c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
The Heart-mantra of Dependent Origination (rten-'brel snying-po [རྟེན་འབྲེལ་སྙིང་པོ]), which liberates the enduring continuum of phenomena and induces the appearance of multiplying relics ('phel-gdung [འཕེལ་གདུང་] and rainbow lights, is:[OṂ] YE DHARMĀ HETUPRABHAVĀHETUN TEṢĀṂ TATHĀGATOHY AVADAT TEṢĀṂ CA YONIRODHO EVAṂ VĀDIMAHĀŚRAMAṆAḤ [YE SVĀHĀ]('Whatever events arise from a cause, the Tathagāta [Buddha, "Thus-gone"] has told the cause thereof, and the great virtuous ascetic has taught their cessation as well [so be it]').
— Graham Coleman, The Tibetan Book of the Dead
Health, wealth, reputation, and status are all mere ingredients of happiness. The key to true well-being is being able to manage them capably.
— Kentetsu Takamori, Something You Forgot...Along the Way: Stories of Wisdom and Learning
The use of market values and technology as a social barometer has devalued the worth of individuals, rendered irrelevant the quality of their lives, and stunted their creativity.
— Sulak Sivaraksa, Seeds of Peace: A Buddhist Vision for Renewing Society
The eternity of "anytime" shines in this moment "now" while the unlimitedness of "anyplace" is manifested in the limits of "here." When the universality of "anyone" dances out in the individual "I," for the first time you have the world of Zen.
— Omori Sogen, An Introduction to Zen Training
In Buddhism there is one word for mind & heart: chitta. Chitta refers not just to thoughts and emotions in the narrow sense of arising from the brain, but also to the whole range of consciousness, vast & unimpeded.
— Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness
Returning to whereIt used to see blossoms,My mind, changed,Will stay on at Yoshino...Home now, and see anew.
— Saigyō, Mirror for the Moon
When we are truly able to see and understand life, its reality, its value and beauty as well as its troubles, we are able to accept life dynamically and walk its path with appreciation and gratitude. This way of life is Buddhism.
— Gyomay M Kubose
Much of what animated me in those days I now recognize as the romantic yearnings of an idealistic, alienated, and aimless young man. I endowed these strange, exotic people, about whom I knew little, with all the virtues that my own culture seemed to lack.
— Stephen Batchelor, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist
For Kerouac, the embodiment of American Zen was Gary Snyder, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Buddhist poet and essayist, who he fictionalized as Japhy Ryder in The Dharma Bums. Snyder was a practicing Buddhist and a translator of classic Chinese texts before Kerouac met him. He was the Zen guru of the Beats at the same time that Alan Watts popularized Buddhism for middle-class Americans in best-selling books and magazine articles of the late 1950s. Snyder had studied with Watts for a while but thought him 'square.' 'He was cool in relation to the people around him,' Snyder once said, referring to 'middle class, needy' Americans, but he was 'never actually cool.' Then Snyder added with a wink, '[and] you know what I mean, as the Big Bopper says,' invoking the rock-and-roll classic 'Chantilly Lace' for those hip and in-the-know.
— Joel Dinerstein, The Origins of Cool in Postwar America
Enlightenment was not just Gautama Buddha's, but you too, individually, must find this new perspective of life, this new point of view in your life and in all things." -
— Gyomay M Kubose
There is no "I" as such apart from others.
— Gyomay M Kubose
The study of the self. This is the foundational practice of Buddhism. Basically it's the whole point. So what is the point... What is this really about? To study the self addresses everything we encounter in life. We can't encounter anything but the self actually. It's about our entire experience of living. Of life and death. It addresses questions such as Who am I?, What is the nature of my suffering? ... And my well-being, What is my place in this world?, What is my relationship to the things I encounter? ... And ultimately How do I live a life of meaning and energy?
— Shoryu Bradley
The reality of nature, the reality of life is oneness. But we humans have such a strong egotistic nature. We are the ones who create dualism; we are the ones who talk about two sides: front and back, right and wrong, me and you. As soon as life is dichotomized, tension is created.
— Gyomay M Kubose
Oneness and individuality coexist. There is no question about the importance and uniqueness of each individual life. However, difference is no difference. The very difference is equality, is one.
— Gyomay M Kubose
Everything changes
—  nothing is permanent.
Only when I see myself truly is Gautama Buddha is present in me.
— Gyomay M Kubose
For me, Buddhism is like a living organism. If it is to flourish outside self-enclosed ghettos of believers, it will have to meet the challenge of understanding, interacting with, and adapting to an environment that is strikingly different from those in which it has evolved.
— Stephen Batchelor, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist
Forget self pity, live life! Be the artist of your own life.
— Gyomay M. Kubose, Everyday Suchness: Buddhist Essays on Everyday Living
May we be free of the tyranny of our expectations of others.
