...

If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle, that's the thing
And
Always look on the bright side of life
(Come on)
Always look on the right side of life...


Monty Python

A winding path
leads deep into bamboo
where a friend
has a hidden retreat. Meditating on poems,
we sit as rain comes down;
we can discuss them
with these mountains of green.

- Kodojin (1865-1944)

When uncreated mind is tied to body,
It works with things,
And so exists through them.
When objects disappear,
So does the mind.
Weal and woe arise
And vanish like illusions.

- Visvabha Buddha

Clear dawn enters the ancient temple.
First sun brightens lofty grove.
Winding paths: lead off toward secret places.
Chan chamber: Flowers deep among the trees.
Mountain light: joy, the bird's nature.
Pool shadows: empty, the hearts of men.
All sounds, here fall to silence.
All that remains, the bell stone's tone.

- Chang Jian (708-765)

Sent to Monk T'sung-shan
For several years now
I have not seen you;
You must be shut in behind your gate.
Incense fragrance at the ancient temple,
Autumn colors above the fivefold peaks.
In games of chess,
Which of the monks can match you?
Done playing your lute,
Cranes will share your peace.
When again will you come to visit,
To chant poems,
And talk, here in the woods with me?

- Weng Chuan (d 1214)

This concept of universal oneness—that things in their essential nature have no distinguishing marks—is called Emptiness.
Emptiness means non-substantiality, the unborn, having no self-nature, no duality.

- Lankavatara Sutra

people cling to their belief structures even when they have been shown to be wrong

The snow covered
Pine boughs
Of Mt Toba
Look like white birds
In this midnight storm

- Rengetsu (1791-1875)

The master said,
With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink,
and my bent arm for a pillow;
I have still joy in the midst
Of these things.
Riches and honors acquired by
Unrighteousness to me
Are as a floating cloud.

- Confucius (551-479)

@rookie54 said
people cling to their belief structures even when they have been shown to be wrong

Only an idiot persists in his error. -Cicero

Two things are infinite: the universe, and human stupidity, but I'm not sure about the universe. -Einstein

Why is the root of wisdom so deep?
Because it must be planted in our lives.
Worries, doubts, illusions:
Cast them out forthrightly.
The road to the precious capital
Is not for the inattentive.

- Loy Ching-Yuen (1873-1960)

The bamboo’s shadow sweeps the yard,
But the dust doesn’t move.
Moonlight enters the sea,
But the wave leaves no trace.

- Jinkag Haesim (1178-1234)

At night I sit mostly in meditation,
Affected by the autumn atmosphere I chant.
Thus leisurely, other than these two things,
My mind does not dwell on anything else.

- Po-Chu-i (772-846)



but during the day, when nobody suspects
i become forumman!
and post the the most outrageous garbage that humans could ever imagine
not even the kraken can stop me from sharing the meme of a lifetime

it's a cat

All doggies go to heaven (or so I've been told).
They run and play along the streets of gold.
Why is heaven such a doggie-delight?
Why, because there's not a single cat in sight!

Larry Huggins

“I wasn't sure what the word "charisma" really meant, I met Steve Jobs, and then I knew.”

Larry Tesler
"The Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires". Documentary, 1996.


Edit: Tesler invented the “copy/paste” function, so his thoughts are very appropriate to this thread.