Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain And Simple Quotes

We're never called on to do what hurts. We just do what hurts out of ignorance and habit. Once we see what we're doing, we can stop.

We can only be here. We can't leave. We are always here.

[F]ocus not on ourselves as a force in charge of the manipulation of others, but on how our lives interpenetrate those of others – and … all creatures of a dynamic universe.

To forget the self is to remember that we don't exist alone, but in relation to other people, to other creatures, to the planet, and to the universe.

We imagine that things come into existence, endure for a while, and then pass out of existence

There's nothing you can find - … nothing you can even imagine – that doesn't originate, develop, or exist in relation to other things.

Belief may serve as a useful stopgap measure in the absence of actual experience, but once you see … [it] becomes unnecessary.

We have all sorts of stories about heaven and hell, about oblivion and nothingness, about 'coming back, ' and so on. But they are all stories.

[E]ven in getting the wonderful things we long for, we tend to live in want of something more[.]

Good times come and go. And bad times do the same.

Good and bad aren't absolutes. They are beliefs, judgements, ideas based on limited knowledge as well as on the inclinations of our minds.

Belief is at best an educated, informed conjecture about Reality.

If your idea of good opposes something else, you can be sure that [it] is not absolute or certain.

[A] view of the world is nothing more than a set of beliefs, a way to freeze the world in our mind. … [T]his can never match Reality, … because the world isn't frozen.

Truth is not … something to believe or disbelieve. The things we believe are always less than Truth[.]

How can a hard and fast view of a world that is never hard and fast possibly be accurate?

The only way we can be free in each moment is to become what each moment is.

[H]ow can something cease to exist that has no solid existence in the first place?

There's no rule in the end, but only the situation and the inclination of your mind

[A] book is not merely a book, it is the sun as well.

[I]mpermanence [is] the very thing that makes [life] vibrant, wonderful, and alive.

The impossibility of arriving at Truth by giving up your own authority and following the lights of others. Such a path will only lead to an opinion.

[T]here is really nothing 'out there' to get because, already, within this moment, everything is whole and complete.