Buddhist Quotes Quotes

“Zen is the very awareness of the dynamism of life living itself in us—and aware of itself, in us, as being the one life that lives in all.”
― Thomas Merton, Mystics and Zen Masters

“The great master Padmasambhava said, Even if my view is higher than the sky, The attention I pay to my actions and their effects is finer than flour.”
― Matthieu Ricard, On the Path to Enlightenment: Heart Advice from the Great Tibetan Masters

“You don’t have to overhaul your life overnight. Start small. Adjust your environment. Make a conscious choice to cultivate goodness. Train your mind to return to the present moment, again and again.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Maṅgala Sutta

“We treat our life as if it is all about the destination and not about the journey. But life can be seen as a piece of music, where the goal is not to get to the end of the song but to savour and enjoy each beautiful moment. After all, life unfolds in moments, and the joys available in this life are experienced in this moment and not the next.”
― David Johnson, A Practical Guide to Mindful Living

“Our first step towards finding some sort of freedom from the ups and downs of daily life is to relinquish the control the external world has over us and our emotions. The key to doing this is learning to live mindfully.”
― David Johnson, A Practical Guide to Mindful Living

“We often drag the fears of the past and future into the present, forgetting that in this moment right now, we are ok - nothing is going wrong, all is well, and we're safe. Don't lose this potential moment of quiet, joyful serenity.”
― David Johnson

“The blessings of the Mangala Sutta are not achieved through fleeting moments of inspiration but through intentional design—structuring our environment, habits, and mindset in a way that allows wisdom, detachment, and peace to arise naturally.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Maṅgala Sutta

“Living the Mangala Sutta means choosing wisdom over distraction, humility over arrogance, and intention over habit.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Maṅgala Sutta

“Each of the thirty-eight blessings in the Mangala Sutta isn’t an abstract concept—it’s a concrete invitation to shift your life toward clarity, purpose, and peace.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Maṅgala Sutta

“The wisdom of the Mangala Sutta reminds us that avoiding negative influences is not about judgment or superiority—it is about protecting your mind, your peace, and your growth.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Maṅgala Sutta

“By thoughtfully designing our lives, we make progress on the path sustainable and self-reinforcing... making it easier to live in alignment with the Mangala Sutta with less struggle and more ease.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Maṅgala Sutta

“The blessings of the Maṅgala Sutta are not rules to follow; they are invitations to live with greater intention.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Maṅgala Sutta

“The Maṅgala Sutta... provides a clear blueprint for such a life. It outlines thirty-eight blessings—qualities, habits, and ways of being that lead to true well-being.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Maṅgala Sutta

“You are not bound by the past; you are building what comes next. And at the heart of it all is the mind.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Maṅgala Sutta

“When your life design fully integrates the blessing you are striving toward, you experience greater coherence, ease, and fulfillment. You no longer just believe in the blessing—you become it.”
― G. Scott Graham, Living the Maṅgala Sutta

“We are already everything”
― The Infinite Spark of Being

“Well here we are.

You wouldn't believe
what I've been through.

It was like trying to wear shoes
that didn't fit.

But I found you.

You should have seen me
going from face to face
looking into each set of eyes
waiting for you to stare back at me.
”
― The Infinite Spark of Being

“Once Luang Por Chah was going to visit a branch monastery down near the Cambodian border. The road through the hills down to the borderlands was very twisting and precipitous. Luang Por Chah was in the front of the little pickup truck with a young Western monk and the driver, while there were a few other monks on the benches in the back.

The Western monk soon realized that the driver was extremely reckless, and he became convinced the driver had a death wish. They were haring around the steep mountain roads, with enormous drops and blind corners, screeching
around one bend after another. The monk sat there the whole time thinking, ‘We’re gonna die! We’re gonna die! We’re gonna die!’ and he kept looking over to Ajahn Chah to see if he was reacting, and whether he was going to ask the driver to slow down. Instead Ajahn Chah sat there quite calmly looking out of the windscreen and didn’t say a thing.

To the young monk’s amazement they got through the hills safely and arrived at their destination. When they got there Ajahn Chah turned around to him with a big grin and said, ‘Scary ride, huh?”
― Ajahn Amaro, The Breakthrough

“Life is but a wheel
Cycling birth and death around
Like seasons changing”
― Eric Overby, Senses

“You want to taste all these experiences. And the ego makes it possible. Don’t curse the ego. So many scriptures curse the ego self. Instead, regard your life as about choices, experiences and desire and that you are already liberated. Don’t be afraid of desire. It is why you’re here: to taste, live. It’s just an ‘agreement’ you all made when you took on an ego. You splintered off from the whole. ~ Kuan Yin”
― Hope Bradford Cht, Kuan Yin Buddhism:: The Kuan Yin Parables, Visitations and Teachings

“I delight in helping to liberate souls. I don’t like suffering. However suffering reminds me of the work I need to do to help people. Liberating individuals from their suffering is my primary motivation. Of course, the reasons for suffering are as personal and varied as one’s voice or thoughts. Humankind needs to understand that suffering is just (and people accept it because of higher reasons) and that no one is a victim. ~ Kuan Yin”
― Hope Bradford Cht, Kuan Yin Buddhism:: The Kuan Yin Parables, Visitations and Teachings

“Don’t be too hard on yourself about your choices in life. When one subtracts (from the equation of life) physical birth and death, one can regard lessons learned as forming an infinite line. Then one can say, ‘I’m learning this right now’. Try to crystallize the components of the lesson, excluding as much as is possible gender and financial factors. Repeat to yourself, ‘this is the lesson I’m learning right now, at this exact moment in time’. ~ Kuan Yin”
― Hope Bradford Cht, Kuan Yin Buddhism:: The Kuan Yin Parables, Visitations and Teachings

“Nothing is certain, even though the world is changing”
― Tim Arnold

“The student asked: Master, when will wisdom visit me? The master replied: Six years later he will visit at 6:45 pm on a Wednesday! The student answered: But master, this answer didn't make much sense to me! The master answered: So is the question you asked!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“Buddhists are fundamentally just lazy people who've mastered avoidance—avoid Buddhists”
― Daily Florence, Grace - A Funny Book For Women

“Many people go through their entire life without any idea how busy their mind is. Without that discovery, they never come to understand the parallel between their turbulent mental state and their unsatisfying physical reality, nor do they feel motivated to do anything about it.”
― David Johnson, A Practical Guide to Mindful Living

“We expect people to behave in a particular way, and then get upset when they don’t. We then blame that unhappy feeling on them, when the actual cause was our own expectation.”
― David Johnson, A Practical Guide to Mindful Living

“He who can mount to a clear conception of Nirvāṇa will find his thought far away above the common joys and sorrows of petty men.”
― H S Olcott

“Delight is born from misery,
misery is born from delight;
sir, you should know me as
a mendicant free of delight and misery.”
― Buddha Gautama

“If your mind feels restless when you sit to meditate, good. You’re seeing clearly for the first time. Be ok with it. The chaos was always there—you were just too distracted to notice. The first step in training the mind is facing it as it is, without turning away.”
― David Oromith