My name is Bodhipaksa, and I’ve been a Buddhist since 1982 and a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order since 1993. I run a site called Wildmind, which teaches meditation. I’m an author. And I have a more personal blog, the value of which I’m currently questioning because I don’t publish anything very personal there anymore. In fact the Fake Buddha Quotes posts started off on my personal blog before I decided to move them all over here.
To those who are familiar with the Buddhist scriptures, these Hallmark-style quotes attributed to the Buddha ring false, but it seems many people are preferentially attracted to the fake variety.
It’s hard sometimes to pinpoint why they sound fake. Usually it’s the language, which may be too flowery and poetic. Sometimes it’s the subject matter, which sounds too contemporary. The thing is, that although the BUddhist scriptures are vast (way larger than the Bible) they’re often not very quotable, or at least they tend not to have the immediate appeal that some of the fake variety has.
One question that arises though is whether there’s such a thing as a Genuine Buddha Quote. And in a sense there’s not. The earliest scriptures we have were passed down for hundreds of years before being committed to writing. What was passed down was no doubt simplified, edited, and made easier to memorize through chanting by being made repetitious. Hence the mind-numbing boringness of much of the Pāli canon. Some of what was passed down as the Buddha’s words probably wasn’t even his words to start with. After a few generations, who would be able to tell if a particular saying was just a popular piece of folk-wisdom, or something the Buddha actually said.
And then there are later Buddhist scriptures that were definitely not in any literal sense the word of the Buddha, although they may be of great spiritual depth. These Mahāyāna scriptures are all arguably Fake Buddha Quotes.
So if there’s no such thing as a for-sure, no-doubt-about-it Genuine Buddha Quote, then how can there be such a thing as a Fake Buddha Quote? Well, if something being passed around on Facebook can be definitively traced down to a source that isn’t Gautama Buddha, then that’s an obvious misattribution, and definitely not a Genuine Buddha Quote. Of if a saying’s origins can’t yet be traced, but the idiom and subject matter are so far removed from those of recognized Buddhist scriptures, then that’s (almost certainly) fake.
Then there’s another category. Some translators of Buddhist texts aren’t so much translators as Khalil Gibran wannabes who creatively render the Buddha’s words into a “new, improved” version that expresses their own views of spirituality but are so far from the original meaning that they’re essentially fake.
Another question: does this matter? Some people get very upset over this question. If their favorite Buddha Quote — about kittens and puppies, perhaps — is pointed out as not being traceable to the Buddha and perhaps attributable to some contemporary or historical writer, they tend to get annoyed. It’s as if you’re invalidating the inherent goodness of kittens and puppies. But that’s not my point here. Pointing out that something was not said by the Buddha doesn’t invalidate the quote. It just removes false attribution. Kittens and puppies are fine, but let’s be clear about the attribution of our quotes, where we can.
Again, does it matter, if the quote seems to be spiritually valid? If you’re one of those people who don’t think factual accuracy matters, then I guess this doesn’t matter. I’m not one of those people, though.
Would the Buddha care? I’ve been told often that he wouldn’t It’s amazing how much insight some people have into the Buddha’s mind. It’s as if they know exactly how he thought, and oddly he seems to agree with them a lot. Well, if you look at the Buddhist scriptures, there are many occasions where someone comes to the Buddha and tells him that they’ve heard that he has made a certain statement. If the statement is not something the Buddha has said, he tended to put his questioner straight in no uncertain terms.
So the Buddha seems to have been concerned about Fake Buddha Quotes, 2,500 years ago. I’m sure there will be new Fake Buddha Quotes being passed around 2,500 years from now. But hopefully this site will slow down their spread.
but, then again, there are no tape recordings of what the Buddha did say either
Well, no. We can never tell for sure whether a particular quote was uttered by the Buddha, but we can often tell that sayings attributed to him have sources elsewhere.
Yes Francois, Bodipaksha is right.
A thing I would like everybody to know is that there are limited buddha quotes(atleast all of which are know to us today), surely not as many as you can find by googling. They are fake.
There are as many as hundreds of quotes, as can be seen on blogs,websites,social networks, facebook, etc.
Peoples kind of us, need to contribute to eradicate them. You(general you. not particularly Francois or Bodhipaksha) can’t create ‘n’ numbers of quotes in the name of ‘Buddha’.
As I said there are limited quotes which are by Buddha. Mostly all others than those, has to be fakes.
Oddly, some people have suggested in comments that because not everything the Buddha said was recorded, it’s OK to attribute to him anything we want. Sometimes I despair…
I don’t think fake sayings have much of a shelf life.
