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Tim Ward Quotes

If the world is crazy, maybe it needs a few sane people in the middle of it. Why do monks lock themselves up in monasteries? What's the good of solving your personal suffering if the solution keeps you isolated from

If the world is crazy, maybe it needs a few sane people in the middle of it. Why do monks lock themselves up in monasteries? What's the good of solving your personal suffering if the solution keeps you isolated from everyone else's suffering?

Tim Ward
Crazy, People, Suffering
Tim Ward (2013). “What the Buddha Never Taught: A 'Behind the Robes" Account of Life in a Thai Forest Monastery”, p.47, Changemakers Books

You cannot teach a bird to fly, only how to let go his branch and begin to fall.

Tim Ward
Letting Go, Fall, Bird

Without faith you can't see a miracle; you just see unexplained events.

Tim Ward
Miracle, Events, Unexplained

I truly believe that I have been given a second chance at life. I never expected the results I have had.

Tim Ward
Believe, Second Chance, Results

Even without his robes an arahant is recognized simply by the effect his metta has in a crowd.

Tim Ward
Crowds, Metta, Robes
Tim Ward (2013). “What the Buddha Never Taught: A 'Behind the Robes" Account of Life in a Thai Forest Monastery”, p.207, Changemakers Books

Do not speak unless you can improve on silence, said a Buddhist sage.

Tim Ward
Buddhist, Speaking Spanish, Silence
Tim Ward (2013). “What the Buddha Never Taught: A 'Behind the Robes" Account of Life in a Thai Forest Monastery”, p.73, Changemakers Books

You know, the very strength of science is that it keeps us from the errors of mythos, from getting committed to a set of memes that we adopt because of congruence with what we think we know. Science demands skepticism.

Tim Ward
Thinking, Errors, Demand
Tim Ward (2012). “Zombies on Kilimanjaro: A Father/Son Journey Above the Clouds”, p.112, John Hunt Publishing

The practice is enlightenment. Some people find this idea not to their liking. They want to get enlightenment in a flash. This way they become attached to something that doesn't exist. Enlightenment isn't a thing you get.

Tim Ward
Practice, Ideas, People

A few days ago Tan Casipo said to me, 'Some people come here with so much dust in their eyes it's unbearable to talk to them.' What does that say about the monkhood? He can't tolerate people with 'dust in their eyes.' All that these monks have developed here is a safe little self-centred world which they call holy because villagers bow down to them. Living in a forest and wearing a robe doesn't make you better than anybody else.

Tim Ward
Eye, Self, Dust

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