Quotes About Harmony

Just as a flower is made only of non-flower elements, Buddhism is made only of non-Buddhist elements, including Christian ones, and Christianity is made of non-Christian elements, including Buddhist ones.

In true love, you attain freedom. When you love, you bring freedom to the person you love. If the opposite is true, it is not true love. You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free. (p.4, Shambhala Publications)

True love is made of four elements: loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity.

The third element of love is mudita, joy. True love always brings joy to ourselves and to the one we love. If our love does not bring joy to both of us, it is not true love.

In the West, we are very goal oriented. We know where we want to go, and we are very directed in getting there. This may be useful, but often we forget to enjoy ourselves along the route.

If we want to reconcile with our family or with friends who have hurt us, we have to take care of ourselves first. If we're not capable of listening to ourselves, how can we listen to another person? If we don't know how to recognise our own suffering, it won't be possible to bring peace and harmony into our relationships.

When we have hatred and anger in ourselves, they rebound to all quarters. When we have peace and joy in ourselves, our peace and joy will radiate throughout the whole cosmos.

We are imprisoned in our small selves, thinking only of the comfortable conditions for this small self, while we destroy our large self.

Peace and calm are contagious.

See that the most essential thing is life and that killing or oppressing one another will not solve anything.

Peace is based on respect for life, the spirit of reverence for life.

What we need are people who are capable [...] of not taking sides so that they can embrace the whole of reality.

To be in the here and the now—solid and fully alive—is a very positive contribution to our collective situation.

When you climb a beautiful mountain, invite your child within to climb with you. When you contemplate the sunset, invite her to enjoy it with you.

If we want peace, we have to be peace. Peace is a practice and not a hope.

Living peacefully and happily is the best way to show our gratitude and is our greatest gift for the world and the next generation.

Words can travel thousands of miles. May my words create mutual understanding and love. May they be as beautiful as gems, as lovely as flowers.3

We cannot be by ourselves alone. We can only inter-be with everything else in the cosmos.

Breath remains the vehicle to unite body and mind and to open the gate to wisdom.

Be in touch with what is wondrous, refreshing, and healing, both inside and around yourself.

You can arrange your schedule so you have enough time to eat. The place and teh food should be appropriate. Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are. Tell me where you eat, and I will tell you who you are.

To practice nonviolence, first of all we must learn to deal peacefully with ourselves.

He saw that living beings suffer because they do not understand that they share one common ground with all beings.

Nothing can exist by itself alone. It has to depend on every other thing. That is called inter-being. [...] There is no being; there is only inter-being.