#buddhism

A wide and vague impression exists that so-called Eastern religion is more contemplative, innocuous, and humane than the proselytizing monotheisms of the West. Don't believe a word of this: try asking the children of Indochina who were dumped by their parents for inherited deformities that were attributed to sins in a previous 'life. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#buddhism #eastern-religion #indochina #monotheism #rebirth-buddhism

Bliss and suffering, it seems, always go hand in hand. ↗

— Kentetsu Takamori

#inspirational #religion #inspirational

Buddhism is all about science. If science is the systematic pursuit of the accurate knowledge of reality, then science is Buddhism, Buddhism is science. ↗

— Robert A.F. Thurman

#psychology #science #spirituality #wisdom #science

On the philosophical level, both Buddhism and modern science share a deep suspicion of any notion of absolutes, whether conceptualize as a transcendent being, as an eternal, unchanging principle such as soul, or as a fundamental substratum of reality. ... In the Buddhist investigation of reality, at least in principle, empirical evidence should triumph over scriptural authority, no matter how deeply venerated a scripture may be. ~ 14th Dalai Lama in his talk to the Society for Neuroscience in 2005 in Washington. ↗

— Dalai Lama XIV

#evidence #science #scripture #science

Emotional states are fairly quick bursts of neuronal gossip. Traits, on the other hand, are more like the neuronal equivalent of committed relationships. ↗

— Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

#humor #science #truth #humor

One should not honour one's own religion and condemn the religions of others, but one should honour other's religions for this or that reason. So doing, one help's one's own religion to grow and render service to the religions of others too. In acting otherwise one digs the grace of one's own religion and does harm to other religions. Whosoever honours his own religion and condemns other religions, does so indeed through devotion to his own religion, thinking 'I will glorify my own religion'. But on the contrary, in so he injures his own religion more gravely. So concord is good: Let all listen, and be willing to listen to the doctrines professed by others. ↗

— Emperor Ashoka of India

#buddhism #listening #religion #respect #tolerance

Attachment leads to suffering. ↗

— Gautama Buddha

#buddhism

No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words. ↗

— Roger Zelazny

#history #humanity #memory #narrative #reality

Whereever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear. ↗

— Shunryu Suzuki

#buddhism

We have two alternatives: either we question our beliefs - or we don't. Either we accept our fixed versions of reality- or we begin to challenge them. In Buddha's opinion, to train in staying open and curious - to train in dissolving our assumptions and beliefs - is the best use of our human lives. ↗

— Pema Chödrön

#buddhism