Vajarayanic Buddhism Quotes

And this is a Buddhist country?" said Matt, "This is a country of lovingkindness and compassion? Hah. I think the Americans would call this 'tough love.' "
"That is the paradox of Buddhism," said Ranjit, "As a young doctor I would see these violent things and wonder why they happened, knowing that it was not something that Buddhists should do. Then I realized we are not born Buddhist. All the focus on channeling anger and dealing with hardship did not emanate from these people…. It was a lesson to these people. We are a land of Buddhists because we need to hear the lessons of Buddha, not because we follow Buddha."

-spoken by Ranjit, the surgeon, after an episode of violence.... ~ Joe Niemczura

As long as we practice with a vow to help others, we are the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion, and we become the leading figure in the Heart Sutra, whether we are a layperson or are ordained, whether whether celibate or married, living in the monastery or living in secular society. ~ Dosung Yoo

You don't have to take drugs to be happy. You don't have to drink to be happy. You don't have to have people around you who love you to be happy. You don't need anything except the clarity of your own mind. ~ Frederick Lenz

It's the oldest
lesson. The first lesson. It's like the first
noble truth of Buddhism - there's going to
be suffering, and that's okay. It's
mandatory. It's included. It doesn't mean
you're broken. It doesn't mean that you're a
victim necessarily - it's just part of it. You're
going to hurt, and you can survive that. ~ Melissa Febos

Precepts in Buddhism are not imposed by some outside authority. They arise from our own insight based on the practice of mindfulness. To be attached to the form without understanding the essence is to fall into what Buddhism calls attachment to rules. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

The virtues of free enterprise can become distorted by greed & delusion. ~ Allan Lokos

Grammar has qualities, shapes and forms. ~ Frederick Lenz

What these people do here is obviously not working. They sit in their commuter traffic hour after hour. They make the earth a toxic waste dump. ~ Frederick Lenz

Purity is very fragile when it takes physical manifestation. It is very, very strong in its original aspect. ~ Frederick Lenz

It's like looking at the sun, that's how infinity is. You can't look at it for too long or you dissolve. The bands of your attention break. But if you look at it in specific ways, you can become something or someone much more conscious. ~ Frederick Lenz

Don't run away from the world. The world is God. Don't run towards the world. God is the void. Don't be afraid of the complexities of this life, nor the stark simplicity of death. ~ Frederick Lenz

Practice love in your relationships. The key to this is avoiding expectation. It's expectation that makes most people miserable in love - the return on the investment. ~ Frederick Lenz

There is a certain degree of pain to be experienced in the search for self-knowledge, as there is a certain amount of joy. You just do it because you find yourself doing it. There just doesn't seem to be much else worthwhile. ~ Frederick Lenz

The way of loving kindness is what is to be accepted. Love! The benefit is clear. Rage, hate are the way of chaos and darkness - to be rejected. ~ Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

But often it is a seemingly irresolvable relationship that teaches us the most, once we're willing to be vulnerable and honest, once we're willing to connect with what Chogyam Trungpa called "the genuine heart of sadness." As warriors in training we do our best to hold the person in our heart without any hypocrisy. One thing we can do with a difficult relationship is to place a picture of the person somewhere we will see it often and think, "I wish for your deepest well-being". Or we can write down the person's name, along with the aspiration that they may be safe, may be happy, may live in peace.
Regardless of what specific action we take, our aspiration is to benefit the other person and wish them well. ~ Pema Chodron

Self-hate doesn't create enlightenment. It just causes you to not enjoy the current moment. ~ Frederick Lenz

The chi is the central energy or power that we use in physical expression. When the chi is flowing properly in our lives, we can be very adept athletically. ~ Frederick Lenz

The light in me
only wants to
reach the darkness in you. ~ Vivid Darkness

Instead of engaging in cutthroat competition, we should strive to create value. In economic terms, this means a transition from a consumer economy - the mad rush for ownership and consumption - to a constructive economy where all human beings can participate in the act of creating lasting worth. ~ Daisaku Ikeda

Shall any gazer see with mortal eyes,
Or any searcher know by mortal mind,
Veil after veil will lift
but there must be
Veil upon veil behind. ~ Edwin Arnold

Each one of you has created a sense of self. That's what the tonal does. Each one of you is taught a system of maintenance that has been developed by humankind from your birth till your death. ~ Frederick Lenz

The manifestation of the free mind is said to be lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. ~ Sharon Salzberg

Some people would kill for the results or situations because of which some people have killed themselves. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Emotional states are fairly quick bursts of neuronal gossip. Traits, on the other hand, are more like the neuronal equivalent of committed relationships. ~ Yongey Mingyur

After this examination there are still gaps of doubt and apparent contradiction. And it is natural that it be so, because the Eternal Return is an experience. There lies its importance: in the fact of being.

The Eternal Return is not the reincarnation as it has been spread in our days. Original Buddhism, on the other hand, could be pointing to something similar. Buddha was a shastriya, that is, a prince of the warrior caste, not a brahman, or priest, and his Doctrine was also for heroes and warriors. Then, it has been transformed by the monks. Buddha, like Nietzsche, talks about a reincarnation without mentioning the soul. What is it that reincarnates, then? As in Nietzsche it could be that 'atom-seed', or 'all those conditions that determine its existence and that they come back to give themselves', in the turn of the Energy, or of the Light that finds the old image. The Buddhist would want to be liberated, to leave the Circle; that's why it kills desire, that makes return.

The Will to Power, as we have seen, returns to its 'archive', wishes to possess again its 'non-existence'. The difference: Nietzsche wants to return eternally, incorporates the Will and considers Nirvana a dream of decadents, of warriors who have become priests, monks. However, we do not know what Buddha really thought, because he did not talk about these things, nor did he explain Nirvana. Maybe, he just wanted to get out of this Circle to enter to fight in another wider Circle, tha ~ Miguel Serrano

The most important step in developing skillful speech is to think before speaking. ~ Allan Lokos

Tightly held by rocks
Through winter, the ice today
Begins to come undone:
A way-seeker also is the water,
Melting, murmuring from the moss. ~ Saigyo

In Christianity we seem to be too conscious of God, though we say that in him we live and move and have our being. Zen wants to have this last trace of God-consciousness, if possible, obliterated. That is why Zen masters advise us not to linger where the Buddha is, and to pass quickly away where he is not. ~ D.T. Suzuki

Religion is either something we scorn because we are too rational or it's the realm of the fanatic who insists that their God and their religion is the only way and everyone else is dammed. ~ Frederick Lenz

Modern Hinduism, modern Jainism, and Buddhism branched off at the same time. For some period, each seemed to have wanted to outdo the others in grotesqueness and humbuggism. ~ Swami Vivekananda

As long as you are in the relative worlds, you should be realistic and know there is winning and losing here. ~ Frederick Lenz