• The wise will seek liberation, detaching themselves from obstructions, purifying heart and mind. • The world is nothing more than a lot of empty labels. • The world is the way it is, and that’s how it is. • The world needn’t be so wan and wasted. • The world revolves as simply as the cycle of the mango tree, which blooms and blossoms and bears fruit, which falls and rots and takes to seed, and takes to root, and so the cycle goes around again. • Their own good deeds welcome those who have done them as they go from this life into the next. • There are 84,000 methods for us to look at the heart, but all of them lead to the same end. • There are no auspicious days; all days are auspicious days. • There are several stages of jhana, each one more focused than the previous. • There are two kinds of peacefulness: one is the peace that comes through awareness of the root of mental actions; the other is the peace that comes through the gradual development of wisdom. The first kind of peace is dependent on the mind being detached from things. To go to the next stage, it must lose its dependency on detachment from things; and attach to the calm attached to detachment from things. • There are two sides to everything, and we must see both. When happiness arises, don’t get lost; when suffering arises, don’t get lost. • There are two types of meditation, namely, tranquility meditation and insight meditation; the second grows out of the first. • There are two ways to contemplate the body: one is as repulsive; the other is as non-self. • There can be something in nothing, but void-ness can only be void. 112 • There cannot be movement without rest. • There comes a time, when, after a long period of time, this world contracts and stays like that for a long period of time; but sooner or later, after a long period of time, begins to expand again. • There is a cure for the maladies of the mind, but few take the medicine. • There is a distinction between all that was made, and all that was not made. • There is a sense of ease and fearlessness coming from the eightfold path, a sense of equanimity and emotional balance. We feel at ease rather than a sense of anxiety, tension, and emotional conflict. There is clarity; there is peacefulness, stillness and knowing. • There is contentment in both living and dying. • There is every possibility for us to create favorable environments, even here and now, not only individually but also collectively. • There is mind that is fixed in its views and prejudices and thinks it knows everything; there is mind that accepts what others say is the truth; and there is the mind that is open and can reflect on the Four Noble Truths. • There is no ‘mine.’ Whatever we think of as ‘mine’ is only with us temporarily and eventually goes back to its source, following the nature of all things. • There is no ‘quickest’ method. • There is no island of refuge for him who is dogged by anger. • There is no merit in confession if it is followed by the same transgression. • There is no person on this earth who will never be blamed; the wise will remain detached; the unwise become inflamed. 113 • There is no possession, only things that can be with self as long as self is not extinguished. • There is no self that may be said to be running things. There is only the observation of nature moving according to the rules of cause and effect. • There is no stopping for rest on the way to death. • There is no such thing as a self with a personal essence that is unchanging. • There is nothing to attain, and there is nothing not to attain. • There is really no ego; it is like unto a mirage. • There is short pleasure of the frightened in the arms of the frightened. • There is so little wisdom in this world that those who have some should share it. • There is so much wisdom in the word of the Dhamma; you can hear it crackle in the silence. • There is suffering. The insight is simply the acknowledgement that there is suffering without making it personal. • There is the heart of the body; there is the heart of mindfulness. One is fire and heat; the other is the quiet and calm. • There is the mind that perceives, and there is the mind that doesn’t perceive. • There’s no Buddha without the mind but no mind without the Buddha. • There’s no Buddhist monk in emptiness. • There’s no place on earth where you can escape death. • There’s no spell to protect you against the charms of a woman. You’ll have to protect yourself. 114 • There’s nobody special. Every action follows the same old laws of nature in one or another way. • There’s the one side and the other side; there’s the one shore and the other shore. • They are awakened ones, who day and night delight in developing the mind. • They say that poison does not infect the hand that has no wound. • Think carefully about what you do before you do it. • Thinking never ends; only through the means of right concentration can there ever be an end. • This body falls apart like a nest of diseases, a heap of corruption helpless and frail. • This body of flesh and bone is a temporary home. • This body which is something that exists within us right now is something which is largely unknown and misunderstood. • This form of mine is soon to give out such a stench that even jackals won’t come close. • This generation delights, revels, and rejoices in sensual pleasures. • This illusion of person, called ‘myself,’ is a complex of mentality and materiality, wherein there is no abiding entity such as soul or reality. • This incessant torment of the defilements, hotter than the hottest fire, can only be relieved through practice of the Dhamma._ • This is the heart of the practice, the heart of the effort: carry on an internal dialogue, within the mind, discussing and reflecting upon the Dhamma. As worldly attachment is uprooted, mindfulness and wisdom untiringly penetrate inwards, with the one who knows sustaining awareness, with equanimity, mindfulness and clarity, without getting involved with anything. 