Realizing that something has no solution can be liberating

Several days ago, I posted a saying which goes as follows: “When you can’t find a solution to a problem, it might not be a problem to be solved, but rather a truth to be accepted.”

This is not an authentic Buddha quote. The source of this quote is “Tiny Buddha,” a self-help website that draws inspiration from thousands of contributors who share their stories and life lessons on the blog. The founder of this website is Lori Deschene, who has published several self-help books which are Buddhism-inspired.

On the Internet, there are many fake Buddha quotes floating around. There are actually websites created to identify such inauthentic Buddha quotes. I also have a friend who goes around Facebook’s Buddhist groups to confront those who post fake Buddha quotes. He apparently feel that exposing falsehood is the right thing to do. . But I am not so sure that such action is productive.

Just that something is not a direct quote from Buddha does not mean that it has no wisdom. I would go as far as saying that even something that is believed to be a direct quote from Buddha does not mean necessarily that it is helpful to people. In many instances, I see that some direct Buddha quotes are difficult to understand and are, in fact, commonly misunderstood. In such cases, a modern paraphrase of Buddha’s…