- “Your mind is too focussed on human beings. Observe the patterns, shapes, colours, texture, sounds and sensations around you. Soon you will come out of human identity and realize that you’re not a person but a presence. You’re not something that exists; you’re the existence itself.” ― Shunya
- “Language is an attempt to define life in linear words and symbols, but in reality, everything everywhere is happening all together at once, and to explain the totality of this with language is impossible. Thus, to awaken to the truth of reality, the truth of who we are, we must go beyond our language and intellectual way of understanding life.” ― Joseph P. Kauffman, Awake to What Is: Discovering Peace in the Present Moment
- “14. Muddy Road Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling. Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unble to cross the intersection. “Come on, girl,” said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carriedher over the mud. Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he could no longer restrain himself. “We monks don’t go near females,” he told Tanzan, “especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?” “I left the girl there,” said Tanzan. “Are you still carrying her?” ― Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
- “Truth is one; its interpretations are many.” ― ~Sw. Chidananda Tirtha
- “But the ones who go posing as moralists are the worst. Cost-free morals. Full of great ways for others to improve without any expense to themselves. There’s an ego thing in there, too. They use the morals to make someone else look inferior and that way look better themselves. It doesn’t matter what the moral code is — religious morals, political morals, racist morals, capitalist morals, feminist morals, hippie morals — they’re all the same. The moral codes change but the meanness and the egotism stay the same.” ― Robert M. Pirsig, Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals
- “Anywhere we go, we will have our self with us; we cannot escape ourselves.” ― Thích Nhất Hạnh
- “The fact of life is that the appreciation of true beauty cannot start without total renunciation.[…] But to live beautifully, one needs an unfettered mind, a mind that is not clogged up with all kinds of attachments, opinions, or fossilized ways of looking at things. There is no need to get rid of anything as long as we can sever our attachments to it.” ― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus
- Relax. Nothing is under control. Adi Da
- “It has been said that if you have Zen in your life,you have no fear, no doubt, no unnecessary craving, no extreme emotions. Neither illiberal attitudes nor egotistical actions trouble you. You serve humanity humbly, fulfilling your presence in this world with loving-kindness and observing your passing as a petal falling from a flower. Serene, you enjoy life in blissful tranquility. Such is the spirit of Zen.—Zen flesh, Zen bones.” ― Paul, Reps
- “Do you know your parents? No. You’re just familiar with them. We see things again and again, become familiar with them, give them some name and think that we know them. We don’t know even a single thing or person.” ― Shunya
- “I live by four simple words. Love. Being. Here. Now.” ― Todd Crawshaw, Heretofore
- “It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.” ― Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: Essays and Letters
- “Through words, no matter how much you may try, you cannot make a blind man understand light.” ― ~Sw. Chidananda Tirtha
- “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
- “When the ego is in the driver’s seat, we judge. When our spirit, our authentic self, is in control, we practice listening (without judging), compassion, and love” ― Sheila M. Burke, Enriched Heart: The Tao of Balancing Your Big, Beautiful, Badass Soul
- “We should live every day like people who have just been rescued from the moon.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear
- “The subjective experience of intense pain (“That’s all I can take”) corresponds exactly to one’s subjective experience in relation to truth (“That’s all I can take”).” ― Darrell Calkins, Re:
- “Search not for happiness outside yourself, for nothing could be further from the truth.” ― Eric Micha’el Leventhal
- “We all understand the value of sacrifice, even if that only involves setting aside dessert so as to lose weight, or putting money in the bank so as to later buy a house. Progress or achievement in any arena requires choices that often oppose what one feels like doing. The trick in truly succeeding with this in the long run is locating enough depth of feeling that the experience of conflicting desires dissolves. For that to happen, one has to learn how to think emotionally and physiologically.” ― Darrell Calkins
- “Sometimes you’re going to shine like the sun; sometimes you’re going to crumble to pieces. Either way, it’s okay.” ― Sheila Burke
- To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss. Bodhidharma
- When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps. Confucius
- “The inability of science to grasp quality as an object of inquiry makes it impossible for science to provide a scale of values.” ― Robert Prisig
- “Breathe in, breathe out. Without the fire, the phoenix never rises from the ashes. Let the fire scorch the skin and burn the soul, allowing yourself to absorb the pain and understand the sincerity of the pain. Breathe in, you are not the past, you are not the future; breathe out, you are simply each breath, the present moment. As you breathe in and breathe out, acknowledge all the trials you have overcome thus far, and that you can continue to overcome all else without doubt. Breathe in, breathe out.” ― Forrest Curran, Purple Buddha Project: Purple Book of Self-Love
- “We fail to see the oneness of all things, and because of this, we unknowingly cause a lot of harm to ourselves. We pollute the Earth that we live on, cut down the trees that produce our oxygen, destroy the ecosystems of nature and the animals that maintain them, and we mistreat and harm each other, thinking that these destructive actions will not have a direct effect on us.” ― Joseph P. Kauffman, The Answer Is YOU: A Guide to Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Freedom
- “We are only able to disrespect, mistreat, and harm one another when we forget that the other person is us; when we only see the objects of form, and not the subjective Consciousness that lies within. Lust, greed, violence, selfishness—all arise from perceiving others in terms of their individual differences, seeing them only as bodies, and what we can get from them as bodies, rather than acknowledging the Being that lies within the body.” ― Joseph P. Kauffman, The Answer Is YOU: A Guide to Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Freedom
- “Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.” ― Meister Eckhart
- Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else. Shunryu Suzuki (Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind)
- “Two monks were once travelling together down a wet and muddy road. The rain was torrential, making it almost impossible to walk along the path. As the two men were trudging along, a beautiful girl dressed in silk appeared. She was unable to cross the path and looked distressed. “Let me help you”, said the older monk. He picked her up and carried her over the mud. His younger male companion did not utter a word that night until they reached their lodging temple. Then after hours of restrained conversation, the younger monk exclaimed: “We monks do not touch females; it is too tempting for us and can create a bad outcome”. The older monk looked into the younger monks eyes and said, “I left the girl on the road. Are you still carrying her?” This ancient Zen story illustrates beautifully how so many of us are trapped in the habit of constantly “re-living” the past in our minds, thus dishonouring the present moment. The young monk wasted hours distressing himself with judgment, speculation, anxiety, resentment and ultimately self-perpetuated unhappiness as a direct result of not being mindful.” ― Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life
- “Accept the past as the past and realize that each new day you are a new person who doesn’t need to carry old baggage into the new day with you. It’s amazing how many people ruin the beauty of today with the sorrows of yesterday. Yesterday doesn’t exist anymore! For example, if ever I feel foolish or guilty about something I’ve done, I learn from it and attempt to do better the next time. Shame or guilt serves no one. Such feelings actually keep us down, often lowering the vibrations of those around us, as well. Living in the present moment is the recurring baptism of the soul, forever purifying every new day with a new you.” ― Alaric Hutchinson, Living Peace: Essential Teachings for Enriching Life