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Dharma Quotes

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Dharma Quotes

“Indian poverty is more dehumanizing than any machine; and, more than in any machine civilization, men in India are units, locked up in the straitest obedience by their idea of their dharma. The scientist returning to India sheds the individuality he acquired during his time abroad; he regains the security of his caste identity, and the world is once more simplified. There are minute rules, as comforting as bandages; individual perception and judgement, which once called forth his creativity, are relinquished as burdens, and the man is once more a unit in his herd, his science reduced to a skill. The blight of caste is not only untouchability and the consequent deification in India of filth; the blight, in India that tries to grow, is also the over-all obedience it imposes, its ready-made satisfactions, the diminishing of adventurousness, the pushing away of men of individuality and the possibility of excellence.”

ScienceCreativityIndiaIndividualityObedienceDisobedienceDharmaCasteHerd MentalityUntouchability
Book:India: A Wounded Civilization
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“Living a long life is not really the ultimate purpose of human existence. Neither is happiness. It is in aligning to your dharma and duty that you can live the greatest life you are meant to have. Your soul prolongs your life as required. Usefulness, functionality and your highest possible contribution to the bigger whole, with more inclusive purpose, will empower and stretch your life’s continuity.”

LifeSoulPurposeEmpowermentKarmaMeaningPotentialLongevityDharmaFunctionality
Book:Higher Science of Longevity
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“Followers of the Way, if you want insight into dharma as it is, just don’t be taken in by the deluded views of others. Whatever you encounter, either within or without, slay it at once. On meeting a buddha slay the buddha, on meeting a patriarch slay the patriarch, on meeting an arhat slay the arhat, on meeting your parents slay your parents, on meeting your kinsman slay your kinsman, and you attain emancipation. By not cleaving to things, you freely pass through.”

BuddhismEnlightenmentZenDharmaZen BuddhismLinji Yixuan
Book:The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-Chi
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“Dharma literally means 'truth' or 'norm.' It is a particular way of thinking, a way of viewing the world, which is not a concept but experience. This particular truth is very painful truth—usually truths are. It rings with the sound of reality, which comes too close to home. We become completely embarrassed when we begin to hear the truth. It is wrong to think that the truth is going to sound fantastic and beautiful, like a flute solo. The truth is actually like a thunderbolt. It wakes you up and makes you think twice whether you should stay in the rain or move into the house. Provocative.”

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Author:Chögyam Trungpa
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“Every day, priests minutely examine the Dharma And endlessly chant complicated sutras. Before doing that, though, they should learn How to read the love letters sent by The wind and rain, the snow and moon.”

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Book:Ikkyu and the Crazy Cloud Anthology: A Zen Poet of Medieval Japan (UNESCO Collection of Representative Works. Japanese Series)
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“In a Zen retreat we have a format for working with these quicksilver changes: we sit with them, we pay attention to them... Being steady with mindfulness as an anchor for all the changes we go through is the way we practice forbearance. And you can employ this same method anywhere anytime: just pay close attention to the details of what is going on internally and externally. Don't flinch, don't run away. Trust what happens. Take your stand there." (71)”

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Book:Sailing Home: Using the Wisdom of Homer's Odyssey to Navigate Life's Perils and Pitfalls
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“Activities such as chanting, bowing, and sitting in zazen are not at all wasted, even when done merely formally, for even this superficial encounter with the Dharma will have some wholesome outcome at a later time. However, it must be said in the most unambiguous terms that this is not real Zen. To follow the Dharma involves a complete reorientation of one's life in such a way that one's activities are manifestations of, and are filled with, a deeper meaning. If it were not otherwise, and merely sitting in zazen were enough, every frog in the pond would be enlightened, as one Zen master said. Dōgen Zenji himself said that one must practice Zen with the attitude of a person trying to extinguish a fire in his hair. That is, Zen must be practiced with an attitude of single-minded urgency.”

