QUOTES
A selection of quotations that have
appeared as the “Quote of the Month” or “Thought for the Month”
in Guernsey Buddhist Group publications
"Life cannot be consumed by the
fire at the end of the kalpa, nor can it be washed
away by floods. It can neither be cut by swords nor pierced by arrows. Although
it can fit inside a mustard seed, the seed does not expand, nor does life
contract. Although it fills the vastness of space, space is not too wide, nor
is life too small."
[Nichiren]
“As
a solid rock is not shaken by the wind, even so the wise remain unshaken amidst
blame and praise”
(The Dhammapada: Sayings of the Buddha)
“A truly wise man
will not be carried away by any of the eight winds: prosperity, decline,
disgrace, honour, praise, censure, suffering and pleasure. He is neither elated
by prosperity nor grieved by decline. The heavenly gods will surely protect one
who does not bend before the eight winds”
(The Eight
Winds: Writings of Nichiren Daishonin)
"Though one defeats a million men
in battle, one who overcomes the self alone is in fact the highest victor”
(The Dhammapada: Sayings of the Buddha)
"If one stays close to the teachers
of the Law, one will speedily gain the bodhisattva way. By following and
learning from these teachers one will see Buddhas as
numerous as
(The Lotus Sutra)
“The future is not some place we are
going to, but one we are creating. The paths to it are not found, they are made
and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the
destination."
[Anon.]
"It is not because things are
difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that they are
difficult."
[Seneca]
Buddhism has the characteristics of what
would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: it transcends a personal
god, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and spiritual, and
it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things,
natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity."
[Einstein]
“When
deluded, one is called an ordinary being, but when enlightened, one is called a
Buddha”
[Nichiren]
“When
you realize the nature of mind, layers of confusion peel away. You don't
actually "become" a Buddha, you simply
cease, slowly, to be deluded. And being a Buddha is not being some omnipotent
spiritual superman, but becoming at last a true human being.”
[Sogyal Rinpoche]
Overcome anger with freedom from anger.
Overcome evil with good. Overcome meanness with generosity, and overcome a liar
with truthfulness.
[Dhammapada – The sayings of the Buddha]
“That which you give to another will
become your own sustenance; if you light a lamp for another, your own way will
be lit.”
Nichiren
Live
in joy,
Live
in love,
Even
among those who hate.
[Dhammapada – The sayings of the Buddha]
“One is not noble if one harms other
living beings. It is by
non-violence to all forms of life that one is called
noble.”
[Dhammapada – The sayings of the Buddha]
“All that we are is the result of what
we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.
If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a
shadow that never leaves him.”
[Dhammapada – The sayings of the Buddha]
The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with
care
And let it spring from love,
Born out of concern for all beings…
[The Dhammapada – Sayings of the Buddha]
You must become the master of your mind
rather than let your mind master you.
[Shakyamuni Buddha – The Six Paramitas Sutra]
One's own misdirected thought can do one more harm than an enemy or an ill-wisher.
[Dhammapada – The sayings of the Buddha]
When we are upset, it’s easy to blame others. However, the true
cause of our feelings is within us. For example, imagine yourself as a glass of
water. Now, imagine past negative experiences as sediment at the bottom of your
glass. Next, think of others as spoons. When one stirs, the sediment clouds
your water. It may appear that the spoon caused the water to cloud – but if
there were no sediment, the water would remain clear no matter what. The key,
then, is to identify our sediment and actively work to remove it.
[Josei Toda]
The universe is life itself. When we die, our lives melt back
into the greater life of the universe and are nowhere to be found, much like
the interval of sleep when our minds are seemingly nowhere. Just as we resume
our mental activities from the previous day upon awakening, so too are we born
with our karma from previous existences. In this way, just as we sleep and
wake, we are born and die, maintaining an eternal cycle of life.
[Josei Toda]
A person writing at night may put
out the lamp, but the words he has written will remain. It is the same with the
destiny we create for ourselves in this world.
