Could be Buddhist… but isn’t (post your quotes)

If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.

He who is not satisfied with a little, is satisfied with nothing.

Self-sufficiency is the greatest of all wealth.

Of all the means which wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is friendship.

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

The just man is most free from disturbance, while the unjust is full of the utmost disturbance.

Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the mind.

Luxurious food and drinks, in no way protect you from harm. Wealth beyond what is natural, is no more use than an overflowing container. Real value is not generated by theaters, and baths, perfumes or ointments, but by philosophy.

The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity.

The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.

It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly. And it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life.

Epicurus

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OMG! Do tell, Bhante… this has really whetted my curiosity. :pray: :rose: :grin: :pray:

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All say, “How hard it is that we have to die”-- a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.

Life was not a valuable gift, but death was. Life was a fever-dream made up of joys embittered by sorrows, pleasure poisoned by pain; a dream that was a nightmare-confusion of spasmodic and fleeting delights, ecstasies, exultations, happinesses, interspersed with long-drawn miseries, griefs, perils, horrors, disappointments, defeats, humiliations, and despairs–the heaviest curse devisable by divine ingenuity; but death was sweet, death was gentle, death was kind; death healed the bruised spirit and the broken heart, and gave them rest and forgetfulness; death was man’s best friend; when man could endure life no longer, death came and set him free.

Mark Twain

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At least me is interested… I like much the research and analysis of the old-egyptian culture/religion by the (german) professor Jan Assmann…

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There was a project in a University in south Germany, which apparently was trying to look at historical connections between Buddhism and Egypt? Sounds a bit wacky, but it was a serious project. But I never heard if anything came of it.

But the passage I was mentioning was not from there, I read it in Campbell somewhere. Long time ago! I think it was the pyramid texts, but I just did a quick search and couldn’t find it, so maybe it was another passage. But as my misty memory serves, it went something like this:

What the eye sees, the ear hears, and the mind thinks, they report to the heart. It is the heart that brings forth every issue. Thus are born all of the gods.

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Ah, thank you very much, Bhante Sujato. Well, a sentence like this, or even the idea in it, has never crossed me in the Assmann’s texts. I read a lot in his texts which focus on the Echnaton-aera which seem to have set a new mark in egyptian cosmology, setting the physical force of the light even above that of the “gods” etc. But however interesting it’s surely too away from our subjects here…

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I vaguely remember lots of sage advice in the instructions of Ptah hotep but not sure if it sounded like Buddhism…

Old age has struck, age has descended,
Feebleness has arrived, weakness is here again.
Sleep is upon him in discomfort all day.
Eyes are grown small, ears deaf,
Mouth silent, unable to speak,
Heart emptied, unable to recall yesterday.
Bones ache his whole length.
Goodness has turned to evil,
All taste is gone.
What old age does to people is evil in every way.
Nose is blocked, unable to breathe,
how old (it feels) standing or sitting.
Let a staff of old age be decreed to be made for this humble servant.
Let him be told the speech of those who assess,
the advice of the ancestors once heard by the gods.
Then the same may be done for you,
strife may be removed from the populace,
and the Two Shores may toil for you.

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I had wondered about Egypt.

Do not scorn the childless man,
do not bemean by boasting over it.
Even a father can have his plenty of grief;
a mother who has given birth may be less happy than a maid.
It is the lone man that the god fosters,
while the lord of a clan may beg to be followed.

The instructions are from around 2300BCE by the way…

Follow your heart as long as you live.
Do not make a loss on what is said,
do not subtract time from following the heart.
Harming its time is an offence to the ka.
Do not deflect the moment of every day
beyond establishing your heart.
As things happen, follow (your) heart.
There is no profit in things if it is stifled.

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If you wish your conduct to be good
and to save yourself from all evil,
resist the opportunity of greed.
It is a sore disease of the worm,
no advance can come of it.
It embroils fathers and mothers,
with mother’s brothers.
It entangles the wife and the man,
it is a levy of all evils,
a bundle of all hatefulness.
The man endures whose guideline is Right,
who proceeds according to his paces.
He can draw up a will by it.
There is no tomb for the greedy hearted.

Do not be greedy over a share,
do not be jealous of what is not your due,
do not be greedy against your kin.
The mild man receives more respect than the strong.
The one who goes out under his kin is a miserable man,
deprived of the profit of speech.
A fraction of the object of greed
creates a quarreler out of a cool temperament.

Bumper Sticker:

I think my karma has just run over your dogma.

:face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth:

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As for the fool unable to hear,
nothing can ever be done for him.
He sees wisdom as ignorance,
and what is good as what is painful.
He commits every error,
to be accused of it each day.
He lives on what one dies of,
corrupt speect is his food.
His character in this is well-known to the officials,
saying ‘living death’ each day.
His faults are passed over
from the sheer number of faults on him each day.

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I’ll be back - Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator)

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Brilliant! I never thought of the Terminator as remotely buddhist :joy:

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It’s about the cycle of life and death. No matter what they do, death cannot stop. “I’ll be back” is not just a one-liner: it’s how death works. They’re trapped, and death always comes back.

Hence, “come with me if you want to live”.

(There may or may not be a homage to Sarah Connor in my book the harbingers.)

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