Buddhism On Quotes

#1. Is the basic teaching of Buddhism - on ignorance, deliverance and enlightenment - really life-denying, or is it rather the same kind of life-affirming liberation that we find in the Good News of Redemption, the Gift of the Spirit, and the New Creation?

Thomas Merton

#2. Don't just sit there. Go do something and don't expect that it's going to be fun unless you make it fun. You have got to work on things. That is when you are happy.

Frederick Lenz

#3. How long the path may be depends for any man on where he stands today and his speed of travel. These are his past and present choosing, but the beginning of the way is here and now, and karma and rebirth are the means of treading it.

Christmas Humphreys

#4. When you focus on the third chakra it has to pull the kundalini from the root center, through the second, up to the third chakra.

Frederick Lenz

#5. We sit here on the oasis of human consciousness and the verbal plane trying to talk about something that we just have to go and see and do and feel.

Frederick Lenz

#6. You can increase your capacity to absorb the mystical kundalini. I have 3 or 4 students who are on the path of mysticism, they can absorb more of it.

Frederick Lenz

#7. The operative condition on this particular planet, the central mode which human beings follow, is fear. We are taught to fear.

Frederick Lenz

#8. What is important in self-discovery is the person who keeps going, who has a smile, who is kind to others, who works hard at everything, and who keeps their mind on their own business and not everybody else's.

Frederick Lenz

#9. Purity or impurity depends on oneself,
No one can purify another.

Gautama Buddha

#10. Most individuals on earth are not drawn to the higher light at this time. That doesn't make you superior to anyone else. If you are in the eighth grade you're not better than someone who is in the fourth grade.

Frederick Lenz

#11. Start a meditation session by repeating a mantra, perhaps, "Aum", which is the most powerful of all mantras. Then, after repeating the mantra perhaps a dozen times, focus on a yantra.

Frederick Lenz

#12. You see, I'm a believer in the rhapsodic. I like things that are happy. For no particular reason, I just like them. Most people don't seem to be like that in this particular place, in this world. You can tell by what they focus on. Read a newspaper, watch a TV show, go to a movie, look at a life.

Frederick Lenz

#13. If we take something to be the truth, we may cling to it so much that when the truth comes and knocks on our door, we won't want to let it in.

Thich Nhat Hanh

#14. Everything depends on your state of awareness. If your state of awareness is low, then all the material success in the world won't help.

Frederick Lenz

#15. Don't try to hold people to you, don't try to push them away. Let life do everything for you. This is the proper attitude on the path of love.

Frederick Lenz

#16. As you focus your attention on the heart center, you will begin to feel your thoughts slowing down. You'll begin to feel your mind becoming calm and quiet. They won't bother you.

Frederick Lenz

#17. The source of their motivation ranges from what you might expect - from the seeking of money and publicity, to those who genuinely suffer from chronic personal problems and have fixated on me as the cause of their frustrations and failures.

Frederick Lenz

#18. The person in the business suit who works on Wall Street, who does their work perfectly, is probably evolving a lot faster, if they also meditate.

Frederick Lenz

#19. The last game on earth is in progress. And when you lose, you win. And when you win, you can't lose.

Frederick Lenz

#20. Winning has to do with gaining personal power through the practice of meditation and mindfulness; not draining your energy on ridiculous things and people.

Frederick Lenz

#21. Why is it that one of the best songs in the world has to be written by the BeeGees?
Benedict

Tricia Walker

#22. To define Buddhism without a lot of words and phrases, we can simply say, 'Don't cling or hold on to anything. Harmonize with actuality, with things as they are.'

Ajahn Chah

#23. The key to meditation is focusing on specific symbols. The symbols are the chakras.

Frederick Lenz

#24. The purpose of all of this is not to walk around with new vocabulary words, but to cause you to speculate on the marvel of your own being.

Frederick Lenz

#25. Don't become a spiritual bigot. Don't feel that just because you meditate and you are striving for enlightenment that you are in any way superior to any other person. Be even. Be easy. You will last longer on the pathway to self-discovery.

Frederick Lenz

#26. [The Buddha] is not dividing himself into worthy and unworthy pieces; he is one being, indivisible, immune from the tendency to double back and beat up on himself. He has seen the worst in himself and not been taken down.

