Guatama Buddha Quotes (110 Quotes)

When we feel happy and peaceful, our happiness and peace radiates around us, and others can enjoy it as well. This is called 'the enjoyment of others of our body of bliss'.

A kind man who makes good use of wealth is rightly said to possess a great treasure but the miser who hoards up his riches will have no profit.

You should respect each other and refrain from disputes you should not, like water and oil, repel each other, But should, like milk and water, mingle together.

Do not speak harshly to any one those who are spoken to will answer thee in the same way. Angry speech is painful blows for blows will touch thee.

To live a single day and hear a good teaching is better than to live a hundred years without knowing such teaching.

Believe nothing merely because you have been told it.... Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.

When a man has pity on all living creatures then only is he noble.

There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed.

It is hard, indeed, to feel humble, to know respect and honor, to get rid of all attachments, to keep pure in thought and deed, and to become wise.

Of all the worldly passions, lust is the most intense. All other worldly passions seem to follow in its train.

Do not become attached to the things you like, do not cherish aversion to the things you dislike. Sorrow, fear and bondage come from one's likes and dislikes.

Inflowing thoughts come to an end in those who are ever alert of mind, training themselves night and day, and ever intent on nirvana.

Though through all his life a fool associates with a wise man, he yet understands not the Dharma, as the spoon, the flavor of soup.

Who, knowing the all in all its parts, For all its phases hath no lust, By comprehension of the all He truly hath escaped all-ill.

But when one masters this wretched desire, which is so hard to overcome, then one's sorrows just drop off, like a drop of water off a lotus.

If a man's mind becomes pure, his surroundings will also Become pure.

The world is always burning, burning with the fire of greed, anger and ignorance one should flee from such dangers as soon as possible.

I have passed in ignorance through a cycle of many rebirths, seeking the builder of the house. Continuous rebirth is a painful thing. But now, housebuilder, I have found you out. You will not build me a house again. All your rafters are broken, your ridge-pole shattered. My mind is free from active thought, and has made an end of craving.

The wise say that it is not an iron, wooden or fiber fetter which is a strong one, but the besotted hankering after trinkets, children and wives, that, say the wise, is the strong fetter. It drags one down, and loose as it feels, it is hard to break. Breaking this fetter, people renounce the world, free from longing and abandoning sensuality.

Just as the bee takes the nectar and leaves without damaging the color or scent of the flowers, so should the sage act in a village.

It is good to have companions when occasion arises, and it is good to be contented with whatever comes.

Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law.

The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage Like the apparent distances in a picture, things have no reality in them- selves, but they are like heat haze.

When Shakyamuni Buddha was at Mount Grdhrakuta, he held up a flower to his listeners. Everyone was silent. Only Mahakashyapa broke into a broad smile. The Buddha said, 'I have the True Dharma Eye, the Marvelous Mind of Nirvana, the True Form of the Formless, and the Subtle Dharma Gate, independent of words and transmitted beyond doctrine. This I have entrusted to Mahakashyapa.'

To utter pleasant words without practicing them, is like a fine flower without fragrance.

Dispassion is the best of mental states....

From craving arises sorrow, from craving arises fear, but he who is freed from craving has no sorrow and certainly no fear.

If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.

Through zeal knowledge is gotten, through lack of zeal knowledge is lost let a man who knows this double path of gain and loss thus place himself that knowledge may grow.

Cut down the forest, not just a tree. Out of the forest of desire springs danger. By cutting down both the forest of desire and the brushwood of longing, be rid of the forest (pun on the word 'nirvana'), bhikkhus.

Paraphrased Guatamas disciples, whose recollection is always established day and night on the Buddha, experience a complete awakening.

Life is suffering.

Of all footprints, that of the elephant is supreme. Similarly, of all mindfulness meditations, that on death is supreme.

Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.

When a wise man is advised of his errors, he will reflect on and improve his conduct. When his misconduct is pointed out, a foolish man will not only disregard the advice but rather repeat the same error.

Therefore, be ye lamps unto yourselves, be a refuge to yourselves. Hold fast to Truth as a lamp hold fast to the truth as a refuge. Look not for a refuge in anyone beside yourselves. And those, who shall be a lamp unto themselves, shall betake themselves to no external refuge,but holding fast to the Truth as their lamp, and holding fast to the Truth as their refuge, they shall reach the topmost height.

(Paraphrased The real brahmin is the one who) ... has crossed beyond duality ... (373) ...knows no this shore, other shore, or both (385) ...(is) settled in mind ... without inflowing thoughts (386) ...is without attachment (396) ...endures undisturbed criticism, ill-treatment and bonds, (and is) strong in patience(399) ...(is) without anger, devout, upright, free from craving, disciplined and in his last body (400) ...has experienced the end of his suffering here in this life, who has set down the burden, freed (402) (snippets from verses 373-402)

When a man venerates those worthy of veneration, be they Buddhas or their disciples, who have transcended all obstacles and passed beyond sorrow and tears venerating such as these, whose passions are extinguished and for whom there is no further source for fear, no one can calculate how great his merit is.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely Alone everything is in relation to everything else.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

Suffering does not befall him who is without attachment to names and forms....

The Tempter masters the lazy and irresolute man who dwells on the attractive side of things, ungoverned in his senses, and unrestrained in his food, like the wind overcomes a rotten tree. But the Tempter cannot master a man who dwells on the distasteful side of things, self-controlled in his senses, moderate in eating, resolute and full of faith, like the wind cannot move a mountain crag.

Hunger (for things) is the supreme disease.

Freed by full realization and at peace, the mind of such a man is at peace, and his speech and action peaceful. He has no need for faith who knows the uncreated, who has cut off rebirth, who has destroyed any opportunity for good or evil, and cast away all desire. He is indeed the ultimate man.

Let go the past, let go the future, and let go what is in between, transcending the things of time. With your mind free in every direction, you will not return to birth and aging.

Do not vainly lament, but do wonder at the rule of transiency and learn from it the emptiness of human life. Do not cherish to unworthy desire that the changeable might become unchanging.

Never have anything to do with likes and dislikes. The absence of what one likes is painful, as is the presence of what one dislikes. Therefore don't take a liking to anything. To lose what one likes is hard, but there are no bonds for those who have no likes and dislikes. From preference arises sorrow, from preference arises fear, but he who is freed from preference has no sorrow and certainly no fear.

A victor only breeds hatred, while a defeated man lives in misery, but a man at peace within lives happily, abandoning up ideas of victory and defeat.

Like a beautiful flower that is colorful but has no fragrance, even well spoken words bear no fruit in one who does not put them into practice.