Gautama Buddha Quotes
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As irrigators lead water where they want, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their minds.
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Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals a secret of hidden treasure.
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One of his students asked Buddha, "Are you the Messiah?" "No," answered Buddha. "Then are you a healer?" "No," Buddha replied. "Then are you a teacher?" the student persisted. "No, I am not a teacher." "Then what are you?" asked the student exasperated. "I am awake," Buddha replied.
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More than those who hate you, more than all your enemies, an undisciplined mind does greater harm.
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If you want to understand the causes that existed in the past, look at the results as they are manifested in the present. And if you want to understand what results will be manifested in the future, look at the causes that exist in the present.
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How does one stay mindful? Where feelings are known as they arise, known as they persist, known as they pass away. Thoughts are known as they arise, known as they persist, known as they pass away. Perceptions are known they arise, known as they persist, known as they pass away. This is how a monk stays awake.
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In his ignorance of the whole truth, each person maintains his own arrogant point of view.
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One who previously made bad karma, but who reforms and creates good karma, brightens the world like the moon appearing from behind a cloud.
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The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed. - Buddha No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.
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Treat others with respect. How you treat others will be how they treat you.
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Having abandoned the taking of life, refraining from killing, we dwell without violence, with the knife laid down, scrupulous, full of mercy, trembling with compassion for all sentient beings.
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First of all there will appear to you, swifter than lightning, the luminous splendor of the colorless light of Emptiness, and that will surround you on all sides. ...Try to submerge yourself in that light, giving up all belief in a separate self, all attachment to your illusory ego.
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Irrigators channel waters; fletchers straighten arrows; carpenters bend wood; the wise master themselves.
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Why since I am myself subject to birth, ageing, disease, death, sorrows and defilement, do I seek after what is also subject to these things? Suppose, being myself subject these things, seeking danger in them, I were to seek the unborn, unageing, und.
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That which goeth up must needs come down; and that which is down must needs go up. But Brahma has ordained that the that that goeth up is seldom the same as the that that hath gone down.
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Those who are pure in heart and single in purpose are able to understand the most supreme Way. It is like polishing a mirror, which becomes bright when the dust is removed. Remove your passions, and have no hankering.
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We do not learn by experience, but by our capacity for experience.
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Those... who find delight in freedom from attachment in the renunciation of clinging, free from the inflow of thoughts, they are like shining lights, having reached final liberation in the world.
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Love in the past is only a memory. Love in the future is only a fantasy. True love lives in the here and now.
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When you like a flower, you just pluck it. But when you love a flower, you water it daily.
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The kingdom of heaven is closer than the brow above the eye but mankind does not see it.
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One who, while seeking happiness, oppresses with violence other living beings who also desire happinesss, will not find happiness hereafter.
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Samsara-the Wheel of Existence, literally, the "Perpetual Wandering"-is the name by which is designated the sea of life ever restlessly heaving up and down, the symbol of this continuous process of ever again and again being born, growing old, suffering, and dying. (It) is constantly changing from moment to moment, (as lives) follow continuously one upon the other through inconceivable periods of time. Of this Samsara, a single lifetime constitutes only a vanishingly tiny fraction.
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In the end these things matter most: How well did you love? How fully did you live? How deeply did you let go?