Gautam Buddha Quotes

From craving is born grief, from craving is born fear. For one freed from craving there's no grief - so how fear?

Whatever has been said about you by others, simply drop it. It is absolutely crap. They don’t know about themselves; what can they say about you which can be truthful? And the opinions that you have collected from others … just try to watch from whom you are collecting your opinions. They are not from a Gautam Buddha, or from a Jesus, or from a Socrates; they are from people who are as ignorant as you are. They are simply passing on others’ opinions that have been given to them.

In the beauty of countless danseuse in my palace, I saw an endless suffering in the form of distorted and diseased figures as the absolute certainty towards which they were heading even as insects unwittingly consign themselves to the blazing flame.

with Venice. One lucky Venetian shot later – no more Parthenon. Temple of Artemis One of the actual Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, until 356 bce, when a bloke called Herostratus burned it down because he wanted attention. Boeung Kak lake The largest and most beautiful lake in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, until it was decided to pump it full of sand to build luxury apartments on it. Now a puddle. Buddhas of Bamiyan The magnificent statues of Gautam

The next time you enter a temple of Gautam Buddha, just sit silently, watch the statue. Because the statue has been made in such a way, in such proportions that if you watch it you will fall silent. It is a statue of meditation; it is not concerned with Gautam Buddha. That’s why all those statues look alike—Mahavira, Gautam Buddha, Neminatha, Adinatha … . The twenty-four tirthankaras of the Jainas … in the same temple you will find twenty-four statues all alike, exactly alike. In my childhood I used to ask my father, “Can you explain to me how it is possible that twenty-four persons are exactly alike—the same size, the same nose, the same face, the same body … ?” And he used to say, “I don’t know. I am always puzzled myself that there is not a bit of difference. And it is almost unheard of—there are not even two persons in the whole world who are alike, what to say about twenty-four?” But as my meditation blossomed I found the answer—not from anybody else, I found the answer that these statues have nothing to do with the people. These statues have something to do with what was happening inside those twenty-four people, and that happening was exactly the same. We have not bothered about the outside; we have insisted that only the inner should be paid attention to. The outer is unimportant. Somebody is young, somebody is old, somebody is black, somebody is white, somebody is man, somebody is woman—it does not matter; what matters is that inside there is an ocean of silence. In that oceanic state, the body takes a certain posture. You have observed it yourself, but you have not been alert. When you are angry, have you observed? Your body takes a certain posture. In anger you cannot keep your hands open; in anger—the fist. In anger you cannot smile—or can you? With a certain emotion, the body has to follow a certain posture.

..reincarnation is a truth, because in existence nothing dies. Even the physicist will say, about the objective world, that nothing dies. You can destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki but you cannot destroy a single drop of water. You cannot destroy. Physicists have become aware of this impossibility. Whatever you do, only the form changes. But nothing can be destroyed in the objective world. The same is true about the world of consciousness, of life. There is no death. Death is only a change from one form into another form, and ultimately from form to formlessness. Only Gautam Buddha has given the right word for this experience. In English it is difficult to translate it, because languages develop only after experience. It is just arbitrarily that I am calling it "enlightenment." But it is very arbitrary; it does not really give you the sense that Buddha's word gives. He calls it nirvana. Nirvana means ceasing to be. Strange... ceasing to be. Not to be is nirvana. That does not mean that you are no more; it simply means you are no longer an entity, embodied. The dewdrop drops into the ocean. Now it is the whole ocean. Existence is alive at every stage. Nothing is dead. Even a stone - which you think seems to be completely dead - is not dead. So many living electrons are running so fast inside it that you cannot see them, but they are all living beings. Their bodies are so small that nobody has seen them; we don't even have any scientific instrument to see the electron, it is only guesswork. We can see the effect; hence we think there must be a cause. The cause has not been seen, only the effect has been seen. But the electron is as alive as you are. The whole existence is synonymous with life. Here nothing dies. Death is an impossibility. Yes, things change from one form to another form till they become mature enough that they need not go to school again. Then they move into a formless life, then they become one with the ocean itself.

God is not a necessity for religion. Buddhism does not believe in God, Jainism does not believe in God. So try to understand, because in the West it is a problem. You are aware only of three religions which are all rooted in Judaism: Christianity, Judaism and Mohammedanism. All three believe in God. So you are not aware of Buddha – he never believed in God. I am reminded of H.G.Wells, his statement about Gautam Buddha. He said, “He is the most godless person, yet the most godly.” A godless person, and godly? Do you think there is any contradiction? There is no contradiction. Buddha never believed in God, there was no need. He was so utterly fulfilled that his whole fulfillment became a fragrance around him. Mahavira never believed in God, yet his life was as divine as life can be. So when I say God is a fiction, please do not misunderstand me. God is a fiction but godliness is not a fiction; that is a quality. “God” is a person…as a person it is a fiction. There is no God sitting in heaven creating the world. And do you think a God would create such a mess that you call the world? Then what is left for the Devil? If anybody has created this world it must be the Devil, it cannot be God.

