Buddhist Wisdom for Today
Quotes and Teachings from the world of Buddhism and beyond, updated each weekday
In Buddhism, we are told that we all have buddha-nature. The Quakers believe that we all have God within us. Tremendous! That means we are something special. But it doesn’t mean we should be arrogant. Being special means that we should be kind. We should be humble. We should serve others. — Ajahn Sulak Sivaraksa. 21 November 2024
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- We should do all we can on behalf of others and help them to be good. When sitting quietly, we would do well to reflect on our own faults. When talking with friends do not discuss the rights and wrongs of others. In our every action, from dawn to dusk and dusk to dawn, recite the Buddha’s name. — Master Yin Guang (1862–1940). 20 November 2024
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- The habit of employing self-deception to maintain one’s self esteem has often become so ingrained that the first step to developing accurate self-awareness is honest acknowledgment of the existence of hidden emotions, motives, and tendencies in the mind, without immediately suppressing them. — Bhikkhu Anālayo. 19 November 2024
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- Actually appearance does neither good nor harm, But if we grasp with attachment, we are bound within samsara. We need not analyze the variety of appearance; We only need to cut the root of grasping mind. — Longchenpa. 18 November 2024
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- You should realize that through the blessing and power of the practice, by experiencing sickness and other difficulties now, you are purifying and ridding yourself of negative actions. . . . By purifying them while you have the chance, you will later go from bliss to bliss. — Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. 15 November 2024
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- What are the experiences that the teachings of the Buddha are founded on? They are sadness, love, and openness. Although they appear to be quite different, sadness and openness are in fact intimately connected. The profound sadness that overwhelms us when we understand the impermanent nature of all phenomena opens us up to the world around us. We open our hearts and begin to notice our fellow beings. — Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. 14 November 2024
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- Nibbana is simply the cessation of mental and physical phenomena that becomes manifest as the signless (animittapaccupanhanam) to a noble one. So although one has experienced it, one cannot describe it in terms of color or form or say what it is like. It can only be experienced or described as the cessation or end of all conditioned mental and physical phenomena. — Mahāsi Sayādaw. 13 November 2024
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- The Buddha’s land is always pure; the problem lies in our perception. We cannot see this purity because our minds are polluted by karma. To glimpse the Buddha’s Pure Land, we must rely on his miraculous power, as we are not yet attuned to his frequency. — Master Jingzong. 12 November 2024
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- All of humankind wants to live a free and happy life, but only a few have achieved it. It is because people mistakenly believe that the road to happiness is paved with satisfying their desires. The Buddha teaches that only when we are free from our own desires can we attain true freedom and happiness. — Ven. Pomnyun Sunim. 11 November 2024
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- Gaze into the Emptiness, the illusory changings of this world. Enter the Emptiness. Others have. It’s not so hard. Is there any place that’s unreachable when you make the effort? Don’t be left behind because you’ve confused yourself over this. — Master Xu Yun. 8 November 2024
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- The most important sign of realizing Mahamudra is compassion. The more there is compassion in the mind, the more it enhances itself, and that is the sign of the arising of Mahamudra realization. — Garchen Rinpoche. 7 November 2024
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- Once you understand non-self, then the burden of life is gone. You’ll be at peace with the world. When we see beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness and we can truly be happy. Learn to let go without struggle, simply let go, to be just as you are—no holding on, no attachment, free. — Ajahn Chah (1918–1992). 6 November 2024
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- While sound of mind and fit of body, that’s the time to learn the Dharma, leading us to Sukhavati, a place of bliss with no more karma. — Master Shandao. 5 November 2024
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- Of course we can always imagine more perfect conditions, how it should be ideally, how everyone should behave. But it is not our task to create an ideal. It’s our task to see how it is, and to learn from the world as it is. For the awakening of the heart, conditions are always good enough. — Ajahn Sumedho. 4 November 2024
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- In any single breath each of us can become an enlightening being. In the next breath we might fall into old habits of thoughtlessness and violence. Zazen reveals that this choice is always with us. — Hozan Alan Senauke. 1 November 2024
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- With mindfulness, vigilance, and conscientiousness, constantly guard the gateways of your senses. Again and again, three times both day and night, examine the flow of your thoughts. — Atisha. 31 October 2024
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- All the peace and happiness of the whole globe, the peace and happiness of societies, the peace and happiness of family, the peace and happiness in the individual persons’ life, and the peace and happiness of even the animals and so forth, all depends on having loving kindness toward each other. — Lama Zopa Rinpoche. 30 October 2024
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- How can we transcend aging, illness, and death, and free ourselves from sorrow and afflictions? This is precisely the purpose of the Amitabha-recitation practice. By reciting the name of Amitabha Buddha, our rebirth in the Land of Ultimate Bliss is assured. Once reborn there, we escape the samsara of the Three Domains and Six Realms, freeing ourselves from aging, illness, death, and all forms of suffering. — Master Huijing. 29 October 2024
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- Be ever mindful of the shortcomings of desire’s rewards, and know that all the phenomena of the cycle of existence are never still, like the ripples on a pond, and that these manifestations of delusion, which are no things in themselves, are like magic and dreams. When you have the determination to be free of samsara and are content with your material situation, you will be able to sit quietly with your mind happy and at ease. — Kalu Rinpoche. 28 October 2024
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- The intellect is a valuable tool, but it doesn’t extend to the whole of our reality. In fact it can be a trap preventing our gaining access to the most profound aspects of our own nature. — Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche. 25 October 2024
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- In short, no matter what one might be doing, By examining always the status of one’s mind, With continuous mindfulness and alertness, To bring about the good of others—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas. — Gyalsé Tokmé Zangpo (1297-1371). 24 October 2024
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- The mind spends most of the time lost in fantasies and illusions, reliving pleasant or unpleasant experiences and anticipating the future with eagerness or fear. While lost in such cravings or aversions, we are unaware of what is happening now, what we are doing now. Yet surely this moment, now, is the most important for us. — S. N. Goenka. 23 October 2024
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- Together on the path of love, we can try to make a small difference in someone’s life. What else is there to do? — Sister Chân Không. 22 October 2024
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- In the Buddha Name of wisdom, the Pure Land’s light shines even on our afflictions in daily life. When misery turns to joy, we smile amid tears. . . . When voicing the Buddha’s Name, life’s gates open; when forgetting the Buddha’s Name, life’s gates close. — Kaneko Daiei. 21 October 2024
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- Spiritual practice isn’t about escaping from the world; it’s about learning to live in it with a wise and compassionate perspective that brings harmony in our lives and the lives of others. We aim to be of great service and benefit to the world. — Ven. Thubten Chodron. 18 October 2024
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- The rain has stopped, the clouds have drifted away, and the weather is clear again. / If your heart is pure, then all things in your world are pure. / Abandon this fleeting world, abandon yourself, / Then the moon and flowers will guide you along the Way. — Ryōkan Taigu. 17 October 2024
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- Every suffering is a buddha-seed, because suffering impels mortals to seek wisdom. But you can only say that suffering gives rise to buddhahood. You can’t say that suffering is buddhahood. Your body and mind are the field. Suffering is the seed, wisdom the sprout, and buddhahood the grain. — Bodhidharma. 16 October 2024
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- As thoughts arise, they are the natural display of the mind, and we simply do not follow them. By not following them, we also don’t try to stop them or get rid of them. By not following our thoughts, we find that the thoughts will lessen and we will begin to experience that underlying cognitive clarity without thought. — Thrangu Rinpoche. 15 October 2024
