Do you know who said this about Buddhism?

By: Narra Jackson
Estimated Completion Time
7 min
Do you know who said this about Buddhism?
Image: Shutterstock

About This Quiz

Can you guess which buddhist, author, or intellectual in the field of buddhism said these quotes? Take the quiz and find out!
Who said: "You only lose what you cling to."
Thich Nhat Hanh
Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha is full of wise words for those willing to listen. He is also known as Siddhartha Gautama or Shakyamuni Buddha. His name signifies that he is the Buddha after the Buddha.
Daisaku Ikeda
Mahatma Gandhi

Advertisement

Who said: "Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew."
Gautama Buddha
Shunryu Suzuki
Jnanagupta
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi is as much of a household name as Buddha. Although he was born and raised Hindu, he believes and loves all people and religions. Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

Advertisement

Who said: "Rage -- whether in reaction to social injustice, or to our leaders' insanity, or to those who threaten or harm us -- a powerful energy that, with diligent practice, can be transformed into fierce compassion."
Bonnie Myotai Treace
Bonnie Myotai Treace is the founder and head Sensei of an organization called Hermitage Heart. She is known for her work in women's spirituality, poetry, and the nexus of our minds and the environment.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Juan Mascaro
Pema Chodron

Advertisement

Who said: "The secret of Buddhism is to remove all ideas, all concepts, in order for the truth to have a chance to penetrate, to reveal itself."
Hermann Hesse
Albert Einstein
Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh is a Thien Buddhist from Vietnam, who is also a peace activist. He currently lives in a place called Plum Village in the Dordogne region of the south of France.
Dave Barry

Advertisement

Who said: "You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself."
Alan W. Watts
Alan W. Watts was very busy in his lifetime. Living to be 58, he was a British philosopher, writer, and speaker. He is best known for being an interpreter and popularizing Eastern philosophy to a Western audience.
Albert Einstein
Shin Arahan
Ajahn Cha

Advertisement

Who said: “We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.”
Sai Baba
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Margaret Thatcher
Hermann Hesse
Herman Hesse was a German/Swiss poet, novelist, and painter, and gave us this brilliant thought-piece about our perspectives on ourselves. He is known for exploring an individual's search for authenticity, self-knowledge, and spirituality. He also received a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946.

Advertisement

Who said: “Life is painful. It has thorns, like the stem of a rose. Culture and art are the roses that bloom on the stem. The flower is yourself, your humanity. Art is the liberation of the humanity inside yourself.”
Walpola Rahula
Swami Satchidananda
Daisaku Ikeda
Daisaku Ikeda is a very well known person in the Buddhist community. He is a Buddhist philosopher, educator, author, and anti-nuclear activist. He served as a president for Japan's newest religious movements called Soka Gakkai.
Nyogen Senzaki

Advertisement

Who said: “The thought manifests the word; the word manifests the deed; the deed develops into habit; and habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care… Born out of compassion for all beings. As the shadow follows the body, as we think, so we become.”
Juan Mascaro
Juan Mascaro is most known for his work translating the Hindu text Bhagavad Gita and some of the major Upanishads. He was born in Majorca, Spain to a modest farming family.
Zeena Schreck
Suman Jyoty Bhante
Gautama Buddha

Advertisement

Who said: "Purity or impurity depends on oneself, no one can purify another."
Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha is the primary figure in Buddhism. He is recognized by Buddhists as an enlightened or divine teacher that once he had attained full Buddhahood, helped other sentient beings through his insights and with rebirth.
Analayo Satipatthana
Qingyuan Weixin
Jane Hirshfield

Advertisement

Who said: “It turned out this man worked for the Dalai Lama. And she said gently-that they believe when a lot of things start going wrong all at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born-and that this something needs for you to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible.”
Dogen
Jane Hirshfield
Illyas Kassam
Anne Lamott
Anne Lammot is an American novelist and non-fiction writer. She is known for her witty sarcasm in writing, and her progressive political activism in her life. Check her out, her books are worthy reads.

Advertisement

Who said: “I am a lover of what is, not because I'm a spiritual person, but because it hurts when I argue with reality.”
K.D. Lang
Aberjhani
Byron Katie
Byron Katie is an American public speaker that talks about a method of self-inquiry called "The Work." She is married to a fellow writer and translator, and lives in Texas.
Francis Harold Cook

Advertisement

Who said: “Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.”
Gautama Buddha
Robert Pirsig
Walpola Rahula
Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk that lived a long time ago... during the 5th or 6th century. He is regarded as China's first patriarch in the realm of bringing Chan Buddhism to China.

