Quotes About The Dharma

#1. If you have humility, you are willing to undertake anything to spread the dharma.

Frederick Lenz

#2. The dharma is a universal medicine.

Jack Kornfield

#3. Friends in the Dharma, be satisfied with your own heads. Do not put any false heads above your own. Then, minute after minute, watch your step closely.

Nyogen Senzaki

#4. How do you think the Dharma is able to describe the death process in such detail? It's not a whole bunch of lamas sit around speculating on what might happen. It's because they actually go through it. Frequently.

David Michie

#5. What can be the dharma at one point in your life can totally reverse itself, and suddenly you might be doing something the opposite or something very new, something you never considered.

Frederick Lenz

#6. Human beings are not so in harmony with the dharma. That is why they suffer so much. But you as an individual can reach a plane of attention and can become attention itself.

Frederick Lenz

#7. Start simply everyday by asking yourself, "What is the dharma today? What should I do? What is right? What does the universe want from me?"

Frederick Lenz

#8. If you determine your course With force or speed, You miss the way of the dharma. Quietly consider What is right and what is wrong. Receiving all opinions equally, Without haste, wisely, Observe the dharma.

Gautama Buddha

#9. Part of why I love these angry, straight, white punks is that they are stripping the dharma of its bullshit, and applying it to contexts and styles that, even if they aren't mine, are at least different from the norm.

Jay Michaelson

#10. Too often in the west we fail to realize that even in eastern disciplines the spiritual life is not meant as an escape from the worldly life. There is karma to be fulfilled on earth, within the dharma of necessity.

James Hillman

#11. What is the nature of the Self (Soul)? To 'see' the dharma (function) of everything, to see 'who is performing what function, and how that function is being performed.' To 'see' it, is called the function of the Self (Soul).

Dada Bhagwan

#12. Success is not success in an individual endeavor. Success is simply to practice the dharma impeccably.

Frederick Lenz

#13. The Dharma is the truth that all natures are pure. By this truth, all appearances are empty.

Bodhidharma

#14. In varying degrees, the authority of the dharma was replaced by the authority of the guru, who came, in some traditions, to assume the role of the Buddha himself.

Stephen Batchelor

#15. The masters only point the way. But if you meditate And follow the dharma You will free yourself from desire. 'Everything arises and passes away.' When you see this, you are above sorrow. This is the shining way.

Gautama Buddha

#16. Though through all his life a fool associates with a wise man, he yet understands not the Dharma, as the spoon, the flavor of soup.

Gautama Buddha

#17. An agnostic Buddhist would not regard the Dharma as a source of answers to questions of where we came from, where we are going, what happens after death. He would seek such knowledge in the appropriate domains: astrophysics, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, etc.

Stephen Batchelor

#18. We yield to none in our love, admiration and respect for the Buddha-the Dharma-the Sangha. They are all ours. Their glories are ours and ours their failures.

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

#19. Buddham Saranam Gocchami, I take refuge in the Buddha, Sangham, I take refuge in the church, Dhammam, I take refuge in the Dharma, the truth.

Jack Kerouac

#20. Everyone in advanced meditation practice should be involved with the economic support of the spread of the dharma. We live in a material world, and it's very expensive to teach meditation.

Frederick Lenz

#21. All my editors since Malcolm Cowley have had instructions to leave my prose exactly as I wrote it. In the days of Malcolm Cowley, with 'On the Road' and 'The Dharma Bums', I had no power to stand by my style for better or for worse.

Jack Kerouac

#22. If the kundalini is flowing through you at a very rapid rate, if you are not in harmony with the dharma, then you will have great problems with the study.

Frederick Lenz

#23. Meditate well so you can be a good instrument of eternity. You could have a mediocre meditation today, but you're not going to. Today you might run into someone who you might talk to about the dharma.

Frederick Lenz

#24. If you are following the dharma no matter what you do it is moral.

