“My actions are my only true belongings: I cannot escape their consequences. My actions are the ground on which I stand,” which is often attributed to the Buddha, is actually by Thich Nhat Hanh. It’s from his book “The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching,” page 124.
It’s his paraphrase of the Buddha’s “five reminders.”
In their original form they’re as follows:
“There are these five facts that one should reflect on often, whether one is a woman or a man, lay or ordained. Which five?
“‘I am subject to aging, have not gone beyond aging.’ This is the first fact that one should reflect on often, whether one is a woman or a man, lay or ordained.
“‘I am subject to illness, have not gone beyond illness.’ …
“‘I am subject to death, have not gone beyond death.’ …
“‘I will grow different, separate from all that is dear and appealing to me.’ …
“‘I am the owner of my actions,[karma] heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and have my actions as my arbitrator. Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir.'”
Neither is a “real” quote, the Buddha did not speak English. This is calling a “tighter” translation “real” and a “looser” translation “fake”.
In my experience, due to cultural and linguistic differences, a paraphrase can sometimes more accurately convey the meaning of a text than a “tight”, word-for-word translation.
The Buddha might not have spoken Pali either, incidentally. We can’t know for certain.
And there are no “real” Buddha quotes — just quotes that are found in the scriptures.
Anyway, you’re correct in highlighting that there’s a gray area. This is something I struggle with, and it’s why I have a category on the site called “fakeish.” But in this case we’re clearly dealing with a loose paraphrase rather than even a liberal translation, and I don’t have much hesitation in saying that this one is fake — or not a genuine translation from the scriptures.
The 5 remembrances are not written by Thich Nhat Hann. He is quoting the Upajjhatthana Sutta. It’s true we have no idea exactly what the Buddha said but The Dharma we know. The Sutras are thousands of years old. Anything that you say as a truth like “Fake” is a lie. It’s your opinion and your entitled to it but in this case your’e information is just your opinion and in my opinion you are wrong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upajjhatthana_Sutta
Just to be clear what I am saying is you are wrong about Thich Nhat Hann writing the 5 Remembrances. Every Quote by “The Buddha” is clearly subject to query. It was kept as an oral history for 5 centuries which is what it is. Ananda passed on this history and I am good with the intentions of the Dharma and at times am irritated by things people attribute to the Buddha, but I don’t need to put up a meme saying you are “Fake” because you said Thich Nhat Hann wrote it.
I think you were perfectly clear the first time 🙂
You wrote: “I don’t need to put up a meme saying you are “Fake” because you said Thich Nhat Hann wrote it.”
I’m not saying anyone is fake. That would be a weird thing to do. All I’m doing is clarifying which quotes can be validly attributed to the Buddha and which cannot. The latter — non-scriptural quotes masquerading as canonical — are what I call “Fake.”
I see that someone has started a blog for fake Shakespeare quotes. We need blogs for Einstein, Gandhi, and the Founders of the US constitution as well.
He’s not quoting, Sean. He’s paraphrasing. It’s of course completely fine to paraphrase, of course.but not to regard a paraphrase as a quote.
Thank You. “Fake” is very harsh especially when it’s a paraphrase of a translation of an ancient text. Generosity and kindness are called for.
The word “fake” here refers to people claiming that this is something the Buddha said. There’s nothing wrong with paraphrasing a scripture, but claiming that the paraphrase is what the scripture actually says is untruthful.
as long as we’re going for accuracy, how about correcting the spelling of Thich Nhat Hanh’s name?
Done! It’s good to hear from you, Maia. I hope you’re thriving.
awesome!!! the copyeditor in me bows to the writer in you ; )
and yes, i am mostly thriving, as much as is possible in this world of samsara… hope you are too, Bodhipaksa.
I’m struggling a bit, dealing with a lot of change and uncertainty, but generally I’m well, thanks!