Bodhisattva Quotes

A bodhisattva is someone who has compassion within himself or herself and who is able to make another person smile or help someone suffer less. Every one of us is capable of this.

Nhat Hanh

Compassion, Suffering, Able

Thich Nhat Hanh (2008). “Be Free Where You Are: A Talk Given at the Maryland Correctional Institute: Easyread Super Large 24pt Edition”, p.42, ReadHowYouWant.com

90 Copy quote

Show source
On the journey of the warrior-bodhisattva, the path goes down, not up, as if the mountain pointed toward the earth instead of the sky. Instead of transcending the suffering of all creatures, we move toward turbulence and doubt however we can. We explore the reality and unpredictability of insecurity and pain, and we try not to push it away. If it takes years, if it takes lifetimes, we let it be as it is. At our own pace, without speed or aggression, we move down and down and down. With us move millions of others, companions in awakening from fear.

Pema Chodron

Pain, Moving, Warrior

52 Copy quote
A bodhisattva doesn't have to be perfect. Anyone who is aware of what is happening and who tries to wake up other people is a bodhisattva. We are all bodhisattvas, doing our best.

Nhat Hanh

People, Perfect, Trying

Thich Nhat Hanh (2005). “Touching Peace: Practicing the Art of Mindful Living”, p.73, Parallax Press

44 Copy quote

Show source
The antidote to hatred in the heart, the source of violence, is tolerance. Tolerance is an important virtue of bodhisattvas [enlightened heroes and heroines] - it enables you to refrain from reacting angrily to the harm inflicted on you by others. You could call this practice "inner disarmament," in that a well-developed tolerance makes you free from the compulsion to counterattack. For the same reason, we also call tolerance the "best armor," since it protects you from being conquered by hatred itself.

Dalai Lama

Hero, Heart, Practice

Source: www.motherjones.com

42 Copy quote

Show source
So the bodhisattva saves all beings, not by preaching sermons to them, but by showing them that they are delivered, they are liberated, by the act of not being able to stop changing.

Alan Watts

Able, Preaching, Sermons

38 Copy quote
Even fear itself is frightened by the bodhisattva's fearlessness.

Chogyam Trungpa

Fear, Frightened, Fearlessness

33 Copy quote
The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe... All is registered in the 'boundless heart' of the bodhisattva. Through our deepest and innermost reponses to our world - to hunger and torture and the threat of annihilation - we touch that boundless heart.

Joanna Macy

Heart, Our World, Soul

30 Copy quote
To feel overflowing love and almost unbearable compassion for all living creatures is the best way to fulfil the wishes of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Even if for the moment you cannot actually help a sentient being in an external way, meditate on love and compassion constantly over the months and years until compassion is knit inseparably into the very fabric of your mind.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Compassion, Years, Mind

89 Copy quote
The secret teaching was the bodhisattva ideal, to live for others, for the welfare of all beings. That's enlightenment, not some flashy state of luminosity.

Frederick Lenz

Teaching, Compassion, Secret

26 Copy quote
The true bodhisattva spirit grows out of this personal sense of freedom. You discover that you don't feel so needy anymore. You don't crave another refueling - with shamatha or with other people's love and attention - because you know within yourself how to be free, how to be confident. With this sense of security and freedom, you begin to direct your attention to the needs of others. The compassion expands.

Tsoknyi Rinpoche

Compassion, Security And Freedom, People

26 Copy quote
Examine thus yourself from every side.
Note harmful thoughts and every futile striving.
Thus it is that heroes in the bodhisattva path
Apply the remedies to keep a steady mind.

Shantideva

Wisdom, Hero, Mind

24 Copy quote
When Buddhists say, "A bodhisattva fears not the result, but only the cause," they mean that we must expend the bulk of our energy planting good roots today, rather than fretting about the plants that are already growing from the roots we planted in the past.

Hsing Yun

Buddhist, Mean, Past

Hsing Yun (2016). “Describing the Indescribable: A Commentary on the Diamond Sutra”, p.57, Simon and Schuster

20 Copy quote

Show source
The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.

