same economic situation, the same national background and education and religious outlook. And beyond those walls, all humanity lies, unknown and unseen, and untouched by our restricted and impoverished lives. -Florence Luscomb

My Weekly Quote

on December 16, 2012December 16, 2012 By Yoga With Brian

Among men, it seems, historically at any rate, that processes of co-ordination and disintegration follow each other with great regularity, and the index of the co-ordination is the measure of the disintegration which follows. There is no mob like a group of well-drilled soldiers when they have thrown off their discipline. And there is no lostness like that which comes to a man when a perfect and certain pattern has dissolved about him. There is no hater like one who has greatly loved. -John Steinbeck

My Weekly Quote

on December 9, 2012December 9, 2012 By Yoga With Brian

Since my house burned down / I now own a better view / of the rising moon. -Mizuta Masahide

My Weekly Quote

on December 3, 2012December 3, 2012 By Yoga With Brian

Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play. -Heraclitus

My Weekly Quote

on November 26, 2012November 26, 2012 By Yoga With Brian

Often we see other sentient beings as hassles: “This mosquito is disturbing me. Those politicians are corrupt. Why can’t my colleagues do their work correctly?” and so on. But when we see sentient beings as being more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel, our perspective completely changes. For example, when we look at a fly buzzing around, we train ourselves to think, “My enlightenment depends on that fly.” This isn’t fanciful thinking because, in fact, our enlightenment does depend on that fly. If that fly isn’t included in our bodhicitta, then we don’t have bodhicitta, and we won’t receive the wonderful results of generating bodhicitta–the tremendous purification and creation of positive potential.

Imagine training your mind so that when you look at every single living being, you think, “My enlightenment depends on that being. The drunk who just got on the bus–my enlightenment depends on him. The soldier in Iraq–my enlightenment depends on him. My brothers and sisters, the teller at the bank, the janitor at my workplace, the president of the United States, the suicide bombers in the Middle East, the slug in my garden, my eighth-grade boyfriend, the babysitter when I was a kid–my enlightenment depends on each of them.” All sentient beings are actually that precious to us. –Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron

My Weekly Quote

on November 19, 2012November 19, 2012 By Yoga With Brian

Myth: we have to save the earth. Frankly, the earth doesn’t need to be saved. Nature doesn’t give a hoot if human beings are here or not. The planet has survived cataclysmic and catastrophic changes for millions upon millions of years. Over that time, it is widely believed, 99 percent of all species have come and gone while the planet has remained. Saving the environment is really about saving our environment – making it safe for ourselves, our children, and the world as we know it. If more people saw the issue as one of saving themselves, we would probably see increased motivation and commitment to actually do so.
-Robert M. Lilienfeld and William L. Rathje