Robert M. Pirsig

#25. Once in a while an enlightened teacher goes out into the world and spreads the dharma. They attract some attention, and it is a great spectacle to see who and why and what is drawn.

Frederick Lenz

#26. Not to follow the dharma leads to disaster. Life will be unhappy.

Frederick Lenz

#27. Very often, in order to bring about stillness we have to be tirelessly active in the outer world. You might suppose this would agitate the mind. It will not, if it is the dharma.

Frederick Lenz

#28. The Dalai Lama has warned: 'Too many people have the Dharma only on their lips. Instead of using the Dharma to destroy their own negative thoughts, they regard the Dharma as a possession and themselves as the owner.

Sogyal Rinpoche

#29. Buddha also said that the Dharma, like a bird, needs two wings to fly, and that the wing that balances Wisdom is compassion.

Sylvia Boorstein

#30. True zazen is surrendering every moment. But surrendering to what? It really does not matter what we call it: God or the Tao or the Dharma or the Buddha or our true nature ... It is the act of letting go, of surrendering, that matters. The very act of letting go opens us up completely.

Dennis Merzel

#31. The one who recognizes the uncertainty of phenomena is the Dharma within you.

Ajahn Chah

#32. Make the dharma personal, explore it wholeheartedly, and relax.

Pema Chodron

#33. A way of spreading the dharma is just telling people, sharing with them your experiences. Never push it, never be a missionary. Be completely selfless; realize you're only an instrument of eternity.

Frederick Lenz

#34. The # zodiac sign on the # Ascendant normally tells us much concerning the dharma of the individual - that is, the central potentiality which the person should seek consciously to actualize as a vessel or lens through which the Divine may act.

Dane Rudhyar

#35. If you work an extra ten hours to help spread the dharma, this will cause for much faster progression. You're doing something for a higher cause, for a higher ideal.

Frederick Lenz

#36. When we shout at the oak tree, the oak tree is not offended. When we praise the oak tree, it doesn't raise its nose. We can learn the Dharma from the oak tree; therefore, the oak tree is part of our Dharmakaya. We can learn from everything that is around, that is in us.

Nhat Hanh

#37. The calligraphy reads, "Pointing directly at your own heart, you find Buddha." Listening to talks about the dharma, or the teachings of Buddha, or practicing meditation is nothing other than studying ourselves.

Pema Chodron

#38. So all of the music had reference, or is inspired by something of the dharma that I've come in contact with.

Joseph Jarman

#39. We are here to start an era, to start an Age, to celebrate the transition from the Piscean Age into the Aquarian Age. We are here to celebrate that. We are the pioneers. We are the pioneers of the Dharma. Let's bow our heads in prayer and let us open our hearts.

Harbhajan Singh Yogi

#40. The essence of the Dharma (the teachings of the Buddha) is about identifying the cause of our suffering & alleviating it.

Allan Lokos

#41. What we do outwardly will only interrupt the flow of our perfect attention is it is not in harmony with the dharma.

Frederick Lenz

#42. The first task is to discover the dharma by introspection, by constantly questioning yourself and asking yourself, "What is right?"

Frederick Lenz

#43. Determine where you are and where you wish to be. Then use all of your self-effort to make that happen, following the guiding principles of all the Buddhas and bohisattvas and seekers of the dharma, of enlightenment.

Frederick Lenz

#44. Of course the Dharma-body of the Buddha was the hedge at the bottom of the garden. At the same time, and no less obviously, it was these flowers, it was anything that I - or rather the blessed Not-I - cared to look at.

Aldous Huxley

#45. To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma, because seeing is neither seeing nor not seeing and because understanding is neither understanding nor not understanding.

Bodhidharma

#46. A person who follows the dharma is unpredictable because the dharma is unpredictable.

Robert M. Pirsig

#47. Inside the treasury of the dharma eye a single grain of dust.

Dogen

#48. By the dharma is meant the heart, for there is no dharma apart from the heart.

