Buddhahood Quotes

“What need is there to say more?
The childish work for their own benefit,
The Buddhas work for the benefit of others.
Just look at the difference between them.

If I do not exchange my happiness, for the suffering of others, I shall not attain the state of Buddhahood.
And even in Samsara I shall have no real joy.

The source of all misery in the world lies in thinking of oneself;
The source of all happiness lies in thinking of others.”
― Shantideva

“Covered by the web of disturbing emotions,
One is a sentient being.
Freed from disturbing emotions,
One is called a buddha.
– Nagarjuna”
― Tsele Natsok Rangdrol, Lamp of Mahamudra

“If someone has compassion, he is a Buddha;
Without compassion, he is a Lord of Death.
With compassion, the root of Dharma is planted,
Without compassion, the root of Dharma is rotten.
One with compassion is kind even when angry,
One without compassion will kill even as he smiles.
For one with compassion, even his enemies will turn into friends,
Without compassion, even his friends turn into enemies.
With compassion, one has all Dharmas,
Without compassion, one has no Dharma at all.
With compassion, one is a Buddhist,
Without compassion, one is worse than a heretic.
Even if meditating on voidness, one needs compassion as its essence.
A Dharma practitioner must have a compassionate nature.
Compassion is the distinctive characteristic of Buddhism.
Compassion is the very essence of all Dharma.
Great compassion is like a wish-fulfilling gem.
Great compassion will fulfill the hopes of self and others.
Therefore, all of you, practitioners and laypeople,
Cultivate compassion and you will achieve Buddhahood.
May all men and women who hear this song,
With great compassion, benefit all beings!”
― Shabkar, The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin

“A million faces of Buddha smiled at the night's futile attempt to lull the Awakened One into an ocean of dreams.”
― Lidija Stankovikj, Alexander's Infinity

“Unless you realize that your own mind is the buddha, you will be deceived by the multitude of conceptual thoughts. So realize that your own mind is the buddha!”
― Padmasambhava, Advice from the Lotus-Born: A Collection of Padmasambhava's Advice to the Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal and Other Close Disciples

“In a lovely statement in Maitreyanatha‘s Universal Vehicle Discourse Literature, the future buddha says, „There is not one buddha and there are not many buddhas. Buddhas are neither one nor many.“ You can‘t say there are many buddhas because all buddhas are one in the body of reality. They share the same body of reality, which is infinite and absolute. But you can‘t say there is only one buddha, because each individual being evolves to buddhahood and enjoys her or his own communion with all other buddhas in oneness. Each enjoys it individually, so in their form bodies, in their beatific bodies, all buddhas are distinct, so that your buddhahood does not somehow subsume my buddhahood. Shakyamuni‘s buddhahood doesn‘t prevent us from the joy of our own buddhahood, even though when we achieve our own buddhahood we realize we are one with Shakyamuni. We are the same being as Shakyamuni, yet we individually enjoy being the same being, each of us. Isn‘t that lovely? (p. 118)”
― Robert A.F. Thurman, The Jewel Tree of Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism

“A buddha is the butterfly that finally emerges from the cocoon of the human life-form. (p. 63)”
― Robert A.F. Thurman, Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness

“Sansaara is Brahman disguised.”
― Saroj Aryal

“You do not become a Buddha by having some magical, mystical experience that confers Buddhahood on you, after which you can just slack off for the rest of your life. Buddhahood is something fragile and precious that must be cared for and maintained. It’s not automatic, and it’s not easy.”
― Brad Warner, Don't Be a Jerk: And Other Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan's Greatest Zen Master

“Go to bed before you are too tired. Wake up truly, when you wake up!”
― Saroj Aryal

“Learn what you already know.”
― Saroj Aryal

“The practice of Right Speech is to try to change our habits so that our speech arises from the seed of Buddha that is in us, and not from our unresolved, unwholesome seeds.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Buddah's Teaching

“Your body isn't just a lump of flesh; one day, you'll find it's a lump of miracle as well.”
― Saroj Aryal

“What draws ants to even the most remote sugar crystals? What entices bees to flowers? It's the fundamental code of life. Hunger is a taste of yearning your life code carries that, when seated into a human body, translates into mental and bodily desires. In the short term, within a single life, childhood limitations or arousals sow the majority of the seeds of desire. Most human goals frequently revolve around good food, good clothing, intimacy, artistic/scientific expression, and financial success. Across multiple lifetimes, it all ties back to our underlying evolutionary hunger. That is why some of our dreams are unexpectedly different from our waking life goals. That is why siblings born from the same parents, nurtured similarly, have weirdly different life goals - they are two different manifestations of two different derivative codes. This multi-life journey, when unaware, is exactly what we attribute to destiny, and when a little aware, we attribute to Karma. Once these little tributaries are done with their own little flow, they flow back to the original river.