— Gyomay M. Kubose, Everyday Suchness: Buddhist Essays on Everyday Living
We do not understand that we are literally able to live and enjoy life only because of other people and things. If one really understands this truth, he cannot help but become humble and appreciate others.
— Gyomay M. Kubose, Everyday Suchness: Buddhist Essays on Everyday Living
We must find the way of love rather than that of being loved.
— Gyomay M. Kubose, Everyday Suchness: Buddhist Essays on Everyday Living
Concepts are not real things
—  a conceptualized world is a dead world. Living actualities lose their life when put into concepts.
Who am I? I am not nothing but this moment in the flow of life. This flow of life is not in my control
—  it is the life of the universe itself. The life of the universe flows in me and I just flow with this life and that is myself.
I was encouraged to ask in all seriousness what this life is for, what matters most for myself and others, what non-negotiable values I might even be willing to die for. At the same time, I started to notice the poignant ephemerality of things. I sensed the immanence of death in my bones. I felt the urgency of knowing that this day on earth might be my last. Yet rather than making me gloomy and morbid, such reflections intensified my sense of being alive. They induced a kind of rapture, which snapped me out of the dull routines of the familiar and confronted me with the miracle of life as it unfolds and vanishes each instant.
— Stephen Batchelor, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist
No claims were made by him [Buddha] to any unalterable truth, nor did he demand that his teachings should simply be accepted, taken on trust or acquired through an act of faith. Instead he [Buddha] encouraged those who wished to make the spiritual journey he himself had undertaken to experiment for themselves as individuals, retaining what was useful to them and abandoning what was not.
— DURDEN SMITH, The Essence Of Buddhism
This our worldly life is an activity of Nirvana itself
—  not the slightest distinction exists between them.
The four abiding abodes,The ideal attitude for a follower of the Buddhist teaching to maintain towards other living beings.
— Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
Life's Journeys Inward seeking moves towards being-time Outward seeking journies among life's ornaments
— Earl R Smith II, PhD
Aggression, Violence, Exploitation, Depression, Despair, Prejudice, War, Intolerance, Poverty, Are all a result of a misunderstanding of the nature of Self.
— Shoryu Bradley
Mind is a forerunner of all actions.All deeds are led by mind, created by mind.If one speaks or acts with corrupt mind, suffering follows,As the wheel follows the hoof of an ox pulling a cart.Mind is the forerunner of all actions. All deeds are led by mind, created by mind.If one speaks or acts with a serene mind, happiness follows,As surely as one's shadow.'He abused me, he mistreated me, defeated me, robbed me.'Harboring such thoughts keeps hatred alive.'He abused me, he mistreated me, defeated me, robbed me.'Releasing such thoughts banishes hatred for all time.Animosity does not eradicate animosity.Only by loving kindness is animosity dissolved.This law is ancient and eternal.
— Dhammapada
The one who praises you is a thief. The one who criticizes you is your true friend.
— Robert Aitken, The Mind of Clover: Essays in Zen Buddhist Ethics
Yellow leaves hang on your tree of life. The messengers of death are waiting. You are going to travel far away. Have you any provisions for the journey?
— Anonymous, The Dhammapada
Two kinds of selfish people: the unwise and the wise. Unwise selfish people think only of themselves, and the result is confusion and pain. Wise selfish people know that the best thing they can do for themselves is to be there for others. As a result, they experience joy.
— Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
By incorporating him (Buddha) into the domain of Hindu traditions, and by depicting him as a Hindu sage who was a glorious incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the Brahmins attempted to secure their position of authority in the society.
— Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Buddha: The First Sapiens
Unlike most other world religions, Buddhism has never been too rigid in its structure.
— Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Buddha: The First Sapiens
The most important and uniquely glorious element of Buddha’s character was that, he did not compel his pupils to be slaves either to his teachings or to himself, but like a conscientious human, demanded from his followers to accept his words not merely out of regard for him but after subjecting them to a thorough examination. And this is where Buddha stands out from the crowd of self-proclaimed prophets.
— Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Buddha: The First Sapiens
Those who had seen eyes like hers before understood instantly that she was a woman who had suffered, but wore it well, with dignity and grace. Rather than dragging her down into depression, her pain had lifted her into a peaceful place. She was not a Buddhist, but shared philosophies with them, in that she didn’t fight what happened to her, but instead drifted with it, allowing life to carry her from one experience to the next. It was that depth and wisdom that shone through her work. An acceptance of life as it really was, rather than trying to force it to be what one wanted, and it never could be. She was willing to let go of what she loved, which was the hardest task of all. And the more she lived and learned and studied, the humbler she was. A monk she had met in Tibet called her a holy woman, which in fact she was, although she had no particular affinity for any formal church. If she believed in anything, she believed in life, and embraced it with a gentle touch. She was a strong reed bending in the wind, beautiful and resilient.
