Monk Quotes

“If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

“Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself.
Ten days' worth of rice in my bag;
a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on my roof,
I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.”
― Ryokan

“Man of an hard heart! Hear me, Proud, Stern, and Cruel! You could have saved me; you could have restored me to happiness and virtue, but would not! You are the destroyer of my Soul; You are my Murderer, and on you fall the curse of my death and my unborn Infant’s! Insolent in your yet-unshaken virtue, you disdained the prayers of a Penitent; But God will show mercy, though you show none. And where is the merit of your boasted virtue? What temptations have you vanquished? Coward! you have fled from it, not opposed seduction. But the day of Trial will arrive! Oh! then when you yield to impetuous passions! when you feel that Man is weak, and born to err; When shuddering you look back upon your crimes, and solicit with terror the mercy of your God, Oh! in that fearful moment think upon me! Think upon your Cruelty! Think upon Agnes, and despair of pardon!”
― Matthew Gregory Lewis, The Monk

“Meditation is not just blissing out under a mango tree. It completely changes your brain and therefore changes what you are.”
― Matthieu Ricard

“Happiness is an illusion, Natalie. It doesn't actually exist."

"Of course it does," I said. "It's what you feel when you're not sad."

"That's unconsciousness. And I'm pretty sure that I'm miserable when I am unconscious, too.”
― Lee Goldberg, Mr. Monk on the Couch

“For several centuries, the Celtic church of Ireland was spared the Greek dualism of matter and spirit. They regarded the world with the clear vision of faith. When a young Celtic monk saw his cat catch a salmon swimming in shallow water, he cried, "The power of the Lord is in the paw of the cat!”
― Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

“All Julie has to do is explain to her friends that she's using it to individually seal each item that she throws out."
"Then they'd think she was a geek," I said.
"She will thank me later," Monk said.
"Why would she thank you for being considered a geek?"
"Don't you know anything about teenage life?" Monk said. "It's a badge of respect."
"It is?"
"I was one," he said.
"You don't say."
"A very special one. I was crowned King of the Geeks, not once, but every single year of high school," Monk said. "It's a record that remains unbroken in my school to this day."
"Were there a lot of students who wanted to be King of the Geeks?"
"It's like being homecoming king, only better. You don't have to go to any dances," Monk said. "You aren't even invited.”
― Lee Goldberg, Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop

“He skims through the speech he prepared (for the 50th Independence day):

… Before the Apocalypse, the system gave us a goal, forcing us to exhaustion at the end of the day. We had no time to look inside. The system was a slave-reproduction module where we thought we were free. With time lost, we lost our only chance of final evolution at the end of our one life …

… The system succeeded, enough to turn talents into machines, warriors into lazy citizens, knights into faithful slaves, writers and artists into pets and trophies. They succeeded, and they laughed. But not after the Apocalypse. Not after the War. We fought. We lost many, but we won through evolution. Now, things are different. Now things are better …

Bullshit!—Yuan stops at this point. Too many lies!
Nothing has changed.
Nothing is better.
How can a monk with a voice lie? Moreover, a war hero favoring the Apocalypse—too dark! What was he thinking last night?

“Delete all of it,” he mutters sternly.”
― Misba, The High Auction

“Peaceful and kind one monk is more valuable than violent and rude ten thousand men!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“It's my love for the people that made me a scientist and a monk (a poet even), not my intellect.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Servitude is Sanctitude

“I have not come to teach you, I have come to love you.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Servitude is Sanctitude

“The prior turned back to Walter.
“And thou, my child, must heed these
good brothers, who dost seek the
good of thy soul, to grow in thee the
gentle spirit of the monk. And thou
dost desire to be a worthy monk, dost
thou not?”

Walter bit his lip and was silent.

“Walter, answer thou the father
prior,” urged Bartholomew, alarmed
by this diffidence. “Thou dost desire
to be a worthy monk, I trow?”

“No, Father,” whispered the boy.

Brother Bartholomew crossed himself in horror. The prior’s face was a
curious mix of sternness and concealed mirth.

“Then what – wouldst be an unworthy monk?” he asked seriously.

“No, Father – a…a knight!”
― Sarah Brazytis, In God is My Hope

“... the Trappist world appeals to me as a model of wisdom...so infitesimally is the day divided among different occupations. The man who keeps rabbits, for example, hurries from his hutches to the chapel, or the chapter-room, or the refectory, all day long: every hour he has an office to sing, a duty to perform; from two, when he rises in the dark, till eight, when he returns to receive the comforting gift of sleep, he is upon his feet and occupied with manifold and changing business. I know many persons, worth several thousands in the year, who are not so fortunate in the disposal of their lives... We speak of hardships, but the true hardship is to be a dull fool, and permitted to mismanage life in our own dull and foolish manner.”
― R. L. Stevenson

“I am no intellectual, I am but a drunkard, I am drunk with love for the people of earth.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Servitude is Sanctitude

“My Name is Human (The Sonnet)

You asked, what's my nation,
I say it's humanity.
You asked, what's my language,
I say it's magnanimity.
You asked, what's my culture,
I say it's humaneness.
You asked, what's my tradition,
I say it's humbleness.
You asked, what's my gender,
I say it's fortitude.
You asked, what's my religion,
I say it's servitude.
You asked everything except my purpose.
I tell you now, it's to unite the universe.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Servitude is Sanctitude

“Living a secluded life in a monastery, separated from society, is not holiness, it's hysteria. Seclusion doesn't make you holy, kindness does.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Heart Force One: Need No Gun to Defend Society

