Scripture

• The importance of the birth of the Buddha

  'I am born for supreme knowledge, for the welfare of the world' - Buddhacarita
• The four sights

  'If one is born, one would undergo the process of aging, sickness, and death.' - Jataka 075
• The Buddha's ascetic life

  'The thirty-two signs of a great man disappeared.' - Jataka tales
• Ascetism

  'He perceived that penance was not the way to enlightenment.' - Jataka Tales
• Enlightenment/meditation


  'but not until I attain the Supreme Enlightenment will I give up this seat of meditation.' - The Buddha in the Jataka
• The three jewels/refuges

  'To the Buddha for refuge I go. To the Dhamma for refuge I go. To the Sangha for refuge I go'
• Dependent arising (paticca-samuppada)

  the 12 nidanas are all connected. The 12th one directly links to the 1st one. - the Tibetan Wheel of Life
• The causes of all suffering

  The middle of the wheel is greed, ignorance, and hatred. - The Tibetan Wheel of Life
• Siddhartha's life of luxury

  'I was delicately nurtured' - The Buddha, Anguttara Naya
• life of luxury

  'I was very spoiled. I had a palace for the winter, the summer and the rainy season' - The Buddha, Anguttara Naya
• The Buddha's early life

  'This is the last birth. There is no more coming to be.' - The Buddha
• The Buddha's enlightenment

  'He who lives looking for pleasures only, Mara will certainly overthrow him.' - The Buddha
• The Dhamma

  'My teaching is not a philosophy. It is the result of direct experience' - Old Path White clouds, Tich Nhat Hanh
• Dependent Arising

  'From the arising of this, comes the arising of that' - simple formula of DA
• Dependent Arising

  'Every wave is related to every other wave' - Rinpoche
• Dependent Arising

  'All events and incidents in life are so intimately linked with the fate of others that a single person on his or her own cannot even begin to act.' - The Dalai Lama
• The three marks of existence: Dukkha

  'What I teach is suffering and the cessation of suffering' - The Buddha, Majjhama Nikaya
• The three marks of existence: Dukkha

  'All conditioned phenomena are dukkha' - The Buddha, Dhammapada
• The three marks of existence: Anicca

  The Story of the Mustard Seed
• The three marks of existence: Anicca

  'All conditioned things are impermanent' - The Buddha, Dhammapada
• The three marks of existence: Anatta

  The story of Nagasena and the Chariot
• The three marks of existence: Anatta

  'All phenomena are without self' - The Buddha, Dhammapada
• The four noble truths

  'The truth of suffering is like a disease, the truth of origin is like the cause of the disease, the truth of cessation is like the cure of the disease, and the truth of path is like the medicine.' - The Visuddhimagga
• The first noble truth: Dukkha


  'There is this suffering without making it personal' - Sumedho
• The second noble truth: samudaya

  'It is this suffering that leads to renewed existence' - the Buddha, Samyutta Nikaya
• The third noble truth: nirodha

  'it is the remainderless fading away and the cessation of that same craving' - The Buddha, Samyutta Nikaya
• The fourth noble truth: magga

  'the noble eightfold path leading to the cessation of suffering' - The Buddha, Dhammapada
• Theravada Buddhism

  'Abstain from all kinds of evil, to accumulate all that is good and to purify their mind.'
• Mahayana Buddhism

  'Buddha-nature is like honey surrounded by a swarm of bees. The only way to experience the honey is to get rid of the bees' - Uttaratantra Sutra
• Bodhisattva

  'Go forth for the welfare of many' - The Buddha
• Arhat

  'I am the Teacher supreme. I alone am the fully enlightened one' - The Buddha, Majjhima Nikaya
• Bodhisattva

  'However innumerable sentient beings are; I vow to save them' - a bodhisattva vows
• Pure Land Buddhism

  'rich in a variety of flowers and fruits, adorned with jewel trees' - The Larger Sukhavativyuha Sutra
• Pure Land Buddhism

  'If I were to become a Buddha, and people, hearing my name, have faith and joy and recite it for even ten times, but are not born into my Pureland, may I not gain enlightenment.' - Amitabha Buddha