115 • This mind that went formerly wandering about shall now be tamed and reigned-in, as the mahout who holds the hook, holds the furious elephant back. • This world as it is commonly known is the opposite of the Dhamma. • Those free from passion delight in the Dhamma. • Those smitten with passion fall back into a self-woven spider’s web, time and time again. • Those who are evil in character face death in delusion. • Those who are grasped by the grasping of grasping are beyond grasping. • Those who are highly developed mentally are able to suppress the advance of illness. • Those who are tied to life run back and forth along this shore, while those who are free float to the other. • Those who follow the practice might well follow the example of the ox that keeps moving through the deep mire carrying a heavy load. The ox will never really relax until he is out of the mire. • Those who follow the way are like warriors who fight single-handedly against a multitude of foes. • Those who have time to breathe, have time to meditate. • Those who imagine truth in untruth and see untruth in truth never arrive at the truth but follow vain desires. • Those who maintain equanimity can be happy, alone or in company. • Those who understand anything about the Dhamma appear serene and at peace. • Those who walk the way should avoid sensuality as those who carry hay should avoid coming near a source of fire. 116 • Those whose appetites have been conquered and are full of light, they are free in this world. • Thoughtlessness is the path to death. • Through clear self-analysis, we are turning our maledictions into benedictions. • Through cultivating merit for a long time, the wise man arrives in untroubled, happy states. • Through endless ages, the mind has never changed. • Through facing and overcoming the challenges and obstacles that we meet, our understanding will ripen and mature into higher wisdom. • Through meditation, wisdom is gained; through lack of meditation wisdom is lost. • Through practicing loving-kindness towards oneself, one can come to feel a sense of enjoyment in the happiness of others, as if it were one’s own. • Through reflection and contemplation, one begins to see the unsatisfactoriness of saying foolish things or just babbling or chatting away for no good reason. • Through sense stimulation we suffer alienation from ourselves. • Through serving the basic needs of fellow beings, one gains merit. • Through the faculty of mindfulness, wisely reflecting, the mind sees that all things are merely conditions arising out of the influence of elements, without any individual being controlling them. • Thus, a monk dwells, perceiving again and again, feelings as just feelings, not mine not ‘I,’ not ‘self,’ but just as phenomena. • To accumulate evil brings unendurable pain. • To associate with evil people brings suffering. 117 • To be moderate in eating, to live alone, and practice purest consciousness, this is the teaching of the awakened ones. • To bless is the converse of to curse. • To draw out the living message of any great scriptural classic, it is not enough for us to merely investigate in terms of scholarship. We need to take a step beyond scholarly examination and make an application of those teachings unto ourselves in our present condition. • To enlighten another, even if only through the quotation of one verse or stanza, this is considered to be the greatest merit. • To face death peacefully, one must learn to live peacefully. • To free yourself from pain means freeing all, whilst, concomitantly, suffering the pain of all. • To genuinely understand the mind, we have to investigate its every movement. • To give yourself-up, without regret, is the greatest charity. • To keep accumulating evil brings unending pain. • To learn much without practicing it is like counting the cows of others. • To let go of suffering, we have to let go of consciousness. • To realize truth, one must practice meditation and during meditation, the insight of no-self must arise. • To study the Dhamma without practicing is like carrying a raft on one’s head instead of using it to cross the stream. • To the one who always reveres and respects the aged, four things will increase: life, health happiness and power. • To transcend motion and stillness is the highest meditation. 118 • To understand is to know, but failure to practice clouds the understanding. • To understand suffering means to accept suffering. • To understand the mind, you have to act without acting. • Touch the world, and you won’t want to put your fingers in your mouth. • Train your mind to be centered, not expecting and anticipating anything. • Train your mind to be prepared to react with equanimity to any sudden or unexpected attack from any quarter. • Tranquility is good in itself but not an end in itself; tranquility is a means to an end. It is a stage in a technique that leads beyond itself, beyond beginning and ending, beyond attachment. It is not a permanent condition. Whatever you become, you will un-become; no matter how high you may go in concentration, tranquility will always be in a state of being and becoming. Tranquility has a purpose as a step in a phase that leads beyond itself onto a higher end. • Tranquility will always be in an unsatisfactory condition, always be incomplete, with a beginning, a middle and an end. • Trapped in Samsara, in a bubble created by you, how can you escape? What can you do? • Treat all beings with kindness and compassion. • True Buddhist sayings can be traced, through the Supreme Mind that discovered them, straight back into the Dhamma itself. • True contemplation takes place in the present continuous tense. • True equanimity will stand all severe tests, withstand all resistance and regenerate itself and draw from resources within, draw from sources rooted in insight. 119 • True knowingness has no ups and downs. • Try and remember the happiest moment in your life, and, maybe, you won’t be able to. This is because happiness is a transient state and has to be constantly renewed, unless it is the ultimate happiness that comes with release from suffering. • Trying to take a short-cut can be the long way around. • Turn the light of the Dhamma and shine it on the searing afflictions, and they disappear. • Two different, independent units of perception cannot arise at the same time. • Two seeds from the same stock will grow up differently according to the soil in which they are sown. • Unattached to speculations, views, and sense desires, the pure-hearted one, with clear vision, will never be reborn in the cycle of suffering. • Unaware of the true Dharma, Samsara seems so long. • Unborn phenomena rest in the dark. • Uncover and reveal all the things you have been hiding from yourself. • Understanding comes in mid-sentence. • Unencumbered by ideas, the enlightened ones see reality. • Unless you look into your true nature, all this talk about cause and effect is nonsense. • Unselfish love can be extended to everyone. • Unsurpassable sublime sympathetic joy leads to the end of suffering. • Until the heart is skilled enough to control itself on its own, never trust it. • Until we can break through the false perception that we are compact, we will not see the ‘non-nature’ of things. 