9 Quotes by David Tuffley

The greatest achievement is selflessness.

The enlightened person has learned to observe their mind and control how it goes. They have cultivated consciousness about consciousness. It is doubtful whether any other creature on the planet is capable of this meta-awareness, since it appears to be a function of the recently evolved portions of the human brain that other animals do not have. Exercising these higher brain functions does not happen automatically in most people, it must be cultivated through right mindfulness.

When we receive disapproval, it is profoundly uncomfortable. Most of us will do anything to avoid it. That means compliantly going along in order to get along. Disapproval is an instrument of control that society uses.

The mental energy that is consumed by right effort is directed into self-discipline, truthfulness and compassion. The same energy might otherwise be channelled through a person’s base nature to produce desire, aggression and violence. Right effort ensures that this mental energy is expressed in wholesome ways.

But if you do not find an intelligent companion, a wise and well-behaved person going the same way as yourself, then go on your way alone, like a king abandoning a conquered kingdom, or like a great elephant in the deep forest – The Buddha.

The third noble truth holds that you can end your suffering by eliminating the desire for sensual gratification and breaking the attachments you have to the egoic self and any of the other conceptual structures that are the furniture of your life.

Now that I know my Creator Immediately after becoming enlightened, the Buddha is reported to.

When happiness comes along, enjoy it while it lasts because it will not be permanent. You should not try hold onto it as if it were permanent because when it leaves, it will upset you.

Being attached to any worldly thing always leads to suffering, since nothing in the world is permanent and any attachment to impermanence is certain to cause suffering.