Daily Buddhist Verses

last SG · 2005-05-29T17:49:29+00:00

Our normal way of relating people is to see ourself as separate from the others.To objectify beings as separate you and make them an object of attachment is...

An Eternal Now SG

Enlightenment, True Nature, True Self, Wholeness, the Unconditioned Absolute - whatever words have been given to what is without words, unthinkable, unknowable, ungraspable - is not the effect of a cause. It is luminously present and timeless, overlooked by the roving intellect that is trying to grasp it, and obscured by the bodymind's constantly shifting moods, desires, and fears. Moment-to-moment meditation is clearly coming upon this roving and shifting, resisting and fearing mind and the urge to do something about it!... Meditation that is free and effortless, without goal, without expectation, is an expression of Pure Being that has nowhere to go, nothing to get.

There is no need for awareness to turn anywhere. It's here! Everything is here in awareness! When there is a waking up from fantasy, there is no one who dos it. Awareness and the sound of a plane are here with no one in the middle trying to "do" them or bring them together. They are here together! The only thing that keeps things (and people) apart is the "me"-circuit with its separative thinking. When that is quiet, divisions do not exist.

~ The Silent Question: Meditating in the Stillness of Not-Knowing by Toni Packer

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Everything is real and is not real.
Both real and not real.
Neither real nor not real.
This the Buddha taught accordingly.

~ (Nagarjuna 18:8 )

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" If i give this, what shall I get? "
Such thinking for my own purpose
is the way of the ghosts;

" If I enjoy this, what shall I give? "
Such thinking for other's purpose
is a quality of the gods.

~ Shantideva, A Guide To Boddhisattva's Way Of Life

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Like the two sides of the hand, when looked at one way by examining its deeper nature, there is the emptiness of inherent existence, but when looked at from the other side, there is the appearance of the phenomenon itself. They are one enitity. Therefore, form is emptiness, and emptiness is form.

~ The Dalai Lama

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The Dharma is in our daily life,
it lets us turn a unfavourable situation around,
it lets us cut the obstacles in life to the minimum.

~ Zen master Bai yun

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Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world,
It is appeased by love.
This is an eternal law.

~ Buddha

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Buddha-mind is here,
Awake and behold it !

~ Hui neng

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A person is not earth, not water,
Not fire, not wind, not space,
Not consciousness, and not all of them.
What person is there other than these?

~ Nagarjuna, Precious Garland

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The Tree of Perfect Wisdom is originally no tree
Nor has the bright mirror any frame
Buddha-nature is forever clear and pure
Where is there any dust?

~Hui neng

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Even royal chariots wear out, and the body too grows old and weak. But the virtue of the good never grows old, and so they continue to share their goodness. Those who in their youth did not live in harmony and self control, and those who did not gain spiritual wealth, they later look back on their lives in regret. They become like old water birds lingering around a lake without fish.

~ Buddha

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Eating, working, and making money are meaningless in themselves. However, even a small act of compassion grants meaning and purpose to our lives.

~ The Dalai Lama

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Do your best each of you; go wherever circumtances lead you.
With those who are sympathetic
You may have discussion about Buddhism.
As to those whose point of view differs from ours,
Treat them politely and try to make them happy.
Disputes are alien to our school,
They are incompatible with its spirit.

~ Hui neng

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I would like to offer something to help you but in the Zen school we do not have a single thing!

~Japanese zen master Ikkyu

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Just live that life. It doesn't matter whether it is life of hell, life of the hungry ghost, life of the animal, it's okay; just live that life, see.
And as a matter of fact no other way. Where you stand, where you are, that's what your life is right there, regardless of how painful it is or how enjoyable it is. That's what it is.

~Maezumi

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Our life is shaped by our mind; we behave what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheel of a cart follow the oxen that draws it.
Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves.

~Buddha

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There is pleasure and there is bliss-
Forgo the first to possess the second.

~ Buddha

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I like to tell the story of a family that buys a new television. Compared to the old one, it is really great, and everyone watches it for days on end. But eventually they get tired of it. This indicates that the original pleasure has a nature of pain. Such states of temporary happiness are called the suffering of change.

~ The Dalai Lama

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A flower falls, even though we love it;
And a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

~ Dogen

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If you understand, things are just as they are...
If you do not understand, things are just as they are...

~ Zen saying

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Many birds were caught and put inside a cage. They were fed and had their feathers trimmed regularly. The fatty ones were picked and sent to the kitchen daily to be cooked as meals.
Among these birds, one started to think to himself: " If I eat too much, I will die because of my juicy meat; if I don't eat at all, I will die of hunger. I shall thus plan my amount of food to eat, just a little so as not to be overgrown but enough to keep my feathers smooth and strong, then I can escape from this cage."
He followed his plan and eventually his wish came true.

~A story from the sutra- Chu Yao Jing

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