Buddhism Quotes
Buddhism is simply a methodology, a way of becoming one with the part of ourselves that is happy.
The essential premise of Buddhism is that there is enlightenment, there is nirvana. Beyond this world, beyond all worlds, there's something radiant, perfect and eternal.
Buddhism is yoga. Yoga started, who knows when? A long time ago, when the first person found that they could still their thoughts and experience eternity and access the higher planes of mind.
Buddhism suggests there are no elect. Everything rests upon your own self-effort, which is the good news because that means you don't have to wait around for some nebulous God to help you.
The thing about Buddhism is that it stresses attainment of something ineffable, that is where it differs from other religions in that it's more correct. We live in a world with promises of paradise.
Buddhism is the study of changing who we are, modifying or perhaps totally restructuring ourselves as perceivers.
Buddhism is the study of power initially. It takes a certain amount of power to even know your potential - to have the sense that you can change the way you perceive.
Buddhism leads you to the awareness that all things are holy. Everything is holy. The dark has its own light, in other words.
In Buddhism we don't really believe in sin and salvation as Westerners would define them. We believe in the limitless possibilities of the present and of future moments.
What is evil? There is no such thing. In Buddhism we don't recognize evil and therefore we don't give it any power over us.
I don't know how much you know about Zen, but you'll know less when I'm done with you.
You may have had countless lives, and many more stretching before you, and what else have you got to do with your time?
Forever is not an idea or a concept, it is reality. All of the things here come from forever. We call forever nirvana in Zen.
The mind of the Buddha is perfect because it is empty and yet it contains all things.
You and I are both life. There's just the experience of every moment. We like to call them moments. There isn't really such a thing. There's just is-ness; there's just eternity.
There are no words, there's only the possibility of a moment even more incredible a little bit further down the road.
You come back to the beginning. That's why in the "Searching for the Ox" sequence, at the very end of that sequence of the Zen paintings, we're back in the world again.
I don't think anyone knows why they meditate. As a matter of fact I'm not even sure that we do meditate. All we know is that we don't know.
A person trying to meditate is doing something that's impossible since meditation is not an action.
You're not the doer. What's to do? You can't undo what's not done. It's all one anyway, why think about it? But you need to discriminate, so you'd better think about it.
Stop trying to figure it all. Why worry about it all so much? Why not just live? And then you die. And then you live again, unless, of course, you follow me.
Perfection is not a final state. It is a state of mind. There are ten thousand states of mind.
The reason you see yourself as a creep is because you have an appreciation of what perfection is, whereas no one else conceives of themselves in that way, since they don't even strive.
Discriminate between the transient and the eternal. Learn to move from complete control to complete abandon.
The world that you see is like a motion picture. We are engrossed in a film and we have forgotten that we're sitting in a movie theatre.
Zen students see themselves as athletes. Their competitive sport is enlightenment; only with enlightenment do we compete.
There is competition in Zen. Let's not be ridiculous. There is competition in everything in life; being a winner in Zen means, competing and winning in the world of enlightenment.
Thousands and thousands of incarnations and nothing to show for it. You must choose whether to follow the path of love or the path of attachment.
When your Japanese lifetime is coming out, drink all the sake you want. Have a little bash.
It is in Zen practice that you gain power, balance and wisdom. The battles that you fight are within your own mind. That is where the real victories and defeats are.
Eternity is everywhere, it stretches endlessly in all directions, never beginning and never ending. Merge with it. Embrace it. Be free and disciplined.
There is no ultimate objective reality within the ten thousand states of mind. Most people don't like to hear this. But there are ten thousand realities, and each is definitely unifying.
What you focus on you become. So always focus on that which is highest, brightest, happiest and most noble of all things, enlightenment.
To look for truth in all the wrong and all the right places is the only excuse for living.
The sensual experiences in life are not to be avoided. This is the philosophy of Tantric Buddhism - nor are they particularly to be sought after.
Celibacy doesn't make you enlightened, otherwise every nun or priest in Buddhism or Christianity would be enlightened. People who don't date and can't get any action would be enlightened.
Some people, of course, say they're practicing tantra. There are a lot of books on tantric sexual practice in local bookstores. These are usually pretty silly books.
Purity is innocence, the innocence of lack of self. Desire is innocent unless it's connected with self.
In Tantric Buddhism our feeling is that there is no problem with the sensual world unless you have a tremendous attraction or aversion to it.
The issue is not what you're doing with your body; it's what you're doing with your mind.
Obviously there is a lot more ecstasy in the spirit than in the flesh but the flesh has its moments!
What is Tantric Zen? Well, I don't think I can give you a straight answer, since I don't happen to be a very straight Zen master.