Lot of people have written to tell me that the Buddha wouldn’t be at all concerned about being misquoted or having words put in his mouth. Because he was, like, this chill dude who’d say, “Whatever, homie,” or something like that. Apparently the more spiritually advanced you are, the less you’re concerned about things like truth and accuracy. Anyway, that’s nonsense, which is why I have this series called “The Buddha on Fake Buddha Quotes” where the Buddha makes it clear that him being misquoted is a big deal. So here’s another one of those. There’s a sutta in the … Read the rest of this art ..read more

I was asked about this quote some time ago, but got sidetracked and never wrote it up. This is an interesting one, because it’s from a book by the Italian fascist reactionary writer, Julius Evola (1898 to 1974). I initially described him as a fascist, but it’s been pointed out to be that he was a critic of fascism. From what little I’ve seen of his writings, he was profoundly antagonistic to democracy (aka “parliamentarian cancer”). Because the superiority of superior men is expressed, among other things, in the fact that they are capable of discerning what truly is of … Read the rest of ..read more

The discourse I’m going to quote here is a kind of companion to another one that I’ve already dealt with, where the Buddha talks about how people will end up listening to teachings that are poetic and sound nice, but that aren’t the genuine teachings. In that teaching, the Ani Sutta, the Buddha says that there are spiritual practitioners who “will listen to the utterance of such discourses which are literary compositions made by poets, witty words, witty letters, by people from outside, or the words of disciples” rather than the words of the Buddha, which are “profound, profound … Read the r ..read more

I’ve categorized this one — “Be kind to all creatures. This is the true religion” — as fake because I haven’t been able to find anything in the scriptures that matches it. The closest I’ve been able to find in a Buddhist source is something in a text, “The Substance of the Vinaya,” that was translated fairly early on (perhaps 70 CE) into Chinese. Here’s Samuel Beal’s 1884 account from his “Buddhism In China”: There is, however, another ancient document containing the ethical principles of his doctrine known in China, and, so far as the present writer knows, not mentioned … Read the rest o ..read more

Over the summer I wrote a book. The idea was presented to me by the publisher, who had decided that they needed a daily practice guide based on Buddhist teachings, and they wanted me essentially to fill in the blanks. It turned out to be a bit more involved than that, because their original outline wasn’t realistic. So we worked together to create a new outline, and the book ended up having four components: brief guides to meditation, reflections, mantras, and — ta-da! — quotes from the Buddha. In some cases I translated quotes myself. Sometimes I used or adapted … Read the rest of this art ..read more

These two things, mendicants, lead to the decline and disappearance of the true teaching. What two? The words and phrases are misplaced, and the meaning is misinterpreted. When the words and phrases are misplaced, the meaning is misinterpreted. These two things lead to the decline and disappearance of the true teaching. These two things lead to the continuation, persistence, and enduring of the true teaching. What two? The words and phrases are well organized, and the meaning is correctly interpreted. When the words and phrases are well organized, the meaning is correctly interpreted. These t ..read more

A friend asked me about this quote last year, but this is the first opportunity I’ve had to investigate and write it up. It was actually passed on to me in a slightly different form: “If a man’s mind become pure, his surroundings will also become pure.” I’ve also seen it as “If man’s mind becomes pure, his surroundings will also become pure.” In any form it’s #FakeAsHeck. This is not from the Buddhist scriptures, but from an English-language Japanese book called “The Teachings of Buddha,” published by a missionary organization called Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai. This book is a mixture … Read the re ..read more

There are many pages on the internet offering supposed “Buddha quotes on friendship.” Some of those pages rank top on Google for searches on that topic. My own page on 10 genuine Buddha quotes on friendship is currently ranking much lower, although hopefully that will change. I looked at the page that ranks highest for “Buddha quotes on friendship” and found, with no great surprise, that all ten of the quotes on the page were fake. I’ve written each of those quotes up separately, but I thought it would be good to have a list of links to them all, … Read the rest of this article » “10+ FAKE ..read more

This is one of ten quotes that are in the web page that’s currently in first place for Google searches for “Buddha quotes on friendship.” All ten of the quotes on the page are fake. Click here to see all ten fake Buddha quotes on friendship Click here to see genuine quotes by the Buddha on friendship This one — “It can be one of the hardest things in life to lose your best friend” — is very, very far from the content, tone, and style of the early Buddhist scriptures. It’s such a generic, bland, and obvious statement that … Read the rest of this article » ““It can be one of the hardest thi ..read more