I’d like to think so, but the fake quotes seem to have a strong appeal, and once they get into circulation they tend to be copied and passed on endlessly.
When people attribute opinions to notable personages, they are in fact trying to appropriate the Moral Authority of that personage to opinions that are frequently trite and wrong-headed.
There are no audio recordings of what Lord Buddha said – that is correct. There were no any recordings of what he said for a while (for hundreds of years after his passing away into nibbana). But if one studies Buddhist texts on a certain scale, not just one isolated quote, and if one meditates and applies the Buddhist practice, then one can see how true or untrue those teachings are. In fact, in one of the most well known (and most quoted) suttas, Lord Buddha explicitly encourages each and every one of us to avoid the blind belief and investigate for ourselves.
When you start to read the original Buddhist scriptures across the board, then you start to see that they all match and perfectly fit together, there is a scientific kind of correctness in all the teachings, but beyond the scope of the science.
What can I say except that I love you… Have been thinking about putting something like this together, but now it is already done. Amazing job! Sadhu sadhu sadhu!
You’re welcome!
Bless you, Bodhipaksa, for your bodhisattva efforts on this site. (Okay, fine, for the prison dharma work, too.) As a professional quoter of the handful of leaves the Buddha left us, I am delighted to find there’s a policing agency to protect the old guy (and us) from choking on the forest of dead leaves shoved into his mouth.
I can’t tell you how many times my publishers (and even my co-author on one book) have told me to relax and us some “quote” that I’ve later found to be foisted on the Buddha (or the current Dalai Lama). If I write another WWBD-ish book, and uncover further examples, I’ll submit them to you.
Bowing your way.
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your work here. One of the reasons the buddha’s alleged true quotations are not so popular and often adapted for popularization is that they are not pithy and clever. They are often difficult because they are very very carefully spoken. This care with language, one aspect of his eightfold medicine, is a quality so rare that it is quickly spoiled by expressions that are merely clever.
Mark
Here’s something relevant:
Lost in Quotation, by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
A clarification of the Kalama Sutta, one of the most famous—and misquoted—suttas in the entire Tipitaka.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/./lib/authors/thanissaro/lostinquotation.html
Thanks. We have that article on this site, too.
So let me see if I have this correct. Our host has considered himself a Buddhist for thirty years and meditates. On that basis he is qualified to not only determine which quotes are authentic, but to critique the translations of others as well. No academic qualifications are required presumably. I am somewhat astounded….
I have a Master’s degree in Buddhism and studied Pali at University, although I’m not sure one needs more than good research skills and dogged persistence to determine that a quote that purports to come from the Buddha is actually from, say Marie Curie or Jack Kornfield.
If you’d like to find specific instances where my critiques of translations are faulty, or point out where a quote I’ve identified as having originated from someone other than the Buddha can be found in the Buddhist scriptures, I’m all ears. I’m always willing to learn.
By the way, posting more than once using different names and email addresses is not a sign of integrity. I’ll be adding your IP address to our spam filter.
Wow, this is great. I’ve noticed this trend for years, and it’s kind of aggravating at times given the wealth of genuine Buddhist resources now available, but hey that’s life.
Glad someone’s decided to make a blog about it. Keep up the good work.
Surely you are aware that buddhists have dealt with the question of authenticity for a very long time. See for example:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/81146368/2/THE-ASSESSMENT-OF-TEXTUAL-AUTHENTICITY-IN-BUDDHISM
and
http://www.scribd.com/doc/78296007/Etienne-Lamotte-MAH%C4%80Y%C4%80NASA%E1%B9%82GRAHA-Vol2
I found these by searching “lamotte authentcity”
Questions of the authenticity of Buddhist teachings go back much further than Lamotte. The Buddha himself addressed them.
Before we judge about quotes we should read all tipitaka.
Without reading all tipitaka we can’t judge rightly which is wrong or which is true…
I want to say you, read more books please, and do Vipassanã Meditation, and studied Abhiddhamma…
Well, I seen you judge wrongly one Quotes as fake. Don’t know if have more wrong or not. It will be good if we help others rightly.
Hello, Bhante.
I’ve been studying the Tipitaka for 30 years, and although I can’t say I’ve read all of it, it’s been enough for me to be able to spot that certain quotes do not use the language that the Buddha used, or do not fit with his teachings.
If I’ve erroneously categorized a quote as fake, please let me know which one it was, and what the canonical origin of the quote is. I’m always happy to learn. It’s not very helpful to tell someone they’ve made a mistake but not to tell them what the mistake is
If a quote came from a Guru, Rinpoche or even a layperson and that said disciple, passed away but had achieved Buddha-hood and became a Buddha or Bodhisattva would that quote be then “By Buddha”? I’m just curious…
Also can you recommend any valid books with true Buddha quotes?
