“When you dig a well, there s no sign of water until you reach it, only rocks and dirt to move out of the way. You have removed enough; soon the pure water will flow, said Buddha.”
“I cannot say this too strongly: Do not compare yourselves to others. Be true to who you are, and continue to learn with all your might.”
“Being vegetarian here also means that we do not consume dairy and egg products, because they are products of the meat industry. If we stop consuming, they will stop producing. Only collective awakening can create enough determination for action.”
“Without giving up hope—that there’s somewhere better to be, that there’s someone better to be—we will never relax with where we are or who we are.”
“Where would I find enough leather To cover the entire surface of the earth? But with leather soles beneath my feet, It’s as if the whole world has been covered.”
“How wonderful it would be if people did all they could for one other without seeking anything in return! One should never remember a kindness done, and never forget a kindness received.”
“Many do not realize that we here must die. For those who realize this, quarrels end.”
“Man is an onion made up of a hundred integuments, a texture made up of many threads. The ancient Asiatics knew this well enough, and in the Buddhist Yoga an exact technique was devised for unmasking the illusion of the personality. The human merry-go-round sees many changes: the illusion that cost India the efforts of thousands of years to unmask is the same illusion that the West has labored just as hard to maintain and strengthen.”
“Pain is not wrong. Reacting to pain as wrong initiates the trance of unworthiness. The moment we believe something is wrong, our world shrinks and we lose ourselves in the effort to combat the pain.”
“We have two alternatives: either we question our beliefs - or we don t. Either we accept our fixed versions of reality- or we begin to challenge them. In Buddha s opinion, to train in staying open and curious - to train in dissolving our assumptions and beliefs - is the best use of our human lives.”
“People can only live fully by helping others to live. When you give life to friends you truly live. Cultures can only realize their further richness by honoring other traditions. And only by respecting natural life can humanity continue to exist.”
“It is only when we begin to relax with ourselves that meditation becomes a transformative process. Only when we relate with ourselves without moralizing, without harshness, without deception, can we let go of harmful patterns. Without maitri (metta), renunciation of old habits becomes abusive. This is an important point.”
“My experience with forgiveness is that it sort of comes spontaneously at a certain point and to try to force it it s not really forgiveness. It s Buddhist philosophy or something spiritual jargon that you re trying to live up to but you re just using it against yourself as a reason why you re not okay.”
“Support the type of thinking that leads you to feeling good, peaceful & happy.”
“Here s an example: someone says, Master, please hand me the knife, and he hands them the knife, blade first. Please give me the other end, he says. And the master replies, What would you do with the other end? This is answering an everyday matter in terms of the metaphysical. When the question is, Master, what is the fundamental principle of Buddhism? Then he replies, There is enough breeze in this fan to keep me cool. That is answering the metaphysical in terms of the everyday, and that is, more or less, the principle zen works on. The mundane and the sacred are one and the same.”
“If you want to take care of tomorrow, take better care of today. We always live now. All we have to do is entrust ourselves to the life we now live.”
“Inner Peace can be seen as the ultimate benefit of practicing patience.”