quotations about Buddhism
We're all buddhas. We just don't recognize it.
YONGEY MINGYUR RINPOCHE
Joyful Wisdom: Embracing Change and Finding Freedom
The word desire suggests that there is something we do not have. If we have everything already, then there can be no desire, for there is nothing left to want. I think that what the Buddha may have been trying to tell us is that we have it all, each of us, all the time; therefore, desire is simply unnecessary.
TOM ROBBINS
Jitterbug Perfume
If I had to pick a religion, I'd pick Buddhism. Buddhism is a kindly religion. It says you got a chance... it's got humor, it's got wisdom, it says to be nice to each other. All the rest of them have gods that want to beat the crap out of you if you defy the rules.
HARLAN ELLISON
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
To go from mortal to Buddha, you have to put an end to karma, nurture your awareness, and accept what life brings.
BODHIDHARMA
The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
Buddhist wisdom implies the affirmation or recognition of everything and everyone in their distinctiveness or in their suchness.
MASAO ABE
Buddhism and Interfaith Dialogue
Popular Buddhism with its profuse idolatry, its relics, and its superstitions repels me, and I have reservations even about the teachings of the Buddha. I admire much of his profound analysis of man's condition: the world has no purpose; it is up to us to give our lives a purpose; and we cannot rely on any supernatural assistance. Life is full of suffering, suffering is rooted in desire and attachment, and much desire and attachment are rooted in ignorance. By knowledge, especially of the Buddha's teachings, it is possible to develop a pervasive detachment, not incompatible with a mild, comprehensive compassion--and to cease to suffer. But ... the price for the avoidance of all suffering is too high. Suffering and sacrifice can be experienced as worthwhile: one may find beauty in them and greatness through them.
WALTER KAUFMANN
"The faith of a heretic", Harper's Magazine, February 1959
And then at last I saw Him, as He went
Within that blessed city of Mithila:
Great Tamer of untamed hearts, yea, Him,
The Very Buddha, Banisher of fear.
Came back my heart to me, my errant mind;
Forthwith to Him I went low worshipping,
And there, e'en at His feet, I heard the Norm.
For of His great compassion on us all,
'Twas He who taught me, even Gotama.
I heeded all He said and left the world
And all its cares behind, and gave myself
To follow where He taught, and realise
Life in the Path to great good fortune bound.
Now all my sorrows are hewn down, cast out,
Uprooted, brought to utter end,
In that I now can grasp and understand
The base on which my miseries were built.
VASITTHI
"The Buddha's Way"
To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.
SHUNRYU SUZUKI
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
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.
ALAN WILSON WATTS
What Is Zen?
Buddhist nirvana ... is based on egolessness and is not anthropocentric but rather cosmological. In Buddhism, humans and the things of the universe are equally subject to change, equally subject to transitoriness or transmigration. A person cannot achieve emancipation from the cycle of birth and death until he or she can eliminate a more universal problem: the transience common to all things in the universe.
MASAO ABE
Buddhism and Interfaith Dialogue
Buddhism offers a way out--a way that begins with our own awareness of our captivity and the desire to be free.
REBECCA NOVICK
Fundamentals of Tibetan Buddhism
Buddhism is more a system of philosophy and practical ethics than a religion. If by religion we mean something which inspires enthusiasm and fervour, Buddhism is certainly a religion, as it has given spiritual enthusiasm and joy to nearly five hundred millions of the world's population, and has served to carry men through material pains and evils and to make them their conquerors. But if we take as the beginning of religion the fear of God, or the dread of the unknown, or the hankering for the unseen and unintelligible, or the feeling for the infinite, Buddhism is certainly not a religion. The most striking feature of Buddhism is that it eschews all hypotheses regarding the unknown, and concerns itself wholly with the facts of life in the present work-a-day world.
POKALA LAKSHMI NARASU
The Essence of Buddhism
The buddha-dharma does not invite us to dabble in abstract notions. Rather, the task it presents us with is to attend to what we actually experience, right in this moment. You don't have to look "over there." You don't have to figure anything out. You don't have to acquire anything. And you don't have to run off to Tibet, or Japan, or anywhere else. You wake up right here. In fact, you can only wake up right here. So you don't have to do the long search, the frantic chase, the painful quest. You're already right where you need to be.
STEVE HAGEN
Buddhism Plain and Simple
The secret of Buddhism is to remove all ideas, all concepts, in order for the truth to have a chance to penetrate, to reveal itself.
THICH NHAT HANH
Buddha Mind
We need a collective awakening. One Buddha is not enough. All of us have to become Buddhas in order for our planet to have a chance. Fortunately, we have the power to wake up, to touch enlightenment from moment to moment, in our very own ordinary and, yes, busy lives. So let's start right now. Peace is your every breath.
THICH NHAT HANH
Peace Is Every Breath
The question has often been asked; Is Buddhism a religion or a philosophy? It does not matter what you call it. Buddhism remains what it is whatever label you may put on it. The label is immaterial.
WALPOLA RAHULA
What the Buddha Taught
The coolness of Buddhism isn't indifference but the distance one gains on emotions, the quiet place from which to regard the turbulence. From far away you see the pattern, the connections, and the thing as whole, see all the islands and the routes between them. Up close it all dissolves into texture and incoherence and immersion, like a face going out of focus just before a kiss.
REBECCA SOLNIT
The Faraway Nearby
But people of the deepest understanding look within, distracted by nothing. Since a clear mind is the Buddha, they attain the understanding of a Buddha without using the mind.
BODHIDHARMA
The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
The starting point for Buddhism is not dogma or belief in the supernatural, but the fact of the existence of sorrow and suffering, not merely the sorrow and suffering of the poor and the wretched, but also of those that live in the lap of luxury. Its goal is not heaven or a union with God or Brahman, but to find a refuge for man from the miseries of the world in the safe haven of an intellectual and ethical life through self-conquest and self-culture.
POKALA LAKSHMI NARASU
The Essence of Buddhism
Once a Buddha, always a Buddha.
ROGER ZELAZNY
Lord of Light