Advertisement

Who said: “I cannot say this too strongly: Do not compare yourselves to others. Be true to who you are, and continue to learn with all your might.”
Qingyuan Weixin
Daisaku Ikeda
Daisaku Ikeda is still alive at the ripe age of 88. Among his many other accomplishments, as of 2015 Daisaku had published more than 50 dialogues with scholars, peace activists, and leading world figures. He is definitely one of the world's major role models.
Sulak Sivaraksa
Suman Jyoty Bhante

Advertisement

Who said: “Searching outside of you is Samsara (the world). Searching within you leads to Nirvana.”
Oliver Burkeman
Shunryu Suzuki
Amit Ray
Dr. Amit Ray is an Indian author and spiritual master. He is known for his teaching on yoga, peace, compassion, and meditation.
Earl R Smith II

Advertisement

Who said: “Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival.”
Dalai Lama XIV
The man behind this quote is the 14th succession of the Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are considered important monks of the Gelug school, which is the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism which is headed by the Ganden Tripas.
Alan W. Watts
Pema Chodron
Thich Nhat Hanh

Advertisement

Who said: “Emotional states are fairly quick bursts of neuronal gossip. Traits, on the other hand, are more like the neuronal equivalent of committed relationships.”
Karma-glin-pa
Aldous Huxley
Swami Mukerji
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche is a Nepalese teacher and master of the Karma Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. He has written two best selling books and has helped builded meditation centers all over the world.

Advertisement

Who said: “The question has often been asked; Is Buddhism a religion or a philosophy? It does not matter what you call it. Buddhism remains what it is whatever label you may put on it. The label is immaterial. Even the label 'Buddhism' which we give to the teachings of the Buddha is of little importance. The name one gives is inessential.... In the same way Truth needs no label: it is neither Buddhist, Christian, Hindu nor Moslem. It is not the monopoly of anybody. Sectarian labels are a hindrance to the independent understanding of Truth, and they produce harmful prejudices in men's minds.”
Ngagpa Yeshe Dorje
Naoyuki Ochiai
Walpola Rahula
Walpola Rahula was a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk, scholar, and a writer. In 1964 he became a professor for Northwestern University making him the first bhikkhu to hold a professional position in the Western World.
Noah Levine

Advertisement

Who said: “Pain is not wrong. Reacting to pain as wrong initiates the trance of unworthiness. The moment we believe something is wrong, our world shrinks and we lose ourselves in the effort to combat the pain.”
Jennifer Sodini
Tara Brach
Tara Brach is an American psychologist and big supporter and proponent of Buddhist meditation. She is the founder to a meditation center in Washington D.C. called the Insight Meditation Community.
D.T. Suzuki
Tagawa Shun'ei

Advertisement

Who said: “No sane person fears nothingness."
Christmas Humphreys
Stephen Batchelor
Robert A.F. Thurman
Robert A.F. Thurman is an American Buddhist writer who has written, translated, and edited many books on the subject of Tibetan Buddhism.
Enock Maregesi

Advertisement

Who said: “True compassion is undirected & holds no conceptual focus. That kind of genuine, true compassion is only possible after realizing emptiness.”
Tsoknyi Rinpoche
Tsoknyi Rinpoche or also known as or called Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso is a Nepalese Tibetan Buddhist teacher. He also is responsible for founding the Pundarika Foundation, and is an author to top everything off.
Banani Ray
Dalai Lama XIV
Loch Kelly

Advertisement

Who said: “Do not ask for less responsibility to be free and relaxed -- Ask for more strength!”
Swarnakanthi Rajapakse
Charlotte Kasl
Martin Wickramasinghe
Sheng-yen
Sheng-yen was a Chinese Buddhist monk, religious scholar, and one of the most mainstream teachers of Chan Buddhism.

Advertisement

Who said: “We are fragmented into so many different aspects. We don't know who we really are, or what aspects of ourselves we should identify with or believe in. So many contradictory voices, dictates, and feelings fight for control over our inner lives that we find ourselves scattered everywhere, in all directions, leaving nobody at home.%0DMeditation, then, is bringing the mind home.”
Guru R.H.H.
Darrell Calkins
Sudhir Ahluwalia
Sogyal Rinpoche
Sogyal Rinpoche is a Tibetan Dzogchen lama of the Nyingma tradition. He has been teaching well over 30 years and still travels widely throughout Europe, America, Australia and Asia spreading his teachings and wisdom.