— Danielle Steel, Matters of the Heart
Animosity does not eradicate animosity. Only by loving kindness is animosity dissolved. This law is ancient and eternal. (attributed to Buddha)
— Ananda Maitreya, The Dhammapada
We can only suppose that Buddhism has been so much admired mainly for what it is not. A well known modem writer on the subject has remarked that “Buddhism in its purity ignored the existence of a God; it denied the existence of a soul; it was not so much a religion as a code of ethics”. We can understand the appeal of this on the one hand to the rationalist and on the other to the sentimentalist. Unfortunately for these, all three statements arc untrue, at least in the sense in which they are meant. It is with another Buddhism than this that we arc in sympathy and are able to agree; and that is the Buddhism of the texts as they stand.
— Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Hinduism and Buddhism
Beginners will first meditate upon equanimity. Once that is established, they will then meditate upon the remaining three [immeasurable qualities of love, compassion, and joy]....First, toward all those who are relatives, attachment is to be abandoned as though they were neutral. Then abandon aversion for enemies as though they were neutral and remain without partiality. In order to be free from delusion even toward the neutral, have the intention to dispel the passions of beings all at once. Meditate like this without cli
— Longchen Rabjam, Dudjom Lingpa's Chöd: An Ambrosia Ocean of Sublime Explanations
We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.
— Buddha Gautama
Long before man traveled into space, rabbis debated how one would observe Shabbat there-not because they anticipated space travel but because Buddhists strive to live with questions and Jews would rather die.
— Jonathan Safran Foer, Here I Am
It is the ultimate religion, through which all humans neuropsychologically morph into Buddhas, or Enlightened Beings.
— Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a Scientist Who Found Himself by Getting Lost
We can see that there are many ways in which we actively contribute to our own experience of mental unrest and suffering. Although, in general, mental and emotional afflictions themselves can come naturally, often it is our own reinforcement of those negative emotions that makes them so much worse. For instance when we have anger or hatred towards a person, there is less likelihood of its developing to a very intense degree if we leave it unattended.However, if we think about the projected injustices done to us, the ways in which we have been unfairly treated, and we keep on thinking about them over and over, then that feeds the hatred. It makes the hatred very powerful and intense. Of course, the same can apply to when we have an attachment towards a particular person; we can feed that by thinking about how beautiful he or she is, and as we keep thinking about the projected qualities that we see in the person, the attachment becomes more and more intense. But this shows how through constant familiarity and thinking, we ourselves can make our emotions more intense and powerful.
— Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness
I have found that this is pretty radical notion for anyone who was raised with a strong Christian background. Within that religious tradition there is an emphasis on original sin, which dictates that we area bacically not good at all but must work for our salvation. Within the Buddhist tradition we are saying the opposite: actually you are basically good. You are basically wise. You are basically kind. You just need to discover that truth and develop confidence in it.
— Lodro Rinzler, Walk Like a Buddha: Even if Your Boss Sucks, Your Ex Is Torturing You, and You're Hungover Again
Few coffee shops have books, fewer have good books, and even less will have one book that can change your whole life. Now, the question is: How many people can find that book? And, among those who do, how many will read it? Because, you see, life always provides opportunities, but not many can see them, when they're just there, waiting to be found, when they come our way, even if in the most unexpected place in the world. One has to be very sharp to recognize a window of opportunity in a wall of illusions. And the ability to redirect attention, demands that one can be capable as well of knowing his own limitations in the vast sea of energy and vibrations. Now, I could be talking about a book, a group or a person, as the axiom remains true to itself.
— Robin Sacredfire
It’s said that the Buddha’s enlightenment is great than that of a traveler setting out, in the same proportion as the heavens are bigger than what can be seen of them through the eye of a needle. But in both cases, what you see is the sky.
— Matthieu Ricard, The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet
All instruction is but as a finger pointing to the moon
—  and he whose gaze is fixed upon the pointer will never see beyond.
Like most people who decide to get sober, I was brought to Alcoholics Anonymous. While AA certainly works for others, its core propositions felt irreconcilable with my own experiences. I couldn't, for example, rectify the assertion that "alcoholism is a disease" with the facts of my own life.The idea that by simply attending an AA meeting, without any consultation, one is expected to take on a blanket diagnosis of "diseased addict" was to me, at best, patronizing. At worst, irresponsible. Irresponsible because it doesn't encourage people to turn toward and heal the actual underlying causes of their abuse of substances.I drank for thirteen years for REALLY good reasons. Among them were unprocessed grief, parental abandonment, isolation, violent trauma, anxiety and panic, social oppression, a general lack of safety, deep existential discord, and a tremendous diet and lifestyle imbalance. None of which constitute a disease, and all of which manifest as profound internal, mental, emotional and physical discomfort, which I sought to escape by taking external substances.It is only through one's own efforts to turn toward life on its own terms and to develop a wiser relationship to what's there through mindfulness and compassion that make freedom from addictive patterns possible. My sobriety has been sustained by facing life, processing grief, healing family relationships, accepting radically the fact of social oppression, working with my abandonment conditioning, coming into community, renegotiating trauma, making drastic diet and lifestyle changes, forgiving, and practicing mindfulness, to name just a few. Through these things, I began to relieve the very real pressure that compulsive behaviors are an attempt to resolve.
