QuoteProject
To be bigoted & argue with others, is to subject one's essence of mind to the bitterness of mundane existence.
Huineng
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Bigotry can poison the mind and lead to a bitter life.

Huineng suggests that engaging in bigotry and arguments with others not only harms relationships but also diminishes the quality of one's own thoughts and existence. It implies that such negativity traps a person in a mundane and unfulfilling life, inhibiting personal growth and understanding.

Themes

BigotryArguingMindBitternessExistence

In practice

Example use cases

During a lecture on tolerance, the speaker might quote Huineng to emphasize the importance of open-mindedness.

More from Huineng

Truth has nothing to do with words. Truth can be likened to the bright moon in the sky. Words, in this case, can be likened to a finger. The finger can point to the moon's location. However, the finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze beyond the finger, right?
HuinengRead
When our mind works freely without any hindrance, and is at liberty to 'come' or to 'go', we attain Samadhi of Prajna, or liberation. Such a state is called the function of 'thoughtlessness'. But to refrain from thinking of anything, so that all thoughts are suppressed, is to be Dharma-ridden, and this is an erroneous view.
HuinengRead
Words are not truth. Truth is like the moon, and words are like my finger. I can point to the moon with my finger, but my finger is not the moon. Do you need my finger to see the moon?
HuinengRead
Sit all together in meditation. Become peacefully calm and quiet, without motion, without stillness, without birth, without destruction, without coming or going, with no judgments of right or wrong, neither staying nor going. This, then, is the Great Way.
HuinengRead
To meditate means to realize inwardly the imperturbability of the Essence of Mind. _x000D_ _x000D_ The reason why we are perturbed is because we allow ourselves to be carried away by the circumstances we are in. Those who are able to keep their mind unperturbed, irrespective of circumstances, have attained Inner Peace.
HuinengRead

Similar quotes

There's a very simple reason for focusing on the nuclear issue. Many, many issues are of supreme importance in one way or another, but if we blow ourselves up with nuclear weapons, no other issue is really going to matter. Quite possibly there would be no other human beings left to be concerned about anything else.
Alan CranstonRead
What is it the Bible teaches us? -- rapine, cruelty, and murder.
Thomas PaineRead
If I don't measure up as an American writer, at least leave me to my delusion.
Philip RothRead
A checkbook is a theological document, it will tell you who and what you worship.
Billy GrahamRead
Prana, according to the Vedanta, is the principle of life. It is like ether, an omnipresent principle; and all motion, either in the body or anywhere else, is the work of this Prana. It is greater than Akasha, and through it everything lives. Prana is in the mother, in the father, in the sister, in the teacher, Prana is the knower.
Swami VivekanandaRead
We have approximately 60,000 thoughts in a day. Unfortunately, 95% of them are thoughts we had the day before.
Deepak ChopraRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.