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Book:How to Raise an Ox: Zen Practice as Taught in Zen Master Dogen's Shobogenzo
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“The Bodhisattva is in no rush. For once we have tasted a single drop of the bliss of bringing others into that freedom, with the Spirit of Enlightenment of love and compassion, once we have loosened the grip of the solid, separated, alienated self that is the core of self-centeredness, then we are already happy in a certain way. The Bodhisattva is always joyful, even when suffering. Bodhisattvas are always happy and cheerful under pressure, because they have felt the essence of reality as freedom (p. 223)”

JoyBuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningBlissDharmaThe Path Of The BodhisattvaSpirit Of Enlightenment
Book:The Jewel Tree of Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism
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“All of us have our own life’s path, and while moving along it, we will meet with various kinds of problems and suffering. No matter how many difficulties may arise, we should look back at what we have accomplished and keep in mind the path we wish to travel along. This will help us to remain stable. However much we may have to endure, we should develop tolerance so that we can progress along our way. Until we have come to the end of our path and accomplished all our goals, we should heed neither suffering nor joy; otherwise, the goal we seek will never come within our reach. – 17th Karmapa”

HappinessJoySufferingBuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningDharmaSpiritual Transformation
Book:Music in the Sky: The Life, Art, and Teachings of the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje
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“Jealousy is but a manifestation of artha’s corruptive influence on man which in due course became the insurmountable hurdle for him on the path of moksha. It is in man’s power to curtail it to manage his passage to moksha. One needs only to understand the physics of jealousy to appreciate the chemistry of its affects on human nature.”

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Book:Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life
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“There is no realm in samsara where we have not taken birth, no samsaric pleasure we have not enjoyed, and no form of life we have not known over our countless stream of previous lives. Yet even now as humans most of us are like blind animals, unable to discern the patterns of life unfolding within us, leaving spiritual aims behind and chasing only the biological and emotional needs of the senses. Totally unaware of the spiritual methods that produce everlasting joy, we admire the ignoble and have distaste for the noble.”

HumanityBuddhismReincarnationRebirthDharmaDalai Lama
Book:Refining Gold: Stages in Buddhist Contemplative Practice
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“Dharma is not about believing in God. It’s about making the right choices, doing the right things and leading the right life.”

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Book:Half A Shadow
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“If someone has compassion, he is a Buddha; Without compassion, he is a Lord of Death. With compassion, the root of Dharma is planted, Without compassion, the root of Dharma is rotten. One with compassion is kind even when angry, One without compassion will kill even as he smiles. For one with compassion, even his enemies will turn into friends, Without compassion, even his friends turn into enemies. With compassion, one has all Dharmas, Without compassion, one has no Dharma at all. With compassion, one is a Buddhist, Without compassion, one is worse than a heretic. Even if meditating on voidness, one needs compassion as its essence. A Dharma practitioner must have a compassionate nature. Compassion is the distinctive characteristic of Buddhism. Compassion is the very essence of all Dharma. Great compassion is like a wish-fulfilling gem. Great compassion will fulfill the hopes of self and others. Therefore, all of you, practitioners and laypeople, Cultivate compassion and you will achieve Buddhahood. May all men and women who hear this song, With great compassion, benefit all beings!”

FreedomCompassionBuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningDharmaThe Path Of The BodhisattvaBuddhahood
Book:The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin
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“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.”

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Book:The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya
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“The root of our problems is within our mind. It is our unskillful ways of thinking. We have to recognize the right ways of thinking, which bring happiness, and the wrong ways of thinking, which bring suffering. With one way of thinking, we have problems in our life; with another way of thinking, we don't. In other words, happiness and suffering come from our own mind. Our mind creates our life.”

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Book:Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion
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“Dharma (function or properties) of the mind, dharma of the intellect, dharma of the chit, dharma of the ego – when all these dharma and the dharma of the Self (Soul) come into their own dharma (functions); that is known as Gnan (Knowledge of Self). And if we (self) insist upon any one’s dharma; it becomes ignorance (agnan).”

MindSoulSelfSpiritualEgoSpiritual QuotesIntellectSelf KnowledgeDharmaKnowledge Of SelfGnanKnowledge Of The SelfThe SelfThe SoulGyanAgnanAgyan
Author:Dada Bhagwan
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“The Chinese ideograph for forbearance is a heart with a sword dangling over it, another instance of language's brilliant way of showing us something surprising and important fossilized inside the meaning of a word. Vulnerability is built into our hearts, which can be sliced open at any moment by some sudden shift in the arrangements, some pain, some horror, some hurt. We all know and instinctively fear this, so we protect our hearts by covering them against exposure. But this doesn't work. Covering the heart binds and suffocates it until, like a wound that has been kept dressed for too long, the heart starts to fester and becomes fetid. Eventually, without air, the heart is all but killed off, and there's no feeling, no experiencing at all. To practice forbearance is to appreciate and celebrate the heart's vulnerability, and to see that the slicing or piercing of the heart does not require defense; that the heart's vulnerability is a good thing, because wounds can make us more peaceful and more real—if, that is, we are willing to hang on to the leopard of our fear, the serpent of our grief, the boar of our shame without running away or being hurled off. Forbearance is simply holding on steadfastly with whatever it is that unexpectedly arises: not doing anything; not fixing anything (because doing and fixing can be a way to cover up the heart, to leap over the hurt and pain by occupying ourselves with schemes and plans to get rid of it.) Just holding on for hear life. Holding on with what comes is what makes life dear. ...Simply holding on this way may sound passive. Forbearance has a bad reputation in our culture, whose conventional wisdom tells us that we ought to solve problems, fix what's broken, grab what we want, speak out, shake things up, make things happen. And should none of this work out, then we are told we ought to move on, take a new tack, start something else. But this line of thinking only makes sense when we are attempting to gain external satisfaction. It doesn't take into account internal well-being; nor does it engage the deeper questions of who you really are and what makes you truly happy, questions that no one can ignore for long... Insofar as forbearance helps us to embrace transformative energy and allow its magic to work on us... forbearance isn't passive at all. It's a powerfully active spiritual force, (67-70).”