The people who are meat eaters are bound to have little sensitivity, they are more hard. Even in the name of love they will kill; even in the name of peace they will go to war. In the name of freedom, in the name of democracy, they will murder. A cannibal cannot be called human. If he can eat living human beings, he has no heart, he has no love, he has no sensitivity. He is just a stone. But you don't think the same way when somebody kills a lion or a deer, because you don't think that the deer has as much life as you have. The deer may have a beloved; the deer may have children. You don't think of the lion, when you kill him, that he may have a family. His small cubs will be orphans. He is as alive as you are - in fact more alive than you are. Destroying him only for a few taste buds on your tongue, for the taste... It seems to me that killing animals for eating is not very far away from killing human beings. They differ only in their body, in their shape, but it is the same life that you are destroying. With new technology the earth is perfectly capable of giving you food. You can make it as tasteful as you want, and you can give it any flavor that you love. Just for taste, destroying life is simply disgusting. And destroying life, you are destroying many qualities in you. You cannot become a Gautam Buddha. You cannot have that purity of consciousness, that sensitivity.

No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again. ~Gautam Buddha

Place Person Kapilvastu Gautam Buddha Macedonia Alexander, the Great Jalianwala Bagh General Dyer Anand Bhawan Jawaharlal Nehru Chittore Maharana Pratap Haldi Ghati Maharana Pratap Sabarmati Mahatma Gandhi Sitab Diyara Jai Prakash Narayan Shantiniketan Rabindra Nath Tagore Talwandi Guru Nanak Sevagram Mahatma Gandhi Pawapuri Mahavir Kushi Nagar Gautam Buddha Ibrahim Patti Chandra Shekhar Lumbini Gautam Buddha Mecca Prophet Mohammed Waterloo Napoleon Bonaparte Porbandar Mahatma Gandhi Bardoli Sardar Patel Fatehpur Sikri Akbar, the Great Puducherry Aurobindo Ghosh Belur Math Rama Krishna Paramhans Pawanar Vinoba Bhave Seringapatnam Tipu Sultan Kundgram Mahavir Jeeradei Dr. Rajendra Prasad Cuttack Subhash Chandra Bose Trimurti Bhawan Jawaharlal Nehru Jerusalem Jesus Christ Corsica Napoleon Bonaparte Trafalgar Nelson

What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you create.’ – Gautam Buddha

मैं भौतिक सुख की तलाश में नहीं हूँ। इन भौतिक सुखों के मायाजाल के कारण मैंने इनका त्याग कर दिया है। मैं वह मंजिल पाना चाहता हूँ, जहाँ मेरा मन आनंदित रहेगा, मुझे मोक्ष मिलेगा।

वास्तविकता या यथार्थ को गलत तरीके से देखना ही लगभग समस्त कष्टों और पीड़ा का स्रोत है।

उपोस्था की आठ रीतियाँ हैं— 1. अहिंसा का व्रत लें। 2. झूठ न बोलें। 3. सदाचार का मार्ग अपनाएँ। 4. मिताहार लें। 5. इत्र से दूर रहें। 6. धरती पर सोएँ। 7. मालाएँ व फूल न पहनें। 8. नशा न करें।

सुंदरता का आम्रपाली के शब्दों में चित्रण किया किया गया है— ‘‘काले, कुंचित लहराते केश सन हुए से रूखे न बदला, शब्दों का सच! उन्नत, सुंदर वक्ष स्थल पर बेजान हुए सब कंठहार सब कर्णफूल सूखे तरुवर के पत्तों से पर न बदला शब्दों का सच। सोने-सी दमकती ये काया, है रूप छिपा इन सलवट में, पर न बदला वाणी का सच। कमल शाख सी चिकनी बाँहें, रहीं बाँस के डंडे-सी, पर न बदला शब्दों का सच। चिकने फूलों से ये पद तल हैं पड़ी दरारें जाल बनीं, पर न बदला वाणी का सच॥ जीवन की तपिश में झुलस गई सुंदर काया, बेरंग, ढहे जर्जर घर-सी पर न बदला शब्दों का सच तेरी सच्ची वाणी का सच।

