Buddha Nature Quotes

“It is not what you can do for your country, but what you can do for all of mankind.”
― Mike Norton

“13. A Buddha

In Tokyo in th Meiji era there lived two prominent teachers of opposite characteristics. One, Unsho, an instructor in Shingon, kept Buddha's precepts scrupulously. He never drank intoxicants, nor did he eat after eleven o'clock in the morning. The other teacher, Tanzan, a professor of philosophy at the Imperial University, never observed the precepts. When he felt like eating he ate, and when he felt like sleeping in the daytime he slept.

One da Unsho visited Tanzan, who was drinking wine at the time, not even a drop of which is supposed to touch the tongue of a Buddhist.

"Hello, brother," Tanzan greeted him. "Won't you have a drink?"

"I never drink!" exclaimed Unsho solemnly.

"One who never drinks is not even human," said Tanzan.

"Do you mean to call me inhuman just because I do not indulge in intoxicating liquids!" exclaimed Unsho in anger. "Then if I am not human, wht am I?"

"A Buddha," answered Tanzan.”
― Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps

“Learn to enjoy the way as much as you would enjoy when you reach the destination.”
― Sakshi Chetana, Laughing Buddha:The Alchemy of Euphoric Living

“Look at the sun. The sun is shining. Nobody polishes the sun. The sun just shines. Look at the moon, the sky, the world at its best. Unfortunately, we human beings try to fit everything into conditionality. We try to make something out of nothing. We have messed everything up. That’s our problem. We have to go back to the sun and the moon, to dragons, tigers, lions, garudas (mythical birds). We can be like the blue sky, sweethearts, and the clouds so clean, so beautiful. We don’t have to try too hard to find ourselves. We haven’t really lost anything; we just have to tune in. The majesty of the world is always there.”
― Chögyam Trungpa, Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of Shambhala

“It [mind of absolute reality] is everywhere and nowhere. It’s somewhat like sky—so completely integrated with our existence that we never stop to question its reality or to recognize its qualities.”
― Yongey Mingyur, In Love with the World: A Monk's Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying

“Primordial wisdom [Skt. jñāna; Tib. ཡེ་ཤེས་, yeshé; Wyl. ye shes] has many names, but in truth it refers simply to the inseparability of the ground and fruit, the one and only essence-drop [thig le nyag gcig] of the dharmakaya. If it is assessed from the standpoint of its utterly pure nature, it is the actual dharmakaya, primordial Buddhahood. For, from its own side, it is free from every obscuration. We must understand that we are Buddha from the very beginning. Without this understanding, we will fail to recognize the spontaneously present mandala of the ground, and we will be obliged to assert, in accordance with the vehicle of the paramitas, that Buddhahood has a cause. We will fail to recognize the authentic view of the Secret Mantra.”
― Jamgön Mipham, White Lotus: An Explanation of the Seven-line Prayer to Guru Padmasambhava

“The human mind has the potential for infinite development. If you can discover, even in a small way, that true satisfaction comes from your mind, you will realize that you can extend this experience without limit and that it is possible to discover everlasting satisfaction.”
― Thubten Yeshe, Becoming Your Own Therapist

“The opportunity to experience yourself differently is always available.”
― Yongey Mingyur, The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness

“Although we use words such as achieving, wishing, and praying for enlightenment, ultimately we don’t acquire enlightenment from an external source. A more correct way to put it is discovering the enlightenment that has always been there. Enlightenment is part of our true nature. Our true nature is like a golden statue; however, it is still in its mold, which is like our defilements and ignorance. Because ignorance and emotion are not an inherent part of our nature, just as the mold is not part of the statue, there is such a thing as primordial purity. When the mold is broken, the statue emerges. When our defilements are removed, our true buddhanature is revealed.”
― Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, What Makes You Not a Buddhist

“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.”
― Thubten Yeshe, Becoming Your Own Therapist

“Lord Buddha never put much emphasis on belief. Instead, he exhorted us to investigate and try to understand the reality of our own being. He never stressed that we had to know what he was, what a buddha is. All he wanted was for us to understand our own nature. Isn’t that so simple? We don’t have to believe in anything. Simply by making the right effort, we understand things through our own experience, and gradually develop all realizations.”
― Thubten Yeshe, Becoming Your Own Therapist

“Although we are in samsara, we can still see proof of the existence of buddha nature permeating all living beings. [One] way in which we can discern whether beings have buddha nature is rik (Wyl. rigs; Skt. gotra), in other words the quality we perceive in one who possesses this buddha nature. […] All beings have buddha nature because all beings have within themselves what we call the essence of the buddha, this ju (Wyl. rgyu; Skt. hetu), this seed, which can blossom into a buddha and which constitutes our potential for enlightenment.”
― Ringu Tulku, Path to Buddhahood: Teachings on Gampopa's Jewel Ornament of Liberation

