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Buddhist quotes

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  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    “Only alertness to the mind’s games can bring freedom.”

    Osho

    Bunkslobster
  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    “ Life is not scientific, it is irrational. Life doesn’t believe in Aristotles and the logicians, it believes in love, in the poets, it believes in the mystics. It is a mystery to be lived, not a riddle to be solved – it is not a puzzle, it is not a problem. The secret is open, only you are closed.”

    Osho

    Bunks
  • Shoshin1Shoshin1 Veteran

    BunkslobsterDavid
  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    All your knowledge is like a dream.

    — A voice that spoke to me on waking from sleep

    Bunks
  • lobsterlobster Veteran

    “Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.”

    Bodhidharma

    BunksShoshin1DavidKotishka
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran

    "The four difficulties of realising enlightenment;

    So close you can't see it.
    So deep you can't fathom it.
    So simple you can't believe it.
    So good you can't accept it."

    ..~Tibetan Proverb

    BunkslobsterJeffrey
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran

    The Buddha taught the truth of suffering, he also taught the truth of dwelling happily in things as they are. To succeed in the practice, we must stop trying to prove everything is suffering. In fact, we must stop trying to prove anything.

    Thich Nhat Hanh

    The last sentence I keep struggling with.

    Jeffreylobster
  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran

    @David said:
    The Buddha taught the truth of suffering, he also taught the truth of dwelling happily in things as they are. To succeed in the practice, we must stop trying to prove everything is suffering. In fact, we must stop trying to prove anything.

    Thich Nhat Hanh

    The last sentence I keep struggling with.

    I don’t understand the second last sentence?

  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran
    edited June 2021

    @Bunks said:

    @David said:
    The Buddha taught the truth of suffering, he also taught the truth of dwelling happily in things as they are. To succeed in the practice, we must stop trying to prove everything is suffering. In fact, we must stop trying to prove anything.

    Thich Nhat Hanh

    The last sentence I keep struggling with.

    I don’t understand the second last sentence?

    Thay says that it is an error to have suffering as a dharma seal and to interpret the 1st NT as everything or life itself is suffering.

    lobsterBunks
  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    @David said:
    In fact, we must stop trying to prove anything.

    In a way having the need to prove anything before accepting it is an attachment to the current view, so if you are working on your detachment from views it is a good contemplation.

    David
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran
    edited June 2021

    @Kerome said:

    @David said:
    In fact, we must stop trying to prove anything.

    In a way having the need to prove anything before accepting it is an attachment to the current view, so if you are working on your detachment from views it is a good contemplation.

    Agreed. In fact it is the very first of the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings;

    Aware of the suffering created by fanaticism and intolerance, we are determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. We are committed to seeing the Buddhist teachings as a guiding means that help us learn to look deeply and develop understanding and compassion. They are not doctrines to fight, kill, or die for. We understand that fanaticism in its many forms is the result of perceiving things in a dualistic or discriminative manner. We will train ourselves to look at everything with openness and the insight of interbeing in order to transform dogmatism and violence in ourselves and the world.

    To live up to that here on NB, I think I can explain a view as best I can but not argue the point. Sometimes I lose sight of the distinction.

    lobster
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran
    edited June 2021

    @Bunks said:

    @David said:
    The Buddha taught the truth of suffering, he also taught the truth of dwelling happily in things as they are. To succeed in the practice, we must stop trying to prove everything is suffering. In fact, we must stop trying to prove anything.

    Thich Nhat Hanh

    The last sentence I keep struggling with.

    I don’t understand the second last sentence?

    If you're curious about why he says that, I highly recommend reading Chapter 5 of The Heart of the Buddhas' Teaching - Is Everything Suffering? Very short chapter... Only 5 pages.

  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran

    It’s true that what you feel
    is what you feel.
    But it is not true
    that what you feel
    is Truth.
    ~Mooji

    JeroenDavidlobster
  • lobsterlobster Veteran

    Well quoted @Jeffrey <3

    As we know, each of us is always right about everything … oh wait … I'm not.

    As we begin to realise our opinions, impediments and attachment to selfish (or in my case shellfish) centrism is not so middle way balanced … oops …

    How to break free? To hereHear:

    O how sweet it is to enjoy life, Living in honesty and strength! And wisdom is sweet, And freedom.
    Buddha

    “Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it.”
    ― Ray Bradbury
    https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/buddhism

    DavidJeffrey
  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    “Anything which is troubling you, anything which is irritating you, that is your teacher.”

    — Ajahn Chah

    DavidJeffreylobster
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran

    And for the 666 comment here :p :

    Out of everything I've lost, I miss my mind the most!

    Ozzy Osbourne

    lobsterBunksShoshin1David
  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    “If you want a chicken to be a duck, and a duck to be a chicken, then you will suffer.”

