You don’t love a woman becaue she is beautiful, but she is beautiful because you love her.
~Anon
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.
~Buddha
It is the enemy who can truly teach us to practice the virtues of compassion and tolerance.
~Dalai Lama
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
~Buddha
All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.
~Buddha
Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
~Buddha
If you don't find a teacher soon, you'll live this life in vain. It's true, you have the buddha-nature. But without the help of a teacher
you'll never know it. Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher's help.
If, though, by the conjunction of conditions, someone understands what the Buddha meant, that person doesn't need a teacher. Such a person has a natural awareness superior to anything taught. But unless you're so blessed, study hard, and by means of instruction you'll understand.
~Bodhidharma
You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.
~Buddha
The mind is everything. What you think you become.
~Buddha
Birth and Death is a grave event;
How transient is life!
Every minute is to be grasped.
Time waits for nobody.
~Inscription on a Zen Gong
You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.
~Buddha
Just as a mother would protect with her life her own son, her only son,
so one should cultivate an unbounded mind towards all beings, and loving-kindness towards all the world.
One should cultivate an unbounded mind, above and below and across, without obstruction, without enmity, without rivalry.
Standing, or going, or seated, or lying down, as long as one is free from drowsiness, one should practice this mindfulness.
This, they say, is the holy state here.
~Sutta Nipata
Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
~BuddhaThose who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.
~Buddha
To understand everything is to forgive everything
~Buddha
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
The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.
~Buddha
Make an island of yourself,
make yourself your refuge;
there is no other refuge.
Make truth your island,
make truth your refuge;
there is no other refuge.
~Digha Nikaya, 16
You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself
~Buddha
A brahmin once asked The Blessed One:
"Are you a God?"
"No, brahmin" said The Blessed One.
"Are you a saint?"
"No, brahmin" said The Blessed One.
"Are you a magician?"
"No, brahmin" said The Blessed One.
"What are you then?"
"I am awake."
~Buddha
An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.
~Buddha
When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky
~Buddha
However many holy words you read,However many you speak,What good will they do you If you do not act on upon them?
~Buddha
The tongue like a sharp knife... Kills without drawing blood.
~Buddha
It is never too late.
Even if you are going to die tomorrow,
Keep yourself straight and clear and be a happy human being today.
If you keep your situation happy day by day,
you will eventually reach the greatest happiness of Enlightenment.
~Lama Yeshe
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
~Buddha
Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.
~Buddha
A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker.
~Buddha
There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills.
~Buddha
The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.
~Buddha
Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little.
~Buddha
We could become quite satisfied with ourselves because we are sitting in meditation and are endeavoring to practice the spiritual path. Such satisfaction with ourselves is not the same as contentment. Contentment is necessary, self-satisfaction is detrimental. To be content has to include knowing we are in the right place at the right time to facilitate our own growth. But to be self-satisfied means that we no longer realize the need for growth. All these aspects are important parts of our commitment and makes us into one whole being with a one-pointed direction.
~Ayya Khema
Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.
~Buddha
The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.
~Buddha
Do not try to become anything.
Do not make yourself into anything.
Do not be a meditator.
Do not become enlightened.
When you sit, let it be.
What you walk, let it be.
Grasp at nothing.
Resist nothing.
~Ajhan Chah
No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.
~Buddha
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.
~Buddha
Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.
~Buddha
What is this world condition?
Body is the world condition.
And with body and form goes feeling, perception, consciousness, and all the activities throughout the world.
The arising of form and the ceasing of form--everything that has been heard, sensed, and known, sought after and reached by the mind--all this is the embodied world, to be penetrated and realized.
~Samyutta Nikaya
Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.
~Buddha
What we think, we become.
~Buddha
Conquer the angry man by love.
Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness.
Conquer the miser with generosity.
Conquer the liar with truth.
~The Dhammapada
To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others
~Buddha
Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace
~Buddha
He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes.
~Buddha
To keep the body in good health is a duty...otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.
~Buddha
If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything. When a child presents himself to you with his smile, if you are not really there - thinking about the future or the past, or preoccupied with other problems - then the child is not really there for you. The technique of being alive is to go back to yourself in order for the child to appear like a marvellous reality. Then you can see him smile and you can embrace him in your arms.
~Thich Nhat Hanh
There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it.
