Cattāri Brahmavihārā

The entire cosmos is cooperative. The sun, the moon, and the stars live together as a cooperative. The same is true for humans and animals, trees, and soil. Our bodily parts function as a cooperative.

When we realize that the world is a mutual, interdependent, cooperative enterprise, that human beings are all mutual friends in the process of birth, old age, suffering, and death, then we can build a noble, even heavenly environment.

If our lives are not based on this truth, then we shall all perish.

―Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

Do you remember when disease came to your village?

Of your family, you were the only one to survive.

You were just a girl. For years you begged for your food.

Then a nun took you in.

You told her your story, and she held you while you wept.

Then she told you her story, and you wept with her.

Her name was Patachara.

You went everywhere she went, and soon left behind all that she left behind.

When you were young, you learned what it was to be truly alone.

Now you know for yourself.

This freedom is something altogether different from that.

—Chanda, Therigatha (Poems of the First Buddhist Nuns)

One of the things that the Buddha advocated as an antidote to sensual desire is moderation in eating. […] Moderation in eating does not mean eating nothing. It is eating enough to keep the body healthy. But this is a sensual desire that is easily gratified and one that arises again and again. For some people four, five, six times a day!

If we can put a fence up against one of our desires, we are going to be able to put a fence up against some more. One fence can keep out many desires. So, the one that is so easily gratified and arises so often is the one to start with.

—Ayya Khema