#buddhism

Westereners often think that the East is one vast Buddhist temple, which is rather like thinking the West is one vast Carthusian monastery. If the [Western people who like Buddhism] were to visit the East, he'd certainly experience many new things, but he'd find first, that the food is under lock and key and second, that humans are considered to be a miserable, destructive, greedy lot, just as they are in the West. ↗

— Daniel Quinn

#economy #my-ishmael #philosophy-of-life #experience

Emotional states are fairly quick bursts of neuronal gossip. Traits, on the other hand, are more like the neuronal equivalent of committed relationships. ↗

— Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

#humor #science #truth #humor

[S]he believed that the Buddhists were right–that if you want, you will suffer; if you love, you will grieve. (68) ↗

— Anne Lamott

#buddhism #desire #grief #love #suffering

Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen. ↗

— Bodhidharma

#enlightenment #mind #zen #enlightenment

Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate. ↗

— Huang Po

#dharma #enlightenment #mind #spirituality #zen

Once again, we are reminded that awakening, or enlightenment is not the property of Buddhism, any more than Truth is the property of Christianity. Neither the Buddha nor the Christ belongs exclusively to the communities that were founded in their names. They belong to all people of goodwill, all who are attentive to the secret which lives in the depths of their breath and their consciousness. (14) ↗

— Jean-Yves Leloup

#awakening #breath #buddhism #christianity #community

We are fragmented into so many different aspects. We don´t know who we really are, or what aspects of ourselves we should identify with or believe in. So many contradictory voices, dictates, and feelings fight for control over our inner lives that we find ourselves scattered everywhere, in all directions, leaving nobody at home. Meditation, then, is bringing the mind home. ↗

— Sogyal Rinpoche

#meditation #spirituality #buddhism

People with opinions just go around bothering one another. ↗

— Buddha Gotama

#philosophy #buddhism

You necessarily have to be lost, before you’re found. ↗

— T. Scott McLeod

#buddhism #dark-night-of-the-soul #enlightenment #love #meditation

Technology offers us a unique opportunity, though rarely welcome, to practice patience. ↗

— Allan Lokos

#cell-phones #compassion #computers #internet #art