Ajahn Brahm is a British-Australian Theravada Buddhist Monk. He is well known for his talks and is keen on teaching people meditation and how to develop a deeper spiritual understanding.

Looking for a little life inspiration or wisdom? Below you will find a complete list of inspirational Ajahn Brahm quotes that will help guide you through any life experience.

Understanding Life

• “How many times have you tried to solve “the problem”? you’ll be trying to solve it not just until you die but for many more lifetimes. Instead, understand that this world is just the play of the senses. It’s the five khandhas doing their thing; it has nothing to do with you. It’s just people being people, the world being the world.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Silence is so much more productive of wisdom and clarity than thinking.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “If you know how to let go and be at peace, you know everything you need to know about living in the world.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “The secret of life is… everything is out of control.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Why seek revenge? Karma is going to get the bastards anyway” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Life is what’s happening while you’re worrying.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “The selfless giving, the service, the kindness which you give out into this world that is the currency of (the) meaning (of life).” -Ajahn Brahm

• “When you have abandoned all past and future, it is as if you have come alive. You are here, mindful…the nature of all types of consciousness reveals itself.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Real beauty does not lie in perfection, but embracing and accepting imperfection.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Life is a flow of unexpected moments.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Your future is uncertain.  Whatever you expect it to be, it will always be totally different.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “The nature of life is that it settles down and finds a balance all by itself.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “People with too much knowledge can never understand the truth of now.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “A life has a meaning, which you give to it.” – Ajahn Brahm

Understanding Suffering

• “Any place you don´t want to be, no matter how comfortable, is a prison for you.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “To think that you will be happy by becoming something else is delusion. Becoming something else just exchanges one form of suffering for another form of suffering. But when you are content with who you are now, junior or senior, married or single, rich or poor, then you are free of suffering.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Suffering is asking from the world what it can never give you.” – Ajahn Brahm

• ” Whatever disturbance there is, it only lasts for a few moments. But if you allow it to echo in your mind, it will keep on going for a long time.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “We are prisoners of our own concepts.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “When it is winter, always know there is a spring coming soon.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “The person who lives too long in negativity becomes so attached to it, they become it. I am the victim. I am the abused. I am the person who suffered such a tragedy. And because they get so attached to it, even though it’s painful, they will not want to leave.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “It is very easy to escape from the prisons you make in life. All you need to do is change your attitude and want to be here. When you want to be here, you’re free.” – Ajahn Brahm

Happiness

• “Why allow other people to control your inner happiness?” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Always put happiness and joy into whatever you are doing.” – Ajahn Brahm

• ” You can either be caught up in this world and in your desires… or you can be free.” – Ajahn Brahm

• ” Pleasure is just a pause between two moments of pain.  And pain is just the space between two moments of pleasure.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “It is foolish if we want things outside to change in order to make us happy.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Whatever happens to life, embrace it and see it as beauty.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “When you have such a positive attitude towards life, you can see beauty in the most unexpected places.” – Ajahn Brahm

Grief

• “Grief is what we add on to loss. It is a learned response, specific to some cultures only. It is not universal and it is not unavoidable. … Grief is seeing only what has been taken away from you. The celebration of a life is recognizing all that we were blessed with, and feeling so very grateful.”  – Ajahn Brahm

Gratitude

• “When life is good do not take it for granted as it will pass. Be mindful, be compassionate and nurture the circumstances that find you in this good time so it will last longer. When life falls apart always remember that this too will pass. Life will have its unexpected turns.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Better lite a candle than complain about the darkness.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Instead of having a fault-finding mind, develop the beautiful attitude of gratitude.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “A mind of gratitude is one that sees good things in life, that values things, and that relishes even the difficult parts of life. Such a mind tends to grow in freedom, happiness, and energy.” – Ajahn Brahm

Love & Relationships

• “We should always be grateful for the faults in our partner because if they didn’t have those faults from the start, they would have been able to marry someone much better than us”  – Ajahn Brahm

• “Understand the place of love in a spiritual life. A powerful and blissful type of love has no conditions, no ownership and no people involved. Be free from fear. Be who you are. That is love.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Love, oneness, is no separation between you and life. It is a progressive letting go, a progressive not fault finding. Just do nothing and love this moment. Its very beautiful and very deep.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Love is the ability to embrace the imperfections of another, of ourselves, and in life.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “What we see in others, is what they will show back to us.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Love is not liking somebody. Anyone can do that. Love is loving things that sometimes you don’t like.” – Ajahn Brahm

Freedom

• “Freedom is realizing that you can’t control life.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “It’s amazing how free you can be, if you don’t limit yourself to your past.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “The real freedom is freedom from desire, not freedom of desire.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “If you want to be here, you’ll feel peace and freedom.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “The less you have, the more free you feel.” – Ajahn Brahm

Peace

• “Peace is the most valuable commodity. And it’s free!” – Ajahn Brahm

• “What is more important? Being right, or living in harmony together?” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Your real home is not the house you live in, but the stillness and peace in your heart.”  – Ajahn Brahm