— Noah Levine, Refuge Recovery: A Buddhist Path to Recovering from Addiction
Those who ignore or belittle karmic cause and result are followers of the nihilist heretics. Those who base their confidence only upon the view of emptiness will plunge lower and lower toward the extreme view of nihilism. Those who catapult into this negative direction will never find freedom from the lower states of existence and will be far removed from the higher realms. They say that doctrines emphasizing conventional meanings such as cause and result, compassion, and meritorious accumulations will not bring buddhahood, whereas the uncontrived definitive meaning that resembles the sky is what the great yogis must meditate upon. Among nihilistic views, that is the epitome; and among lower paths, that is the lowest of all. How amazing to claim that, by blocking the cause, a result can be accomplished.
— Longchen Rabjam, Dudjom Lingpa's Chöd: An Ambrosia Ocean of Sublime Explanations
Allah protect us,' Bold said politely. Then, in Arabic, 'In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate.' In his years in Temur's army he had learned to be as much a Muslim as anyone. The Buddha did not mind what you said to be polite.
— Kim Stanley Robinson, The Years of Rice and Salt
A person who is asleep is either lost in deep unconsciousness or absorbed in a dream. Metaphorically, this was how the Buddha must have seen both his previous self as well as everyone else he had known: they either were blind to the questions of existence or sought consolation from them in metaphysical or religious fantasies.
— Stephen Batchelor, Buddhism without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening
Letting go of a craving is not rejecting it but allowing it to be itself: a contingent state of mind that once arisen will pass away. Instead of forcibly freeing ourselves from it, notice how its very nature is to free itself. To let it go is like releasing a snake that you have been clutching in your hand. By identifying with a craving ('I want this," don't want' that"), you tighten the clutch and intensify its resistance. Instead of being a state of mind that you have, it becomes a compulsion that has you. As with understanding anguish, the challenge in letting go of craving is to act before habitual reactions incapacitate us.
— Stephen Batchelor, Buddhism without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening
The sutras liken reincarnation to the relationship between teachers and students. A singing teacher teaches students how to sing. His students learn techniques and benefit from direct experiential advice from their teacher. But the teacher doesn't remove a song from his throat and insert it into a student's mouth. Similarly, reincarnation is a continuity of everything we have learnt, like lighting one candle from another, or a face and its reflection in a mirror.
— Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, Not For Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices
We all know where the home is and how it feels.Buddhism on the other hand is often complained by Buddhists to be too complex. If we were to make it our home, it would simply reflect our inner situation.
— Sherab Gyatso Alex, What's What
Whilst on the subject of the spread of Buddhism in the West, I want to say that I have noticed some tendency towards sectarianism amongst new practitioners. This is absolutely wrong. Religion should never become a source of conflict, a further factor of division within the human community.
— Dalai Lama XIV, Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama
The researchers summarized: "A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.". Long ago, Buddhists reached much the same conclusion.
— David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions
Within my body are all the sacred places of the world and the most profound pilgrimage that I can ever make is within my own body.
— Saraha
The buddha-dharma … is about directly seeing Truth, prior to forming any ideas about it. It is about responding to each particular situation as it comes … , not according to some … program of dos and don'ts.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
I shall never forget the peace of his hermitage amidst the eternal snows and the lesson he taught me: that we cannot face the Great Void before we have the strength and greatness to fill it with our entire being. Then the Void is not the negation merely of our limited personality, but the Plenum-Void which includes, embraces and nourishes it, like the womb of space in which the light moves eternally without ever being lost.
— Anagarika Govinda, The Way of the White Clouds
Even when dreaming, if the sentient beings who dwell in the three lower realms are witnessed, then at that moment one should pray to sever the continuity of their negat
— Pema Lungtok Gyatso, Dudjom Lingpa's Chöd: An Ambrosia Ocean of Sublime Explanations
Equanimity is a perfect, unshakable balance of mind, rooted in insight. But in its perfection and unshakable nature equanimity is not dull, heartless and frigid. Its perfection is not due to an emotional “emptiness”, but to a “fullness” of understanding, to its being complete in itself.Its unshakable nature is not the immovability of a dead, cold stone, but the manifestation of the highest strength.
— Nyanaponika Thera, The Four Sublime States
You listen to people, you listen so deeply that you can hear their past lives,The crackle of their funeral pyres,
— Dick Allen, Zen Master Poems
We have to learn the art of stopping - stopping our thinking, our habit energies, our forgetfulness, the strong emotions that rule us. When an emotion rushes through us like a storm, we have no peace. We turn on the TV and then we turn it off. We pick up a book and then we put it down. How can we stop this state of agitation? How How can we stop our fear, despair, anger, and craving? We can stop by practicing mindful breathing, mindful walking, mindful smiling, and deep looking in order to understand. When we are mindful, touching deeply the present moment, the fruits are always understanding, acceptance, love, and the desire to relieve suffering and bring joy.
— Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation
[T]here is really nothing 'out there' to get because, already, within this moment, everything is whole and complete.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
Truth... has no obligation to console you.
— Osho
The impossibility of arriving at Truth by giving up your own authority and following the lights of others. Such a path will only lead to an opinion.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
Every effort to understand destroys the object studied in favor of another object of a different nature; this second object requires from us a new effort which destroys it in favor of a third, and so on and so forth until we reach the one lasting presence, the point at which the distinction between meaning and the absence of meaning disappears: the same point from which we began.
— Claude Lévi-Strauss
Individuals create themselves through their moral choices. By freely and repeatedly choosing certain sorts of things, an individual shapes their character, and through their character their future.
— Damien Keown, Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction
itt was snowing as if you could hear wolves howling
— Dick Allen, Zen Master Poems
[I]mpermanence [is] the very thing that makes [life] vibrant, wonderful, and alive.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
It is such a mistake to assume that practicing dharma will help us calm down and lead an untroubled life; nothing could be further from the truth. Dharma is not a therapy. Quite the opposite, in fact; dharma is tailored specifically to turn your life upside down—it’s what you sign up for. So when your life goes pear-shaped, why do you complain? If you practice and your life fails to capsize, it is a sign that what you are doing is not working. This is what distinguishes the dharma from New Age methods involving auras, relationships, communication, well-being, the Inner Child, being one with the universe, and tree hugging. From the point of view of dharma, such interests are the toys of samsaric beings—toys that quickly bore us senseless.
— Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, Not For Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices
Question everything, even the question mark, that shepherd's crook floating in the air above that small round rockIf you - stubbornly - still wish to be unhappy,maybe you can grasp it.
— Dick Allen, Zen Master Poems
The Buddhist ideal of awakening implies that we can sever our links with our evolutionary past. We can raise ourselves from the sleep in which other animals pass their lives. Our illusions dissolved, we need no longer suffer. This is only another doctrine of salvation, subtler than that of the Christians, but no different from Christianity in its goal of leaving our animal inheritance behind. But the idea that we can rid ourselves of animal illusion is the greatest illusion of all. meditation may give us a fresher view of things but cannot uncover them as they are in themselves.
— John Gray, Perros de paja: Reflexiones sobre los humanos y otros animales
all living creatures are entitled to respect in their own right, not simply because of the utility they may possess for other humans.
— Damien Keown, Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction
The self is a self-made Procrustean bedof little comfort
— Ulf Wolf
Zen has a pronounced iconoclastic tendency, and regards the study of texts, doctrines, and dogmas as a potential hindrance to spiritual awakening, relying instead on humour, spontaneity, unconventionality, poetry, and other forms of artistic expression to communicate the idea of enlightenment
— Damien Keown, Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction
Is it necessary to believe in the existence of the six realms and the heavens and hells to be a Buddhist? Not necessarily. It is possible to interpret these as, perhaps, referring to other dimensions of existence, parallel universes, or simply states of mind.
— Damien Keown, Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction
The aim of far too many teachings these days is to make people "feel good," and even some Buddhist masters are beginning to sound like New Age apostles. Their talks are entirely devoted to validating the manifestation of ego and endorsing the "rightness" of our feelings, neither of which have anything to do with the teachings we find in the pith instructions. So, if you are only concerned about feeling good, you are far better off having a full body massage or listening to some uplifting or life-affirming music than receiving dharma teachings, which were definitely not designed to cheer you up. On the contrary, the dharma was devised specifically to expose your failings and make you feel awful.
— Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, Not For Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices
In all these assaults on the senses there is a great wisdom — not only about the addictiveness of pleasures but about their ephemerality. The essence of addiction, after all, is that pleasure tends to desperate and leave the mind agitated, hungry for more. The idea that just one more dollar, one more dalliance, one more rung on the ladder will leave us feeling sated reflects a misunderstanding about human nature — a misunderstanding, moreover, that is built into human nature; we are designed to feel that the next great goal will bring bliss, and the bliss is designed to evaporate shortly after we get there. Natural selection has a malicious sense of humor; it leads us along with a series of promises and then keeps saying ‘Just kidding.’ As the Bible puts it, ‘All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.’ Remarkably, we go our whole lives without ever really catching on.The advice of the sages — that we refuse to play this game — is nothing less than an incitement to mutiny, to rebel against our creator. Sensual pleasures are the whip natural selection uses to control us to keep us in the thrall of its warped value system. To cultivate some indifference to them is one plausible route to liberation. While few of us can claim to have traveled far on this route, the proliferation of this scriptural advice suggests it has been followed some distance with some success.
— Robert Wright, The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology
All science is a charted ignorance and belongs to Maya.
— Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage
The bells of the Gion monastery in India echo with the warning that all things are impermanent. The blossoms of the sala trees teach us through their hues that what flourishes must fade. The proud do not prevail for long but vanish like a spring night’s dream. In time the mighty, too, succumb: all are dust before the wind.
— Heike, The Tale of the Heike
Some Buddhists have criticized secular Buddhism because they think it waters down Buddhism. I like to think of it as adding Buddhist flavoring to the sparkling water of secularism.
— Rick Heller, Secular Meditation: 32 Practices for Cultivating Inner Peace, Compassion, and Joy - A Guide from the Humanist Community at Harvard
...you missed the chance to explore the equally interesting Buddhist belief in being present for every facet of your daily life, of being truly present. Be present in this class. And then, when it's over be present out there,
— John Green, Looking for Alaska
The life-tree of practice is single-minded application.
— Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye
Inaction in a deed of mercy becomes an action in a deadly sin.
— Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Voice of the Silence: Being Extracts from the Book of the Golden Precepts
Omo explains Buddhism to Robbie:‘Some human dudes believe in reincarnation. Being born more than once? As if once wasn’t bad enough. Like, suppose the universe is a hologram, and the human dudes are outside the universe and some big ugly cosmic dude beams them into the hologram.’‘Why does he?’ asked Robbie.‘Because he wants to fuck with their heads. And it’s like his universe, his rules. So the proto-human dudes get sent into a body, and the body is male or female and more or less athletic, and more or less clever and good looking. And they live their lives and when it ends they are back in the place outside the universe until the big ugly cosmic dude decides he wants them back again to fuck with their heads some more, so the next time they might be a boy instead of a girl, and better looking, not so athletic, more quick tempered, less optimistic, whatever, whatever and so it goes on until they learn so much stuff that the big ugly cosmic dude can’t fuck with them any more and the proto-human dudes don’t get beamed into the universe any more. Unless the dudes want to be. Which would be weird.
— D.  Miller, Robbie the Dysfunctional Robot
Sit down and have a cup of coffeeWith your firm conviction that they're out to get youSit down and have a cigarette with your awful fear of deathI saw Milarepa at the all-night diner sharing a table with his personal demonsHe said You've got to invite them in with compassion on your breath Stop running away, 'cause nobody runs as fast as pain and sorrowStop pushing away, you're just making it hardStop putting it off, 'cause it'll be back to kick your ass tomorrowBreathe in, breathe out, let down your guardSit down and start shooting the shitWith the fear that you'll never measure up to your idealsSit down and have a bottle of beer with the ache of all you've lostI saw Milarepa at the coffee house having a Danish with his hurts and hatredsHe said You've got to invite them in, or you pay ten times the cost.Stop running away, 'cause nobody runs as fast as fear and loathingStop pushing away, you're just making it worseStop putting it off, cause it'll be back again in different clothingJust pop the clutch and go into reverseInvite them in and let them be there while you learn to stand itInvite them in and give them room to stomp and shoutWhen they can come and goThey won't be always pounding on your doorIf you let them in you can let them out.Sit down and have a conversationWith the loneliness that's eating you aliveSit down and watch a sunset with your overwhelming rageI saw Milarepa at the corner bar buying a round for the monsters in his heartHe said They're really not so bad when they're let out of their cageStop running away, 'cause nobody runs as fast as pain and sorrowStop pushing away, you're just making it hardStop putting it off, 'cause it'll be back to kick your ass tomorrowBreathe in, breathe out, let down your guard
— Allison Lonsdale
While most streams of Buddhism take a contemplative stance on passion, pleasure, and pain, Sufism encourages us to be open to our passions - to dive into the sea, to become at one with the beauty and power of the waves.
— Charlotte Kasl
[Buddhism] takes us beyond a kind of self-centered narcissism because instead of identifying with the content of our experience, we identify with awareness itself.
— Charlotte Kasl
Buddhism is more a philosophy for living rather than a religion or dogma - it's about being awake, free from illusions and fear, so that compassion and loving kindness permeates all of our relationships.
— Charlotte Kasl
Malin had been born and bred in an upper-class family. Was that the cause of his dissillusionment and bitterness with that way of life? The way he could have peace of mind therefore, was by detaching himself from that way of life and battling against it. Would Prince Siddharta have renounced the world if he had been born into poverty?
— මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ, Yuganthaya
I am not a Buddhist. Yet there is a Buddhist story that I hold dear. A monk walks in a forest, and chances upon a tiger. The tiger chases him, and the monk runs until he comes to a cliff. With the tiger on his heels, the man grasps a vine and clambers down. Another tiger appears at the bottom. As the man hangs there, a mouse crawls from a crevice just beyond his reach and begins to gnaw the vine. Death above, death below, and death in between. He sees a big ripe strawberry near his mouth. It is delicious.In this moment, flying miles above the strawberry fields of California's San Joachin Valley, I think that I would change the ending of this story. Instead of giving the doomed man a strawberry, what if we leave him alone with the two tigers, the mouse, and the fraying vine? For the last time, his arms grow tired, he feels a familiar ache deep in his muscles. For the last time he catches his breath, feels a rasping in his throat and lungs. He feels this, and a thousand other things. It is all delicious.
