20th-century Buddhist Teacher Quotes

Lama Ole Nydahl
Taizan Maezumi
Nyanaponika Thera
Gil Fronsdal

The understanding that truth is not neutral, but is instead blissful, is something only meditators and lovers trust.

Lama Ole Nydahl
Lama Ole Nydahl
When you have achieved a state of calmness and readiness, then you are ready to know, ready to understand in a deep way the dance between emptiness and appearance. Once you catch a glimpse of that dance, don't hang on to it. Just let it go, like your first glimpse of essence love.

Mindfulness in fact has, if we may personify it, a rather unassuming character. Compared with it, mental factors such as devotion, energy, imagination and intelligence are certainly more colourful personalities, making an immediate and strong impact on people and situations. Their conquests are sometimes rapid and vast, though often insecure. Mindfulness, on the other hand, is of an unobtrusive nature. Its virtues shine inwardly, and in ordinary life most of its merits are passed on to other mental faculties which generally receive all the credit.

Nyanaponika Thera
Nyanaponika Thera
Finally we are being told the truth: life isn't always easy and pleasant. We already know this to be true, but somehow we tend to go through life thinking that there is something wrong with us when we experience sadness, grief, and physical and emotional pain. The first truth points out that this is just the way it is. There is nothing wrong with you: you have just been born into a realm where pain is a given.

What would it be like if, right in the midst of this busyness, we were to consciously take our hands off the controls? What if we were to intentionally stop our mental computations and our rushing around and, for a minute or two, simply pause and notice our inner experience?

The ground of fearlessness is fear. In order to be fearless, you have to stand in the middle of your fear.

I am not devaluing thoughts. Just do not mix up what we think with what actually is.

Taizan Maezumi
Taizan Maezumi
Mindfulness, by helping us notice our impulses before we act, gives us the opportunity to decide whether to act and how to act

Gil Fronsdal
Gil Fronsdal
Christian literature makes reference to many episodes that parallel the experiences of those going a yogic way. Saint Anthony, one of the first desert mystics, frequently encountered strange and sometimes terrifying psychophysical forces while at prayer.