Buddhist Quotes

As soon as we think we are safe, something unexpected happens.

No one can escape death and unhappiness. If people expect only happiness in life, they will be disappointed.

Envy and jealousy are very harmful because you are never ever satisfied with what you have and you never reflect on what you have. You constantly live your life on what you do not have.

The fool thinks he has won a battle when he bullies with harsh speech, but knowing how to be forbearing alone makes one victorious.

Resolutely train yourself to attain peace

With his mind free from the inflow of thoughts and from restlessness, by abandoning both good and evil, an alert man knows no fear.

Anything that is created must sooner or later die. Enlightenment is permanent because we have not produced it; we have merely discovered it.

A fool who recognises his own ignorance is thereby in fact a wise man, but a fool who considers himself wise - that is what one really calls a fool.

In criticizing, the teacher is hoping to teach. That's all.

On Easter or Christmas Day, my mother might drag me to church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the Chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites.

All philosophies are mental fabrications. There has never been a single doctrine by which one could enter the true essence of things.

When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

Suffering is universal. it’s the one thing Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims are all worried about.

Everything changes, nothing remains without change.

The point of the spiritual revolution is not to become a good Buddhist, but to become a wise and compassionate human being, to awaken from our life of complacency and ignorance and to be a buddha.

One who previously made bad karma, but who reforms and creates good karma, brightens the world like the moon appearing from behind a cloud.

If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love.

Let the wise one control his thoughts, for they are difficult to perceive, often elusive, and they rush about frantically: a mind well controlled achieves peace and happiness.

We are the same as plants, as trees, as other people, as the rain that falls. We consist of that which is around us, we are the same as everything.

Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realize.

Better it is to live one day seeing the rise and fall of things than to live a hundred years without ever seeing the rise and fall of things.

If you do not get it from yourself, where will you go for it?

When we recognize that the seemingly object nature of reality is nothing different than the subject nature of mind, which is rigpa, it is called enlightenment.

Let a man avoid evil deeds as a man who loves life avoids poison.

Better than a thousand hollow words Is one word that brings peace. Better than a thousand hollow verses Is one verse that brings peace.

Sandalwood, tagara, lotus, jasmine - the fragrance of virtue is unrivalled by such kinds of perfume.

Journey over, sorrowless, freed in every way, and with all bonds broken - for such a man there is no more distress.

When action comes out of nothing it creates no karma.

Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think.

Pain is not wrong. Reacting to pain as wrong initiates the trance of unworthiness. The moment we believe something is wrong, our world shrinks and we lose ourselves in the effort to combat the pain.

The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual's own reason and critical analysis.

Why do what you will regret? Why bring tears upon yourself? Do only what you do not regret, And fill yourself with joy.

Renunciation is not getting rid of the things of this world, but accepting that they pass away.

From eating meat arrogance is born, from arrogance erroneous imaginations issue, and from imagination is born greed; and for this reason refrain from eating meat.

Beware of the anger of the mouth. Master your words. Let them serve truth.

Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation.

Buddhist mindfulness is about the present, but I also think its about being real. Being awake to everything. Feeling like nothing can hurt you if you can look it straight on.

Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is a law eternal.

If a man lives a pure life, nothing can destroy him.

It is better to do nothing Than to do what is wrong. For whatever you do, you do to yourself.

When words are both true and kind, they can change the world.

As Buddhist teachers often point out, knowledge, in the sense of prajña, is not knowledge about anything. There is no abstract knower of an experience that is separate from the experience itself.

Live contemplating the body through mindfulness. Live contemplating feelings. In this way you will be aware of and control wrong desires.

You should study not only that you become a mother when your child is born, but also that you become a child.

Let him the intelligent man admonish, let him teach, let him forbid what is improper ! - he will be beloved of the good, by the bad he will be hated.

Do not have as friends harmful people, the wise person does not associate with the worst of people. Have as friends virtuous people, the wise person associates with the best of people.

Our theories of the eternal are as valuable as are those which a chick which has not broken its way through its shell might form of the outside world.

Therefore, be ye lamps unto yourselves, be ye a refuge to yourselves. Hold fast to the truth as a lamp; hold fast as a refuge to the truth. Look not for refuge to anyone besides yourselves.

Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law.

Through effort you will cross any raging flood, through energy you will pass any sorrow.