In 2012, I wrote a book about the new-age movement and how it was taking us away from simplicity and health rather than moving us toward it. Throughout the book, I exposed a lot of what I thought was deception or contradiction. As a supplement, I also used a lot of what I thought were Buddha quotes; many of which I had seen floating around on Facebook or other internet websites. Little did I know that the inclusion of some simple quotes would offer yet another contradiction. This contradiction and deception would unfold itself after my editor asked me to get citation details for each and every quote I used. I am so glad that I did!

To my surprise and shock, I would find out that only one of the many Buddha quotes I had used was a real Buddha quote! In fact, all of the Buddha quotes that I had found on various quote sites were not the words of Gautama Buddha. One popular quote was actually authored by Swami Vivekananda, a few others were the reflections of poets or philosophers, and the rest were words written by Jack Kornfield. For those who wish to learn more, I found most of the quotes through a website called “fakebuddhaquotes.com.” I am grateful for this website as I was able to continue to use some of the quotes while crediting their authentic authors.

With my book now only containing one real Buddha quote, I wanted to find a few others to make up for the loss. So, I thought to myself, “Why not look for works that are reported to be written by the Buddha?” So, off I went, seeking to do my own research to find out what the Buddha truly wrote and said.

The first work that I would read was titled “The Dhammapada.” For anyone who wishes to read this work of Buddha, they can find its two most popular translations at accesstoinsight.org. However, if you choose to read these translations, definitely keep an open mind, as you might be in for a surprise! The new-age has largely distorted and painted the Buddha in such a gentle and loving light—as a master that would never “judge” anything. Contrary to this, within his real works, he is very blunt and not afraid to comment upon the various vices of mankind.

Now that I have read some of Buddha’s real words, I feel that it is safe to say that Buddha is definitely not a new-ager by any means, and nothing like the new-age makes him out to be. In fact, from reading his works, I can only imagine that he would not be entirely supportive of the new-age or its various philosophies. Also, from his distinct, matter-of-fact yet dispassionate style of teaching, I doubt that he would feel obliged to hold back his thoughts or cushion any advice he had to give. Buddha seems to possess a different kind of understanding when it comes to expressing truth. He seems to have an ability to convey his truth in a way that is aware of the facts and yet, dispassionate toward them.

While people might say that Buddha probably wouldn’t make a big deal about being misquoted, this can actually be refuted. Even within his writings, Buddha has expressed that in the case that he should be misquoted, correction should be offered, but in a dispassionate way. He was very aware how words can be twisted by Brahmans, monks or others in a position of authority. Which, we have witnessed the effects of this when it comes to how many of us have faith in the words written in the bible. After all, how many of us can say, for sure, that we can separate those sentiments that are real from those that may have been misquoted or misinterpreted by those who played a part in writing the new testament down?

So, whatever bits and pieces we pull from various masters or disciplines, this reminds us to take care that we have not altered the words or meanings of various masters in order to fit our own agendas; lest when the truth is revealed (that such translations cannot be trusted), it generates a similar feeling of mistrust. And, in the case that there are individuals who are reading this article while feeling that I am over-exaggerating the gravity of this situation, I actually posted a true Buddha quote on my Facebook page and, shortly after, I was left a comment that it must be a “fake” because “Buddha would never have said that.” So, in essence, after being exposed to what is false in the way of Buddha, we lose the ability to recognize him, should he be standing right in front of us.

What I was most surprised by, was the tone of Buddha’s writing; which felt similar to reading various passages in the bible.

Much like the bible, Buddha talks about man’s vices, his heedlessness, and his need to reign in the desires of the flesh. He wasn’t really an enabler of the follies of humanity. At the same time, he probably didn’t stress about it. I imagine he was simply clear seeing and commented upon what he saw in a detached light, without pandering to our hypersensitivities. He even dispassionately reflects upon the nature of “Mara,” who is a demon that drives humankind toward “heedlessness,” passion and greed (similar to Satan). A sample of his views on heedlessness versus heedfulness is below:

“The foolish and ignorant indulge in heedlessness, but the wise one keeps his heedfulness as his best treasure. Do not give way to heedlessness. Do not indulge in sensual pleasures. Only the heedful and meditative attain great happiness. Just as one upon the summit of a mountain beholds the groundlings, even so when the wise man casts away heedlessness by heedfulness and ascends the high tower of wisdom, this sorrowless sage beholds the sorrowing and foolish multitude. ~ Buddha, the Dhammpada

As for whether Buddha would support the Law of Attraction, the answer is likely yes, but also no. Yes, in the sense that we can recognize that all is created from our thinking. However, when it comes to using thoughts to manifest our desires, Buddha might have had a very different opinion. To Buddha, the path of desire and of only “plucking the flowers” is what leads to suffering, after all. I am not bringing this forward believing that we have to stress over the differences between the Buddha that is real and the one created by our new-age ideals. I’m merely awakening others to how the new-age has created a Buddha that never was; possibly because we wanted to create a master that would support and approve of our “love n light” approaches and lifestyle agendas.

One last thing I would learn that I never really understood is that there is more than one Buddha. Even before Gautama Buddha, there were other Buddhas, since Buddhahood is merely a state of becoming enlightened. Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, the prince who walked away from his family and kingdom to find enlightenment, is merely the Buddha we are most familiar with. He is usually depicted as a good looking man of lean build. The “fat Buddha,” however, is an entirely different character, also known as the “Laughing Buddha” (Hotei to the Japanese or Budai to the Chinese). Which how often do we see quotes that are being attributed to Gautama Buddha on a picture of Hotei? With this, I tend to agree with Bodhipaksa (creator of fakebuddhaquotes.com), “Imagine someone posting Jesus quotes under a picture of Santa Claus.”

According to Bodhipaksa, Hotei is largely considered a folkloric deity. He is sometimes depicted carrying a sack and giving gifts to children. He is more of a fairy tale figure based on a historical figure, much like how Santa Claus is based on St Nicholas. Instead, Hotei was a Chinese monk who, due to his generous and compassionate nature, was commonly believed by the Chinese to be a reincarnation of Maitreya (see here>>).

For anyone interested in reading the real works on the Buddha, they can be found at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/.