Mark Epstein

#27. There are endless planes of attention, endless realities and endless mind states. They're like collections of atoms and protons and neutrons, nuclei. They just go on forever. They're plasma, they're fluid ... they're alive.

Frederick Lenz

#28. But for me if I'm gonna read about something I'd rather read a pamphlet or the instructions to a synthesizer than a book on Buddhism.

John Frusciante

#29. The claim of the Zen followers that they are transmitting the essence of Buddhism is based on their belief that Zen takes hold of the enlivening spirit of the Buddha, stripped of all its historical and doctrinal garments.

D.T. Suzuki

#30. My mother's a Buddhist. In Buddhism, if you want to achieve enlightenment, you have to do it through meditation and self-improvement through the mind. That's something she's passed on to me: to be able to calm myself down and use my mind as my main asset.

Tiger Woods

#31. That huge majority of black folks who identify as Christian or as believers in other religious faiths (Islam, Buddhism, Yoruba, and so on) need to return to sacred writings about love and embrace these as guides showing us the way to lead our lives.

Bell Hooks

#32. Sometimes kindness is stepping aside, letting go of our need to be right & just being happy for someone.

Sharon Salzberg

#33. Everything you do in meditation is amplified. If you meditate for five minutes with your complete mind focused on happiness, that is like focusing on happiness for several hours as you are walking around.

Frederick Lenz

#34. Truth occurs in unusual places. Sometimes it's in the frozen food section of the supermarket, sometimes it appears while you are waiting for your car to be fixed, sometimes you see it while in bed with someone you love, sometimes you find it while you're meditating on a lone mountain.

Frederick Lenz

#35. Life is endless reality. There is reality after reality, spinning on endlessly into the cosmos, billions and billions of manifest universes. Underlying all of this is the unmanifest, the absolute reality.

Frederick Lenz

#36. To become balanced, meditate on the heart center in the center of the chest. There you will experience happiness, refinement, sensitivity, beauty, laughter.

Frederick Lenz

#37. There are thousands of lesser chakras. Chakras are doorways to other worlds. When you focus on them, you step into something else.

Frederick Lenz

#38. Good and bad aren't absolutes. They are beliefs, judgements, ideas based on limited knowledge as well as on the inclinations of our minds.

Steve Hagen

#39. The mind is infinite. It is not relegated to the brain or to thought or to emotion. It is made up of an endless series of realities that stretch on into infinity.

Frederick Lenz

#40. On the day that you were born, you began to die. Do not waste a single moment more!

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

#41. Some people, of course, say they're practicing tantra. There are a lot of books on tantric sexual practice in local bookstores. These are usually pretty silly books.

Frederick Lenz

#42. In no way can words convey the nagual. But they open up the possibility. They allow an admission on the island of the tonal.

Frederick Lenz

#43. Whilst on the subject of the spread of Buddhism in the West, I want to say that I have noticed some tendency towards sectarianism amongst new practitioners. This is absolutely wrong. Religion should never become a source of conflict, a further factor of division within the human community.

Dalai Lama XIV

#44. I consider those persons to be my students who come and meditate with me on a regular basis, who, in spite of the hardships and difficulties on the path of knowledge, still continue to try, and who respect me as I respect them.

Frederick Lenz

#45. It is impossible to build one's own happiness on the unhappiness of others. This perspective is at the heart of Buddhist teachings.

Daisaku Ikeda

#46. The very first noble truth of the Buddha points out that suffering is inevitable for human beings as long as we believe that things last - that they don't disintegrate, that they can be counted on to satisfy our hunger for security.

Pema Chodron

#47. It is better to agree with a "wrong" idea than to press a "right" idea on other people.

Frederick Lenz

#48. Pass the popcorn, please. Life is a film, theatre, a theatre of the soul. We play different roles on different stages. At death, we walk offstage. At birth, we walk onstage.

Frederick Lenz

#49. Look for the heart of a tradition in the actions of its humble servants and selfless teachers. Listen and let the teachings be borne out, or set aside, based on your experience.

Andrew Furst

#50. Letting go is the hardest thing. Everybody is so afraid. They're so afraid of eternity. They're so afraid of life. They're so afraid of what's on the other side of death. There is nothing but light. God is everywhere.

