Walpola Rahula Quotes

#1. Arise without conditions, away from cause and effect, when the whole of existence is conditioned and relative, and is within the law of cause and effect?

Walpola Rahula

#2. Almost all religions are built on faith - rather 'blind' faith it would seem. But in Buddhism emphasis is laid on 'seeing', knowing, understanding, and not on faith, or belief.

Walpola Rahula

#3. One may conquer millions in battle, but he who conquers himself, only one, is the greatest of conquerors.

Walpola Rahula

#4. Real life is the present moment - not the memories of the past which is dead and gone, nor the dreams of the future which is not yet born. One who lives in the present moment lives the real life, and he is happiest.

Walpola Rahula

#5. The name one gives is inessential.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by other name would smell as sweet.

Walpola Rahula

#6. If by the expression "not practical" you mean "not easy," you are right. Definitely it is not easy. Yet it should be tried. You may say it is risky trying it. Surely it cannot be more risky than trying a nuclear war.

Walpola Rahula

#7. It is always a question of knowing and seeing, and not that of believing. The teaching of the Buddha is qualified as ehi-passika, inviting you to 'come and see', but not to come and believe.

Walpola Rahula

#8. As long as you are conscious of yourself, you can never concentrate on anything.

Walpola Rahula

#9. All great work - artistic, poetic, intellectual or spiritual - is produced at those moments when its creators are lost completely in their actions, when they forget themselves altogether, and are free from self-consciousness.

Walpola Rahula