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Favourite Quotations

123578

Comments

  • 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 February 2008
    adjusted for you, dearest.... Thanks for 'donating'...!
  • fofoofofoo
    edited February 2008
    "Life is a business that does not pay"

    -Arthur Schopenhauer
  • eve9d9eve9d9
    edited February 2008
    thanks federica I knew there had to be one somewheres!
  • KnitwitchKnitwitch
    edited February 2008
    "Am I Pope Gregory IX?"

    advertisement on TV a few years back which makes us howl with laughter - any time we don't know the answer in this house we say it
  • jacxjacx
    edited February 2008
    [SIZE=-1]Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the old masters; seek what they sought. ~Matsuo Basho[/SIZE]
  • buddhafootbuddhafoot Veteran
    edited February 2008
    WTF?

    WTF!?!??! --me


    Been using it a lot lately.

    -bf
  • KnitwitchKnitwitch
    edited February 2008
    Mine for today has been

    Compassion is counting up each time HE automatically contradicts me or swears at me and when the tally reaches a total of 20 I can have a bar of chocolate - it saves me reacting or using bad speech.
  • KnitwitchKnitwitch
    edited February 2008
    What does Love require of me?"

    "You only have to love people, you don't have to like them"Quaker Aunt Muriel.


    I love this - it encompasses right everything .... which is about my level of understanding because if Fede is a Bear of very little brain ... I am a Bipolar Bear of diminished resources mentally and what remains is variable in the extreme
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited February 2008
    Knitwitch wrote: »
    What does Love require of me?"

    "You only have to love people, you don't have to like them"Quaker Aunt Muriel.


    I love this - it encompasses right everything .... which is about my level of understanding because if Fede is a Bear of very little brain ... I am a Bipolar Bear of diminished resources mentally and what remains is variable in the extreme

    As a graduate student, my tutor at Oxford was a Quaker. Being nosy and fascinated by religions, I asked him about the Friends. His reply still makes the hair stand up on my neck (I was 23; he in his 60s, published, revered). He said:

    "Forget all the doctrine and practice. Just remember this: you are unique; you are uniquely valuable. You have never been seen before and will never be seen again. And I meet God in you."
  • 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 February 2008
    Wow.... Now that is seriously cool, Si....
  • KnitwitchKnitwitch
    edited February 2008
    And that is why I am so very drawn to the Quakers - I have been with my aunt to Meeting and I have met Quakers from all kinds of different origins ... but they are all wonderful, unprejudiced and willing to find common points with anyone of any faith or none, rather than home in on the differences.

    Their simplicity and sense of obligation to others is a knock out to me.
  • bushinokibushinoki Veteran
    edited February 2008
    Evil shall prevail when good men stand by and do nothing. Para. from Benjamin Franklin.
  • KnightofBuddhaKnightofBuddha
    edited February 2008
    "I find television to be a very educational appliance. Every time someone turns it on, I go to a different room and read a book."

    -Groucho Marx
  • jacxjacx
    edited February 2008
    "Now, open your heart and embrace the world." - my T'ai Chi instructor, describing one of the forms
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited February 2008
    That's a great one, Jacx! I must have heard and read variations of that many times but for some reason the way you wrote it out hit me like a ton of bricks tonight. Maybe it's because I just watched the self immolation video on YouTube.
  • jacxjacx
    edited February 2008
    Hi Brigid,

    It kind of hit me like that too, when my instructor said that. It's the 2nd form of the Shibashi set:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7dtCxq6cQw :ninja:

    PS- That's not my instructor in the video! I just found it on YouTube.
  • starstuffstarstuff
    edited March 2008
    Knight of Buddha wrote: »
    "I find television to be a very educational appliance. Every time someone turns it on, I go to a different room and read a book."

    -Groucho Marx


    Hehe I like Groucho Marx. I found this quote from him on a list of quotes on the wall about dogs at the vet's office.
    Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read.

    I think this quote is more about books than it is about dogs though. :lol:
  • buddhafootbuddhafoot Veteran
    edited March 2008
    Esther Lederer: “Hanging onto resentment is letting someone you despise live rent-free in your head.”


    http://www.wildmind.org/blogs/quote-of-the-month/ann-landers-resentment
  • KnightofBuddhaKnightofBuddha
    edited March 2008
    "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education"

    -Mark Twain
  • 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 March 2008
    'All things come out of the One and the One out of all things. ... I see nothing but Becoming. Be not deceived! It is the fault of your limited outlook and not the fault of the essence of things if you believe that you see firm land anywhere in the ocean of Becoming and Passing. You need names for things, just as if they had a rigid permanence, but the very river in which you bathe a second time is no longer the same one which you entered before.'

    (Heraclitus 500 BC)
  • KnightofBuddhaKnightofBuddha
    edited March 2008
    Here's some from my favorite writer, George Orwell.
    Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the generation before and wiser than the one that comes after it.