बाहर आसरा न ढूँढ़ो। दीपक की तरह सत्य को धारण करो। केवल सत्य में मोक्ष को खोजो।’’ हम सभी जानते हैं कि आग बुझ जाने पर उसकी लपटें भी शांत हो जाती हैं। इसलिए, जब हम सबसे पहले यह जानते हैं कि बौद्ध धर्म के लक्ष्य ‘निर्वाण’ का अर्थ आग का शमन है तो ऐसे में आध्यात्मिक लक्ष्य के लिए इस छवि या बिंब का मानस पट पर चित्रांकन करना कठिन होता है। यहाँ आध्यात्मिक लक्ष्य है—शरीर और आत्मा दोनों का अंत। इस संकल्पना को शब्दों में ढालने में चूक हो सकती है। प्रश्न है कि बुद्ध भगवान् के समय इस बुझी आग से क्या प्रतिबिंबित होता है? प्राचीन ब्राह्मणों के अनुसार, ‘‘बुझी आग ‘प्रसुप्त’ अवस्था में प्रविष्ट हो जाती है। उसका अस्तित्व विशेष ईंधन से मुक्त होकर पूरे ब्रह्मांड में फैल जाता है। जब भगवान् बुद्ध ने ब्राह्मणों के सामने ‘निर्वाण’ की व्याख्या करने के लिए इस बिंब का प्रयोग किया तो उन्होंने इस प्रश्न को अनदेखा कर दिया कि बुझी हुई आग का अस्तित्व रहता है या नहीं। इसकी बजाय उन्होंने इस विचार पर ध्यान केंद्रित किया कि ‘अग्नि’ को परिभाषित करना, सीमित करना असंभव है, जो वास्तव में जलती ही नहीं।’’ अपने शिष्यों को शिक्षा देते समय बुद्ध ने ‘निर्वाण’ को मोक्ष या मुक्ति के संदर्भ में देखा। स्पष्ट है, उस समय लोग यह सोचते थे कि जलती आग में उत्तेजना होती है, यह पराधीन होती है तथा ईंधन के बंधन में आबद्ध होती है। आग जलाने के लिए जरूरी है कि कोई व्यक्ति उसे पकड़े। जब ईंधन जल जाता है, तब आग मुक्त अवस्था में आ जाती है। न उसमें जलन रहती है, न वह पराधीन रहती है, न ही आबद्ध। वह शांत, मुक्त हो जाती है। इसलिए, पालि काव्य में बार-बार मुक्ति के लिए बुझी हुई आग के रूपक का सहारा लिया जाता रहा है। वस्तुतः यह रूपक आग के पैटर्न का हिस्सा है, जिसमें उपादान तथा स्कंध नामक दो शब्द भी सम्मिलित हैं। ‘उपादान’ का अर्थ है—चिपके रहना; स्कंध का अर्थ है—पाँच समूह भावना ज्ञान, विचार, प्रक्रिया और चेतना। स्कंध किसी एक के साथ जुड़े अनुभव को ही परिभाषित नहीं करता, बल्कि यह पेड़ के तने से भी जुड़ा है। जिस प्रकार से बुझ जाने पर आग किसी पर आश्रित नहीं रहती, न ही लकड़ी का उसके लिए महत्त्व रह जाता है, उसी प्रकार से हमारा मन शांत हो जाता है, तब उसका इन स्कंधों से कोई संबंध नहीं रह जाता।

Gautam Buddha used to say to his disciples, “To be angry is so stupid that it is inconceivable that intelligent human beings go on doing it. Somebody else is doing something and you are getting angry? He may be doing something wrong, he may be saying something wrong, he may be making some effort to humiliate you, to insult you—but that is his freedom. If you react, you are a slave. If you say to the person, ‘It is your joy to insult me, it is my joy not to be angry,’ you are behaving like a master.

It is because of this point that Gautam Buddha denies the existence of one God. He denies one God, not because he is an atheist; he denies one God because he respects every living being as a god. There are as many gods as there are living beings. A few have attained to the realization of who they are, and most of the people among the living beings are still asleep. They do not know who they are but their ignorance does not change their nature The moment one becomes conscious of himself, he is no longer a mortal; he becomes an immortal. He has always been an immortal but because of his misunderstanding, he degraded himself into being a mortal, into someone who is going to die. But still, those who are aware of their being know that nobody dies. Death is an illusion.The authentic religion does not teach you to worship. The authentic religion teaches you to discover your immortality, to discover the god within you.

Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it” ― Gautam Buddha