“You can say that before the Absolute all are equal, but there are not two, but one person, who is you.”
― Kobun Chino Otogawa, Embracing Mind: The Zen Talks of Kobun Chino Otogawa

“Because goodness has to mature; it doesn't just occur, it must be nourished, and it must grow.”
― Roger Weir

“A mountain shrouded in mist is not hiding anything profound. There is no more wisdom on top of that mountain than there is anywhere else. It is just as sacred as a nap below the bough of a tree, washing the dishes, the sun fading over a meadow, belly laughter, a walk down a narrow path.”
― Bremer Acosta

“The way of faith is always an integrated, single way. Whereas, the way of wisdom is always a highly differentiated, capricious way.”
― Roger Weir

“Since healing essentially comes from our mind, not from our body, it is important to understand the nature of the mind. The intrinsic nature of the mind is pure in the sense that it is not one with the faults of the mind, with the disturbing thoughts and obscurations. All the faults of our mind — our selfishness, ignorance, anger, attachment, guilt, and other disturbing thoughts — are temporary, not permanent and everlasting. And since the cause of our suffering, our disturbing thoughts and obscurations, is temporary, our suffering is also temporary.

The mind is also empty of true existence, of existence from its own side. This quality of mind, known as Buddha Nature, gives us the potential to free ourselves completely from all suffering, including disease, and the causes of suffering and to achieve any happiness we wish, including the peerless happiness of enlightenment. Since the mind has all this potential, we do not need to feel depressed or hopeless. It is not as if we have to experience problems forever. We have incredible freedom to develop our mind in any way that we wish. It is simply a question of finding the right way to use the potential of our mind.”
― Thubten Zopa, Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion

“Everything is in your own heart.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation

“A million faces of Buddha smiled at the night's futile attempt to lull the Awakened One into an ocean of dreams.”
― Lidija Stankovikj, Alexander's Infinity

“No matter how confused, perturbed, and negative we may sometimes feel, our Buddha nature is always there. It can never be lost or damaged. This Buddha nature is the essential nature of our mind. It is primordially pure, replete with all the qualities of a Buddha.”
― David Oromith (Johnson)

“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.”
― Thubten Yeshe, Mahamudra: How to Discover Our True Nature

“Our problem is that inside us there’s a mind going, "Impossible, impossible, impossible. I can’t, I can’t, I can’t." We have to banish that mind from this solar system. Anything is possible; everything is possible. Sometimes you feel that your dreams are impossible, but they’re not. Human beings have great potential; they can do anything. The power of the mind is incredible, limitless.”
― Thubten Yeshe, When the Chocolate Runs Out

“Without understanding how your inner nature evolves, how can you possibly discover eternal happiness? Where is eternal happiness? It’s not in the sky or in the jungle; you won’t find it in the air or under the ground. Everlasting happiness is within you, within your psyche, your consciousness, your mind. That’s why it is so important that you investigate the nature of your own mind.”
― Thubten Yeshe, Becoming Your Own Therapist

“The mind is also empty of true existence, of existence from its own side. This quality of mind, known as Buddha-nature, gives us the potential to free ourselves completely from all suffering, including disease, and the causes of suffering and to achieve any happiness we wish, including the peerless happiness of enlightenment. Since the mind has all this potential, we do not need to feel depressed or hopeless. It is not as if we have to experience problems forever. We have incredible freedom to develop our mind in any way that we wish. It is simply a question of finding the right way to use the potential of our mind. – Lama Zopa Rinpoche”
― Thubten Zopa, Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion

“All phenomena are subject to instantaneous transformation.”
― Roger Weir

“The practice of Right Speech is to try to change our habits so that our speech arises from the seed of Buddha that is in us, and not from our unresolved, unwholesome seeds.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Buddah's Teaching

“Though the practitioner may be unaware of it, he or she is a complete manifestation of the essential world; we all experience the same single buddhahood. From the first step in our practice to the very last, even if there are billions of stages on the way, the content of the meditation at any two stages is exactly the same. We are forever treading the buddha ground and perfectly manifesting buddha nature.”
― Kōun Yamada, Zen: The Authentic Gate

“All life has suffering. But to live is to suffer. So we bless life, we bless death, we bless sickness and health, we bless happiness and sadness. We say om mani padme hum to bless all suffering borne by all beings, as the suffering is our karma. And our karma is our life.”
― Michael Schauch, A Story of Karma: Finding Love and Truth in the Lost Valley of the Himalaya

“explore not only what the Buddha taught but also how it applies to our lives, to do this, we needn't call ourselves “Buddhists", for the search for happiness through living a meaningful life is universal. We'll try to look at our lives with common sense and clarity, as human beings seeking happiness and wisdom. This is the Buddhist approach.”
― Thubten Chodron, Open Heart, Clear Mind: An Introduction to the Buddha's Teachings

“We don't need to be the sun to illuminate the world; even the faintest light of kindness can make it shine.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya