Fake Buddha Quote: “In order to gain anything you must lose everything”
I just caught this one on Twitter:
To gain heart you must lose everything. ~Buddha
I’m not entirely clear what this one’s trying to say, but the interesting thing is that it appears to be freshly minted. I’ve searched on Google for this quote with and without quotes, and haven’t found a trace of it. Usually these Fake Buddha Quotes have an extensive internet history, and often you can even find them in books. But this one seems to have no history. That makes it interesting, since it may have been newly minted or, perhaps, is so seriously garbled that a Google search doesn’t easily bring up the text it’s supposed to be based on.
@Lotuspad, who passed this on, attributes it to @rock_my_soles, but I haven’t been able to find the quote among the latter’s tweets. I suppose Lotuspad may have made it up, but that seems too good to be true.
It’s a strange case. The closest I’ve found has been "You must lose everything in order to gain anything," attributed to Brad Pitt in the film Fight Club. But intriguingly, some woman I don’t recognize (turns out to he the poet Jane Hirshfield) trots out a similar phrase — "In order to gain anything, you must first lose everything" in a preview to the recent PBS special, The Buddha.
And sure enough, @anniebissett Tweets, the night of the PBS special, "In order to gain anything you must lose everything. -Buddha." Something said by a woman on a PBS program is now promoted to Buddhasassana — the word of the Buddha — and a Fake Buddha Quote Is Born.
But how, or even if, we get from that to "To gain heart you must lose everything," I just don’t know.
Update: With a bit more detective work, and a chat with the very charming @rock_my_soles, I’ve found that she was actually quoting the PBS show, although evidently she misheard the quote. @rock_my_soles suggested that I have a Real Buddha Quote category on my blog, in which I cite my sources. I think that’s a smashing idea, and I’ll take her (I think it’s a her) up on her suggestion.
11 Responses to “Fake Buddha Quote: “In order to gain anything you must lose everything””
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You’re currently reading “Fake Buddha Quote: “In order to gain anything you must lose everything”,” an entry on Bodhipaksa's blog, bodhi tree swaying
Published: Apr 12 2010
You mean there is such a thing as a non-fake Buddha quote?
Hi Will,
I’m assuming you’re referring to the fact that the Buddhist scriptures were passed on orally for many generations and then written down by people who hadn’t heard the teachings from the Buddha’s mouth? If so, that’s a fair point. In a limited sense, then, all Buddha quotes are “Fake Buddha Quotes,” since we don’t have anything that was recorded first hand.
I’ve no way of knowing exactly what the Buddha said, but when I refer to a Fake Buddha Quote I just mean something attributed to the Buddha that can’t be traced back to the canonical teachings. You knew that, of course, but I’m just spelling it out for the benefit of others.
It was posted in caption form in the PBS special on Buddha so lesson learned. I am sticking to my own quotes.. “its all good………….whatever”
BTW I’m a guy.
Rock on!
I’m going to have to get around to watching this show. Finding 2 hours to watch TV is never easy, however.
This webpage reminds me of a fanatic Christian who *knows* exactly what words Jesus said – although alive thousands of years later.
What Eurocentric trash.
That’s strange, because this web page reminds me of a small tree frog. Of course I don’t have to make a logical case for saying why it reminds me of that. I just have to make the statement, because that’s apparently all you have to do in order to make a comment on a blog.
Hehe. That’s witty.
FYI, I just found your blog when I also googled the phrase while watching the same PBS program referenced above.
I find that all I’ve had to lose so far is a bunch of resentments for past suffering and the cynicism that went with them.
The concept of losing “everything” misses the point of the “Middle Way” and plays into a western prejudice that eastern spirituality requires a crazy asceticism.
The PBS documentary narrator says:
There is no knowledge won without sacrifice,[long pause] and this is one of the hard truths of human existence. In order to gain everything you must first lose everything.
I don’t think this was intended as a Buddha quote if you hear it in context.
you can watch this documentry on netflix on demand
Hi Gabe,
Absolutely. What I pointed out in the post was precisely that something Jane Hirshfield said on that PBS program was instantly turned into a “Buddha Quote” on the internet. That’s how information rolls, these days.
My dear. This quote, even though is spelled as you put it “wrongly”, keeps the idea, that in order to gain enlightement, god, you must abandon the ego, open your heart. To lose everything means leaving behind the mind, anger, to meet the world as it is. Rumi has said – “hey, drip! Sell and buy at the same time! Abandon yourself to the ocean and obtain safety and happyness within it!” I deeply apologise if I misspelled anything, I’m russian and my english is not that good.
Selfidentification helps you understand who are you, what drives you. Fears, anxiety, tonns and tonns of things that a man, as people are used to call the specie, aren’t the real us. These things are like a cage that keeps the beautiful heart to dissolve in god, open yourself to the world.
Well, for now I can only wish you a pleasant evening and head for rest.
Love & Peace