Top 25 Milarepa Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “My religion is not deceiving myself.”

— Milarepa

2. “My religion is to live and die without regret.”

— Milarepa

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3. “I need nothing. I seek nothing. I desire nothing.”

— Milarepa

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4. “Life is short and the time of death is uncertain; so apply yourself to meditation. Avoid doing evil, and acquire merit, to the best of your ability, even at the cost of life itself. In short: Act so that you have no cause to be ashamed of yourselves and hold fast to this rule.”

— Milarepa

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5. “When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick: every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. Instead, be like a lion who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once.”

— Milarepa

6. “Know emptiness, Be compassionate.”

— Milarepa

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7. “Do not entertain hopes for realization, but practice all your life...”

— Milarepa

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8. “One should see that all appearance is like mist and fog.”

— Milarepa

9. “In the monastery of your heart, you have a temple where all Buddhas unite.”

— Milarepa

10. “Desires achieved increase thirst like salt water.”

— Milarepa

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11. “In horror of death, I took to the mountains – again and again I meditated on the uncertainty of the hour of death, capturing the fortress of the deathless unending nature of mind. Now all fear of death is over and done.”

— Milarepa

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12. “I have no desire for wealth or possessions, and so I have nothing. I do not experience the initial suffering of having to accumulate possessions, the intermediate suffering of having to guard and keep up possessions, nor the final suffering of loosing the possessions.”

— Milarepa

13. “In brief, without being mindful of death, whatever Dharma practices you take up will be merely superficial.”

— Milarepa

14. “Hasten slowly and ye shall soon arrive.”

— Milarepa

15. “Accustomed long to contemplating love and compassion I have forgotten all difference between myself and others.”

— Milarepa

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16. “All meditation must begin with arousing deep compassion. Whatever one does must emerge from an attitude of love and benefitting others.”

— Milarepa

17. “Take the lowest place, and you shall reach the highest.”

— Milarepa

18. “He who knows that all things are his mind, That all with which he meets are friendly, Is ever joyful.”

— Milarepa

19. “All worldly pursuits have but one unavoidable and inevitable end, which is sorrow; acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings in destruction; meetings in separation; births in death.”

— Milarepa

20. “Strong and healthy, who thinks of sickness until it strikes like lightning? Preoccupied with the world, who thinks of death, until it arrives like thunder?”

— Milarepa

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21. “If one stays too long with friends They will soon tire of him; Living in such closeness leads to dislike and hate. It is but human to expect and demand too much When one dwells too long in companionship.”

— Milarepa

22. “When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick.”

— Milarepa

23. “When you are strong and healthy, You never think of sickness coming, But it descends with sudden force, Like a stroke of lightning. When involved in worldly things, You never think of death’s approach; Quick it comes like thunder, Crashing round your head.”

— Milarepa

24. “Mental activity in the daytime creates a latent form of habitual thought which again transforms itself at night into various delusory visions sensed by the semi-consciousness. This is called the deceptive and magic-like Bardo of Dream.”

— Milarepa

25. “You menace others with your deadly fangs. But in tormenting them, you are only tormenting yourselves.”

— Milarepa

26. “I trained my spirit in method.”

— Milarepa