Buddhism Quotes - Page 8

One interesting thing about greed is that although the underlying motive is to seek satisfaction, the irony is that even after obtaining the object of your desire you are still not satisfied. The true antidote of greed is contentment.

The essence of Buddhism is if you can, help others. If not, then at least refrain from hurting others.

And as I stumbled onto Eastern philosophy and Buddhism, it was the first time I had ever read any sort of philosophy that really made a tremendous amount of sense. What I liked that was missing from my experience of Christianity growing up was a sort of acceptance, a sort of being OK with being imperfect and not focusing on the sin.

It just seemed like Buddhism, especially Tibetan Buddhism - because that's mainly what I've been exposed to - was a real solid organization of teachings to point someone in the right direction. Some real well thought out stuff. But I don't know, like, every last detail about Buddhism.

Belief in heaven and hell is a big deal in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and some forms of doctrinaire Buddhism. For the rest of us it's simply meaningless. We don't live in order to die, we live in order to live.

Each religion has helped mankind. Paganism increased in man the light of beauty, the largeness and height of his life, his aim at a many-sided perfection; Christianity gave him some vision of divine love and charity; Buddhism has shown him a noble way to be wiser, gentler, purer, Judaism and Islam how to be religiously faithful in action and zealously devoted to God; Hinduism has opened to him the largest and profoundest spiritual possibilities.

Renunciation is not getting rid of the things of this world, but accepting that they pass away.

Suffering begins to dissolve when we can question the belief or the hope that there's anywhere to hide.

Knowledge does not mean mastering a great quantity of different information, but understanding the nature of mind. This knowledge can penetrate each one of our thoughts and illuminate each one of our perceptions.

You are down in the valley and the valley is filled with smog. You can't see too well. When we meditate, we are going beyond the smog to the top of the mountain.

Learn from the purity of nature.

When you unite the nothingness of your mind with the nothingness of the Frisbee, then the Frisbee is not a Frisbee, and you are not you.

The kundalini energy rests in potential at the base of the spine. It is possible to take that energy and allow it to move, to unleash it, from the base of the spine up to the third eye.

No lifetime is a loss if you've leaned something, because that learning stays with you. There is no such thing as a wasted life, if you have learned.

The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual's own reason and critical analysis.

In Buddhism, both learning and practice are extremely important, and they must go hand in hand. Without knowledge, just to rely on faith, faith, and more faith is good but not sufficient. So the intellectual part must definitely be present. At the same time, strictly intellectual development without faith and practice, is also of no use. It is necessary to combine knowledge born from study with sincere practice in our daily lives. These two must go together.

When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised.

Sometimes you have a flash of insight, but it's not strong enough to survive. Therefore in the practice of Buddhism, samadhi is the power to maintain insight alive in every moment, so that every speech, every word, every act will bear the nature of that insight. It is a question of cleaning. And you clean better if you are surrounded by those who are practicing exactly the same.

True freedom means freeing oneself from the dictates of the ego and its accompanying emotions.

In what is seen, there should be just the seen; In what is heard, there should be just the heard; In what is sensed, there should be just the sensed; In what is thought, there should be just the thought. He should not kill a living being, nor cause it to be killed, nor should he incite another to kill. Do not injure any being, either strong or weak in the world.

Nature is our friend - trees, squirrels, grass, fields, meadows, oceans - without people. Hike. Walk. Stroll. Bike. Swim. Be in a still place and feel eternity. Have a great time. Just feel it.

Money is very useful in this particular world to buy you space. In the old days, there were not too many people on the planet. Today everybody owns the forests and woods and there are "No Trespassing" signs everywhere.

If I used justice, you'd all be dead. The karma that you throw at me when you don't like me - if I just let it come back, you'd all be destroyed in no time.

You can be in a crowd full of friends and be miserable because you're alienated. The ego alienates.

Love is self-realization. Love is liberation. The only way beyond time, to unravel the knot of existence, is to love.