Ananda said: "Friendship with what is lovely, association with what is lovely, intimacy with what is lovely--that is half of the holy life." The Buddha responded: "Don't say that, Ananda. It's the whole not the half of the holy life. One so blessed with what is lovely will develop a right way of being, a thinking that no longer grasps at what is untrue, an aim that is concerned and ready, a contemplation that is unattached and free. Association with what is lovely is the whole of the holy life."

- Samyutta Nikaya

"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.

- Nagarjuna, "Precious Garland"


To pass judgment hurriedly doesn't mean you're a judge. The wise one who weighs the right judgment & wrong, the intelligent one who judges others impartially, unhurriedly, in line with the Dhamma, guarding the Dhamma, guarded by the Dhamma: he's called a judge.

- Dhammapada, 19, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.


Even as rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, So lust breaks through an ill-trained mind. Even as rain breaks not through a well-thatched house, So lust breaks not through a well-trained mind.

- Dhammapada 13-14


Let alone seven years, monks, whoever practices on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness for six, five, four, three, two years, one year, or one month, can also expect one of two fruits-either the highest understanding in this very life or can attain the fruit of no-return. Let alone a month, monks, whoever practices the Four Establishments of Mindfulness one week can also expect one of two fruits-either the highest understanding in this very life or the fruit of no-return.

- Adapted from Satipatthana-sutta, translated by Thich Nhat Hanh and Annabel Laity


A man approached the Blessed One and wanted to have all his philosophical questions answered before he would practice. In response, the Buddha said, It is as if a man had been wounded by a poisoned arrow and when attended to by a physician were to say, I will not allow you to remove this arrow until I have learned the caste, the age, the occupation, the birthplace, and the motivation of the person who wounded me. That man would die before having learned all this. In exactly the same way, anyone who should say, I will not follow the teaching of the Blessed One until the Blessed One has explained all the multiform truths of the world-that person would die before the Buddha had explained all this.

- from the Majjhima Nikaya


Everything is as it is. It has no name other than the name we give it. It is we who call it something; we give it a value. We say this thing is good or it's bad, but in itself, the thing is only as it is. It's not absolute; it's just as it is. People are just as they are.

- Ajahn Sumedho, "The Mind and the Way"