[Shakyamuni Buddha]
The heart is what matters most. One sutra
tells the story of a boy named Doji who had nothing
to offer the Buddha but a mud pie. Others offered gold and gems, but their
hearts were insincere. Since the Buddha was worthy of great respect and since Doji’s heart was sincere, a single mud pie became such a
great offering that Doji was later reborn as
King Ashoka.
[Buddhist teaching story]
There was once a woman who lost her
child to disease. Crazy with grief, she stumbled through the city begging for
medicine to bring her child back. When she came upon the Buddha, he told her he
would give her the medicine she needed. He asked her to find a poppy from a
house where no one had lost a loved one. In her quest, she found there was not
even one such home. She realized that death is a fact of life, and that she was
not alone in her grief. In this way, the Buddha awakened her wisdom, restoring
peace to her heart.
Even as a
mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings:
Radiating kindness over the entire world
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
(From the Metta Sutta – The Buddha’s teaching on loving-kindness)
This screen is empty of an independent self.
Empty, in this sense, means that the screen is full of
everything,
the entire cosmos.
The presence of this computer display screen
proves the presence of the whole universe.
Based on similar statement by
Thich Nhat Hanh
It is not easy to be reborn as a human
being. It is rarer than for a one-eyed turtle, who rises to the surface only
once every hundred years, to push his neck through a wooden yoke with one hole
that floats on the surface of the wide ocean
Shakyamuni Buddha
Humility does not mean believing oneself
to be inferior, but to be freed from self-importance. It is a state of natural
simplicity which is in harmony with our true nature and allows us to taste the
freshness of the present moment.
Matthieu Ricard
Each act of generosity is a recognition
of our interdependence,
an expression of our Buddha nature.
Jack Kornfield
I let the
people witness my nirvana
as a means to save them,
but in truth I do not die;
I am here always, teaching the Law.
The Lotus
Sutra promises that those who practice the Buddha's teachings will enjoy peace
and security in their present existence and good circumstances in future
existences.
Nichiren –
“Reply To Hakiri Saburo”
Thousands of candles can be lit from a
single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.
How can a troubled mind
Understand the way?
Your worst enemy cannot harm you
As much as your own thoughts, unguarded.
But once mastered,
No one can help you as much,
Not even your father or your mother.
Shakyamuni
Buddha - from “The Dhammapada”
“Do
not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply
because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in
anything simply because it is spoken of and rumoured by many. Do not believe in
anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not believe in
anything merely on the authority of teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe
only after careful observation and analysis, and when you find that it agrees
with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then
accept it and live up to it.”
Shakyamuni
Buddha
In this world
hostilities are never
appeased by hostility.
But by the absence of hostility
are they appeased.
This is an interminable truth.
The Dhammapada –
Sayings of Shakyamuni Buddha
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.
In
the time of war
Raise
in yourself the Mind of Compassion.
Help
living beings
Abandon
the will to fight.
(Vimalakirti
Nirdesa Sutra)
If
you truly fear the sufferings of birth and death and yearn for nirvana, if you carry
out your faith and thirst for the way, then the sufferings of change and
impermanence will become no more than yesterday’s dream, and the awakening of
enlightenment will become today’s reality.
Nichiren
(WND p. 214)
Life
is the foremost of all treasures.
It
is expounded that even the treasures of the entire major world system cannot
equal the value of one’s body and life. Even the treasures that fill the major
world system are no substitute for life.
Nichiren
(WND p. 1125)
The mind is hard to check.
It is swift and wanders at will.
To control it is good.
A controlled mind is conducive to happiness.
The
Dhammapada – Sayings of the Buddha
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!
The Metta Sutta – The Buddha’s teaching on loving-kindness
You are your only master.
Who else?
Subdue yourself,
And discover your master.
The Dhammapada – The
Sayings of the Buddha
Beware of the anger of the body.
Master the body.
Let it serve truth.
Beware of the anger of the mouth.
Master your words.
Let them serve truth.
Beware of the anger of the mind.
