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1 " We're never called on to do what hurts. We just do what hurts out of ignorance and habit. Once we see what we're doing, we can stop. "
― Steve Hagen , Buddhism Plain and Simple
2 " What makes human life--which is inseparable from this moment--so precious is its fleeting nature. And not that it doesn't last but that it never returns again. "
― Steve Hagen , Buddhism Is Not What You Think: Finding Freedom Beyond Beliefs
3 " This will never come again "
― Steve Hagen
4 " As we live out of such a mind, we become generous, with no sense of tolerance. We become patient, with no sense of putting up with anything. We become compassionate, with no sense of separation. And we become wise, with no sense of having to straighten anyone out. "
5 " The buddha-dharma … is about directly seeing Truth, prior to forming any ideas about it. It is about responding to each particular situation as it comes … , not according to some … program of dos and don'ts. "
6 " [T]here is really nothing 'out there' to get because, already, within this moment, everything is whole and complete. "
7 " The impossibility of arriving at Truth by giving up your own authority and following the lights of others. Such a path will only lead to an opinion. "
8 " [I]mpermanence [is] the very thing that makes [life] vibrant, wonderful, and alive. "
9 " Whatever the world dishes up, we take it on--not on our own terms, but on the world's. "
10 " [W]hen you practise right meditation, you 'cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words and following speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illuminate your self. "
11 " [A] book is not merely a book, it is the sun as well. "
12 " [W]e have endless opportunities to forget the self – in planting a tree for future generations; in creating a poem, a meal, a vessel of clay; "
13 " There's no rule in the end, but only the situation and the inclination of your mind "
14 " [H]ow can something cease to exist that has no solid existence in the first place? "
15 " The only way we can be free in each moment is to become what each moment is. "
16 " How can a hard and fast view of a world that is never hard and fast possibly be accurate? "
17 " Truth is not … something to believe or disbelieve. The things we believe are always less than Truth[.] "
18 " [A] view of the world is nothing more than a set of beliefs, a way to freeze the world in our mind. … [T]his can never match Reality, … because the world isn't frozen. "
19 " We can only be here. We can't leave. We are always here. "
20 " If your idea of good opposes something else, you can be sure that [it] is not absolute or certain. "
