Sample Maxims

Any evil is too much evil.

Any ego is too much ego.

Any resentment is too much resentment.

Any denial is too much denial.

Any complaining is too much complaining.

Any pettiness is too much pettiness.

Any hatred is too much hatred.

Any greed is too much greed.

Any selfishness is too much selfishness.

Any anger is too much anger.

Any anxiety is too much anxiety.

Any fear is too much fear.

Any rudeness is too much rudeness.

Any dehumanizing is too much dehumanizing.

Any misspent energy is too much misspent energy.

Any competitiveness is too much competitiveness.

Any schadenfreude is too much schadenfreude.

Any irritability is too much irritability.

Any envy is too much envy.

Any jealousy is too much jealousy.

Any apathy is too much apathy.

Any dishonour is too much dishonour.

Any insulting is too much insulting.

Any swearing is too much swearing.

Any provoking is too much provoking.

Any nit-picking is too much nit-picking.

Any annoyance is too much annoyance.

Any revenge is too much revenge.

Any impatience is too much impatience.

Any outrage is too much outrage.

Any moral unclarity is too much moral unclarity.

Any gossiping is too much gossiping.

Any badmouthing is too much badmouthing.

Any bragging is too much bragging.

Any aggression is too much aggression.

Any negativity is too much negativity.

Any scorning is too much scorning.

Any taunting is too much taunting.

Any hopelessness is too much hopelessness.

Any stinginess is too much stinginess.

Any prejudice is too much prejudice.

Any betraying is too much betraying.

Any meddling is too much meddling.

Any domineering is too much domineering.

Any narcissism is too much narcissism.

Any pride is too much pride.

Any hostility is too much hostility.

Any retaliation is too much retaliation.

If you can hate, you don’t understand enough. If you understand enough, you cannot hate.

If the truth demonizes you, reexamine your life.

If someone’s harmless happiness offends you, reexamine your life.

Harm that confuses prolongs and doubles it.

If you can be offended, reexamine your life.

Anyone who downplays a wrongdoer's misconduct helps prolong it.

No act of abuse can coexist with a wholesome state of mind. The abuser abuses themselves as they abuse.

There is no invader like the ego — seamless, subtle and life-controlling. There is no freedom like the release from the ego — seamless, subtle and life-giving.

There is no blindness like weak moral clarity. There is no wastage of life like weak moral clarity.

Anyone who downplays misdeeds sells them.

Pound for pound, the harmer who harms clearly carries vastly more honour than the harmer who does not.

Mastery can coexist with a wholesome state of mind, never competitiveness.

Good deeds never cancel out misdeeds. At best, they may dilute them — they never replace them.

To overcomplicate teaching the Dhamma — the sole path beyond ego, psychological suffering and inauthenticity — is as cruel as handing a life raft that requires assembly to someone who is drowning.

The ego’s rule is like a worldwide flood, with the masses drowning without knowing it. Those who truly understand the Dhamma, seeing the calamity, take refuge in it promptly, like the shipwrecked reaching for the only raft.

Truths that hurt the most can liberate the most.

The deepest truths often hurt before they liberate.

Follow the hurtful truths. Greater liberation often awaits.

You do not indulge in the ego. You betray yourself by letting it live in your place.

Those who truly understand the Dhamma consistently reflect on it, just as a mother's mind constantly returns to her newborn.

Compare yourself to the Dhamma, not others. To do otherwise is like drowning merely to watch others drown.

Hatred first torments the hater before the hated.

Nobody deserves hatred, because no hater deserves the suffering that hatred brings to themselves.

If the truth offends you, reexamine your life.

It is not about being a man. It is about living the Dhamma — the sole path beyond ego, psychological suffering and inauthenticity.

It is not about being successful. It is about living the Dhamma.

It is not about being respected. It is about living the Dhamma

If you have the capacity to feel insulted, you are already a sufferer.

If compassion degrades, so does authenticity.

Not knowing the Dhamma — the sole path beyond ego, psychological suffering and inauthenticity — is an unsung tragedy. It is to exist as if already dead.

The unshakeable state of mind always rests upon a wholesome state of mind.

What is a personality without the ego? The true personality.

Where there is self-mastery, there is authenticity.

Nothing justifies an unwholesome state of mind. This is an immutable law.

The ego mastered you since your first cry.

Authenticity is a refuge from psychological suffering.

The ego takes over as much as it seduces.

One is not inauthentic by nature, but by the stutter of the ego.

To be envious is to take a poisonous drink. To be jealous is to take twenty.

Let them have it all. Be content with nothing. If even a quantum of envy remains, inauthenticity dominates in the moment.

Where there is a wholesome state of mind, there is no ego. Where there is an unwholesome state of mind, there is ego.

If an insult pains, ego is present. If it is painless, ego is absent.