In the grand existential scheme, as temporary and evolutionary desires are satisfied, we flow back with the current of existential hunger. This cosmic hunger is more of playfulness than a hunger, simply consciousness, with minimal interference from senses or other impurities, being drawn towards matter, like a playful snake chasing its own tail. Yes, it might be perplexing to our worldly mind. You remember the symbol Ying Yang? The dark dot is the matter in consciousness, and the white dot is the consciousness in Matter - like a lover playfully chasing their loved one. It's a merging of the two fundamental ingredients of existence.

Spirituality strives us to ride the original current, fulfilling and freeing us from temporary desires, allowing us to become one with that primordial life code. That is why a Buddha's desires can be attributed to the desires of existence itself. Life, in its microcosm, is complex enough, let alone the macro one.”
― Saroj Quotes

“Schopenhauer's insight suggests that individuals often perceive the boundaries of their own perspective as the boundaries of the world. This phenomenon extends to Buddhas, who may interpret the vastness of their own vision as the boundlessness of the world. It's why Buddhas may express ideas that appear ethereal, as consciousness is more fluid than solid and more dynamic than fluid.

As a result, Bodhisattvas, those aspiring to full Buddhahood, are often more articulate than fully enlightened beings. Fully enlightened individuals primarily guide through realization, experience, and symbolism rather than relying on words. Their journey to enlightenment also entails certain losses, including a loss of eloquence, a loss of physical dexterity, a loss of bodily activity, and even a loss of human-like characteristics.”
― Saroj Aryal

“Schopenhauer's insight suggests that individuals often perceive the boundaries of their own perspective as the boundaries of the world. This phenomenon extends to Buddhas, who may interpret the vastness of their own vision as the boundlessness of the world. It's why Buddhas may express ideas that appear ethereal, as consciousness is more fluid than solid and more dynamic than fluid, subtler than air.

As a result, Bodhisattvas, those aspiring to full Buddhahood, are often more articulate than fully enlightened beings. Fully enlightened individuals primarily guide through realization, experience, and symbolism rather than relying on words. Their journey to enlightenment also entails certain losses, including a loss of eloquence, a loss of physical dexterity, a loss of bodily activity, and even a loss of human-like characteristics.”
― Saroj Aryal

“A Buddha is not exemplary in the conventional sense. He is exemplary in the only way that matters: he battled his inner demons and discovered his unique path, nothing else.”
― Saroj Aryal

“Imagine you didn't have a body, but were merely a collection of desires floating eagerly in the air. What do you think you would unconditionally do once you obtained a body? Well, do that. This mortal body is an opportunity that doesn't always come your way.”
― Saroj Aryal

“A child on a mother's lap still needs some toys. Let meditation be your mother, and scriptures be your toys.”
― Saroj Aryal

“Don't trade your wings for shiny boots.”
― Saroj Aryal

“Brahman is a mirror. who lives in mirrors?”
― Saroj Aryal

“Preaching what you don't practice brings harm. It sews discord into your subconscious.”
― Saroj Aryal

“Let silence be your reeyaz.”
― Saroj Aryal

“Watch closely as your trust in them deepens: Does it yield more responsibility or manipulation? That's how you discern angels from the ordinary, hearts from the self-serving.”
― Saroj Aryal

“If someone asks if you're an explorer, hit the trail; and if someone asks where you're headed, pause and observe. Travel nurtures growth, but mindfulness is absolutely imperative.”
― Saroj Aryal

“Just as a tree grows branches, reaching out here and there before it gains its ultimate height, man's mistakes serve as the branches of his own growth, offering footholds for climbing higher.”
― Saroj Aryal

“Only when he is engulfed by suffering does man choose to rise higher. Suffering is indispensable for wisdom; Man adamantly refuses to learn the easy way.”
― Saroj Aryal

“Do clouds itch the sky? Does samsara itch Brahman?”
― Saroj Aryal

“It is inevitable that all human beings will perfectly realize their essential nature. Each of us, as perfect and infinite existence, is of necessity on the path to buddhahood, even in the phenomenal world. This is what we call “the process of becoming a buddha.”
― Kōun Yamada, Zen: The Authentic Gate

“The dog is a poor animal, innocent. There is nothing wrong in the dog. Perhaps he has to travel a long way to become a buddha, but it is only a question of time. Some day a dog is also going to become enlightened. In some birth, somewhere in the future ... You should understand it clearly that in the eternity of time it does not matter whether you become enlightened today, or tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, in this life or in another life. In the eternity of time it does not matter at all. In the eternity of time nobody is ahead and nobody is behind, because there is no beginning in time and there is no end in time.”
― Osho