“I propose three models—archetypes if you like—that comprise the dimensions of a chivalrous gentleman’s character: the warrior, the lover, and the monk.”
― Brad Miner, The Compleat Gentleman: The Modern Man's Guide to Chivalry

“Tools and Fools (The Sonnet)

I am a scientist but,
I don't care about science.
I am a monk but,
I don't care about enlightenment.
I am a philosopher but,
I don't care about philosophy.
I am a theologian but,
I don't care about theology.
I may use a lot of tools,
But that's what they are - tools.
They are meant to serve society,
Not look down on people as fools.
When the tool rules, user turns a tool.
Human above all else - lo the supreme rule.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Making Britain Civilized: How to Gain Readmission to The Human Race

“I am a scientist, but don't make the mistake of thinking of me as yet another shaky scientist. Before I was a scientist, I was a monk - before I was a monk, I was an engineering student – and even before that I was a martial artist. So be very careful, for there's nothing more dangerous than a wounded scientist. Science is literally the only super power in the world. And I’ve been playing with science, before I could speak english. When my teenage peers were obsessing over getting high, I was obsessed with building circuits. I gave it all up, because society has plenty innovators, but zero reformer scientist.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Gentalist: There's No Social Work, Only Family Work

“Many people do not understand the art of winning and this has been the case for many centuries.
There was once a Shaolin monk who was constantly being challenged to fight. He always won, even against the angriest and strongest fighters, because they could not understand that technique is always superior to personal will and expectations.
Some of the men noticed his skill and asked to be trained with him, and once their technique was good enough, they would try to defeat him. But the monk would defeat them instead because they could not understand that experience is always superior to technique.
As the monk grew older, he did not desire to fight anymore, and so many men would insult him. But the monk was still winning, because they could not understand that they were wasting an opportunity to learn and the monk did not desire to waste the little time he had left on earth.
Before he died, the monk wrote a few manuscripts with his wisdom, but few were capable of understanding his words because their spirit was not ready. They were still thinking about winning. And so they lost everything, they lost the opportunity to develop a new technique, gain experience, study and understand how to win.”
― Dan Desmarques

“Gegyen told us that the sound of the bell was the sounds of emptiness and represented feminine wisdom.

Leaning back and squinting so that his eyes practically disappeared, he said, "All that appears as solid is merely appearing and has no essential nature. What we think of as real is like the places and people we see in dreams."

Then he laughed, grinning toothlessly, and looked at us nodding, "Ok, let's do that again.”
― Tsultrim Allione, Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict

“Apo Rinpoche had four children and a wonderful wife, and he had a wonderful sense of humor. When I told him I was having repeated dreams about a baby he laughed so hard he almost fell off his seat, and then he said, "All nuns should have babies." I didn't know quite how he meant this, and I continued to struggle with my decision until one day I told him I was having a lot sexual thoughts and feelings and that I really felt I could not continue as a nun. I asked him when he thought I should give back my vows. He said: "It depends how much longer you can wait!" Then he laughed so hard that tears were streaming down his face.”
― Tsultrim Allione, Women of Wisdom

“Isn't petroselinum the name for parsley? (No, it's Greek, you swine. And what's the Greek name for Swine's Snout? I could hurl it at you, like the Pope hurling anathema.)”
― Robert Donald Locke, G-r-r-r...!

“The most powerful drug (medicine) is love. Even monk use it, to know god”
― Vishesh Panthi

“For instance, if you believe that actions can have an impact on future rebirths, your calculations will be very dierent from what they would be if you believed that actions gave no results, or gave results that went no further than this lifetime. In giving clear answers to these larger questions, the Dhamma oers much more than a guide to the present. It explains how to recognize past mistakes so that you can learn from them, and how to plan for a satisfactory future. In providing this framework, the Dhamma gives you standards for deciding which kinds of actions will be skillful and which ones won’t.
As the Buddha said, the primary duty of any responsible teacher is to provide a student both with the confidence that there are such things as skillful and unskillful actions, and with standards for recognizing, in any given situation, which is which. Any interpretation of the Dhamma that neglects this framework—or treats the issue of what happens at death as a mystery—counts as irresponsible.”
― Thanissaro Bhikkhu

“Humanhood is monkhood.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Monk Meets World

“The more we are fed with his sacred humanity's love; the more we reflect on the example he has set us, the more will the divine life grow in us.”
― A. Carthusian, The Prayer of Love and Silence

“Dropout computer engineer to monk, monk to poet scientist, that's my journey.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator

“Dropout computer engineer to monk,
monk to poet scientist, that's my journey.
My existence is testament to assimilation,
proof of the wonders beyond exclusivity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator

“Beyond Evidence and Ignorance
(Monk Scientist Sonnet)

I'm sorry, I cannot live a single cultural,
single lingual, single scriptural existence.
I want all the cultures and languages,
I want all the scriptures and sciences.

I am the epitome of reason founded on love,
beyond the grasp of either establishment.
I don't need to be popular in either cult,
I live as lamp to the world not another lamb.

I am a scientist aware of facts,
I also accept faith as a right.
My struggle is again't intolerance,
not to pamper either side's narrow sight.

I once set out as a monk, that journey has
kept the scientist grounded in tolerance.
My truth is love, not belief or disbelief,
not coldened by evidence or blinded by ignorance.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Little Planet on The Prairie: Dunya Benim, Sorumluluk Benim