Name: Geoffrey
Email: xxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Subject: “We will practice love”
Message:My meditation teacher used this quote but she didn’t know the source of it. It’s really quite beautiful, but I am pretty suspicious it doesn’t come from the mouth of the Buddha. “It is in this way that we must train ourselves: By liberation of the self through love, We will develop love, We will practice it, We will make it both a way and a basis, Take a stand upon it, store it up, and thoroughly set it going.” – the Buddha
Hi, Geoffrey.
I was suspicious too, but this is actually a canonical quote, and as you say it’s rather lovely. It’s from the Samyutta Nikaya, and in Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation you’ll find it on page 708:
“Therefore, bhikkhus, you should train yourselves thus: ‘We will develop and cultivate the liberation of mind by lovingkindness, make it our vehicle, make it our basis, stabilize it, exercise ourselves in it, and fully perfect it.’ Thus should you train yourselves.”
The shift from 2nd person (you should train yourselves) to 1st person (we must train ourselves) is a bit of a fudge, but it’s So this is basically an accurate quote. I don’t know where your version of the quote comes from. The only Samyutta Nikaya I have is Bhikkhu Bodhi’s.
Thanks for sending me this one. I loved it!
All the best,
Bodhipaksa
I do not believe that the translation is at all “fudged”; however, I believe that the Buddha was attempting to explain that belief alone in an idea (thinking the thought itself is in essence training the mind). Buddha is telling the Bkikkhus that in congregational “thinking” of the “thought” ( The “thought” being: ‘We will develop and cultivate the liberation of mind by lovingkindness, make it our vehicle, make it our basis, stabilize it, exercise ourselves in it, and fully perfect it.’ ) will in itself be the practice (training) of the idea. As if the Buddha is saying “think to yourselves: ‘We will develop and cultivate the liberation of the mind by lovingkindness, make it our vehicle, make it our basis, stabilize it, exercise ourselves in it, and fully perfect it.’ and that is what will happen.” The Buddha’s basic philosophy is that the mind creates all; therefor, many minds thinking the same thought and practicing the idea of the will bring the thought into fruition. For the Buddha to tell the bkikkhus to think in the plurality of “We”, the Buddha is teaching the bkikkhus that only in like-minded thought and practice can the
My brain must have been suffering an attentional outage when I wrote that “fudged” comment. I’ve corrected it.
I don’t really agree with you that simply thinking the thought was what the Buddha had in mind. Buddhist practice includes many meditative techniques that go beyond verbal thinking (vitakka). I think what the Buddha was doing was encouraging the monks to set their intentions. Those intentions outline a progressive sequence leading roughly from bringing lovingkindness into being, making it increasingly a part of our lives, and finally perfecting it so that there are no thoughts, words, or actions that are not imbued with lovingkindness.
The thought is the start — like the index to a book. But just as a book’s index is merely an outline of what’s to come, so the thought above is just the beginning of a path of practice.