    As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead trying to kill me.

    During times of universal deceit, telling the obvious truth becomes a revolutionary act.

    All the war propaganda, all the lies, all the hate comes invariably from people not fighting.

    On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

    Freedom is the ability to tell people what they do not want to hear.
  • KnitwitchKnitwitch
    edited March 2008
    Just put this on another thread, thought it might be useful here

    "Walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God (Light/Buddha) in every one" George Fox
  • KnitwitchKnitwitch
    edited April 2008
    I was struck yesterday, when my magazine arrived how many Buddhist quotations there were in a Quaker publication. Here are two of them

    Earth brings us into life and nourishes us
    Earth takes us back again
    Birth and death are present in every moment - Thich Nhat Hanh

    No one can see who does not kindle a light of his own - The Buddha ..... this ties in EXACTLY with the Quaker principal of personal experience of God (Light Spirit)
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited April 2008
    I've been running into similarities between Buddhism and Quakerism a lot recently, too, Knitwitch. It started with your postings on here, then I ran into it in some of my book reading, then my sister brought some things up and yesterday someone was talking about it on the TV. Funny how things like that happen.

    I think Buddhism and Quakerism, even though there's a higher power in Quakerism, are the most similar in substance of all religions.
  • KnitwitchKnitwitch
    edited April 2008
    I've noticed that a lot too - when I hear about something for the first time, I'll then hear about it several times in quick succession thereafter.

  • jacxjacx
    edited April 2008
    More of Basho's advice to haiku poets:

    Go to the pine if you want to learn about the pine, or to the bamboo if you want to learn about the bamboo. And in doing so, you must leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Otherwise you impose yourself on the object and do not learn. Your poetry issues of its own accord when you have plunged deep enough into the object to see something like a hidden glimmering there. However well phrased your poetry may be, if your feeling is not natural — if the object and yourself are separate — then your poetry is not true poetry but merely your subjective counterfeit.
  • KnitwitchKnitwitch
    edited April 2008
    A blessing for the day for all my friends on New Buddhist

    May you walk in light and peace and love all the days of your life.
  • jacxjacx
    edited April 2008
    "The sky is very dark; the Earth is bluish. Everything is seen very clearly." ~Yuri Gagarin

    I just read that today (47th anniversary of his flight), and liked it.
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited April 2008
    jacx wrote: »
    "The sky is very dark; the Earth is bluish. Everything is seen very clearly." ~Yuri Gagarin

    I just read that today (47th anniversary of his flight), and liked it.

    "Beep - Beep - Beep"
    I remember listening to Sputnik and my whole being expanding into a vast and mysterious universe.
  • buddhafootbuddhafoot Veteran
    edited April 2008
    -bf
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited April 2008
    That's hilarious, BF!! I 'belive'!! Can I pet the big kitty?
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited April 2008
    Those darned cats!

    Palzang
  • jacxjacx
    edited April 2008
    This monk is a believer! I just found this image on the 'net, but I know somebody who actually visited Thailand's "Tiger Temple" (Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua).

    monktiger.jpg
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited April 2008
    That monk looks a lot like Ajahn Chah! But alive! Lol!!! Oh, what a great photo, Jacx. I just love it.
  • Geoff-AllenGeoff-Allen
    edited December 2009
    Hi Federica

    Just found this thread and have yet 2 check out ALL the postings.

    Here are a couple I have found recently -

    The Sufis advise us to speak only after our words have managed to pass through three gates. At the first gate, we ask ouselves, 'Are these words true?' If so, we let them pass on; if not, back they go. At the second gate, we ask, 'Are they necessary?' At the last gate, we ask, 'Are they kind?'

    ~ Eknath Easwaran

    "All the various teachings and practices of Zen are only to encourage you to individually look back into yourself and discover your original mind, so that you may know your essential nature and rest in a state of great peace & happiness."

    ~ Yuansou

    http://www.rudyh.org/dalai-lama-quotes-quotations.htm

    More 2 follow ...

    Peace~Love~Happiness
  • Geoff-AllenGeoff-Allen
    edited December 2009
    This is a nifty site - you can search for any author or topic and each page you go to gives a 'random' quote as well. Tosses up some interesting ones ...

    http://www.randomquotes.org/quote/189-happiness-is-not-a-destination-it-is-a-method-of-.html

    Peace~Love~Happiness
  • Geoff-AllenGeoff-Allen
    edited December 2009
    When people start to meditate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline, they often think that somehow they're going to improve, which is a sort of subtle aggression against who they really are. It's a bit like saying, "If I jog, I'll be a much better person." "If I could only get a nicer house, I'd be a better person." "If I could meditate and calm down, I'd be a better person"...

    But loving-kindness - maitri - toward ourselves doesn't mean getting rid of anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy after all these years. We can still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to change ourselves.

    Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That's the ground, that's what we study, that's what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.

    ~ Pema Chodron, The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness

    http://grjallen.fortunecity.com/buddha.htm

    Peace~Love~Happiness
  • Geoff-AllenGeoff-Allen
    edited December 2009
    According to my experience, it is clear that if each individual makes an effort then he or she can change. Of course, change is not immediate and it takes a lot of time. In order to change and deal with emotions it is crucial to analyse which thoughts are useful, constructive and of benefit to us. I mean mainly those thoughts which make us calmer, more relaxed and which give us peace of mind, versus those thoughts which create uneasiness, fear and frustration.

    ~ from "The Dalai Lama's Little Book of Wisdom"
  • VinylLadyVinylLady
    edited December 2009
    The misuse and over-use of the word "love"....always bugs me.
    For example, I have seen this quote in this forum:

    >>The Buddha addressed: "Hatred never ceases through hatred, but hatred ceases by love alone. ...."

    And another one that recently passed by my ears...."Mankind must find a way to deal with human conflict without the elements of revenge, aggression or retaliation; the basis of that new method will be love." (Im paraphrasing here)

    And the ever popular "Love thy enemy"

    As soon as I achieve sainthood, I'll be able to follow all that good advice.

    But wait!

    Suppose we changed the word "love" to "non-hatred"

    I can start practicing non hatred towards my enemies right now!
    I can find ways to resolve conflict that involve non-hatred right now!
    Hatred can be appeased by non-hatred right now.....

    perhaps these are tiny distinctions....but it is the difference between being
    something I can start doing right now...
    and something I have to put up on a lofty pedestal that I hope to aspire to sometime in
    an imagined future.

    Thanks for listening,
    Gassho,
    VL
    PS: The way you folks add art and little hopping cartoons to your words is most impressive.
    I shall work on that.
  • Geoff-AllenGeoff-Allen
    edited December 2009
    Buddha-Nature exists in everyone no matter how deeply it may be covered over by greed, anger and foolishness ...

    Not sure who said it
  • Geoff-AllenGeoff-Allen
    edited December 2009
    http://grjallen.110mb.com/meaning.htm

    Namaste
  • Geoff-AllenGeoff-Allen
    edited December 2009
    "Things are not as they seem, nor are they otherwise."

    ~ Zen proverb

    Namaste
  • Geoff-AllenGeoff-Allen
    edited December 2009
    "There is a difference between knowing the path & walking the path."

    Namaste
  • Geoff-AllenGeoff-Allen
    edited December 2009
    "Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that."

    ~ Michael Leunig

    http://www.freewebs.com/grjallen/curly2.htm
  • Geoff-AllenGeoff-Allen
    edited December 2009
    'Is this really meditation?' people often ask. 'Is it really that easy?' If these meditatuion instructions sound almost too simple to believe, there is another oft-told story about the Buddha: Once an elderly grandmother came to him, telling him that she too would like to reach emlightenment; she too would like to learn how to meditate. But, as she explained, she was very old, infirm, illiterate and busy with family obligations and household chores. She couldn't renounce her family and enter a monastic order. However, she was already open and conscious enough to perceive the beaming countenances of the enlightened Buddha and many of his followers. It was her heart's desire to learn to meditate in order to join them in developing spiritually.

    The Buddha told her, 'Respected grandmother, every time you draw water from the well for you and your family, remain aware of every single act, movement and motion of your hands. As you are carrying home the water jug atop your head, be aware of every step of your feet; as you do your chores, maintain continuous mindfulness and awareness every single instant, moment after moment, and you too will become a master of meditation.'
    These instructions, which reflect the essence of simplicity, are not always so easy to follow. Have you ever had the experience of having to pick up a brimming bowl of hot soup in your hands wahile you were wearing dress clothes? Do you remember the alertly vigilant state of mind you maintained until you were able to put the bowl down? In mindfulness meditation, we cradle the present moment in the very same way.

    Namaste
  • 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 December 2009
    Geoff-Allen wrote: »
    Buddha-Nature exists in everyone no matter how deeply it may be covered over by greed, anger and foolishness ...

    Not sure who said it
    It also happens to be only a half-truth......
  • Geoff-AllenGeoff-Allen
    edited December 2009
    Hi Federica

    Please enlighten me as to why it's only half true. Which half?

    I'm all ears

    :)
  • Geoff-AllenGeoff-Allen
    edited December 2009
    Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

    :)
  • Geoff-AllenGeoff-Allen
    edited December 2009
    Brainy Quote is another HUGE site -

    http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins121678.html

    Peace~LOve~Happiness
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited December 2009
    I don't remember who said this and it's not even a Buddhist quotation but I like it anyway:

    "God is a comedian playing to an audience who's too afraid to laugh."
This discussion has been closed.