Frederick Lenz

#51. People go through life blindly, ignoring death like revellers at a party feasting on fine foods. They ignore that later they will have to go to the toilet, so they do not bother to find out where there is one. When nature finally calls, they have no idea where to go and are in a mess.

Ajahn Chah

#52. You are sitting on this little planet, spaceship earth. The universe is very accessible to you. You don't need a spaceship to travel there. Most of the worlds are non-physical. And it's all God; it's all eternity

Frederick Lenz

#53. It takes tremendous self-restraint on the part of the student not to want to monopolize the teacher's attention, to live a very controlled life and a happy life, and of course, be dedicated to the cause.

Frederick Lenz

#54. You've gained some powers by your entrance into other dimensions and you use them to attack others or to make others miserable, then power reverses on you and it pulls you apart because it's not supposed to be used that way.

Frederick Lenz

#55. When we see a hero, on the one hand, we applaud them; on the other hand, there is something in a lot of people that wants to tear the hero down.

Frederick Lenz

#56. The deeper side of the study occurs on levels of attention your mind is not aware of, but that your superconscious mind is - what don Juan calls the nagual.

Frederick Lenz

#57. It's necessary to respect all other ways and other teachings on the subject because even though they may not make a lot of sense to us, they might to someone else. Who are we to say?

Frederick Lenz

#58. To become wise, meditate on the third eye, between the eyebrows and a little bit above. Focus on that spot, the Agni chakra.

Frederick Lenz

#59. You need energy and life force to see and feel what you need to do. Otherwise you are in a dark room and you can't tell what's going on. You need to practice meditation.

Frederick Lenz

#60. Buddhism suits me 'cuz nobody's in charge. Nobody's decidin' for me if I'm good or bad, goin' to heaven or hell. It's just me workin' on my head, you workin' your head, the friggin' Dalai Lama workin' on his head.

Ramez Naam

#61. 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

#62. The perfect view of existence comes from an unclouded, uncluttered life and mind whereby the radiance of perfect attention of the mind of the universe floods us at every moment. This is Buddhism. This is being on the path.

Frederick Lenz

#63. All I can say is that these cult stories are totally untrue, are without any foundation, and trade on a deep bias against Westerners who dare to embrace an Eastern belief-system.

Frederick Lenz

#64. The prospect of future lives in remote heavens as a compensation for the inadequacy of our present lives is a bad tradeoff for losing out on the present.

Francis Harold Cook

#65. A Buddha doesn't observe precepts. A Buddha doesn't do good or evil. A Buddha isn't energetic or lazy. A Buddha is someone who does nothing, someone who can't even focus his mind on a Buddha. A Buddha isn't a Buddha. Don't think about Buddhas.

Bodhidharma

#66. Simplifying our lives does not mean sinking into idleness, but on the contrary, getting rid of the most subtle aspect of laziness: the one which makes us take on thousands of less important activities.

Matthieu Ricard

#67. The vast majority of beings who incarnate on this planet are at the stage of their evolution where power is the dominant theme. They are learning about power. That is why we live in a world where there are so many wars and so much destruction.

Frederick Lenz

#68. What's important is to be supportive of all who practice. Anyone on any level, even if they don't call it self-discovery, who is seeking to awaken to their own potentials and possibilities, to the inner freedom, deserves your respect and support.

Frederick Lenz

#69. Emotional states are fairly quick bursts of neuronal gossip. Traits, on the other hand, are more like the neuronal equivalent of committed relationships.

Yongey Mingyur

#70. If you are having sex with someone who is not on the same frequency that you are on, it can be very problematic. The greatest karmic transfer occurs in having sex with someone.

Frederick Lenz

#71. We are such spendthrifts with our lives, the trick of living is to slip on and off the planet with the least fuss you can muster. I'm not running for sainthood. I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer, who puts back into the soil what he takes out.

Paul Newman

#72. There are billions of people on the earth and there are billions of earths, billions of universes. It is endless.

Frederick Lenz

#73. The human life form vibrates at a certain rate, but all vibratory rates are not suitable for human life. So it's very necessary to meditate on higher octave energy, on the clear light, on joy, on happiness.

Frederick Lenz

#74. It does happen, of course, that the priesthood has been on bad terms with womankind for some three thousand years. You see, Buddhism teaches that women are evil. Fiends. Messengers of hell. I've spent years immersed in the scriptures, so it's no accident that you and I fight all the time.

