So long as the love, even the smallest, of man toward woman is not destroyed, so long is his mind in bondage as the calf that drinks milk is to its mother.
Of those beings who live in ignorance, shut up and confined, as it were, in an egg, I have first broken the eggshell of ignorance and alone in the universe obtained the most exalted, universal Buddhahood.
Whoever sees me sees the teaching, and whoever sees the teaching sees me.
I having pierced through the shell of ignorance for the sake of creatures wrapped in ignorance, egg-born (as it were), am unique in the world, utterly enlightened with unsurpassed enlightenment. I myself am the world's eldest and highest.
Greater than all the joys of heaven and earth, Greater still than dominion over all the worlds, Is the joy of reaching the stream.
A fool suffers, thinking, 'I have children! I have wealth!' One's self is not even one's own. How then are children? How then is wealth.
To live in the consciousness of the inevitability of suffering, of becoming enfeebled, of old age and of death, is impossible. We must free ourselves from life, from all possible life.
Pure-limbed, white-canopied, one-wheeled, the cart roles on. See him that cometh: faultless, stream-cutter, bondless he.
Life is swept along, next-to-nothing its span. For one swept to old age no shelters exist. Perceiving this danger in death, one should drop the world's bait and look for peace.
Love is a fleeting emotion, to reach true nirvana one must know themselves and forsake love, for it breeds contempt.
Fearless, free of craving, and without blemish, Having reached the goal and destroyed the arrows of becoming, One is in one's final body.
First, rely on the spirit and meaning of the teachings, not on the words; Second, rely on the teachings, not on the personality of the teacher; Third, rely on real wisdom, not superficial interpretation; And fourth, rely on the essence of your pure Wisdom Mind, not on judgmental perceptions.
Let those who desire Buddhahood not train in many Dharmas but only one. Which one? Great compassion. Those with great compassion possess all the Buddha's teaching as if it were in the palm of their hand.
Who leaves behind all human bonds, And has cast off the bonds of heaven, Detached from all bonds everywhere: He is the one I call a brahmin.
Among all the sutras I have expounded, Lotus Sutra is the first and foremost! If you are able to uphold the Lotus Sutra, it means you are able to uphold the body of a Buddha.
Among all shravakas and pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas are the foremost. So is the Lotus Sutra; among all sutras, it is the foremost! Just as the Buddha is the King of the Law; so is the Lotus Sutra, it is the King of all Sutras!
In life, we can't always control the first arrow. However, the second arrow is our reaction to the first. This second arrow is optional.
For one who has abandoned craving and is free from grasping, who knows languages and their interpretations, the combinations of the letters and their order before and after, this is the final birth. The one is called the Great Being, the Great Sage.
If there is any religion that could respond to the needs of modern science, it would be Buddhism.
There's a phrase in Buddhism, 'Beginner's mind.' It's wonderful to have a beginner's mind.