    — Ajahn Chah

    JeffreylobsterBunksDavid
  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran

    @Kerome said:
    “Anything which is troubling you, anything which is irritating you, that is your teacher.”

    — Ajahn Chah

    Yesterday (17/6) was Ajahn Chah's birthday :)

    Shoshin1
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran

    "The Buddha's teaching of the Dharma is based on two truths: a truth of worldly convention and an ultimate truth.
    Those who do not understand the distinction drawn between these two truths do not understand the Buddha's profound truth.
    Without a foundation in the conventional truth the significance of the ultimate cannot be taught. Without understanding the significance of the ultimate, liberation is not achieved."

    Nagarjuna

    BunksTozan
  • TozanTozan Turkey Explorer

    "Zen master Lin Chi taught us to recognize that everything we need for our awakened happiness is here in the present moment, we have nowhere to go and no one to become."

    Lesslie Rawls

    Shoshin1DavidBunks
  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    “I went to India and found a spiritual desert, full of tricksters and con-men and all kinds of people of low character.”

    — Terence McKenna

    lobster
  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    “All culture makes children of its members, all culture is somewhat unfriendly towards individuals.”

    — Terence McKenna

  • Wherever you go there you are AKA You can't run away from yourself

    ~Jon Kabat-Zinn & Bob Marley~

    Bunks
  • 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

    ~ You'll always take your weather with you. ~

    Crowded House

    Bunks
  • ~Kinda Buddhist~

    Bunks
  • 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'm sorry...TWO Woodstocks...?!

  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran

    From Craving comes Clinging;
    From Clinging comes Becoming;
    From Becoming comes Birth, Ageing, Sickness and Death!

    So is the emergence of this whole mass of Suffering...

    • The Buddha
    Shoshin1
  • 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

    Moderator Note:

    I have just deleted a comment that was absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with either Buddhism or anything related.
    The title of the Thread is quite clearly "Buddhist Quotes". There are several within this thread that really cannot be classified as such. Let's all please try to keep it on topic, ok?

    Thanks.

    Bunks
  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran

    The mind can be wicked, the mind can be gentle;
    The mind can be a foe or a friend.

    If the mind is transformed, all is transformed.
    If the mind is improved, all is improved.

    So make your mind truly pure.
    So make your mind spotlessly pure.

    S.N. Goenka (1924-2013)

    lobsterKotishkaShoshin1David
  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    “Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.”

    Basho

    BunksDavid
  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran

    Much though one recites the sacred texts,
    But acts not accordingly,
    That heedless one is like a cowherd
    Who only counts the cows of others,
    One does not partake of the blessings of the holy life.
    Dhammapada 1.19

    Shoshin1DavidKotishka
  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    “What this man, Gautam Siddhartha, realized, what this man came to see, has been expressed by Zen in its uttermost beauty. It rarely happens.

    Ordinarily what happens is: Jesus comes and he himself is the greatest expression of what he has experienced. Slowly slowly, the followers are less intelligent, more mediocre.

    And by the time the church has become established, it has become part of the mob, of the crowd, of the lowest - lowest in intelligence, awareness, love. It has lost its glory. It has lost its snow-capped peaks. Now it moves in the dark valleys.

    With Buddha totally different phenomena happened. He was one of the most fortunate masters of human history, because what he found has been going on higher and higher in its expression, in its poetry, in its rhythm. In Zen it has come to its uttermost flowering. Zen is pure essence, just fragrance. Only those who are REALLY intelligent will be able to understand it; otherwise, the mediocre will feel offended - even mediocre Buddhists feel very offended.”

    — Osho

    Bunks
  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran

    Interesting quote @Kerome .

    I was listening to a talk by a Thai forest monk who was discussing the different methods of learning under the umbrella of what the Buddha taught. He stated that breath meditation was for those among us (including himself) that don’t like to think or intellectualise too much.

    Vajrayana, on the other hand, should be practiced by those with a bent for learning and studying.

    Find what works for us.

  • 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

    yes, for obvious reasons, my focus is very much on the breath... and it's working well for me.

  • 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
    edited July 2021

    @federica said:
    yes, for obvious reasons, my focus is very much on the breath... and it's working well for me.

    The young guy in the video featured in the first film posted by @Kerome, in the Wim Hof thread...
    Interesting that he also participated in this "exercise".

    Apologies for the slight de-rail, @Bunks, but it seems pertinent.

    Bunks
  • lobsterlobster Veteran

    “The victorious ones have said
    That emptiness is the relinquishing of all views.
    For whomever emptiness is a view,
    That one has achieved nothing.”

    Nāgārjuna

    Shoshin1David
  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran

    "You have to see the Anicca (impermanent), Dukkha (suffering) and Anatta (non-self) nature of the five khandas (aggregates), then you will achieve the first level of enlightenment (Sotapanna).

