Quotes About Buddhism

Thubten Chodron

Aunque el budismo es una de las religiones más antiguas, nunca ha habido una guerra en su nombre o por su doctrina.

Vesak Day, May 31, 2007

El budismo nos guía hacia la felicidad suprema, la cual proviene de la transformación de nuestra mente. Buda observó que cuando estamos apegados a los objetos de los sentidos, nos sentimos finalmente desdichados.

Buda era un profundo filósofo y psicólogo cuyas enseñanzas nos pueden impulsar a mejorar nuestras vidas. Uno no necesita considerarse budista para practicar estas técnicas. La auténtica práctica espiritual va más allá de los compartimentos de los "ismos". Como Su Santidad el Dalai Lama dice a menudo: "La compasión no es propiedad de ninguna religión ni de ningún credo".

Como línea maestra, Buda aconsejó que evitásemos diez acciones que destruyen nuestra felicidad y la de los demás. Tres de ellas son físicas: matar, robar, y mantener una conducta sexual imprudente o poco aconsejable. Otras cuatro son verbales: mentir, calumniar, insultar, y conversar de un modo frívolo. Y tres son mentales: codiciar las posesiones ajenas, pensar con malicia y mantener visiones erróneas.

Lord Buddha himself taught that basically, human nature is pure, egoless, just as the sky is by nature clear, not cloudy. Clouds come and go, but the blue sky is always there; clouds don't alter the fundamental nature of the sky. Similarly, the human mind is fundamentally pure.

The Mahayana Buddhism of Tibet certainly does contain an unbroken oral tradition of teachings on the development of supernormal powers, which has passed from realized guru to disciple from the time of the Buddha himself down to the present ...

Buddhism is less interested in what you do than why you do it your motivation. The mental attitude behind an action is much more important than the action itself. You might appear to outside observers as humble, spiritual and sincere, but if what's pushing you from within is an impure mind, if you're acting out of ignorance of the nature of the path, all your so-called spiritual efforts will lead you nowhere and will be a complete waste of time.

The Buddhist attitude is that it doesn't matter how many delusions you have, how confused you are, how much sin or negativity you have created, it is possible, absolutely possible, to totally eradicate all of it.

When Lord Buddha spoke about suffering, he wasn't referring simply to superficial problems like illness and injury, but to the fact that the dissatisfied nature of the mind itself is suffering. No matter how much of something you get, it never satisfies your desire for better or more. This unceasing desire is suffering; its nature is emotional frustration.

Dromtönpa, Ati?a's chief disciple,

If you do not thoroughly exchange Your own happiness with others' suffering, You will not become a buddha. Even in samsara there will be no happiness.178

Buddhism has become a socially recognized religious philosophy for Americans, whereas it used to be considered an exotic religion.

I don't meditate anymore, and I wouldn't call myself a Buddhist nowadays, though I do chant mantras here and there depending on the situation.

The dissonant irony here is that the affluence that gives the Western Buddhist their privilege, and gave them the opportunity to engage Buddhism in the first place, is part of what the Buddha meant by samsara, the world of attachment and consequent suffering. In a sense, Buddhist practice in the West is dependant upon continued delusion, especially those delusion that cause us to identify with class-appropriate roles.

Those who are extremely stupid think that women are merely the objects of sexual desire and treat women in this way. The Buddha's children should not be like this. If we discriminate against women because we see them merely as objects of sexual desire, do we also discriminate against all men for the same reason?

There is a simple way to become a buddha: When you refrain from unwholesome actions, are not attached to birth and death, and are compassionate toward all sentient beings, respectful to seniors and kind to juniors, not excluding or desiring anything, with no thoughts or worries, you will be called a buddha. Seek nothing else.

Handle even a single leaf of a green in such a way that it manifests the body of the Buddha. This in turn allows the Buddha to manifests through the leaf. This is a power which you cannot grasp with your rational mind. It operates freely, according to the situation, in a most natural way.

Uchiyama R?shi helped me a great deal in not allowing me to use zazen as an escape. He said, "You must know that behind zazen are the teachings of Buddhism, and behind them, your own life experience." These words went a long way in clarifying for me a passage in the Sh?b?-genz?: Genj? K?an (Actualizing the Koan): "To study Buddhism is to study the Self.

Sh?b?-genz?: Genj? K?an (Actualizing the Koan):

D?gen says here that to study Buddhism means to study one's Self; to learn Buddhism is to learn one's Self.

So we have to find the realm of buddhas within the realm of demons. In other words, in the realm of pain and suffering, we have to find the realm of peace and harmony. This is religious practice.

Four Noble Truths: the truth of the universality of suffering, the truth of the origin of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering, and the truth of the path leading to its cessation.