— Derrick Jensen, A Language Older Than Words
We live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing, you are everything. That is all.
— Gautama Buddha
A more common explanation for the feeling of being Old in Soul is tied up in Buddhist and Hindu ideas of reincarnation, or metempsychosis. Interestingly, this is most likely where the origin of the phrase “Old Soul” came from in the first place.
— Aletheia Luna, Old Souls: The Sages and Mystics of Our World
If he makes himself as good as he tells others to be, then he in truth can teach others. Difficult indeed is self-control.
— Anonymous, The Dhammapada
All beings tremble before danger, all fear death. When a man considers this, he does not kill or cause to kill.
— Anonymous, The Dhammapada
When we stop distancing ourselves from the pain in the world, our own or others, we create the possibility of a new experience, one that often surprises because of how much joy, connection, or relief it yields. Destruction may continue, but humanity shines through.
— Mark Epstein, The Trauma of Everyday Life
He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.
— Gautama Buddha
Enlightenment does not mean getting rid of anything. It means changing one's frame of reference so that all things become enlightening.
— Mark Epstein
First, rely on the spirit and meaning of the teachings, not on the words;Second, rely on the teachings, not on the personality of the teacher;Third, rely on real wisdom, not superficial interpretation;And fourth, rely on the essence of your pure Wisdom Mind, not on judgmental perceptions.
— Gautama Buddha
When you die, you want to die a beautiful death. But what makes for a beautiful death is not always clear. To die without suffering, to die without causing trouble to others, to die leaving behind a beautiful corpse, to die looking good -- it's not clear what is meant by a beautiful death. Does a beautiful death refer to the way you die or the condition of your corpse after death? This distinction is not clear. And when you start to stretch the image of death to the method of how to dispose of your corpse as befitting your image of death, everything grows completely out of hand.
— Shinmon Aoki, Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician
Words!The Way is beyond language,for in it there is no yesterday no tomorrow no today.
— Xinxin Ming
The knowledge of the past stays with us. To let go is simply to release any images and emotions.
— Jack Kornfield
We should not allow ourselves to be deceived by our outward show of ‘civilized’ manners and ‘cultured’ social behavior into believing that self-concern, desirous attachment, aversion, and indifference are steadily losing their hold over us.
— Stephen Batchelor
Buddhism does not deny the existence of gods—they are described as powerful beings who can bring rains and victories—but they have no influence on the law that suffering arises from craving. If the mind of a person is free of all craving, no god can make him miserable. Conversely, once craving arises in a person's mind, all the gods in the universe cannot save him from suffering.
— Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
After all, people desire immortality and do not wish to embrace the inescapable reality of death; they long for happiness and shy away from the contemplation of pain; they want to preserve their sense of self, not desconstruction it into fleeting and impersonal components. It is counterintuitive to accept that deathlessness is experienced each moment we are released from the deathlike grip of greed and hatred; that happiness in this world is only possible for those who realized that this world is incapable of providing happiness; that one becomes a fully individuated person only by relinquishing beliefs in an essential self.
— Stephen Batchelor, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist
A maggot is just another life form.
— Shinmon Aoki, Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician
Intruding upon a dimension rightfully ours, modern medicine robs us of the dignity of what people in the past regarded as most precious: that final moment of death.
— Shinmon Aoki
I have found that we need to maintain relationships with all spheres of society: the local community, politicians from all parties, business leaders, artists, and farmers....We don't favor one kind of person over another, or one political party over another...My goal is for them to use the method and concept of Chan practice to benefit their work and their organizations....That is our duty.
— Sheng Yen
People go through life blindly, ignoring death like revellers at a party feasting on fine foods. They ignore that later they will have to go to the toilet, so they do not bother to find out where there is one. When nature finally calls, they have no idea where to go and are in a mess.
— Ajahn Chah
God is another word for Love.
— Stacy Snapp-Killian aka StacyK
Death for [the Buddhist] is the shadow on the face of life, for the opposite of death is birth, not life; that which is born must die. Life has no opposite, for life goes on; only its forms must change unceasingly. It is life which creates, uses and then destroys each form of life, whether yours or mine or that of the mountain, the empire or the fly.
— Christmas Humphreys, The Buddhist Way Of Life
The fear of death is the fear of the end of an illusion
—  so long as the illusion persists so long will the fear remain.
By-passing all scriptures and all that any teacher has to say, we shall, while respecting every finger that points to the moon, be mindful only of the moon. This habit will make it easier to understand the truth that every statement is wrong, whenever made by any man, for it was made in duality and is therefore one-sided, incomplete, and in the final synthesis its opposite is just as true!
