favorite Buddhist quote?
lyra
New
Hi everyone,
I'm new to the community and am glad to find an active online sangha here. I'm enjoying reading the discussions here.
What is your favorite Buddhist quote?
Mine is
"You are the sky. Everything else- it is just the weather." Pema Chodron
Some other ones I love by her are:
“When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space.”
“The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes. ”
Comments
"So, as I said, Kalamas: 'Don't go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, "This contemplative is our teacher." When you know for yourselves that, "These qualities are unskillful; these qualities are blameworthy; these qualities are criticized by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to harm & to suffering" — then you should abandon them.' Thus was it said. And in reference to this was it said.
"Now, Kalamas, don't go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, 'This contemplative is our teacher.' When you know for yourselves that, 'These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness' — then you should enter & remain in them.
-from The Kalama Sutta
"One could say that dharma is the realization of one's nature, but that sounds extremely corny. So let me rephrase: dharma is the realization that ending is not possible. You cannot just give up and find salvation. There is no end, and there is nobody to save."
"The idea of dealing with such confused people and such a confused world is so unpleasant at first glance, you don't want to have anything to do with it. But at the same time that is where you come from-you have to do something about it."
"In order to overcome fear, it is also necessary to overcome hope."
All by Chogyam Trungpa
But really my all time favorite that I say many times a day is:
In the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha I take refuge until enlightenment is achieved
May the merit of my generosity and other virtuous acts lead to Buddhahood for the welfare all beings.
I like
and
"The trouble is, you think you have time."
"Shit happens"
"I follow four dictates: face it, accept it, deal with it, then let it go."
(Chan master Sheng Yen)
"Nirvana means dwelling in peace and openness, and Samsara means dwelling in one's neurosis"
(Chögyam Trungpa)
"Do no harm, act for the good, purify your mind."
(Dhammapada)
"Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else."
"You are all perfect the way you are...and you can use a little improvement. "
"Each one of us must make his own true way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way."
--Shunryu Suzuki
One day you're going to wake up and find out you are the fabric and structure of existence itself. And when you find that out you laugh yourself silly.
"People do not like being called machines. And yet most people are not even machines in lacking faculties for evaluating the qualitative nature of experience. Instead of being able to perceive
the spectrum of influences in a single experience, they feel it transcendental if it moves them.
Unlike a machine, too the human being has no switching gear to turn experience on and off. And man has no means of engendering experience except by the most hazardous trial and errors such as throwing himself into random situations or ingesting drugs.
One of the purposes of a real esoteric training is first to acquire lower control, control such as a machine might have, before higher control can be attained."
Bodhi Idries Shah: 'Knowing How to Know'
I like the insight that some Zen master quotes elicit...
“The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything.
So when you try hard to make your own way, you will help others, and you will be helped by others.
Before you make your own way you cannot help anyone, and no one can help you.”
Shunryu Suzuki
From Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?”
“Nothing can be gained by extensive study and wide reading. Give them up immediately.”
“To enter the Buddha Way is to stop discriminating between good and evil and to cast aside the mind that says this is good and that is bad.”
Dogen
My acts are irrevocable
Because they have no essence...
Where are the doers of deeds
Absent among their conditions?
Imagine a magician
Who creates a creature
Who creates other creatures.
Acts I perform are creatures
Who create others.
Nagarjuna
All happiness in this world comes from wishing others to be happy.
All suffering in this world comes from wishing ourselves to be happy.
Shantideva
Just heard that quote earlier today in a documentary on Netflix about Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche's reincarnation.
Mahāhatthipadopama Sutta: The Greater Discourse on the Simile of the Elephant’s Footprint
http://www.wisdompubs.org/book/middle-length-discourses-buddha/selections/middle-length-discourses-28-mahahatthipadopama-sutta
"The most essential method which include all other methods is beholding the mind-The mind is the root from which all things grow-If you can understand the mind...Everything else is included!"
Bodhidharma
Have this one pinned to my room door
The Dhamma is visible here & now.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an06/an06.047.than.html
It's Uncertain. Chah
They're growing pains. Succito
"Things are not always what they seem.
Nor are they otherwise."
(I don't know who exactly said this.... But it often helps me 'evaluate' experiences...)
If you are waiting for something profound to happen...
Don't hold onto your breath
Anataman (NB)
...\lol/...
@anataman
Hold onto your breath long enough and I can give a 5 minute guarantee of what you will be thinking is the most profoundly important thing of that moment.
favorite Buddhist quote?
I did not say that - Buddha
Favorite Buddhist quote?
"Nothing Special"
(my teacher at a retreat )
Favorite Buddhist quote?
"This thread too is "impermanent" @Shoshin 29th March 2015
Digha Nikaya 26, Cakkavatti Sutta
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.26.0.than.html
I'm not sure where this comes from but the answer to the age old question of "Who am I?" is...
"I am the Awareness in which all of this takes place."
I also like these ones that I read in a booklet by Lama Surya Das
"you can't control the wind but you can learn to sail"
"contentment is true wealth"
A good reminder for the good times (enjoy it because it will end eventually) and bad times (do not worry because it will not last forever)
Samsara=Mind turned outwardly lost in its projection!
Nirvana= Mind turned inwardly recognising its true nature!
Sogyal Rinpoche quoted this and said it was from a great Buddhist teacher but didn't say which one...
I think it's from the Lankavatara Sutra.
Thanks @SpinyNorman You wouldn't happen to know which part of the Sutra mentions it ?
Vakkali Sutta
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.087x.wlsh.html
"I never said that".
Always gets me.....
Quotations from The Hua Hu Ching:
Those who are highly evolved
maintain an undiscriminating perception.
Seeing everything, labelling nothing,
they maintain their awareness of the Great Oneness.
Thus they are supported by it.
To manage your mind, know that there is nothing,
and then relinquish all attachment to nothingness
Once saw this scrawled on a construction-site fence made of plywood:
"Man without God is like a fish without a bicycle."
Not sure if it qualifies as "Buddhist," but it seems to be stuck on my bulletin board of reminders.
"We're busy doing nothing, working the whole day through, trying to find lots of things not to do -We're busy going nowhere, isn't it just a crime, we like to be unhappy but we never do have the time!" .... Roshi Bing Crosby
"Just as the great ocean has one taste, the taste of salt, so also this Dhamma and Discipline has one taste, the taste of liberation. This is the sixth wonderful and marvellous quality in this Dhamma and Discipline..."
From the Uposatha Sutta
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/ud/ud.5.05.irel.html
The version I heard was "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle."
We Lobsterians say 'every bike is improved by fish'
"Enlightenment for a wave in the ocean is the moment the wave realizes that it is water.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
"Yunyan asked Daowu, 'How does the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion (Kannon) use so many hands and eyes?'
Daowu said, 'It’s just like a person in the middle of the night reaching in search of a pillow.'"
-- case 105 of the Mana Shobogenzo, “The Hands and Eyes of Great Compassion"
Those who see worldly life as an obstacle to Dharma
see no Dharma in everyday actions.
They have not yet discovered that
there are no everyday actions outside of Dharma.
Dogen
"There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow".
Dalai Lama
Rest in natural great peace this exhausted mind,
Beaten helpless by karma and neurotic thoughts
Like the relentless fury of the pounding waves
In the infinite ocean of samsara.
Rest in natural great peace.
Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche
"My religion is simple - my religion is ice cream."
Dairy Lama