From the dear comes grief; From the dear comes fear.If you’re freed from the dear You’ll have no grief, let alone fear.

Meditation is not just blissing out under a mango tree. It completely changes your brain and therefore changes what you are.

I like change. There’s something Buddhist about it – continuous change is wonderful.

I am a simple Buddhist monk – no more, no less.

Better than a thousand sayings Made up of useless wordsIs one word of meaning Which calms you to hear it.

The victorious ones have saidThat emptiness is the relinquishing of all views.For whomever emptiness is a view,That one has achieved nothing.

Very much so.

If a person shows anger to you, and you show anger in return, the result is disaster. If you nurse hatred, you will never be happy, even in the lap of luxury. By contrast, if you control your anger and show its opposite – love, compassion, tolerance, and patience – then not only do you...

If there is no wound in your hand You can carry poison in your hand.Poison does not attack one who is unwounded. There is no evil for one who does not do evil.

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.

It is neither just the religious, the spiritual, the power-hungry, the evil, the ignorant, the corrupt, the Christian, the Muslim, the Hindu, the Buddhist, the Jew, nor the atheist that makes a hypocrite, but being a human being. Any man who thinks himself to be free of hypocrisy while committed to cherry-picking others for such,...

True change is within; leave the outside as it is.

One who utters speech that isn’t rough But instructive and truthfulSo that he offends no one, Him I call Brahmin.

As I cooked in the cauldron of motherhood, the incredible love I felt for my children opened my heart and brought me a much greater understanding of universal love. It made me understand the suffering of the world much more deeply.

According to your holy book, every single Buddhist, Jew, Hindu, Muslim, follower of various minor traditions or sects, those who do not affiliate themselves with a religious tradition and the approximately 2.74 billion humans who have never had the ‘privilege’ of hearing the word of your Messiah will be sentenced to eternal damnation in a...

I believe in kindness and karma—which could make me a Buddhist. I believe in mystic healing and crystals’ powers—which could make me a witch. I believe in truth, honor, and forgiveness—which could make me a Christian. I even believe in the existence of past lives and that each and every one of us is watched...

There’s a mess inside you: You clean the outside.

No sane person fears nothingness.

But even though there´s no more hope, again there´s no need to harm yourself, despite your feeling as if there´s no ground beneath you and no choice in any direction. But when we do let go, how wonderful. We discover that the darkness is actually full of light.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

Though you might conquer in battle A thousand times a thousand men,You’re the greatest battle-winner If you conquer just one – yourself.

The means and the results, the good and the bad, are within all of us who are aware and care.

Sing before the spirits and dance with the earth deitiesAnd you will be able to compose your own tune.Then you and I, united, will clap hands joyously,Singing ‘tum-tiddly-um tum-tiddly-um-tum.

Standing DeerAs the house of a personin age sometimes grows clutteredwith what istoo loved or too heavy to part with,the heart may grow cluttered.And still the house will be emptied,and still the heart.As the thoughts of a personin age sometimes grow sparer,like the great cleanness come into a room, the soul may grow sparer;one sparrow...

The aware do not die; The unaware are as though dead already.

Too lazy to be ambitious,I let the world take care of itself.Ten days’ worth of rice in my bag;a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?Listening to the night rain on my roof,I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.

True wisdom is being able to say ‘it is what it is’ with a smile of celebratory wonder on your face.

I do not believe in religion, but if I had to choose one, it would be Buddhism. It seems more livable, closer to men.

If you are a Buddhist, inspire yourself by thinking of the bodhisattva. If you are a Christian, think of the Christ, who came not to be served by others but to serve them in joy, in peace, and in generosity. For these things, these are not mere words, but acts, which go all the way,...

Though you recite much scripture, If you are unaware and do not act accordingYou are like a cowherd counting others’ cattle, Not a sharer in the wanderer’s life.

It seems the guys who are best at sex approach it with the serenity of a Buddhist monk. They are never going to beg for it and when the time is right (and all signs point to yes), then they take charge masterfully and completely.

The sacred stillness of your brilliant hearthas as the myriad wonders masqueraded.But if you knew this secret from the start,then you’d have quit this Game before you played it.

In general, I call her every night, and we talk for an hour, which is forty-five minutes of me, and fifteen minutes of her stirring her tea, which she steeps with the kind of Zen patience that would make Buddhists sit up in envy and then breathe through their envy and then move past their...

I do some compassionate mindfulness every day. It’s like a Buddhist thing. I tell myself that I’m doing a good job, that kind of thing. It makes me feel better.

But the scent of the good is blown against the wind: A good man perfumes all directions.

message of truth” found in all of us, that binds theology—holistic virtues combined with purpose is the foundation of spiritual evolution. The diversity among us all is not divided truth, but the opportunity for unity through these shared values. Truth is the framework and roadmap of positive virtues. It unifies diversity when we choose to...

I don’t know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I’m some kind of a Buddhist. But the essential thing is to put oneself in a frame of mind which is close to that of prayer.

The fool who knows his folly Becomes wise by that fact.But the fool who thinks he’s wise – He’s called ‘a fool’ indeed!

Meditation is doing what you are doing – whether you are doing formal meditation or child care.

In the village, a sage should go about Like a bee, which, not harmingFlower, colour or scent, Flies off with the nectar.

Activities such as chanting, bowing, and sitting in zazen are not at all wasted, even when done merely formally, for even this superficial encounter with the Dharma will have some wholesome outcome at a later time. However, it must be said in the most unambiguous terms that this is not real Zen. To follow the...

A person of little knowledge Grows old as a plough-ox grows old.His fleshes increases; His wisdom does not increase.

War can condition a person to be resilient, tolerant, dependable, strong, and capable of so much more than one who had experienced nothing of it; it can bring out the very best in us, but also the very worst. Where is it, I ask, the proper conduit through which a soldier should be raised from...

Every living thing is sacred to me. Compassion and love can heal this world, which is set on fire of violence and hatred. I will teach the world about compassion, and end the suffering by halting these floods of sorrow. Said Prince Siddhartha and began his journey of saving the man kind.” ,

I sit down and say, and I run all my friends and relatives and enemies one by one in this, without entertaining any angers or gratitudes or anything, and I say, like ‘Japhy Ryder, equally empty, equally to be loved, equally a coming Buddha,’ then I run on, say to ‘David O. Selznick, equally empty,...