Quotes from Brad Warner

Suffering occurs when your ideas about how things ought to be don't match how they really are. Stop for a second and look at this in your life right now. It's important.

You become a monk because you think there's no better choice for you. No other reason could make any sense.

So if you're interested in what I have to say, keep reading. If you find something, some little thing that resonates and might do some good in your life, great. If you get to the end of this book (or to the middle, or to page 27 second paragraph down) and think the book is crap, leave it on the subway and forget about it. No problem.

It's only when people believe that their beliefs are above questioning, that their beliefs alone are beyond all doubt, that they can be as truly horrible as we all know they can be.

the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Final Solution, "9-11." We might even be able to rattle off the dates of these awful events—but the lesson, we haven't yet absorbed. And until we really learn it, kids will keep getting new dates to memorize for history class.

We always look for meaning outside of what we do. But the real meaning of anything we do, or anything we are, is not something imposed from outside. It's not an explanation. The meaning is the thing itself.

You can't live in paradise - but you are living right here. Make this your paradise or make this your hell. The choice is entirely yours. Really.

Rather than revering supposedly special people for being Buddhas, we should revere the Buddha present in all people, whenever and wherever it manifests. D?gen talks about learning from anyone, no matter what their station in life, if that person says or does something wise.

It's easy to become a Buddha. Don't be a jerk. Don't get hung up on life and death. Have compassion for everybody and everything. Show some respect to people who deserve it and kindness to people who need it. Don't get all caught up in hating stuff or in wanting stuff. Don't think too much. Don't worry. That's what we call being a Buddha. You don't need anything else.

When you're alive there's nothing but life. When you die there's nothing but death. So when life comes, be alive. When death comes, die. You don't need to dodge either one, and you don't need to long for either one.

Maybe to exist as a thing separate from other things is itself pain.

When you study Buddhism, you should have a general house cleaning of your mind. You must take everything out of your room and clean it thoroughly. If it is necessary, you may bring everything back in again. You may want many things, so one by one you can bring them back. But if they are not necessary, there is no need to keep them.

The whole universe in all directions is the Flower of Dharma.* All Buddhas everywhere and all enlightened beings twirl and are twirled by the Flower of Dharma.

The entire universe has no gaps to accommodate space." Space is not emptiness between one solid thing and another solid thing. Those solid things are

The entire universe has no gaps to accommodate space." Space is not emptiness between one solid thing and another solid thing. Those solid things are also space, or emptiness.

Sincerity in this case is not just honesty. It's something deeper than that. The word is used to indicate a state that is completely open and unaffected. It is us, as we truly are, without any attempt to disguise ourselves, even in the ways we usually disguise ourselves to ourselves.

What you get when you try to understand the meaning of life intellectually is just one tiny slice of life. Even if you understand that tiny slice very thoroughly, you still won't really have understood the fullness of life.

Water, foam, and flame are mind. Flowers in the spring and the moon in the autumn are also mind. Each moment is mind. And yet mind can never be destroyed. That's why everything that's real is mind, and the Buddhas along with other Buddhas are mind.

When you study a speck of dust thoroughly and completely, you study the entire universe.

Deferring to authority is nothing more than a cowardly shirking of personal responsibility. The more power you grant an authority figure the worse you can behave in his name. That's why people who take God as their ultimate authority are always capable of the worst humanity has to offer.

The downfall is that we humans think about a lot of stuff that's not actually real. We crave certainty in areas where there can never be any. That's when we start in with believing the crazy stuff.

When you're so committed to the future, it's real easy to let your life right now turn to shit.

Sutras are spread throughout fields and cities and written on rocks and trees. Dirt preaches sutras and so does plain old empty space.

Kobun also said, "The relation between the Precepts and the words of avowal is like a person who is always thankful, and is always able to say, 'I'm sorry.' It is the bright side of things and the shadowy side of things.