11 Quotes by Robert Aitken

When you reflect on the infinite number of happenstances that coalesced to produce you, then you understand how unique, how precious, how sacred you really are. Your task is to cultivate that precious, sacred nature and help it to flower.

Mystery is the unknown in which we live. It is our nature. Mystification is the exploitation of mystery.

The one who praises you is a thief. The one who criticizes you is your true friend.

The Buddha challenged the idea of an immutable soul. He said nothing about the mutable soul, and its survival, though his successors in most streams of Buddhism have had a lot to say on this subject. For all their words, the question of what happens when one dies remains a mystery.

Clover is incapable of not nurturing. It can’t do anything but nurture. Shakyamuni is capable of not nurturing. With a poisonous thought, he is a poisonous person. With an enlightened thought, he is an enlightened person. With his great realization, he is unlikely to slip back into poisonous ways, but he could, for he is human.

It comes down to practice, and practice, after all, is conduct in keeping with Right Views. Of course, Right Views are not merely opinions, not even Skākyamuni’s opinions, but are views that accord with this realization: we are all in this together and we aren’t here very long. Let’s take care of one another while we can.

Watching gardeners label their plantsI vow with all beingsto practice the old horticultureand let plants identify me.

The Universal is always the same, the specifics are always different.

Sloppy language is a kind of disloyalty to humanity, a kind of lying. Talent.