“If a man’s mind becomes pure, his surroundings will also become pure.”

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 rest of this article » ““If a man’s mind becomes pure, his surroundings will also become pure.””

10+ FAKE Buddha Quotes on Friendship

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 Buddha Quotes on Friendship”

“It can be one of the hardest things in life to lose your best friend.”

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.

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 things in life to lose your best friend.””

“Always love your friends from your heart and not from your needs.”

This is one of ten quotes that’s in the web page currently ranking highest on Google for searches on “Buddha quotes on friendship.” It’s not from the Buddha. Neither are any of the other nine quotes on the page.

I sigh with weariness.

A couple of the other top (fake) quotes turned out to have interesting origins, starting off life as a Bible verse, or as a poem on the topic of “restful, blissful ignorance,” … Read the rest of this article » ““Always love your friends from your heart and not from your needs.””

“The most valuable gift you can receive is an honest friend.”

This quote is one of ten found on the page that currently ranks first on Google for the search term, “Buddha quotes on friendship.” It’s not from the Buddha, and that’s the case for the other nine quotes on that page.

It’s sad that Google’s algorithm is promoting false information in this way.

Worse, Google has chosen the quotes on that page to appear in its “featured snippet,” which is a presentation right on the search results page. … Read the rest of this article » ““The most valuable gift you can receive is an honest friend.””

“Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them, but you know they are there.”

This quote — “Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them, but you know they are there” — was one of the ten quotes to be found in the page that ranked highest on Google for the term, “Buddha quotes on friendship” when I recently ran that search.

All ten of the quotes on that page were fake, which means that Google’s algorithm is failing miserably at identifying quality content. Worse, the algorithm is actively spreading … Read the rest of this article » ““Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them, but you know they are there.””

“A sweet friendship refreshes the soul.”

And so we continue with our investigation of the quotes that Google offers up as the first result in searches for “Buddha quotes on friendship.” The top page contains ten quotes, every single damn one of which is fake.

At first glance, I thought “A sweet friendship refreshes the soul” would be the kind of thing that’s so blandly sweet that I’d have no chance of finding its actual origins.

But it actually turned out to be rather … Read the rest of this article » ““A sweet friendship refreshes the soul.””

“A true friend’s silence hurts more than an enemy’s rough words.”

This is another of the quotes on the page that currently ranks top on Google for “Buddha quotes on friendship.” All ten of the quotes on that page are fake. And they appear in Google’s “featured snippet,” which presents the quotes at the top of Google’s results page without you having to visit the page.

And to make things worse,  although the exposé that I wrote is now appearing on Google, they text they’re showing is the fake quotes rather than the real ones I offered!

… Read the rest of this article » ““A true friend’s silence hurts more than an enemy’s rough words.””

“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”

This is yet another of the quotes I found in the site that currently ranks highest on Google for “Buddha quotes on friendship.” All ten of the quotes on that web page are fake. I’m working my way through all ten, although it’s going to take a while.

This one is often attributed to Helen Keller, presumably because she was blind, and there’s a natural association between darkness and blindness. The quote was even used in an experiential … Read the rest of this article » ““Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.””

“Many people will walk in and out of your life. But only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.”

This is another of the ten quotes that I recently found in a page that had the top ranking on Google for a search on Buddha quotes on friendship. All ten of the quotes in the page were fake, Hallmark-y stuff.

This one is often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, but mysteriously she doesn’t seem to have been quoted saying this until 1999 or so, which was more than 35 years after her death. Since none of the people … Read the rest of this article » ““Many people will walk in and out of your life. But only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.””