Wisdom for Today
Teachings from the world of Buddhism and beyond, updated each weekday
A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. — Albert Einstein. 27 May 2022
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- The Bodhisattva, bravely seeking the Buddha Way, dwells in birth and death without weariness or satiation, and extols for others so they can practice accordingly, which brings about irreversibility. Destroying all existence in the wheel of birth and death, turning the pure and wonderful Dharma wheel, being unattached to all worlds: he speaks this way for the Bodhisattvas. — Avataṃsaka Sūtra. 26 May 2022
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- My teacher, the late Sawaki Roshi, often made the following self-evaluation: “I am an eternally deluded person. No one is as deluded as I am. I am deluded with gold trimmings. How clear it is to me when I do zazen!” — Sodō Yokoyama
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- Respectfully supplicating the master enables us To cast away self-cherishing pride. Devotedly praying to our masters enables us To discard the aggression that comes from attachment and aversion. Respectfully supplicating the master enables us To cast away jealousy coming from competitiveness. Devotedly praying to our masters enables us To discard wrong views coming from our disturbing emotions. — Sera Khandro. 24 May 2022
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- The reason Amitabha made his vows was to call upon sentient beings in the ten directions asking, “please come to my Land of Bliss?” If you come here, you will no longer reincarnate or accumulate negative karma. You will never again suffer, become old or sick, and never die. In addition, you will gain the six paranormal powers and quickly become a Buddha. — Master Huijing. 23 May 2022
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- We should cast aside all childish games that fetter and exhaust body, speech, and mind. Stretching out in inconceivable nonaction, in the unstructured matrix, the actuality of emptiness, where the natural perfection of reality lies, we should gaze at the uncontrived sameness of every experience, all conditioning and ambition resolved with finality. — Longchenpa. 20 May 2022
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- The Buddha’s teachings can be summed up in three parts: sila, morality; samadhi, concentration; and panna, intuitive wisdom. — Sayadaw U Pandita. 19 May 2022
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- For people who study Buddhism, it’s essential to “Genuinely recognize your own mistakes. Don’t discuss the wrongs of others. Their wrongs are just my own wrongs. [To realize that] one is of the same substance is the great compassion.” — Master Hsuan Hua
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- Do you really want to support the center, support the Dharma, and benefit sentient beings with all three of your doors and not just your mouth? Then you need to be flexible and accommodating, rather than wanting everyone else to help and support you in your idea. We are all one family, all trying to support the Dharma because that way we can be sure we are bringing benefit to sentient beings in a meaningful way. We are none of us at the level where we should be proud, or want to be the boss. None of us have those kinds of qualities and none of us are omniscient! But all of us can try to be more harmonious and more humble, which is how we can develop those qualities in ourselves. — Gyatrul Rinpoche. 16 May 2022
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- The ocean of true and universal knowledge of all the buddhas derives its source from one’s own mind and thought. Therefore you should apply your thought with an undivided attention to a careful meditation on that Buddha Tathagata, Arhat, the Holy and Fully Enlightened One. — Contemplation Sutra. 13 may 2022
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- Nowadays we all boast that we are Dharma practitioners, but we have not severed our attachment to the things of this life, we have not turned our minds away from cyclic existence, we have not relinquished even the smallest of our desires — for friends and relations, entourage, servants, food and clothes, pleasant conversation, and the like. As a result, any positive activities we undertake are not really effective. Our minds and the Dharma go different ways. — Dudjom Rinpoche. 12 May 2022
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- The Buddha starts with suffering, because his teaching is designed for a particular end: it is designed to lead to liberation. In order to do this he must give us a reason for seeking liberation. If a man does not know that his house is on fire, he lives there enjoying himself, playing and laughing. To get him to come out we first have to make him understand that his house is on fire. In the same way the Buddha announces that our lives are burning with old age, sickness and death. Our minds are flaming with greed, hatred and delusion. It is only when we become aware of the peril that we are ready to seek a way to release. — Bhikkhu Bodhi. 11 May 2022
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- Approach what you find repulsive, help the ones you think you cannot help, and go to places that scare you. – Machig Labdrön. 10 May 2022
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- When one experiences truth, the madness of finding fault with others disappears. ― S. N. Goenka. 4 May 2022
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- True compassion is utterly neutral and is moved by suffering of every sort; not tied to right and wrong, attachment and aversion. — Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. 3 May 2022
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- By amending our mistakes, we gain wisdom. By defending our faults, we betray an unsound mind. — Master Huineng. 28 April 2022
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- As we go through life, we accumulate layers of ideas about who we are and what we’re capable of achieving. As these layers accumulate, we tend to become increasingly rigid in our identification with certain views about ourselves and the world around us. Gradually, we lose our connection to the basic openness, clarity, and love that is the essence of our being. — Tsoknyi Rinpoche. 27 April 2022
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- In this brief span this body exists, Clothing and food are of course indispensable; But knowing them to be fruits of former lives, I make no effort at all to obtain them. — Ippen Shōnin. 26 April 2022
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- If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, This is the best season of your life. — Wumen Huikai. 25 April 2022
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- Love is a state of being, and in that state, the “me,” with its identifications, anxieties, and possessions, is absent. Love cannot be, as long as the activities of the self, of the “me,” whether conscious or unconscious, continue to exist. That is why it is important to understand the process of the self, the center of recognition which is the “me.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
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- You may pursue worldly fame and gain, but unless you follow the teachings of the Buddha, such activity will only be the cause for throwing you back into further samsara. So adhere to the teachings of the Buddha! — Guru Padmasambhava. 21 April 2022
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- See and realize that this world is not permanent. Neither late nor early flowers will remain. — Ryōkan Taigu. 20 April 2022
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- Great Compassion makes a Peaceful Heart. A Peaceful Heart makes a Peaceful Person. A Peaceful Person makes a Peaceful Family. A Peaceful Family makes a Peaceful Community. A Peaceful Community makes a Peaceful Nation. And a Peaceful Nation makes a Peaceful World. May all beings live in Happiness and Peace. – Preah Maha Ghosananda. 19 April 2022
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- Thoughts of themselves have no substance; let them arise and pass away unheeded. Thoughts will not take form of themselves, unless they are grasped by the attention; if they are ignored, there will be no appearing and no disappearing. — Aśvaghoṣa. 14 April 2022
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- Through the power of spreading the Buddhist teachings, May the lineage holders and Dharma teachers flourish May all beings live in happiness; and May all realms be pure. – Yeshe Tsogyal. 13 April 2022
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- If you do not reflect on death and impermanence, There will be no way to practice the Dharma purely, Practice will remain an aspiration, one that is constantly postponed, And you may feel regret the day that death comes, but by then it will be too late! — Chatral Rinpoche. 12 April 2022
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- People of this world are deluded. They’re always longing for something-always, in a word, seeking. But the wise wake up. They choose reason over custom. They fix their minds on the sublime and let their bodies change with the seasons. All phenomena are empty. They contain nothing worth desiring. ― Bodhidharma. 11 April 2022
