Buddhism Quotes

Because of the Dharma, my mind was more free in prison than worldly people experience in the best of circumstances.

~ Yangthang Rinpoche

The light in meonly wants toreach the darkness in you.

~ Vivid Darkness

We took a bus to the nearby monastery of one of the last great Tang dynasty Chan masters, Yun-men. Yun-men was known for his pithy “one word” Zen. When asked “What is the highest teaching of the Buddha?” he replied: “An appropriate statement.” On another occasion, he answered: “Cake.” I admired his directness.

~ Stephen Batchelor

Death would be an extremely bad thing like most of us paint it, if being dead were painful.

~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Once upon a time,there was a Zen signat every small railway crossing in AmericaStop. Look. And listen.

~ Dick Allen

All the repetitions in the pattern were superficial; the moment was always new. It had to be lived, and then the next moment embraced as it arrived.

~ Kim Stanley Robinson

From the Buddhist perspective, the only lasting way to bring about change is for people themselves to change.

~ Pat Allwright

These... things, householder, are welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in the world:Long life is welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in the world.Beauty is welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in the world.Happiness is welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in the world.Status is welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in the world....Now, I tell you, these... things are not to be obtained by reason of prayers or wishes. If they were to be obtained by reason of prayers or wishes, who here would lack them? It's not fitting for the disciple of the noble ones who desires long life to pray for it or to delight in doing so. Instead, the disciple of the noble ones who desires long life should follow the path of practice leading to long life. In so doing, he will attain long l

~ Gautama Buddha

When I speak in Christian terms or Buddhist terms I'm simply selecting for the moment a dialect. Christian words for me represent the comforting vocabulary of the place I came from hometown voices saying more than the language itself can convey about how welcome and safe I am what the expectations are and where to find food. Buddhist words come from another dialect from the people over the mountain. I've become pretty fluent in Buddhist it helps me to see my home country differently but it will never be speech I can feel completely at home in.

~ Mary Rose O'reilley

No need for Jesus and the Lord Buddha to fight

~ Carol Hollinger

The story of the Fall tells us in mythical language that original sin is not simply a stigma arbitrarily making good pleasures seem guilty, but a basic inauthenticity, a kind of predisposition to bad faith in our understanding of ourselves and of the world. It implies a determined willfulness in trying to make things be other than they are in order that we may be able to make them subserve, at any moment, to our individual desire for pleasure or for power. But since things do not obey our arbitrary impulsions, and since we cannot make the world correspond to and confirm the image of it dictated by our needs and illusions, our willfulness is inseparable from error and from suffering. Hence, Buddhism says, deluded life itself is in a state of Dukkha, and every movement of desire tends to bear ultimate fruit in pain rather than lasting joy, in hate rather than love, in destruction rather than creation. (Let us note in passing that when technological skill seems in fact to give man almost absolute power in manipulating the world, this fact is no way reverses his original condition of brokenness and error but only makes it all the more obvious. We who live in the age of the H-bomb and the extermination camp have reason to reflect on this, though such reflection is a bit unpopular.)

~ Thomas Merton

We may have different points of arguments from perspectives of belief, faith and religion.But we must not hate each other. We are one human family.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Maybe love at first sight isn’t what we think it is. Maybe it’s recognising a soul we loved in a past life and falling in love with them again.

~ Kamand Kojouri

Greed kills us all.

~ Kentetsu Takamori

Excerpt from The Long Road from Perdition for the day:...I've always been drawn to the ocean. It is here that I now feel peaceful and can lose my thoughts while immersed in the deafening sounds of waves crashing around me. The spray and mist of the ocean's past seem to be a living, breathing yet wounded animal. The fury of the waves never settled and the spew of the foam touched all that dared to sit near it.There is no reason to flinch as the waves spray and crash against the shore. It is a natural progression I have learned to endure. However, it is the rescinding of the waves and fluid release of fury that I struggle to understand and coexist with peacefully. I hope one day to master it.