Master your thoughts.
Let them serve truth.
The Dhammapada – The
Sayings of the Buddha
Do not make light of your failings,
Saying, “What are they to me?”
A jug fills drop by drop.
So the fool becomes brimful of folly.
Do not belittle your virtues,
Saying, “They are nothing.”
A jug fills drop by drop.
So the wise man becomes brimful of
virtue.
The Dhammapada – The
Sayings of the Buddha
In this world
Hate never yet dispelled hate.
Only love dispels hate.
This is the law,
Ancient and inexhaustible.
The Dhammapada – The
Sayings of the Buddha
To straighten the crooked
You must first do a harder thing –
Straighten yourself.
The Dhammapada – The Sayings
of the Buddha
Even
if we should gather all the water of the four great oceans to wet inkstones, burn all the trees and plants to make ink
sticks, collect the hairs of all beasts for writing brushes, employ all the
surfaces of the worlds in the ten directions for paper and, with these, set
down expressions of gratitude, how could we possibly repay our debt to the
Buddha?
Nichiren
(The Four Debts of Gratitude)
Above all, be sure to
follow your original teacher so that you are able to attain Buddhahood.
Shakyamuni Buddha is the
original teacher for all people.
Nichiren (The Essentials
for Attaining Buddhahood)
I
will teach you how to become a Buddha easily. Teaching another something is the
same as oiling the wheels of a cart so that they can turn even though it is
heavy, or as floating a boat on water so that it moves ahead easily. The way to
become a Buddha easily is nothing special. It is the same as giving water to a
thirsty person in a time of drought, or as providing fire for a person freezing
in the cold. Or again, it is the same as giving another something that is one
of a kind, or as offering something as alms to another even at the risk of
one’s life.
(Writings
of Nichiren Daishonin, page 1086)
A bird's egg
contains nothing but liquid, yet by itself this develops into a beak, two eyes,
and all the other parts, and the bird soars into the sky. We, too, are the eggs
of ignorance, which are pitiful things, but when nurtured by the chanting of
Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, which is like the warmth of the mother bird, we develop
the beak of the thirty-two features and the feathers of the eighty
characteristics and are free to soar into the sky of the true aspect of all
phenomena and the reality of all things.
Nichiren - Letter to Niike (WND p. 1030)
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.
Bhaddekaratta Sutta
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal
with the intent of throwing it at
someone else;
you are the one getting burned.
(The
Buddha)
Let your love flow outward through the universe,
To its height, its depth, its broad extent,
A limitless love, without hatred or enmity.
Then as you stand or walk,
Sit or lie down,
As long as you are awake,
Strive for this with a one-pointed mind;
Your life will bring heaven to earth.
Sutta Nipata
The Buddha
compares his teaching to the rainfall that descends without discrimination on
the earth. That this rain causes some seeds to grow into flowers and some into
great trees implies no differentiation in the rain but rather is due to the
capacities of the seeds that it nurtures. Thus, the teaching of the Buddha is
of a single flavour but benefits beings in a variety of ways according to their
capacity.
Donald S. Lopez
You, no less than all beings have Buddha Nature within. Your essential Mind
is pure.
Therefore, when defilements cause you to stumble and fall, let not remorse
nor dark foreboding cast you down. Be of good cheer and with this
understanding, summon strength and walk on.
Faith is like a lamp and wisdom makes the flame burn bright. Carry this lamp
always and in good time the darkness will yield and you will abide in the Light.
Dhammavadaka
We ordinary people can see neither our
own eyelashes, which are so close, nor the heavens in the distance. Likewise,
we do not see that the Buddha exists in our own hearts.
Nichiren (New Year’s Gosho)
We living beings,
right down to crickets, ants, mosquitoes and flies, all possess life that is
without beginning or end.
Nichiren
.
The secret of health for both mind and
body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live
the present moment wisely and earnestly.
Shakyamuni
Buddha
Never speak harsh words
For they will rebound upon you.
Angry words hurt
And the hurt rebounds.
