Topic: Buddhist sayings

[Firestarter]

Do not pursue the past.
Do not lose yourself in the future.
The past no longer is.
The future has not yet come.
Looking deeply at life as it is.
In the very here and now, the practitioner dwells in stability and freedom.
We must be diligent today.
To wait until tomorrow is too late.
Death comes unexpectedly.
How can we bargain with it?
The sage calls a person who knows how to dwell in mindfulness night and day,
'one who knows the better way to live alone.'

Bhaddekaratta Sutta

[Firestarter]

Do not try to become anything.
Do not make yourself into anything.
Do not be a meditator.
Do not become enlightened.
When you sit, let it be.
What you walk, let it be.
Grasp at nothing.
Resist nothing.

If you haven't wept deeply, you haven't begun to meditate.

[Firestarter]

The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes.

Pema Chodron

[Firestarter]

Pay no attention to the faults of others,
things done or left undone by others.
Consider only what by oneself is done or left undone.

~Buddha

[Firestarter]

Mountain fruit drop in the rain
               and grass insects sing under my oil lamp.
               White hair, after all, can never change
               as yellow gold cannot be created.
               If you want to know how to get rid
               of age, its sickness, study nonbeing.


                                     -   Wang Wei,

[Firestarter]

A serving of snow in a silver bowl,
Or herons concealed in the glare of the moon
Apart, they seem similar, together, they're different.
Meaning cannot rest in words,
It adapts itself to that which arises.
Tremble and you're lost in a trap,
Miss and there's always regrets.

-   Tozan Ryokai

[Firestarter]

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell. ~Buddha

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There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting. ~Buddha

[Michael]

I suppose you know that Buda blew up the New York Stock Exchange killing 38 people, and injuring over 400. You gotta know who you are dealing with.

[Firestarter]

I suppose you know that Buda blew up the New York Stock Exchange killing 38 people, and injuring over 400. You gotta know who you are dealing with.

Oh thats very amusing. I heard it was Shiva who did it, wearing a Buddha mask, in disguise. Since he is the god of destruction it only makes sense he would do that, after all.

Now you've stained up a perfectly good quote thread, moving on...

[Firestarter]

It is better to spend one day contemplating the birth and death of all things than a hundred years never contemplating beginnings and endings. ~Buddha

[Firestarter]

Swan follow the path of the sun by the miracle of flying through the air. Men who are strong conquer evil and its armies; and then rise far above the world. ~Buddha

[Firestarter]

This is very zen:

It is good to have an end to journey toward;
but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
- Ursula K. Le Guin.

[Firestarter]

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.

~Buddha

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“We live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing, you are everything. That is all.”


Kalu Rinpoche