Dharma Quotes

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

“Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”
― Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times

“When the mind is exhausted of images, it invents its own.”
― Gary Snyder, Earth House Hold: Technical Notes & Queries to Fellow Dharma Revolutionaries

“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, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

“The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow, nor the lion, the horse, how he shall take his prey.”
― William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

“Now I know what success is: living your truth, sharing it.”
― Kamal Ravikant, Live Your Truth

“This is what the path of Dharma is like. It's not that you have to do all the practices. It is sufficient to take just one of them, whichever one you really have an affinity with, and through practicing that one alone, for the rest of your life, you will achieve enlightenment. Whichever practice you choose doesn't matter; they are all valid methods for achieving enlightenment—if you practice. The key is to practice with diligence for the rest of your life.”
― Dhomang Yangthang, The Union of Dzogchen and Mahamudra

“This stuff of a past not worthily lived is also medicine.”
― Joan Halifax, The Fruitful Darkness: A Journey Through Buddhist Practice and Tribal Wisdom

“Don’t worry, eventually everything falls into its rightful place.”
― Fakeer Ishavardas

“Each man has to follow truth as he sees it.”
― K.M.Munshi

“Buddhism is a religion of the heart. Only this. One who practices to develop the heart is one who practices Buddhism [...] Use your heart to listen to the Teachings, not your ears.”
― Ajahn Chah, Reflections

“Although I too am within Amida's grasp,
Passions obstruct my eyes and I cannot see him;
Nevertheless, great compassion is untiring and illumines me always.”
― Shinran Shonin

“Naturally occurring timeless awareness—utterly lucid awakened mind—
is something marvelous and superb, primordially and spontaneously present.
It is the treasury from which comes the universe of appearances and possibilities, whether of samsara or nirvana.
Homage to the unwavering state, free of elaborations.”
― Longchen Rabjam

“Samsara is not out there, but rather in the way that we experience our environment. To target it precisely, samsara is in the quality of our minds. Our minds are not functioning in accord with reality, and therein lies the problem.”
― B. Alan Wallace

“All phenomena are embraced within a single self-knowing awareness.
Even though they arise as the totality of samsara and nirvana,
the phenomena of the world of appearances and possibilities—
limitless, boundless—arise from basic space.
Therefore, they are subsumed within basic space from which the first arise.”
― Longchen Rabjam

“The Buddhist teachings move along a graduated path: first the stages of calm abiding and then the stages of deep insight. Through such gradual practices, lamas of the past gave birth to realization in their mental continuum and discovered primordial wisdom. All the qualities that the great masters found, we can attain as well. It all depends on our own efforts, our diligence, our deeper knowing, and our correct motivation. – 17th Karmapa”
― Ogyen Trinley Dorje, Music in the Sky: The Life, Art, and Teachings of the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje

“Why else should we live but to discuss (at least) the horror and the terror of all this life, God how old we get and some of us go mad and everything changes viciously—it’s that vicious change that hurts, as soon as something is cool and complete it fall apart and burns—”
― Jack Kerouac, Desolation Angels

“Praise Lord, if you can’t have fun turn to religion.”
― Jack Kerouac, Desolation Angels

“Ved, Koran ya Bible ratta maarnese koi pak ya pavitra nahi banjaata, there’s no greater granth than chetna.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper

“Love is at the core of all true dharma. The enactment of our vocation in the world stands in the stream of love that flows from the divine Self to the individual soul.”
― Stephen Cope, Yoga and the Quest for the True Self

“The great Theravadan monk Ajahn Chah used to teach that the whole world is teaching the dharma (the truth) to us all the time. . . . In order to hear the teaching, we must slow down, cultivate awareness, and tune in. Most of all, we have to drop our hopes and dreams and preconceived notions of how it should be. We must look at how it is. We must look with a mind that lets go. Then we will see.”
― Stephen Cope, Yoga and the Quest for the True Self

“The Dharma can't be lost, nothing can be lost, on a well-worn path.”
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

“Service of humanity is supreme shahada,
to defend the persecuted is cosmic khalsa,
to treat neighbor as god is real dharma,
quiet kindness is the real karma.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat

“Service of humanity is supreme shahada,
to defend the persecuted is cosmic khalsa,
to treat neighbor as god is real dharma,
quiet kindness is the real karma.

Ana al-haqq, ana al-hub -
aham bindu, aham brahmanda.
I shed dogma like dead skin,
el cosmos es mi casa.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat

“The intrigues will only succeed once; Dharma will endure.”
― Katheliyer

“Karma is action without agenda, Dharma is duty without saffronmania.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Sonnets From The Mountaintop

“Followers of the Way, if you want insight into dharma as it is, just don’t be taken in by the deluded views of others. Whatever you encounter, either within or without, slay it at once. On meeting a buddha slay the buddha, on meeting a patriarch slay the patriarch, on meeting an arhat slay the arhat, on meeting your parents slay your parents, on meeting your kinsman slay your kinsman, and you attain emancipation. By not cleaving to things, you freely pass through.”
― Línjì Yìxuán, The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-Chi

“Ek Insaan, aur ek hi lakshya;
Moksh ka matlab ek hi manushya.
Dharm se upar Insaan hi satya;
Imaan Insaaniyat, Mazhab Muhabbat.

Marham na mazhab dekhe,
Marham na dekhe mulk.
Dunya meri zimmedari meri,
This is the Naskar truth.”
― Abhijit Naskar, With Love From A Blue Rock

“प्रवरा रूपी शक्ति आज कल्याण रूपी शिव को ढूँढ रही थी, जिसके संग से पूर्ण अर्द्धनारीश्वर सा चमत्कार प्रकट होने वाला था। वही अर्द्धनारीश्वर तत्त्व जिसके पूर्ण अभाव से पुरुष एक शक्तिशाली यंत्र मात्र बन जाता है और स्त्री मात्र एक सजीली वस्तु, पौरुष मात्र अहंकार बन जाता है और स्त्रीत्व मात्र प्रदर्शन। एक मानवीय स्वतंत्रता का दमन करने लगता है तथा दूसरे की स्वतंत्रता स्वच्छंदता में परिवर्तित होने लगती है। इसी तत्व के अभाव में रावण और सूर्पनखा का जन्म होता है। ये दोनों असंतुलित ऊर्जाएँ उन्मुक्ततता का रूप ले लेतीं हैं तथा इसके भी चरम से चमत्कार प्रकट होता है, विनाशकारी चमत्कार- शिव का प्रलयंकारी तांडव।”
― Pradyumna Kumar Tiwari, त्रिकूट: धर्म का चक्रव्यूह

“प्रेम यदि निस्वार्थ हो, सीता तभी संग होगी,
पूर्ण निष्ठा समर्पण से ही, ये धनु भंग होगी।
संभवतः यह पवित्र प्रेम की उसी शक्ति की पराकाष्ठा थी, जिसने श्रीराम को पाँच दिवस में महासागर पर सेतु बांधने का सामर्थ्य दिया था अथवा आज फिर वही संकल्प-शक्ति प्रकट हो गयी थी, जिसने युगों पहले रघुवंशियों को अजेय बना दिया था।”
― Pradyumna Kumar Tiwari, त्रिकूट: धर्म का चक्रव्यूह