~ J.r. Stone

To be great is an ego goal; to be real is existential.

~ Osho

Inner peace doesn't have to be religious, spiritual, or impossible. It simply means you think and act with clarity and compassion--no longer conquered by the storms of the mind.

~ Janice Anderson

We do not want to deny existence. Yet we also do not want to limit existence. Thus, we observe and honor without forming opinion, labeling, or adding a story to the object of our observation.

~ Alaric Hutchinson

The experience of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral is the consequences of perception.

~ Allan Lokos

No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words.

~ Roger Zelazny

It is a great mistake to say ”Conquer it,” for we can never conquer nature; we can only harmonize with it.

~ Gyomay M. Kubose

The Buddha is like space, with no inherent nature; appearing in the world to benefit the living, his features and refinements are like reflections.

~ Thomas Cleary

Your purpose, and its specific expressions, expands and accelerates as it becomes more similar to Nature’s purpose. The tools you need to apply it you collect along the path in discovering what that is. Time is there to provide you with the “opportunities” to find more creative responses to things like frustration, confusion and self-righteousness. As you gently, oh so gently and delicately, adjust to the requirements that exist in your actual circumstance, you are given the tools needed to surpass them.

~ Darrell Calkins

Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.

~ Gautama Buddha

It is my conviction that there is no way to peace - peace is the way.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Without inner peace, outer peace is impossible. We all wish for world peace, but world peace will never be acheived unless we first establish peace within our own minds. We can send so-called 'peacekeeping forces' into areas of conflict, but peace cannot be oppossed from the outside with guns. Only by creating peace within our own mind and helping others to do the same can we hope to achieve peace in this world.

~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

If you put a spoonful of saltin a cup of waterit tastes very salty.If you put a spoonful of saltin a lake of fresh waterthe taste is still pure and clear.Peace comes when our hearts areopen like the sky,vast as the ocean.

~ Jack Kornfield

The more we genuinely care about others the greater our own happiness & inner peace.

~ Allan Lokos

Instead of engaging in cutthroat competition, we should strive to create value. In economic terms, this means a transition from a consumer economy - the mad rush for ownership and consumption - to a constructive economy where all human beings can participate in the act of creating lasting worth.

~ Daisaku Ikeda

The most important step in developing skillful speech is to think before speaking.

~ Allan Lokos

By practicing meditation we establish love, compassion, sympathetic joy & equanimity as our home.

~ Sharon Salzberg

From the Buddhist point of view, all living beings -- that is, beings with feelings, experiences, and sensations -- are considered equal. Human beings can live without eating meat. As human beings, I think that deep down our nature tends towards vegetarianism and leads us to do everything in our power to prevent harming other species.

~ Dalai Lama Xiv

Yes, silence is painful, but if you endure it, you will hear the cadence of the entire universe.

~ Kamand Kojouri

Pain is inevitable... Suffering is optional. We will all have to endure trauma and challenges. What matters is how we move forward afterward. Do we keep carrying the trauma and its causes in our mind? Or can we find a way to let go of them, to end our own suffering?...This is where mindfulness can help us.

~ David Michie

The only path wide for us all is love.

~ Kamand Kojouri

Everyone makes mistakes. Whether we put our mistakes to use depends on how deeply we reflect on our actions. It is desirable to reflect until the tears come. - On Self-Reflection -

~ Kentetsu Takamori

On the Brevity of Our TiesTies in this world last only for a time. We are husband and wife, parent and child, for a short period only. Once this reality sinks in, we cannot help treasuring each moment of our brief association.

~ Kentetsu Takamori

If you are fortunate enough to enjoy great success, you should never forget the spirit of the beginner, and not grow indolent and arrogant.

~ Kentetsu Takamori

So what is a good meditator? A good meditator meditates.

~ Allan Lokos

To be mindful entails examining the path we are traveling & making choices that alleviate suffering & bring happiness to ourselves & those around us.

~ Allan Lokos