Quotes About Existence

Emptiness is not the opposite of existence. It is not nothingness or annihilation.

Let us instead really live these moments that are given to us.

The fourth notion to be removed is life span. We think that we exist only from this point in time until this point in time, and we suffer because of that notion. If we look deeply, we will know that we have never been born and we will never die. A wave is born and dies, is higher or lower, more or less beautiful. But you cannot apply these notions to water. When we see this, our fear will suddenly vanish.

Although not yet here, the future is already producing ghosts which haunt us. In fact, these ghosts are not produced by the future or the past. It is our consciousness which creates them. The past and the future are creations of our consciousness.

In this plate of food, I see clearly the presence of the entire universe supporting my existence.

Is it possible to penetrate the Eighteen Elements in another way?' and the Buddha replied, Yes, we can say that there are Six Elements . These are the Four Great Elements (mahabhuta ) of earth, water, fire, and air, plus space and consciousness. All physical phenomena are made up of these Six Elements. If we observe these Six Elements inside us and around us, we see that we are not separate from the universe.

We are surrounded by miracles, but we have to recognize them; otherwise there is no life.

A flower is not a flower. It is made only of non-flower elements — sunshine, clouds, time, space, earth, minerals, gardeners, and so on. A true flower contains the whole universe. If we return any one of these non-flower elements to its source, there will be no flower. That is why we can say, "A rose is not a rose. That is why it is an authentic rose." We have to remove our concept of rose if we want to touch the real rose.

Rien ne se crée, rien ne se perd" (Nothing is created, nothing is lost).

When we look into the heart of a flower, we see clouds, sunshine, minerals, time, the earth, and everything else in the cosmos in it. Without clouds, there could be no rain, and there would be no flower. Without time, the flower could not bloom. In fact, the flower is made entirely of non flower elements; it has no independent, individual existence. It 'inter-is' with everything else in the universe.

A human being is made up of only non-human elements.

This body is not me; I am not caught in this body. I am life without boundaries. My nature is the nature of no birth and no death.

To be loved is to be recognized as existing.

We were born, and with that birth, our fear was born along with the desire to survive. This is original desire.

Our Buddhist sutra tells us that when conditions are sufficient, we see forms, and when conditions are not sufficient, we don't. When all conditions are prsesent, phenomena can be perceived by us, and so they are revealed to us as existing

Discussing God is not the best use of our energy. If we touch the Holy Spirit, we touch God not as a concept but as a living reality.

Everything is empty. Empty of what? Empty of a separate self. A flower is full of everything in the cosmos—sunshine, clouds, air, and space. It is empty of only one thing, a separate existence.

The Buddha said, "When conditions are sufficient, the thing manifests, and when they are not sufficient, the thing remains hidden.

My friend, things appear and disappear according to causes and conditions. The true nature of things is not being born, and not dying. Birth and death are nothing more than concepts. Our true nature is the nature of no-birth and no-death, and we must touch our true nature in order to be free.

O monks, in the world there is birth, being, made, and conditioned. But there is also no birth, no being, the not-made, and the not-conditioned; for these are the way out of birth, being, made, and conditioned.

Whenever everyone's eyes are fixed on the earth—looking at the trees, plants, hills, mountains, or each other—then we know we are in the historical dimension, the world of birth and death. But when everyone's eyes look into space then we have entered the ultimate dimension, the unborn and undying world.

If I live without having Awareness of this life, that amounts to not having lived. I can then say, as did Albert Camus in his novel The Outsider , I live as one dead.

Many people are alive but don't touch the miracle of being alive.

Träume und Märchen waren ihr eigentlicher Lebensinhalt, dachte ich jetzt. Deshalb hat sie sich auch umgebracht, dachte ich, weil ein Mensch, der nur Träume und Märchen sich zu seinem Lebensinhalt gemacht hat, in dieser Welt nicht überleben kann, nicht überleben darf, dachte ich.