Buddhism Quotes

Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew.

Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasu...

It’s said that the Buddha’s enlightenment is great than that of a traveler setting out, in the same ...

Equanimity is a perfect, unshakable balance of mind, rooted in insight. But in its perfection and un...

We are such spendthrifts with our lives, the trick of living is to slip on and off the planet with t...

Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. ...

The application of this knife, the division of the world into parts and the building of this structu...

Siddhartha considered the ways of the demon, and in that moment he struck.

No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words.

Once a Buddha, always a Buddha, Sam. Dust off some of your old parables. You have about fifteen minu...

Somewhere Dōgen wrote about the number of moments in the snap of a finger. I don’t remember the exac...

To study the self is to forget the self. Maybe if you sat enough zazen, your sense of being a solid,...

If you're constantly ruminating about what you just did- or what you should have done- or what you w...

We are all trying to find a path back to the present moment. And good enough reason to just be happy...

Whereever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are o...

Even in zazen you will lose yourself. When you become sleepy, or when your mind starts to wander abo...

A student, filled with emotion and crying, implored, "Why is there so much suffering?"Suzuki Roshi r...

When you do something, you should do it with your whole body and mind; you should be concentrated on...

Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.

To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do, like eating...

After all, what Buddhism offers as a solution is universalised indifference - a learning of how to w...

The Buddhists or the Jains do not depend upon God; but the whole force of their religion is directed...

The story of the Fall tells us in mythical language that "original sin" is not simply a stigma arbit...

Meditation,” said his teacher, “hasn’t got a damn thing to do with anything, ‘cause all it has to do...

The word desire suggests that there is something we do not have. If we have everything already, then...

What you know can never be the beyond. Whatever you experience is not the beyond. If there is any be...

Why are you unhappy?Because 99.9 percent of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for y...

All science is a charted ignorance and belongs to Maya.

The only real flesh was the flesh that existed in his imagination. Since, therefore, he regarded the...

Cease striving. Then there will be transformation.

An outrageous instinct to love and be loved blinded your arms to lines of propriety––Women and Men, ...

When life is good do not take it for granted as it will pass. Be mindful, be compassionate and nurtu...

If there is any religion that could respond to the needs of modern science, it would be Buddhism.

The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid d...

For Persons are selves and, in one respect at least, I was now a Not-self, simultaneously perceiving...

Searching outside of you is Samsara (the world). Searching within you leads to Nirvana.

[S]he believed that the Buddhists were right–that if you want, you will suffer; if you love, you wil...

It turned out this man worked for the Dalai Lama. And she said gently-that they believe when a lot o...

I do not believe in religion, but if I had to choose one, it would be Buddhism. It seems more livabl...

In Buddhism, there is no place for using effort. Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food...

I am a lover of what is, not because I'm a spiritual person, but because it hurts when I argue with ...

A wide and vague impression exists that so-called Eastern religion is more contemplative, innocuous,...

Almost all religions from Buddhism to Islam feature either a humble prophet or a prince who comes to...

Every effort to understand destroys the object studied in favor of another object of a different nat...

To speak conventionally - and I think it is easier for the general reader to see Zen thus presented ...

The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows. There is nothing extraordinary or mysterious about Zen...

When mountain-climbing is made too easy, the spiritual effect the mountain exercises vanishes into t...

I like the relaxed way in which the Japanese approach religion. I think of myself as basically a mor...

When you dig a well, there's no sign of water until you reach it, only rocks and dirt to move out of...

I am not a Buddhist. Yet there is a Buddhist story that I hold dear. A monk walks in a forest, and c...

Your body is like a dew-drop on the morning grass, your life is as brief as a flash of lightning. Mo...

A fool sees himself as another, but a wise man sees others as himself.

Shall any gazer see with mortal eyes,Or any searcher know by mortal mind,Veil after veil will lift--...

When people used to complain to the Buddha that they were upset, telling him, "Our children upset us...

... "The world is afflicted with death and decay, therefore the wise do not grieve, knowing the term...

It is entirely conceivable that life's splendour forever lies in wait about each one of us in all it...

Buddha wrote a code which he said would be useful to guide men in darkness, but he never claimed to ...

What is the happiness ? Is it really happiness ? Nothing stable, just happen, stay and decay... Ever...

When the mind is exhausted of images, it invents its own.

He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.

How blissful it is, for one who has nothing. Attainers-of-wisdom are people with nothing. See him su...

Whatever a monk keeps pursuing with his thinking and pondering, that becomes the inclination of his ...

Purity or impurity depends on oneself,No one can purify another.

First, rely on the spirit and meaning of the teachings, not on the words;Second, rely on the teachin...

Attachment leads to suffering.

Greater in battlethan the man who would conquera thousand-thousand men,is he who would conquerjust o...

We live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you ...

Through countless births in the cycle of existence I have run, not finding although seeking the buil...

These... things, householder, are welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in the world:Long l...

These... things, householder, are welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in the world:Long l...

Bhikkus, all is burning. And what is the all that is burning?The eye is burning, visible forms are b...

Like a caring motherholding and guarding the lifeof her only child,so with a boundless heartof lovin...

You only lose what you cling to.

Now, Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, b...

All phenomena do not inherently exist because of being dependent-arisings. All phenomena do not inhe...

Tune as the sitthar, neither high nor low, and we will dance away the hearts of men.

To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one's own in the midst of abundance.

Yes, Kālāmas, it is proper that your have doubt, that you have perplexity, for a doubt has arisen in...

Resolutely train yourself to attain peace.

It is like a lighted torch whose flame can be distributed to ever so many other torches which people...

Monks, even if bandits were to savagely sever you, limb by limb, with a double-handled saw, even the...

Live in joy, in love,even among those who hate.Live in joy, in health,even among the afflicted.Live ...

Bahujanahitāya bahujanasukhāya lokānukampāya:For the good of the many, for the happiness of the many...

When the Aggregates arise, decay and die, O bhikkhu, every moment you are born, decay, and die.

Subhuti, someone might fill innumerable worlds with the seven treasures and give all away in gifts o...

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

Greater than all the joysOf heaven and earth,Greater still than dominionOver all the worlds,Is the j...

I shall live here in the rains,There in winter,Elsewhere in summer," muses the fool,Not aware of the...

Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.

You are as the yellow leaf.The messengers of death are at hand.You are to travel far away.What will ...

A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and fearles...

The virtuous man delights in this world and he delights in the next

Jīvaka, I say that there are three instances in which meat should not be eaten: when it is seen, hea...

Suppose a man threw into the sea a yoke with one hole in it, and the east wind carried it to the wes...

Here bhikkhus, some misguided men learn the Dhamma–discourses, stanzas, expositions, verses, exclama...

Meditate, Ānanda, do not delay, or else you will regret it later. This is our instruction to you.

So too, friend, purification of virtue is for the sake of reaching purification of mind; purificatio...

Merchant: 'So you have lived on the possessions of others?'Saddhartha: 'Apparently. The merchant als...

desires are not killed by fulfilling them

And so Gotama wandered into the town to obtain alms, and the two Samanas recognized him only by his ...