Huangbo Xiyun

#49. TURNING YOUR MIND toward the dharma does not bring security or confirmation. Turning your mind toward the dharma does not bring any ground to stand on. In fact, when your mind turns toward the dharma, you fearlessly acknowledge impermanence and change and begin to get the knack of hopelessness.

Pema Chodron

#50. Self-reflection is the gateway to freedom. It also brings greater appreciation and enjoyment. We begin to enjoy spending time with our own mind, and we enjoy reflecting on our experience of the teachings. Like the sun emerging from behind the clouds, the teachings of the dharma become clear.

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

#51. The Dharma Path is to keep walking forward. But the true Dharma has no going forward, no going backward, and no standing still.

Ajahn Chah

#52. It is necessary first in the practice of Kundalini yoga to determine what the dharma is. There is a dharma for you.

Frederick Lenz

#53. Don't worry about techniques. Don't worry about chakras. Instead, concern yourself with finding the dharma and meditate. Then the kundalini will release.

Frederick Lenz

#54. To not follow the dharma, either intentionally or through lack of awareness, creates a very low level of attention. In this low level of attention we make all kinds of mistakes and we are unhappy no matter what good fortune befalls us.

Frederick Lenz

#55. Each time the dharma moved into a different civilization or historical period, it faced a twofold challenge: to maintain its integrity as an internally coherent tradition, and to express its vision in a way that responded to the needs of the new situation.

Stephen Batchelor

#56. The whole universe in all directions is the Flower of Dharma.* All Buddhas everywhere and all enlightened beings twirl and are twirled by the Flower of Dharma.

Brad Warner

#57. When you meditate you can stand back from your desire. When you silence the mind and there is stillness, only then can you tell if a desire is dharma.

Frederick Lenz

#58. The fundamental human values all emanate from Dharma, based on Truth. If human behaviour has no such basis, it leads to disaster.

Sathya Sai Baba

#59. Your dharma is what kind of work you should be doing, what kind of people you should associate with, whether you should have a teacher or not. Dharma encompasses all things and it is specific to the individual.

Frederick Lenz

#60. There's no path to liberation that doesn't pass through the shadow.

Jay Michaelson

#61. The purpose of dharma is to help your mind to expand, to grow, to clarify. It should uphold us and create an inner sense of peace, joy, and clarity.

Tenzin Palmo

#62. Let the skin be like water, let the flesh hang from the bones.

Dharma Mittra

#63. Be it known that Men of dull faculties and slight wisdom, They who cling proudly to signs, Cannot believe in this Dharma. Now I, joyfully and fearlessly, In the midst of the bodhisattvas Frankly casting aside my expedient devices, Merely preach the Unexcelled Path.

Gautama Buddha

#64. Never sit under a tree waiting for the apple to fall. Climb the tree, grab that apple!
When it comes, never be inert and take your time, TIME TO MOVE!

Tsem Tulku Rinpoche

#65. To increase the flow of kundalini that will alter our perception, it is necessary to clarify the purpose of one's being. This is to come to understand dharma.

Frederick Lenz

#66. See yourself in the practice you are not able to access right now. Imagine yourself in it.

Dharma Mittra

#67. I believe it is my dharma to not get inoculated because God ordains who will be diseased and who will be healthy. You obviously believe it is your dharma to inoculate me. Now it is over and you are guests in my home. This is the least I can offer you.

Deepak Chopra

#68. The average human looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, inhales without smelling, and talks without thinking." - Leonardo da Vinci Benefits

Dharma Hazari

#69. In Hinduism, dharma means realizing our potential: changing ourselves into the best we theoretically can be. What is that? Humans

Devdutt Pattanaik

#70. For a warrior, nothing is higher than a war against evil. The warrior confronted with such a war should be pleased, Arjuna, for it comes as an open gate to heaven. But if you do not participate in this battle against evil, you will incur sin, violating your dharma and your honor.

Swami Vivekananda

#71. That which reduces our flawed vision is called religion [dharma]. It is non-religion [adharma] that increases a flawed vision. The worldly life is indeed the result of a flawed vision.

