Quotes by Gautama Buddha

How wonderful! How wonderful! All things are perfect, exactly as they are.

Patience is the highest asceticism.

Tune as the sitthar, neither high nor low, and we will dance away the hearts of men.

All beings tremble before violence.All fear death.All love life.See yourself in others.Then whom can you hurt?What harm can you do?

You only lose what you cling to.

Now, Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness’ — then you should enter & remain in

It is like a lighted torch whose flame can be distributed to ever so many other torches which people may bring along; and therewith they will cook food and dispel darkness, while the original torch itself remains burning ever the same. It is even so with the bliss of th

Greater in battlethan the man who would conquera thousand-thousand men,is he who would conquerjust one —himself.Better to conquer yourselfthan others.When youve trained yourself,living in constant self-control,neither a deva nor gandhabba,nor a Mara banded with Brahmas,could turn that triumphback into defeat.

Whatever a monk keeps pursuing with his thinking and pondering, that becomes the inclination of his awareness.

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

Attachment leads to suffering.

Through countless births in the cycle of existence I have run, not finding although seeking the builder of this house; and again and again I faced the suffering of new birth. Oh housebuilder! Now you are seen. You shall not build a house again for me. All your beams are broken, the ridgepole is shattered. The mind has become freed from conditioning: the end of craving has been reached.

The virtuous man delights in this world and he delights in the next

All phenomena do not inherently exist because of being dependent-arisings. All phenomena do not inherently exist because of being dependently imputed.

Monks, even if bandits were to savagely sever you, limb by limb, with a double-handled saw, even then, whoever of you harbors ill will at heart would not be upholding my Teaching. Monks, even in such a situation you should train yourselves thus: Neither shall our minds be affected by this, nor for this matter shall we give vent to evil words, but we shall remain full of concern and pity, with a mind of love, and we shall not give in to hatred. On the contrary, we shall live projecting thoughts of universal love to those very persons, making them as well as the whole world the object of our thoughts of universal love — thoughts that have grown great, exalted and measureless. We shall dwell radiating these thoughts which are void of hostility and ill will. It is in this way, monks, that you should train yourselves.

Here bhikkhus, some misguided men learn the Dhamma–discourses, stanzas, expositions, verses, exclamations, sayings, birth stories, marvels, and answers to questions–but having learned the Dhamma, they do not examine the meaning of those teachings with wisdom. Not examining the meaning of those teachings with wisdom, they do not gain a reflective acceptance of them. Instead they learn the Dhamma only for the sake of criticising others and for winning in debates, and they do not experience the good for the sake of which they learned the Dhamma.

We live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing, you are everything. That is all.

He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.

First, rely on the spirit and meaning of the teachings, not on the words;Second, rely on the teachings, not on the personality of the teacher;Third, rely on real wisdom, not superficial interpretation;And fourth, rely on the essence of your pure Wisdom Mind, not on judgmental perceptions.

Greater than all the joysOf heaven and earth,Greater still than dominionOver all the worlds,Is the joy of reaching the stream.