Joanna Macy

Peace, Heart, Grieving

Joanna Macy (1983). “Despair and personal power in the nuclear age”, New Society Pub

80 Copy quote

Show source
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will for seven days appear to you in their benign and peaceful aspect. Their light will shine upon you, ... Wonderful and delightful though they are, The Buddhas may nevertheless frighten you. Do not give in to your fright! Do not run away! Serenely contemplate the spectacle before you! Overcome your fear, and feel no desire! Realize that these are the rays of the grace of the Buddhas, who come to receive you into their Buddha-realms. Pray to them with intense faith and humility.

Gautama Buddha

Running, Book, Humility

27 Copy quote
A virtuous man or woman who is determined to develop the Supreme Enlightened Mind, should thus develop it: I have to lead all living beings to put a stop to (reincarnation) and escape (suffering), and when they have been so led, not one of them in fact stops (reincarnating) or escapes suffering. Why? Because, if a Bodhisattva believes in the notion of an ego, a personality, or a living being, he is not a true Bodhisattva.

Gautama Buddha

Buddhist, Believe, Men

16 Copy quote
Few of us are satisfied with retreating from the world and just working on ourselves. We want our training to manifest and to be of benefit. The bodhisattva-warrior, therefore, makes a vow to wake up not just for himself but for the welfare of all beings.

Pema Chodron

Warrior, Training, Wake Up

17 Copy quote
What the world needs more than anything are Bodhisattvas of peace, lawyers, politicians, teachers working tirelessly for the enlightenment of themselves and others.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Teacher, Enlightenment, Needs

13 Copy quote
There is a true feminist movement in Buddhism that relates to the goddess Tārā. Following her cultivation of bodhicitta, the bodhisattva's motivation, she looked upon the situation of those striving towards full awakening and she felt that there were too few people who attained Buddhahood as women. So she vowed, 'I have developed bodhicitta as a woman. For all my lifetimes along the path I vow to be born as a woman, and in my final lifetime when I attain Buddhahood, then, too, I will be a woman.'

Dalai Lama

Motivation, Buddhism, People

His Holiness The Dalai Lama (1998). “Path To Tranquility”, p.292, Penguin Books India

6 Copy quote

Show source
If you are a Buddhist, inspire yourself by thinking of the bodhisattva. If you are a Christian, think of the Christ, who came not to be served by others but to serve them in joy, in peace, and in generosity. For these things, these are not mere words, but acts, which go all the way, right up to their last breath. Even their death is a gift, and resurrection is born from this kind of death. (157)

Jean Leloup

Christian, Buddhist, Peace

7 Copy quote
Mother Earth is very talented. She has produced Buddhas, bodhisattvas, great beings.

Nhat Hanh

Mother, Earth, Mother Earth

"Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh: only love can save us from climate change". Interview with Jo Confino, www.theguardian.com. January 21, 2013.

10 Copy quote

Show source
Some students went to Milarepa and said, we should stop living in caves and meditating because we should go out and help beings as bodhisattvas. And Milarepa said that as long as space exists, so long will there be beings for you to help.

Tenzin Palmo

Space, Long, Caves

10 Copy quote
Meditate upon all the perfect light within your own mind! Do this repeatedly and the radiant Bodhisattvas of Wisdom and Laughter will visit you and change your karma forever!

Frederick Lenz

Karma, Laughter, Visits You

9 Copy quote
I realize that there's a thing called the bodhisattva ideal, and it's a very nice pinnacle of attention. It's a very egotistical thought, ultimately.

Frederick Lenz

Nice, Compassion, Attention

10 Copy quote
There are several realms which ordinary persons do not perceive. Because they cannot see them, that doesn't mean they don't exist. One of these realms is the sambhogakaya that can only be visited by highly realized Bodhisattvas. In the pure realm of the sambhogakaya, the Dharma is continuously taught. One sambhogakaya realm is Tushita, which is presided over by the next Buddha, the Maitreya Buddha. Buddha Shakyamuni dwelled there before coming to earth to give Dharma teachings.

Thrangu Rinpoche

Teaching, Mean, Giving

15 Copy quote
To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is. A pessimistic attitude can never create the calm and serene smile which blossoms on the lips of Bodhisattvas and all those who obtain the way.

Nhat Hanh

Attitude, Reality, Thinking

"The Miracle of Mindfulness". Book by Thich Nhat Hanh, 1999.

8 Copy quote

Show source