Quotes by Gautama Buddha

You are as the yellow leaf.The messengers of death are at hand.You are to travel far away.What will you take with you?You are the lampTo lighten the way.Then hurry, hurry.When your light shinesWithout impurity or desireYou will come into the boundless country.Your life is falling away.Death is at hand.Where will you rest on the way?What have you taken with you?You are the lampTo lighten the way.Then hurry, hurry.When your light shines purelyYou will not be bornAnd you will not die.

Like a caring motherholding and guarding the lifeof her only child,so with a boundless heartof lovingkindness,hold yourself and all beingsas your beloved children.

To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as ones own in the midst of abundance.

Suppose a man threw into the sea a yoke with one hole in it, and the east wind carried it to the west, and the west wind carried it to the east, and the north wind carried it to the south, and the south wind carried it to the north. Suppose there were a blind turtle that came up once at the end of each century. What do you think, bhikkhus? Would that blind turtle put his neck into that yoke with one hole in it?He might, venerable sir, sometime or other at the end of a long period.Bhikkhus, the blind turtle would sooner put his neck into that yoke with a single hole in it than a fool, once gone to perdition, would take to regain the human state, I say. Why is that? Because there is no practising of the Dhamma there, no practising of what is righteous, no doing of what is wholesome, no performance of merit. There mutual devouring prevails, and the slaughter of the weak.

What is the happiness ? Is it really happiness ? Nothing stable, just happen, stay and decay... Everything is impermanence, dissatisfaction and nothing can ever belong to itself

I shall live here in the rains,There in winter,Elsewhere in summer, muses the fool,Not aware of the nearness of death.

Jīvaka, I say that there are three instances in which meat should not be eaten: when it is seen, heard, or suspected [that the living being has been slaughtered for oneself]. I say that meat should not be eaten in these three instances. I say that there are three instances in which meat may be eaten: when it is not seen, not heard, and not suspected [that the living being has been slaughtered for oneself]. I say that meat may be eaten in these three instances.

So too, friend, purification of virtue is for the sake of reaching purification of mind; purification of mind is for the sake of reaching purification of view; purification of view is for the sake of reaching purification by overcoming doubt; purification by overcoming doubt is for the sake of reaching purification by knowledge and vision of what is the path and what is not the path; purification by knowledge and vision of what is the path and what is not the path is for the sake of reaching purification by knowledge and vision of the way; purification by knowledge and vision of the way is for the sake of reaching purification by knowledge and vision; purification by knowledge and vision is for the sake of reaching final Nibbāna [Nirvana] without clinging. It is for the sake of final Nibbāna without clinging that the holy life is lived under the Blessed One.

Resolutely train yourself to attain peace.

Bhikkus, all is burning. And what is the all that is burning?The eye is burning, visible forms are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning; also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact as its condition, that too is burning. Burning with what? Burning with the fire of greed, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion, with birth, ageing and death, with sorrow, with lamentation, with pain, grief and despair it is burning.

All descriptions of reality are temporary hypotheses.

Whoever sees me sees the teaching, and whoever sees the teaching sees me.

Hard to restrain, unstable is this mind; it flits wherever it lists. Good it is to control the mind. A controlled mind brings happiness.

friendship is the only cure for hatred, the only guarantee of peace.

those which arise dependently are free of inherent existence.

Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten.

Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.

“Three things can not hide for long: the Moon, the Sun and the Truth.”

“When the Aggregates arise, decay and die, O bhikkhu, every moment you are born, decay, and die.”