Ive got one from the Zhuangzi;
“This is why we say ‘that other’ grows out of ‘this’ and ‘this’ is also contingent on ‘that other’ - which is the proposition that ‘that other’ and ‘this’ are born in tandem.
No sooner is there a being born than there is dying; and no sooner is there a dying than there is a being born.”
Stephen Owen translation.
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.
I’ll meet you there. " Rumi
This phrase was translated by Coleman Barks, who speaks neither Farsi nor Persian. His verses can be inspiring and beautiful, but they are not real translations of Rumi, but more freestyle “inspirations.”
And who learned Sufism in Sri Lanka.
I was a bit surprised to learn of the extensive presence of Sufism there, apparently mostly in villages.
I should say that I for one am more than happy for quotes to come from anywhere, so it is of no account to me if the line is Coleman Barks or Rumi, I just want things that are “Buddhist sounding” but not actually canonically Buddhist.
The canonical stuff of other religions and cultures are quite amazing IMO, like the ZhuangZi stuff that seems to anticipate dependant origination, but I am equally a fan of the Hamlets and the Led Zeppelin’s, so by all means, bring em on!
@Jasudho and @Khemarato.bhikkhu ;
I think it is definitely worth noting that Barks is not actually qualified to translate Rumi, but I also think that in fact, especially since Barks is definitely NOT claiming to be doing an “academic” translation, but rather a more “spiritual” or “inspired” translation of the “deeper meaning” of the material rather than the word for word sense, that he actually does a pretty good job on the whole of capturing something, perhaps if only something of the reception of Rumi by Sri Lankan Sufis…
The quote above is from Divan-i Shams-i Tabrizi Quartet no 157, in Persian it reads;
از کفر و ز اسلام برون صحرائیست
ما را به میان آن فضا سودائیست
عارف چو بدان رسید سر را بنهد
نه کفر و نه اسلام و نه آنجا جائیست
transliterated;
az kufr o zih islām birūn ṣaḥrāʾīst
mā rā bih miyān-i ān fażā sawdāʾīst
ʿārif chu bidān rasīd sar rā binihad
na kufr o na islām o na ānjā jāʾīst
A translation by sharghzadeh
Beyond heresy and faith, there’s another place,
we yearn for what’s in the midst of that desert plain.
When the gnostic arrives there, he prostrates his face,
there’s no heresy, faith, or place in that domain.
Google Translates effort;
It is out of disbelief and out of Islam
It takes us into that melancholy space
Aref Cho managed to shake his head
Neither infidelity nor Islam nor there
and Coleman Barks once again;
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field, I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about,
ideas, language, and even the phrase “each other” doesn’t make any sense.
So there is clearly a lot in Barks that is added, however the gist of “beyond right and wrong” or “beyond islam and heresy”, there being a place that transcends values, or even transcends “place” is pretty clearly there in the original, and so I am happy for it to pass as “sounds buddhist”.
I should also say that it was pretty nightmarishly difficult to actually source the original of the poem, seems like no-one likes to actually give sources in these debates.
Metta.
He who never forgives is destined to live bitter memories in his own hell.
orig: El que nunca perdona tiene destino cierto de vivir amargos recuerdos en su propio infierno.
– Willie Colón
if you cannot explain simply to somebody any subject, then you do not understand that subject.
- albert einstein
hastī apnī habāb kī sī hai
ye numā’ish sarāb kī sī hai
My existence is like a bubble,
This display is like a mirage.
Mir Muhammad Taqi (1723–1810)
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.
A very great deal more truth can become known than can be proven.
You can’t say A is made of B
or vice versa.
All mass is interaction.
Tell your son to stop trying to fill your head with science — for to fill your heart with love is enough!
One of the miseries of life is that everybody names things a little bit wrong, and so it makes a little bit harder to understand things than it would have been if they had been named differently.
You can recognize truth by its beauty and simplicity. When you get it right, it is obvious that it is right—at least if you have any experience—because usually what happens is that more comes out than goes in. …The inexperienced […] and people like that, make guesses that are simple, but you can immediately see that they are wrong, so that does not count. Others, the inexperienced students, make guesses that are very complicated, and it sort of looks as if it is all right, but I know it is not true because the truth always turns out to be simpler than you thought.
I’d hate to die twice. It’s so boring.
– Richard Feynman
He will easily be content and at peace, whose conscience is pure…
How quickly passes away the glory of this world…
If you cannot mould yourself entirely as you would wish, how can you expect other people to be entirely to your liking?..
A man is hindered and distracted in proportion as he draws outward things to himself.
Thomas Kempis
“Whose self, subdued, is satisfied
by knowledge and insight, aloof,
and sees clods, stones and gold nuggets
as one, is said to be a yogi.”
Bhagavad Gita, 6.8
carnel affections must die, that spiritual affections may live. and all who will be true followers of christ must lead a celibate life.
mother ann
“And if you don’t know where you’re going
Any road will take you there”
George Harrison
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance.”
John Lennon
If the mountains fell in the sea
Let it be, it ain’t me
https://genius.com/The-jimi-hendrix-experience-if-6-was-9-lyrics
Love this one! Hendrix was a genius 
It is Vajrayana/Mahayana Buddhist.
Death Is Nothing At All
By Henry Scott-Holland
Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.
Everything remains exactly as it was.
I am I, and you are you,
and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by the old familiar name.
Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolute and unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just round the corner.
All is well.
Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost.
One brief moment and all will be as it was before.
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!
-Henry Scott Holland (1847–1918) was Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford. He was also a canon of Christ Church, Oxford.