Eiji Yoshikawa

#75. Human beings going to their jobs and living their lives are unconscious. They don't know what's going on. They don't know why you are born or why you die.

Frederick Lenz

#76. Buddhism is a heresy on Hinduism. It was Hinduism that did the dirty work for Buddhism, by the time Buddha came along priest-craft was an ancient tradition in India.

Terence McKenna

#77. People on the pathway to enlightenment become very successful in whatever they approach, because they have learned to discipline the mind.

Frederick Lenz

#78. Can you allow yourself to be impaled on the present moment?

T. Scott McLeod

#79. The entire teaching of Buddhism can be summed up in this way: Nothing is worth holding on to.

Jack Kornfield

#80. Focus your attention on the top of your neck. Take that energy and transmit it in two lines to your hands. Then from the hands, bounce that energy right back to the heart center and ground it.

Frederick Lenz

#81. When you combine a media - bent on exploiting tabloid-type stories to boost ratings and circulation by innuendo and titillation - with unhappy or opportunistic individuals who have nothing going for them in their own lives, you get a bitter brew.

Frederick Lenz

#82. Only the enlightened are consistently happy. Their happiness is not predicated upon the events and experiences that take place in this world. Instead it is based on the boundless inner energy they gain from their connection with the world of enlightenment.

Frederick Lenz

#83. Meditation is to be aware of what is going on: in your body, in your feelings, in your mind, and in the world.

Thich Nhat Hanh

#84. Beyond this world are countless dimensions. They stretch on forever. You can travel to them and have experiences in them.

Frederick Lenz

#85. The stupa is a white dome with a conical stone tower emerging from its center. There are two eyes painted on the tower, the all seeing eyes of Buddha. They're purple, and look a little sinister, like an Old Testament Buddha.

Joshua Isard

#86. Mary, my little girl, was confirmed in a Buddhist temple. She saw the Life write up on Buddhism, with pictures of the ceremony, and she said she wanted to be confirmed there because she only liked Jesus as a kid. She was a little disappointed in him when he grew up.

Kenneth Rexroth

#87. By fully focusing your mind on your chakras, stilling your thoughts, and increasing your kundalini flow, you can rise above your body consciousness and unite your mind with the clear light of nirvana.

Frederick Lenz

#88. Nothing goes right on the outside when nothing is going right on the inside.

Matthieu Ricard

#89. Eventually light prevails, you just have to be patient. So practice Buddhism, learn to be enlightened, put a smile on your face, go find a great teacher, meditate, and stay funny.

Frederick Lenz

#90. Sometimes, sitting there on the cushion failing to watch your breath, it can feel like you're the only weirdo weird enough to be wasting your time in this way. But you're not! There are generations of weirdos, monasteries full of them, and we have the benefit of their accumulated wisdom.

Jay Michaelson

#91. Don't focus so much on your relationships. Have fun with them. Or if you don't have them, you don't want them, have fun with that.

Frederick Lenz

#92. On the Brevity of Our Ties
Ties in this world last only for a time. We are husband and wife, parent and child, for a short period only. Once this reality sinks in, we cannot help treasuring each moment of our brief association.

Kentetsu Takamori

#93. In order to succeed on the athletic field, it is necessary to succeed in daily life. Your spirit and your life must be perfectly trimmed for the chi to flow properly.

Frederick Lenz

#94. It is more important to repeat a mantra several times with total absorption than to parrot it for hours on end.

Frederick Lenz

#95. Death is [ ... ] the blackboard on which life is written.

Osho

#96. Happiness is found principally in meditation. Let your mind flow out into eternity. You have to exert some effort. Then you will notice a subtle smile on your face.

Frederick Lenz

#97. W are all carrying the imprints of our most ancient ancestors. Not simply in the genetic code, but in the imprints of attention that are passed on.

Frederick Lenz

#98. Some people meditate because they want to get the larger picture on life. It could get kind of discouraging if this was all there was.

Frederick Lenz

#99. Many people think excitement is happiness ... But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace.

Thich Nhat Hanh

#100. What is perfection anyway in the physical? It is an idea we have. When it doesn't happen we get all bent out of shape and frustrated and angry and then unhappy, we take it out on everybody.

Frederick Lenz