“When you meet your ‘soul mate’ you’ll feel calm.”

2,566 people like this quote, so it must be true!
A reader passed this quote on to me this morning:

“The Buddhists say if you meet somebody and your heart pounds, your hands shake, your knees go weak, that’s not the one. When you meet your ‘soul mate’ you’ll feel calm. No anxiety, no agitation.”

Obviously this is not described as a quote from the Buddha, who was not noted for being a fount of dating advice.

In fact Buddhists generally are not noted for talking about “soul mates.” The word “soul” doesn’t sit very easily within a tradition that teaches that we have no permanent essence, or atman (Pali, atta). The website Tiny Buddha does have an article on soul mates for Buddhists. Spoiler: your soul mate is you. Ram Dass points out that in the Buddhist view, samsara (the endless round of rebirth) is so inconceivably vast that we have each been in every conceivable relationship with each other. We are all each other’s soul mates.

The Buddha didn’t entirely steer clear of relationship advice, although he talked more about married couples than about those looking for a mate. He said, for example,

“If both husband & wife want to see one another not only in the present life but also in the life to come, they should be in tune [with each other] in conviction, in tune in virtue, in tune in generosity, and in tune in discernment. Then they will see one another not only in the present life but also in the life to come.”

In some rare dating advice he pointed out that one who gambles “is not sought after for matrimony,” although this was in the context of arguing against gambling rather than saying what one should do to get hitched.

The source of our quote is a novel by Monica Drake, published in 2007, called “Clown Girl” (page 57). She also says that “every good Buddhist” knows that the Buddha was yellow, which (I admit) I did not actually know. (Another spoiler: it’s not true: he was Indian and would have had brown skin.)

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that “the Buddhists” (taken as a whole) don’t actually say that when you meet your soul mate you’ll feel calm. I don’t take offense at Drake for introducing this rather odd concept; after all “Clown Girl” is a novel, not a treatise on the Buddhadharma!

23 thoughts on ““When you meet your ‘soul mate’ you’ll feel calm.””

    1. Your page of Buddha quotes contains mostly quotes that aren’t by the Buddha. Don’t you think you should do something about that, and provide genuine quotes rather than bogus ones?

  1. Okay, so I have a dance partner, right? Each and every time we are told to touch in any way I feel a jolt of fluttery feelings, and then I am at ease and extremely calm. Then when we let go of each other i feel confused and i just want to go back to touching him. We just started talking to each other and dancing three days ago. How do I get rid of these feelings. And also when his arms were wrapped around me and my back was against his chest and we were swaying he said really low “I don’t like this.’ What does that even mean. You don’t have to answer this though. Ignore it all you want. It just feels good to rant.

  2. This quote is by buddhist not buddha it’s even says “the buddhist says” before you act smart, be smart.

    Buddhist = follower of gautama buddha

    Gautama Buddha = “The Buddha”
    Founder of buddhism (he is just another buddha depending on what buddhist traditional you belived)

    1. Having been a Buddhist for 35 years, I’m quite clear on the distinction between a Buddhist and the Buddha, Justa. And I’m aware that what I quoted says “The Buddhists say…”

      And that is why it says in the article, “Obviously this is not described as a quote from the Buddha, who was not noted for being a fount of dating advice.”

      But perhaps you just didn’t read very carefully?

      1. An ex-monk who is a Buddhist for almost 50 years here. Honestly I rarely visit this website, just passed by from time to time. I have no idea if Mr.Bodhipaksa is the webmaster of this site, but he is right for this post. Quite pretty quote IMO, however it’s not from Buddha (Guatama Kodom) himself. None of anything close to the quote in tripitaka (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripiṭaka). Actually I’m not even sure if it’s from Buddhist since I have no prove, although it might be possible. So just learn that it’s not Buddha’s quote, but you can apply this quote for yourselves.

        BTW, add here.

        “…“If both husband & wife want to see one another not only in the present life but also in the life to come, they should be in tune [with each other] in conviction, in tune in virtue, in tune in generosity, and in tune in discernment. Then they will see one another not only in the present life but also in the life to come.”…” >>> This is truly Buddha’s quote. Called “Sama-Chivita” or “Sama-Chividhama 4” in Pali –the language used in tripitaka. Sama = equal. Chivita = living (roughly translated). Those 4 are

        1. Sama-Satta (to be matched in faith. More add here it does not mean you must have the same religions to be couples, but it suggest that you BOTH should have the same level of faith eg. respect other’s faith with the same level you respect yours)
        2. Sama-Sila (to be matched in moral)
        3. Sama-Jaka (to be matched in generosity)
        4. Sama-Panya (to be matched in wisdom)

        Have a good day to you all sir/mrs.

  3. Could have gotten it all out in a sentance or two.

    “THIS QUOTE IS FROM A WORK OF FICTION, A NOVEL, NOT A DIRECT QUOTE ON ANYTHING TO DO WITH BUDDHA OR BUDDHISTS”

  4. If I believe your stories than almost every quote is not true 🤷 how can you be sure that a Buddhist you never met have said it to someone 😉 not buddha but just some Buddhist. I don’t think you know everything

    1. Well, you’ll note that this blog is called “Fake Buddha Quotes” and not “Quotes That No Buddhist Ever Used.” I’m not concerned with whether some Buddhist somewhere might have said something to someone. I’m concerned with quotes being inaccurately ascribed to the Buddha.

  5. Oh people and their soulmates….

    So out of 7 billion + people on the planet, you’re soulmate just happens to be the right age and gender AND right down the street from you?

    How many people did you really meet before you came to the conclusion that slope-headed steve or drooling jane is your one true love.

    Le Sigh.

    1. But it’s nice to believe that there is the possibility of meeting that one, and only, soul mate. He or she is out there for everyone. I found mine. I believe it was not thru random chance. I believe.

  6. I don’t know that I believe in the idea of soul mates, but your comment doesn’t make sense either. If anything should predict humans destined on a quantitative harmonic level and interwoven in destiny, it would be the concept you literally referred to as “soul mates”. You just redefined the idea of soul-mate destiny as being divorced from the term itself, when by definition this concept exists to explain the exact concept you described as having an unlikely resemblance to the term. That would be like saying, “Oh the sky, which just so happens to be the sky and expand above the earth. How silly!!!” By definition, the concept of soul mates refers traditionally explicitly to everything you just stated.

      1. I was talking to Joey the Hustler but your site must have messed up the quote. You may need to go in and manually edit the database.

        1. I don’t think that’s every happened before. Anyway, we know now who you were talking to, so I don’t think I need go to the trouble of manually editing the database.

  7. It was amazing.
    I saw a fake buddha quotes on a movie (Isn’t Romantic 2019) and I thought it’s real.
    thanks for your great post.

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