Limited Time Offer
Premium members can get their quote collection automatically imported into their Quotewise collections.
I remember when I first went to Singapore. I marveled at how planned everything was. But the sense of marvel was not totally positive. They had every… - Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
" "I remember when I first went to Singapore. I marveled at how planned everything was. But the sense of marvel was not totally positive. They had everything laid out for you: where you were going to be born, what you were going to do as a child, where you were going to get your education, where they would channel you when you’d go to work. They had things planned out for your retirement, and then for your death. It gives rise to the feeling that you might as well go ahead and die and get it over with, if that was going to circumscribe the totality of your life. But thinking about the possibility that true awakening can be found through your efforts: that breaks through those circumscribed limits. That’s not part of anybody else’s plan, but that can be part of your plan. And to whatever extent you can nurture that conviction, it keeps your heart nurtured and nourished as well.
English
Collect this quote
About Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, born 28 December 1949, also known as Ajaan Geoff (born 1949), is an American Theravada Buddhist monk of the Thai forest kammatthana tradition.
Also Known As
Alternative Names:
Ajahn Ṭhānissaro
•
Ajahn Geoff
•
Geoffrey Furguson DeGraff
•
Ṭhānissaro, Bhikkhu
•
DeGraff, Geoffrey
•
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
•
Geoffrey Furguson De Graff
•
Ṭhānissara Bhikkhu
Related quotes. More quotes will automatically load as you scroll down, or you can use the load more buttons.
Additional quotes by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
There’s a passage where [the Buddha] contrasts his way of teaching with what he calls training in bombast. Training in bombast is where you’re taught things that are very poetic, that sound very high, very lovely, very inspiring, but no one is encouraged to ask what, precisely, they mean. After all, in bombast there really is no precise meaning. It’s all just vague, high-sounding words. But, as the Buddha said, he taught cross-questioning. Your training with him was in cross-questioning. When there was a teaching you didn’t understand, he encouraged you to ask, “What’s the meaning of this? What’s the purpose of that? How far should this word be taken?” That way, wherever there are any doubts or uncertainties, you can clear them up.
Sometimes you hear the idea that the ego is so corrupt that anything it tries to do is going to be corrupted as well. That idea closes off all the doors except for one: the hope that somebody is going to come along and save you. But that hope is irresponsible. The responsible attitude is that you’re responsible for the actions of your mind. You really can choose. And fortunately your motives are not always corrupt. As the Buddha said, you can take advantage of the fact that you want true happiness, and develop some noble qualities out of that. The qualities of purity, compassion, and wisdom come from taking your desire for true happiness seriously.
Loading...