Meet a Connoisseur of Buddhist Quotations

Josh Bartok, a Dharma heir of James Ishmael Ford, is one of the guiding teachers of Boundless Way Zen and the abbot of the Greater Boston Zen Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Additionally, he served as a senior editor at Wisdom Publications for more than 12 years, having edited nearly 200 books on myriad aspects of Buddhism.

A Superb Daybook

Daybooks make great devotional tools especially as we seek to find inspiration and advice on the art of living in stressful and perilous times. We can slowly glide through the book, day by day; we can pick and choose certain days that appeal to us, or we can zigzag all over the place.

We are happy that Bartok lists the sources for all these quotations and that he wants us to grow in wisdom, compassion, and service of others.

A Sampler of Wisdom

Problems
"Use your own problems to remember that others have problems too."
— Kathleen McDonald, Awakening the Kind Heart

Inner Change
"Although it is difficult to bring about the inner change that gives rise to compassion, it is absolutely worthwhile to try."
— The Dalai Lama, Business and the Buddha

The Pull Toward Spiritual Practice
"The pull toward spiritual practice always comes, on some level, from a sense that universal love is natural, that it can and should be lived and expressed."
— Les Kaye, Joyously Through the Days

Minding What Matters
"All we have is now — and in this now, each other."
— Robert Langan, Minding What Matters

So Much That Can Be Done
"There is so much that can be done if we have the will and the heart to do it."
— Urgyen Sangharakshita, The Essential Sangharakshita

Growing More Tender
"As the practice of sitting deepens we generally find ourselves growing much more tender toward other beings. To sit deeply is an act of becoming less defended and strategic, and more vulnerable, embodied, impermanent — more here."
— Susan Murphy, Upside-Down Zen

Open Up
"Open up and focus on giving to the world rather than taking from it, trusting in it rather than trying to protect yourself from it."
— David R. Loy, The World Is Made of Stories