Buddhist Quotes
I'm nothing special, just an ordinary human being. That's why I always describe myself as a simple Buddhist monk.
The three elements of creativity are thus: loving, knowing, and doing - or heart, mind, and hands - or, as Zen Buddhist teaching has it; great faith, great question, and great courage.
But for the first time, I had a religious identity. I had come home. And so I called myself a Zen Buddhist at the age of 18.
Just as the highest and the lowest notes are equally inaudible, so perhaps, is the greatest sense and the greatest nonsense equally unintelligible.
At least half of your mind is always thinking, I'll be leaving; this won't last. It's a good Buddhist attitude. If I were a Buddhist, this would be a great help. As it is, I'm just sad.
DO I BELIEVE THAT PEOPLE ARE BASICALLY GOOD? Yes, I do believe that, and I trust Buddhists and Hindus and Moslems to seek the good and to want to live in peace.
The idea that Buddhism denies what is called in the West individual immortality is a mistake, so far as the Buddhist scriptures are concerned.
Today in Sri Lanka, Pope Francis visited a Buddhist temple. When asked why, the Pope said, 'Just keeping my options open. It's a dicey job market. You never know.'
If science proves facts that conflict with Buddhist understanding, Buddhism must change accordingly. We should always adopt a view that accords with the facts.
According to Buddhist psychology most of our troubles stem from attachment to things that we mistakenly see as permanent.
Without freedom, creativity cannot flourish. The right to freedom is crucial to progress in any society; and the context is having a sense of global responsibility.
I recommend computer science to people who practice meditation. The mental structures that are used in computer science are very similar exercises done in Buddhist monasteries.
Work sustains us as bodies and it consumes a great deal of energy. The conservation of energy is the component theme of Buddhist practice and yoga. That is why people live in monasteries.
Buddhists believe that you are who you are today is because of who you have been in all your past lives.
I will not look at another's bowl intent on finding fault: a training to be observed.
Being able to make friends and keep them, welcoming others and sharing with them, a guide, philosopher and friend. One like this will be praised.
Just as the bee takes the nectar and leaves without damaging the color or scent of the flowers, so should the sage act in a village.
Just as one can make a lot of garlands from a heap of flowers, so man, subject to birth and death as he is, should make himself a lot of good karma.
Let go the past, let go the future, and let go the present (front, back, middle). Crossing to the farther shore of existence, with mind released everywhere, do not further undergo birth and decay.
The man who wears the yellow-dyed robe but is not free from stains himself, without self-restraint and integrity, is unworthy of the robe.
Death carries off a man busy picking flowers with an besotted mind, like a great flood does a sleeping village.
I practice Buddhist philosophy and contemplation but I don't know if I'm more of anything.
Society doesn't need that everybody is behaving in the full normal way... like people in a Buddhist monastery... But eccentricity may also connect with the irrational.
I sort of believe that my voice was preordained; I'm a Buddhist who believes in reincarnation so I think that my voice is a few lifetimes old.
It is ironic that Samuel Berger learned of this espionage in exactly the same month that Al Gore was attending his now famous fund-raiser with Buddhist nuns in Southern California.
I didn't really understand that Vipassana is a relatively new form of Buddhism that was based on the storage of pain. So the idea is that every time you don't scream, that's your Buddhist side.
As any good Buddhist will tell you, the only way to find permanent joy is by embracing the fact that nothing is permanent.
Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allowing ourselves to move gently toward what scares us.
Although the Buddhists will tell you that desire is the root of suffering, my personal experience leads me to point the finger at system administration.
Nature will not be Buddhist: she resents generalizing, and insults the philosopher in every moment with a million fresh particulars.
It's probably even the case that if you stoked up some Buddhist monks with tons of testosterone, they'd become wildly competitive as to who can do the most acts of random kindness.
In Buddhist teaching, ignorance is considered the fundamental cause of violence - ignorance... about the separation of self and other... about the consequences of our actions.
One thing that these Buddhists have certainly gotten right is that attention to attention is the key to taking control of your mental life.
I’m someone who can sit in a Buddhist temple, and I can sit with Pentecostals or with Orthodox Jews, and I still feel like I am in tune with all of them.
In Buddhist practice, the outward and inward aspects of taking the one seat meet on our meditation cushion.
There's something Zen-like about the way I work - it's like raking gravel in a Zen Buddhist garden.
Firstly, as a Buddhist monk, I hold that violence is not good. Secondly, I am a firm believer in the Gandian ethic of passive resistance. And thirdly, in reality, violence is not our strength.
According to Zen Buddhist cosmology there are ten thousand different states of mind to view and understand life through.
I was initiated as a Buddhist monk at the age of 19, but I think that initiation is simply a starting point.