Buddhist Materialism Quotes

The upshot is a hermeneutics of suspicion; if someone tells you that he or she has converted to unbelief because of science, don't believe them. Because what's usually captured the person is not scientific evidence per se, but the form of science: "Even where the conclusions of science seem to be doing the work of conversion, it is very often not the detailed findings so much as the form" (p. 362). Indeed, "the appeal of scientific materialism is not so much the cogency of its detailed findings as that of the underlying epistemological stance, and that for ethical reasons. It is seen as the stance of maturity, of courage, of manliness, over against childish fears and sentimentality" (p. 365). ~ James K.A. Smith

I didn't really understand that Vipassana is a relatively new form of Buddhism that was based on the storage of pain. So the idea is that every time you don't scream, that's your Buddhist side. ~ Laurie Anderson

Buddhists have a long-standing tradition of believing that at some level we always know what the best course of action is in any given situation. We just have to be quiet enough to let that course of action present itself to us. And we need the confidence to act when life shows us what we need to do. ~ Brad Warner

A broke man's lover doesn't feel 'loved' on her Birthday, Christmas, and, on Valentine's Day. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

With good will for the entire cosmos, cultivate a limitless heart: above, below, and all around, unobstructed, without hostility or hate. ~ Gautama Buddha

We are all born brave, trusting and greedy, and most of us remain greedy. ~ Mignon McLaughlin

The fool who knows his folly
Becomes wise by that fact.
But the fool who thinks he's wise -
He's called 'a fool' indeed! ~ Anonymous

The thing that really is trying to tyrannize through government is Science. The thing that really does use the secular arm is Science. And the creed that really is levying tithes and capturing schools, the creed that really is enforced by fine and imprisonment, the creed that really is proclaimed not in sermons but in statues, and spread not by pilgrims but by policemen - that creed is the great but disputed system of thought which began with Evolution and has ended in Eugenics. Materialism is really our established Church; for the government will really help it to persecute its heretics…I am not frightened of the word 'persecution'…It is a term of legal fact. If it means the imposition by the police of a widely disputed theory, incapable of final proof - then our priests are not now persecuting, but our doctors are. ~ G.K. Chesterton

We are not compelled in naturalism, or even in materialism, to ignore immaterial things; the point is that any immaterial things which are recognized shall be regarded as names, aspects, functions, or concomitant products of those physical things among which action goes on. ~ George Santayana

Whether on the ground of materialism, or of intellect, or of spirituality, the compensation that is given by the Lord to every one impartially is exactly the same. Therefore we must not think that we are the saviours of the world. We can teach the world, a good many things, and we can learn a good many things from it too. We can teach the world only what it is waiting for. ~ Swami Vivekananda

[Through practice] we can get to the point where some disturbance may occur but the negative effects on our mind remain on the surface, like the waves that may ripple on the surface of an ocean but don't have much effect deep down. ~ Dalai Lama XIV

Science, its imperfections notwithstanding, is the sword in the stone that humanity finally pulled. The question it poses, of universal and orderly materialism, is the most important that can be asked in philosophy and religion. ~ Edward O. Wilson

Why ask for your daily bread when you own the bakery? ~ Randy Alcorn

Computer science is fascinating. As you study computer science, you will find that you develop your mind. It is literally like doing Buddhist exercises all day long. ~ Frederick Lenz

I always prided myself on the fact that I could live out of milk crates forever. It was kind of my way of detaching from materialism. ~ Kerry Washington

We live in a materialist world, and materialism appeals so strongly to humanity, no matter where. ~ Wole Soyinka

He knew perfectly well (even if he wasn't inclined to admit it) that the material body had a spiritual aspect. He knew that "spirit," however explained, was real, because of his own undeniable experiences - which, though he might suppress them, he couldn't altogether erase from memory. ~ Sol Luckman

Charity is great, but the moment you say it is all, you run the risk of running into materialism. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Evolutionists ... have a prior commitment, a commitment to naturalism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door ~ Richard Lewontin

On the whole I consider the constant need for delight and diversion in completely new things to be a sign of pettiness, lack of inner life, of estrangement from nature, and of a mediocre or defective gift of understanding. ~ Robert Walser

In Aryans' Discipline, to build a friendship is to build wealth, To maintain a friendship is to maintain wealth and To end a friendship is to end wealth. ~ Gautama Buddha

History is the in-rushing toward what the Buddhists call the realm of the densely packed, a transformational realm where the opposites are unified. ~ Terence McKenna

You don't want to be that parent - the one who dresses his kid in a cloth sack when all the other kids are in Armani cloth sacks - especially in a time like ours, when materialism is not only rampant and ascendant but is fast becoming the only game in town. ~ George Saunders

We are all materialistic. There are different levels of materialism! Some aspire to a fancy car, others only wish to go to bed at night with a full stomach. ~ D.J. Jouett

The grace that has freed us from bondage to sin is desperately needed to free us from our bondage to materialism. ~ Randy Alcorn

Speak only the speech that neither torments self nor does harm to others. That speech is truly well spoken. ~ Gautama Buddha

Much of traditional Buddhist practice is directed toward the ability to see life accurately, beyond all the expectations, projections, and distortions that we typically bring to it. ~ Dalai Lama XIV

If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox. ~ Gautama Buddha

Human beings by nature want happiness and do not want suffering. With that
feeling everyone tries to achieve happiness and tries to get rid of suffering, and everyone has the basic right to do this. In this way, all here are the same, whether rich or poor, educated or uneducated, Easterner or Westerner, believer or non-believer, and within believers whether Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and so on. Basically, from the viewpoint of real human value we are all the same. ~ Dalai Lama

The question is whether they can find a way out and remain what they are. To adapt themselves to real life, they borrow from each other. Christianity , which has become a church, began to talk about work, wealth, power, education, science, marriage, laws, social justice, and so forth. And materialism , on the other hand, which became socialism or an order, a state, speaks about humanism , morality, art, creation, justice, responsibility, freedom and so forth. ~ Alija Izetbegovic

Do not give up your authority and follow blindly the will of others. This way will lead to only delusion. ~ Gautama Buddha

When I was a young man, near the beginning of my life, I looked around with true mindfulness and saw that all things are subject to decay. ~ Gautama Buddha

It's all right. I'm not upset. After all, they were just things. When you've lost your mother and your father, you can't care so much about things, can you? ~ Kazuo Ishiguro

Like fresh milk a bad deed does not turn at once. It follows a fool scorching him like a smouldering fire. ~ Gautama Buddha

There's a saying that you can't put a price on a human life, but that saying is a lie because we have. We have, and it's so much lower than you would think. Yes, human life has its price like anything else, and will continue to do so for as long as it doubles as a commodity. ~ Nenia Campbell

When she was younger, my mother was quite committed to Roman Catholicism. But she got disillusioned with it and moved closer to something like Buddhist beliefs near the end of her life. ~ Ralph Fiennes

Socialism, hypnotism, patriotism, materialism, fools making laws for the breaking of jaws. ~ Bob Dylan

The way people used to kiss before the age of historical materialism. ~ Ilya Ilf

Have big dreams but focus only on what you can control: your own thoughts, words and actions. This was Gandhi's way ... in the words of Buddhist poet Gary Snyder, our job is to move the world a millionth of an inch. ~ Eboo Patel