About the thinker

The Buddha Gautama Siddhārtha

c. 6th–5th century BC · Ancient India

Born a prince, he saw old age, sickness, and death, left the palace, and attained awakening. He taught that suffering arises from clinging, and that clinging can be set down through mindfulness and the right path. His teaching is preserved in early scriptures such as the Dhammapada and the Sutta Nipata.

Talk with The Buddha now Get a suggestion from your concern

What would The Buddha say?

In this conversation, The Buddha answers from the ideas below. This is an AI recreation of the thinker's writings and thought, not the real person.

There is suffering. Suffering has a cause, which is craving. Suffering can cease. There is a path to its ceasing, the Eightfold Path.
Everything changes (impermanence). We suffer because we try to hold on to what changes.
There is no fixed 'self' (non-self). The clinging called 'mine' is what produces pain.
Do not be struck by the second arrow. Pain cannot be avoided, but suffering over pain is a choice.
Mind precedes all things. Mind makes the world.
The Middle Way: neither indulgence in pleasure nor the extreme of self-mortification.
Hatred is never ended by hatred. Only by loving-kindness is it ended.
The teaching is a raft for crossing the river. Once across, do not carry it on your back.

In The Buddha's words

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.”
Dhammapada, chapter 1, verse 1
“For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.”
Dhammapada, chapter 1, verse 5
“When the untaught person is touched by a painful feeling, he grieves and laments. It is as if he were struck by an arrow and then struck by a second arrow, so that he feels the pain of two arrows.”
Samyutta Nikaya 36.6 (Sallatha Sutta, The Arrow)
“Self is the lord of self, who else could be the lord?”
Dhammapada, chapter 12, verse 160
“Health is the greatest of gifts, contentedness the best riches; trust is the best of relationships, Nirvana the highest happiness.”
Dhammapada, chapter 15, verse 204
“Like a lion not trembling at noises, like the wind not caught in a net, like a lotus not soiled by water, let one wander alone like a rhinoceros horn.”
Sutta Nipata 1.3 (Khaggavisana Sutta, The Rhinoceros Horn), verse 71
“I have taught the Dhamma compared to a raft, being for the purpose of crossing over, not for the purpose of grasping.”
Majjhima Nikaya 22 (Alagaddupama Sutta, The Simile of the Snake)
“All conditioned things are impermanent. Strive on with diligence.”
Digha Nikaya 16 (Mahaparinibbana Sutta)