#buddhist

I don't know what religious people do. I kind of wished I'd been a Christian with the blind faith that God is doing the right thing. As a Buddhist, you feel like you have more control over the situation, and that you can change your karma. ↗

— Marcia Wallace

#blind #blind faith #buddhist #change #christian

Standing Deer As the house of a person in age sometimes grows cluttered with what is too loved or too heavy to part with, the heart may grow cluttered. And still the house will be emptied, and still the heart. As the thoughts of a person in age sometimes grow sparer, like the great cleanness come into a room, the soul may grow sparer; one sparrow song carves it completely. And still the room is full, and still the heart. Empty and filled, like the curling half-light of morning, in which everything is still possible and so why not. Filled and empty, like the curling half-light of evening, in which everything now is finished and so why not. Beloved, what can be, what was, will be taken from us. I have disappointed. I am sorry. I knew no better. A root seeks water. Tenderness only breaks open the earth. This morning, out the window, the deer stood like a blessing, then vanished. ↗

— Jane Hirshfield

#inspirational #nature #spiritual #age

Activities such as chanting, bowing, and sitting in zazen are not at all wasted, even when done merely formally, for even this superficial encounter with the Dharma will have some wholesome outcome at a later time. However, it must be said in the most unambiguous terms that this is not real Zen. To follow the Dharma involves a complete reorientation of one's life in such a way that one's activities are manifestations of, and are filled with, a deeper meaning. If it were not otherwise, and merely sitting in zazen were enough, every frog in the pond would be enlightened, as one Zen master said. Dōgen Zenji himself said that one must practice Zen with the attitude of a person trying to extinguish a fire in his hair. That is, Zen must be practiced with an attitude of single-minded urgency. ↗

— Francis Harold Cook

#dharma #focus #frogs #meditation #urgency

I describe myself as a simple Buddhist monk. No more, no less. ↗

— Dalai Lama

#describe #i #less #monk #more

I don't know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I'm some sort of Buddhist. But the essential thing is to put oneself in a frame of mind which is close to that of prayer. ↗

— Henri Matisse

#buddhist #close #essential #essential thing #frame

Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, yet we make the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on babies, though not our own. ↗

— Robert Louis Stevenson

#babies #buddhists #cannibalism #disgust #feed

My family is Jewish, Buddhist, Baptist and Catholic. I don't believe in man-made religions. ↗

— Whoopi Goldberg

#believe #buddhist #catholic #family #i

I used a lot of pancake makeup and a prayer, and a Buddhist chant. ↗

— Steven Cojocaru

#chant #i #lot #makeup #pancake

True change is within; leave the outside as it is. ↗

— Dalai Lama XIV

#buddhist #change

If you are a Buddhist, inspire yourself by thinking of the bodhisattva. If you are a Christian, think of the Christ, who came not to be served by others but to serve them in joy, in peace, and in generosity. For these things, these are not mere words, but acts, which go all the way, right up to their last breath. Even their death is a gift, and resurrection is born from this kind of death. (157) ↗

— Jean-Yves Leloup

#bodhisattva #buddhism #buddhist #christ #christianity