Thank you♥
Hi, Athena.
When we talk about “the Buddha” we mean the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, so it wouldn’t really be proper to attribute to him something said by another person, however spiritually awakened they may be.
All the best,
Bodhipaksa
Also… is it ok to shorten a true Buddha quote, or is that considered disrespectful?
It’s not at all disrespectful, as long as it doesn’t change the meaning of the quote.
It’s inevitable, in fact, that scriptural quotes are going to be abbreviated (in the Pali nikayas, anyway), because the oral transmission of the scriptures led to a lot of repetition, which can be rather mind-numbing. Almost any published book of the Pali scriptures will contain many abbreviations. Usually those are indicated with ellipses (…), which is the standard way that editors/translators use to show that something from the original has been missed out.
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Great blog! I do agree the Buddha used fairly blunt dialogue with a follower making false claims about what the Buddha said, so I would imagine he wouldn’t necessarily like all the cheesy, bloated junk floating around in Buddhism’s name just for a Hallmark moment.
Keep up the good work! If you ever need research help I’d love to contribute.
“Blunt” is, I think, putting it mildly
There were really only two things that seem to have got the Buddha angry, one being noisy monks and the other being misrepresented.
Thanks for the offer of help with research. Judging by your email address I’m assuming you have access to a university library?
Aww i love the fake quotes there what got me interested in buddhism and starting to study it. I hope my two favorite buddha quotes aren’t fake. Will you tell me if they are please! There 1 you more than anyone in the entire universe are worthy of your love and affection. 2 if your compassion does not include yourself it is incomplete.
Uh, oh. Sorry, but here’s number one and here’s number two.
But, Mike, here are a couple of quotes you could adopt to replace them:
Don’t sacrifice your own welfare for that of another, no matter how great. Realising your own true welfare, be intent on just that.
(Dhammapada 166)
It is impossible that one who is himself sunk in the mire should pull out another who is sunk in the mire. But it is possible that one not sunk in the mire himself should pull out another who is sunk in the mire.
(Sallekha Sutta)
Thank you so much for your efforts and for this site. I had an intuitive sense that most of the hallmark-y stuff had to be wrongly attributed, and it is confirmed. It doesn’t make the quaint stuff inherently wrong, or less useful (assuming one finds them useful), but there is value in preserving an accurate historical record. Thank you again.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for this site. One of my pet peeves is misquoted internet quotes. Keep up the great work.
You’re welcome. It’s so nice to get appreciative comments. The hate mail gets rather tiresome
Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!
Great work you are doing here. May it help you and many to discover the truth within once own heart and may the way to be able to do so stay’s open in this way!
Even I am aware that it is mostly taken as intrusive as the tradition of giving and receiving and invitation is somehow no more present in most parts of the world, I like to express the invitation to visit sangham.net as it has somehow a very similar purpose.
We would be honored if you accept this invitation. The visitors of your page are heartily invited as well.
Nevertheless I will introduce your undertaking here on “our” place as well.
_()_
metta & mudita
Didn’t Buddha discourage his disciples from writing anything down? I have read from OSHO that after Buddha died, his disciples wrote everything they could from their memory (thus creating many different schools of Buddhism). How can we know for certain that Buddha actually said what is attributed here as real and not the interpretation of his disciple(s)? granted the fake quotes here are found from other sources.
You know, it’s not a bad idea to actually read an article before commenting on it, especially when it addresses the question you’ve framed….
Incidentally, the Buddha didn’t discourage his disciples from writing anything down. He didn’t need to, because it would never have occurred to them to do so. Memory was seen as being a much more reliable storage device than the dried leaves that were used in that part of the world (at least later on). And literacy may have been rare that time. I can think of one sutta where inscriptions on rocks are mentioned, and that’s about it. In many discourses that touch on ordinary day to day life as well as courtly life, I don’t recall the Buddha once mentioning scribes or writing. It was several hundred years before any large-scale writing down of the scriptures took place.
Nevermind, I just read the about section… In that case, what do you think about OSHO? Have you heard of him?
I have heard of Osho, although I’ll always think of him as Rajneesh. My main source of information on him is from “Bhagwan, The God that Failed” by a fellow Scotsman called Hugh Milne. It’s not a flattering portrait.
Thanks for not being an arrogant ass about it and not deleting (or at least approve) the comment where I admitted to making the mistake. Especially when it’s the first time I ever used an iPhone instead of a computer to surf the web and made a mistake completely missing the article above thinking I was on the real quotes page.
You’re welcome. Your other comment had not arrived by the time I had composed my reply.