Buddhist Mystics

"The greatest achievement is selflessness. The greatest worth is self-mastery. The greatest quality is seeking to serve others. The greatest precept is continual awareness. The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything. The greatest action is not conforming with the world's ways. The greatest magic is transmuting the passions. The greatest generosity is non-attachment. The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind. The greatest patience is humility. The greatest effort is not concerned with results. The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go. The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances."

""I, without grasping will pass beyond sorrow, And I will attain nirvāṇa," one says. Whoever grasps like this Has great grasping."

"If you think you see both Destruction and becoming, Then you see destruction and becoming Through impaired vision."

"Due to having faith one relies on the practices, Due to having wisdom one truly knows. Of these two wisdom is the chief, Faith is its prerequisite."

""I am not, I will not be. I have not, I will not have." That frightens all the childish And extinguishes fear in the wise."

"Even if you seek to harm an enemy, You should remove your own defects and cultivate good qualities. Through that you will help yourself, And the enemy will be displeased."

"There is pleasure when a sore is scratched, But to be without sores is more pleasurable still. Just so, there are pleasures in worldly desires, But to be without desires is more pleasurable still."

"No suffering is self-caused. Nothing causes itself. If another is not self-made, How could suffering be caused by another? If suffering were caused by each, Suffering could be caused by both. Not caused by self or by other, How could suffering be uncaused?"

"Even three times a day to offer Three hundred cooking pots of food Does not match a portion of the merit In one instant of love."

"To those possessed of breeding, learning, handsome looks, Who have no wisdom, neither discipline, you need not bow. But those who do have these two qualities, Though lacking other virtues, you should revere."

"The accomplishments of a teacher of ants Are but accomplishments for earning a living. But the study of the termination of earthly incarnation— Why should that not be the accomplishment?"

"Although you may spend your life killing, You will not exhaust all your foes. But if you quell your own anger, your real enemy will be slain."

"If you desire ease, forsake learning. If you desire learning, forsake ease.How can the man at his ease acquire knowledge, And how can the earnest student enjoy ease?"

"Dr. Hong [Tao-Tze, master of the qigong menpai Tai Ji Men,] and his dizi had a very painful experience of what the “lack of conscience” is. The lack of conscience of corrupted bureaucrats and officers created the Tai Ji Men case. The great Buddhist sage Nagarjuna (150–250) wrote in his “Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom” that the greatest master is the one capable of “changing poison into medicine.” It is because they experienced the poison of the lack of conscience that Dr. Hong and his dizi were able to administer to the world the medicine of conscience. That we celebrate today the proves that the medicine has been effective."

"Without hope of reward Provide help to others. Bear suffering alone, And share your pleasures with beggars."