Gautama Buddha Quotes
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Believe nothing, O monks, just because you have been told it, or it is commonly believed, or because it is traditional or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings - that doctrine believe and cling to and take as your guide.
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Everything is changeable, everything appears and disappears; there is no blissful peace until one passes beyond the agony of life and death.
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Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will for seven days appear to you in their benign and peaceful aspect. Their light will shine upon you, ... Wonderful and delightful though they are, The Buddhas may nevertheless frighten you. Do not give in to your fright! Do not run away! Serenely contemplate the spectacle before you! Overcome your fear, and feel no desire! Realize that these are the rays of the grace of the Buddhas, who come to receive you into their Buddha-realms. Pray to them with intense faith and humility.
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Surely if living creatures saw the results of all their evil deeds, they would turn away from them in disgust. But selfhood blinds them, and they cling to their obnoxious desires. They crave pleasure for themselves and they cause pain to others; when death destroys their individuality, they find no peace; their thirst for existence abides and their selfhood reappears in new births. Thus they continue to move in the coil and can find no escape from the hell of their own making.
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Long is the night for the sleepless. Long is the road for the weary. Long is samsara (the cycle of continued rebirth) for the foolish, who have not recognised the true teaching.
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Heaven and Hell are imaginary creation of ignorant minds.
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Nothing is to be clung to as I, me or mine.
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All rising to great places is by a winding stair.
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Fools wait for a lucky day, but everyday is a lucky day for an industrious man.
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No clouds gathered in the skies and the polluted streams became clear, whilst celestial music rang through the air and the angels rejoiced with gladness. With no selfish or partial joy but for the sake of the law they rejoiced, for creation engulfed in the ocean of pain was now to obtain release.
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One who conquers himself is greater than another who conquers a thousand times a thousand on the battlefield.
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All human unhappiness comes from not facing reality squarely, exactly as it is.
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If there is a God, it is inconceivable that he would be concerned about my day to day affairs.
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I gained nothing at all from Supreme Enlightenment, and for that very reason it is called Supreme Enlightenment.
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He who can curb his wrath as soon as it arises, as a timely antidote will check snake's venom that so quickly spreads, - such a monk gives up the here and the beyond, just as a serpent sheds its worn-out skin.
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He who never thinks of anything as 'mine' does not feel the lack of anything: he is never worried by a sense of loss.
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There are, O monks, these four lights. What four? The light of the moon, the light of the sun, the light of fire, and the light of wisdom. Of these four lights, the light of wisdom is supreme.
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Good men and bad men differ radically. Bad men never appreciate kindness shown them, but wise men appreciate and are grateful. Wise men try to express their appreciation and gratitude by some return of kindness, not only to their benefactor, but to everyone else.
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Each day of my life I am sowing seeds that one day I will harvest.
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To abstain from lying is essentially wholesome.
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In protecting oneself, others are protected; In protecting others, oneself is protected.
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When one, abandoning greed, feels no greed for what would merit greed, greed gets shed from him - like a drop of water from a lotus leaf.
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Cultivation of meditative stability alone, will not destroy the discrimination of inherent existence. Afflictive emotions can return, making all sorts of disturbances.
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The end of desire is the end of sorrow.