- “Have no fear. Trust in the vibrational currents of your life.” ― Alaric Hutchinson, Living Peace: Essential Teachings for Enriching Life
- “One of the fundamental delusions that most people have is the delusion that this “I” exists as an independent entity, as something separate from the whole of life.” ― Joseph P. Kauffman, Awake to What Is: Discovering Peace in the Present Moment
- “For no matter what our religion, culture, or belief is, we always have a common reference point: the Self, who is the ultimate observer. The Self is the Way!” ― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus
- “I have no news of my coming or passing away–the whole thing happened quicker than a breath;ask no questions of the moth.” ― Farid al-Din Attar (عطار)
- “Maybe the Buddha was right: pain and suffering are the only true constants in life.” ― Dermot Davis, Zen and Sex
- “Every emotion in the human spectrum is actually a teacher that is here to show us the degree in which we are either resisting life or flowing with life.” ― Alaric Hutchinson, Living Peace: Essential Teachings for Enriching Life
- “We have our difference in common.” ― Brian Spellman
- “The object of Zen is not to kill all feelings and become anesthetized to pain and fear. The object of Zen is to free us to scream loudly and fully when it is time to scream.” ― Francis Harold Cook, How to Raise an Ox: Zen Practice as Taught in Zen Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo, Including Ten Newly Translated Essays
- “Left alone, I am overtaken by the northern void-no wind, no cloud, no track, no bird, only the crystal crescents between peaks, the ringing monuments of rock that, freed from the talons of ice and snow, thrust an implacable being into the blue. In the early light, the rock shadows on the snow are sharp; in the tension between light and dark is the power of the universe. This stillness to which all returns, this is reality, and soul and sanity have no more meaning than a gust of snow; such transience and insignificance are exalting, terrifying, all at once…Snow mountains, more than sea or sky, serve as a mirror to one’s own true being, utterly still, utterly clear, a void, an Emptiness without life or sound that carries in Itself all life, all sound.” ― Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
- The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass. Dogen
- Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions. Seng-ts’an
- “Subject and object are not separate—so-called objective reality is projected by our subjective Consciousness.” ― Joseph P. Kauffman, The Answer Is YOU: A Guide to Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Freedom
- “The study of the self. This is the foundational practice of Buddhism. Basically it’s the whole point. So what is the point… What is this really about? To study the self addresses everything we encounter in life. We can’t encounter anything but the self actually. It’s about our entire experience of living. Of life and death. It addresses questions such as Who am I?, What is the nature of my suffering? … And my well-being, What is my place in this world?, What is my relationship to the things I encounter? … And ultimately How do I live a life of meaning and energy?” ― Shoryu Bradley
- “When we do not expect anything we can be ourselves.” ― Shunryu Suzuki, Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen
- “Search not for happiness outside yourself, for nothing could be further from the truth.” ― Eric Micha’el Leventhal
- “They asked a wise man: Why don’t we ever hear you backbiting and slandering?He said: I’m still not happy with myself to start with others.” ― Ahmad Musa Jibril
- “Love is being able to view a situation without adding duality to it.” ― Alaric Hutchinson, Living Peace: Essential Teachings for Enriching Life
- “I’m a practicing Zen Buddhist and I’m influenced by my readings in that tradition, such as the notion that everyone is born a perfect being and we spend most of our lives with a clouded vision trying to realize our perfection,” he says. At critical moments in the book, T.S. registers his inkling of this realization. When he makes his maps, it feels like taking down dictation from the universe.” ― Reif Larsen
- The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands. Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)
- “The highest goodness is like water.Water is beneficial to all things but not contend. It stays in places which others despise. Therefore it is near Tao. The weakest things in the world can overmatch the strongest things in the world. Nothing in the world can be compared to water for its weak and yielding nature; yet in attacking the hard and strong nothing proves better than water. For there is no alternative to it. The weak can overcome and the yielding can overcame the hard. This all the world knows but does not practice. This again is the practice of ‘wu-wel’ and nonviolence. Water may be weak, pliable, fluid, but its action is not one of running away from an obstacle. On the contrary, it gives at the point of resistance, envelopes the object and passes beyond it. Ultimately it will wear down the hardest rock. Water is a more telling symbol than land… crossing the river to get to the other side is, again, attaining the state of enlightenment.” ― J.C. Cooper
- “It is as if I have entered what the Tibetans call the Bardo-literally, between-two-existences- a dreamlike hallucination that precedes reincarnation, not necessarily in human form…In case I should need them, instructions for passage through the Bardo are contained in the Tibetan book of the dead- a guide for the living since it teaches that a man’s last thoughts will determine the quality of his reincarnation.” ― Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
- “Life is eternal game, there are no rules. Indulge yourself.” ― Osh Marty
- “Here’s an example: someone says, “Master, please hand me the knife,” and he hands them the knife, blade first. “Please give me the other end,” he says. And the master replies, “What would you do with the other end?” This is answering an everyday matter in terms of the metaphysical.When the question is, “Master, what is the fundamental principle of Buddhism?” Then he replies, “There is enough breeze in this fan to keep me cool.” That is answering the metaphysical in terms of the everyday, and that is, more or less, the principle zen works on. The mundane and the sacred are one and the same.” ― Alan Watts, What Is Zen?
- “Be aware of being the awareness.” ― ~Sw. Chidananda Tirtha
- “Eventually when I sought myself then only I found Him.” ― ~Sw. Chidananda Tirtha
- “[T]hose who are always trying to control everything and eliminate all uncertainties are miserable. For they are fighting against nature. On the other hand, those who come to accept uncertainties as inevitable live lives of peace.” ― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus
- “Impermanence is the way of reality. The world changes. We ourselves change. Change is the only truth. Therefore, to hold on to a fixed idea, concept, doctrine, or opinion is like committing spiritual suicide.” ― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus
- “When you know that you are not in control, everything will feel under control. When you are in the illusion that you are in control, everything will go out of control and you will struggle to maintain your illusion.” ― Shunya
- “Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.” ― Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind
- “I am not a victim of circumstance, situation, nor any external condition of life. I am an active participant in the creation of my reality, meaning, I am actively participating in the creation of what I think, what I feel, what I spend my time on, who I spend my time with, what I consume mentally and physically, and all the blessings and contrastive experiences that come my way. Every effect has a cause and every cause has an effect, all of which include me because it is my life to live, my life to use, and my life to enjoy.” ― Alaric Hutchinson