Advertisement

Who said: “It is not what you can do for your country, but what you can do for all of mankind.”
Mike Norton
Mike Norton is an American comic book artist and writer, known for his work on Battlepug. Although his background isn't in Buddhism, this quote is very much in line with the Buddhist train of thought. We need more thinkers like this!
Darrell Calkins
Dick Allen
Will Durant

Advertisement

Who said: “Truth is the same always. Whoever ponders it will get the same answer. Buddha got it. Patanjali got it. Jesus got it. Mohammed got it. The answer is the same, but the method of working it out may vary this way or that."
Alaric Hutchinson
Kamand Kojouri
Swami Satchidananda
Satchidananda Saraswati, who was born as C. K. Ramaswamy Gounder and is currently known as Swami Satchidananda, was an Indian religious teacher, spiritual master and propellor of yoga. He gained major fame and following for his teachings in the West.
Osho

Advertisement

Who said: “I guess if I had to pick a spiritual figurehead to possess the deed to the entirety of Earth, I'd go with Buddha, but only because he wouldn't want it.”
Sarah Vowell
Sarah Jane Vowell gave us this funny thought and line about Buddha. She is an American author, journalist, essayist, social commentator and actress. She has been called the "social observer," and has written seven nonfiction books on American history and culture.
Arnie Kozak
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse
Kim Stanley Robinson

Advertisement

Who said: “Love one another." If we took those simple words to heart, we'd already be the Buddhas Jesus wanted us to be.”
Sherab Gyatso Alex
Kathleen Dowling Singh
Kathleen Dowling Singh teaches transpersonal psychology and works as a mentor for deep psychospiritual growth work. She lectures throughout the United States on spirituality, transformation, and meditative/contemplative practices.
Janice Anderson
Claude Lévi-Strauss

Advertisement

Who said: “Within my body are all the sacred places of the world and the most profound pilgrimage that I can ever make is within my own body."
Dharmakirti
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse
Anagarika Govinda
Sahara
Saraha, or in the Tibetan language "The Arrow Shooter", was known as the first Sahajiya and one of the Mahasiddhas. The name Saraha means "the one who has shot the arrow."

Advertisement

Who said: “When energy turns in—what Buddha calls paravritti, the coming back of your energy to the source—suddenly clarity is attained. Then you can see clouds a thousand miles away, and then you can hear ancient music in the pines.”
Saigyō
Osho
Osho was born in India as Chandra Mohan Jain. He has been formerly known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Osho has become a household names in many ways. He was a mystic, guru, and spiritual teacher. He helped the beginning of the international Rajneesh movement.
Bhikkus
Sharon Salzberg

Advertisement

Who said: “I'd like to divide myself in order to see, among these mountains, each and every flower of every cherry tree."
Nyanaponika Thera
Pema Lungtok Gyatso
Kamand Kojouri
Saigyo
Saigyō Hōshi was a famous Japanese poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura period. He dies in 1190 at the age of 71. He lived during the traumatic period where power was being transitioned from the court nobles to the samurai warriors.

Advertisement

Who said: “To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.”
Shunryu Suzuki
Shunryu Suzuki was a Zen monk and teacher who helped to majorly popularize Zen Buddhism in the United States. He is renowned for founding the first Buddhist monastery outside of Asia.
Albert Einstein
Wei Wu Wei
Walpola Rahula

Advertisement

Who said: “The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description.”
Wei Wu Wei
Chögyam Trungpa
Albert Einstein
What can we say about Albert Einstein... he was German and practiced as a theoretical physicist. He is hugely famous and has taught the world about a variety of hugely important concepts and things. He may not be a Buddhist but he is an important genius to listen to.
Julius Evola

Advertisement

Who said: “Only those few who are able to surpass their fear of death completely can fully experience the highest forms of life; not the mundane life of the mortal, but the godly life of the resurrected.”
Zeena Schreck
Zeena Schreck is a Berlin-based American artist, musician, author, and animal rights activist. She is also known for her connection to Tantric Buddhism and she is the spiritual leader of the Sethian Liberation Movement which she began in 2002.
Kentetsu Takamori
Allan Lokos
Sharon Salzberg

Advertisement

Who said: “If everything happens for a reason that means you made the right choice even when it’s the wrong choice”
Treyco
Treyco is kind of a public mystery, but this quote is such an important one. This is something we should all be telling ourselves more often. Thank you Treyco for these wise words.
Wu Cheng'en
Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
John Gould

Advertisement

Who said: “To know yourself you must know the transience of your self.”
Ilyas Kassam
Ilyas Kassam is a writer and deeply passionate about food. More than anything he wants to redefine what it means to eat.
Julius Evola
Hermann Hesse
Dhomang Yangthang

Advertisement

Who said: "A face without a smile is like a sky without a sun."
Debasish Mridha
Dr. Debasish Mridha is an American physician, philosopher, poet, and author. He thinks it is important to seek out the deepest truths that affects human destiny.
Tsultrim Allione
Rita M. Gross
Vũ Khắc Khoan

Advertisement

You Got:
/35
Shutterstock