Dada Bhagwan

#72. There is a time to be still in the pose.

Dharma Mittra

#73. Daily sitting is our bread and butter, the basic stuff of dharma. Without it we tend to be confused.

Charlotte Joko Beck

#74. The nature of things is dharma.

Mahavira

#75. The buddha-dharma ... is about directly seeing Truth, prior to forming any ideas about it. It is about responding to each particular situation as it comes ... , not according to some ... program of dos and don'ts.

Steve Hagen

#76. My varnashram dharma teaches me that there must be some significance in the fact of my being born in India instead of in Europe.

Mahatma Gandhi

#77. My Dharma is the practice of nonpractice.

Thich Nhat Hanh

#78. Never forget how swiftly this life will be over, like a flash of summer lightning or the wave of a hand. Now that you have the opportunity to practice dharma, do not waste a single moment on anything else.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

#79. One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.

Jack Kerouac

#80. 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

#81. Without morality and ethics there is no religion (dharma), the foundation of religion is morality and ethics.

Dada Bhagwan

#82. The freedom of the seed is in the attainment of its dharma, its nature and destiny of becoming a tree; it is the non-accomplishment which is its prison.

Anonymous

#83. The future is certain for those who follow dharma. Those who don't follow dharma are pushed back again and again into the net of rebirth. They are drawn back to the same planes of attention, or lower. It could happen to you!

Frederick Lenz

#84. At the last stages of the journey, there's no journey at all.

Jay Michaelson

#85. You are dharma. You are a wheel. And the wheel of dharma spins.

Frederick Lenz

#86. The Sanskrit word for awareness is smriti, which no one can pronounce. This may explain why awareness has not become as well-known in the west as karma, dharma, and nirvana.

George K. Ilsley

#87. That which frees one from bondage is the right religion.

Dada Bhagwan

#88. As long as this belief, 'I am the doer' is not gone, one has not yet attained an iota of exact religion. He is still in the auspicious-inauspicious [shubh-ashubh] state.

Dada Bhagwan

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

Jack Kornfield

#90. I am only here to share my knowledge with others and to help them make rapid progress on the path of yoga.

Dharma Mittra

#91. For the first five years of my life, I grew up in a log cabin in coastal British Columbia in a very small town, like 300 people, mostly hippies. No running water, no electricity. When I was 12, I changed my name from Dharma to Stewart. At that age, you just want to be normal.

Stewart Butterfield

#92. Dharma is easiest to spot by its absence: the Mahabharata employs the pedagogical technique of teaching about dharma via its opposite, adharma

Gurcharan Das

#93. I have the True Dharma Eye, the Marvelous Mind of Nirvana, the True Form of the Formless, and the Subtle Dharma Gate, independent of words and transmitted beyond doctrine. This I have entrusted to Mahakashyapa.

Gautama Buddha

#94. Right now we have obtained a human rebirth and have the opportunity to attain enlightenment through Dharma practice, so if we waste this precious opportunity in meaningless activities there is no greater loss and no greater foolishness.

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

#95. The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow, nor the lion, the horse, how he shall take his prey.

William Blake

#96. Reduce your wants and lead a happy and contented life. Never hurt the feelings of others and be kind to all. Think of God as soon as you get up and when you go to bed.

Dharma Mittra

#97. Change affects only the form of a thing, not its substance.

Dharma

#98. Now to understand the significance of chastity within us, we have to know that chastity is the foundation of all dharmas. Unless and until you have sense of chastity you cannot have dharma.

Nirmala Srivastava

#99. Dharma practice means physical hardship; it means that you shouldn't be pansies about it. You should exert yourselves wholeheartedly to engage in the practice, so that it will affect your body, speech, and mind.

Ngagpa Yeshe Dorje

#100. When you are not following dharma, then you will not be at peace. You will not be happy. The simplest things will seem to be endless obstacles.

Frederick Lenz