— Christmas Humphreys, The Buddhist Way Of Life
We find our own way to right action, and tread it as we go. He who tells his neighbour what he, the neighbour, should do in given circumstances is a fool. He does not and he cannot know. 'If I were you' is a silly beginning to any remark. You are not, and you never will be anyone else. Mind your own business; it is, or should be, a full-time task for twenty-four hours a day.
— Christmas Humphreys, The Buddhist Way Of Life
We see, at least with intellect, that beyond both true and false is truth; that there is beauty beyond our present views on the beautiful and ugly; that pleasure-pain can now alike be transcended, and that some day we shall truly see that 'form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form'.
— Christmas Humphreys, The Buddhist Way Of Life
Buddhism has become for me a philosophy of action and responsibility. It provides a framework of values, ideas, and practices that nurture my ability to create a path in life, to define myself as a person, to act, to take risks, to image things differently, to make art. The more I prize Gotama's teachings free from the matrix of Indian religious thought in which they are entrenched and the more I come to understand how his own life unfolded in the context of his times, the more I discern a template for living that I can apply at this time in this increasingly secular and globalized world.
— Stephen Batchelor, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist
No sane person fears nothingness.
— Robert A.F. Thurman, The Tibetan Book Of The Dead
What a nuisance is the friend who must have this and that, whose likes and hates are infinite, with bitter and loud voiced complaint about the whole of circumstance? How pleasant are the truly great who, wanting nothing, are content with anything. Accepting all things in a world of illusion as born of cause-effect they live in a mind above the opposites, and we call them great because they do so.
— Christmas Humphreys, The Buddhist Way Of Life
There is no reason for a sound faith to be irrational. A useful faith should not be blind, but should be well aware of its grounds. A sound faith should be able to use scientific investigation to strengthen itself. it should be open to the spirit not to lock itself up in the letter. A nourishing, useful, healthful faith should be no obstacle to developing a science of death.
— Robert A.F. Thurman, The Tibetan Book Of The Dead
He was the least spiritual of all the monks here, accepting nothing without proof. This skepticism was simultaneously his greatest asset and his greatest impediment.
— Amy Thomson, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, 2013 January/February
The entire teaching of Buddhism can be summed up in this way: Nothing is worth holding on to.
— Jack Kornfield, Living Dharma: Teachings of Twelve Buddhist Masters
Impermanence and selflessness are not negative aspect of life, but the very foundation on which life is built. Impermanence is the constant transformation of things. Without impermanence, there can be no life. Selflessness is the interdependent nature of all things. Without interdependence, nothing could exist.
— Thich Nhat Hanh, Your True Home: The Everyday Wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh: 365 days of practical, powerful teachings from the beloved Zen teacher
If we get rid of all wishful thinking and dubious metaphysical speculations, we can hardly doubt that – at a time not too distant – each one of us will simply cease to be. It won’t be like going into darkness forever, for there will be neither darkness, nor time, nor sense of futility, nor anyone to feel anything about it. Try as best you can to imagine this, and keep at it. The universe will, supposedly, be going on as usual, but for each individual it will be as if it had never happened at all; and even that is saying too much, because there won’t be anyone for whom it never happened. Make this prospect as real as possible: the one total certainty. You will be as if you had never existed, which was, however, the way you were before you did exist – and not only you but everything else. Nevertheless, with such an improbable past, here we are. We begin from nothing and end in nothing. You can say that again. Think it over and over, trying to conceive the fact of coming to never having existed. After a while you will begin to feel rather weird, as if this very apparent something that you are is at the same time nothing at all. Indeed, you seem to be rather firmly and certainly grounded in nothingness, much as your sight seems to emerge from that total blankness behind your eyes. The weird feeling goes with the fact that you are being introduced to a new common sense, a new logic, in which you are beginning to realize the identity of ku and shiki, void and form. All of a sudden it will strike you that this nothingness is the most potent, magical, basic, and reliable thing you ever thought of, and that the reason you can’t form the slight idea of it is that it’s yourself. But not the self you thought you were.
— Alan W. Watts
Greater than all the joysOf heaven and earth,Greater still than dominionOver all the worlds,Is the joy of reaching the stream.
— Gautama Buddha, The Dhammapada
You are as the yellow leaf.The messengers of death are at hand.You are to travel far away.What will you take with you?You are the lampTo lighten the way.Then hurry, hurry.When your light shinesWithout impurity or desireYou will come into the boundless country.Your life is falling away.Death is at hand.Where will you rest on the way?What have you taken with you?You are the lampTo lighten the way.Then hurry, hurry.When your light shines purelyYou will not be bornAnd you will not die.
— Gautama Buddha, The Dhammapada
Like a caring motherholding and guarding the lifeof her only child,so with a boundless heartof lovingkindness,hold yourself and all beingsas your beloved children.
— Gautama Buddha
To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one's own in the midst of abundance.
— Gautama Buddha