Buddhist Wisdom for Today
Quotes and Teachings from the world of Buddhism and beyond, updated each weekday
When we choose to love, we choose to move against fear, against alienation and separation. The choice to love is a choice to connect, to find ourselves in the other. — bell hooks (1952–2021). 5 September 2024
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- Believe and teach others to believe; difficult as it may be, transmitting broadly his great compassion is the way to repay the grace of the Buddha. — Master Shandao. 4 September 2024
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- When you feel so small and so incapable, so inferior, then look at the sky. Your mind is as limitless as sky. You are limitless. You have no limitation. You are not inferior or incapable, that has no space. Space is limitless. Mind is like space, in fact mind is space. — The 12th Kenting Tai Situpa. 3 September 2024
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- One who’s purged all their stains, steady in ethics, possessed of self-control and of truth, they are truly worthy of the ocher robe. — The Buddha (Dhammapada 1:10). 2 September 2024
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- In a nutshell, the cause of all our suffering is selfishness—thinking of ourselves and our feelings as more important than others. This is what makes our lives so difficult. Likewise, gaining a little freedom from this selfishness and having a genuine wish to do something for others is the cause of real happiness. — Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche. 30 August 2024
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- Those who think in terms of an intrinsic being and of otherness, who hold the view that things exist or don’t exist, have failed to understood the nature of reality that the Buddha has set forth. — Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche. 29 August 2024
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- The Triple Gem has objective existence as an impersonal idea or ideal as long as it is known and cherished. Even in that mode it is doubtlessly a persisting and active source of benefit for the world. But it is transformed from an impersonal idea to a personal refuge only to the extent that it is realized in one’s own mind and manifested in one’s own life. — Nyanaponika Thera. 28 August 2024
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- In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be … This is the inter-related structure of reality. — Martin Luther King Jr. 27 August 2024
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- Those who become buddhas put others before themselves. Doing so is the secret to their success on the path to enlightenment. Their determination to be of benefit to others allows them to accomplish two goals: they help others, and at the same time, without trying, they achieve their own temporary and ultimate happiness. — Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche. 26 August 2024
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- No one can fix or change anyone else. You only have to see to yourself by relying on the teachings of those who know … The Buddha cannot eradicate your defilements, and neither can any respectable teachers. They can only advise you on the methods to do so. — Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto. 22 August 2024
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- We have to combine our voices from all corners of the world. Every day, courageous voices that go beyond the boundaries of nation states, religions, and ideologies to oppose war and call for peace are the only power that can stop the winds of war and achieve peace. Here and now, let us all take that audacious step for peace. — Ven. Pomnyun Sunim. 21 August 2024
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- The impermanent world, because of its magnificent and numerous splendors, touches people’s hearts. But only the rare pundarika flowers among humankind are perfectly content and embraced in the Buddha’s light. Do not be fooled if they are poor and illiterate, for they are considered cintamanis, beyond comparison. — Master Huiyuan. 20 August 2024
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- Elevate your experience and remain wide open like the sky. Expand your mindfulness and remain pervasive like the Earth. Steady your attention and remain unshakable like a mountain. Brighten your awareness and remain shining like a flame. Clear your thought-free wakefulness and remain lucid like a crystal. — Dakpo Tashi Namgyal (c.1511–1587). 19 August 2024
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- There is no evil like hatred, no ascetic discipline like patience. Therefore, cultivate patience actively by all means possible. As long as the barb of hatred is in your heart, your mind will find no rest, no joy or happiness, it will have no rest nor steadfastness. — Shantideva. 16 August 2024
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- There is, Kassapa, a path, there is a practice, practicing in accordance with which you will know and see for yourself: ‘Only the ascetic Gotama’s words are timely, true, and meaningful, in line with the teaching and training.’ And what is that path? It is simply this Noble Eightfold Path, that is: right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion. — Mahasihanada Sutta, DN8. 15 August 2024
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- It may be difficult to accept, but right now, this very moment, is the perfect time for you to start practicing, regardless of the many reasons you have, good and bad, for trying to put it off. Perhaps you would rather wait until you are less busy at work, or win the lottery, or get over your partner leaving you, but life will never be free from disruptions and to wait for things to settle down will merely ensure that you never, ever take that first step. — Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche. 14 August 2024
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- How fine! The whole world and vastness of space is Buddha! And I am in it–“Namu-amida-butsu!” — Asahara Saichi (1850-1932). 13 August 2024
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- To the extent that we stop struggling against uncertainty and ambiguity, to that extent we dissolve our fear. The synonym for total fearlessness is full enlightenment—wholehearted, open-minded interaction with our world. — Pema Chödrön. 9 August 2024
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- When I see the mist, gathered like a resplendent silk scarf / Around the slope of an immaculate, majestic, white snow mountain, / I am reminded how intellectual talk obscures the natural face / Of the Middle Way view of luminosity free of all constructs. — Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. 8 August 2024
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- Don’t expect your practice to be always clear of obstacles. Without hindrances the mind that seeks enlightenment may be burnt out. So an ancient once said: “Attain deliverance in disturbances.” — Gyeongheo Seonsa. 7 August 2024
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- That Blessed One [the ascetic Gautama] is perfected, a fully awakened Buddha, accomplished in knowledge and conduct, holy, knower of the world, supreme guide for those who wish to train, teacher of gods and humans, awakened, blessed. — Soṇadaṇḍasutta. 6 August 2024
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- Never lose courage. Never lose faith. Nothing in this world is impossible when you are determined. — Master Cheng Yen. 5 August 2024
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- True compassion is not just an emotional response but a firm commitment founded on reason. — His Holiness the Dalai Lama. 2 August 2024
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- A table is sometimes covered with a tablecloth, which may make it difficult to see that the table is made of wood. However, can a tablecloth forever hide the simple fact that it’s a wooden table? We may experience all kinds of pleasures in this Saha world, but can this conceal the nature of suffering in this world? — Master Zongdao. 1 August 2024
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- The creations of the mind are more numerous than specks of dust in a ray of sunlight. — Jetsun Milarepa. 31 July 2024
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- 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. 30 July 2024
