Those who only read books cannot understand the teachings and, what’s more, may even go astray.
But those who try to observe the things going on in the mind, and always take that which is true in their own minds as their standard, never get muddled. They are able to comprehend suffering, and ultimately will understand Dharma.
Then, they will understand the books they read.
Whatever actions you engage in, do not do anything contrary to the Dharma or that fails to become the accumulation of merit and wisdom.
Do not desire anything other than omniscient Buddhahood and benefiting sentient beings.
Do not be attached to anything. Attachment itself is the root of bondage.
Do not criticize other teachings and do not disparage people. All the teachings are ultimately indivisible, like the taste of salt.
Do not criticize any of the higher or lower vehicles. They are identical in being the Path to be journeyed, just like the steps on a staircase.
You cannot know another person unless you can perceive with super-knowledge. Do not criticize others.
All sentient beings are by their very nature spontaneously perfect Buddhas. They possess the essence of enlightenment.
Do not examine other people’s faults or delusions.
Do not examine the limitations of others. Examine how you can correct your own.
Do not examine the shortcomings of others, but examine your own shortcomings.
The greatest evil is to hold religious prejudice and to criticize other people without knowing their minds. So, give up prejudice as if it were poison.
—Padmasambhava
The entire cosmos is cooperative. The sun, the moon, and the stars live together as a cooperative. The same is true for humans and animals, trees, and soil. Our bodily parts function as a cooperative.
When we realize that the world is a mutual, interdependent, cooperative enterprise, that human beings are all mutual friends in the process of birth, old age, suffering, and death, then we can build a noble, even heavenly environment.
If our lives are not based on this truth, then we shall all perish.
―Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
Do you remember when disease came to your village?
Of your family, you were the only one to survive.
You were just a girl. For years you begged for your food.
Then a nun took you in.
You told her your story, and she held you while you wept.
Then she told you her story, and you wept with her.
Her name was Patachara.
You went everywhere she went, and soon left behind all that she left behind.
When you were young, you learned what it was to be truly alone.
Now you know for yourself.
This freedom is something altogether different from that.
—Chanda, Therigatha (Poems of the First Buddhist Nuns)
One of the things that the Buddha advocated as an antidote to sensual desire is moderation in eating. […] Moderation in eating does not mean eating nothing. It is eating enough to keep the body healthy. But this is a sensual desire that is easily gratified and one that arises again and again. For some people four, five, six times a day!
If we can put a fence up against one of our desires, we are going to be able to put a fence up against some more. One fence can keep out many desires. So, the one that is so easily gratified and arises so often is the one to start with.
—Ayya Khema
Farmers take grain from the earth and branches from the trees.
They crack open one with the other and take what’s left to feed their families.
You are all unripe grain. Take time to grow.
Then leave the ground behind and let your husks be stripped away.
I promise. Less is more.
So Patachara told us.
So we sat on the ground like unripe grain.
We gave ourselves to the Path. And the Path broke us apart.
What we feared most is now seen for what it is.
True peace. Freedom.
All that broke apart was the darkness we had for so long been calling our whole world.
—Patachara’s Thirty Nuns, Therigatha (Poems of the First Buddhist Nuns)
The Buddha’s teachings are like the instructions posted on a hotel room door, telling you what to do when the hotel’s on fire.
—Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Throughout this and countless lives, we are and have been intimately related to all other living entities —we have been their servants, their masters, their children, their parents, their friends, and their lovers. They have served us in innumerable ways, and provided for our livelihood and comfort. They have fed us, clothed us, housed us, and extended us every kindness.
Our so-called enemies have given us the opportunity to learn and to grow. Those who have harmed us have reinforced our determination; those who have deceived us have deepened our insight; those who have hurt us have reduced our karmic obstacles; those who have abandoned us have taught us to be less dependent; those who have made us stumble have strengthened our ability; those who have denounced us and betrayed us have increased our wisdom and concentration; those who have made us suffer have made us firm and resolute.
At the very least, all other living entities have provided the conditions or even the raw materials necessary for our continued existence. Whether we accept rebirth or not, and whether we are friends or enemies now, it matters little. Our fate is intertwined with the fate of all other beings. We are part of the whole; if the whole is happy, we also will be happy. —TN
Amazing! These precious freedoms and endowments of a precious human life are rare as a daytime star; even when found, like a candle flame in the wind, they could vanish in an instant! […]
The root of practice is renunciation. So, if you don’t use the key points of mind training to till the soil of your mind, hardened toward liberation, when death comes and you beat your chest with regret, it will be too late!
—Jigme Lingpa
I used to walk everywhere, wearing only a robe, a shaved head, and the dust of the road.
It was all great fun, but I was still mistaking the essential for the inessential, and the inessential for the essential.
Please, I know it’s a mouthful. But can you tell one from the other? If so, how?
Here at the end, part of me still wants to go back and kiss every inch of every road I ever walked.
But it’s enough just to say thank you and goodbye.
—Bhikshuni Bhadda Kundalakesa, Therigatha (Poems of the First Buddhist Nuns)
