These three things are to be taken note of: the lowest love is sex - it is physical - and the highest refinement of love is compassion. Sex is below love, compassion is above love; love is exactly in the middle.
Very few people know what love is. Ninety-nine percent of people, unfortunately, think sexuality is love - it is not. Sexuality is very animal; it certainly has the potential of growing into love, but it is not actual love, only a potential....
If you become aware and alert, meditative, then sex can be transformed into love. And if your meditativeness becomes total, absolute, love can be transformed into compassion. Sex is the seed, love is the flower, compassion is the fragrance.
Buddha has defined compassion as love plus meditation. When your love is not just a desire for the other, when your love is not only a need, when your love is a sharing, when your love is not that of a beggar but an emperor, when your love is not asking for something in return but is ready only to give - to give for the sheer joy of giving - then add meditation to it and the pure fragrance is released. That is compassion; compassion is the highest phenomenon.
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
It is no good getting furious if you get stuck. What I do is keep thinking about the problem but work on something else. Sometimes it is years before I see the way forward. In the case of information loss and black holes, it was 29 years.
The future of humanity will move closer and closer toward the approach of Zen, because the meeting of the East and West is possible only through something like Zen, which is earthly and yet unearthly.
Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.
A harvest of peace is produced from a seed of contentment.
Do whatever you feel like, but respect the feelings of others.
You have got to be rich to have a swing like that.
It is nobler to declare oneself wrong than to insist on being right - especially when one is right.
Why do we find it hard to be at peace with ourselves, each other and the world? Imagine a lake that is flat and calm and pure - it is so clear you can see the bottom. Even when the wind blows it only ruffles the surface. All is still and peaceful in its depth. Then the first polluting chemicals of the new factory and farm come rolling down the hill and into the water. Immediately it starts to cloud over and bubble a little. Chemical reactions are taking place and the purity is lost. When purity is lost peace is lost. It is the same with human consciousness. We are innately peaceful beings. Peace is our deepest inner state of being, our true nature. To be at peace is to be in our natural state, but only when our consciousness is pure and clean and true. As soon as the pollutants of any negative images are allowed in, or we allow old memories and experiences to disturb us into negative thinking, our purity and therefore our inner peace are gone. It's not the external event or person that takes our peace away - it's because we give them permission to enter and give them life in our minds. Keep your mind and heart free of all pollution, and peace will always be with you.
Money has its uses, but it is limited. Among worldly powers and possessions, there are, doubtless, good things, but they are limited. However, from a Buddhist viewpoint, mental development will continue from life to life, because the nature of the mind is such that if certain mental qualities are developed on a sound basis, they always remain and, not only that, can increase. In fact, once properly developed, good qualities of mind eventually increase infinitely. Therefore spiritual practice brings both long-term happiness and more inner strength day by day.
Let's not take the dirt from the front face just because it's easier.
Calmness and tolerance act like air-conditioning in a room; they increase a persons efficiency.
In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.
It seems to be one of the paradoxes of creativity that in order to think originally, we must familiarize ourselves with the ideas of others.
