Ayya Khema Quotes

• It is often thought that the Buddha's doctrine teaches us that suffering will disappear if one has meditated long enough, or if one sees everything differently. It is not that at all. Suffering isn't going to go away; the one who suffers is going to go away.

  Ayya Khema

  Long, Suffering, Going Away

  47 Copy quote

• A truly happy person is someone who is joyfully independent of outer conditions.

  Ayya Khema

  Independent, Truly Happy, Happy Person

  27 Copy quote

• The heart is always the place to go. Go home into your heart, where there is warmth, appreciation, gratitude and contentment

  Ayya Khema

  Spiritual, Gratitude, Appreciation

  70 Copy quote

• Trying to achieve something in the spiritual world is just as foolish as trying to achieve something in the material world. There's nothing to achieve. There's only letting go. As we let go, more and more, of ego identifications, desires, and support systems, bliss will arise.

  Ayya Khema

  Letting Go, Spiritual, Support Systems

  39 Copy quote

• Suffering is our best teacher because it
  hangs onto us and keeps us in its grip
  until we have learnt that particular
  lesson. Only then does suffering let go. If
  we haven’t learnt our lesson, we can be
  quite sure that the same lesson is going
  to come again, because life is nothing but
  an adult education class, If we don’t pass
  in any of the subjects, we just have to sit
  the examination again. Whatever lesson
  we have missed, we will get it again. That
  is why we find ourselves reacting to
  similar situations in similar ways many
  times.

  Ayya Khema

  Letting Go, Teacher, Class

  36 Copy quote

• If we want to be loved, we are looking for a support system. If we want to love, we are looking for spiritual growth.

  Ayya Khema

  Spiritual, Support Systems, Growth

  45 Copy quote

• If the whole universe can be found in our own body and mind, this is where we need to make our inquires. We all have the answers within ourselves, we just have not got in touch with them yet. The potential of finding the truth within requires faith in ourselves.

  Ayya Khema

  Mind, Needs, Answers

  33 Copy quote

• Unless we practice
  loving feelings toward
  everyone we meet, day in,
  day out, we're missing out
  on the most joyous part of
  life. If we can actually open
  our hearts, there's no
  difficulty in being happy.

  Ayya Khema

  Heart, Practice, Missing

  23 Copy quote

• Eventually we will find (mostly in retrospect, of course) that we can be very grateful to those people who have made life most difficult for us.

  Ayya Khema

  Gratitude, Grateful, People

  30 Copy quote

• The Buddha compared anger with picking up hot coals with one's bare hands and trying to throw them at the person with whom one is angry. Who gets burned first? The one who is angry of course.

  Ayya Khema

  Hands, Trying, Hot

  Geshe Tashi Tsering, Ayya Khema (2010). “Being Nobody, Going Nowhere: The Foundation of Buddhist Thought:”, p.88, ReadHowYouWant.com

  25 Copy quote

• Mindfulness is not just a word or a
  discourse by the Buddha, but a
  meaningful state of mind. It means
  we have to be here now, in this very
  moment, and we have to know what
  is happening internally and
  externally. It means being alert to
  our motives and learning to change
  unwholesome thoughts and
  emotions into wholesome ones
  Mindfulness is a mental activity that
  in due course eliminates all
  suffering.

  Ayya Khema

  Meaningful, Mind, Suffering

  26 Copy quote

• If we do not try, we will not know.

  Ayya Khema

  Trying, Knows, Ifs

  18 Copy quote

• "Wholeheartedly" means that we give our time, love, and energy unstintingly.

  Ayya Khema

  Mean, Giving, Energy

  24 Copy quote

• Whatever we attempt is a reflection of our inner thirst, which we hope to quench in all these external ways. What we are looking for lies within us, and if we gave out time and energy to an interior search, we would come across it much faster, since that is the only place where it is to be found.

  Ayya Khema

  Lying, Reflection, Energy

  17 Copy quote

• From contact comes feeling. From feeling comes reaction. This is what keeps us in the cycle of birth and death. Our reactions to our feelings are our passport to rebirth.

  Ayya Khema

  Feelings, Birth, Reactions

  Geshe Tashi Tsering, Ayya Khema (2010). “Being Nobody, Going Nowhere: The Foundation of Buddhist Thought:”, p.13, ReadHowYouWant.com

  23 Copy quote

• Mindfulness is a mental activity that in due course eliminates all suffering.

  Ayya Khema

  Suffering, Mindfulness, Courses

  19 Copy quote

• As long as we have practiced neither concentration nor mindfulness, the ego takes itself for granted and remains its usual normal size, as big as the people around one will allow.

  Ayya Khema

  Long, People, Ego

  20 Copy quote

• If we divide into two camps--even into violent and the nonviolent--and stand in one camp while attacking the other, the world will never have peace. We will always blame and condemn those we feel are responsible for wars and social injustice, without recognizing the degree of violence within ourselves. We must work on ourselves and also with those we condemn if we want to have a real impact.

  Ayya Khema

  Real, War, Impact

  17 Copy quote

• To look for total satisfaction in oneself is a futile endeavor. Since everything changes from moment to moment, where can self and where can satisfaction be found? Everybody is unhappy simply because of unfilled desire. Everybody is looking for something that isn't available.

  Ayya Khema

  Self, Unhappy, Desire

  23 Copy quote

• We could become quite satisfied with ourselves because we are sitting in meditation and are endeavoring to practice the spiritual path. Such satisfaction with ourselves is not the same as contentment. Contentment is necessary, self-satisfaction is detrimental. To be content has to include knowing we are in the right place at the right time to facilitate our own growth. But to be self-satisfied means that we no longer realize the need for growth. All these aspects are important parts of our commitment and makes us into one whole being with a one-pointed direction.

  Ayya Khema

  Spiritual, Buddhist, Mean

  19 Copy quote

• Half the spiritual life consists of remembering what we are up against and where we are going.

  Ayya Khema

  Spiritual, Buddhist, Half

  13 Copy quote

• the more we abandon ill-will and hatred, the easier it will be to meditate.

  Ayya Khema

  Ill Will, Hatred, Meditation

  8 Copy quote

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