BUDDHIST WISDOM

[Pravin Kumar]

Studying Zen, learning the way, is originally for the sake of birth and death, no other thing. What do I mean by other things? Arousing the mind and stirring thoughts right now; having contrivance and artificiality; having grasping and rejecting; having practice and realization; having purity and defilement; having sacred and profane; having Buddhas and sentient beings; writing verses and songs, composing poems and odes; discoursing on Zen and the way; discoursing on right and wrong; discoursing on past and present. These various activities are not relevant to the issue of birth and death; they are all other things.

- Chien-ju

Don't cling to anything and don't reject anything. Let come what comes, and accomodate yourself to that, whatever it is. If good mental images arise, that is fine. If bad mental images arise, that is fine, too. Look on all of it as equal, and make yourself comfortable with whatever happens. Don't fight with what you experience, just observe it all mindfully.

- Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, "Mindfulness in Plain English"


A hundred thousand elephants, A hundred thousand horses, A hundred thousand mule-drawn chariots, Are not worth a sixteenth part Of a single step forward.

- Buddha, "The Connected Discourses of the Buddha"

Attachment is the mind stuck to an object.

- Lama Zopa Rinpoche, "The Door to Satisfaction"


Without good motivation, science and technology, instead of helping, bring more fear and threaten global destruction. Compassionate thought is very important for humankind.

- His Holiness the Dalai Lama