BUDDHIST WISDOM

[Pravin Kumar]

Trivial thoughts, insignificant thoughts, When followed they distract the mind. Not understanding those thoughts The roaming mind runs back and forth. But by understanding those thoughts One ardent and mindful restrains the mind. An awakened one has overcome them completely So they do not arise to distract the mind.

- Udana


Those who have spent ten or twenty years brushing aside the weeds looking for the way and yet have not see the buddha nature often say they are trapped by oblivion and excitement. What they don't realize is that the substance of this very oblivion and excitement is itself buddha nature.


We should not merely expend all our energy collecting pieces of information, but make an effort to experience their validity through insight in our daily life.

Through developing wisdom we can achieve awakening. The Buddhadharma is not about anything else; it is about accomplishing and perfecting ones own character. When one has perfected ones character, love and compassion will exist. Without them, we will suffer from resentment, unhappiness, and blame.

- Jamin Sunim, in Womens Buddhism, Buddhisms Women


While practicing generosity, we should always remember how very fortunate we are to have this opportunity.

- Gomo Tulku, "Becoming a Child of the Buddhas"


A questioner asked the Buddha: "Life seems a tangle-- An inner tangle and an outer tangle. This generation is hopelessly tangled up. And so I ask the Buddha this question: Who will succeed in disentangling this tangle?" The Buddha replied: "When a wise one, thoughtful and good, Develops a greater consciousness, He will understand the tangle. As a truth follower, ardent and wise, He will succeed in disentangling the tangle."

- Samyutta Nikaya


We plant merit with our minds, and we commit crimes with our minds. With our minds, we imprint images. This one mind is like an artist. It can draw anything, and what it draws is realized. If you surrender your impressions, ideas, thoughts, and so on at the moment they arise without imprinting them on your mind, your minds will not be tainted, just as the lotus flower is not tainted by the muddy water whence it grows.

- Jae Woong Kim, "Polishing the Diamond"