BUDHIST WISDOM

[Pravin Kumar]

Don't strain. Don't force anything or make grand, exaggerated efforts. Meditation is not aggressive. There is no place or need for violent striving. Just let your effort be relaxed and steady.

- Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, "Mindfulness in Plain English"

I am not ones servant. So said the Buddha. With what I have gained I wander about in all the world, without being subservient to anyone: therefore, it thou like, rain, O sky!

- adapted from the Sutta-nipata translated by V. Fausboll

As human beings we have good qualities as well as bad ones. Now, anger, attachment, jealousy, hatred, are the bad side; these are the real enemyThe true troublemaker is inside.

- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Clinging to sense pleasures, to sensual ties, Seeing in fetters nothing to be blamed, Never will those tied down by fetters Cross the flood so wide and great.

- Udana

It is my belief that whereas the twentieth century has been a century of war and untold suffering, the twenty-first century should be one of peace and dialogue. As the continued advances in information technology make our world a truly global village, I believe there will come a time when war and armed conflict will be considered an outdated and obsolete method of settling differences among nations and communities.

- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Having striven, brahmin, cut the stream Expel sensual passions. Knowing the ending of fabrications, brahmin, you know the Unmade. When the brahmin has gone to the beyond of two things, then all his fetters go to their end-- he who knows.

- Dhammapada, 26, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom and dignity. It is not enough, as communist systems have assumed, merely to provide people with food, shelter and clothing. Human nature needs to breathe the precious air of liberty.

- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Suppose a man were wounded by an arrow, and when the surgeon arrived, he said to him, "Don't pull out this arrow until I know who shot it, what tree it comes from, who made it, and what kind of bow was used." Certainly the man would die before he discovered the answers. In the same way, if you say you will not be a monk unless I solve all the questions of the world, you are likely to die unsatisfied.

- Majjhima Nikaya

Some people live closely guarded lives, fearful of encountering someone or something that might shatter their insecure spiritual foundation. This attitude, however, is not the fault of religion but of their own limited understanding. True Dharma leads in exactly the opposite direction. It enables one to integrate all the many diverse experiences of life into a meaningful and coherent whole, thereby banishing fear and insecurity completely.

- Lama Thubten Yeshe, "Wisdom Energy"