120 • Until we see our true nature, all we see is nomenclature. • Unwholesome inclinations take hold and lead us into suffering. • Unwisely, we desire for things to be permanent, yet we realize that we have no power to make impermanent things last. We realize that we have no control or authority over any thing. • Uproot the ego-illusion from living experience, and free the mind from its possession. • Use everything without using anything. • Use speech only when it is useful. • Use your understanding of correct moral conduct to keep the mind clear and aware and collected, in the present moment, to keep your motives clean. Maintain this composure. • Using the mind to look for non-reality; this is true awareness. • Vipassana breathing is just a means to an end and not an end in itself. • Vipassana meditation is an alertness meditation in which everything that comes through the six doors of perception of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind is to be noted, watched, and observed and analyzed as an object of awareness. • Virtue helps the disciple to be fearless, as he has done no wrong to himself or to others. He feels no remorse, guilt or sense of blame; hence, he feels joy, rapture, calm and happiness. He achieves concentration and knowledge of seeing things as they really are. • Virtue is virtuosity seeking true happiness. • Virtue, concentration and wisdom are never out-dated or behind the times. They’re independent of time and place. • Waiting for what you want to hear is a foolish form of suffering. 121 • Walk the middle path, paying attention to mental states, while at the same time, keeping them at a distance, viewing them with detachment. • Wanting and lying go together. • Watch your thoughts. Draw yourself out of evil ways, like an elephant stuck in the muck. • Water blanketed with aquatic plant life cannot let in light. • Water occupies without striving. • Water, like life, trickles away. • Waters of the rivers and oceans can’t equal defilement-inspired cravings: they perpetually engulf the hearts of sentient beings and never run out. • Waves of emotion carry us up and fling us down; and, no sooner are we at rest, than another wave carries us up and brings us down again. • We are absolutely convinced we are here at this given point of time and place, and we never ever consider that what we assume to be our point of view is relative to nothing anywhere, anytime, anyplace. • We are all equal in suffering; we are all equal first. • We are always trying to be nice, but we are always feeling a little offended by this or that little thing. That is just the way that it is and it’s possible to detach from that. • We are at liberty to create new and fresh kamma that leads towards either progress or downfall in life. • We are driven by compulsion or delusion, so that moods of the mind continually fabricate notions without valid basis or value. • We are easily made to feel hurt, wounded, upset or worried, but, with reflection, we can see that the world is a worrisome and sensitive place. 122 • We are like the warriors of old, who, when threatened, from the outside by their enemies, would retreat into their fortress. The heart of right concentration is our stronghold; the defilements are our enemies. • We are not just the grip incarnate as long as we are aware of the nature of grasping. • We are not trying to identify with the problem of suffering but simply affirming that there is the problem. • We are quite predatory creatures; we think we are civilized, but we have a bloody history. Our instinctual nature is to kill, but we also contain the instinctual nature not to kill. Which way we go depends on the inclination of the mind. • We are subject to the pleasure/pain principle. Attracted and repelled, when we find something we do not like, we try to get away from it and escape to something that we like. We do not contemplate the ugliness of life the way it is; we do not want to accept it the way it is. • We are the masters and makers of ourselves; the protectors and destroyers of ourselves; we must be our own saviors because there is no one else to save us. • We are tormented from too much thinking, but we do not ask ourselves why we are thinking. We do not seek out the source of the torment which arises in thinking. • We are tricked by continuity, which hides in the nature of impermanence. • We are up to our ears, in things that wouldn’t be there if we could see them for what they really were. • We are watching a series of actions of self-degeneration and cessation. • We breathe in and out without knowing the cause of the breath. 123 • We can examine the defilements from all angles and see the suffering they bring, until the mind refuses to be their slave any longer. • We can find balance in the ever-restless ocean in an island of internal equanimity. • We can see birth and death and mind and body, but we shouldn’t let them clutter the mind. Let them pass by and observe which way they go. • We can train and focus our minds so no negative reactions to our actions come our way. • We can train the heart so that it is skilled and controls itself from within. • We cannot deputize anyone to suffer our distress. We must deal with it ourselves. • We cannot leave a grasping mind behind, can we? • We cannot wish that everything we say is ‘mine’ is permanent, just as we cannot wish that we were the owners of our bodies. • We cause the degree of our suffering in proportion to our lack of restraint. • We commonly forget that point and size in space are relative to nothing at all, and, that the direction our eyes are pointed makes us dependent on a very limited point of view. • We continue to try to act in accordance with wrong motives without realizing that we are not gaining anything through our efforts. • We do not own our mental processes; they only come and go. • We do we always run at cross-purposes with ourselves? • We don’t have to know everything about everything; it is only necessary to know everything is arising is ceasing. • We don’t usually see the darkness of night in the right light. 124
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