Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Stephen K. Stanford

Quote by Stephen K. Stanford

“Sometimes you look back on a particular moment and wonder, What if I’d chosen differently? Those moments where everything branches off. If I’d turned around there and then, not gone to Jubilee. Would that have spared us all what came next? I guess you can’t really answer a question like that.”

Quote by Stephen K. Stanford

Book:Jubilee
Create image

Work

Jubilee

Jubilee is a historical novel that delves into the tumultuous period following the Civil War in the United States. The story is centered around the lives of African Americans and the challenges they face in a society grappling with the aftermath of slavery and the struggle for equality. more

Author

Stephen K. Stanford

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Stephen K. Stanford. more

You May Also Like

“At that moment he happily became the ‘walking crazy’: those who are conscious of the fact that they have lost their sanity, and that in losing their sanity, they have reached a higher level of existence. And as the walking crazy, the young man closed his eyes and fell deeply within, finding there not darkness but other worlds, complete other spaces where he was free from all physical pain and struggle.”

FreedomCrazyEnlightenmentZenInsaneDreamerLucid DreamingSatoriThe Art Of DreamingWalking Crazy
Book:The Art of Transmutation
Create image

“Student: Master, can a meteorite fall on our head while we are walking? Master: Yes, it can fall! Student: What precautions can we take against this? Master: Try to strengthen your head! Student: But I want a realistic measure that works! Master: Then let me tell you something realistic: There is no possibility of a meteorite falling on your head, because nothing can fall on something that does not exist!”

Mehmet Murat Ildan QuotesZenZen MasterZen StoryMeteoritesZen Masters
Author:Mehmet Murat Ildan
Create image

“When a scientist works in his laboratory, he does not smoke, he does not eat sweets, and does not listen to the radio. He abstains not because he thinks that these things are sins, but because he knows that they impede the perfect concentration of his mind on the object of his study. It is much the same in Zen Discipline: the observance of this discipline must help the practitioner to live in Awareness of Being; it does not lead to moral objectives.”

DisciplineZen
Book:Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice
Create image

“In my monastery, as in all those belonging to the Zen tradition, there is a very fine portrait of Bodhidharma. It is a Chinese work of art in ink, depicting the Indian monk with sober and vigorous features. The eyebrows, eyes, and chin of Bodhidharma express an invincible spirit. Bodhidharma lived, it is said, in the fifth century A.D. He is considered to be the First Patriarch of Zen Buddhism in China. It might be that most of the things that are reported about his life have no historical validity; but the personality as well as the mind of this monk, as seen and described through tradition, have made him the ideal man for all those who aspire to Zen enlightenment. It is the picture of a man who has come to perfect mastery of himself, to complete freedom in relation to himself and to his surroundings—a man having that tremendous spiritual power which allows him to regard happiness, unhappiness, and all the vicissitudes of life with an absolute calm. The essence of this personality, however, does not come from a position taken about the problem of absolute reality, nor from an indomitable will, but from a profound vision of his own mind and of living reality. The Zen word used here signifies "seeing into his own nature." When one has reached this enlightenment, one feels all systems of erroneous thought crushed inside oneself. The new vision produces in the one enlightened a deep peace, a great tranquility, as well as a spiritual force characterized by the absence of fear. Seeing into one's own nature is the goal of Zen.”

ZenBodhidharma
Book:Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice
Create image