Gautama Buddha Quotes
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We begin to die from the moment we are born, for birth is the cause of death. The nature of decay is inherent in youth, the nature of sickness is inherent in health, in the midst of life we are verily in death.
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No one outside ourselves can rule us inwardly. When we know this, we become free.
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Your worst enemy is your best teacher.
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One moment can change a day, One day can change a life and One life can change the world.
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Most problems, if you give them enough time and space, will eventually wear themselves out.
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Remember, the greatest gift to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.
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Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy.
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A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!
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Know all things to be like this: A mirage, a cloud castle, A dream, an apparition, Without essence, but with qualities that can be seen. Know all things to be like this: As the moon in a bright sky In some clear lake reflected, Though to that lake the moon has never moved. Know all things to be like this: As an echo that derives From music, sounds, and weeping, Yet in that echo is no melody. Know all things to be like this: As a magician makes illusions Of horses, oxen, carts and other things, Nothing is as it appears.
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When you move your focus from competition to contribution life becomes a celebration. Never try to defeat people, just win their hearts.
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The world is afflicted by death and decay. But the wise do not grieve, having realized the nature of the world.
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All beings tremble before violence. All love life. All fear death. See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?
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I consider the positions of kings and rulers as that of dust motes. I observe treasures of gold and gems as so many bricks and pebbles. I look upon the finest silken robes as tattered rags. I see myriad worlds of the universe as small seeds of fruit, and the greatest lake on Earth as a drop of oil on my foot.
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As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise you will miss most of your life.
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In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves. This is a helpful pointer for our everyday presence-practice. Can you catch yourself angrily defending your point of view or attacking the other person's? There's the ego.
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The judgment: You are now before Yama, King of the Dead. In vain will you try to...deny or conceal the evil deeds you have done. ... the mirror in which Yama seems to read your past is your own memory, and also his judgment is your own. It is you yourself who pronounce your own judgment.
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Besides the respect of the lives of human beings, all the animals and plants should be on the list too. That is the real humanitarianism.
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If you truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another.
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This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky, Rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain.
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Those who have failed to work toward the truth have missed the purpose of living.
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All life is temporary Why worry about anything that's only temporary
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Therefore, be islands unto yourselves. Be your own refuge. Have recourse to none else for refuge. Hold fast to the Dharma as a refuge. Resort to no other refuge. Whosoever, either now or after I am gone, shall be islands unto themselves, shall seek no eternal refuge, it is they, among my disciples who shall reach the very topmost height! But they must be keen to progress.
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If a string has one end, it has another.
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There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it. To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one's own in the midst of abundance.