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favorite Buddhist quote?

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. ”

NichyJeffreyanatamandantepwsova
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Comments

  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran

    I like

    "It is not what others do and do not do that is my concern. It is what I do and do not do -- that is my concern." [I believe it comes from The Dhammapada, but am too lazy to look up.]

    and

    I have always taken a great vow that I would rather suffer the fires of hell for all eternity than to portray Zen as a human emotion. [Ta Hui (1089-1163) in "Swampland Flowers: The Letters and Lectures of Zen Master Ta Hui"]

    lobsterJeffreysovaInvincible_summer
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    "Shit happens"

    Rowan1980Swaroop
  • BuddhadragonBuddhadragon Ehipassiko & Carpe Diem Samsara Veteran

    "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)

    JeffreyRowan1980Namadaboobysattva
  • EarthninjaEarthninja Wanderer West Australia Veteran
    You are NOT experiencing suffering. You are SUFFERING your experiencing. - Papaji

    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. :) - Alan Watts
    boobysattvammo
  • "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'

    Invincible_summer
  • karastikarasti Breathing Minnesota Moderator

    Just heard that quote earlier today in a documentary on Netflix about Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche's reincarnation. :)

    sova
  • bookwormbookworm U.S.A. Veteran

    "Friends, just as the footprint of any living being that
    walks can be placed within an elephant's footprint, and so the
    elephant's footprint is declared the chief of them because of its
    great size; so too, all wholesome states can be included in the
    Four Noble Truths. In what four? In the noble truth of suffering,
    in the noble truth of the origin of suffering, in the
    noble truth of the cessation of suffering, and in the noble truth
    of the way leading to the cessation of suffering.

    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

    BunksJeffrey
  • It's Uncertain. Chah
    They're growing pains. Succito

    sova
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    "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...)

    boobysattva
  • anatamananataman Who needs a title? Where am I? Veteran
    edited February 2015

    If you are waiting for something profound to happen...
    Don't hold onto your breath

    Anataman (NB)
    ...\lol/...

    sovacarolann
  • howhow Veteran Veteran

    @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.

    Shoshinanatamansova
  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran
    edited March 2015

    Favorite Buddhist quote?

    "Nothing Special"

    Rowan1980HollyRose1
  • "Mudrika comes every fifteen minutes" - one can be enlightened anytime anywhere - the opportunities keep coming.
  • Don't make anything.
    (my teacher at a retreat )
    HollyRose1
  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran
    edited March 2015

    Favorite Buddhist quote?

    "This thread too is "impermanent" @Shoshin 29th March 2015 :D

  • bookwormbookworm U.S.A. Veteran

    "Monks, live with yourself as your island, yourself as your refuge, with nothing else as your refuge. Live with the Dhamma as your island, the Dhamma as your refuge, with nothing else as your refuge. And how does a monk live with himself as his island, himself as his refuge, with nothing else as his refuge; with the Dhamma as his island, the Dhamma as his refuge, with nothing else as his refuge? There is the case where a monk remains focused on the body in & of itself — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world. He remains focused on feelings in & of themselves... mind in & of itself... mental qualities in & of themselves — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world. This is how a monk lives with himself as his island, himself as his refuge, with nothing else as his refuge; with the Dhamma as his island, the Dhamma as his refuge, with nothing else as his refuge.

    Digha Nikaya 26, Cakkavatti Sutta
    http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.26.0.than.html

    HollyRose1AjeevakDharmana
  • 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"

    0student0
  • JeffreybookwormAjeevakDharmana
  • "It does pass." - Ajahn Brahm

    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)
  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran
    edited April 2015

    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...

    lobster0student0
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    I think it's from the Lankavatara Sutra.

  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran

    @SpinyNorman said:
    I think it's from the Lankavatara Sutra.

    Thanks @SpinyNorman You wouldn't happen to know which part of the Sutra mentions it ?

  • bookwormbookworm U.S.A. Veteran

    "For a long time, Lord, I have wanted to come and set eyes on the Blessed One, but I had not the strength in this body to come and see the Blessed One."

    "Enough, Vakkali! What is there to see in this vile body? He who sees Dhamma, Vakkali, sees me; he who sees me sees Dhamma. Truly seeing Dhamma, one sees me; seeing me one sees Dhamma."

    Vakkali Sutta
    http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.087x.wlsh.html

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    "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

  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran

    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.

    Walkerlobstersova0student0
  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran
    edited October 2015

    "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

  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    "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

    lobsterbookwormCinorjer
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran
    edited October 2015

    @genkaku said: "Man without God is like a fish without a bicycle."

    The version I heard was "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle."

    AjeevakDharmana
  • lobsterlobster Veteran
    edited October 2015

    We Lobsterians say 'every bike is improved by fish' :3

    sovasilver0student0
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    "Enlightenment for a wave in the ocean is the moment the wave realizes that it is water.”
    ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

    Invincible_summerCinorjer
  • Invincible_summerInvincible_summer Heavy Metal Dhamma We(s)t coast, Canada Veteran

    "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"

    Cinorjer
  • 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

    Invincible_summerShoshinlobsterFosdick
  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran

    "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

    CinorjerBunks
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran
    edited October 2015

    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

    ShoshinCinorjer0student0sova
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