Death carries off a man busy picking flowers with an besotted mind, like a great flood does a sleeping village.
Gautama BuddhaRead
Meat-eating is condemned by the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Sravakas; if one devours meat out of shamelessness he will always be devoid of sense.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes the act of eating meat, emphasizing moral and ethical implications tied to such behavior.
In this quote, Gautama Buddha emphasizes the importance of ethical living and the impact of one's choices on spiritual development. By condemning meat-eating, he highlights the moral responsibility individuals have toward all sentient beings, suggesting that consuming meat out of shamelessness reflects a deeper disregard for compassion and mindfulness in one's actions.
In practice
During a lecture on ethics in diet, this quote could be used to illustrate the Buddhist perspective on compassion toward animals.
Death carries off a man busy picking flowers with an besotted mind, like a great flood does a sleeping village.
A kind man who makes good use of wealth is rightly said to possess a great treasure; but the miser who hoards up his riches will have no profit.
There are having flowers in Spring, breezes in Summer, moon in Autumn, snows in Winter. If there is nothing worrying over you, it will be the best seasons at all times.
Make an island of yourself, make yourself your refuge; there is no other refuge. Make truth your island, make truth your refuge; there is no other refuge.
When a wise man is advised of his errors, he will reflect on and improve his conduct. When his misconduct is pointed out, a foolish man will not only disregard the advice but rather repeat the same error.
The tongue like a sharp knife ... Kills without drawing blood.
There are people who can write their memoirs with a reasonable amount of honesty, and there are people who simply cannot take themselves seriously enough. I think I might be the first to admit that the sort of reticence which prevents a man from exploiting his own personality is really an inverted sort of egotism.
This idea of the transcendent power of the Supreme Being is essentially connected with that by which the whole duty of man is summed up: obedience to His will.
Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love.
Reality is, you know, the tip of an iceberg of irrationality that we've managed to drag ourselves up onto for a few panting moments before we slip back into the sea of the unreal.
Woe to him who doesn't know how to wear his mask, be he king or pope!
In my experience, self-hatred is the dominant malaise crippling Christians and stifling their growth in the Holy Spirit.
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