[The Dhammapada – Sayings of
the Buddha]
[Shakyamuni Buddha]
Whatever words
we utter should be chosen with care
for people
will hear them and be influenced by them
for good or
ill.
Shakyamuni Buddha
“Don’t just hope for the other shore to come to you. If you want to cross
over to the other shore, the shore of safety, well-being, non‑fear and
non-anger, you have to swim or row across.
You have to make an effort.”
Shakyamuni Buddha
“When one has the feeling of dislike for
evil, when one feels tranquil, one finds pleasure in listening to good
teachings; when one has these feelings and appreciates them,
one is free of fear.”
Shakyamuni Buddha
“Be a light unto
yourself; betake yourself to no external refuge.
Hold fast to the Truth.
Look not for refuge to anyone
besides yourself.”
(from the Buddha’s final teaching)
“Better than a
thousand hollow words, is one word that brings
peace.”
Shakyamuni –
the Buddha
Anything that is created must sooner or later die.
Enlightenment is permanent because we have not produced it; we have merely
discovered it.
Chogyam Trungpa
True spirituality is
to be aware that if we are interdependent with everything and everyone else,
even our smallest, least significant thought, word and action have real
consequences throughout the universe.
Sogyal Rinpoche
KEEP RIGHT ON TO THE END
Be diligent in developing your faith until the last
moment of your life. Otherwise you will have regrets. For example, the journey
from
(Letter to Niike
- WND p1027)
The trouble is that you think you have
time.
(Jack Kornfield)
Right now, at this very moment, we have a mind,
which is all the basic equipment we need
to achieve complete happiness.
Howard Cutler
Those whom summer’s heat tortures yearn
for the full moon of autumn
Without even fearing the idea
That a hundred days of their life will then have passed
forever.
Shakyamumi Buddha
The most precious gift we can offer others is our
presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.
Thich
Nhat Hanh
Each moment is a chance for us to make peace with the world,
to make peace possible for the world, to make happiness possible for the world.
Thich
Nhat Hanh
Thanks
to impermanence, everything is possible.
Thich
Nhat Hanh
Neither
the pure land nor hell exists outside oneself; both lie only within one’s own
heart. Awakened to this, one is called a Buddha; deluded about it, one is
called an ordinary person.
Nichiren
“If you cling to an idea as the
inalterable truth, then when the truth does come in person and knock at your
door, you will not be able to open the door and accept it.”
Shakyamuni
Buddha - Udana Sutta
“A bodhisattva is someone who has compassion within
himself or herself and who is able to make another person smile or help someone
suffer less. Every one of us is capable of this.”
Thich
Nhat Hahn
Buddhist
practice exists not only so we can become happy but also so that we can lead
others to do the same. Practice for self and others, then, is like two wheels of
a cart. If we want to make progress, both wheels should roll together in
harmony. When we give hope and encouragement to others, we ourselves also grow,
so though we speak of practice for others, it is we ourselves who ultimately
benefit.
Nichiren
"Mindfulness
helps you go home to the present.
And
every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have,
happiness comes."
Thich Nhat Hanh
"The seed of suffering in you may be strong,
but don't wait until you have no more suffering
before allowing yourself to be happy."
Thich Nhat Hanh
(The
Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching)
“When another person makes you suffer, it is because he
suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over.
He does not need punishment; he needs help.
That's the message he is sending.”
Thich
Nhat Hanh
“Happiness is having friends when need arises.
Happiness is contentment with whatever there is.
Happiness is merit at the end of one’s life.”
The
Dhammapada – The Sayings of the Buddha
“Enlightenment
is always there.
Small
enlightenment will bring great enlightenment.
If
you breathe in and are aware that you are alive
–
that you can
touch the miracle of being alive –
then that is a kind of enlightenment.”
Thich
Nhat Hanh
"If
in our daily life we can smile,
if we can be peaceful and happy,
not only we, but everyone will profit from it.
This is the most basic kind of peace work."
Thich
Nhat Hanh