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Book:Sailing Home: Using the Wisdom of Homer's Odyssey to Navigate Life's Perils and Pitfalls
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“Despite the many occasions when its characters feel frustrated before the weight of circumstances, and despite blaming their feeling of impotence on daiva, 'fate', moral autonomy shines through in the epic. Because they have some freedom to choose they can be praised when they follow dharma or blamed when they follow adharma. At the moment of making a decision they become conscious of their freedom, and it is this perception of autonomy that gives them the ability to lead authentic moral lives.”

FreedomMoralityInitiativeAutonomyDharma
Book:The Difficulty of Being Good: On the Subtle Art of Dharma
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“Supplication creates blessing, and although the blessing is understood as something given to you, something that somehow engulfs you from the outside, in fact blessing really isn’t given to you at all. When you supplicate, you generate faith and devotion. That faith and devotion cause the appearance of what we call blessing.”

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Book:Creation and Completion: Essential Points of Tantric Meditation
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“Opening Our Heart The true meaning of opening our heart is that we no longer have fear of losing anything. It is a form of surrender, yet such surrender has no object. It is not like we are surrendering to something. What we surrender are our hopes and fears, and an investment in our misery. When we have reached the final point of that surrender there is nothing that we want to hold on to.”

AwarenessBuddhismLetting GoAwakeningSurrenderDetachmentDharmaOpening Our Heart
Book:The Magic of Awareness
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“The problems we face with appearances and all of the suffering we experience as a result of appearances is not because of the appearances themselves but because of our fixation on them. It is our fixation upon appearances which turns appearances into enemies. Because these appearances are just appearances, they are just what appears to us; so if we have no fixation on them, they will not bring any suffering.”

FreedomBuddhismLetting GoEnlightenmentAwakeningDetachmentDharma
Book:An Introduction to Mahamudra Meditation
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“Thus we are counseled at length to be careful about the company we keep, recognizing the simple fact that an unexamined lifestyle, in which we are immersed in the materialistic values and behavior of worldly friends, will get us nowhere. Only frustration and inanity will be the result. Shāntideva advises us to fight shy of those whose values are contrary to the Dharma—people he habitually refers to as “those who are like children” (in other words, in terms designed to stimulate feelings of concern rather than resentment). Thus Shāntideva prescribes solitude, a flight from the world—not of course in a puritanical, world-denying sense, but in a spirit of inner freedom. Tranquillity of mind, he says significantly, is “found by people who are happy to be free from worldly ties,” and who for that reason, “never turns . . . a backward glance” (8.4, 8.26). And he is lyrical in his celebration of retreat in the wilderness.”

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Book:The Way of the Bodhisattva
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“Associate with companions who are in harmony with the Dharma and who don't promote disturbing emotions. Keeping company with unwholesome friends, you cannot possibly avoid being influenced by their evil ways. That is the root of going astray […] Tsogyal, if you want to avoid this way of going astray, cut your ties to superfluous companions and remain in solitude!”

SolitudeCompanionshipDharmaAlonenessSpiritual FriendshipAdvice From The Lotus BornPadmasambhava
Book:Advice from the Lotus-Born: A Collection of Padmasambhava's Advice to the Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal and Other Close Disciples
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“Tsogyal, if you want to practice the Dharma in an authentic way, it is most important to cut your ties to unwholesome places, companions, and so forth. So give them up!”

SolitudeDharmaAlonenessSpiritual FriendshipAdvice From The Lotus BornPadmasambhava
Book:Advice from the Lotus-Born: A Collection of Padmasambhava's Advice to the Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal and Other Close Disciples
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