    Then you go on to the next two levels (Sakadagami, Anagami) by seeing the Asubha (disgusting) nature of the body to get rid of the two additional fetters.

    Then you go up to the fourth level (Arhat), in which you will see the Anicca (impermanent), Dukkha (suffering) and Anatta (non-self) nature of the Mind. This will get rid of the remaining five fetters.

    These are the stages of insight (Vipassana) practice."

    Ajahn Suchart Abhijato

    Shoshin1lobsterDavid
  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran

    Peace is very shy. When you mention her name she runs away…

    Ajahn Brahm

    Davidlobster
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran

    The stronger you become, the gentler you will be.

    --unknown so far as I know

    BunksShoshin1lobster
  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran

    Q. Good afternoon Ajahn, (can you) give a bit on how to get rid of anger?

    A. The cause of your anger is your expectation.

    So, get rid of the expectation then you will not get angry.

    When you expect something (but) you don't get what you expected, then you get angry.

    But, if you have no expectation then there will be no anger.

    Just take things as they come. Good or bad. Whether you like it or not.

    Then you will not get angry.

    • Ajahn Suchart Abhijato

    Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu...

    JeffreyShoshin1David
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran

    "True self is non-self, the awareness that the self is made only of non-self elements. There’s no separation between self and other, and everything is interconnected. Once you are aware of that you are no longer caught in the idea that you are a separate entity."
    - Thich Nhat Hanh

    BunkslobsterJeffrey
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran
    edited July 2021

    The notion of death, of nothingness, is very dangerous. It makes people suffer a lot. In Buddhist teaching, nothingness is only a concept, and it is never applicable to reality.

    Thich Nhat Hanh- Your True Home

  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran

    "To see a world in a grain of sand,
    And a heaven in a wildflower,
    Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
    An eternity in an hour..."

    William Blake

    lobster
  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran

    "I never make predictions and I never will...."

    Paul Gascoigne

    DavidShoshin1lobster
  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    “Zen is a single step—the journey of one single step. You can call it the last step or the first step, it doesn’t matter. It is the first and it is the last, the alpha and the omega. The whole teaching of Zen consists of only one thing: how to take a jump into nothingness, how to come to the very end of your mind, which is the end of the world.”
    ― Osho

    Bunkslobster
  • lobsterlobster Veteran

    Peace is very shy. When you mention her name she runs away…
    Ajahn Brahm

    =)
    As we know the mind runs away with itself. In many ways it can not see its own hypocrisy/fullness/nature. It is why we harmonise with the expression that resonates with a genuine core, free of craziness/opinions/impediments.
    Well that is my plan. Not that I one … :o

    It is why meditation is initially an observation/duality/contemplation And eventually a non grasping or 'just being'.

    and now back to quotes

    Just as the ocean has a gradual shelf, a gradual slope, a gradual inclination, with a sudden drop-off only after a long stretch, in the same way this discipline of Dhamma (dhamma-vinaya) has a gradual training (anupubbasikkhā), a gradual performance (anupubbakiriyā), a gradual progression (anupubbapatipadā), with a penetration to gnosis only after a long stretch.
    — Udana, 5.5
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradual_training

    Bunks
  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    “It’s seeing what death has to teach us about life. I propose that we not wait until death is at our door to do the work of a lifetime - no, let’s reflect now on what those dying around us have to teach us.”
    — Frank Ostaseski

    Bunks
  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran
    edited July 2021

    Few among those are people who cross to the farther shore.
    The rest, the bulk of people, only run up and down the hither bank.
    But those who act according to the perfectly taught Dhamma
    Will cross the realm of Death, so difficult to cross.

    Dhammapada 6.85, 6.86

    lobsterShoshin1
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran
    edited July 2021

    Oops. Be back

  • lobsterlobster Veteran

    Oops. Be back

    Think that sums up Christianity.
    Perhaps Buddhism might be

    No back in

    and now back to the quotes:

    “Bhikkhus, possessing four qualities, the foolish, incompetent, bad person maintains himself in a maimed and injured condition; he is blameworthy and subject to reproach by the wise; and he generates much demerit. What four? (1) Without investigating and scrutinizing, he speaks praise of one who deserves dispraise. (2) Without investigating and scrutinizing, he speaks dispraise of one who deserves praise. (3) Without investigating and scrutinizing, he believes a matter that merits suspicion. (4) Without investigating and scrutinizing, he is suspicious about a matter that merits belief. Possessing these four qualities, the foolish, incompetent, bad person maintains himself in a maimed and injured condition; he is blameworthy and subject to reproach by the wise; and he generates much demerit.”
    ― Gautama Buddha
    https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/sutra

    BunksShoshin1David
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