~Buddha
Life is suffering.
~Buddha
Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law.
~Buddha
Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.
~Buddha
Do not pursue the past.
Do not lose yourself in the future.
The past no longer is.
The future has not yet come.
Looking deeply at life as it is.
In the very here and now, the practitioner dwells in stability and freedom.
We must be diligent today.
To wait until tomorrow is too late.
Death comes unexpectedly.
How can we bargain with it?
The sage calls a person who knows how to dwell in mindfulness night and day,
'one who knows the better way to live alone.'
~Bhaddekaratta Sutta
Every human being is the author of his own health or disease
~Buddha
The whole purpose of religion is to facilitate love and compassion, patience, tolerance, humility, forgiveness.
~Dalai Lama
Just as the highest and the lowest notes are equally inaudible, so perhaps, is the greatest sense and the greatest nonsense equally unintelligible.
~Allan Watts
Let your love flow outward through the universe,
To its height, its depth, its broad extent,
A limitless love, without hatred or enmity.
Then as you stand or walk,
Sit or lie down,
As long as you are awake,
Strive for this with a one-pointed mind;
Your life will bring heaven to earth.
~Sutta Nipata
I teach one thing and one only:
that is, suffering and the end of suffering.
~Buddha
One should follow a man of wisdom who rebukes one for one's faults, as one would follow a guide to some buried treasure.
To one who follows such a wise man, it will be an advantage and not a disadvantage.
~Dhammapada 76
In Aryans' Discipline, to build a friendship is to build wealth,
To maintain a friendship is to maintain wealth and
To end a friendship is to end wealth.
~Cakkavatti Sutta, Patika Vagga, Dighanikaya
Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.
~Buddha
Renunciation is not getting rid of the things of this world, but accepting that they pass away.
~Aitken Roshi
Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much
as your own unguarded thoughts.
~Buddha
Develop the mind of equilibrium.
You will always be getting praise and blame,
but do not let either affect the poise of the mind:
follow the calmness, the absence of pride.
~Sutta Nipata
Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience.
It isn't more complicated that that.
It is opening to or recieving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is,
without either clinging to it or rejecting it.
~Sylvia Boorstein
The fool thinks he has won a battle when he bullies with harsh speech,
but knowing how to be forbearing alone makes one victorious.
~Samyutta Nikaya I, 163
Our inability to stand someone results from our lack of cultivation.
Having a wider heart and mind is more important than having a larger house.
Happiness does not come from having much, but from being attached to little.
~Venerable Cheng Yen
The greatest achievement is selflessness.
The greatest worth is self-mastery.
The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.
The greatest precept is continual awareness.
The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything.
The greatest action is not conforming with the worlds ways.
The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.
The greatest generosity is non-attachment.
The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.
The greatest patience is humility.
The greatest effort is not concerned with results.
The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.
The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.
~Atisha
The beauty of life is, while we cannot undo what is done,
we can see it, understand it, learn from it and change.
So that every new moment is spent not in regret, guilt, fear or anger,
but in wisdom, understanding and love.
~Jennifer Edwards
Humans prepare for the future all their lives, yet meet the next life totally unprepared.
~Drakpa Gyaltsen
To deny the reality of things is to miss their reality;
to assert the emptiness of things is to miss their reality.
The more you talk and think about it, the further astray you wander from the truth.
Stop talking and thinking and there is nothing you will not be able to know.
~Hsin Hsin Ming
When one does what Buddhas do, one is a Buddha.
When one does what Bodhisattvas do, one is a Bodhisattva.
When one does what Arhats do, one is an Arhat.
When one does what ghosts do, one is a ghost.
These are all natural phenomena.
There are no shortcuts in cultivation.
~Master Hsuan Hua
If you wish others to know about your good deeds,
they are not truly good deeds.
If you fear others will find out about your bad deeds,
those are truly bad deeds.
~Master Hsuan Hua
Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile,
but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
~Thich Nhat Hanh
To be angry is to let others' mistakes punish yourself.
To forgive others is to be good to yourself.
~Master ChengYen
Whenever you hear that someone else has been successful, rejoice.
Always practice rejoicing for others--whether your friend or your enemy.
If you cannot practice rejoicing, no matter how long you live, you will not be happy.
~Lama Zopa Rinpoche
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