• “The irritations of life teach us the most. They allow us to be more tolerant, more peaceful, and more compassionate.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “When you go more slowly, you often see yourself.” – Ajahn Brahm

Meditation

• “Meditation is like a gym in which you develop the powerful mental muscles of calm and insight.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “My first meditation teacher told me that there is no such thing as a bad meditation. He was right. During the difficult meditations you build up your strength, which creates meditation for peace.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “The essence of meditation is your attitude.”  – Ajahn Brahm

• “The way of meditation is not force and will power, but wisdom power.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “The nature of the human mind is to be still.  It only moves because of the winds of wanting.” – Ajahn Brahm

• ” Meditation is not about attaining more things, but about letting go of things and becoming more free.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “With meditation, you understand that they highest happiness is contentment.” – Ajahn Brahm

Fear

• “Fear is finding fault with the future.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “When you’re at peace with fear, fear disappears.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “When you face the problem and bring it close to you, you have a chance to understand it.  When you run away, your face is turned in the opposite direction.” – Ajahn Brahm

Mindset

• “Whatever you value, whatever you think is really important, that is what will develop and grow.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Water the flowers in your garden, don’t water the weeds.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “If there is nothing you can do, than do nothing. If there is something you can do, then give it all you’ve got.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “When you cultivate a beautiful mind throughout the day, you will have a beautiful mind in meditation.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “The energy of the mind can be directed in two ways: It can either go into reacting, doing, thinking, struggling and striving; or it can go into letting go, not being involved, not getting entangled, and just being aware without reacting.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Thinking is based on perception, perceptions are bent by views. That is the nature of thoughts. They are bent.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “When the weather is hot, keep a cool mind. When the weather is cold, keep a warm heart.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Have a teflon mind. Don’t allow things to stick because they stop you from experiencing the truth.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Throw away this complaining mind. It hasn’t gotten you anywhere.” – Ajahn Brahm

Anger

• “A lot of anger comes from not seeing the full picture, from not understanding the truth of the matter.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Complaining is finding faults. Wisdom is finding solutions.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Anger is like a forest blaze, but all forest fires start with a small spark. If you catch it quickly, it is so easy to put out.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “The most foolish thing you can do is get angry at someone who hurt you. When they hurt you and you get angry, you get hurt twice over. They hurt you once, and because you attach to it and carry it around they hurt you again, and again, and again.” – Ajahn Brahm

Kindness

• “Where ever there is tragedy, it gives us the opportunity to care, to give, to help and to serve. – Ajahn Brahm

• “Little acts of kindness are huge. They make you and both others very happy. These are what we call: Instant karmic rewards.  -Ajahn Brahm

• “Real generosity is giving, expecting nothing back in return.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Whatever you are aware of, you need that magical ingredient of kindness.  When you are kind to what you are watching, it relaxes and so do you.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “You don’t get big headed if you receive praise and acknowledge, accept it and embrace it; You get big hearted.”  – Ajahn Brahm

• “Be compassionate to the beings that exist in your mental landscape. We should be gentle to ourselves.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “When you can make peace and be kind to the emotions you are experiencing in the moment, the emotional pain loses its sting.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “You can’t always cure, but you can always care.” – Ajahn Brahm

The Present

• “Right intention makes the present moment a pleasant moment.”  – Ajahn Brahm

• “When you want something more, you cannot enjoy what you already have.”  – Ajahn Brahm

• “We miss so much with modern technology. High tech and High stupidity. That’s what I call it.”  – Ajahn Brahm

• “In life, it’s not what’s out there that’s the problem, it’s not what’s is inside you. It’s what we see; what is between us and whatever we have to experience in life. By going slow and not rushing too fast life becomes so beautiful and meaningful.”  – Ajahn Brahm

• “The slower we go, the deeper we see. The deeper we see, we also see this incredible positive side of life.”  – Ajahn Brahm

• “The person who wants to see the sunset must put away all the words. Words block the experience.”  – Ajahn Brahm

• “Whenever you are thinking about life, you can’t enjoy life. You are just listening to the commentary.”  – Ajahn Brahm

• “Accept this is your reality. Let it be.”  – Ajahn Brahm

• “It’s the karma that we do in the moment that is most important.”  – Ajahn Brahm

Letting Go

• “Don’t do letting go, let go of doing.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “The first way of letting go is cutting things out.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “It’s only heavy when you hold it, but when you let it go, it’s got no weight at all.” – Ajahn Brahm

Wisdom

• “Wisdom is all around us and insight is there for the taking,  but when there is too much noise we just can’t hear life teaching us.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Never allow your knowledge to stand in the way of truth.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Don’t bend the truth to fit your beliefs, bend your beliefs to fit the truth.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “When you speak less, you listen more. When you listen more, that is when you become wise.” – Ajahn Brahm

• “Everyone makes mistakes. The wise are not people who never make mistakes, but those who forgive themselves and learn from their mistakes.” – Ajahn Brahm

Did you find this Complete List of Inspirational Ajahn Brahm Quotes helpful? Which is your favorite quote? Share you experience below.

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