Wisdom for Today
Teachings from the world of Buddhism and beyond, updated each weekday
I’ll swap old age for the unaging, burning for extinguishment—the ultimate peace, the supreme sanctuary. — Suppiyattheragāthā. 3 February 2023
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- “All grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince. 2 February 2023
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- One of my teachers said: “First hear and study, then you think about it and you become it.” And that’s the point: We go from head to heart and that transforms us. Then spontaneously, what we say, what we think, and what we do naturally arise from our understanding. — Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo. 1 February 2023
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- Great practitioners of the past would not have the distractions that we have, however noble these aims of ours seem, because those practitioners took impermanence so deeply to heart. So we must address honestly all the attachments that keep us distracted. And if we look, with attachments there is always a sense of being bound to a burden, again, however noble. — Lama Zopa Rinpoche. 31 January 2023
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- Monks, there are these four floods. Which four? The flood of sensuality, the flood of becoming, the flood of views, & the flood of ignorance. These are the four floods. Now, this noble eightfold path is to be developed for direct knowledge of, comprehension of, the total ending of, & the abandoning of these four floods. — The Buddha. 30 January 2023
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- You are part of the universe; you are made of stars. When you look at your loved one, you see that he is also made of stars and carries eternity inside. Looking in this way, we naturally feel reverence. True love cannot be without trust and respect for oneself and for the other person. — Thich Nhat Hanh. 27 January 2023
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- Our lives have no outcome other than death, just as rivers have no end other than the ocean. At the moment of death, our only recourse is spiritual practice, and our only friends the virtuous actions we have accomplished during our lifetime. — Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. 26 January 2023
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- They are not sense pleasures, the world’s pretty things: Man’s sensuality is the intention of lust. The pretty things remain as they are in the world But the wise remove the desire for them. One should discard anger, cast off conceit, Transcend all the fetters. No sufferings torment one who has nothing, Who does not adhere to name-and-form. — The Buddha. 20 January 2023
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- As an Amitabha-reciter is always embraced by Amitabha’s light, Amitabha Buddha will always be accompanied by Avalokitesvara, Mahasthamaprapta and a multitude of bodhisattvas. They will appear before him in the pure great ocean. As said in the Amitabha Sutra: “As that person approaches death, Amitabha Buddha and various sacred beings will appear before him.” — Master Huijing. 19 January 2023
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- Children are living beings—more living than grown-up people who have built shells of habit around themselves. Therefore it is absolutely necessary for their mental health and development that they should not have mere schools for their lessons, but a world whose guiding spirit is personal love. ― Rabindranath Tagore. 18 January 2023
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- One does not have to feel totally at the mercy of one’s emotion. It is only when acquiescing to the emotion, or investing the emotion with the falsehood of reality, that one is forced to play out the consequences. — Kalu Rinpoche. 17 January 2023
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- “People have a lot of resistance to seeing themselves honestly. But the point of being a Dharma practitioner is to joyfully and universally look at ourselves. To look at ourselves universally means to see that everyone is like us. — Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. 16 January 2023
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- True teachers who do not deceive on the supreme path, are like great ships that rescue beings from the ocean of existence. They are like rain of nectar that covers the flames of karma and defilements. And they are like the Sun and Moon which dispel the darkness of ignorance. — Jigme Lingpa. 13 January 2023
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- Together on the path of love, we can try to make a small difference in someone’s life. What else is there to do? — Sister Chân Không. 12 January 2023
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- If we are sitting in meditation and feeling uninterested, can we come in closer to the object, not with force but with gentleness and care? What is this experience we call the breath? If someone were holding your head under water, would the breath be boring? Each breath is actually sustaining our life. Can we be with it fully, just once? — Joseph Goldstein. 11 January 2023
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- People want to go to Nibbana but when you tell them there is nothing there, they begin to have second thoughts. — Ajahn Chah. 10 January 2023
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- Rise, hero! Victor in battle, with burden put down, wander the world without obligation. Your mind is fully liberated, like the moon on the fifteenth night. Rise, hero! Victor in battle, leader of the caravan, wander the world without obligation. Let the Blessed One teach the Dhamma! There will be those who understand. — Buddhavandanāsutta. 9 January 2023
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- Beings who yearn for the Dharma And generate effort for the sake of the Dharma are rare. Anyone who makes the wheel of Dharma turn Will attain supreme wisdom. — The Buddha. 6 January 2023
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- We have no reason not to be happy, and should not be bitter towards others as if they are our worst enemies because we will all die soon. Will dying people haggle with others? As the saying goes, “A dying person has only good things to say.” We live in this world to cultivate good karmic connections with everyone. — Master Jingzong. 5 January 2023
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- I regularly sat close by good people and learnt the teaching. What I learned, I practiced, the direct route that culminates in the deathless. I’ve slain the desire to be reborn, it won’t be found in me again. It was not, and it won’t be in me, and it isn’t found in me now. — Kaṇhadinna. 4 January 2023
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- There is only one important point you must keep in your mind and let it be your guide. No matter what people call you, you are just who you are. Keep to this truth. You must ask yourself how is it you want to live your life. We live and we die, this is the truth that we can only face alone. No one can help us, not even the Buddha. So consider carefully, what prevents you from living the way you want to live your life? — His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama Of Tibet. 3 January 2023
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- Faith is the seed, practice the rain, and wisdom is my yoke and plough. Modesty’s the pole, mind the strap, mindfulness my ploughshare and goad. Body and speech are guarded well, and food and drink have been restrained. Truthfulness I use for weeding, and gentleness urges me on. Effort is my beast of burden, pulling me onward to safety. On it goes without returning, where, having gone, one does not grieve. This is how I plough my ploughing—the crop it yields is deathlessness! And when one has ploughed this ploughing, one is released from all suffering. — The Buddha. 30 December 2022
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- When our minds are troubled, we must give them tender love and care. Our minds are like “children,” small babies that are very tender. Don’t hurt them or expose them to the wind. Well looked after, they will give you joy and great blessing. If they are hurt, they will release poisonous gas and make you unhappy. — Master Shandao. 29 December 2022
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- Among many, examine your speech; When you stay alone, examine your mind. — Atisha. 28 December 2022
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- For he who has dispelled thoughts, Totally cut them off within himself without remainder, Perceiving the formless nibbāna, beyond the shackle, Having overcome the four yokes—he surely does not come to birth again. — The Buddha. 23 December 2022
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- If the whole universe can be found in our own body and mind, this is where we need to make our inquiries. We all have the answers within ourselves, we just have not got in touch with them yet. The potential of finding the truth within requires faith in ourselves. — Ayya Khema. 22 December 2022
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- If we are totally preoccupied with our own experience — how I feel, what my problem is, and so forth — there is no chance at all for us to care about how others feel. There is simply no room for compassion. — Tsokyni Rinpoche. 21 December 2022
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- The Buddha never taught a sectarian religion; he taught the Dhamma—the way to liberation—which is universal. — S. N. Goenka. 20 December 2022
