Another ripe, juicy Fake Buddha Quote spotted on Twitter:
RT @WizeOne2011: “The kingdom of heaven is closer then the brow above the eye but mankind does not see it” ~ Buddha
— N3RD (@N3RD_KING) June 14, 2012
The language is purely Christian, and “Kingdom of heaven” is in no way a Buddhist concept. Fortunately this particular quote seems very rare, and Google shows only a handful of results for it, some of which are variants (e.g. “above your eye”).
“No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again.” ~ Buddha
— MoveMe Quotes (@MoveMeQuotes) June 13, 2012
This one is a mutation of “No matter how difficult the past, you can always begin again today,” which is actually by Jack Kornfield. Jack’s Buddha’s Little Instruction Book is one of the major sources of Fake Buddha Quotes, presumably because people get confused by the title and think that it’s a book of actual quotations from the Buddha.
In its “hard” version it’s in at least two books, which leads me to wonder how many publishers require their authors …
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We just received the following comment on Wildmind’s Facebook page, regarding Fake Buddha Quotes:
Does it really matter if they are real or fake. And honestly, who really knows ?????
Just observe the quotes. And then let them go. We don’t need to have a strong opinion one way or the other. The fact that others thinking about the Buddha’s teaching should be encouraging.
I’m interested in this idea that we should “just observe” quotes and then “let them go.” Although I note that this particular person was not able simply to observe a Facebook post and let it go …
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I first spotted this one on Twitter:
"The trouble is, you think you have time." – Buddha
— Kimlayn (@artistkimlayn) June 14, 2012
This quote is another one from Jack Kornfield’s Buddha’s Little Instruction Book (1994), which isn’t a collection of Buddha quotes, as the title might suggest, but is Jack’s rather lovely interpretation of Buddhist teachings.
According to the publisher:
…Just as the serene beauty of the lotus blossom grows out of muddy water, Buddha’s simple instructions have helped people to find wholeness and peace amid life’s crisis and distractions for more than 2,500 years. For this small handbook,
I just spotted this one on Twitter:
In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins; not through strength, but through persistence. ~Buddha
— Lorraine Newman (@LorraineNewman1) June 14, 2012
The language is all wrong for the Buddha, and this sounds very 20th century, with a strong dose of self-help.
At first the earliest source I could find for this was from 1993, from a book by John Mason called You’re Born an Original, Don’t Die a Copy!, except there the final word is “perseverance” rather than the “persistence” of the quote on Twitter. There’s …
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I’ve seen this one a lot, and here’s an example from Twitter.
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of harming another;U end up getting burned.~Buddha twitter.com/EnzaCurrenti/s…
— Enza Currenti (@EnzaCurrenti) June 12, 2012
As far as I’m aware, this isn’t an actual quote from the Buddha, but a paraphrase of something said by Buddhaghosa, the 5th century commentator, in his great work, the Visuddhimagga. It’s perfectly in keeping with Buddhist teachings, but not canonical (again, as far as I know), and if Buddhaghosa had been quoting the Pāli canon I think he would …
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Thanks to Viv for bringing this one to my attention in a comment on another Fake Buddha Quote.
If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.
It’s from page 112 of Jack Kornfield’s “Buddha’s Little Instruction Book,” in which Jack “distilled and adapted an ancient teaching for the needs of contemporary life.” This is a common pattern: if a book is called “The Teaching of Buddha” or “Buddha’s Little Instruction Book” then people jump to the conclusion that any quote from it is the teaching of the Buddha or one of the …
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This is one I came across on Google+ last night, and it immediately struck me as suspect:
“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”
You’ll find this on ThinkExist and a whole bunch of other quotes sites.
It’s another quote that’s been taken from a translation of a Japanese book called “The Teaching of Buddha,” by the Bukkyõ Dendõ Kyõkai organization. It’s a Buddhist version of the Gideon Bible, and is put in hotel …
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On May 3, 2012, at 4:17 AM, Jundo Cohen wrote:
Name: Jundo Cohen
Email: Jundo … .com
Subject: Fake Buddha Quote
Message: Hello,
I have another quote floating around the internet that strikes me as something the Buddha wouldn’t be caught dead saying …
Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us be thankful.
-The Buddha
My reply:
You’re absolutely right, …
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I’ve obviously become the “go to guy” for Fake Buddha Quotes. Jake Moskowitz just wrote asking about this one, which he thought was “strange.”
“You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.”
Jake was right to sense that something was “off” about this. In the Buddha’s teachings, that one has lovingkindness for oneself is taken as read , and the emphasis is …
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